Blue Lines
African treasuries, cash-strapped after the commodity price crash, are trying to recoup their losses by launching law suits against multinational companies. The most sensational is a court ruling in Chad on 5 October that a consortium led by Exxon Mobil s...
Patrick Smith
This week we start again in the United States in search of the implications, direct and indirect, of Donald Trump's shock victory in the presidential election. In South Africa the African National Congress starts its run-up this week to picking its presid...
Patrick Smith
We start off with a look at the increasingly bizarre United States elections tomorrow (8 November), quickly followed by a report on President Jacob Zuma's tough week ahead in South Africa. Then there are fresh doubts about the strategy and money for the A...
Blue Lines
It was hardly a meeting of minds but President Muhammadu Buhari's discussions with Niger Delta state governors and community leaders in Abuja on 1 November marks a clear change of strategy. It was Buhari's first meeting with regional leaders since militan...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in the South African courts to watch the latest round of the proxy political battle between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and President Jacob Zuma; the Kenyaneconomy gets a vote of confidence from the World Bank; results in Côte d'Ivo...
Patrick Smith
This week, top officials at the International Criminal Court are in urgent talks with the governments of South Africa, Burundi and Kenyaabout plans for a mass withdrawal from the Court. Reeling from targeted assassinations and a weakening economy, Egyptia...
Blue Lines
With average economic growth rates in African economies sinking to around 1.6% next year and conflict worsening, European Union officials are holding a summit on migration in Brussels on 20 October (see Pointer, Shifting borders south).They want African g...
Patrick Smith
Some local difficulties have broken out in Abuja ahead of another investment roadshow by Nigeria and there is new and dramatic twist in the trial of strength between South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and his Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan. The crisis ...
Patrick Smith
This week we start on the international scene with the election of a new Secretary General of the United Nations and a report from the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington DC. In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Hail...
Blue Lines
Over the past month, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and McKinsey Consulting have finally junked their message of an economically rising Africa. The IMF cuts its 2017 forecast for Nigeria and South Africa to 0.6% and 0.8% respectively, the...
