The ANC dissidents, led by Mosiuoa Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, have continued apace with their plans to form a separate party. They claim that the ANC had become too beholden to the far left, particularly the South African Communist Party (SACP), or at least that the SACP increasingly felt entitled to have […]
Zambian election officials and politicians met on Wednesday in order to address concerns about vote rigging on the eve of the country's October 30 elections. Whether the Electoral Commission of Zambia hopes to preempt an electoral nightmare along the lines of those that have flared in Kenya and Zimbabwe in the last year or is reactively […]
The African National Congress has acted swiftly against the breakaway factions, led by Mosiuoa Lekota, by suspending Lekota and Lekota's former deputy, Mluleki George and threatening further disciplinary action. Lekota is purporting to be shocked and wronged, but that seems disingenuous. He effectively walked away from the party and promised that he was going to […]
Whatever progress or lack threof has been made in Zimbabwe's politicl negotiatons, the country's economic crisis continues unabated. The inflation rate, cartoonish for years, is now estimated to be (and estimates are really al that are plausible when the numbers get this high this fast) an eye-poppingly incomprehensible 231-million percent. That is 231,000,000% for those of you […]
The formation of a breakaway party of erstwhile African National Congress members comes ever closer to fruition. Former Defense Minister Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota, who resigned from his post after Mbeki's forced resignation, has “dropped a bombshell” and “served his divorce papers” to the ANC. Lekota seems determined not only to sever his ties with the ANC […]
One of the unquestionable triumphs of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe before things fell apart was his education policies. The envy of Africa, Zimbabwe's educational system was an area that Mugabe chose to emphasize to counteract the malign neglect of the Ian Smith years. Thus it is doubly tragic that the education system has for all intents and […]
Even as talk of forming a breakaway party from the remnants of the ANC that have fallen out of favor accelerates, Allan Boesak has begun talk of also forming a new United Democratic Front (UDF). The timing of Boesak's proposal is perhaps telling. While the UDF, which Boesak helped form, is often seen as having […]
If you want an indication of the widely diverging opinions that Thabo Mbeki inspires, take a look at Ronald Suresh Roberts’ (utterly unsurprising) apologia and John Pilger's (no less shocking) indictment of Mbeki in The Mail & Guardian. Neither the hero nor villain narrative is compelling, as Pilger acknowledges before then villainizing Mbeki, but these […]
Even as the hope for successful negotiations in Zimbabwe continue to fade away as the sides remain far apart, both Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change are increasingly fraught with dissent from within as to whether power sharing is even desirable. More ominously, there are signs that some of the opposition […]
President Mwai Kibaki is about to undertake the first reshuffling of the cabinet of the Grand Coalition Government as the result of by-elections that changed the composition of parliament. Prime Minister Raila Odinga appears to have agreed to the nature of such changes. This ordinarily mundane undertaking will nonetheless provide a test of the stability […]
Tomorrow will mark Desmond Tutu's 77th birthday and he continues to crusade for justice both in South Africa and globally. Tutu is no stranger to controversy, but when all is said and done he has been a vital figure in his time, the central moral voice within South Africa during the last years of Apartheid […]
The financial meltdown has its apparent epicenter in the United States, but both because of the ripple effects from the American economy and larger factors of a globalized economy, the crisis is best understood as a worldwide issue. And Africa is not exempt and may be more vulnerable than much of the rest of the world. South […]
Some of Robert Mugabe's avaricious henchmen realize that they had better get while the getting is good. Invasions of white-owned farms appear to be on the upswing, presumably because a legitimate power-sharing agreement will bring with it the end to the free lunch for that tiny minority that has enriched itself through its connections with […]
Kgalema Mothlante will have his work cut out for him over the course of the next few months. He will have to stanch the exodus from the ANC, including the increasing likelihood that a breakaway faction will form a new party. He will have to placate Zuma's most ardent supporters, such as the vocal elements […]
Zimbabweans have seen so much over the years that wariness comes more naturally to most of them than optimism. IRIN reports on the short joyride from joy to cynicism that characterizes Zimbabwe as the negotiations for a unity government that even if successful will be a long time in alleviating the ZANU-PF-imposed suffering of the masses. There […]