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...
Patrick Smith
This week, there could be more political fall-out from the
Och-Ziff
corruption case in the United States
and Africa. Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari's
Independence day speech in Abuja will trigger more financial
negotiations. France is
leading calls f...
Blue Lines
This week President Joseph Kabila's
bid to hang on to power in
Congo-Kinshasa has finally
triggered the violent clashes that
opposition parties had long predicted. At least 44 people are reported
by Human Rights Watch to have been killed after police trie...
Patrick Smith
This week Mozambique's President arrives in
the United States to placate creditors and woo
investors while South Africa's opposition parties
start to audit the African National Congress's management of local
government finance. Public sector workers in Zi...
Blue Lines
Reports that Nigeria's
economy shrank by 2% in the second quarter of
the year and is officially in recession – its worst performance for 25
years – has fuelled speculation about negotiations between the
government and the International Monetary Fund. Unti...
Blue Lines
Predictions that President Jacob
Zuma will redouble efforts to regain control over policy and patronage after
the African National Congress's losses in the municipal elections (see
Feature, Zuma carries on regardless) are fast proving accurate. On 22 Augu...
Patrick Smith
This week elections dominate our list of things to watch: the
recent past, in the case of South Africa, where the
ANC comes to terms with its loss of power in the big cities; the
present, in Ghana, where the governing National
Democratic Congress has just...
Patrick Smith
This week we consider the recent elections in Zambia and South Africa and a new opposition
alliance in Ethiopia, while
President Salva Kiir changes
his mind again about the prospect of more foreign troops to keep the
peace in South Sudan.
ZAMBIA: Lungu w...
Patrick Smith
This week we have important election stories – before and
after – in Zambia, South Africa and Congo-Kinshasa. And there are new
international efforts to get the two sides in South Sudan to implement their peace
agreement ,while Nigeria's
finance officials...
