Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe faced mounting pressure on Thursday over presidential poll results as rival Morgan Tsvangirai ramped up his charm offensive ahead of a regional weekend summit on the crisis. While Mugabe has lain low at home, Tsvangirai has launched a diplomatic drive in recent days.
One of South Africa’s favourite pastimes is debating race — driven by controversies such as the schools pledge and the University of Free State debacle. But the weird thing about these debates is that they do not reach a consensus on the contentious issues that divide the rainbow nation. There is simply an ongoing din.
The most important job of the Southern African Development Community summit scheduled for Lusaka, Zambia, this weekend, would be to push the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the country’s election results, a senior South African official has told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
Yes, the African National Congress’s conference at Polokwane last December was a watershed ushering in a grassroots democracy. But it has also bequeathed a worrying political culture in evidence at this week’s abortive ANC Youth League conference. As delegates boozed, scuffled and stripped for the camera, not a single resolution was passed.
The number of South Africans slipping into relative poverty between 1996 and 2007 increased substantially, according to figures released by the Institute for Race Relations. Only a few people are benefiting from the market. There are examples of how this has materialised elsewhere.
The quest for a permanent political settlement in Kenya ran into trouble again this week with the opposition Orange Democratic Movement announcing that it is pulling out of talks on the formation of a coalition government. Talks on the composition of a coalition cabinet have been dragging on for a month.
Food prices have the potential to change regimes and the course of history. When Marie Antoinette allegedly said ”Let them eat cake” in 1789, she was wondering why higher bread prices were causing so much trouble in Paris. Analysts say pushing the urban poor beyond their purchasing limits can, and will, cause unrest.
President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe has been rejected by his own party. The split between the Union Buildings and Luthuli House on the issue became apparent this week when Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai chose to meet Jacob Zuma and Gwede Mantashe in Johannesburg.
”We are not the Chinese.” This was the message from India this week as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government used the first India-Africa Forum Summit in Delhi to redefine the way in which its role in Africa is viewed. The Mail & Guardian‘s Nic Dawes attended the summit.
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