A highly profitable public-private partnership (PPP) for collecting road tolls has been cancelled suddenly after sparking fury at the poor value for money and seeming exploitation of public...

Angry at Dutch-based commodities trader Trafigura's control of the country's only oil products pipeline from the Mozambican port of Beira, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has told local oil mogul...

A seemingly downbeat Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front annual conference this month lacked the overt factional fireworks many had expected. Yet it laid down a major political marker...

President Edgar Lungu has got his wish and been given leave by the Constitutional Court to stand for a third term of office. Critics will say he effectively...

South Africa's Public Investment Corporation, Africa's largest money manager with assets of more than 1.8 trillion rand (US$132 billion), could prove to be at the heart of a...

President Peter Mutharika faces an uphill task to secure a second term in next May's elections as corruption scandals, a deputy-gone-rogue, and a former president and formidable opposition...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is under increasing pressure to explain the contradictions of his five-year term as deputy President of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) under former President...

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the 1 August 2018 post-election violence, it looked like a further bid by the government for legitimacy....

The abandoning of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority's criminal investigation into Credit Suisse bank over its role in Mozambique's US$2 billion in hidden loans for dubious security...

The second round of the Madagascar presidential election on 19 December promises to be a hard fight between two sworn enemies: Marc Ravalomanana, who led the country from...

A split at the top of the ruling party between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his two vice-presidents – Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi – is manifesting itself in...

The target is US$100 billion in new investment over the next five years. Six months after he launched the campaign to finance national economic expansion, President Cyril Ramaphosa...

The report of the Auditor-General into the country's public financial management during 2017 has added fuel to the burning controversy over accusations that the government is wasting phenomenal...

A criminal investigation by Britain's National Crime Agency, announced on 5 November, into businessman and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks could touch on some of his diamond interests in...

While professing no intention to remove his hand-picked successor, ex-President Ian Khama looks set to do just that. Although President Mokgweetsi Masisi underwent a lengthy grooming process, Khama...

The voters of Madagascar faced a list of 36 candidates when they went to the polls for the presidential elections on 7 November. They include an evangelical pastor,...

As Mozambique awaits the final verdict on the local elections of the Comissão Nacional de Eleições (the electoral commission – CNE), due as Africa Confidential went to press,...

Ex-Finance Minister, Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front stalwart, Robert Mugabe hard-man, former sanctions target and multiple farm-owner Patrick Chinamasa is not well-known for soft-sell diplomacy. It was a...

Officials working on Saudi Arabia's planned US$100 million investment into South Africa's ailing state-owned arms company, Denel, say it could be finalised by the end of the year....

Israel and Zambia are almost ready to sign a new US$400 million package for high-tech aviation equipment to be funded with a loan from Israel's Hapoalim Bank. The...

South Africa has notched another record it would rather not have: seven finance minister changes in two years, following the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene. Tito Mboweni, a former...

The death of Vespers Shimuzhila, a University of Zambia student who suffocated when police fired a teargas canister into her room following student demonstrations over unpaid government meal...

Former President Ian Khama's supporters are accusing his successor Mokgweetsi Masisi of presiding over the mass slaughter of elephants by ivory hunters in Botswana. Until now Botswana has...

With the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa in February, South Africa experienced waves of 'Ramaphoria', following the hollowing out of the state under President Jacob Zuma and his...

President Edgar Lungu's sacking on 19 September of Minister of Community Development and Social Services Emerine Kabanshi – at the centre of the row over the fraud in...

Both of them fought the 30 July election for the first time as party leader. Both lost personal authority in the process: Emmerson Mnangagwa, because his party did...

After his inauguration on 26 August, President Emmerson Mnangagwa made it clear there would be no power-sharing and few outsiders in his cabinet. True to his word, the...

Western donor governments have placed key assistance programmes under heavy scrutiny as evidence emerges of wide-scale corruption in three important government departments, Africa Confidential has learned. Payments by...

Ending weeks of controversy, President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced that the government was rowing back on a scheme to introduce electronic voting machines in next year's general election. The...

