When Jacob Zuma first rose to the South African presidency many feared that among the changes he would implement would be to reduce the role of Trevor Manuel. Instead Manuel, long considered among the very best, most effective South African politicians, seems to have had his role augmented. Finance Minister from 1996 to Zuma’s ascension […]
The envelope, please . . . And the winner for African President of the Year goes to . . . Jacob Zuma. And you know what? He probably deserves it. Zuma has defied expectations from left and right, seems to be steering South Africa through a (yes, left-of) middle way, and has seemingly overcome his […]
I’m not beyond a little hagiography, especially when it comes to Nelson Mandela. The New York Times recently published a nice profile of Madiba, “Mandela Endures as South Africa’s Ideal.” There are worse questions one can ask, especially for those figures in public life, than “What would Madiba do?”
The Zimbabwean unity government talks have shown virtually no movement in months. The parties barely speak to one another, with the beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) briefly staging a walk-out from talks before returning last week and thus, in the words of some, stepping “back from the brink.” The situation is the source […]
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has committed his country to a massive expansion of aid across the African continent. The infusion of $10 billion in loans and other sources of support doubles the current amount of Chinese aid to Africa, an amount that already had many fearing that China was engaged in a new scramble […]
Carlos Alberto Parreira former and now restored Bafana Bafana coach carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders. South Africa wants to distinguish itself as a World Cup host, and the legions of rabid fans of the national football team hope that Bafana Bafana will perform in such a way as to augment that […]
As recently as April and the eve of the South African elections, prominent and controversial former-ANC clergyman-turned Congress of the People-leader Alan Boesak was trying to persuade Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille to abandon her ultimately non-viable party and to join forces with COPE. Zille had no interest of course and instead leads the […]
By now we are all well aware of China’s “Scramble for Africa.” But did you know that Brazil is also heavily involved with trade and investment across Africa? Many observers fear that the new wave of involvement in Africa will result in another stage of neocolonialism or clientelism. But there also exists the possibility that […]
South Africa has announced that it will miss a self-imposed deadline of 2014 to redistribute a third of the country’s land from white to black farmers. There is much to lament in this decision. Land reform is necessary, many of the black masses have not seen the benefits of the New South Africa that have […]
Presumably bringing to an end one of the more bizarre chains of events in recent African history (and yes, I am well aware of just how brazen that assertion is) President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equitorial Guinea has pardoned the conspirators in the 2004 coup plot in his country. Simon Mann, a shady British (via […]
Let’s begin the new week with a roundup of stories from across Africa, with commentary as apropos: Mozambique’s voters went to the polls last week and it appears that, as with every national election since independence in 1975, they have returned FRELIMO to power. One voter seems to have captured the consensus opinion: “I voted […]
The talks toward creating the unity government in Zimbabwe have stalled again. And the hardliners in Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party appear to be the most interested in ensuring that no long-term agreement is reached, although Mugabe is stirring the pot by hinting that he might replace ministers from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), including […]
South Africa’s Congress of the People (COPE) appears to be setting itself up as a watchdog for all sorts of political malfeasance and thus to be positioning itself as the legitimate opposition party to the African National Congress (ANC). In recent days COPE has both defended the ANC’s Kader Asmal against supposed hate speech from […]
Is the African National Congress’ internal reckoning coming? I have for years argued that the ANC’s tripartite coalition of the ANC itself, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) is, in the long run, untenable. The ANC is a party of the left and always, to be […]
My friend Mark, who has a PhD in history and an emphasis on water issues, and whose name I am not going to release for what I hope are obvious reasons, has this report on the cholera situation there: Although cholera which ravaged Zimbabwe in 2008/9 has been brought under control especially after the intervention […]