ZIMBABWE Arms and the men 1st August 2008 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Investigators are probing multimillion pound payments from Britain through secret accounts to a key ally of President Robert Mugabe Britain’s BAE Systems, one of the world’s biggest arms companies, has paid over £25 million (US$49.5 mn.) to a company whose majority Zimbabwean shareholder is a long-time business ally of President Robert Mugabe’s regime. The multiple investigations into BAE’s role in the affair, which appear to be nearing conclusion, are likely to have serious political repercussions in Britain and South Africa.
NIGERIA Yar'Adua's judges on trial 1st August 2008 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Justice and politics are uneasy bedfellows under the hesitant President's new regime Since President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua came to power after a widely-criticised election and started extolling the rule of law much has changed. Yar Adua's own electoral case will be h...
ZAMBIA A sick man's contest 1st August 2008 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The President is probably unfit to continue and his main opponents are either ill or accused of corruption Everyone seems convinced that President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, who suffered a stroke a month ago, will not resume his duties. Inside his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) th...
SUDAN Saving Omer 1st August 2008 An international court accuses President Omer el Beshir but he has some unlikely defenders The International Criminal Court's bid to put President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir on trial for genocide is the sternest test yet for the emerging system of international justice....
SOUTH AFRICA Blame the judges 1st August 2008 It is a testing time for the judiciary as it prepares for the trial of African National Congress President Jacob Zuma. His supporters say the trial is politically motivated and want the charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering thrown out. Obstacles to the prosecution are being sought and threats issued to those judges pressing ahead with the trial. The outcome will determine who in the ANC will stand for election as the next President of South Africa. Jacob Zuma, having won the election for the presidency of the ruling African National Congress, wants to win next year's election for the presidency of South Africa. He would almos...
GHANA Presidents and lawyers 1st August 2008 The tortuous prosecution of a former state oil company boss raises questions about the independence of the judiciary Even his opponents concede that Tsatsu Tsikata is a gifted lawyer, whose ties with ex-President Jerry John Rawlings have kept him at the centre of Ghana's bitter political battles....
SUDAN Taking positions 1st August 2008 There has been a strong international reaction to the ICC's application for an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omer el Beshir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against human...
SOUTH AFRICA Judges of the Constitutional Court 1st August 2008 Chief Justice Pius Langa: The head of the Constitutional Court and of the Judicial Commission from rural Limpopo Province worked as a labourer in a shirt factory and studied law by...
ANGOLA Jam-packed 1st August 2008 Oil-fired growth is uncomfortable, and benefits only a few The ports, the roads and the telephone networks are jammed full. Angola's economy is speeding ahead. Some experts think a slowdown is coming, but the price of oil keeps rising, inv...
KENYA Coalition under strain 1st August 2008 There are tremors within the power-sharing grand coalition that ended the post-election mayhem A day after the no-confidence vote in Parliament against ex-Finance Minister Amos Kimunya, the Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, called a press conference. He was belligerent,...
SOUTH AFRICA The judges, lawyers and ministers 1st August 2008 KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Vuka Tshabalala studied at the Universities of Fort Hare and Natal. He lost many pro-African National Congress President Jacob Zuma friends by choosin...
ZIMBABWE The real deal 1st August 2008 The three negotiating teams are to resume talks in South Africa on 3 August after a break to discuss progress with their respective parties. The original deadline for the installat...
UGANDA Fourth for M7 1st August 2008 Having amended the constitution to allow him to run for a third consecutive term in 2006, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni intends to run for a fourth five-year term. His critics c...
CAMEROON Fru Ndi's trial 1st August 2008 The 19 August murder trial of veteran oppositionist John Fru Ndi and 22 of his Social Democratic Front members will further sideline the leader of the SDF, Cameroon's last major op...
CAMEROONNIGERIA Bogged down 1st August 2008 Cameroonian security forces in the disputed oil-rich Bakassi peninsula are on maximum alert after fatal attacks by the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council. The NDDSC, a little...
