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...
Vol 56 No 10 | MOZAMBIQUE Crime still pays 15th May 2015 Surprisingly strong criticism has been poured on the annual report of Attorney General Beatriz Buchili, even by the state news agency, Agência de Informação de Moçambique. Last...
Vol 56 No 9 | ZIMBABWE Illegal gold exports 1st May 2015 Chinese business people are accused of smuggling gold out of the country with the connivance of senior ruling party officials Securocrats and political bigwigs in President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) are colluding with Asian entrepreneurs, mainly from China, to export US dollars, gemstones and...
Vol 56 No 9 | MOZAMBIQUE Frelimo’s hit parade 1st May 2015 The campaign of intimidation against ex-President Armando Guebuza's political enemies has suddenly ended after his resignation as President of the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) on...
Vol 56 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA BRICS on the rocks 1st May 2015 Designed as a radical alternative to the World Bank by the BRICS group countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the much-vaunted New Development Bank is...
Vol 56 No 9 | ZIMBABWE So far, so bad 27th April 2015 The campaign against Mujuru continues and the opposition remains incapable of capitalising on ZANU-PF's difficulties As the economy plummets and political infighting reaches fever pitch, Zimbabwe's state media chose to mark the 35th anniversary of the nation's Independence on 18 April, by splashing...