Vol 47 No 23 | ZIMBABWE Surreal succession 17th November 2006 Party factions jostle for power, fearing that Mugabe's departure will be worse than his presidency Robert Mugabe's government has presided for the past five years over the world's fastest shrinking economy - and achieved the world's worst mortality rates. Yet the main argument a...
Vol 47 No 23 | ZIMBABWE The Mujuru political network 17th November 2006 Solomon Mujuru remains a key party kingmaker and a leading member of the 'inner cabinet' or Committee of 26. Its primacy is resented, particularly in Matebeleland. Enos Nkala, a fo...
Vol 47 No 23 | MALAWI Carpet crossing 17th November 2006 Opposition parties are cheering the Constitutional Court's 8 November ruling in favour of restrictions on MPs trying to change their party allegiance after election.
Vol 47 No 23 | MOZAMBIQUE Vila Algarve 17th November 2006 The building which was the headquarters of torture and abuse by Portugal's secret police, is to be a centre for Mozambique's highest legal association, Ordem dos Advogados, in a re...
Vol 47 No 22 | ANGOLA Economic star, social crisis 3rd November 2006 As Angola's oil output soars towards 2 million barrels a day (b/d) by the end of 2007, it could become the world's fastest growing economy. The doubling of Angola's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to 31.4% in 2007 from this year's estimated 14.3%, as forecast by the IMF, reflects the 'surge in oil output in 2007. N...
Vol 47 No 22 | SOUTH AFRICA Legal minefields 3rd November 2006 Sheaves of litigation await mineral giant Gold Fields as it seeks to wrest control of the lucrative South Deep gold mine. The issue centres on the legitmacy of share trading involving hundreds of milions of dollars undertaken by the late mining magnate Brett Kebble before he was murdered in 2005. Give...
Vol 47 No 22 | NAMIBIA Missing in action 3rd November 2006 New army Chief Lieutenant General Martin Shalli, recalled from Zambia last month after Gen. Solomon Hawala's sudden retirement, faces a storm over sales of armoured personnel carri...
Vol 47 No 22 | MALAWI Madonna madness 3rd November 2006 Following pop queen Madonna Louisa Ciccone's tearful defence of her adoption of Malawi-born orphan David Banda on America's Oprah Winfrey TV chatshow in October, some Malawi offici...
Vol 47 No 21 | ZAMBIA The Titanic sails at dawn 20th October 2006 The opposition offered its voters refuge on Noah's Ark, but it sank and Mwanawasa is back The polls were wrong and Michael Sata lost to incumbent President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, whose solid 42 per cent of the vote came overwhelmingly from rural areas. In some large to...
Vol 47 No 21 | SOUTH AFRICA The ANC's toughest election yet 20th October 2006 It will be the fiercest-fought election the African National Congress has faced since coming to power in 2004 Even the most conservative African National Congress activists admit that a schism has developed in the party between supporters of President Thabo Mbeki and those of sacked Deputy...