Kenyans on Wednesday hailed the passing of laws needed for a power-sharing deal to end a deadly post-election crisis but worried about bitter debates ahead as discussion turned to sharing out posts. The rare conciliatory mood among the country’s lawmakers elated many Kenyans. But there were few illusions about the difficult days ahead.
Since 2002, the Zimbabwean military has consistently threatened to veto any poll that goes against its preferred candidate. So what can voters do? How should the region react to an incumbent ruler who portrays the election campaign as little more than an attempt to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle?
"The loyalty to Mugabe of rank-and-file soldiers is by no means guaranteed. But among the army’s top brass, some powerful forces are not ready to contemplate defeat." Patrick Smith, editor of <i>Africa Confidential</i>, contemplates the shifting loyalties of politicians.
The twilight of Robert Mugabe’s rule offers a lesson in the rules of political succession. As several among the next generation of Southern African leaders have already discovered — from Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria to former president Benjamin Mkapa in Dar es Salaam — it is a rare leader indeed who gets to nominate his replacement.
Up to three million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the country’s 12-million strong population, live outside the country, the majority in South Africa. Although they are not in the thick of Zimbabwe’s struggles, they keenly follow the politics. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> spoke to a cross-section of Zimbabweans living in exile in Johannesburg.
Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was ”shocked and disgusted” by controversial umpire Darrell Hair’s reinstatement, but Australia welcomed the move on Wednesday. Inzamam clashed with Hair in the forfeited Oval Test between Pakistan and England in August 2006, which led to the Australian umpire’s ban from standing in top-level matches.
The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) 2007 mandate to South Africa to broker an agreement between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change should be viewed as an extension of the "quiet diplomacy" that has been the hallmark of the South African and SADC approach to the Zimbabwe crisis since 2000.
"I am one of many Kenyans shocked to learn that Zimbabweans are looking at recent events in my country as a possible way to approach an election outcome they may not like in their own country’s elections at the end of the month," writes Rasna Warah, an African editor and columnist.
Credible elections in Zimbabwe were among the main objectives of the talks between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last year. But despite new regulations, Zimbabwe’s polls are unlikely to be free or fair, writes Tiseke Kasambala.
South Africa recorded a current-account deficit of 7,5% of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2007 from 8,1% previously, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said on Wednesday. Governor Tito Mboweni said that the deficit on the current account was more than fully financed through inflows of financial capital, and the SARB continued to build up international reserves.