Having allocated US$500 million to external debt service this year, the government's liquidity crisis drags on as relations with donors and international financial institutions plummet. Lusaka asked the...

In what President Emmerson Mnangagwa must reckon is the final piece of theatre after the disputed elections, the Constitutional Court's judgement on the opposition's petition was beamed live...

After sidelining many party stalwarts and making a unilateral decision to anoint Mokgweetsi Masisi as the new President of Botswana, Ian Khama is now ruing his choice. The...

Facing heavy weather at home, President Cyril Ramaphosa is looking to foreign capitals to boost his country's ailing economy, creating jobs and a sense of progress ahead of...

A nervous Frelimo has been using increasingly blatant manipulation and strongarm tactics to fend off challenges to its candidates in October's local elections, especially in the contest for...

Politicians and activists share scepticism about international election observers, suspected of naïveté and bias but lacking political knowledge. For once, international observers mattered. On their verdict on Zimbabwe's...

A pall of doubt hangs over the presidential election results which gave President Emmerson Mnangagwa 50.8% of the vote when the final figures were announced by the Zimbabwe...

For the country's 5.7 million registered voters this is the highest-stakes election since 1980, as much for its conduct as its political outcome. A credible and peaceful poll...

In spite of the huge power of incumbency across Zimbabwe, as well as the generals' refusal to countenance an opposition victory, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's campaign for the 30...

Critics are calling on President Peter Mutharika to resign after a leaked report by Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) alleged that he benefited from millions of kwacha deposited in...

A wave of savage attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado by self-styled Islamist gangs is posing another threat to Mozambique's embattled government. Last weekend, a raid...

For Isabel dos Santos, life in the year since President João Lourenço took over from her father has been difficult. Her business empire has been dwindling and...

The goal is to bring the risk of 'debt distress' from 'high' to 'moderate'. Even this modest target will probably elude Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe because the government's...

The blast that rocked the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) election rally in White City Stadium, in Bulawayo, on 23 June has refocused attention on...

President João Lourenço excited Angolans with a high-profile anti-corruption campaign that targeted the extended family of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, but now cracks are...

As if determined to disavow Ian Khama's description of him as a 'bootlicker', new President Mokgweetsi Masisi has been breaking with the past, pushing more pro-business policies, cracking...

Many questions that could determine the credibility of the national elections, now due on 30 July, remain unresolved in what is set to be the most important vote...

Making his second appearance in a KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) court at a short hearing on 8 June to face 16 charges of fraud and corruption, former President Jacob Zuma...

The Patriotic Front is crowing over its narrow defeat of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in a by-election in the swing constituency of Chilanga, just outside...

Having said it was certain of its figures, Zambia's Ministry of Finance has once again revised its external debt upwards, from US$8.7 billion to $9.1 bn. While its...

The opposition Resistencia Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) is going through a difficult rebalancing act in the wake of the death of its leader, Afonso Dhlakama, on 3 May. In...

President Cyril Ramaphosa's personal approval ratings are at 76% and his handling of the economy has the nod from 82% of South Africans. The Democratic Alliance leader, Mmusi...

Tom Moyane, the controversial former head of the South African Revenue Service, is pushing back against his suspension by President Cyril Ramaphosa by employing some of the country's...

Creditors, investors and the opposition believe President Edgar Lungu's management of national finances is plunging the country into a debt crisis. The Ministry of Finance issues desperate-sounding statements...

Lawyers and legal experts are still seeking answers as to why, for the first time in Malawi – and possibly for every legal system based on English common...

The death of Afonso Dhlakama, the commander of Resistencia Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) who turned the guerrilla movement into a political party, contains risks to long-delayed reconciliation with the...

As his family's business interests shrink and his political supporters decamp, José Eduardo dos Santos is set to lose the last redoubt of the empire he built over...

For ex-President Jacob Zuma and his allies, the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as leader of the African National Congress was a serious blow but by no means the...

With presidential elections due in November, political tension has once again triggered violence on the streets of Antananarivo. On 21 April, a rally by opposition MPs under the...

Ex-President Joyce Banda flew into Blantyre airport on 28 April after a four-year absence from Malawi to an enthusiastic welcome from a crowd of supporters. She and President...

