In politics “who’s now” is never as exciting a topic as “who’s next.” Thus at Business Day Peter Bruce argues (not at all convincingly) that South Africa is looking at another Polokwane moment when the current leadership is bound to be overthrown for someone else. Of course the ANC will not choose its next president […]
Obviously the situation across what I’ll call Greater Sudan is not good. Civilians are increasingly caught up in violence over the increasingly fraught border(s) between Sudan and South Sudan, which is supposed to gain autonomy in a matter of days, with Abyei the key flashpoint. Here are some assessments from people who know a lot […]
I question the wisdom of the African Union (AU) to send the South African President Jacob Zuma, who is also the SADC mediator and facilitator on the Zimbabwean crisis, to Libya in an attempt to revive the AU “roadmap” (another AU loaded word) for ending the conflict between Muammar Gaddafi and the anti-Gaddafi uprising. Zuma’s […]
This past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had the harrowing tale of mob vigilantism that targeted the wrong person in Diepsloot, one of Johannesburg’s townships. The story captures many of the issues that envelop South Africa today — issues of crime and punishment and vigilantism; of victims and poverty and despair; of hopelessness and hope […]
I’m exhausted from 100+ degree weather and hosting family, but to hold you over, I point you to Zunguzungu, which had a massive “Sunday Reading” post on, well, Sunday.
Nigerian anti-corruption officials arrested the outgoing speaker of the country’s House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, at his home in Abuja on Sunday, on suspicion of defrauding the country of undisclosed amounts. The arrest took place after a four-hour standoff. I am always curious as to what these sorts of high-profile arrests mean, especially in country’s […]
As I predicted, Bafana Bafana earned a 0-0 draw in Cairo, in their African Cup of Nations Qualifier, solidifying their chances of moving forward in the CAF while making Egypt’s odds of advancing virtually nonexistent.
Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal can qualify for next year’s African Cup of Nations (CAF) with victories this weekend. But the most compelling match may be South Africa taking on Egypt in Cairo. Egypt is the most successful team in the history of Africa’s greatest tournament, having won seven times, and they have won the last […]
Just a whole lotta stories clogging my internet tabs: Both First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have Africa trips pending in the next few days. This is great, and both trips have clear policy implications. You know what would be even better? If we started to get some sense of a […]
Africa’s last monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland reportedly has cancelled plans for a “silver jubilee” (estimated to be 1.2 million euros) amid warning from the IMF that the landlocked kingdom is teetering on financial collapse. Well, the truth is that King Mswati needs to cancel many things, including: • He should unban political parties, […]
One can find Khartoum morally abhorrent. One can find Sudan’s regime to be a travesty on human rights. I do on both counts. But you’ve got to hand it to them — from a pure realpolitik/power politics vantage point, Omar al-Bashir and company sure know how the game is played. On Sunday the Northern Sudanese […]
Yes, of course Botswana’s public sector strike hurts the poor disproportionately. In Botswana, as in just about everywhere, the poor outnumber everyone else. But to assert that public sector strikes harm them disproportionately is to not be curious as to whether or not decisions by those against whom the public sector strikers are striking harm […]
I have always had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the travel writings of Paul Theroux. On the one hand he is (usually) a graceful writer and an intrepid traveler. The best travel writing transports the reader to a place he or she has never been and may never be, or provides new insights to a […]