Call him unlucky or dodgy, whichever way you look at it, Zimbabwean financier and moneylender, Frank Buyanga, can fight.
He was trapped in his adopted country, South Africa, after Interpol issued him with a so-called ‘red notice’ in February 2012. This is issued to a person subject to an arrest warrant or one who is required to serve a sentence. He fought,  using the law, to clear his name. He is now free to travel and do business at home.
At the root of it all was his money-lending business in Zimbabwe. Buyanga’s borrowers secured their loans with their homes. Every now and again, defaulters refused to give up their houses, leading to litigation and growing disgruntlement. The government called the loans a sham.
“The police made sure I was absent by arresting me. By me being absent, all these complainants were able to go and lie to the courts, police and judges. To some extent, they were successful because I wasn’t around to defend my position because I was busy fighting a criminal case. There was no element of criminality in any of my transactions,” says Buyanga.
His lawyer Nick Kaufman fought tooth and nail for the matter to be resolved.
“Frank is a colorful character. People don’t like success stories, especially from people who show their wealth,” said Kaufman, an international lawyer who has represented Muammar Gaddafi’s children and the Democratic Republic of Congo leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, against war crimes, when interviewed by FORBES AFRICA in 2012.
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“It’s a serious defamation of character, when you have somebody who is presumed innocent then his photograph appears with the likes of Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, then that in itself has an effect on a legitimate businessman who is trying to conduct activities,” he said.
Kaufman argued that the red notice offends the Interpol constitution in that it was tainted by political motives and offended the rules of Interpol in that it was essentially designed to coerce a resolution to what was effectively a civil case.
They won.
Buyanga says he later received a two-page letter, signed by the chief law officer in the attorney general’s office, Chris Mutangadura, reversing the notice.
“There was a lot of pressure from my side for the issue to be resolved. The National Prosecuting Authority was incorrectly advised in terms of how they came to the decision of putting me on the Interpol red notice. I think they realized that,” says Buyanga.
Able to travel freely, Buyanga continued with business in the country of his father’s birth.
“If I had it my way, I would sell all my businesses in Zimbabwe and go on holiday for the rest of my life. The problem is that, in that country, nobody can afford my businesses&#8230; I wouldn’t be sticking around there for these headaches,” he says.
In a limping economy, short of hard cash, people are reliant on lending; but problems that caused his red notice still persist.
As you read this, Buyanga has an arrest warrant out for him in Zimbabwe. He also has more than 200 cases before the courts brought forward by people who borrowed money from his company, Hamilton Finance. Most of these are him against “squatters”, as he calls them, living in his properties. He has been labeled a “loan shark” by some, yet others defend his business principles.
“We live in Africa which is still developing… whenever you do something that has some sort of relevance; people automatically look at you like a crook…,” says Kaufman.
Buyanga, the son of a former Zimbabwean civil servant, who was born in London, owns a Rolls Royce, Lamborghinis, an Aston Martin DB9 and others. He lives in a luxury flat at the Michelangelo Towers, in the heart of Sandton, near Johannesburg, and rubs shoulders with celebs, like former Liverpool and England footballer John Barnes.
“Four years ago, I was driving to Durban and my friend and I were following each other driving Lamborghinis. Police stopped us on the [highway] and said ‘can you put me in whatever you are doing, I know you are doing drugs’… this is the perception of people. Sometime ago, I was driving to Harare in an Aston Martin and a cop stopped me and said ‘I am not going to search you, tell me what you are carrying because you probably have gold in there. It’s a mental illness among our people,” he says.
Buyanga has been a subject of investigation for the past 25 years but has never been found guilty for any crime. Yet, if you google him, hundreds of articles of fraud pop up, including an arrest warrant for failure to attend court for conspiracy to fraud in the UK.
“I am not wanted in the UK, because my lawyers have been dealing with that issue. I don’t even know what the merits of the case in the UK are… My lawyers have asked for the Crown Prosecution in the UK to provide them with a file for the facts of that matter which they haven’t done. I have problems even here in South Africa. It doesn’t matter where you are… I follow the constitution in every country I am a resident at,” he says.
“I make sure we pay our taxes, we create employment. Persistence, drive, initiative is the only way I survive in Zimbabwe.”
The entrepreneur says he had his first company, in the UK, when he was 18 years old and he is not about to let anything pull him down.
“My dad and I started Summit Trading, a company that traded commodities. In 1999, I started Fercl Trading, an exporting company to the Middle East and Africa from the UK, at 19 years old,” he says.
In 2000, property was cheap in Zimbabwe because of the political unrest and economic downturn; Buyanga took advantage of this.
“I started buying property because it was cheap at the time. I used to go to auctions and buy and now I have hundreds of properties.”
He is also invested in business in South Africa in mining, finance, infrastructure, and consultancy. He also does business across the continent.
Lawsuits are breathing down his neck, but Buyanga lives to fight another day.

