Vol 53 No 15 | SOUTH AFRICAAFRICAN UNION Dlamini-Zuma takes charge 19th July 2012 South Africa finally won the battle for the AU Commission chair, amid high hopes for reform and more effective interventions Security crises in five countries and pressing economic problems confront the new Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Although she has three months...
Vol 53 No 15 | SOUTH AFRICAAFRICAN UNION A diplomatic coup in Addis 19th July 2012 Just hours before voting began for the new chairperson of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa on 15 July, veteran diplomats were predicting a repeat of the deadlock that ha...
Vol 53 No 15 | SOUTH AFRICA No bang (this time) 19th July 2012 The authorities have tried to hush up a break-in that took place at South Africa’s largest nuclear research centre, the Pelindaba facility near Pretoria, on 28 April. The Departmen...
Vol 53 No 14 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma delays judgement day 6th July 2012 Arguments over personalities rather than ideas dominate the ANC’s policy conference in the Free State Policies were not changed nor presidents toppled when the African National Congress met last week. Yet everyone – supporters of President Jacob Zuma and of his two main rivals, Dep...
Vol 53 No 14 | SOUTH AFRICASADC Bank to bank 6th July 2012 The Southern African Development Community, anxious to free its financial operations from domination by the large, state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa, plans to set up ...
Vol 53 No 13 | GUINEASOUTH AFRICA A new battle to control the mines 22nd June 2012 The collapse of an opaque scheme to set up a multi-billion dollar national mining company prompts recriminations in Conakry and South Africa The Guinean government’s decision this week to shut down a bid by South African businessmen who wield high-level political connections, to run its national mining company follows g...
Vol 53 No 13 | GUINEASOUTH AFRICA Who's who in the Guinea loan saga 22nd June 2012 • Walter Hennig, Chief Executive Officer of Palladino, a South African. The considerable fortune enjoyed by the Hennig family comes mainly from diamond trading and farming, though ...
Vol 53 No 12 | SOUTH AFRICA Higher taxes, less nationalisation 8th June 2012 Instead of nationalisation, an ANC report proposes new taxes, a swarm of regulatory commissions and a new super-state mining company An attempt to meet the political requirements and the economic self-interest of factions in the governing African National Congress has produced a plan for super-taxes on mining pr...
Vol 53 No 12 | SOUTH AFRICA A born-again state mining company 8th June 2012 The nucleus of a proposed state-owned mining company would be the existing African Exploration Mining and Finance Company (AEMFC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Central Energy F...
Vol 53 No 12 | SOUTH AFRICA The new Thabo Mbeki 8th June 2012 Ex-President Thabo Mbeki is again reinventing himself: his latest struggle is against corruption, leading a campaign to recover some of the hundreds of billions of dollars extracte...