The government has reached final agreement with Italy's ENI and the United States' oil company Anadarko over their liquefied natural gas projects offshore the northern province of Cabo...

Blackouts returned to major cities in November as the embattled Electricity Supply Commission began load-shedding for the second time this year. It is the latest drama in a...

It is ironic that while Eskom battles to keep the lights on, planners have warned there is a risk of building too much new generating capacity. Uncertainty over...

Political assassinations have risen to alarming proportions since the end of apartheid and are likely to continue, especially as new trades union rivalries emerge and the 2016 municipal...

It was only after the delegates had all trooped home from the ruling party's congress that President Robert Mugabe finally announced on 10 December his replacement for the...

A national conference so turbulent that the police fired shots over the heads of the crowd has ended with both factions of the Patriotic Front putting forward their...

President Jacob Zuma had barely taken office last May before the first shots in the battle to succeed him were fired. He has already blocked the election of...

Former President Joyce Banda appears a step closer to involvement in the Cashgate affair after the Anti-Corruption Bureau acquired closed circuit television footage shot at presidential offices during...

The central bank, the Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA) has come to the rescue of the country's second-largest bank, the Banco Espírito Santo Angola. BESA went into administration...

Although Joice Mujuru is still nominally the country's only Vice-President as well as Second Secretary of the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, she is under unremitting pressure...

Other countries may be tiring of one-party states founded by leaders of anti-colonial armed movements but not, it seems, Namibia. The SWAPO Party – formerly the South West...

The South African Revenue Service was one of the most effective state agencies of the post-apartheid era. Often held up as a model tax organisation for developing countries...

All previous calculations have been upset by the late President Michael Sata's widow, Christine Kaseba-Sata, announcing on 19 November that she will seek the Patriotic Front's nomination in...

President Filipe Nyusi surely hoped that such a problem would not come up so early in his new job. On 18 November, one of the most notorious and...

Six months into President Jacob Zuma's last term of office, the economic forecasts are worsening. The governing African National Congress is suffering from strategic splits in its Triple...

A group of influential outsiders is struggling to galvanise the fractious opposition to beat the late Michael Sata's party in the presidential by-election due in January, Africa Confidential...

Restoring credibility is now the challenge for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as much as for the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. ZANU-PF hopes to re-launch...

Acting President Guy Scott is finding out just how difficult the management of the governing Patriotic Front can be. On 3 November he was obliged to reinstate Edgar...

As the contest intensifies for the leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa appears to have put clear water between himself and his...

President Filipe Nyusi, the formally declared victor of October's presidential poll with 57% of the valid votes, has steep hills to climb. He needs to restore public confidence...

It is becoming clear what kind of workers' party will emerge to challenge South Africa's political establishment when the once-mighty, 2.2 million-member Congress of South African Trade Unions...

Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama begins his second five-year term of office when Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo swears him in as President today. The Botswana Democratic Party...

The most closely-fought campaign in 20 years of multiparty elections saw the governing party claim a decisive but controversial victory. Civil society organisations, the independent media and the...

Dr Grace Mugabe and Dr Joice Mujuru graduated together with PhDs from the University of Zimbabwe in September and were capped by President Robert Mugabe in his role...

The arrest of former National Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo and his wife on 18 October is proof that the Cashgate scandal has yet to peak, say political and...

Relations between South Africa and Nigeria have plunged to new depths. South African ex-President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo are working behind the scenes to try...

Few believe that President Michael Sata would miss such a prestigious event as tomorrow's 50th anniversary of Zambia's Independence. And yet a State House statement said he had...

Frente de Libertação de Moçambique members in Maputo are already celebrating victory in the general election, even though the formal results are not due for several days. The...

All the signs point to victory for Frente de Libertação de Moçambique presidential candidate Filipe Nyusi in the polls on 15 October, but the outcome of the parliamentary...

Nothing and no one seems able to stop the rival factions of the ruling party from undermining each other as they position themselves for the presidential succession. The...

South Africa's state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is being restructured to become the regional centre of the new development bank for the BRICS group of Brazil,...

Within the space of a week, Julius Malema, the self-styled 'commander-in chief' of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has been charged with both corruption and parliamentary indiscipline,...

Five months after the May general elections that returned President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress to office, the provincial conference of the Gauteng ANC, which opened...

Doubts about President Michael Sata’s health have heightened the power struggle in the governing Patriotic Front. The party’s focus is to ensure that Sata completes his term...

The appearance of Mohamed Bashir Suleiman – designated a 'drugs kingpin' by the United States – at the banquet of a local business association on 18 September has...

The efforts of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and other top officials in the African National Congress, such as ANC Deputy General Secretary Jessie Duarte, have made little headway...

