ADDING PEP TO THE SPARKLE

Christo Wiese, a name synonymous Pep Stores, is part of the consortium of investors taking control of Trans Hex, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed diamond-mining company. Interestingly, before Wiese’s time with Pep, the current Shoprite chairperson was involved with Octha diamonds. If one puts into the mix Wiese’s shareholding and nonexecutive directorship in Pallinghurst, which has big shareholdings in both coloured-gemstone mining and marketing as well as control of Fabergé – a jewellery house founded in 1842 in Imperial Russia –  who knows what could come out of all this. Little wonder that cartoonist Darlene has the beloved witch character, Liewe Heksie, asking the questions, not only as a play on ‘hex’ in Trans Hex, but also adding a suggestion of possible gemstone bewitching on the road ahead.