The leadership contest for the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola is widely seen as an empty affair since the ambitious Abel Chivukuvuku decided not to...

The Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion laid it on the line: 'As long as the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act remains in its current form,' warned...

Swaziland is resorting to desperate measures to meet its public sector payments amid fiscal problems that the International Monetary Fund warns have reached a 'critical stage'. Africa's last...

After seven years of consolidating his position, Armando Emílio Guebuza now faces the failure of his bid to change the constitution to permit him a third term as...

Eduardo Mulémbuè: Parliament's former, long-serving Speaker, is a low-key, neutral figure with support across the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) factions and a good compromise candidate.

President Bingu wa Mutharika has stood up to his opponents in civil society and shows no sign of meeting their demands or of loosening his grip on power....

The police Special Investigations Unit, which will gather evidence for President Jacob Zuma's new board of inquiry into the 1999 multibillion-rand arms deal, may now produce results more...

The victory of the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique in the mayoral by-election in Quelimane on 7 December was a humiliating – and unnecessary – defeat for the ruling...

A Zambia Revenue Authority commission of inquiry has turned up irregularities in a government agreement to purchase security scanners from Nuctech, a Chinese company formerly led by Hu...

President Michael Sata is trying to reassure Chinese politicians and business leaders about his government’s planned reforms.

India’s Essar Group has at last won control of Zimbabwe’s iron and steel works, after months of infighting in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front threatened to derail...

The Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola may take its time over deciding who it wants as the next president and when elections will take place but it...

On 29 November, Angola enacted a law forcing foreign oil companies to use the local banking system for their financial transactions, rather than hold their accounts offshore.

As budgetary pressures and unemployment mount, the government faces a dilemma over how to reform its state-owned enterprises. Business interests and some cash-strapped ministries eagerly demand sweeping privatisation...

A mix of principled ideological differences, intra-party rivalries and commercial interests are stalling efforts by government and the African National Congress to reform state-owned companies.

The Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front’s tacticians once more showed their talent for wrong-footing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai when he decided to cancel his wedding to a Harare...

Rather than endure another year of the same political combat, both leaders of the main parties jointly announced on 10 November that they would press for early elections...

President Michael Chilufya Sata won September’s election by making vigorous attacks on the corruption of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government and promising one based on Christian...

Julius Malema will fight his five-year suspension – under which he retains the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) Presidency – with an appeal which he plans to...

After just two months in office, President Michael Chilufya Sata has made a complete turnaround in his attitude to China. He once criticised Chinese investors but now wants...

Non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch launched the first in-depth report about abusive practices in Chinese-owned mines in Zambia on 3 November. It is based on the evidence of...

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government has tried to disguise its plan for China Sonangol to finance new airplanes for Air Zimbabwe. The joint venture between...

South Korean companies had worried that they would not receive the same advantages as Chinese companies (AAC Vol 4 No 12, Faith, Grace and intervention). However, Indigenisation Minister...

From the roads and rail networks to telecoms, the energy sector and the myriad minerals buried in its soil, there has been a sharp spike in the presence...

The array of investments across the economy shows that the government is keen to see Mozambique diversify away from purely resource-based flows. The variety of Asian partners is...

Chinese companies’ treatment of trades unions in South Africa has come to national attention again, just as the elections in Zambia have highlighted the government’s role in managing...

Once known for his firey anti-Chinese rhetoric, Zambian President Michael Sata has moved on. He now refers to China as a partner who must behave responsibly in return...

Gwede Mantashe may have hoped for a quiet study tour in China, but it was not to be. The African National Congress Secretary General led a delegation to...

Fierce purges are under way in the governing African National Congress and its affiliates, paralysing the government and the organisations themselves. The clean-outs are reciprocal, among both opponents...

Both politicians and electors are distinctly sceptical about President José Eduardo dos Santos’s announcement that the next elections will take place in the third quarter of 2012. There...

The barons of the governing Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola are divided over the succession. President José Eduardo dos Santos stands aloof from the jockeying for position...

Luanda appears willing to forget its past strong support for Côte d’Ivoire’s then President, Laurent Gbagbo, and reconcile with his successor, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, but there is much...

Two teams of South African mercenaries are believed to have helped members of the Gadaffi family to escape from Libya and may have tried to save the late...