It looks as if the one-time external security boss, General Fernando Garcia Miala, is being groomed for a key role in the Palace. Sacked in 2006 from the...

A US$50 billion agreement with Russia to build up to eight nuclear reactors has raised the alarm in South Africa about the speed and secrecy with which the...

Violence is rising in the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections on 15 October, as police and judiciary openly express their partiality for the governing Frente de...

Opposition politicians are outraged that President Robert Mugabe's government has used scarce public funds to pay off a US$80 million debt to a Chinese supplier which had been...

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has returned to Maseru after fleeing the country after a claimed attempt by Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, the army chief he had just sacked,...

Bridgette Radebe, Chairperson of Mmakau Mining, President of the South African Mining Development Association which represents black-owned mining companies and self-styled 'Mining Queen' is using the transfer-pricing issue...

Although Prime Minister Hage Geingob got his way with controversial constitutional amendments, it looks as if he may have a crowd of radical SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL)...

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has bought non-performing loans (NPLs) from two collapsed banking institutions and housed them in the new Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Zamco). Although the...

President Robert Mugabe's movements are always top secret and the first indication of his four-day trip to Beijing was a picture of himself and Grace Mugabe being seen...

The first conviction of a defendant in the Cashgate trial has set the tone for the rest of the trial; senior politicians on all sides may find themselves...

President Michael Sata's shock dismissal of Wynter Kabimba as Justice Minister and Secretary General of the governing Patriotic Front leaves the succession still unclear. After mounting an intense...

Prime Minister Hage Geingob is pushing through wide-ranging constitutional changes which will increase his power when he becomes Namibia's next President. Geingob, who is also Vice-President of SWAPO...

Africa's largest trades union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, celebrates its 30th anniversary and its twelfth congress next year. Yet many believe Cosatu is at...

The new leadership of the African National Congress Youth League, which is standing for election on 24-26 September in Gauteng, will have the blessing of President Jacob Zuma...

When the red boiler-suited Julius Malema took his parliamentary seat in May as leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), everyone knew the political scene had changed for...

In a deal that is widely expected to hold, the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique government and the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana formally signed an end to hostilities on...

The outcome of the governing party's all-important elective congress in December looks no clearer after the rival factions jostled for positions at the Youth and Women's Leagues conferences...

President Peter Mutharika has held no mass rallies, travelled abroad just once and spoken in public only five times. Even his own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is perplexed...

With the race underway to exploit the massive gas reserves off the coast of Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces, economic power and now political power is shifting northwards....

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela still has an open file on the funding of President Jacob Zuma's private homestead, Nkandla (AC Vol 55 No 6). Now, she is again...

Any hope that the December congress of the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front would bring a degree of clarity to the succession race is fast fading as...

There have been suggestions that 'state capture' has been advancing in the downstream gas sector as companies linked to the political elite gain control over the northern ports....

When Rio Tinto sold its stake in Mozambique's coal reserves on 30 July, alarm bells rang for the country's coal industry. The Anglo-Australian company took US$50 million, less...

The nomination of Grace Mugabe for the leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's Women's League has put the cat among the party pigeons. The bandwagon rolling...

South Africans are trying to figure out the secret of the hold that Hlaudi Motsoeneng has on his position as Chief Operations Officer of the South African Broadcasting...

In a traditional ceremony on 19 July, Valentina Guebuza, one of Africa’s wealthiest young women and daughter of President Armando Guebuza, married Zofimo Muiane, the head of state...

The governing Patriotic Front (PF) was in barely-concealed turmoil during President Michael Sata's week-long absence in Israel for medical treatment. Yet at the cabinet meeting on 14 July,...

A wave of anxiety is passing through the highest echelons of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, Africa Confidential has learned. Relatives of President Robert Mugabe and other...

A new contestant in the fight to control fuel sales has burst on to the scene as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's internal battles heat up. Engen...

The Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) government and the Resistência Nacional de Moçambique (Renamo) rebels of Afonso Dhlakama have agreed in principle on a peace deal to...

A huge state guarantee to a major local bank is causing concern about corporate governance and has the potential to destabilise the economy. The state has set aside...

Zimbabwe is to boost its inventory of Russian strike aircraft after concluding a US$3 billion platinum-for-arms deal with Russia. The government is desperate to replenish its armaments, many...

Montepuez Ruby Mining held its first auction last month, raising US$33.5 million at the sale in Singapore. MRM is a joint venture between Britain's Gemfields PLC and a...

The case against Edmund and Phillip Kudzayi – accused of being the anonymous blogger Baba Jukwa – is teetering on the brink of farce (AC Web Feature, Baba...

The Baba Jukwa affair – when an anonymous blogger tweaked the tails of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front leaders during last year's election campaign – is taking a...

The governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) is engaged in an increasingly bitter row with foreign donors over loans and public spending. Britain and Germany, which together...

The current aid dispute between foreign governments and the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) may affect how the 15 October elections are monitored, say critics of...

President Michael Sata's office announced on 22 June that he had flown to Israel for a 'working holiday', including meetings with President Shimon Peres. Yet Israeli media reported...

President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address to parliament was a disappointment to many. He did not expand on the African National Congress's plans to meet its...

Calls for higher mining taxes are increasing and new audits are in progress after comments about Zambia by the Vedanta Resources Chairman, Anil Agarwal, caused outrage. On 9...

Mozambique’s nascent oil and gas industry has suffered its first significant spill. It highlights one of the difficulties in developing one of the world’s largest gas deposits. This...

In May, Anadarko informed the Environment Ministry that 30,000 litres of drilling fluid had accidentally leaked from one of its exploratory wells in the Rovuma Basin, 46 kilometres...

All eyes have turned to President Arthur Peter Mutharika's plans, policies and appointments now that the turbulent post-election period is over. As the dust settles, few doubt that...

With little cohesion and less vision, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is stumbling towards its elective congress in December. Despite his 90 years, President Robert Mugabe...

The policy of 'de-dollarising' the economy has gained unexpected momentum as a dip in oil production reduces the availability of the US dollar. The budget and much-needed infrastructure...

A legacy of 'radical socio-economic transformation' is President Jacob Zuma's aim yet his new government has more old friends than new brooms. Far from the promised 'leaner and...

President Joyce Banda pressed the self-destruct button on her public image at home and in the wider world when she tried to annul the 20 May presidential election....

A long-simmering dispute about rights to the sea has worsened. Last year, Angola submitted a map to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf...

President Michael Sata was flown to Johannesburg on 26 May after a sudden deterioration in his health, Africa Confidential has heard. He had been expected to open the...

As President Jacob Zuma contemplates the membership of his new cabinet, proven loyalty is likely to rival expertise in heping him make his choices. His inauguration takes place...

It could have been so much worse for the governing African National Congress. President Jacob Zuma faced unprecedented personal criticism and ridicule because of the shooting of mineworkers...

Since the government has declared that there isn't enough room in the diamond-mining area of Marange for the seven existing firms, Mbada Diamonds is expected to be the...

The Malawi Electoral Commission, which is headed by Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Maxon Mbendera, has been under constant attack – despite the fact that it includes commissioners...

The governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique licked its wounds and stuck on the sticking plasters during a four-day extraordinary meeting of its Central Committee in Matola, which...

Seven-and-a-half million Malawians go to the polls on 20 May for only the fourth time since multi-party democracy began in 1994 and it promises to be the closest...

The first statement by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) new Governor, John Panonetsa Mangudya, on 7 May was sombre and realistic. Reassuringly, it allayed market fears that...

Trafigura is consolidating its grip on the fuel supply and distribution market in Zimbabwe with the acquisition of Sakunda Energy via its South African subsidiary, Puma Energy Africa...

The lavish reception for President José Eduardo dos Santos at the Elysée Palace on 29 April promoted France's growing investments in Africa's third biggest economy and drew a...

The leader of the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana, Afonso Dhlakama, may well stand in October's presidential election as part of a deal reached with President Armando Guebuza, Africa Confidential...

President Robert Mugabe’s continued stonewalling on the leadership succession threatens chaos as increasing numbers of politicians from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front throw their hats into...

Faction fighting, heated arguments over jobs and corruption – South Africa is back to politics as usual after the adjournment of the murder trial of Olympic athlete Oscar...

The deal between rival factions of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, mediated by Cyril Ramaphosa on 8 April, is likely to prove temporary. Hostilities are set...

The evangelical cleric and leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, Nevers Mumba, is struggling amid strong criticism from senior members of his own party. MMD Vice-Presidents Michael...

After six months of unmitigated bad economic news, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has seized on the news that the Atlas Mara fund run by Bob Diamond, a former...

The daughter of President Armando Guebuza, Valentina, has come under attack after a company in which she is a major shareholder was awarded a US$300 million contract without...

After six months of unmitigated bad economic news, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has seized on the news that the Atlas Mara fund run by Bob Diamond, a former...

A fresh wave of farm expropriation led by President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Marufu Mugabe, has unsettled the few external lenders still supporting Zimbabwe's fragile economy. Some are...

The sight of President Joyce Banda handing out large bags of free maize with her name boldly printed on them in red is common as the election campaign...

Malawi's first President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, ruled Malawi with an iron rod for 31 years. He left an estate worth an estimated US$50 million including the country's tallest...

