Vol 67 No 12 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
Growing public anger over enforcement failures is raising doubts about whether the government can still assert its authority
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government faces a challenge that reaches far beyond immigration. The rise of anti-immigration movements across South Africa is exposing deeper doubts about the country’s ability...
Evacuations of Ghanaians fleeing xenophobic attacks have strained Accra-Pretoria ties, exposing divisions between historic Pan-African partners
The Ghana government’s repatriation of over 950 Ghanaian citizens from South Africa has yielded a surge in support locally for President John Mahama’s government even as it signals...
United States President Donald Trump’s sudden interest in buying the Chagos Islands is another irritant for Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who has been frustrated by delays to...
Behind the constitution debate is a struggle over the post-Mugabe state with presidential allies, disgruntled generals and a fragmented opposition testing their strength
Parliament’s debate on Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3 starting on 2 June has opened a wider battle over Zimbabwe’s political order, as the bill would extend elected terms...
Vol 67 No 11 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
The party is discovering that its patronage culture is disqualifying most of those best placed to lead it as Ramaphosa struggles to shape the unfolding contest
Cyril Ramaphosa has spent much of his presidency surviving political crises without ever fully restoring his authority. The Phala Phala scandal did not remove him from office, as...
Compensation for farmers has become central to Harare’s push for debt relief and renewed multilateral financing
When Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka told parliament on 6 May that the state would return 67 farms seized under the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) and pay out...
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s last-minute cancellation of his trip to Eswatini last week was an embarrassing setback and further evidence of Taipei being outmanoeuvred by China. Lai accused...
Two western media companies are launching duelling documentaries on the liberation leader and his family
A seven-part documentary series produced by Netflix, the United States-based film and television streaming service, The Trials of Winnie Mandela, which examines the complex legacy of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,...
Jihadist fighters in Cabo Delgado are rebooting their campaign on land and sea as a row over cash could end Rwanda’s security operations
When France’s TotalEnergies resumed work on its US$25 billion gas project on Afungi in January, it was taken as a challenge by the jihadist insurgents based in the...
A new €200 million concessional climate loan, and more than €270m in German and EU funding for projects focused on green hydrogen and battery value chains, were the...
Vol 67 No 8 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
Geordin Hill-Lewis's election as Democratic Alliance leader at its biggest-ever congress gives the party a credible shot at winning the country's top cities
The second largest party in South Africa’s governing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has renewed its leadership at the biggest national conference in its history and set its...
A parliamentary probe into an overpriced deal is overshadowing the President’s return to power
Barely six months into his second term, President Peter Mutharika’s administration is engulfed in overlapping scandals that are raising questions about his commitment to end corruption.
Arrests, abductions and armed militias mark ZANU-PF’s campaign for a constitutional amendment that would end direct presidential elections
When the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front ZANU-PF gazetted Constitution Amendment Bill No.3 on 16 February, it launched what opponents are calling a slow-motion constitutional coup. Senior...
A forced shift to the local currency for government contracts and a 39% overnight fuel price rise are squeezing businesses and workers owed billions by the state. On...
The oil revenues are rising, but with over 40% of the budget swallowed by debt servicing, the gains are not reaching those who need them most
When the Iran war pushed Brent crude well past the $100 mark, Angola’s government responded with caution. For a country that budgeted 2026 revenues assuming oil prices at...
The war in the Middle East has prompted Luanda to return to the Eurobond market
Less than six months after oil exporter Angola issued US$1.75 billion in Eurobonds to support its 2025 spending plans, Luanda has returned to the markets after the Iran...
Fink Haysom, the anti-apartheid lawyer who helped end Sudan's north-south war and spent his final years trying to mediate in South Sudan serial crises, has died
The death of Nicholas ‘Fink’ Haysom in New York on 17 March strips the United Nations of its most tenacious voice for accountability in South Sudan and is...
Vol 67 No 6 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
Eighty days in, the commission of inquiry has exposed corruption, destroyed careers and trapped Ramaphosa between legal process and political survival
On 18 March, the Madlanga Commission entered its 80th day of hearings in Pretoria, with Gauteng Organised Crime Unit Sergeant Fannie Nkosi — formerly known as ‘Witness F’...
Targeted by EU and US sanctions, Rwanda says it won’t protect western assets in Mozambique without new funding
Neither side has blinked yet in the poker game between Rwandan officials and their counterparts in the United States and the European Union. A flurry of meetings...
Ending raw mineral exports helps some mining companies and is also a weapon in the ZANU-PF succession fight
Mines Minister Polite Kambamura’s sudden ban on the export of raw minerals and lithium concentrates has a strong political rationale. There was no consultation with mining companies or...
Vol 67 No 5 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
The proposed Budget steadies public finances and gives taxpayers some relief, but sluggish growth and the jobs crisis still cast a shadow
South Africa has reached the peak of its debt mountain this fiscal year, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told Parliament in Cape Town in his 25 February Budget speech....
Vol 67 No 5 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
The Budget, which will become law only after parliamentary revision, further Treasury scrutiny, public comment and presidential assent, seeks to boost health and education spending. The cessation of...
Vol 67 No 5 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
The veteran chief has cleared the way for her protégé to become the next party leader while she prepares to run for mayor of Johannesburg
Having been the most vocal critic of Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen, who in February announced his plans to vacate the leadership, Helen Zille looks set to entrench...
Vol 67 No 5 |
- SOUTH AFRICA
Top ANC officials have rebuked lobbyists who want the mining billionaire and sports funder to run for the party leadership
South African mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe is emerging as a reluctant challenger for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party’s elective conference at the...
MAGA Republicans want open confrontation with Pretoria, but many US companies are rebuilding ties
The arrival of United States President Donald Trump’s new ambassador, Leo Brent Bozell III, a veteran critic of the African National Congress, in South Africa sets up bilateral...
The President’s plan to end term limits is rallying opposition parties, unions, churches and war veterans against him
The long-planned and indefinite extension of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency is taking shape in the form of a Constitutional Amendment Bill pushed by the uber-loyalist Minister of Justice, Parliamentary...
A new split has emerged within President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cabal, as his Presidential Investment Advisor, Paul Tungwarara, has openly clashed with ‘Queen Bee’ Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Tungwarara and Tagwirei...
Having been swept to power on a wave of public anger over corruption and poor delivery of basic services, interim President Colonel Michael Randrianirina has filled his government...
Buoyed by the US President dismissing human rights policies and pausing anti-corruption laws, Harare had offered business incentives to Washington
Within hours of US President Donald J Trump’s re-election on 6 November 2024, his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa ladled on the sycophancy in a social media posting: ‘Congratulations...
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The baton as Africa’s leading carmaker has passed to Morocco, which produced over a million vehicles last year, overtaking South Africa. South Africa made 554,613 vehicles between January...
Senior commanders ignored the President’s instruction to restrict Iran’s role in China’s naval exercise off Cape Town
The confrontation over Pretoria’s security ties with Tehran – specifically its participation in South African-hosted naval exercises – underlines the erosion of civilian control over the military and...
The president controls the ANC, but the champions of impunity are strong and key state institutions remain in jeopardy
The Government of National Unity is set to steer the country through key equity and economic reforms in the year to come amid severe economic challenges and political...
So closely are Kuda Tagwirei’s fortunes entwined with those of ZANU-PF that what’s good for the economy will be great for him but few others
Zimbabwe’s chief oligarch, Kudakwashe Tagwirei – dubbed ‘Queen Bee’ for his domination of the economy – will determine the country’s 2026. With substantial interests in the fuel, energy,...
