The sacked director of South Africa's National Intelligence Agency, Billy Masetlha, is at the centre of fresh claims about the agency's collusion with plotters against Equatorial Guinea's government....

There are four elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March and none of them are going according to plan for President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The old mixture of coercion...

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.