Sepp Blatter, President of football’s ruling Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) looked relieved at the 11 December draw in Cape Town for next year’s World Cup. Standing...

In 2010, South Africans will celebrate the two decades since the release of Nelson Mandela from gaol on 11 February 1990. Polemicists of all stripes will assess the...

With copper revenue rising, poverty falling and farms thriving, the fortunes of President Rupiah Banda’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government should be on the up, with hopes...

Nine opposition parties have launched a joint legal challenge to the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) election victory on 27-28 November. This may force a recount (AC...

The details of the US$8 billion China Sonangol/China International Fund are becoming more apparent as subsidiary deals are signed. On 7 December, Zimbabwe's Transport and Mining Ministries signed mining and construction...

A financing crisis in the state-owned power company, Eskom, threatens the government's hopes of more investment in manufacturing and services. On 30 November, Eskom applied to the National...

Emmerson Mnangagwa is nicknamed 'the Crocodile' partly for his ability to snap after long periods of log-like but watchful inertia. In November's election for the Praesidium of the...

In the hierarchy of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the Politburo Secretary for Administration ranks fifth, running the Secretariat that sets dates and agendas for the political...

The China International Fund and China Sonangol are being used to bail out troubled regimes when international pressure on them is at its highest. First, there was the...

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) have gained strength since they helped President Jacob Zuma into power in April. Their...

President Hifikepunye Pohamba's governing South West Africa People's Organisation will almost certainly win again, and comfortably, at the elections on 27-28 November. The main opposition parties claim they...

The star attraction of the Lhomwe cultural festival last month was President Bingu wa Mutharika: his presence reflects his growing use of his own ethnic identity to mobilise...

Nothing is going according to plan with the prosecution for corruption of former police chief and former Interpol director Jackie Selebi (AC Vol 50 No 16). As he...

The two big neighbours have been busily expelling each others' nationals and the resulting tension hides their disagreements about oil, diamonds and the hoped-for electric power from a...

The decisive re-election of President Armando Guebuza on 27 October delivered all that the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique wanted: victory with over 75% of the vote...

Established just six months before the elections, the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique has come further than any other third party in Mozambique's history and will be well placed...

When arms disappeared from Pomona Barracks, north of Harare, last month, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front barons again blamed the Movement for Democratic Change but military intelligence...

Delivery 'to the expectations of Batswana' is to be top priority of the new government, President Seretse Khama Ian Khama announced at his inauguration on 21 October following...

For once, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change appear to have scored a palpable hit against President Robert Mugabe and his allies. Following a...

Despite a depressed economy and disunity in its ranks, President Seretse Khama Ian Khama's Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) won its eighth successive election victory on 16 October. Provisional...

President Seretse Khama Ian Khama is unlikely to lose the reputation for dogmatism and autocracy which he earned by slapping a 30% levy on alcohol sales to curb...

After the African National Congress leadership in the Western Cape was suspended because of the governing party's poor showing there in this year's elections, President Jacob Zuma set...

On 29 September, the International Monetary Fund loaned Angola US$890 million instead of the $2 billion Luanda had asked for. The government says that the country has reached...

The sudden death in South Africa on 20 September of Ishmael Chafukira has prompted the usual suspicions. The Malawi Congress Party member of parliament for Lilongwe North-West was...

The hoped-for seamless assumption of the late Vice-President Joseph Msika's positions by John Nkomo is teetering on the brink of farce. Thanks to Didymus Mutasa, the Secretary for...

The business people, politicians and state officials behind the China International Fund (CIF) and China Sonangol International (CSI) entered the public eye in 2008 with the purchase of the publicly traded...

The China International Fund (CIF) was born in the aftermath of Angola's civil war as the Luanda government embarked on Africa's costliest post-war reconstruction, fuelled by oil, gas and mineral resources....

The choice of academic Eugène Mangalaza as Prime Minister after a marathon meeting in Antananarivo on 6 October has broken the deadlock over the make-up of the new...

