South Africa

Chinese companies’ treatment of trades unions in South Africa has come to national attention again, just as the elections in Zambia have highlighted the government’s role in managing...

Gwede Mantashe may have hoped for a quiet study tour in China, but it was not to be. The African National Congress Secretary General led a delegation to...

The police Special Investigations Unit, which will gather evidence for President Jacob Zuma's new board of inquiry into the 1999 multibillion-rand arms deal, may now produce results more...

As budgetary pressures and unemployment mount, the government faces a dilemma over how to reform its state-owned enterprises. Business interests and some cash-strapped ministries eagerly demand sweeping privatisation...

A mix of principled ideological differences, intra-party rivalries and commercial interests are stalling efforts by government and the African National Congress to reform state-owned companies.

Julius Malema will fight his five-year suspension – under which he retains the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) Presidency – with an appeal which he plans to...

Fierce purges are under way in the governing African National Congress and its affiliates, paralysing the government and the organisations themselves. The clean-outs are reciprocal, among both opponents...

Two teams of South African mercenaries are believed to have helped members of the Gadaffi family to escape from Libya and may have tried to save the late...

South Africa is nearly ready to launch an international aid agency to advance its strategic foreign policy goals. The South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA) will be partnered...

President Jacob Zuma’s mid-September decision to form a commission of inquiry into the controversial arms deal of the late 1990s is being widely seen as an attempt to...

True to form, President Jacob Zuma acted decisively only when his personal position as leader of the African National Congress came under threat. He wants Julius Malema, President...

Nationalisation of the country’s mines, banks and land is under serious consideration by the governing African National Congress and not only because of the populist calls for it...

The team investigating nationalisation was appointed in September 2010 by the African National Congress National General Council to investigate the ‘desirability and modalities’ of nationalising mines and asked...

President Jacob Zuma’s foreign policy, his critics at home say, is just like his domestic policy: he sits on the fence hoping to please everyone and in the...

Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President: focuses on the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union. Privately critical of South Africa’s embrace of China, Motlanthe wants to work more...

President Jacob Zuma’s intention to stand for a second presidential term next year has divided the ramshackle coalition which controls the governing African National Congress. Since the coalition...

The security forces have gained extra powers under President Jacob Zuma and some fear that these could be used to curb political opposition. The police are certainly tough...

Veterans of the African National Congress’s former military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), helped Jacob Zuma to get elected ANC leader in 2007 and he wants their support...

The African National Congress Youth League’s 24th annual conference convenes on 16 June with a new feature, the ‘Business Networking Lounge’. Under the rubric of ‘Youth Action For...

In spite of many failures in governance and widespread anger among its supporters, the ruling African National Congress decisively won the municipal elections on 18 May. Popular discontent...

President Jacob Zuma’s political position has become precarious and a poor show at the municipal polls will hurt him as much as his governing party (AC Vol 52 No 8)....

The ANC faces tough electoral competition in several constituencies.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma led an African Union peace mission to Libya on 11 April. The mission quickly fell apart, which did nothing for the AU’s poor...

For once, local government elections could change national politics. The municipal polls next month will be a critical test for President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress....

The inner circle, allies inside government, and chief personal enemies

South Africa formally enters the informal club of BRIC nations – Brazil, Russian, India and China – in April in Beijing. On 24 to 26 March, ten key...

Job creation and social services would be government’s top political measures, said Finance Minister Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan in his budget speech on 24 February. He warned that without cooperation over economic...

President Jacob Zuma’s critics again claim he is in thrall to the Durban-based Gupta family. If the African National Congress does badly in the coming local elections, party critics will again...

As next year’s centenary of the African National Congress approaches, a row is raging over how to portray Presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma in the ANC’s...

President Jacob Zuma’s third State of the Nation address to Parliament, on 10 February, was more like a bid for a second term at the elections in 2012....

Beijing appears to call the shots in relations with South Africa. While the Dalai Lama awaited a visa to attend Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party on 7th October, South...

In September, South African mining entrepreneur Patrice Motsepe began talks with his co-chair on the South Africa-India Chief Executive Officers Forum, Ratan Naval Tata, the Chairman of the...

A raid on telecoms company ZTE has called attention to illegal immigration and the rough competition between Chinese companies in South Africa. The Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service and...

The trial of Jack Hsieh (Hsieh Ping-sung) and his four truckers, accused of defrauding powerful Zimbabwean interests, rumbles on. Hsieh, who is from Taiwan and has South African...

On 2 June, Congress of South African Trade Unions General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi called on the government to launch an investigation into Aurora Empowerment Systems and the Pamodzi...

South Africa is now a junior member of BRICS, the group of emerging economies that in some heady assessments will tilt the balance of global power. President Jacob...