Vol 47 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICACHINA Who makes the shirts? 12th May 2006 China's booming exports cause political problems for Mbeki's ruling alliance President Hu Jintao missed out South Africa on his tour of Africa and the Gulf last month, when he visited Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya. That wasn't...
Vol 47 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA JZ is innocent, so far 12th May 2006 After his acquittal on rape charges, Zuma is back in the running Jacob Zuma began his political fight-back as soon as he left the Johannesburg High Court on 8 May, after his acquittal on charges of rape (AC Vol 47...
Vol 47 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA All eyes on Phumzile 28th April 2006 As the rape and corruption trials of Jacob Zuma rumble on, the presidential candidacy is wide open again The many misfortunes of Jacob Zuma, self-inflicted or otherwise, have elevated Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (AC Vol 47 No 6). Almost without effort, she has replaced Zuma as...
Vol 47 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA Jacob Zuma's money 28th April 2006 In the middle of a politically damaging rape trial and facing another on corruption charges in July, Jacob Zuma finds his finances under heavy pressure. His total legal...
Vol 47 No 6 | SOUTH AFRICA Local grumbles 17th March 2006 People are fed up with local ANC politicians but trust their national party Local elections offered South Africans their chance to punish the governing African National Congress. Its urban record is grim: in several areas, there have been riots against poor...
Vol 47 No 6 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma speaks 17th March 2006 Accusing some government officials of trying to destroy him over the past five years, besieged former Deputy President Jacob Zuma told Africa Confidential that he had a duty...
Vol 47 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Growing pains, legal pain 17th February 2006 The President has a new plan for the economy and the Vice-President faces two separate trials Cape Town's political season opens during the city's sunniest weeks, drawing journalists and commentators down from Johannesburg in droves. The government had hoped to fix their attention...
Vol 47 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA For growth, a new acronym 17th February 2006 The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) accepts that poverty and unemployment are the country's main economic problems and promises to halve both by 2014....
Vol 46 No 24 | SOUTH AFRICA A good week for Mbeki 2nd December 2005 The ANC's internal battles don't worry the country's foreign economic backers Angry National Party politicians used to say, when the African National Congress won power in 1994, that the definition of a South African optimist was 'someone not in...
Vol 46 No 21 | SOUTH AFRICA South Africa: If Zuma walks free 21st October 2005 The political and economic consequences of an acquittal for Jacob Zuma would reverberate across Africa South Africans will have to wait nine months for the political trial of the century, when Jacob Zuma's trial for corruption starts in the Durban High Court in...