The return of the mercurial Jonathan Moyo to full membership of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) could prompt further splinters in the party. Several...

The fifth congress of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in December will shape the party's leadership and policies for the next five years. National delegates are...

French defence company Thales has won US$150 million of business in Angola in partnership with Manuel Vicente, Chairman and Chief Executive of state oil company Sonangol, and Miguel...

China's relations with Angola suffered a setback this month when Luanda turned down the acquisition by China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Sinopec of a coveted oil block. Worse, lower than...

Guinea's military ruler Moussa Dadis Camara set up a commission on 28 August to manage a planned US$1.6 billion investment from the China International Fund. The CIF is 70% owned...

New Delhi made one of its most important energy and resource deals in Africa on 31 August, signing an accord with the Namibian government to allow for trade...

The death of Vice-President Joseph Msika has wrecked the succession strategy of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The plan had been to hold a party congress -...

Candidates are preparing for a rough campaign for the presidential and national elections on 27-28 November. The governing South West African People's Organisation is almost certain to win....

Questions have arisen about the financing of President Bingu wa Mutharika's palace and mausoleum in Thyolo District. The contractor is Portugal's Mota-Engil (AC Vol 50 No 16), which...

More arrests, more vexatious court verdicts against the Movement for Democratic Change, thanks to President Robert Mugabe's loyalists in the judiciary. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is...

Following the death on 4 August of Joseph Msika, the new Second Vice-President is likely to be the Chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, John Nkomo....

The military parades and razzamatazz over the Heroes and Defence Forces weekend in August dovetailed with Vice-President Joseph Msika's state funeral and saw the junta on its best...

The standard criticism of Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was that he was a populist, seeking the presidency mainly to protect himself against prosecution for corrupt enrichment in South Africa's...

Jacob Zuma rarely hides his distaste of journalists - particularly those who ridiculed his presidential ambitions and his political commitment - and his supporters rail against media enemies...

Anti-arms trade campaigners and opposition MPs are claiming that the African National Congress government covertly sought to sell weapons to repressive regimes in North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya and Zimbabwe without...

Sizwe Nxasana has just led negotiations for an alliance with China Construction Bank. The two banks have signed a deal which commits FirstRand (the second biggest bank in South Africa) to...

Pictures of police firing rubber bullets into a crowd of protestors in Thokoza township on 27 July gave President Jacob Zuma's three-month-old government its strongest reality check to...

Gauteng Province, around Johannesburg, is the most heavily industrial part of South Africa, with tightly crammed townships and informal settlements for those who came to find work. It...

The suspension of the popular chief of the Namibia Defence Force (NDF), Lieutenant General Martin Shalli, on 22 July, has shocked Namibians and angered soldiers. Some regard it...

The Windhoek corruption case has been wiped from the internet in China. It is being treated like events in Taiwan, Tibet or the activities of the Falun Gong...

Foreign oil companies are looking closely at the links between Sonangol Chairman Manuel Vicente's holdings in the Banco de Investimento Global and the spate of contracts awarded by...

A rowdy session is in prospect following parliament's return after the winter recess and President Robert Mugabe's determination to regain control of it. His strategy - and that...

The arrest of Namibia's powerful Public Service Commissioner, Teckla Lameck, on 9 July by investigators of the Namibian Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in connection with a contract between China's Nuctech and Windhoek...

Until now, Hu Haifeng, the 38-year-old son of China's paramount leader Hu Jintao, has managed to stay out of the limelight. While Hu senior climbed the party ranks - through unglamourous...

As China emerges as the biggest outside financier of the power-sharing government, differences in Harare over policy towards Beijing are growing. The first public row broke soon after Prime Minister Morgan...

The planned US$20 billion merger of Africa's Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and India's Bharti Airtel would bring together two continental giants to form the world's third largest mobile phone company. The...

A tangled web of financial holdings stretching from South Africa to Ghana and Lebanon could delay plans for a US$20 billion merger of India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's Mobile Telephone...