The repressive climate in Malawi took a bizarre turn when a journalist’s e-mail account was hacked and a forged message sent from it alleging a plot to overthrow...

Even Harare’s shell-shocked business community was rocked by the arrest, charging and weekend incarceration of Farai Rwodzi, nascent billionaire and one of its youngest and brightest stars, on...

During his presidential campaign, Michael Chilufya Sata told electors: ‘I am allergic to corruption.’ After he won, he quickly set about trying to prove it. Anti-corruption rhetoric is...

Most onlookers perceive Michael Sata as the Patriotic Front and the PF as Sata. Most also acknowledge the pivotal role Guy Scott has played in Sata’s rise to...

Ex-President Rupiah Banda seemed to have everything on his side before the 20 September elections. The economy was strong, buoyed by record copper and cobalt export prices, and...

After Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams met President Robert Mugabe on 10 October in Harare, he told journalists Mugabe had appeared shocked by the dossier of property seizures,...

Western governments seem unimpressed by the efforts of Foreign Minister Arthur Peter Mutharika, brother of President Bingu wa Mutharika, to persuade them to restore aid to Malawi. Concern...

Rupiah Bwezani Banda was on the verge of declaring himself winner of the 20 September presidential poll after realising he had lost the elections to Michael Chilufya Sata’s...

When Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf visited Luanda in September, Angola asked her to help mend fences with Ivorian President Alassane Dramane Ouattara (ADO), say Abidjan sources. Angolan...

South Africa is nearly ready to launch an international aid agency to advance its strategic foreign policy goals. The South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA) will be partnered...

Immediately after Michael Sata’s election as President of Zambia on 22 September, global copper prices fell to their lowest point in almost a year, hitting US$7,500 per tonne, amid fears...

Chinese companies are finding life in Zimbabwe more difficult under the national unity government, according to United States diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Xin Shunkang told US Ambassador...

WikiLeaks cables reveal that First Lady Grace Mugabe is an important facilitator for South Korean companies looking for business opportunities in Zimbabwe. Charles A. Ray, the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe,...

Beijing appears to call the shots in relations with South Africa. While the Dalai Lama awaited a visa to attend Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party on 7th October, South...

Transparency has not been a major feature of China Sonangol’s and China International Fund’s activities in Africa, but one of the investment vehicles is now embarking on a human-resources drive...

President Jacob Zuma’s mid-September decision to form a commission of inquiry into the controversial arms deal of the late 1990s is being widely seen as an attempt to...

While publicly condemning corruption, President Rupiah Bwezani Banda gave United States diplomats various explanations of why he could do little about it, according to US State Department cables...

The Zimbabwean media gave blanket coverage to the WikiLeaks cables from the United States Embassy in Harare, released last month. Nearly 3,000 dispatches cover the last decade and...

Two of those most exposed to any possible Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front retribution for sharing their opinions and information with United States diplomats are army generals: Brigadier...

No sooner had interim leader Andry Rajoelina agreed to terms that included the return of the exiled Marc Ravalomanana, than senior figures in the governing Haute Autorité de...

The new settlement, unratified, uncertain and flawed though it is, will find strong support from international organisations anxious to deal with a worsening humanitarian situation and to reverse...

The resignation of three Frente de Libertação de Moçambique mayors is raising strong political interest, as well as the hopes of opposition parties, in the by-elections set for...

Four truck drivers charged as accomplices in a trucking fraud case failed to appear in court in Harare on 25 August and warrants for their arrest were issued....

Just as NewZim Steel, formerly known as the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Corporation (Zisco), is about to hold its first board meeting at the end of September, reports...

A decision by the Namibian state-owned port operator to pre-award an estimated US$285 million contract for the Walvis Bay harbour expansion to the China Harbour Engineering Company ahead...

In September, South African mining entrepreneur Patrice Motsepe began talks with his co-chair on the South Africa-India Chief Executive Officers Forum, Ratan Naval Tata, the Chairman of the...

True to form, President Jacob Zuma acted decisively only when his personal position as leader of the African National Congress came under threat. He wants Julius Malema, President...

Since Armando Emílio Guebuza won the presidential election in 2006, more and more members of his circle have obtained stakes in the economy and partnerships with foreign businesses....

At the age of 30, Celso Correia became the head of Mozambique’s second largest bank, the Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), and of the strategic northern transport...

