ETHIOPIA After Meles 24th August 2012 Meles Zenawi The Premier’s death removes one of Africa’s most prominent leaders and will test the unity of the country and the ruling party The death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on 20 August has triggered a constitutional succession mechanism which he personally designed, having led the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front for 21 years. His chosen successor, Hailemariam Desalegn, takes over in the first non-violent transition in Ethiopia’s modern history. Hailemariam was Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Deputy Chairman of the EPRDF.
ETHIOPIA The man in charge, for now 24th August 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Hailemariam Desalegn is a technocrat, a water and environmental engineer, and a former Dean of Arbaminch Water Technology Institute. He is from the Welaita nation in the Southern...
SOUTH AFRICA The Marikana massacre 24th August 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The ANC’s anti-Zuma faction tries to use the shootings to help depose the President Senior politicians, not least of all President Jacob Zuma, are failing to deflect public anger about the massacre of 34 miners by police on 16 August at Lonmin’s...
The death of three incumbent African leaders in the last three months has shone a light on succession mechanisms and the adequacy of national medical services. Ghana’s John Atta Mills, Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika and Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi had vastly different political styles and ideologies and ran different political systems. Mild-mannered Mills was nicknamed ‘the Prof’. Mutharika was the International Monetary Fund official turned finance minister and then Machiavellian despot. Meles was the... The death of three incumbent African leaders in the last three months has shone a light on succession mechanisms and the adequacy of national medical services. Ghana’s John Atta Mills, Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika and Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi had vastly different political styles and ideologies and ran different political systems. Mild-mannered Mills was nicknamed ‘the Prof’. Mutharika was the International Monetary Fund official turned finance minister and then Machiavellian despot. Meles was the Maoist guerrilla who overthrew a Marxist dictator before becoming a key Western ally. Both Meles and Mills had to seek medical treatment overseas because of deficiencies in local healthcare. All three countries, contrary to some foreign expectations, have engineered a constitutional succession. All three died in office but their entourages elaborately concealed the seriousness of their ailments. In Mutharika’s case, ministers insisted he was alive. Ministers assume that to admit the leader is ill is to confess to weakness, which will lead to instability. Yet when the end comes, the public suddenly learns it has been deceived. That further erodes confidence in government. Indeed, their subterfuge risks creating the very uncertainty they were trying to avoid. The taboos around sickness and death in many societies make it awkward for politicians and activists to demand more honesty about the health of their leaders – questions that are currently whispered in Algiers, Asmara, Harare and Yaoundé. Read more
SOUTH AFRICA Battle of the unions 24th August 2012 The dispute at the Lonmin mine is as much about rivalry between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and the National Union of Mineworkers as about wages....
EGYPT President Mursi's soft coup 24th August 2012 The Muslim Brothers consolidate power and find some military support, while the media suffers a crackdown When President Mohamed Mursi retired the two most powerful military officers on 12 August, he strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood’s grip on power but the move also seems to...
GHANA The first oil election 24th August 2012 The long shadow of oil and gas revenues falls across what is set to be Ghana’s most expensive election campaign in history. International oil companies are under particular...
ANGOLA The MPLA plans a landslide 24th August 2012 Amid private jitters at the top, the ruling party is pulling out all the stops to ensure an overwhelming election win The Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) is pouring millions into a lavish campaign to ensure overwhelming victory in the general elections on 31 August. The team behind President...
KENYA A rough, tough battle ahead 24th August 2012 The hopes are high and the dangers are clear: Kenya’s politics fail to match its economic success With eight months before President Mwai Kibaki retires, Kenya faces several major challenges, all of which it must meet in order to negotiate a peaceful and legitimate transition...
EGYPT Let them wear cotton 24th August 2012 One of the first challenges for Egypt’s new Prime Minister, Hisham Kandil, was to explain the collapse of large swathes of the electricity grid in early August. In...
SIERRA LEONE The case against Sam-Sumana 24th August 2012 Claims of illegal foreign political donations could force president Ernest Koroma to drop his running mate in November's elections United States businessmen are accusing Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana of diverting commercial investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaign funds for the All People’s Congress (APC) in the 2007 elections....
ANGOLA The other contestants 24th August 2012 After 2008’s electoral drubbing, the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA) is now far better organised, winning respect for its sustained pressure on the electoral commission, and surprising...
KENYA Ethnic arithmetic 24th August 2012 Prime Minister Raila Odinga has had an awful year. He has lost his key ally, Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi, in Western province and other supporters on the Coast. He...
GHANA After a unifying funeral, a divisive election 24th August 2012 After the state funeral of President John Evans Atta Mills on 10 August, it took just three days for Ghana’s vituperative party politics to resume. There are presidential and parliamentary...
MALI Intervention plan revealed 24th August 2012 The UN and Ecowas are thinking about a military operation in the north: the question is how, rather than whether Mali’s regional neighbours are planning a three-phase military intervention, according to a document from the Economic Community of West African States which Africa Confidential has exclusively obtained. The ‘Strategic Concept’ report...
ZIMBABWESADC Mugabe's Maputo success 24th August 2012 Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) were pleased with the outcome of the Southern African Development Community summit in Maputo on 17-18 August. It had just begun...
MADAGASCAR The road home 24th August 2012 On 17 August, the Southern African Development Community failed in its third attempt to reconcile feuding Presidents Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelina. Rajoelina overthrew Ravalomanana in March 2009 and is now...
SOUTH AFRICA Rail to the chief 24th August 2012 Ex-President Thabo Mbeki has taken issue with South Africa’s push to get Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma elected Chairwoman of the African Union. She defeated the incumbent, Gabon’s Jean Ping, prompting criticism that South...
SOUTH SUDAN Blaming the outsiders 24th August 2012 Economic crisis has fuelled anti-government protest in Sudan but in South Sudan, it has fuelled hostility to outsiders, real and imagined. Police in Jonglei State descend on aid agencies and businesses...