Vol 56 No 13 | ESWATINI Facing sanctions 26th June 2015 Momentum is building in Europe for sanctions over human rights abuses in Swaziland. European Union member states voted on 21 May for a resolution urging their leaders to...
Vol 56 No 13 | SOUTH AFRICASUDAN Fugitive flees as courts sidelined 18th June 2015 The main casualty of the Sudanese President's trip to the African Union summit was the rule of law President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir has again escaped the clutches of the International Criminal Court (ICC) but his disruptive appearance at the African Union summit and his...
Vol 56 No 12 | MADAGASCAR Impeaching number one 12th June 2015 Accident prone President Rajaonarimampianina’s problems may see ex-President Ravolamanana return to centre-stage Eighteen months of political quarrels came to a head when Parliament voted on 26 May to impeach President Hery Rajaonarimampianina. Since he took office in January 2014, he...
Vol 56 No 12 | MOZAMBIQUE How far to push Guebuza 12th June 2015 Probes into the outgoing government's spending target Guebuza's allies and raise questions about the IMF’s standards of scrutiny Factions within the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique differ on how far to take the investigations into the previous government's murky deals. Some want former President Armando...
Vol 56 No 12 | ZAMBIA Prosecuting the prosecutor 12th June 2015 Some corruption cases could be dropped if the government succeeds in sacking its chief prosecutor Mutembo Nchito Activists, oppositionists and now Western governments are alarmed at the Lusaka government's efforts to dismiss the suspended Director of Public Prosecutions, Mutembo Nchito. After his defenders claimed that...
Vol 56 No 12 | SOUTH AFRICA Money worries 12th June 2015 Deepening financial problems in the African National Congress could hamper its campaigning for next year’s local elections The governing African National Congress is in such dire financial straits that it could not pay staff salaries at the end of May. So it is looking to...
Vol 56 No 11 | ZIMBABWE Bye-bye unity 29th May 2015 The opposition boycott should have made the bye-election campaigns easy for the ruling party. Instead, they are exposing deep splits and rancour The campaigns for the 16 bye-elections on 10 June have not been the expected easy ride for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, even though the Movement for...
Vol 56 No 11 | SOUTH AFRICA Uneasy lies Zuma’s head 29th May 2015 The President’s rivals are using the ANC’s expected poor showing in the coming local elections as a rallying call against him Next year's local government elections are widely seen as likely to be the most competitive since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 and that has got leaders...
Vol 56 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Maimane wins leadership 15th May 2015 The Democratic Alliance has voted in its first black leader and hopes for big gains in the 2016 local elections The emergence of Mmusi Maimane, a 35-year old priest from Soweto, as the dapper new leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance after its party congress in Port Elizabeth...
Vol 56 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Part of the union 15th May 2015 The biggest trades union, the 365,000-member National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, is confident of reversing its expulsion from the Confederation of South African Trade Unions. On...