Recent shakeups at the South African Broadcasting Corporation have revived what seem to have become perpetual controversies over perceived government encroachments on the SABC's independence and pressure to adhere to a party line. Perhaps the question should be what role the government should play in the media at all. After all, every government tries to […]
In a welcome op-ed piece in the Mail & Guardian William Gumede calls for Africa to be more “hard-nosed” with regard to China. Gumede uses China's attempted (and truly unjustifiable) attempt to ship arms to Zimbabwe as a springboard to express larger concerns about the role China might want to play across the continent.
Anyone who has traveled in South Africa and talked politics with people has heard something along this lines: This country is just like Rhodesia, and under black rule we’re going to turn into Zimbabwe. This sort of “When We” alarmism, equal parts racist tripe and romanticized fatuousness is also common among expats around the world […]
Is Kenya starting to heal? Thousands of Kenyans displaced by the post-election violence are beginning to return home, which is a sign that people are moderately confident that resuming their lives is safe, or at least safer than it was in the wake of the disputed election. The Kenya situation embodies what may well prove […]
Times are certainly strange in South African politics in a post-Polokwane world. After all, where else could a non-violent, indeed, from a constitutional vantage point rather smooth, inter-party leadership transition lead to what is effectively a lame-duck political status for many of those in power across the country at the national, provincial, and local levels? […]
In the latest developments in Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF, which now admits to losing to Morgan Tsvangirai, albeit in a plurality that forced a runoff, may delay the next round of voting for a year. During that time, of course, Robert Mugabe will remain entrenched in office and will use the interregnum to consolidate his rule. By […]
Recent revelations that Nelson Mandela is still on the United States’ terrorist watch list (a list he never belonged on in the first place) does not exactly inspire confidence in America's handling of its foreign policy, its approach to terrorism, or its grasp of African policy, does it? [Crossposted at dcat.]
At the Council on Foreign Relations Andrew Meldrum, a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and former Zimbabwe correspondent for the Guardian, discusses (via podcast) the Zimbabwe crisis and South Africa's role in it.
As complex as the situation is in Zimbabwe, we do know that there will be a runoff election. President Robert Mugabe has accepted the results and is preparing for the runoff. His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, however, appears to maintain his view that a runoff is invalid and that he won the count outright. He may […]
I would like to think that I have been as active a voice about the crisis in Zimbabwe and as critical toward Robert Mugabe as anyone writing over the past few years. And yet moral outrage is not a sufficient stance to take to write effectively about Zim, even if a soupcon of outrage may […]
As a follow-up to yesterday's post on press freedom I would encourage you to read Guy Berger's column, “Role Models for a Free Press,” in the Mail & Guardian. A free and open media does not just happen naturally, as events across the globe sadly show on a regular basis and as Berger reveals in […]
Jacob Zuma's reputation appears to be enjoying a fairly significant renaissance. He has even made Time magazine's list of the “100 Most Influential People,” an irredeemably silly exercise that nonetheless is an indicator of Zuma's rise as a potentially serious player not only in South African politics, but perhaps continent-wide and globally. Now if only […]
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