President Rupiah Banda and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) are struggling to control the mass media before next year’s general elections. The private media, especially ...

African producers could be penalised in talks this week on the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on proposals to ban additives in tobacco (...

Oil-trader Glencore International fears Namibia may wish to review its lengthy 2007 contract to provide half of refined petroleum imports until 2014. Namibia’s dollar is tied to th...

President Andry Rajoelina – nicknamed ‘TGV’ after France’s high-speed train – wants to leave a train service as his legacy when he steps down from power in 2011. On 6 November, he ...

George Charamba is President Robert Mugabe’s official spokesman and information supremo. The job description is not well defined and Charamba feels free to ennunciate what he think...

China’s flagship African railroad project continues to lose money, and Chinese management may be brought in to avoid throwing more good money after bad. Built in the 1970s, the Tan...

For the first time in his 31 years in power, Angola’s President, José Eduardo dos Santos, gave a State of the Nation address to the National Assembly in Luanda on 15 October. His d...

Behind the obligatory shows of unity between the governments of Angola and Congo-Kinshasa lurk serious disagreements over the frontiers dividing the oil fields straddling the two c...

A second term in office is President Jacob Zuma’s main aim. To see that he gets it, his cabinet reshuffle on 31 October seemed designed to win allies within the governing African N...

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front approaches its annual congress in better shape than a year ago and owing much to Jonathan Moyo’s tactical thinking. He will prob...