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/ 7 February 2008
President Thabo Mbeki will strive to show he is still in charge of the country on Friday when he makes his first State of the Nation address since being ousted as leader of the ruling party in December. Jacob Zuma, front-runner to succeed Mbeki as head of state, has already begun to eclipse his rival through control of the party.
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/ 24 January 2008
Recent power cuts in South Africa have enraged the public, raised questions over future investment in Africa’s biggest economy and increased scepticism in the country’s leaders at a time of political uncertainty. Economists estimate the cost of the power cuts already runs to hundreds of millions of rands.
The legal team of arrested Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel began an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday for his release. ”The police did not play open cards when they asked for his arrest,” said Nel’s lawyer Ian Small Smith shortly before the application.
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/ 10 December 2007
Just beyond Johannesburg’s affluent suburbs, with their manicured lawns and swimming pools, the shack dwellers of Diepsloot live amid stinking garbage, raw sewage and rats. Disillusioned with politics, many squatters have little faith that their once-champion, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), will find them better homes and opportunities.
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/ 4 December 2007
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Jacob Zuma is hounded by corruption allegations and his rape trial often overshadows his status as a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle. Yet the burly Zulu politician has shrugged off obstacles that would have crippled others to emerge as favourite to lead the ruling African National Congress.
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/ 7 November 2007
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Tuesday he was committed to the north-south peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war and there would be no return to hostilities after a crisis threatened the pact. ”I would like to assure you there will be no return to war whatsoever,” he said at a state banquet with South African President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 26 October 2007
China has served notice it is accelerating its investment drive in Africa towards full throttle with the planned ,6-billion cash purchase of a major stake in Standard Bank by Beijing’s biggest lender. China’s ICBC bank said on Thursday it is to buy 20% of Standard Bank, the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese commercial bank to date.
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The Constitutional Court ruling on Tuesday dismissing Schabir Shaik’s application to appeal his conviction and sentence for corruption and fraud may have cleared the way for presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma to face corruption charges again, the latest twist in a political drama gripping the country.
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/ 18 September 2007
Zimbabwe is ”closer than ever to complete collapse” under the weight of a deepening economic crisis that threatens to destabilise Southern Africa. The International Crisis Group (ICG) called on the Southern African Development Community group of nations to overcome internal divisions and focus on ways to persuade Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down.
Zambian Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande thinks there may be only one way to influence defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — enlist the help of liberation giants like Nelson Mandela. Magande’s comments were tacit recognition that Southern African Development Community leaders failed during their meeting last week.