Vol 51 No 4 | ZIMBABWE Petrified Politburos 19th February 2010 The old ruling party’s new Politburo, announced on 11 February, is anything but new. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s 49-member policy-making committee, announ...
Vol 51 No 4 | ANGOLA Dos Santos prepares for power, again 19th February 2010 After three decades in power, the President chooses his next team Intending to run for another term in office in 2012, President José Eduardo dos Santos has moved close allies into key ministries. He faces a vote not by electors but by Parliament...
Vol 51 No 4 | ANGOLA The bid to clean up MPLA Inc 19th February 2010 President José Eduardo dos Santos says he laments the rise of grand corruption in Angola as it undermines the social fabric. If so, some members of his government may be in trouble...
Vol 51 No 4 | NAMIBIA SWAPO's big guns in the fray 19th February 2010 With five years to go, rows are already under way about the next presidential candidate and the last election results President Hifikepunye Pohamba will be sworn in for his second five-year term at the end of March after the ever-governing South West Africa People’s Organisation was awarded an app...
Vol 51 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICATANZANIABRITAIN Protection in the arms bazaar 19th February 2010 A plea bargain deal in the UK and USA has set back investigations into arms trade crookery in South Africa and Tanzania The US$450 million in fines that BAE Systems agreed to pay on 5 February to halt investigations into corrupt payments on arms deals adds to its financial woes. And it covers only p...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 4 | ZAMBIAASIA Anti-Asian strength in numbers 12th February 2010 There is a long way to go before the 2011 national polls, but the current political jockeying in Zambia would give any visitor the impression that the election is to be held next...
Vol 51 No 3 | ZIMBABWE Economic clouds, platinum lining 5th February 2010 Foreign mining companies benefit more from the halting recovery as local political problems mount Hefty political obstacles block further economic progress in Zimbabwe after last year’s impressive turnaround. Mining operations, such as those involving gold and platinum, will gr...
Vol 51 No 3 | ZIMBABWE The President ends his holiday 5th February 2010 As the plotting and squabbles in the ZANU-PF break into the open, the military launches a new round of farm seizures The first anniversary of the power-sharing agreement was inauspicious, as all three parties in government argue over the pace of political reform and blame each other for holding u...
Vol 51 No 3 | MOZAMBIQUE The country gets richer, the party gets stronger 5th February 2010 The new Prime Minister backs the President’s push for a state-run economy and a tougher line against the opposition President Armando Emílio Guebuza never fails to seize an opportunity. After his controversial landslide election victory in October, he plans to reinforce his dominance of the gov...
Vol 51 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICAOBITUARY David Coetzee 5th February 2010 Over a hundred of us gathered at the Friends Meeting House in Washington DC on 29 January to pay tribute to David Coetzee, a pioneering spirit in African journalism, who had died t...