The resignation of Mavuso Msimang, deputy president of the African National Congress Veterans' League (ANCVL) and a respected lifelong activist, has widened cracks in the ruling party. It...

The London trial over Mozambique's US$2 billion 'hidden loans' nears its end this week as lawyers present their closing arguments. Mozambique sued Credit Suisse bank, along with maritime...

Outgoing chairman of FirstRand Bank, Roger Jardine, has surfaced as the latest contender to lead an alliance of opposition parties against the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in...

Key advisors to President Cyril Ramaphosa have been quitting as signs grow that support for the African National Congress (ANC) will below 50% of the vote in the...

The latest opinion survey results – by the Social Research Foundation, Ipsos and the Brenthurst Foundation – are unanimous that the African National Congress's (ANC) share of the...

The Constitutional Court has re-allocated fraudulently won municipal elections between the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) and the opposition Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) in a move...

Tough decisions and strong political backing are needed to turn around the ailing state-owned transport and logistics company, Transnet which could face a ratings downgrade. Structural and wide-ranging...

After several opinion surveys forecast support for the African National Congress (ANC) dropping below 50% for the first time in next year's national election, the government is struggling...

Behind the bizarre shenanigans in which the speaker of parliament endorses the recall of at least 15 opposition MPs at the hands of a man widely believed to...

A €1 billion fund for projects developing 'green' hydrogen and critical raw materials has just been signed off in Brussels by President Hage Geingob and European Commission President...

President Lazarus Chakwera was accused of running away when he left the country on 8 November for Saudi Arabia despite knowing that the kwacha would be devalued by...

Government law officers have been so slow to summon witnesses to appear in trials brought by the Anti-Corruption Bureau that witnesses from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) appeared...

Live fire from police resulted in several deaths over the 27-29 October weekend during nationwide protests against the decision of the Comissão Nacional de Eleições (CNE) to approve...

Chinese lithium company Xinfeng Investments risks losing its mining licence when a parliamentary committee publishes a report later this year which is expected to criticise operational and labour...

Widespread protests followed ruling party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique's (Frelimo) declaration of a near clean sweep in the 11 October municipal elections, despite evidence from parallel counts...

Undaunted by regional and international criticisms of the legitimacy of the August elections, the ruling party is continuing its rout of the opposition and abuse of its control...

The IMF's latest data forecasts South Africa's economy will grow by 0.9% this year, up from projections in July of 0.6%. The marginal improvement is based on fewer...

The increasingly difficult task of servicing growing debt while delivering social development presents President Cyril Ramaphosa with the toughest choices of his presidency. 'It is a balancing act...

As the election campaign gets under way, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ruling African National Congress confront an increasingly problematic economic legacy. It is sure to undermine the...

As with the US$2 billion hidden loans scandal that triggered Mozambique's serial financial crises over the past decade, all sides are trying to keep secret the details of...

The long-anticipated Fishrot corruption trial of 10 highly placed Namibians accused of multi-million fishing quotas fraud, racketeering and corruption, has been postponed again thanks to delaying tactics. The...

The Botswana government's ambitious plan to sell part of its huge rough diamond output have been dealt a hammer blow by the implosion of its selected sales partner,...

After two years of turf wars, the government's implementation plan for its US$8.5 billion (R160bn) Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) will be made public at the UN COP28...

International and regional concerns persist about the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory in national elections last month, particularly the failure of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to...

The firing of discredited Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on 13 September is being lauded by President Cyril Ramaphosa's supporters as a victory in his campaign for zero-tolerance of...

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has decided not to prosecute government officials who may have taken bribes so long as they return them to the state, according to leaks...

Unheralded, the campaign for next year's national elections started this month. The ruling African National Congress will be fighting on multiple fronts: to cut state spending and rein...

Regional leaders, like the four million Zimbabweans in exile, voted with their feet when invited to attend Emmerson Mnangagwa's inauguration for his second presidential term on 4 September....

The London High Court has ruled that President Filipe Nyusi will not have to respond in court to claims that he helped defraud his own country and accepted...

It was the biggest international gathering in South Africa since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the country's first democratically elected leader in 1994, but the 22-24 August...

Expectations for the fairness of the presidential and parliamentary elections started low and have sunk further after dirty tricks and orchestrated chaos in the towns and cities as...

Treasury and Reserve Bank officials have been releasing a succession of positive economic reports for the past three months. Consumer prices are reckoned to have fallen 15% and...

Next month's national elections are the most conseqential since the independence vote in 1980. They will decide both the country's next president and whether it breaks out of...

The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has never been the same since President Mokgweetsi Masisi fell out with his mentor, ex-President Ian Khama, who had hand-picked him as...

If President Mokgweetsi Masisi has got it right, the new agreement Botswana has struck with its dominant economic partner De Beers – to sell half of its rough...

Former National Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo, whose non-fatal shooting in 2013 blew the lid off the Cashgate scandal of wholesale plunder of the public purse by politicians, is...

The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), led by Nelson Chamisa, may have marked some sort of record – since its foundation last year, over 100 of its...

Lishon Chipango is sometimes called 'de facto investment manager' for Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga – critics of the regime would call him the former army chief's frontman.

A deal to restructure US$6.3 billion of Zambia's foreign debt gives President Hakainde Hichilema much of what he was looking for – a resolution after almost two years...

On 22 June, a year after he released the conclusions of his marathon investigation into corruption, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo lambasted parliament and the executive for failing to...

President Mokgweetsi Masisi insists his renegotiation of terms with De Beers is a huge victory while others say it was the world's biggest diamond producer that came out...

