The announcement on 17 August by ExxonMobil that it is abandoning its campaign to buy a 23.5% stake in the Jubilee field, Africa’s biggest offshore oi...
President John Evans Atta Mills has remained above the fray throughout the dispute between the Ghana National Petroleum...
Khartoum is determined to block January’s referenda; the South is determined to hold them
South Africa’s usually amenable President Jacob Zuma rails against journalists’ interest in the business liaisons of the African National Congress. ‘The media has put itself on this pedestal of being the guardian,’ he fumes. ‘We therefore have the right to say who is guarding the guardian.’ He accuses the press of conspiring to stop him becoming president – it reported in detail the charges against him in 2007 of corruption, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. All the charges were dropped just before his election in 2009. Zuma proposed a media tribunal to regulate critical reporting. The Congress for South African Trade Unions, whose members are now on a national strike, has warned that it could become a censorship tool. Cosatu’s position will do nothing to shore up its already faltering alliance with the ANC. The opposition Democratic Alliance has compared the plan to the draconian apartheid-era press controls; the move has been widely condemned by Western newspapers. Only a few ANC chieftains, such as Pallo Jordan and Ben Turok, have ventured to criticise the proposal, but some hope it might be quietly dropped before the party’s National General Council next month. That is improbable, as Zuma’s supporters are ready for a fight with the journalists. If the hardliners win, it will be to the detriment of the freedom to investigate political and corporate malfeasance and to South Africa’s international standing, boosted hugely by its successful hosting of the World Cup.
The National Congress Party employs a variety of tactics to sabotage January’s referenda. Because a 60% quorum (of a st...
A grenade attack greets President Kagame’s reelection – and another army officer heads to gaol
Egypt and Sudan are playing a central role in the dispute over the Nile. They know they can no longer ignore the thirst ...
Booming mines and farms, and a government beset by talk of corruption and strange legal decisions
According to the latest figures from the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), foreign direct investment totalled a record U...
Organising October elections seems beyond the government’s will and the electoral commission’s resources
South Africa’s usually amenable President Jacob Zuma rails against journalists’ interest in the business liaisons of the African National Congress. ‘The media has put itself on this pedestal of being the guardian,’ he fumes. ‘We therefore have the right to say who is guarding the guardian.’ He accuses the press of conspiring to stop him becoming president – it reported in detail the charges against him in 2007 of corruption, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. All the charges ...
Political activists of all tendencies are increasingly frustrated by the old guard of Laurent Gbagbo (65 years old), He...
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