Sepp Blatter, President of football’s ruling Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) looked relieved at the 11 December draw in Cape Town for next year’s World Cup. Standing...

In 2010, South Africans will celebrate the two decades since the release of Nelson Mandela from gaol on 11 February 1990. Polemicists of all stripes will assess the...

With copper revenue rising, poverty falling and farms thriving, the fortunes of President Rupiah Banda’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government should be on the up, with hopes...

Nine opposition parties have launched a joint legal challenge to the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) election victory on 27-28 November. This may force a recount (AC...

The details of the US$8 billion China Sonangol/China International Fund are becoming more apparent as subsidiary deals are signed. On 7 December, Zimbabwe's Transport and Mining Ministries signed mining and construction...

A financing crisis in the state-owned power company, Eskom, threatens the government's hopes of more investment in manufacturing and services. On 30 November, Eskom applied to the National...

Emmerson Mnangagwa is nicknamed 'the Crocodile' partly for his ability to snap after long periods of log-like but watchful inertia. In November's election for the Praesidium of the...

In the hierarchy of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the Politburo Secretary for Administration ranks fifth, running the Secretariat that sets dates and agendas for the political...

The China International Fund and China Sonangol are being used to bail out troubled regimes when international pressure on them is at its highest. First, there was the...

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) have gained strength since they helped President Jacob Zuma into power in April. Their...