Just as Mozambique’s Resistência Nacional Moçambicana threatens to return to violence, the man who championed it at the height of its atrocities has surfaced in papers found in...

Luanda’s rumour mill has gone into overdrive after the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola and the privately-owned Novo Jornal suggested that President José Eduardo dos Santos...

Attorney General Johannes Tomana has the unenviable job of investigating for possible prosecution all Zimbabweans identified as sources of information for United States’ diplomats in the unredacted State...

A raid on telecoms company ZTE has called attention to illegal immigration and the rough competition between Chinese companies in South Africa. The Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service and...

The macabre mystery surrounding the death of General Solomon Mujuru on 16 August is perturbing the faction-ridden Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. In the short term, it will...

Amid the finger-pointing, conspiracy theories and angst at Solomon Mujuru’s death, what stands out with crystal clarity is the incompetence of the Zimbabwe Republic Police before, after and...

Nationalisation of the country’s mines, banks and land is under serious consideration by the governing African National Congress and not only because of the populist calls for it...

The team investigating nationalisation was appointed in September 2010 by the African National Congress National General Council to investigate the ‘desirability and modalities’ of nationalising mines and asked...

In a chilling echo of history, Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the biggest opposition party, the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana, has been threatening armed resistance against the government. Renamo,...

Protestors plan to take to the streets again next month if their 20-point list of demands to end economic hardship and democratic restrictions are not met. They postponed...

On 4 August, Zimbabwe announced its return from the cricketing wilderness, playing – and winning – its first international for over five years, a test match against...

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...

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...

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 Patriotic Front (PF).

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 believe...

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...

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 work more...

The official line from President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and the highest policy-making body of his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the Politburo, is that elections must be held...

The launch of the US$9.2 billion Medium Term Plan at Harare’s International Conference Centre on 7 July did not go according to plan. Although President Robert Mugabe and...

Relations between Luanda and Kinshasa could deteriorate sharply after a series of disputes. Angolan border police expelled about 15,000 Congolese in April and May after rounding them up...

Luanda’s secretive government has set up a task force to overhaul its communications strategy before next year’s parliamentary elections. The grandly titled Grupo de Revitalização e Execução da...

Unionists and civil society members point to the close ties between the ruling parties of China and Zimbabwe to explain the lack of oversight of Chinese companies operating...

The trial of Jack Hsieh (Hsieh Ping-sung) and his four truckers, accused of defrauding powerful Zimbabwean interests, rumbles on. Hsieh, who is from Taiwan and has South African...

President Jacob Zuma’s intention to stand for a second presidential term next year has divided the ramshackle coalition which controls the governing African National Congress. Since the coalition...

The security forces have gained extra powers under President Jacob Zuma and some fear that these could be used to curb political opposition. The police are certainly tough...

Veterans of the African National Congress’s former military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), helped Jacob Zuma to get elected ANC leader in 2007 and he wants their support...

The swelling procession of senior figures from the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) snaking through the Harare divorce courts alongside wronged spouses clutching inventories of great wealth...

The latest twist in the long dispute between Angola and Congo-Kinshasa came with the arrest in Kinshasa of Cabindan human rights activist Agostinho Chicaia in late June. Tension...

The performance of President Robert Mugabe’s team at the 11-12 June Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, was little short of disastrous. They failed to...

Opposition politicians insist that President Robert Mugabe will retire before the end of 2011, which may be one reason why they want to delay the polls. The 87-year-old...

President Bingu wa Mutharika is ploughing ahead with an optimistic ‘zero-deficit’ budget despite the fact that most of the aid that supports 40% of that budget is missing....

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was to discuss the Zimbabwe question in South Africa on 11 June, to the probable strong displeasure of President Robert Mugabe and...

President Rupiah Banda’s dismissal of his friend and campaign manager, Vernon Johnson Mwaanga, at the urging of his sons James and Henry, demonstrates their growing political weight in...

The electoral fortunes of Michael Sata are improving, in what has become a two-horse presidential race. The conventional wisdom had been that Sata could not defeat President Rupiah...

Due to open on 1 June, the long-awaited Avid Investment Corporation trial, involving claims over the embezzlement of 30 million Namibian dollars (US$4.3 mn.), has been postponed yet...

The African National Congress Youth League’s 24th annual conference convenes on 16 June with a new feature, the ‘Business Networking Lounge’. Under the rubric of ‘Youth Action For...

