The impromptu alliance of African National Congress leaders and business interests which forced President Jacob Zuma to rethink his unilateral decision to sack Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and...

Once upon a time, Lindiwe Mazibuko was the golden girl of opposition politics: she was articulate, respected and quoted in the media every day. She was the youngest...

Foreign direct investment is vital to the South African economy and the only confident prediction is that there will be deep change. As Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters...

President Edgar Lungu told the International Monetary Fund delegation which left Lusaka on 3 December that he intended to call general elections well before they are due next...

The ten oil exploration blocks which were tendered in Angola's first-ever onshore bidding round were never, in today's weak price environment, going to attract major interest, especially from...

As the austere consequences of an International Monetary Fund emergency loan sink into public consciousness, Filipe Nyusi is still struggling to gain the control that election as President...

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's prospects of succeeding President Jacob Zuma in 2019 – in steep decline recently – changed for the better last week with his endorsement by...

PepsiCo Incorporated has appointed Adam Molai, a businessman married to President Robert Mugabe's niece, Sandra Molai, as its partner for a new bottling plant in Zimbabwe, Africa Confidential...

An overwhelming victory in the 27 November regional and local elections sees the SWAPO Party ever more dominant. Winning over new voters from outside its traditional Oshivambo power...

The latest rupture in the front ranks of the Patriotic Front came when former presidential aspirant Miles Sampa resigned as Deputy Commerce Minister at the end of October....

A dramatic bid, backed by President Robert Mugabe, to evict Emmerson Mnangagwa as one of the country's two vice-presidents, is set to dominate the national congress of the...

The government has decided to 'disarm' Resistência Nacional Moçambicana, in what is being seen as a victory for hardliners over President Filipe Nyusi's previous, conciliatory approach. Renamo's demands...

The campaign within the African National Congress for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to become the next leader of the party and the country has just received a major boost. Sihle...

Attempts to get Hlaudi Motsoeneng out have dragged on for almost two years, ever since Public Protector Thulisile Madonsela recommended in February last year that the South African...

International broadcasting companies fret about how to cover Africa as they lose audiences to nimbler, African-owned stations. The alacrity with which top executives from CNN flew to Kenya...

President José Eduardo dos Santos's government has remained unmoved as the popular rapper and civil rights activist Luaty da Silva Beirão's health deteriorates sharply after almost a...

It may have ended with a stirring rendition of the liberation struggle song Mhla Sibuyayo (The Day We Return) led by President Jacob Zuma but the governing African...

Despite looming elections, a sliding copper price, critical power shortages, the world's worst performing currency and record borrowing costs, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has described his goal of...

Last month's attacks on Afonso Dhlakama and his stand-off with government forces are threatening the latest bid to broker a political and military settlement. People close to the...

Hand signals have always been a favourite at African National Congress gatherings. During the bruising party leadership race in 2007, Thabo Mbeki's opponents used the football hand gesture...

The government's top finance officials are set to launch an international roadshow to promote its long-delayed and much-anticipated first Eurobond issue, at US$1.5 billion, Africa Confidential has learned....

Zimbabwe is gearing up to introduce major economic changes to facilitate reconciliation with the International Monetary Fund, say sources in the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)....

The election of a relatively unknown North-West provincial leader of the African National Congress Youth League as National President of ANCYL has again highlighted the growing influence of...

The strategy of arresting and trying those seen as 'small fish' in the Cashgate scandal was deliberate, as they would name the 'bigger fish', a senior official in...

Under the growing influence of former President Rupiah Banda, President Edgar Lungu is turning the governing Patriotic Front away from the left-leaning legacy of the late Michael Sata....

The parties opposing the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front have limited resources they are unwilling to waste on this month's three by-elections. They have now decided to keep...

Changes at the top of state petroleum company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) and the industry regulator, Instituto Nacional de Petróleo (INP), mark a further step in President...

Cyril Ramaphosa's campaign to succeed President Jacob Zuma suffered a massive blow when the African National Congress Women's League declared that a woman should be the party's next...

The nascent campaign behind Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has the support not only of the African National Congress Women's League and other elements of President Jacob Zuma's camp but also...

President Robert Mugabe has assembled a cabal to ensure that his wife Grace succeeds him as head of state, senior government and ruling party sources linked to Vice-President...

President Hage Geingob has defused urban land protests which threatened to erupt into mass occupations at the end of July. This follows an unprecedented declaration of his and...

Today, President Robert Mugabe hands over the Southern African Development Community chair to Botswana's President Seretse Khama Ian Khama, and next month he ends his year-long stint chairing...

Eight unions in the Congress of South African Trade Unions are raising funds abroad to start a new labour-based political party and a new union federation. They want...

The South African Competition Commission’s investigation of alleged bank manipulation of foreign exchange dealing is dividing government economic departments, Africa Confidential understands.

A journalist and an academic face trial on 31 August for an offence which no longer exists.

What lies behind last month’s arrest of 15 young Angolans charged with plotting regime change and threatening public order?

The supporters of President Jacob Zuma in the South African Communist Party leadership have narrowly averted a split with the governing African National Congress.

Splits in the ruling party keep on growing as its factions thrive, even though President Robert Mugabe supposedly banned them.

At vast public expense, the government is set to rescue the controversial state tuna-fishing company, Empresa Moçambicana de Atum (Ematum), from imminent collapse. On 18 June, Finance Minister...

Astonishment still governs most responses to the details of how the Empresa Moçambicana de Atum was supposed to make money. Originally, the then Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, said...

Former President Joyce Banda has claimed that the government is arranging a 'mysterious accident' that will cost her her life and that's why she won't come back to...

