In what has to qualify as the least shocking newsflash ever: Charles Taylor was ruthless.
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are bound to be inextricably linked for the foreseeable future — through the resolution of Zuma's corruption trial or the 2009 election at least — and yet increasingly they seem to represent opposite sides of the same coin. Or to be more precise, they seem to absorb the characteristics of […]
Well, this one provides a cynicism test: Robert Mugabe has declared March 29, the country's election day, to be a public holiday. Now, ordinarily speaking, I believe that anything that makes voting easier and more accessible to the most people is a good thing. And yet Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe is far from ordinary, and […]
IRIN has two stories on the work of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) in Africa. One involves providing emergency food aid for tens of thousands of people affected by cyclone Jokwe in the north of Mozambique. The other addresses the concerns about food scarcity in Sierra Leone (which the UN has judged to […]
You know that Simba Makoni is no one's puppet. And I know that Simba Makoni is no one's puppet. It is absurd to posit, as Robert Mugabe and his supporters have tried to do in recent days, that Makoni is a tool of the west, of the British or the Americans. Which is why it […]
While some still look to cast blame in Kenya, is appears that the narrative in that country, which saw an explosion of unexpected violence after several years in which it appeared that the country would be a model for all of Africa, has turned to reconciliation. Of course to have true reconciliation, there will have […]
I do not even feign to be an economist, but many observers, including Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, worry that the country's current account deficit represents a “major chink in [South Africa's] armour.” The declining value of the rand and the tenuous state of global markets is also a concern, but as Manuel points out, probably […]
British immigration authorities have decided to deny asylum to more than one thousand Zimbabweans living in the country and to expel them from the country. The Home Office has decided that the asylum seekers face no risk of danger if they return to Zimbabwe, which is prima facie absurd. Zimbabwe is a pariah state — […]
In an extensive interview with the Mail & Guardian ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe last week effectively told COSATU to back off, to stop trying to run the party's and the country's internal affairs, and effectively debunked the idea that Jacob Zuma might be more receptive to giving COSATU and the SACP greater power within […]
Is Tokyo Sexwale laying the foundation for a run at the Presidency if Jacob Zuma's path to power is cut off by his corruption case? That was the first question that came to mind when I saw that Sexwale has started pressing Thabo Mbeki to come clean about his role in the arms deal that increasingly is taking […]
There is less than a fortnight before Zimbabweans go to the polls in what could be an epochal election but in what will most likely result in a rigged and effectively predetermined reaffirmation of Robert Mugabe's stranglehold on power. Mugabe is receiving support from some vocal sources, at least some of which makes it pretty […]
So, I was saying about Robert Mugabe's crass manipulations of the system? Oh yes — that he is transparent in his willingness to use them. Mugabe has awarded civil servants an enormous pay hike on the eve of the elections. Very subtle. In the meantime, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has called for more […]
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