South Africa

Sepp Blatter, President of football’s ruling Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) looked relieved at the 11 December draw in Cape Town for next year’s World Cup. Standing...

In 2010, South Africans will celebrate the two decades since the release of Nelson Mandela from gaol on 11 February 1990. Polemicists of all stripes will assess the...

A financing crisis in the state-owned power company, Eskom, threatens the government's hopes of more investment in manufacturing and services. On 30 November, Eskom applied to the National...

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) have gained strength since they helped President Jacob Zuma into power in April. Their...

Nothing is going according to plan with the prosecution for corruption of former police chief and former Interpol director Jackie Selebi (AC Vol 50 No 16). As he...

After the African National Congress leadership in the Western Cape was suspended because of the governing party's poor showing there in this year's elections, President Jacob Zuma set...

The standard criticism of Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was that he was a populist, seeking the presidency mainly to protect himself against prosecution for corrupt enrichment in South Africa's...

Jacob Zuma rarely hides his distaste of journalists - particularly those who ridiculed his presidential ambitions and his political commitment - and his supporters rail against media enemies...

Pictures of police firing rubber bullets into a crowd of protestors in Thokoza township on 27 July gave President Jacob Zuma's three-month-old government its strongest reality check to...

Gauteng Province, around Johannesburg, is the most heavily industrial part of South Africa, with tightly crammed townships and informal settlements for those who came to find work. It...

Anglo American, the huge mining conglomerate, is no longer strictly a South African company since it moved its headquarters and main stock-market listing to London in 1999. Yet...

Anglo CEO Cynthia Carroll has called for 'a major overhaul' and 'cultural transformation' of senior management. Those managers are striking back, along with members of the board. Her...

The appointment of the inexperienced Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as Foreign Minister in the new African National Congress (ANC) government suggests that President Jacob Zuma will dominate foreign policy, with...

Angola will welcome Jacob Zuma on his first foreign trip as President 'before Christmas'. Zuma is grateful to President José Eduardo dos Santos for the loan of an...

Just days after President Jacob Zuma’s 3 June State of the Nation Address on accountability in government and jobs for the people, the trades unions hit back with...

The trades union chief, Zwelinzima Vavi, a key supporter of President Jacob Zuma when he was a mere candidate, is warning the government of a season of strikes...

The trades unions' legal challenge to the listing of the multibillion dollar Vodacom cellular phone group on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange tested President Jacob Zuma's political nerves. But...

A night of haggling preceded President Jacob Zuma's 10 May announcement of a new cabinet, which includes people from the left, the centre, black business, populists and even...

President Jacob Zuma's ally Siphiwe Nyanda, a former head of the defence force, was appointed Communications Minister; his numerous defence-related business interests disqualified him from the Defence Ministry....

There is some truth in Jacob Zuma's insistence that he owes no favours after the African National Congress's sweeping election victory on 22 April. It was the culmination...

First off of the blocks to congratulate Jacob Zuma on the African National Congress's win in the 22 April elections was British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This was...

Jacob Zuma's inevitable ascent to the presidency has been achieved at considerable cost. The governing African National Congress has been absorbed for the last year in faction-fighting, dealing...

The economy contracted in the first quarter of 2009 and South Africa is entering its first recession in 17 years. The South African Reserve Bank has cut its...

Claims that the World Bank’s Vice-President for Integrity and former head of South Africa’s Scorpions anti-corruption unit, Leonard McCarthy, used his position to pursue political vendettas against African...

There remains one main unanswered question about the elections due on 22 April : the size of the African National Congress’s vote. Most estimates put it at 55-65%...

Born-frees: This is the generation that has grown up in the 19 years since Nelson Mandela walked out of gaol and the African National Congress was unbanned –...

Western Cape: The opposition parties – probably in a coalition of the Democratic Alliance, Independent Democrats and Congress of the People – will win. Northern...

The collapse of the world economy, and of demand for raw materials, has brought down the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, rocked South Africa's carefully regulated financial sector and endangered...

The presidential election will make or break the careers of many South African political leaders. A new one has unexpectedly appeared. The new Congress of the People (COPE),...

The fiercest contests will be in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, and to a lesser extent, Gauteng. All opposition parties claim the moral high ground; they...

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, despised by African National Congress President Jacob Zuma's bedrock supporters on the party's left and populist wings, is busy making himself indispensable....

Supporters of African National Congress President Jacob Zuma are disturbed by the grassroots popularity of some of their political opponents, including some residual supporters of sacked President Thabo...

On 25 January, Jacob Zuma will be nominated by all provincial branches of the African National Congress as the party's preferred presidential candidate and the leadership will endorse...

Anti-arms trade campaigners and opposition MPs are claiming that the African National Congress government covertly sought to sell weapons to repressive regimes in North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya and Zimbabwe without...

Sizwe Nxasana has just led negotiations for an alliance with China Construction Bank. The two banks have signed a deal which commits FirstRand (the second biggest bank in South Africa) to...

The planned US$20 billion merger of Africa's Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and India's Bharti Airtel would bring together two continental giants to form the world's third largest mobile phone company. The...

A tangled web of financial holdings stretching from South Africa to Ghana and Lebanon could delay plans for a US$20 billion merger of India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's Mobile Telephone...

Just before President Jacob Zuma's inauguration on 9 May, India's state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) signed a commercial cooperation agreement with the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu)...

The South African authorities' refusal of a visa to the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in late March shows how the 'One China' policy extends into relations with...

China may be popular amongst some politicians, but support on the ground can be much thinner. In spite of increased trade and warmer relations, there has been a rise in...

The International Atomic Energy Agency is to decide on a successor to Egypt's Mohamed ElBaradei as Director-General on 26-27 March. Two IAEA Governors, strong>Yukiya Amano and Abdul Samad...