On 2 June, Congress of South African Trade Unions General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi called on the government to launch an investigation into Aurora Empowerment Systems and the Pamodzi...

In spite of many failures in governance and widespread anger among its supporters, the ruling African National Congress decisively won the municipal elections on 18 May. Popular discontent...

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) company Avid Investments collapsed in 2004, losing 30 million Namibian dollars (US$4.3 mn.) to the embezzlement of Social Security Commission (SSC) funds, but the...

Mining companies with a stake in Mozambique’s 23 billion tonnes of coal reserves are seeking alternative export routes to Asia because of disputes between the government and Indian...

The buzz word is ‘opacity’. Elections are due by the end of 2012 but no one is certain who is standing. Angola has one of the strongest economies...

Taboo for years, the question of who will succeed President José Eduardo dos Santos has finally come into the open. The Spokesman for the ruling Movimento Popular de...

At 87 years old, President Robert Mugabe is indisputably slowing down. His party wanted elections this year without waiting for a new constitution. In the run-up, Mugabe was...

The serenity of Glencore’s Initial Public Offering on the Hong Kong and London Stock Exchanges remains undisturbed by revelations of inflated costs and transfer-pricing by Zambia’s Mopani Copper...

The ownership and control of the multi-billion-dollar China Sonangol joint venture continue to baffle business people in Luanda. Ask officials from Beijing about China Sonangol and the response...

China Sonangol and its subsidiaries continue to make Angolan acquisitions. In February, China Sonangol won three deep-water pre-salt oil (equity) concessions in Blocks 19, 20 and 38, adding...

London-listed Madagascar Oil’s battles with the Malagasy government are heating up. The two sides are now heading for international arbitration. The dispute arose when the Haute Autorité de...

Few believe the official explanation that 87-year-old President Robert Mugabe’s frequent visits to Singapore are to monitor his February cataract operation or that he is being the doting...

Angola is the largest African supplier – and the second-largest worldwide – of crude to China. To mark the importance of this relationship, on 15 April, Vicente received...

South Africa is now a junior member of BRICS, the group of emerging economies that in some heady assessments will tilt the balance of global power. President Jacob...

President Jacob Zuma’s political position has become precarious and a poor show at the municipal polls will hurt him as much as his governing party (AC Vol 52 No 8)....

The ANC faces tough electoral competition in several constituencies.

Fearing a revolt along North African lines, President Bingu wa Mutharika has unleashed a wave of repression and intimidation, prompting further dissent as Western governments respond by cutting...

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma led an African Union peace mission to Libya on 11 April. The mission quickly fell apart, which did nothing for the AU’s poor...

The 12 April ‘uprising’ was heavily advertised so it was no surprise that the security forces outnumbered any who dared to go out on to the streets to...

A peaceful end to Luanda’s diplomatic dispute with the United States is in sight. US banks had closed Luanda’s bank accounts and Angola retaliated by detaining a ship...

Robert Mugabe’s pet policies are souring the milk of friendship he shares with China. Chinese Deputy Premier Wang Qishan visited Harare in late March with a basket of financial support....

The Kimberley Process suspended diamond sales from Marange in 2009 due to concerns about transparency in the production chain and the illicit activities of the security services in the region,...

The corruption trial of Malawi’s former President Bakili Muluzi at the Blantyre High Court exposes the lack of transparency and good governance in Taiwan’s aid to African countries. Bakili Muluzi,...

Michael Sata of the opposition Patriotic Front says: ‘Under Rupiah, there are two laws: one for Chinese and one for other investors.’ He was reacting to news that Zambia’s Director...

In late March, a Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union branch went on strike at New Era Investments, a Chinese construction company, over wages and benefits. Namibia’s high unemployment rate...

For once, local government elections could change national politics. The municipal polls next month will be a critical test for President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress....

The inner circle, allies inside government, and chief personal enemies

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s attempt to get Simon Khaya Moyo elected as Speaker of Parliament failed on 30 March when the former Speaker, Lovemore Moyo of...

The Angolan government detained the United States-flagged Maersk Constellation container ship at the port of Lobito between 28 February and 17 March. This was in retaliation for the...

South Africa formally enters the informal club of BRIC nations – Brazil, Russian, India and China – in April in Beijing. On 24 to 26 March, ten key...

