Vol 49 No 7 | EQUATORIAL GUINEASOUTH AFRICA Butcher Shop 28th March 2008 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....
Vol 49 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Politics of the budget 29th February 2008 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...
Vol 49 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Putting figures on it 29th February 2008 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.
Vol 49 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Thunder on the left 29th February 2008 The African National Congress’s new leadership, in which the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have aligned themselves behind Jacob...
Vol 49 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Party probe 29th February 2008 African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma’s purge of allies of President Thabo Mbeki is gathering pace, with all the ANC’s key policy-making committees under the control of the...
Vol 49 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Divided House in Cape Town 15th February 2008 Policy splits deepen within the governing ANC as Thabo Mbeki starts his last full year as the country's President Pomp, ceremony, fashion parades and backslapping are the usual accompaniments to the state-of-the-nation address with which President Thabo Mbeki opens a session of South Africa's parliament. This time,...
Vol 49 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Electrical and political power cuts 15th February 2008 The electricity shortage is the immediate issue that makes South Africans question their government's competence. The energy utility Eskom says that underinvestment has left it with inadequate generating...
Vol 49 No 2 | SOUTH AFRICA The party is not yet split 16th January 2008 The infighting is bitter and the allegations foul, as the ANC's allies try to capture the party The governing African National Congress is preparing for all-out war between President Thabo Mbeki – and his allies in government and Jacob Zuma, the ANC's newly elected...
Vol 49 No 2 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma's people on top 16th January 2008 The African National Congress conference in December elected six pro-Jacob Zuma activists into the top leadership positions and gave them control of the National Executive Committee. The Congress...
Vol 49 No 2 | SOUTH AFRICAFRANCE Taxing times 16th January 2008 Two politicians – South Africa’s highly effective Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and France’s forthright Cooperation Minister Jean-Marie Bockel – are adding to the pressure on international institutions to...