Yes, we had petrol.

Oh dear, I'm not having much luck with cars out here. First it was the burst tyre, then our own car required jump-starting a couple of weeks ago and then yesterday, whilst driving back from a shopping trip to Richard's Bay, the car we were in gradually lost power and slowed to a halt on the hard shoulder of the N2. And then the very helpful 'STOP' symbol came on (consultation with the manual revealed that this means that you need to take it to a Renault Dealer immediately. Thanks for that...).
We phoned the breakdown cover people who agreed to send us a tow truck in approximately an hour's time but they would only tow us to the nearest dealership and we had to make our own 150km way home from there. So we sheepishly rang the one remaining person at the hospital who wasn't working and asked if they could come get us (a 5 hour round trip).
And then I recalled in my limited breakdown knowledge that it's not very safe to remain in the car whilst on the hard shoulder, so I piled everyone out and on to the pretty grassy verge where the last rays of sun were still warm. This was fortunate as some hospital transport was passing with a couple of units of blood and recognising us, they pulled up to help. Firstly they attempted to ascertain what was wrong; "did you have petrol?". Yes, half a tank actually. And then they tried to push start it (even I know that cars that suddenly stop whilst driving are unlikely to restart with a push). Finally they agreed that the most helpful thing would be to take one of the passengers and their shopping (there was a lot) back with them.
Whilst this was going on another very helpful person stopped and he turned out to be a car mechanic. He also attempted to find the problem ("did you have petrol?") before poking around under the bonnet and telling us it was unfixable here (something to do with some sort of petrol jet thingummy). He then asked how long we'd have to wait before explaining that this was "a very dangerous stretch". I agreed that the trucks going past were quite big and fast, and he looked at me like I was an idiot before telling me just how many fatal hijackings there had been in the area and that whilst it looked pretty in the daylight, it was fast getting dark. Kindly he then towed us with his car to the nearest town to await the tow truck and our lift. As luck would have it the nearest town is also the home of our former medical manager, a British GP, who had insisted that if I was ever in the area, I should give him a call. So we did. He turned up to collect us, checking what was wrong with the car ("did you have petrol?") before whisking us home for cups of tea until our lift arrived.
After yesterday's excitement, today has been spent lazing in the sun, wondering if the road trip to Mozmabique that I have planned for 3 weeks time is such a good idea!