Vol 51 No 15 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma’s first-term casualties 23rd July 2010 With dissenting ministers and departing civil servants, President Jacob Zuma faces a tough return to workaday politics Someone in President Jacob Zuma’s office has read a management textbook and reproduced chunks of it as government policy. Ahead of his post-World Cup cabinet ‘lekgotla’ (big meeting)...
Vol 51 No 15 | ZIMBABWE What mattered was the football 23rd July 2010 World Cup fever overshadowed both a spectacular political row and preparations for a new constitution Robert Mugabe has earned a reputation as one of the globe's leading gatecrashers but his poise, self-confidence and chutzpah have not rubbed off on his travelling entourage. Officially...
Vol 51 No 15 | ZIMBABWE Restless spirits 23rd July 2010 The Ndebele can't agree on a living leader and many still take their inspiration from the late Joshua Nkomo Sibangilizwe Nkomo, the sole surviving son of Joshua Nkomo (1917-99), is campaigning to exhume his father's remains from the 'foreign' soil of Heroes' Acre in Harare and transfer...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 9 | MALAWICHINATAIWANBRIEFING Changing sides with profit 20th July 2010 Malawi has profitably switched its allegiance to China from Taiwan with a price tag of over US$350 million. In the past two years, China has taken over road and building...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 9 | ANGOLATANZANIACHINABRIEFING Choose your poison 20th July 2010 The shadowy joint venture between Angola's state-owned oil company and the nebulous China International Fund has reached a new stumbling block in its three-year-old pursuit of a major stake in Tanzania's...
Vol 51 No 14 | SOUTH AFRICACONGO-KINSHASA Secret oil deal 9th July 2010 The emergence of Khulubuse Zuma, the nephew of South African President Jacob Zuma, as a leading player in Congo-Kinshasa’s oil industry has provoked curiosity and anger in almost...
Vol 51 No 13 | ZIMBABWE Diplomacy by other means 25th June 2010 Harare’s foreign policy is splitting at the seams – and so is the awkward ZANU-PF-MDC coalition South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is beginning to tire of the political impasse in Harare. We hear that Zuma’s office has just sent a stern note to the...
Vol 51 No 13 | ZIMBABWE Newsdays and the old days 25th June 2010 The new Media Commission is finally operational and is issuing licences to publish newspapers. After a year’s foot-dragging, during which the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) tried...
Vol 51 No 13 | BOTSWANA In a spin 25th June 2010 The governing Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) faces a serious threat after its Barata-Phati (‘those who love the party’) faction walked out and launched the Botswana Movement for Democracy...
Vol 51 No 13 | RWANDASOUTH AFRICA World cup shooting 25th June 2010 The would-be killers who bungled an attack on dissident Rwandan General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa seem to have thought that the World Cup would divert police attention from their...