It appears official. South Africa's Parliament has chosen Kgalema Motlanthe as interim president to replace President Thabo Mbeki. Motlanthe, who spent a decade on Robben Island and who has a background in labor union politics will likely have as his main responsibility the healing of divisions, though the wounds might simply be too deep. The […]
The chaos and violence in Somalia continues to intensify. Dozens died in the shelling of a public market in Mogadishu on Monday and more than 100 in total have been killed in scattered fighting in the capital in what observers are proclaiming to be the worst fighting in Somalia in months as Islamist insurgents seek […]
West African states have gotten mixed results in the latest corruption report card from Transparency International: Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Benin, Niger, Mauritania, Nigeria, Togo, and Liberia, improved their ranks, with Benin, Nigeria and Togo making significant gains. Falling this year were Senegal, Gabon, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Chad and […]
South Africa's political foundation continues to rattle as the result of the ANC National Executive Council's decision to request Thabo Mbeki's resignation. Numerous cabinet members have resigned, including, as promised, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and unexpectedly, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Manuel has kept open the possibility that he would return under a new dispensation, but […]
Amidst the tumult in South Africa, Zimbabweans and other observers worry whether Thabo Mbeki's resignation will have a deleterious impact on the still tenuous negotiation process in Zim. Despite Mbeki's de facto ouster, it appears that high-ranking officials in both Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change want Mbeki to continue as […]
It appears that the ANC has tagged party deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe as caretaker president to keep the seat warm for Jacob Zuma. Motlanthe has kept his powder dry in the Zuma-Thabo Mbeki personality wars, which appears to have paid off for him. Motlanthe is left-leaning but gained status within the party for chastising rowdy […]
Most South Africans, and indeed observers the world over, have been left scratching their heads over the recent events that with dizzying speed led to Thabo Mbeki's looming resignation and the biggest political crisis in South Africa since the period prior to 1994. Not all are thrilled with the decision and others are worried about the ramifications. […]
The World Health Organization's Global Malaria Programme has issued its World Malaria Report 2008. The gist of the argument is as follows: Things cotinue to improve. they need to improve more. The number of nets to protect people from malarial mosquitoes has risen impressively. It needs to rise more. the number of people with access […]
Details are sketchy, but it appears that Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign after the ANC's National Executive Committee asked President Thabo Mbeki and several of his sympathizers in government to step down. The NEC took a long time in coming to this solution and appears to have been deeply divided. I am surprised Mbeki […]
Cautious optimism seems to prevail in Zimbabwe, with an emphasis on the “cautious” part. And why not? For the moment relative calm prevails and the worst of the country's political deadlock appears to have been resolved. But Robert Mugabe still has his hands on, or at least near, the reins of power, talks have been […]
Am I the only person for whom the current political crisis in South Africa seems like a scene from The Godfather? It seems as if Tom Hagen, the trusted consiglieri, needs to step in and remind the principals that whatever happens is business, not personal. Instead, everyone is Sonny Corleone, taking it all very, very […]
The 2008 Failed States Index, a joint venture of Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund For Peace, has been released, and as usual, Africa is sadly overrepresented. The continuing presence of African states on this ranking (the continent holds more than half of the slots among the twenty worst — most failing — countries) has caused Peter Pham […]
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