Holding their collective breath, Kenyans expect a new government by the new year and the peaceable retirement of their leader of 24 years, 78-year-old Daniel arap Toroitich Moi....

The trial of those accused of killing crusading journalist Carlos Cardoso (AC Vol 41 No 24), broadcast live and likely to last at least until the New Year,...

It's getting to be a habit. President Sam Nujoma, who said last year he would stand down at the end of his current term, has changed his mind...

The concentration of decision-making in the presidency was shown by the spectacular offer made by Maurice Tempelsman, a United States' diamond dealer, to President Sam Nujoma. To bridge...

On 16 December 1838, Afrikaner trekkers were lured into Zulu King Dingaan's kraal and slaughtered. On that day 164 years later, President Thabo Mbeki will try to lure...

Afrikaner bombers are busy again. A dozen explosions in the past month damaged buildings, railway lines and a police aircraft hangar in the Johannesburg-Pretoria area, Western and Eastern...

Trouble looms as the final contingent of Zimbabwean troops in Congo-Kinshasa returns home to a divided and nearly bankrupt country. Despite the veneer of multi-party elections, Zimbabwe is...

All the foreign armies sent to the Congo-Kinshasa war - Rwanda's Uganda's and Zimbabwe's - have deteriorated as a result. The ZDF deployment has been a turning point...

The power utility Eskom has asked the cabinet for 1 billion rand (US$100 million) to back a new nuclear research programme which it claims will launch the country...

Was the election rigged? Must there be a fresh election? Later this month, the Supreme Court will resume hearing a petition on those questions.

Eight months after the violent death of Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, the oil-financed élite of the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola is neutering his União Nacional para...

For once, donor money may influence Angola's oil-rich leaders. At present, the country receives humanitarian funds, channeled through the United Nations and collected through a consolidated appeal. For...

As Pretoria flexes its diplomatic muscles in Africa, championing the New Partnership for Africa's Development and sending peacekeeping troops to Burundi and Congo-Kinshasa, its companies are following the...

More international criticism greeted President Robert Mugabe's landslide in the 28-29 September local elections but 'smart sanctions' imposed on him and his officials are having almost no effect.

Swiss-based oil and commodities trader Glencore has become entangled in France's Angolagate scandal. Paris sources say an arrest warrant has been issued for one of the company's leading...

'I will gladly step down if the court rules that I was elected fraudulently,' announced President Levy Mwanawasa on 19 September. Anderson Mazoka, the runner-up in last December's...

One of Africa's most traditional states may be in for the shock of a modern constitution. As pressure for change builds up both at home and abroad, a...

Mining for precious minerals was the foundation of South Africa's urban riches, and the prime symbol of foreign capitalism, apartheid labour repression and racial monopoly. The African National...

The escape from a 'maximum security' prison in Maputo of a man held for killing crusading editor Carlos Cardoso adds to suspicions that the government is concealing high...

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, which overruns Johannesburg this week, is riven by competing interests and chaired by President Thabo Mbeki. It is also punctuated by street...

A coalition calling itself the Social Movement Indaba is organising mass demonstrations around the World Summit on Sustainable Development. President Thabo Mbeki and his African National Congress government...

The longer leaders stay in office, the more they think themselves indispensable. Safiishuna Sam Nujoma helped found the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in 1960, as a...

Zambia's under-paid detectives are no match for the sophisticated networks built up by ex-President Frederick Chiluba. The taskforce on allegations of plunder by him (AC Vol 43 No...

The African Union has refused President Marc Ravalomanana recognition until legislative elections are held ­ ostensibly to confirm that the public really backs his presidency ­ but the...

Armed guards surrounded President Robert Mugabe as he opened parliament on 23 July. Zimbabweans, he explained, face two scourges ­ Britain, the former colonial power, which was trying...

Relations between the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party are at their lowest since the rivals signed a peace deal on the eve of the...

Zambia's parliament voted unanimously on 16 July to lift ex-President Frederick Chiluba's immunity from prosecution. A criminal investigation will now open into those said to have benefited corruptly...

President Levy Mwanawasa has declared war on Frederick Chiluba, the man he replaced at the election last December. Chiluba's friends regard Mwanawasa as weak and ungrateful; they say...

The most serious opposition group, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has been gravely wounded by corruption allegations and political misjudgement. The governing African National Congress is sticking the knife...

The Pan-Africanist Congress: Since the African National Congress won power, the PAC has lacked a role or clear political identity. Its five members of parliament and one...

The suspense is over. Frelimo, the ruling party once known as the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, has named Armando Guebuza as its Secretary General and presidential candidate...

Life grows grimmer in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe's 24 June order to 2,900 white commercial farmers to abandon their farms, in mid-growing season, gives new urgency to United...