Neither age nor ill-health seem to dampen the fire in the belly of Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata. Born 1937, 'King Cobra' has lost none of his bite,...

Ructions in the Movement for Democratic Change's factions are threatening its grip on parliament. After last March's elections, Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction won 100 seats, and Arthur Mutambara's...

Undaunted by the collapse of the international oil and gas market, Luanda's state-owned oil company Sonangol is setting its international sights ever higher. On the back of Angola's...

Anglo American, the huge mining conglomerate, is no longer strictly a South African company since it moved its headquarters and main stock-market listing to London in 1999. Yet...

Anglo CEO Cynthia Carroll has called for 'a major overhaul' and 'cultural transformation' of senior management. Those managers are striking back, along with members of the board. Her...

While Madagascar's ousted President Marc Ravalomanana stews in South Africa, the youthful transition leader Andry Rajoelina has been in Belgium, vainly trying to persuade the European Union to...

After a three-week tour through Western capitals and having raised some US$150 million for his fragile government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai now knows that diplomats and business people...

The appointment of the inexperienced Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as Foreign Minister in the new African National Congress (ANC) government suggests that President Jacob Zuma will dominate foreign policy, with...

Angola will welcome Jacob Zuma on his first foreign trip as President 'before Christmas'. Zuma is grateful to President José Eduardo dos Santos for the loan of an...

After his victory in the 19 May elections, President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) dominate Malawi's political scene. Mutharika won 66% of the vote...

Parliamentarians launched the great constitutional debate on 24 June, amid growing tension in the power-sharing government. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change is struggling to persuade...

The Beijing-Harare axis is thriving under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government. Despite opposition claims that China would lose influence because of its close relations with President Robert Mugabe and its historical support for...

Beyond the political controversy about relations with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front regime, Chinese businesses are set to provide an important source of new investment and jobs for Harare's shaky...

The list of countries with multibillion-dollar, Chinese-backed projects is growing longer, with Mozambique the latest country to receive a golden handshake. In late May, China Exim Bank announced US$2.3 billion in...

Just days after President Jacob Zuma’s 3 June State of the Nation Address on accountability in government and jobs for the people, the trades unions hit back with...

Although Angola’s presidential election is to be postponed until 2010, the dominant Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) has abandoned its plans for indirect elections, in which...

The trades union chief, Zwelinzima Vavi, a key supporter of President Jacob Zuma when he was a mere candidate, is warning the government of a season of strikes...

The trades unions' legal challenge to the listing of the multibillion dollar Vodacom cellular phone group on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange tested President Jacob Zuma's political nerves. But...

Voters overturned the political order in the fourth of Malawi's multiparty elections on 19 May. They voted for Bingu wa Mutharika for a second term in the presidency...

Since the power-sharing government began work in February, the Politburo of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has leaked like a sieve with graphic details of...

In both Angola and Congo-Kinshasa, public works produce surprising profits for well-connected cement producers, but an oil-fired building boom requires a lot of cement. Angola's Minister of Public...

Western mining houses are pulling out of Zambia due to the copper price slump, leaving Chinese and Indian investors to battle over the abandoned assets. As the copper price crashed...

The combination of lower world oil prices, tighter credit and production cuts has increased Luanda's reliance on its countertrade credits with China. As Angola holds the presidency of the Organisation of...

Just before President Jacob Zuma's inauguration on 9 May, India's state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) signed a commercial cooperation agreement with the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu)...

The battle for supremacy within the power-sharing government is taking second place to wrangling for power within the three main parties (AC Vol 50 Nos 8 & 9)....

Security officers still gaol human rights activists. Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was re-arrested on insurrection charges on 4 May, along with 14 other activists,...

A night of haggling preceded President Jacob Zuma's 10 May announcement of a new cabinet, which includes people from the left, the centre, black business, populists and even...

