For a few days, the death of Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo united Zimbabweans. He was 82, a towering figure since the 1950s, when he returned from college in South Africa and began...

Now centre-stage as President, Thabo Mbeki still keeps South Africans guessing. His patchwork cabinet is dominated by ministers who served Nelson Mandela, and expanded to 29 from 2...

Much more striking than the cabinet reshuffle are the big structural changes in government under President Thabo Mbeki. His office denies that he is creating an 'imperial presidenc...

Close-run and bad-tempered, Malawi's 15 June elections have sparked off several street confrontations and plenty of litigation. However, President Bakili Muluzi looks set to ride t...

President Joaquim Chissano is determined to go to the polls before the end of the millennium, claiming most of the credit for Mozambique's reputation as Africa's new success story....

The United Nations is at last getting serious about the massive diamond-smuggling operations which nourish the rebellion of Jonas Savimbi's União Nacional para a Independ&ec...

President Robert Mugabe may not after all be heading for a speedy retirement, although he was 75 in February and has held power since April 1980. Speculation about his early retir...

The overwhelming majority won by the African National Congress in the 2 June elections was spectacular if predictable. And it left opposition voters surprisingly unflustered, cons...

The usual bashing of non-governmental organisations followed the World Bank's Consultative Group on Zambia in Paris on 26-28 May (AC Vol 40 No 11). Zambia's Finance Minister Edith...

The smallest and richest of South Africa’s nine provinces seems certain to give the ruling African National Congress a solid majority at the national and provincial elections on 2 ...