The view from the presidency at Futungo de Belas is bright. With peace and victory, Angola is on the path to becoming an oil- and gas-fuelled industrial economy...

Now the war is over, Angola hopes to hoover up easy money from donors, who pledged up to US$1 billion at a round table conference in 1995 after...

This week, Finance Minister Emmanuel Kasonde receives the final audit report explaining how Zambia lost at least US$60 million in a cobalt marketing agreement with Bahamas-based Metal Resources...

Some 20 million people in Southern Africa are at risk from mounting crop failures and food shortages. Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are the worst hit by a mixture...

The easy re-election of the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy in the 25 May general elections handed a new mandate to a government determined to pursue those suspected...

This year's workload for President Thabo Mbeki is overwhelming. He and his colleagues from Africa's big nations must oversee the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into...

President Thabo Mbeki's rapid rise in the African National Congress after it was legalised in 1990 surprised many outsiders. Yet for years inside the tent, Mbeki built a...

Two presidents, two parliaments, two capitals, two economies next, two countries? That seems to be the aim of the veteran Red Admiral, Didier Ratsiraka, who clings to the...

President Levy Mwanawasa has bounced back from his stolen election in December and is surprising his many detractors by fending off both the opposition (which holds 81 of...

An audit report will soon be released on how Zambia's state mining company lost as much as US$60 million exporting cobalt to the Bahamas-based Metal Resources Group. That...

There are three reasons why the rebels of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola will not go to war again against the Movimento Popular de...

In a brutal game of political chess with his opponents, President Robert Mugabe now seems to be stalemated. Chronic shortages of food and fuel are forcing Mugabe and...

Government and rebels were set to sign a comprehensive ceasefire on 4 April some ten years after a similar deal which saw the two sides merge their armies,...

Tension is rising as the standoff between the country's parallel presidents continues, veering between good-natured though fervent protest (especially by Marc Ravalomanana's supporters) and violent attacks on the...

Quietly, within days of the disputed 10-12 March presidential election, the outline of a deal between Zimbabwe's warring political parties emerged. After two years of rising tension, with...

Zimbabwe's nomenklatura and their business friends now face tightening economic 'smart' sanctions from the European Union and United States. Instead of widening the range of sanctions against Harare...

President Levy Mwanawasa is at war with his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba, who resents his independent spirit. Chiluba, who is still President of the governing Movement for Multi-party Democracy,...

The government sent a message of reconciliation. After the death in combat of Jonas Savimbi in late February, President José Eduardo dos Santos said the army was working...

The most important of the post-Jonas Savimbi factions of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola is the armed wing which was under António Dembo. It...

Jonas Savimbi's death was greeted with joy in Namibia, where the governing South West African People's Organisation has extremely close ties to the Movimento Popular de Libertação de...

The presidential vote on 10-11 March has become an election about Africa's future. For most Zimbabweans it is a key test of their political freedoms, won first in...

Graça Machel's discreet campaign for the presidency gathers pace. We hear she failed to attend a meeting at the United Nations University for Peace of which she is...

The resignation of the Inspector General of Intelligence, Dr. Fazel Randera, has dealt a blow to the civil oversight of South Africa's intelligence agencies. His departure, hastened by...

Mashudu Ramano, chief executive of the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), claims he is under heavy pressure after terminating the contract of a well-connected private security firm....

As President Levy Mwanawasa limped into State House, his month-old government waded into a political quagmire. In the National Assembly, which has not met since his election, opposition...

Political troubles were overshadowed on 25 January, when Anglo American announced that it was pulling out of the Copperbelt less than two years after reinvesting there. Copper had...

From the splendour of Pretoria's Union Buildings, President Thabo Mbeki's vision of a resurgent Africa is obscured by the sprawling crisis in Zimbabwe. Almost everything Mbeki wants to...

In 2000 South Africa's ministries were grouped in 'clusters', to rationalise policy-making and eliminate contradictions. The Department of Foreign Affairs is grouped with the Departments of Defence, Tourism,...

Before the International Monetary Fund lends money, it needs to know about the recipient's other debts. Angola's government has borrowed huge sums which are not audited or included...

Even the Interior Ministry's provisional results give President Didier Ratsiraka just over 40 per cent of the vote, to 46 per cent for his rival, Marc Ravalomanana (AC...

The fragmented opposition had underestimated the Movement for Multi-party Democracy, which bounced back to power with less than 30 per cent of the vote. New President Levy Mwanawasa...

The main opposition party, the Botswana National Front, has a new leader but remains divided. At its national congress Otsweletso Moupo, a lawyer from Selebi Phikwe, beat Peter...