President Hage Geingob and his close ally, mines minister Tom Alweendo, have signalled their seriousness about obtaining the maximum benefit of minerals used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries...

Growing anger over government corruption and surging unemployment look set to give opposition parties their best chance yet of loosening the ruling SWAPO Party's grip on the country....

The African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia has exposed the chasm between the two countries – with Kyiv insisting on Russian withdrawal from its territory and Moscow...

After months of intense preparation, the two leading business umbrella groups – Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and Business for South Africa (B4SA) – launched a major initiative...

Long-simmering tensions exploded when United States ambassador Reuben Brigety broke with diplomatic discretion last month and accused South Africa of secretly uploading weapons and ammunition for Russia's war...

The imprisonment of two MPs on terrorism charges is a signal that royal power will not be compromised or reformed, and elections due this year won't change anything,...

The political situation is in such turmoil that the next contest to lead Malawi is already dominating talk in the capital. Ex-President Peter Mutharika is planning a comeback,...

The latest row over patronage and opaque procurement in the government shows the widening rift between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy General Constantino Chiwenga, and their attempts...

Having failed to persuade parliament to allow him to stand for a third term, President Filipe Nyusi is bent on consolidating his position by securing a landslide for...

Namibia looks set to add oil to its cornucopia of mineral resources, including gem diamonds, uranium, and lithium, with the potential to become a major exporter by 2026....

With less than three months before national elections are due, there are multiple signs of abuses of state power by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)...

President Filipe Nyusi's ambition to cancel the two-term presidential limit and stand in next year's general election has finally died, according to insiders in Maputo.

Prices and demand for Africa's reserves of lithium, a key component in rechargeable batteries, are soaring as the world car industry shifts towards producing electric vehicles with the...

Rise Mzansi, the brainchild of Songezo Zibi and allies, was launched with some grandeur on Johannesburg's Constitution Hill – home to the Constitutional Court and a symbol of...

After 54 years in mining diamonds and 10 years in trading them, Botswana is moving downstream in the business by taking a 24% stake in Belgium's HB Antwerp,...

Just three days after John Steenhuisen, newly re-elected leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, announced a 'moonshot pact' with other parties ahead of the 2024 elections, the DA...

For a government so quick to accuse its opponents of malfeasance and detain them, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's team has been curiously reticent about the investigation into gold smuggling...

It was a more upbeat and energised Cyril Ramaphosa that took on critics this month complaining that he consulted too much and took too long to make decisions....

Zimbabwean officials were keen to play up their mutual 'outsider' status in the international community as the delegation headed by Foreign Minister Frederick Shava took in meetings with...

After five years of negotiations over revenues and production at the world's biggest diamond mine, Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi and the De Beers conglomerate are at loggerheads....

After serial delays and great expectations, President Cyril Ramaphosa brought in 10 new ministers for his reshuffle on 6 March with a wary eye on next year's general...

With national elections due to be held next year, concerns are brewing over whether donations could be used to buy influence. Africa Confidential's analysis of declarations by South...

The London High Court judge presiding over the civil case brought by Mozambique against Credit Suisse bank and the naval contractor Privinvest in January 2020 says that he...

South Africans, still buckling under the strain of crippling daily power cuts with no end in sight, are waiting for the appointment of a Minister of Electricity, announced...

With global demand for lithium soaring – prices went up more than 100% in 2022 and are expected to keep rising – Zimbabwe could be poised for a...

The explosive television interview by André de Ruyter, outgoing chief executive of ailing electricity utility Eskom on 21 February, which upstaged Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's budget on the...

The redrawing of electoral boundaries is due to be gazetted into law by 26 February despite politicians and rights groups questioning its fairness and the accuracy of the...

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi is happy to call himself one of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa few friends abroad. Masisi has been outspoken in calling for western sanctions on...

President Mokgweetsi Masisi's supporters in his bitter struggle with former mentor and predecessor Ian Khama are congratulating themselves following a court ruling that has neutered Khama's plans to...

Tough questions have greeted President Cyril Ramaphosa's latest efforts to tackle the chronic electricity shortages – declaring a state of national disaster and appointing a minister of electricity...

The government has launched a war of attrition against the courts as it tries to stop Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director-General Martha Chizuma from investigating top politicians and their...

After spending his first term fending off a rebellion from supporters of ousted President Jacob Zuma, President Cyril Ramaphosa should now be able to sack all those ministers...

In spite of some last minute ructions it looks a matter of time before Paul Mashatile, who outsmarted the Cyril Ramaphosa and Zweli Mkhize camps at the African...

After four days of deliberations, on 29 January the ruling African National Congress agreed in principle to declare a national disaster in response to rolling power cuts which...

King Mswati III remains deaf to pleas for reform despite growing pressure on him in the wake of the assassination of democracy activist and human rights lawyer Thulani...

President João Lourenço came out of last August's elections doubly weakened – by the opposition, which made historic gains despite the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola...

Isabel dos Santos is planning to take the PR fight to her late father's successor, Angolan President João Lourenço, by hiring K-Street lobbyists with close links to former...

At the present rate of progress President Hakainde Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) – elected in a landslide by voters fed up with six...

President Filipe Nyusi will use every means at his disposal, including taking credit for the likely resumption of the offshore gas projects this year, to change the constitution...

The coming year is likely to see further loosening of President Cyril Ramaphosa's grip on his divided ruling party and reduce his ability to progress economic reforms.

Pre-election buzz will energise discussions about Zimbabwe's future ahead of general elections set to be held in July or August. But any sense of optimism will be short-lived...