Malawi's reputation for the plunder of public funds has grown with the publication of another damning audit of government expenditure. After leaks to the media, the government was...

Fear and tension have returned after the former Commander of the Lesotho Defence Force, Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, was shot dead on the outskirts of Maseru on 25...

The Board of the state-owned Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa has suspended two senior executives three weeks after the government demanded they go on gardening...

New visa regulations for children travelling to South Africa have been criticised as 'economic sabotage' by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Tourism contributes 9% to...

Momentum is building in Europe for sanctions over human rights abuses in Swaziland. European Union member states voted on 21 May for a resolution urging their leaders to...

President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir has again escaped the clutches of the International Criminal Court (ICC) but his disruptive appearance at the African Union summit and his...

Eighteen months of political quarrels came to a head when Parliament voted on 26 May to impeach President Hery Rajaonarimampianina. Since he took office in January 2014, he...

Factions within the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique differ on how far to take the investigations into the previous government's murky deals. Some want former President Armando...

Activists, oppositionists and now Western governments are alarmed at the Lusaka government's efforts to dismiss the suspended Director of Public Prosecutions, Mutembo Nchito. After his defenders claimed that...

The governing African National Congress is in such dire financial straits that it could not pay staff salaries at the end of May. So it is looking to...

The campaigns for the 16 bye-elections on 10 June have not been the expected easy ride for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, even though the Movement for...

Next year's local government elections are widely seen as likely to be the most competitive since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 and that has got leaders...

The emergence of Mmusi Maimane, a 35-year old priest from Soweto, as the dapper new leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance after its party congress in Port Elizabeth...

The biggest trades union, the 365,000-member National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, is confident of reversing its expulsion from the Confederation of South African Trade Unions. On...

Surprisingly strong criticism has been poured on the annual report of Attorney General Beatriz Buchili, even by the state news agency, Agência de Informação de Moçambique. Last...

Securocrats and political bigwigs in President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) are colluding with Asian entrepreneurs, mainly from China, to export US dollars, gemstones and...

The campaign of intimidation against ex-President Armando Guebuza's political enemies has suddenly ended after his resignation as President of the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) on...

Designed as a radical alternative to the World Bank by the BRICS group countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the much-vaunted New Development Bank is...

As the economy plummets and political infighting reaches fever pitch, Zimbabwe's state media chose to mark the 35th anniversary of the nation's Independence on 18 April, by splashing...

A new conference to elect regional leaders of the African National Congress is to be held at the end of April after President Jacob Zuma declared February's vote...

President Filipe Nyusi's new era – a decisive break with the policies and personalities of ex-President Armando Guebuza – has begun with an apparent financial disaster. His officials...

President Edgar Lungu has been having trouble fulfilling his reported promise to ex-President Rupiah Banda to get the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mutembo Nchito, off his back....

On 26 March, President Edgar Lungu ordered Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma and Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda to make a change to the new mining taxes by 8 April....

Sixteen bye-elections, most of them triggered by the opposition, will be held on 10 June, parliamentary officials have decided. In the interim, the number could rise through further...

Ex-President Armando Guebuza has resigned from the presidency of the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) having lost his power struggle with his successor as national President,...

The suspended Chief Executive Officer of state electricity utility Eskom, Tshediso Matona, has lost his bid to overturn his suspension by the Board of Directors.

President-elect Hage Geingob has affirmed his loyalty to the SWAPO Party and his preference for continuity with his choices for the top political offices of Vice President, Prime...

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) mining deals are becoming more lavish and opaque, skirting the law and enriching insiders, industry observers say. The arrangements also carry reputational risks for...

King Letsie III opened Lesotho's ninth Parliament on 11 March and the 120 MPs then elected Ntloi Motsamai as Speaker. The ceremonies were the only uncontentious aspect of...

Suspicions are growing that the assassination of constitutional lawyer Gilles Cistac by gunmen in Maputo on 3 March is part of a power struggle between ex-President Armando Guebuza...

The decline in independence of South Africa's top criminal justice institutions is accelerating as President Jacob Zuma redoubles his efforts to immunise himself and his entourage from prosecution...

Having removed Joice Mujuru from the leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the party seems unable to decide what to do next. Mujuru enjoyed strong popular...

Despite fist fights and forcible expulsions from the chamber of the National Assembly, African National Congress officials insisted President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address on 12...

President Edgar Lungu's exceptionally slim win on a disastrously low turnout in the 20 January presidential by-election leaves him weak and the governing Patriotic Front still badly split....

'Angola has seen nothing yet,' is a common comment in Luanda business circles about the impact of the oil price crash on the country. The government is seeking...

An alliance between former President Marc Ravalomanana and the current President, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, is gathering momentum as church leaders nudge Madagascar's political leaders down the path of national...

José de Lima Massano has unexpectedly resigned as Governor of the Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA, the central bank). The appointment of José Pedro de Morais, who was...

With the resumption of international support for the national budget still a distant prospect, President Peter Mutharika's government is having to be inventive in seeking ways of plugging...

President Filipe Nyusi's new government, announced on 17 January, marks the expected break with former President Armando Guebuza's legacy and the arrival of a warmer political climate. New...

The presidential candidate of the governing Patriotic Front, Edgar Lungu, has surprised Zambians by joining forces with former President Rupiah Banda, whose Movement for Multiparty Democracy was defeated...

The coming year will be dominated by the struggle within the African National Congress between President Jacob Zuma and his supporters and those seeking to replace him with...

After he takes office on 15 January and Parliament reconvenes, President Filipe Nyusi is expected to bring many new and younger faces to cabinet as his predecessor Armando...

With Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly assuming some of the duties of the head of state, it looks as though the transition of power from President Robert Mugabe could...