Angola's oil-backed rulers are standing proud on the international scene. In the last three months, Angola has joined the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); pulled out of...

By overreacting to an opposition demonstration and savagely beating its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the police in Harare served their master badly. President Robert Mugabe was already under stiff...

The lack of serious diplomatic pressure for change in Zimbabwe goes together with an almost total lack of planning for the aftermath of President Robert Mugabe's exit from...

Ex-President Bakili Muluzi finally announced, to a large rally of his United Democratic Front on 11 March, that he will be its candidate for the 2009 presidential election....

The facade sometimes cracks. Angola's state media habitually promote the governing Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) but, for two hours on 12 March, Rádio Nacional de...

Angolans are waiting for a peace dividend five years after the Forças Armadas Angolanas (FAA) tracked down and killed Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel União Nacional para...

The arrest and imprisonment on national security grounds of Sarah Wykes of Global Witness in Angola's Cabinda Province draws attention to the government's clampdown. Global Witness irritates the...

As the price of copper edges downwards, Zambia's trades unionists and opposition politicians are pressing to secure higher mining royalties and better working conditions. Many targeted companies are...

The budget was full of handouts. On 21 February Finance Minister Trevor Manuel dished out tax cuts, paid off apartheid-era debt, and boosted public spending on almost everything...

The global stock market jitters on 27 February - prompted by 9% falls on the Shanghai and Hong Kong markets - hold two lessons for South Africa. Firstly,...