Tempers are fraying as Malawi approaches next year's parliamentary and presidential elections. The all-important Malawi Electoral Commission, which will supervise the polls, has at last been appointed by...

Angola's decision to set up its own sovereign wealth fund, as Africa Confidential recently reported (AC Vol 49 No 3), is only part of the picture. Fernando Ulrich,...

Sonangol intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange by 2010, according to Chief Executive Manuel Vicente. In February 2006, he mentioned this intention,...

Vice-President Lieutenant General Ian Khama Seretse Khama, who is to take over as head of state within weeks, is a remarkably secretive politician. Even outgoing President Festus Mogae,...

President Robert Mugabe, sure of victory in the presidential election on 29 March, chose to hold his 84th birthday party in Beitbridge. The party overlooked the border post...

Whatever may happen in the presidential poll, the legislative elections are crucial and independent candidates likely to swing behind Simba Makoni are thin on the ground. A total...

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s 2008 budget was a more powerful statement on Thabo Mbeki’s presidency than the President’s own speech. In his State of the Nation address to...

Trevor Manuel’s budget showed real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5% in 2007 and forecast growth of 4% in 2008, 4.2% in 2009, and 4.6% in 2010.

The African National Congress’s new leadership, in which the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have aligned themselves behind Jacob...

African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma’s purge of allies of President Thabo Mbeki is gathering pace, with all the ANC’s key policy-making committees under the control of the...