Japan and China both want to get their hands on Malawi’s transport infrastructure. The Chinese are building roads, while the Japanese announced in February their US$18 million rehabilitation...

Veteran oppositionist Michael ‘King Cobra’ Sata often accuses President Rupiah Banda and the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy of being too cosy with China. Now Sata stands accused...

The opposition’s attempts to bring the spirit of North Africa’s democracy wave failed to bring the masses on to the streets of Luanda but still worried a government...

Some US$66 million in tax revenue owed to the Treasury are missing, according to the mid-February report on Zambia published under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The...

Members of Parliament are due to vote for a new Speaker in a contest that could determine the next president should 87-year-old President Robert Mugabe be declared medically unfit for...

After they chose the week of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s 87th birthday (21 February) to express solidarity with the democracy movement in North Africa, 45 participants in a Harare discussion...

While rebellion has spread only within North Africa and the Middle East so far, monarchies all over the world fear the worst and Swaziland’s has more reasons than most to...

Although it opened with much fanfare four months ago, the Nsanje World Inland Port is yet to attract a single ship. President Bingu wa Mutharika hosted the opening ceremony and...

Job creation and social services would be government’s top political measures, said Finance Minister Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan in his budget speech on 24 February. He warned that without cooperation over economic...

President Jacob Zuma’s critics again claim he is in thrall to the Durban-based Gupta family. If the African National Congress does badly in the coming local elections, party critics will again...

As next year’s centenary of the African National Congress approaches, a row is raging over how to portray Presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma in the ANC’s...

On 24 February in Luanda, Manuel Vicente, head of the highly secretive state-owned oil company Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola and a possible successor to President José Eduardo dos...

The transitional regime led by Andry Rajoelina is threatening to cancel oil exploration licences held by Western investors and hand them to the Hong Kong-based China International Fund....

A rowdy colonel in detention is lambasting Andry Rajoelina’s Haute autorité de la transition (HAT) for its reliance on opaque deals with Asian companies. Colonel Charles Andrianasoavina claims...

Beijing is offering its biggest financial deal yet in Zimbabwe but the cash-strapped,power-sharing government may yet turn down the investment. For all President Robert Mugabe’s enthusiasm for China,...

Platinum output for 2011 is projected, in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s recent mid-term review, to have almost doubled in volume to 12 tonnes since 2009. The RBZ...

Asian mining companies, from India’s state-owned giants to the opaque China International Fund, are taking up their positions for Mozambique’s great mining rush. The Indian government has already...

Scandals continue to bring Indian investigators to Mauritius’s fine shores. After last year’s cricket financing scandal (AAC Vol 3 No 7), India’s biggest-ever corruption case – linked to...

In November 2010, India’s Essar group (through its Mauritian subsidiary) announced it would take a 54% stake from the government of Zimbabwe in its long-troubled iron and steel...

At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos from 25-29 January, Mthuli Ncube welcomed Chinese investment but cautioned that Chinese and African governments should ensure local partners share...

President Jacob Zuma’s third State of the Nation address to Parliament, on 10 February, was more like a bid for a second term at the elections in 2012....

United States’ worries over possible uranium sales to Iran from the planned Valencia mine in west-central Namibia may have blocked its sale to George Forrest International (GFI), according...

Police swooped on organisers of the ‘Big Bicycle March on the Chronic Fuel Crisis’ just before it set off in Lilongwe on 14 February. The Human Rights Consultative...

Having bucked conventional wisdom on government subsidies to small farmers, President Bingu wa Mutharika staked his election chances on his Farm Input Subsidy Programme in the 2005 and...

Facing growing dissatisfaction, President Rupiah Bwezani Banda and the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy have a fight on their hands to win this year’s national elections. The MMD...

Didymus Mutasa, Administration Secretary of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, may have a reputation as a bumbler but he does voice thoughts others would prefer left...

Zimbabweans will have a chance to vote at least once this year. First will come a constitutional referendum, then – if President Robert Mugabe and his allies have...

As the junta got ready to step up its harassment and violence against the opponents of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF’s rivals for the succession were...

He has not announced that he is standing but transitional leader Andry Rajoelina is on the campaign trail for the presidential and legislative polls that are due by...

President Rupiah Banda is facing an increasingly strong challenge in the upcoming elections since Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) made common cause with the United Party for National...