DINNER PARTY INTEL...

The topics you have to be able to discuss this week

1. Walking the talk

To draw more women to Scotch, Johnnie Walker has rolled out a female version of its iconic logo. A limited US edition of the whisky has a striding woman on the label — rather than a tophatted man — and it carries the name Jane Walker.

“Scotch as a category is seen as particularly intimidating by women,” Johnnie Walker vicepresident Stephanie Jacoby told Bloomberg. “It’s a really exciting opportunity to invite women into the brand.”

A Twitter user wants to know: will it cost 23% less, to account for the wage gap between men and women?

“An unlawfulness continues to be perpetuated while we are watching. It is very sad. It is like we are being laughed at by the SA Social Security Agency and Cash Paymaster Services.” Chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, commenting in the constitutional court on the social grants saga

2. The lie of the land

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe amassed 21 farms during his reign — while his government punted a one farm per family policy, according to the state-owned Herald, which says it expects he will be “forced to surrender some of them”.

The newspaper also quotes a source saying that some of Mugabe’s farms were leased to white farmers.

Reports that a Zimbabwean MP wants parliament to summon Mugabe to explain Us$15bn in missing diamond revenue could compound his long list of headaches.

3. Oiling the wheels?

An enormous case of alleged corporate corruption began in an Italian courtroom this week. Oil firms Shell and Eni face charges over a $1.3bn deal with the Nigerian government and alleged bribes paid to win a licence to an offshore oil field in 2011.

Prosecutors say Shell and Eni secured the licence by channelling $1.1bn of the $1.3bn to a company linked to former oil minister Dan

Etete, for his personal benefit.