Don't you just wish you could do business this way? Airbus has apparently (we'd like to believe quite nonchalantly, while smoking a fat cigar) told Armscor that it would be four years late in delivering eight aircraft on order - and the contract price will nearly triple too. This despite signed contracts and almost R3 billion in up-front payments already made. The Airbus A400M transporters are supposed to carry tanks and helicopters to trouble spots elsewhere on the continent. They were also supposed to be delivered in 2012, seven years after the order was placed. Now Cabinet will be cancelling the deal. Then the fight begins to claw back the money already paid.

With acknowledgements to The Daily Maverick.