As leaders of the 53 Commonwealth member states gathered in London for the 15-17 April summit, one African head of state was conspicuously absent. Amid growing concern that...

The good news is relentless. Each week another wide-eyed foreign investor pitches up in Harare meets President Emmerson 'Open for Business' Mnangagwa, then pledges to pour tens of...

The pressure is mounting on Ace Magashule, who faces a raft of anti-corruption investigations from his time as Premier of the Free State and widespread questions about his...

The coming trial of Jacob Zuma, the ousted President, could cause diplomatic difficulties as well as local political ructions. Zuma is due in court on 6 April, charged...

Demands for clarity on Zambia's national debt are intensifying, as the standoff with the International Monetary Fund continues and senior figures in government fear a Zimbabwe-style economic crisis...

Britain may be breaking ranks with donors and creditors over conditions for restoring Harare's access to finance. The International Monetary Fund continues to take a firm line, insisting...

President Cyril Ramaphosa could face his toughest test yet when former President Jacob Zuma has his day in court on 6 April, as tensions between their respective factions...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is preparing to set out his stall on the international stage, not only to deliver the message that South Africa is under new management but...

After ten years in office, President Ian Khama is on a farewell tour of the country, as pundits ponder whether he was ineffective because he did not do...

Almost three years into his first five-year term, Namibia's first non-Oshiwambo head of state, Hage Geingob, seems to be in a dominant position. Previously acting leader of the...

On 20 March Mozambican officials met London creditors of its previously hidden US$2 billion loans to try to convince them to accept a major restructuring of the debt....

Weeks of good news for President Cyril Ramaphosa came to a grinding halt on 1 March when the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) outmanoeuvred him to win a...

It may be Cyril Ramaphosa's first cabinet but it was not all of his making. That much was evident from the repeated delays in the announcement from the...

The death of veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, announced on 14 February, has prompted a massive show of grief and support for one of the doughtiest campaigners against...

The opposition Democratic Alliance, which runs the drought-stricken Western Cape, is embroiled in a battle to rid itself of Patricia de Lille, Mayor of Cape Town, the provincial...

A company founded by controversial mining duo Andrew Groves and Phil Edmonds has returned to the City of London seeking investors for coal assets in Zimbabwe. Groves and...

When it came, the end for Jacob Zuma came quickly. A week before, he was brusquely rebuffing polite entreaties by senior African National Congress politicians to resign from...

The African National Congress has decided to remove President Jacob Zuma from office after a tenure dogged by corruption, scandal and economic stagnation. The dramatic decision came in...

The latest deadline for Jacob Zuma's exit from the Presidency is 21 February. On that day the budget is due to be read in parliament, according to Baleka...

Public pressure remains as high as ever on the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) to see justice done over the $2 billion hidden loans scandal. However,...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has begun to tackle the tough task of balancing his inauguration promise to compensate white farmers for expropriation of their properties with his supporters' demands...

The Constitutional Court was ordered to resume hearings on whether or not President Edgar Lungu may serve a third term of office on 30 January. But Court president...

Cyril Ramaphosa, with a mixture of determination and pragmatism, has embarked on a year of sweeping changes in his party and the government that it runs. Since winning...

Whether or not President Edgar Lungu manages to convince the Constitutional Court that he is entitled to a further term in office when his current one ends in...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's 18 January pledge to deliver 'free, credible, fair and indisputable elections' within five months faces several challenges. One is the legal challenge to the Zimbabwe...

As the first new leader that Zimbabwe has had in 37 years, President Emmerson Mnangagwa begins the year riding a wave of goodwill, having removed the apparently eternally-entrenched...

The centre of gravity in the governing African National Congress has shifted towards its new President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who now has a decisive tactical advantage over the national...

The final year of Filipe Nyusi's difficult tenure as President of Mozambique is unlikely to end on a high note. As the 2019 elections approach, a dose of...

The next test for Cyril Ramaphosa, elected president of the African National Congress on 18 December, is to engineer the departure of his predecessor Jacob Zuma from the...