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Published 6th September 1996

Vol 37 No 18


South Africa

Opening up the ANC

President Mandela wants to strengthen the party before he hands over to Thabo Mbeki

The post-Mandela African National Congress is beginning to take shape, amid jostling between competing factions. President Nelson Mandela wants a 'broad-church' leadership. The party hierarchy lobbies for its own favoured candidates from a narrower band. Deputy President and anointed heir Thabo Mbeki favours Jacob Zuma as his successor, we hear. And if not Jacob Zuma, then his wife, Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma.


Gloomy boom

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Speculators talking down the economy have helped create some bargain investments

South Africa's mood swings wildly and so do its financial markets. Less than a year ago, equity and bond markets were booming and the rand exchange rate was unusually stable and ex...


Lissouba lite

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The President is in trouble unless he takes his new Prime Minister seriously

The President's priorities are clear, for once. He wants to be reelected in June 1997. Soon thereafter, Elf-Aquitaine will start to pump oil from its new wells at N'Kossa. In excha...


The boss is back

President Eyadèma has picked a new premier and is planning his own re-election

The one-party state is back in Togo. The resignation of Prime Minister Edem Kodjo on 19 August puts President Gnassingbé Eyadèma back in control, after dividing the o...


Balance of terror

With a narrowing support base, Buyoya has to make progress before the embargo bites

The embargo imposed by Burundi's neighbours on 31 July, six days after the coup which put Major Pierre Buyoya back in power (AC Vol 37 Nos 15 & 16), has two aims. These are to ...



Pointers

Guéi goes

Whatever the truth about the alleged coup plot against President Henri Konan Bédié last October, it is being used comprehensively to weed out perceived enemies of the ruling clique...


Politically correct

The World Bank's slow redeployment of its Africa Region staff (AC Vol 37 No 10) has given more senior jobs to Africans and women. Senegal's Mamadou Dia, formerly a division chief i...


Miami vice

The seizure of two military helicopters on 30 August at Miami's international airport, stored on a plane about to take off for Banjul, has raised more suspicions about the use of G...