President Cyril Ramaphosa has scored in the ongoing battle against the faction bent on unseating him with this week's decision by the African National Congress's Integrity Commission that...

Despite the pandemic and global recession, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube is predicting a strong economic bounce-back next year – but he is silent about a phenomenal borrowing spree...

Zambia's chances of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund following its default on its Eurobond coupon payments are looking bleak, in spite of conciliatory words from a...

The electorate dealt a stunning blow to the ruling SWAPO Party in the 25 November municipal elections, costing it its majority in four of the country's 14 regions....

National politics and geopolitics are set to scupper any attempts to resolve the crisis over Zambia's more than US$12 billion foreign debt. There is little sign that President...

The 10 November arrest of the second most powerful politician in the ruling African National Congress on charges of corruption, following more than 100 graft-related arrests in recent...

Relations between neighbours Botswana and Namibia have hit a new low following the shooting dead of four Namibians by the Botswana army along the Chobe river frontier on...

President Lazarus Chakwera's Malawi Congress Party won a narrow victory over its coalition partner, the United Transformation Movement, in the bitterly contested Karonga Central by-election on 10 November....

President João Lourenço faces deepening public anger over the country's economic implosion and accusations that his anti-corruption campaign is replacing one set of dishonest officials with another.

Campaigning for the by-election in the northern seat of Karonga Central on Tuesday 10 November has been exposing the widening cracks in the ruling coalition, especially between the...

The government has firmly held the line against the left and the labour movement's efforts to defend ailing state-owned enterprises. President Cyril Ramaphosa is also boosting the Zondo...

Many noted the bitter irony of President John Magufuli's government arresting all the leaders of Tanzania's opposition parties on clearly absurd terrorism charges (see Feature) at a time...

Rejecting the gathering gloom about the national economy, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube released a budget strategy paper on 16 October forecasting the economy would grow by 7.4% next...

After a decade of corruption, economic decline and a crippling pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled his Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which does not go as far...

The insurgents in Cabo Delgado retain the initiative, having attacked a village in Tanzania and reportedly destroyed a Tanzania People's Defence Force armoured personnel carrier on 14 October....

The operator of the country's only coal-fired power station, Maamba Collieries Ltd., has opened arbitration proceedings with Zambia's state-owned electricity utility Zesco to recover US$300 million it is...

The government is finally backing a plan that will open the state power utility Eskom to private investors, putting the energy sector at the core of the country's...

Within weeks Cyril Ramaphosa will face his toughest battle as President as he tests his authority against the second-most-powerful politician in the country, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General...

Deteriorating relations between the holders of Zambia's $3 billion Eurobonds and the government after its 22 September request for a six-month suspension of coupon payments point to one...

The government's request on 22 September to holders of its US$3 billion of Eurobonds for a six-month suspension of repayments will have political repercussions as well as the...

After attacking Mocímboa da Praia several times this year, the Islamist insurgents of northern Cabo Delgado took control of the coastal town, which is a port and the...

Denel, the remnant of the arms manufacturing and trading colossus Armscor that once propped up apartheid, is probably the least-known of South Africa's beleaguered state-owned enterprises.

A platinum mine that could be Zimbabwe's biggest is yet again raising the hopes of the leaders of the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) although it looks...

Leading South Africa's delegation for crisis talks in Zimbabwe on 8 September – no matter how tortuous – must have been a welcome break for Ace Magashule, away...

The listing of Botswana in February on the European Union's list of countries deemed not to be cooperating in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing came...

Former President Armando Guebuza has been named in the High Court in London as a 'third party' in the civil case brought by Mozambique's Attorney-General, Beatriz Buchili, against...

The first sixty days of office have not been kind to President Lazarus Chakwera. Swept into office on a wave of campaign promises of clean government and the...

It may prove to be the most decisive two days in Cyril Ramaphosa's presidency. He went into the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress on 29...

If the leaked audio recording of his telephone call with ruling party acolyte Temba Mliswa is any guide, businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei's role in government is stronger than ever...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is in a desperate fight for the credibility of the African National Congress after a spate of arrests and asset seizures over fraud in the...