President Jacob Zuma's ally Siphiwe Nyanda, a former head of the defence force, was appointed Communications Minister; his numerous defence-related business interests disqualified him from the Defence Ministry....

With national elections due in December, President Armando Guebuza may feel he has achieved most of what he hoped for when he took office nearly five years ago....

The global economic downturn has hit Botswana hard. Decades of diamond-led economic expansion have ground to a halt, as people buy fewer gems (AC Vol 49 No 8)....

So far, there are few signs that electors blame the government for the recession and the governing Botswana Democratic Party seems set to win again at the October...

There is some truth in Jacob Zuma's insistence that he owes no favours after the African National Congress's sweeping election victory on 22 April. It was the culmination...

First off of the blocks to congratulate Jacob Zuma on the African National Congress's win in the 22 April elections was British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This was...

Tendai Biti did not mince his words. 'The power-sharing accord is a poor document - it's a strange amalgam of extreme nationalism and things we like such as...

The Zimbabwe Republic Police, under Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, celebrated Independence Day on 18 April by withdrawing permission for a rally by the Movement for Democratic Change on the...

Grievances have arisen between Angola and Congo-Kinshasa about their borders - offshore and onshore. Kinshasa's Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito and ministers Célestin Mbuyu (Interior), Alexis Thambwe Mwamba ...

Jacob Zuma's inevitable ascent to the presidency has been achieved at considerable cost. The governing African National Congress has been absorbed for the last year in faction-fighting, dealing...

The economy contracted in the first quarter of 2009 and South Africa is entering its first recession in 17 years. The South African Reserve Bank has cut its...

Warm words emerged from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's ministerial retreat in Victoria Falls on 3-6 April and are encouraging foreign business to look at profitable turnarounds. Yet Western...

'There will be no immediate plans to [re]introduce the money because there is nothing to support and hold its value,' said Economic Planning and Development Minister Elton Mangoma....

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has emerged as the key figure in Zimbabwe's economic recovery, walking the uneasy path between securing external finance from sceptical outsiders and dealing with...

Claims that the World Bank’s Vice-President for Integrity and former head of South Africa’s Scorpions anti-corruption unit, Leonard McCarthy, used his position to pursue political vendettas against African...

The South African authorities' refusal of a visa to the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in late March shows how the 'One China' policy extends into relations with...

China may be popular amongst some politicians, but support on the ground can be much thinner. In spite of increased trade and warmer relations, there has been a rise in...

Japanese and Indian interest in Mozambican coal is growing and export prices are rising again. In a deal in March between the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance and Japan's Nippon Steel with...

A year after Malaysian company Ramatex abandoned its US$100 million textile factory in Windhoek, the authorities are at last tackling the environmental impact of the operations of the...

There remains one main unanswered question about the elections due on 22 April : the size of the African National Congress’s vote. Most estimates put it at 55-65%...

Born-frees: This is the generation that has grown up in the 19 years since Nelson Mandela walked out of gaol and the African National Congress was unbanned –...

Western Cape: The opposition parties – probably in a coalition of the Democratic Alliance, Independent Democrats and Congress of the People – will win. Northern...

In London for the G-20 summit on 2 April, African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka told Africa Confidential that Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti was making headway: ‘Since...

The Malawi Electoral Commission’s barring of former President Bakili Muluzi from May’s presidential election has sparked a crisis after the dissolution of Parliament and the start of campaigning...

The opening of a national conference in Antananarivo on 2 April, led by Andry Rajoelina, head of the Haute Autorité de la Transition, is likely to worsen political...

Some of the businessmen targeted for sanctions by the European Union and United States are fighting back. John Bredenkamp, named as a collaborator of President Robert Mugabe’s regime...

Asia is an attractive destination for the property and financial portfolios of the senior cadres of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. It is extremely profitable, free from...

After disappointments in Asia, President Robert Mugabe and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono have been working hard to bring in Russian capital, especially in the opaque diamond sector. Russian surveyors have...

