Vol 56 No 12 | SOUTH AFRICA Money worries 12th June 2015 Deepening financial problems in the African National Congress could hamper its campaigning for next year’s local elections The governing African National Congress is in such dire financial straits that it could not pay staff salaries at the end of May. So it is looking to...
Vol 56 No 11 | SOUTH AFRICA Uneasy lies Zuma’s head 29th May 2015 The President’s rivals are using the ANC’s expected poor showing in the coming local elections as a rallying call against him Next year's local government elections are widely seen as likely to be the most competitive since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 and that has got leaders...
Vol 56 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Maimane wins leadership 15th May 2015 The Democratic Alliance has voted in its first black leader and hopes for big gains in the 2016 local elections The emergence of Mmusi Maimane, a 35-year old priest from Soweto, as the dapper new leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance after its party congress in Port Elizabeth...
Vol 56 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Part of the union 15th May 2015 The biggest trades union, the 365,000-member National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, is confident of reversing its expulsion from the Confederation of South African Trade Unions. On...
Vol 56 No 9 | SOUTH AFRICA BRICS on the rocks 1st May 2015 Designed as a radical alternative to the World Bank by the BRICS group countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the much-vaunted New Development Bank is...
Vol 56 No 8 | SOUTH AFRICA Poison plots and power games 17th April 2015 President Zuma cancelled the results of ANC elections in Durban because the wrong candidates won A new conference to elect regional leaders of the African National Congress is to be held at the end of April after President Jacob Zuma declared February's vote...
Vol 56 No 7 | SOUTH AFRICA Cold war at Eskom 3rd April 2015 The suspended Chief Executive Officer of state electricity utility Eskom, Tshediso Matona, has lost his bid to overturn his suspension by the Board of Directors.
Vol 56 No 6 | SOUTH AFRICA BEE worsens mining outlook 20th March 2015 The mineral sector is already weak but intricate deals for ANC favourites are also sapping foreign enthusiasm for investment Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) mining deals are becoming more lavish and opaque, skirting the law and enriching insiders, industry observers say. The arrangements also carry reputational risks for...
Vol 56 No 5 | SOUTH AFRICA No-fly zone for legal eagles 25th February 2015 The presidency is working to remove police and prosecutors who refuse to suspend actions against highly influential people The decline in independence of South Africa's top criminal justice institutions is accelerating as President Jacob Zuma redoubles his efforts to immunise himself and his entourage from prosecution...
Vol 56 No 4 | SOUTH AFRICA A rowdy state of the nation 13th February 2015 President Zuma's vision of the road ahead failed to ignite passion. Only the chaos that descended on Parliament stood out Despite fist fights and forcible expulsions from the chamber of the National Assembly, African National Congress officials insisted President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address on 12...