Giving no reason, President Edgar Lungu sacked the respected governor of the central bank, the Bank of Zambia, Denny Kalyalya, replacing him with Christopher Mvunga, formerly Deputy Secretary...

It is political drama of the pandemic age. At an international press conference on video-link on 19 August, mining magnate Bridgette Motsepe rejected accusations of money-laundering and theft...

The extraordinary morning broadcast by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 4 August reinforced the national sense that his legitimacy is eroding as fast as the value of Zimbabwean dollar....

Most accept that the ruling African National Congress and President Cyril Ramaphosa started the pandemic well. The President masked up immediately and has stayed masked, unlike many world...

Once one of President Edgar Lungu's closest allies and considered by many his most likely successor – or at least his running mate in next year's general election...

While former President Peter Mutharika finally packed his bags and sought solace at an official government holiday residence on Lake Malawi, newly elected President Lazarus Chakwera faces the...

As South Africa continues to ease its Covid-19 lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa faces a country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, a ruling party more divided than...

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's post-Covid-19 budget is a balancing act that offers President Cyril Ramaphosa a chance to radically restructure the country's ailing state-owned enterprises (SOE) or submit...

The crash of a Bathawk microlight aircraft belonging to the Dyck Advisory Group private military contractor (PMC) in Mozambique on 15 June has thrown a spotlight on a...

Malawi's rerun presidential election on 23 June went off relatively peacefully, and early returns as Africa Confidential went to press indicate that President Peter Mutharika has lost the...

The debate about whether post-apartheid South Africa really needs its own arms industry and such a large military establishment has been raging since the country’s first democratic elections...

Civil rights activists, opposition politicians and business leaders are mounting legal and moral challenges to the lockdown, claiming it is being used as a cover for human rights...

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his centrist supporters were locked in combat with followers of former President Jacob Zuma, African National Congress...

While political parties push ahead with mass campaign rallies – ignoring all social distancing and the ban on gatherings of more than 100 – there is still no...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has bowed to mounting business and popular pressure to ease the lockdown from 1 June but has warned that the worst of the pandemic is...

As so often in Zambia's elections, the Copperbelt will be decisive in next year's general elections and President Edgar Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) is facing an uphill battle...

Allegations of drugs crime and bribery are dogging President Filipe Nyusi's family. The transparency watchdog Centro de Integridade Pública has accused the President's eldest son Jacinto of laundering...

In-fighting for control of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is playing into the hands of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front, which hopes to gain international...

The armed forces are patrolling the streets to enforce a nationwide curfew from 8pm to 5am as citizens can only exercise between 6am and 9am, and no more...

President Hage Geingob has courted unaccustomed controversy by appointing his friend, the politically connected businessman Johannes !Gawaxab, to fill the vacancy left by Ipumbu Shiimi as governor of...

After stopping payments on several commercial loans this year, Zambia is set to default on its US$3 billion Eurobonds, now trading at 'distressed debt' levels, with yields over...

In an extended mea culpa on behalf of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has written to the international financial institutions (IFIs) in Washington saying it...

The latest massacre by an Islamist militia in the remote north of the country and its occupation of two coastal towns have thrust a simmering rebellion centre-stage, but...

President Cyril Ramaphosa's 500 billion rand (US$26bn) stimulus to sustain South Africa's already precarious economy during the Covid-19 lockdown has been welcomed by business and opposition leaders, but...

The cornered Prime Minister Thomas Thabane continues to cling to office but looks to have run out of options. After several days of talks mediated by Jeff Radebe,...

With South Africa in the third week of a lockdown that may only be lifted at the end of April, and possibly not even then, President Cyril Ramaphosa...

Zimbabwe's land reform programme, which ended up largely benefitting senior members of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), state security and army officers and their families, is...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been locked in a love-hate relationship with the military ever since he rose to power in the military coup of November 2017. Against the...