‘The Police Made  Sure I Was Absent By  Arresting Me’

Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati. There is an exciting ring to those names, but that ring comes at a price.
And you can expect to forfeit a dowry of more than $200,000 to marry into the top-end of these Italian families.
But there is a classy cousin with style, performance and the badge that turns heads… coming in at around a third of the asking price – a shade over $80,000.
The Maserati Ghibli is offering Italian supercar style and status in the luxury executive car segment after an absence of nearly two decades.
Clearly in the sights of the new entry-level Maserati are the Mercedes Benz E-Class, BMW’s 5 Series, Audi’s A6, the Jaguar XF and a host of other sporty saloons which have a slightly leaner price tag.
If the name Ghibli seems familiar, it was originally a V8 Grand Tourer released in 1967 and then a four-seater coupe in 1992.
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It seems that Maserati, now nestling under the massive Fiat Chrysler empire, decided a few years ago to do something special for its 100th birthday and build a scaled-down Quattroporte limo for the moderately well heeled.
And, like the wind it is named after, the Ghibli has blown apart all the tired sales figures for the brand.
In automotive terms it doesn’t really make sense, especially in recent years of conservative global growth, and at times decline.
It’s hard to comprehend that Maserati sold a mere 6,200 units in 2012 and almost seven times that number last year – with the Ghibli clearly leading the charge for growth.
And that’s before the next major model release, the Levante luxury SUV arrives to cross swords with the Porsche Cayenne and Range Rover Sport.
Heady days for the assembly line at the new Giovanni Agnelli plant in Turin and also some extra shifts for Ferrari, in Modena, crafting the Maserati-designed engines.
It’s a belated tribute to the Maserati brothers, Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Mario, Ettore and Ernesto, who were all involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century.
It was all about racing in the formative years. Then in 1926 the production of two-liter Grand Prix cars for Diatto was suspended and the first Maserati was engineered bearing the now famous marque.
When you see the Ghibli in the flesh you may want to give Marco Tencone, head of design since 2009, a pat on the back.
It may be called an entry level Maserati, but it lines up against the big guns on the showroom floor without any reflection of the smaller dent in your bank balance.
Its eye-catching, flowing lines which radiate from the iconic, but rather daunting, grille hold your breath all the way to the menacing exhausts without ending in a disappointing Panamera-like rear.
What I like about the interior is the classic simplicity. Essentialism rules in this design, where no controls are there for the sake of fashion, the dials are stark and clear and the multimedia screen and system is superbly logical.
But don’t mistake a lack of frills with a lack of exclusivity and craftsmanship.
“The fact is that, with Maserati, you bespoke your car. The combinations are endless and it’s not a luxury car unless you can personalize and tailor it for the specific customer,” says Rens Rademeyer, General Manager at Maserati Johannesburg.
“The focus is on the quality of workmanship and materials.”
To be honest, I was expecting a rather sedate drive in the Ghibli S. But the acceleration is rampant and at times it’s difficult not to wheel spin at the lights.
All the Ghibli models, including the ground-breaking diesel, are powered by V6 3-liter twin turbo engines. The five-second S gets that extra boost thanks to some fine engine mapping and components.
On the negative side, there was a perceptive turbo lag which seemed to be minimized in manual and the rather sturdy oversized paddles are a lot more fun to communicate directly with the eight-speed ZF transmission.
That’s possibly why the gear selector seemed a tad finicky and seemed to stray into manual if not closely monitored.
The ride is superbly smooth and the Ghibli glides over the plethora of city speed humps without the neck-jarring suspension of some competitors.
And, on a rather personal level, my ungainly two-meter frame felt ever-so snuggly cosseted on those painstakingly padded and stitched seats.
Even if you’re not behind the wheel of a Quattroporte, there is a distinct brand cachet. Without being too esoteric, beyond the nuts and bolts of manufacture, there is an element of prestige riding behind the trident badge. You notice it in the attention of a petrol pump attendant or even the nod of acknowledgement from a fellow motorist at the lights.
But here’s the rub. Even with projections of a ceiling of 75,000 models (across the range), Maserati will battle to keep up with the fast developing technology of the major German luxury trio.
To put it blatantly, you may look like a million dollars in your Ghibli but you will be missing many standard features of the mass produced rivals.
That is the trade-off.
“A lot of these so-called features are gimmicks,” says Rademeyer. “We are giving our customers a pure driving experience, we are not selling smartphones.”
Rademeyer extends the same personal service to the new showroom, in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston, where he pilots the Italian coffee machine to turn out a pretty mean cappuccino. All the staff have to train as baristas.
But maybe they should offer customers a Foster’s lager after hours. That’s because the franchise holders for Maserati in South Africa are now European Automotive Imports (EAI), who are aiming to build on their success with the brand in Australia.
“Our goal is to transform Maserati’s position in the South African market to offer a new benchmark for exclusivity and customer service,” says EAI Chief Operating Officer, Glen Sealey.
“We have been very successful in Australia and our appointment in South Africa is an outstanding vote of confidence and a clear acknowledgement that we have the people and expertise to succeed.”
What this means is that Maserati is no longer under the wing of Ferrari and is flying solo.
Maserati re-enters South Africa with its complete model offering of the Quattroporte, GranTurismo and GranCabrio ranges.
A Maserati dealership has just opened in Cape Town, on the foreshore near the International Convention Centre, and plans are underway to find a partner in Durban.
Perhaps the critical element of the expansion is to ensure that the resale values stabilize and servicing standards are up to scratch.
“Globally, the brand is ramping up all the dealer management and customer relationship systems,” says Rademeyer.
“But the systems are there to help us manage relationships with our customers, so we don’t depend on automation. But it helps us to manage the personal interaction with our customers. We have volume aspirations but will never be a brand-considered mass-produced [car].”
It’s a swaying tightrope that Maserati have to walk between the prestige of the trident badge and bidding for a bigger slice of the market segment.
As the Italians say to wish good luck: in bocca al lupo!

Tag: Lamborghini

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