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 strikes against President Robert Mugabe's government. Zuma fumed that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had pushed back prospects for serious negotiations with the Mugabe government by launching its mass action last week. Zuma is a close confidante of South African President Thabo Mbeki and her outburst shows how little sympathy Pretoria has with either Tsvangirai or the MDC.
UGANDA Kazini goes back to school 13th June 2003 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The sacking of a top general has nothing to do with allegations of his corruption, say the military Commander of the Ugandan People's Defence Force Major General James Kazini was second only to President Yoweri Museveni in the military hierarchy. So continuing allegations of corruption against...
UGANDA It's all in the family 13th June 2003 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site In June 1996 Major General Salim Saleh, Special Advisor to President Yoweri Museveni on Military and Political Affairs in the north of Uganda, was dispatched to Gulu, the...
RWANDA Finally, an election 13th June 2003 General Kagame is set to win easily against a divided opposition in this year's election The democracy bandwagon Rwandan style rolls on. President Paul Kagame is determined to win a multi-party election on his own terms and will probably do it. He has...
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....
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...
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...
LIBERIA Where next? 13th June 2003 The Sierra Leone Special Court's indictment of President Charles Taylor leaves him little option but to fight to the death, potentially taking the thousands of Liberians who have...
NIGERIA Leaky and unlucky 13th June 2003 Revelations by Royal Dutch/Shell that thefts of crude oil from its operations in the Niger Delta could amount to as much as 100,000 barrels a day have been...
SUDAN Sticking points 13th June 2003 I will not be absorbed for the second time in my life!' John Garang told parliamentarians and aid workers in Britain's Portcullis House on 3 June. The Sudan...
CONGO-KINSHASA Battle for Bunia 13th June 2003 Quarrelling over posts in a power-sharing government, pitting Kinshasa's proxies against those of Rwanda, reflects a similar struggle in eastern Congo where Kinshasa and Rwanda back rival militias....