Lawmakers agreed to President Mokgweetsi Masisi's plan to extend a State of Emergency (SoE) from 28 days to 6 months over the coronavirus outbreak despite complaints that the...

The South African government has vowed to respond to the double shock of the coronavirus pandemic and a credit ratings downgrade by making overdue structural reforms to prevent...

The new presidential election mandated by the Constitutional Court in February was always going to be bad news for President Peter Mutharika, especially with the new requirement that...

The first reaction of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front high-ups to the pandemic was to blame the West, or at least to gloat at its misfortune. Defence Minister...

President Mokgweetsi Masisi's leadership on the coronavirus crisis got off to a bad start. On 21 March, days after telling the nation about isolating, not travelling, and all...

Even without the coronavirus pandemic it was always doubtful that 2020 would be the year Angola would return to growth, as President João Lourenço had promised. After a...

Although the coronavirus pandemic has yet to affect Namibia seriously – as April began there were only 10 confirmed cases and no deaths – President Hage Geingob's government...

One person who may have welcomed the coronavirus was Prime Minster Thomas Thabane, who was in a terminal political crisis when it struck. He had promised to resign...

Madagascar is on few international airline routes, so Covid-19 came late to the island. The authorities were able to impose quarantine on arriving travellers early, even before the...

The collapse of the global financial markets, the tanking oil price, and the threat of a major global economic recession have radically altered the backdrop to South Africa's...

More than any other continent, Africa has copious reserves of the vital minerals central to the transition to sustainable energy in the leading industrial economies.

Threatening huge cuts in public spending but no serious tax hikes, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's budget of 13 February will unleash further political drama and perhaps trigger a...

Kudakwashe Tagwirei, managing director of Sakunda Holdings and business associate of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is at the centre of a new political row. As the global trading company...

The main South African opposition parties are in an unprecedented state of flux after the resignation of two black leaders rocked the Democratic Alliance late last year. Now...

In the first of two last-chance bids by government to forestall a ratings downgrade on the country's credit rating to junk status, President Cyril Ramaphosa failed to convince...

Namibia's Supreme Court in Windhoek may have refused on 5 February to order a rerun of last November's presidential election but opposition political parties are still claiming victory.

Finance Minister Bwalya Ng'andu's January request for a funded programme from the International Monetary Fund may be in danger from continued borrowing beyond the Treasury's control, financial sources...

Botswana has authorised the resumption of licensed elephant hunting, auctioning licences to shoot 60 elephants worth US$2.34 million. It's the first such sale since President Mokgweetsi Masisi rescinded...

For the past three decades each State of the Nation speech has been billed as the most important ever. Most – with the honourable exception of Nelson Mandela's...

The Constitutional Court has ordered a fresh presidential election, saying the Malawi Electoral Commission's (MEC) failure to follow its duties under constitutional and electoral law rendered last year's...

The 30th anniversary of then-President FW de Klerk's announcement on 2 February 1990 of the release of Nelson Mandela nine days afterwards passed quietly as investors gathered to...

The pursuit by investigative journalists and Luanda's prosecutors of Isabel dos Santos offers a temporary distraction from the country's economic meltdown. Enthusiasm to see Isabel dos Santos on...

In what is set to be a gargantuan legal battle stretching over many years, the government of President João Lourenço is stepping up action to recover several billion...

The working year began with a day of golfing and post-inauguration partying for President Filipe Nyusi, who was sworn into office on 15 January for his second five-year...

As Zimbabwe limps into 2020, its heaviest shackle is the economy. One analyst suggests it will shrink by 12.9% while inflation averages 165.5%. Last February, Minister of Finance...

Envied by its peers for its track record of good governance and fiscal prudence, and prized by investors for its low tax regime, Botswana has posted budget deficits...

Sympathisers with President Cyril Ramaphosa's project to clean up governance are frustrated with his agonisingly slow strategy. He needs to speed up the suffocation of his opponents within...

The ruling Patriotic Front's continued state of denial about the country's dire debt situation sees the year begin with loan defaults, dwindling state revenues, disintegrating public services and...