South Africa is now the biggest welfare state in the developing world and the implications for public finances are frightening. As the recession tapers off, the rising public...

In October, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan hinted at big economic changes. The South African Reserve Bank’s inflation strategy would be amended, the 3-6% target range for official inflation...

The race to develop new uranium mines in the central Namib Desert is led by France’s nuclear giant Areva, pursued by smaller Australian and Canadian exploration companies. Areva...

Reports of President Jacob Zuma’s political demise are exaggerated. Yet what should have been a moment of triumph for him during the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release...

As the African National Congress leadership tries to dampen factional rivalries, some are asking whether Julius Malema, the firebrand President of the ANC Youth League, has moved from...

The formulation of foreign policy in Zimbabwe is the jealously guarded function of the President’s Office and, through it, the Central Intelligence Organisation. The Foreign Ministry is more...

The old ruling party’s new Politburo, announced on 11 February, is anything but new. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s 49-member policy-making committee, announced by Robert Gabriel Mugabe,...

Intending to run for another term in office in 2012, President José Eduardo dos Santos has moved close allies into key ministries. He faces a vote not by...

President José Eduardo dos Santos says he laments the rise of grand corruption in Angola as it undermines the social fabric. If so, some members of his government...

President Hifikepunye Pohamba will be sworn in for his second five-year term at the end of March after the ever-governing South West Africa People’s Organisation was awarded an...