The factions supporting the two main contenders to succeed President Robert Mugabe – Joice Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa – are fighting for control of the state airline,...

Managing successions in any political system is tricky while the incumbent is still alive: in traditional Shona culture it has been well nigh impossible. In different ways, President...

The findings of an official investigation that President Jacob Zuma personally benefited from the multi-million dollar refurbishment of his Nkandla homestead will weaken his position and cost the...

The rows over state spending on Nkandla and recurring protests at the lack of public services prompted the governing African National Congress leadership to look very carefully at...

The bearer of Norway's reputation for high principles in international business, Statoil, is now on the defensive after revelations in the local media about the shady backgrounds of...

A study by Maputo's Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) has uncovered an 88% increase in illegal logging since 2007. Funded by the European Union, the report shows that enforcement...

Any escalation of the tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats after the 4 March attack on the Pretoria home of the exiled Rwandan General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa now looks improbable....

President Robert Mugabe's frequent trips to Singapore are for nothing more serious than treatment for cataracts, according Rugare Gumbo, the Spokesman for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic...

Although the victory of the African National Congress is not in doubt, general elections on 7 May will show the pace and extent of political realignments (AC Vol...

Just how important the cost of Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead has become for his presidency and the elections was clear from the way it dominated a private meeting...

Zimbabwe has confiscated the platinum and copper interests of Hsieh Ping-sung without compensation after he fell out with President Robert Mugabe and his family, Africa Confidential has learned....

In stark contrast to the budgetary caution shown by South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, his Namibian counterpart, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, has raised state spending by 27% to a...

After more than a year of uncertainty and speculation, the party in power has finally chosen the Defence Minister, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, as its presidential candidate for the...

Pravin Gordhan confounded widespread predictions that this would be a feel-good budget aimed at assuring African National Congress victory in the May election. The Finance Minister took most...

The governing party's next Central Committee meeting promises to be an unusually lively affair. On 27 February the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique has to decide who is...

Nearly 6 million rand (US$560,000) was spent on the ceremony for the State of the Nation Address as a tired-looking President Jacob Zuma put a brave face on...

January has been more depressing than usual for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). President Robert Mugabe had to cut short his annual leave and return from...

The political and military situation is deteriorating as the rebellion by the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana looks increasingly like a serious civil conflict. Armed violence began last April and...

Zambian civil society was once one of the most effective on the continent. Mining unions played a key role in bringing down the one-party state and preventing President...

Anxiety is growing in presidential circles about the trial of prominent politicians and civil servants in the ‘Cashgate’ scandal over the theft of some US$100 million in government...

Beleaguered President Joyce Banda is suffering substantial political damage from what many Malawians are calling hypocrisy after she was found to be using the presidential private jet...

After Public Service Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, both African National Congress loyalists, disengaged from an ostentatious clinch on 4 February, they predicted they...

At last the island has a new President, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, elected on 20 December with 53.5% of the vote on a 50% turnout (AC Vol 55 No 2,...

In what may be Zimbabwe’s best hope of reversing economic decline, a high-level delegation of top executives led by Charles Msipa, the President of the Confederation of Zimbabwe...

Mozambique risks the suspension of up to one third of the US$400 million it is due to receive in budget support funds from major donors this year, according...

The final election victory of Hery Rajaonarimampianina is unlikely to provide Madagascar with the healing new start that everyone had hoped for. The chronic instability since the March...

All eyes are on President Armando Guebuza’s next move in the run-up to the general elections on 15 October. Unable to stand himself, he is determined to have...

Under outgoing President Hifikepunye Pohamba and the Prime Minister and president-to-be, Hage Geingob, the governing SWAPO Party approaches November’s general elections more united than ever. Geingob, 73, looks...

President Ian Khama Seretse Khama and the governing Botswana Democratic Party will romp home in October’s general elections. Disquiet over Lieutenant General Khama’s autocratic leadership style, secretive business...

The governing African National Congress is seeing a sharp decline in support in recent opinion polls, less than six months before legislative and local elections. South Africans...

There is no serious doubt that the governing African National Congress will easily win the general election likely to be held in the last two weeks of April....

Whether or not the speculation about President José Eduardo dos Santos being in poor health turns out to be correct, 2014 could be the year that his successor...

The only certainty for Zimbabwe in 2014 is that the succession issue will not be resolved so long as President Robert Mugabe is still in control. It is...

Age and ill health will restrict President Michael Chilufya Sata’s public appearances this year, fuelling speculation that he will not be fit enough to contest the 2016 general...

The Mashonaland West provincial capital, Chinoyi, got all dressed up for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front conference on 13-14 December but the deliberations produced no breakthroughs –...