With national elections due in December, President Armando Guebuza may feel he has achieved most of what he hoped for when he took office nearly five years ago. His Frente de Liber...

The global economic downturn has hit Botswana hard. Decades of diamond-led economic expansion have ground to a halt, as people buy fewer gems (AC Vol 49 No 8). The slump became evi...

So far, there are few signs that electors blame the government for the recession and the governing Botswana Democratic Party seems set to win again at the October elections. Yet th...

There is some truth in Jacob Zuma's insistence that he owes no favours after the African National Congress's sweeping election victory on 22 April. It was the culmination of Zuma's...

First off of the blocks to congratulate Jacob Zuma on the African National Congress's win in the 22 April elections was British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This was not just becau...

Tendai Biti did not mince his words. 'The power-sharing accord is a poor document - it's a strange amalgam of extreme nationalism and things we like such as democracy and human rig...

The Zimbabwe Republic Police, under Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, celebrated Independence Day on 18 April by withdrawing permission for a rally by the Movement for Democratic Cha...

Grievances have arisen between Angola and Congo-Kinshasa about their borders - offshore and onshore. Kinshasa's Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito and ministers Célestin Mbuyu (Interior...

Jacob Zuma's inevitable ascent to the presidency has been achieved at considerable cost. The governing African National Congress has been absorbed for the last year in faction-figh...

The economy contracted in the first quarter of 2009 and South Africa is entering its first recession in 17 years. The South African Reserve Bank has cut its repo rate (the rate at ...