Vol 44 No 14 | ZAMBIA The Fund's no fun 11th July 2003 President Levy Mwanawasa's government agreed a budget for 2003 with the International Monetary Fund and overspent it by 612 billion kwacha; the IMF's man in Lusaka, Mark Ellyne,...
Vol 44 No 14 | ZIMBABWE Get a move on 11th July 2003 'It's the clock. The time for me is up... it's time to move on'. Thus Charles Utete explained his retirement in April. President Robert Mugabe, who at 79...
Vol 44 No 12 | ZIMBABWE Both sides lose 13th June 2003 A week of strikes shows that the opposition lacks a plan and that President Robert Mugabe needs brute force to survive Let him take his medicine!' South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma told fellow diplomats after learning that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been detained after a week of...
Vol 44 No 12 | ZAMBIA Sacking the veep 13th June 2003 Frayed tempers and shoddy deals lie behind President Mwanawasa's political cull In an unexpected reshuffle on 28 May, President Levy Mwanawasa sacked Vice-President Enock Kavindele, long-time friend and Finance Minister Emmanuel Kasonde and Information Minister Newstead Zimba. Two main...
Vol 44 No 12 | MOZAMBIQUE Guebuza blues 13th June 2003 The prospect of a new president is forcing Frelimo's divisions to the surface With the December 2004 elections now in sight and President Joaquim Chissano stepping down after 18 years in power, the long-running battle for power in the ruling Frente...
Vol 44 No 12 | MOZAMBIQUE Who loses under Guebuza 13th June 2003 Helder Muteia: the Minister of Agriculture. A Young Turk reformer, he naively accepted the mantle of the Chissano camp in the leadership contest where Guebuza decisively beat him....
Vol 44 No 11 | ZIMBABWE What's next? 30th May 2003 A messy endgame looms unless government and opposition start serious negotiations Zimbabweans have been thronging the banks in Bulawayo and Harare this week desperate for cash to stock up on necessities before the opposition's planned general strike. That Morgan...
Vol 44 No 11 | ZIMBABWE Pius and power 30th May 2003 Archbishop Pius Ncube is emerging as the most important and convincing opponent of President Robert Mugabe's government. Ncube, the Roman Catholic prelate for Bulawayo, criticises corruption by the...
Vol 44 No 10 | ZIMBABWE Who's next? 16th May 2003 The endgame may have begun in Harare but Mugabe is playing it his way Three busy Presidents had a frustrating time when they visited their colleague Robert Mugabe in Harare on 5 May. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria...
Vol 44 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA Looking down the line 2nd May 2003 Cyril 'the Suit' Ramaphosa is positioning himself to succeed Mbeki in 2009 That President Thabo Mbeki is the African National Congress presidential candidate for 2004 and its leader for now is not in question. Yet already speculation is rife about...