Vol 52 No 22 | ANGOLA Dos Santos calls elections 4th November 2011 Now the longest-serving President in Africa, Dos Santos tries to face down a wave of young protestors Both politicians and electors are distinctly sceptical about President José Eduardo dos Santos’s announcement that the next elections will take place in the third quarter of 2012. There...
Vol 52 No 22 | ANGOLA The succession players 4th November 2011 The barons of the governing Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola are divided over the succession. President José Eduardo dos Santos stands aloof from the jockeying for position...
Vol 52 No 22 | ANGOLACÔTE D'IVOIRE The past is another country 4th November 2011 More is emerging about the history of bad blood between the two countries and Luanda’s former fondness for Gbagbo Luanda appears willing to forget its past strong support for Côte d’Ivoire’s then President, Laurent Gbagbo, and reconcile with his successor, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, but there is much...
Vol 52 No 22 | LIBYASOUTH AFRICA Storm over SA mercenaries in Libya 4th November 2011 Ex-soldiers and police officers recruited in Cape Town helped some of Gadaffi’s family escape to Algeria but another team was less successful Two teams of South African mercenaries are believed to have helped members of the Gadaffi family to escape from Libya and may have tried to save the late...
Vol 52 No 22 | MALAWI Plot device 4th November 2011 The repressive climate in Malawi took a bizarre turn when a journalist’s e-mail account was hacked and a forged message sent from it alleging a plot to overthrow...
Vol 52 No 22 | ZIMBABWE Cyber attack 4th November 2011 Even Harare’s shell-shocked business community was rocked by the arrest, charging and weekend incarceration of Farai Rwodzi, nascent billionaire and one of its youngest and brightest stars, on...
Vol 52 No 21 | ZAMBIA The President starts purging 21st October 2011 After his presidential victory, long-time oppositionist Michael Sata is sacking his predecessor’s key officials in the name of clean government During his presidential campaign, Michael Chilufya Sata told electors: ‘I am allergic to corruption.’ After he won, he quickly set about trying to prove it. Anti-corruption rhetoric is...
Vol 52 No 21 | ZAMBIA A Scott in office 21st October 2011 Most onlookers perceive Michael Sata as the Patriotic Front and the PF as Sata. Most also acknowledge the pivotal role Guy Scott has played in Sata’s rise to...
Vol 52 No 21 | ZAMBIA How Banda got bounced 21st October 2011 A party insider told us how the President’s team fouled up his expected election victory Ex-President Rupiah Banda seemed to have everything on his side before the 20 September elections. The economy was strong, buoyed by record copper and cobalt export prices, and...
Vol 52 No 21 | ZIMBABWE Devil take the hindermost 21st October 2011 After Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams met President Robert Mugabe on 10 October in Harare, he told journalists Mugabe had appeared shocked by the dossier of property seizures,...