Almost as soon as he seized power on 18 March, putchiste President Andry Rajoelina cancelled a proposed contract to lease over a million hectares of land to South Korea's Daewoo...

The International Atomic Energy Agency is to decide on a successor to Egypt's Mohamed ElBaradei as Director-General on 26-27 March. Two IAEA Governors, strong>Yukiya Amano and Abdul Samad...

The collapse of the world economy, and of demand for raw materials, has brought down the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, rocked South Africa's carefully regulated financial sector and endangered...

Andry Rajoelina swept into power on the shoulders of rebellious soldiers and his own rhetoric. The High Constitutional Court confirmed him as head of the Haute Autorité de...

The death in a freak car crash of Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, will have both political and religious consequences. Traditional Shona etiquette required...

It was a grotesque birthday banquet. President Robert Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo organised the celebrations. They were in poor taste from both a political and a culinary point...

The barons of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front are jostling for mineral riches as the power-sharing government struggles to make its mark. They are joined by Chinese...

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is proud of the Southern African Development Community for its brokering in Zimbabwe. At a meeting of SADC finance ministers in Cape...

Under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, the mining portfolio (like the army) remains under the control of President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front cronies, all of...

Back in the 1950s, as independence for its Empire became inevitable, Britain tried to unite some smaller units into federations it deemed large enough to stand alone. This...

The presidential election will make or break the careers of many South African political leaders. A new one has unexpectedly appeared. The new Congress of the People (COPE),...

The fiercest contests will be in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, and to a lesser extent, Gauteng. All opposition parties claim the moral high ground; they...

Welshman Ncube, the long-time oppositionist who chairs the monitoring body for the new power-sharing government, is distributing leaflets which read: 'Zimbabwe is our Zimbabwe. It is not Mugabe's...

With control of the Prime Minister's office (Morgan Tsvangirai) and Finance Ministry (Tendai Biti), the Movement for Democratic Change has been handed the tough issues of food, jobs...

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man credited with keeping Robert Mugabe in power when he lost the first round of last year's presidential election, is the clear winner in the...

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, despised by African National Congress President Jacob Zuma's bedrock supporters on the party's left and populist wings, is busy making himself indispensable....

President Bingu wa Mutharika is confident of victory in May's election under his new, blue Democratic Progressive Party banner; John Tembo has a last chance under the Malawi...

Angola has maintained its status as China's biggest trading partner in Africa - with trade volumes between the two countries reaching US$25.3 billion in 2008 - according to Beijing's Minister of...

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 2008's elections then walked naked into the negotiating chamber with President Mugabe's ruling clique. On 30 January, under pressure from South Africa and...

Under the terms of the 'Global Political Agreement' the power-sharing government will be made up as follows: the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front will have 16 ministers, the...

Basking in President Robert Mugabe's approbation, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has shrugged off opposition calls for his dismissal for incompetence and corruption and looks forward...

The slide in the world price of Zambia's main export, copper, from US$8,000 to $4,000 a tonne over the past year casts a shadow over economic and political...

By proclaiming himself the new national leader at a 31 January rally in Antananarivo, the capital's Mayor, Andry Rajoelina, triggered a crisis. 'He's young and he listens to...

Marc Ravalomanana, 'the Yoghurt King', built his Tiko business group from a hawker's cart into the country's biggest home-grown company (AC Vol 46 No 20). In 1999, he...

Supporters of African National Congress President Jacob Zuma are disturbed by the grassroots popularity of some of their political opponents, including some residual supporters of sacked President Thabo...

A rapidly deteriorating economy could push President José Eduardo dos Santos to delay this year's presidential election until 2010. Oil production cuts, demanded by the Organisation of Petroleum...

On 25 January, Jacob Zuma will be nominated by all provincial branches of the African National Congress as the party's preferred presidential candidate and the leadership will endorse...

THE CIVIC SOCIETY ACTIVIST The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will reject the agreement brokered by South African ex-President Thabo Mbeki and no inclusive government will be...