Vol 38 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA First, the good news 28th February 1997 Having weathered political and economic storms in the past year, the ANC-led government is showing results After just over a thousand days in office, President Nelson Mandela and his ministers have a spring in their step. The rand is strengthening; the economic management is winning pla...
Vol 38 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA Deep foreground 28th February 1997 It was an impressive, if slightly bizarre, demonstration of open government. On 10 February, 30 or so journalists found themselves in the hospitality suite of the National Intellig...
Vol 38 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Hard bargains 14th February 1997 Buthelezi raises the stakes at a time when his ANC opponents need successful peace talks The Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party is poised to extract far reaching concessions from its main opponents, the African National Congress. The ANC wants a peace agreement, ha...
Vol 38 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA Mangope on trial 14th February 1997 The trial of former Bophuthatswana President Lucas Mangope will raise more questions about his associates in South Africa and Europe (AC Vol 35 No 13). He faces 200 charges of frau...
Vol 38 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICA Press harder 31st January 1997 Global economics – and local politics – are transforming the country's media The apartheid government hated the press and the African National Congress distrusts it. Some things have changed, though. Black groups now control a few newspapers – and for...
Vol 38 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICASYRIA Spiking Syria 31st January 1997 Some compromise on South Africa's mooted arms sales to Syria may emerge from United States' Vice-President Al Gore's meeting with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki next month in Pretori...
Vol 37 No 25 | SOUTH AFRICA What's left of the left? 13th December 1996 An important battle looms over policy and tactics After two and half years of African National Congress rule, the political forces of the left are in disarray. In the face of the government' s determination to push ahead with a to...
Vol 37 No 23 | SOUTH AFRICA Escapades 15th November 1996 In its Eastern Cape heartland, many think that the ANC needs to make radical changes The province that was the cradle of African education, leadership and prosperity has come to be regarded by many as the country's worst governed and administered. Many of its citiz...
Vol 37 No 18 | SOUTH AFRICA Opening up the ANC 6th September 1996 President Mandela wants to strengthen the party before he hands over to Thabo Mbeki The post-Mandela African National Congress is beginning to take shape, amid jostling between competing factions. President Nelson Mandela wants a 'broad-church' leadership. The par...
Vol 37 No 18 | SOUTH AFRICA Gloomy boom 6th September 1996 Speculators talking down the economy have helped create some bargain investments South Africa's mood swings wildly and so do its financial markets. Less than a year ago, equity and bond markets were booming and the rand exchange rate was unusually stable and ex...