ZIMBABWE Hard winter in Harare 5th August 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site ZANU-PF outpoint their opponents by taking over the diamond revenue and latching on to a popular national cause As senior allies of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe concede through gritted teeth that there can be no national elections this year, they have moved the battleground to economic policy. Their main target is outspoken Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is also Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). President Mugabe, his allies say, clashed repeatedly with Biti at recent cabinet meetings over the payment of higher salaries to the country’s 200,000 civil servants.
ERITREASOMALIA Politics and posturing 5th August 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site People starve, aid is inadequate, relief agencies are spurned and the region’s insecurities fester The Horn of Africa’s worst drought in six decades has prompted the United Nations to take the rare step of declaring a famine in two regions of Somalia – and probably another six r...
ZAMBIA A vote about money 5th August 2011 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Largesse from the copper boom rather than good policies boosts the President’s chances in next month’s polls The main challenger to President Rupiah Bwezani Banda in the elections he has called for 20 September is his arch-rival Michael Chilufya Sata: both agree that money will prove crit...
After recovering from the shock of seeing their former President caged with his sons in the dock in a makeshift courtroom, Egyptians are divided on its implications. Sceptics insist the decision of the 19-strong Supreme Council of Armed Forces to try the President who appointed it is an expedient to win back the initiative from the streets and to wield stronger control over the transition, leading to parliamentary elections in November. More hopeful voices say the trial will be genui... After recovering from the shock of seeing their former President caged with his sons in the dock in a makeshift courtroom, Egyptians are divided on its implications. Sceptics insist the decision of the 19-strong Supreme Council of Armed Forces to try the President who appointed it is an expedient to win back the initiative from the streets and to wield stronger control over the transition, leading to parliamentary elections in November. More hopeful voices say the trial will be genuine, a continuation of the military’s political mid-wifery which started with the driving of Hosni Mubarak from power on 11 February. Others say that if the military and its allies in the judiciary think they can control the process of holding leading politicians to account, they are mistaken. Mubarak’s lawyers, defending their client against charges of mass murder and grand corruption, are calling for the ruling generals, including de facto President General Mohamed Tantawi, to testify. If it runs the distance, the trial could provide insight into the workings of an autocracy. It may also establish a useful precedent about executive culpability. Sudan’s President Omer el Beshir and Chad’s former President Hissène Habré both reject charges of responsibility for crimes against humanity. The Mubarak trial could prove far more than a bitter reversal of fortune with the gaoling of a gaoler. It could re-establish Egypt as a political beacon if it shows that national judicial institutions can organise a fair trial for a deposed leader. Read more
ZAMBIA Some Banda backers exit 5th August 2011 In the last two months, some high-profile Movement for Multiparty Democracy personalities, including close friends of President Rupiah Banda’s, have crossed over to Michael Sata’s ...
SOUTH AFRICA Zuma's front-line diplomats 5th August 2011 The President's foreign policy team Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President: focuses on the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union. Privately critical of South Africa’s embrace of China, Motlanthe wants to...
EGYPT Strange alliances 5th August 2011 Political parties are talking about a ‘Democratic Alliance’, combining the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) with rival groups such as Al Wafd, Al Ghad and other...
MALAWI The President lashes out 5th August 2011 After killings and detentions by security forces, oppositionists plan another demonstration to press their demands for reform President Bingu wa Mutharika’s shift from egotistical technocrat to violent despot was not entirely surprising, given his style of government over the past six years. Few people be...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE 100 days of ADO 5th August 2011 Fêted in Washington and Paris, Ouattara faces tough questions about stability and politics at home Security jitters and financial worries have haunted President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s first 100 days, suggesting he is yet to entrench himself in office after a bloody six-mont...
NIGERIA Governors on top and on trial 5th August 2011 Presiding over billion-dollar budgets and assured of immunity in office, everything changes for state governors when they retire The former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, does not bother with false modesty. Neither does he demur at the description of himself as patron of Nigeria’s democr...
SOUTH AFRICA Foreign policy flip-flops 5th August 2011 President Zuma’s foreign policies await definition and are under fierce attack from his former allies President Jacob Zuma’s foreign policy, his critics at home say, is just like his domestic policy: he sits on the fence hoping to please everyone and in the end, paralysis follows. ...
EGYPT Many more scores to settle 5th August 2011 The military makes history by putting one of its own on trial but cannot disguise the regime’s loss of direction On 3 August, ousted President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak appeared in court, caged and bedridden, alongside his two sons, Alaa el Din and Gamal, to face charges of murder and grand corru...
NIGERIA The strange case of the ex-Governors 5th August 2011 Asiawaju Bola Tinubu, James Ibori and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha stand at extremes on the spectrum of life after Government House (see Feature). There are several points in between. P...
LIBYA Running on empty 5th August 2011 The offensives by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the brave but shambolic Transitional National Council fighters show no sign of overwhelming Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi’...
CONGO-KINSHASAMINING Mutatis mutandis 5th August 2011 Mystery surrounds a sale by the state-owned Générale des Carrières et des Mines to a company linked to Dan Gertler, a close friend of President Joseph Kabila. Just three months bef...
UNITED STATESFRANCEAFRICA Favourite four 5th August 2011 Greeting four Francophone African leaders in Washington on 28 July, President Barack Obama pledged ‘stalwart’ support on economic and security matters, signifying growing US intere...
