Vol 64 No 19 | ZIMBABWE Mnangagwa keeps it in the family 21st September 2023 An enlarged cabinet stuffed with relatives and loyalists is complicating international efforts to restart negotiations on the country's finances International and regional concerns persist about the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory in national elections last month, particularly the failure of the Zimbabw...
Vol 64 No 19 | SOUTH AFRICA Long goodbye points to broken system 21st September 2023 The President has finally pushed out key Zuma ally Busisiwe Mkhwebane, but the cadre system which protected her is intact The firing of discredited Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on 13 September is being lauded by President Cyril Ramaphosa's supporters as a victory in his campaign for zero-tolera...
Vol 64 No 19 | MALAWI Bribes case on the rocks 21st September 2023 The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has decided not to prosecute government officials who may have taken bribes so long as they return them to the state, according to leaks to the med...
Vol 64 No 19 | SOUTH AFRICA Despite everything, the ANC charts a path to victory 18th September 2023 Beefed up local organisation and a public spending push could help the ruling party avoid a coalition next year Unheralded, the campaign for next year's national elections started this month. The ruling African National Congress will be fighting on multiple fronts: to cut state spending and ...
Vol 64 No 18 | ZIMBABWE Legitimacy questions may spur talks 7th September 2023 Regional and international critiques of election rigging have undermined ZANU-PF amid calls for a transitional authority to be set up Regional leaders, like the four million Zimbabweans in exile, voted with their feet when invited to attend Emmerson Mnangagwa's inauguration for his second presidential term on 4 S...
Vol 64 No 18 | MOZAMBIQUE Maputo may settle loans case 7th September 2023 The London High Court has ruled that President Filipe Nyusi will not have to respond in court to claims that he helped defraud his own country and accepted millions of dollars in b...
Vol 64 No 18 | SOUTH AFRICABRICS Beijing asserts global south leadership role 25th August 2023 Bringing in new members and opening up more local currency trade point to a longer-term power shift It was the biggest international gathering in South Africa since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the country's first democratically elected leader in 1994, but the 22-24 Augu...
Vol 64 No 17 | ZIMBABWE Electoral flaws may stall re-engagement campaign 24th August 2023 With the full panoply of state power behind ZANU-PF and its leader, the elections are unlikely to pass the credibility test Expectations for the fairness of the presidential and parliamentary elections started low and have sunk further after dirty tricks and orchestrated chaos in the towns and cities as...
Vol 64 No 16 | ZIMBABWE How to spin an economic catastrophe 3rd August 2023 Dismissing the data, the ruling party tells voters it is steering the country to prosperity Treasury and Reserve Bank officials have been releasing a succession of positive economic reports for the past three months. Consumer prices are reckoned to have fallen 15% and the...
Vol 64 No 16 | ZIMBABWE Finance chief Ncube bets on resolving debt impasse 3rd August 2023 The ruling party could end the financial isolation if it allows free and credible elections next month steering the country to prosperity Next month's national elections are the most conseqential since the independence vote in 1980. They will decide both the country's next president and whether it breaks out of two d...