The divisions that led to the recent summit of the pan-African body failing to elect new commissioners to guide its affairs are signs that the union could well be sliding back to the days of the one-dimensional Organisation of African Unity, writes Desmond Davies When the African Union was launched with great fanfare in Durban [...]
The ANC must have had a headache when they saw the bill in the morning. The near unanimous passing of the Protection of Information Bill by South Africa’s ANC was always going to cost them, but local protests over the censorship plans has been bolstered by worldwide denunciation of what media and commentators are calling [...]
Rapid Growth Markets (RGMs) are expected to surpass advanced economies for growth by almost four fold this year, according to professional service firm Ernst & Young’s new quarterly Rapid Growth Markets Forecast (RGMF), released today. RGM’s are expected to grow jointly by 6.2% this year compared with 1.6% for the Eurozone. This new quarterly economic [...]
A new report by Health Alert Communications, a source of clinical, scientific, and regulatory text, has recalculated AIDS associated death estimates in South Africa – suggesting a significant inconsistency with presupposed numbers. The country’s AIDS prevalence is widely considered to be of epidemic proportions. WHO/UNAIDS statistics suggest hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in [...]
It’s very unusual, unless a virtual state of war exists, for a senior member of one country’s ruling party to say openly that he will work with the opposition parties of a neighbouring country to bring down its elected government. That’s precisely what Julius Malema, head of the ANC Youth League, did at the end of [...]
Perhaps not since way back in ‘97, when South African investigative journalists for the renowned TV series ‘Carte Blanche’ exposed illegal canned lion hunting, has there been such a scandal involving the country’s wildlife. Recently, there have been a number of headlines detailing alarming poaching statistics and the increase in the poaching of rhinos despite [...]
While the judges of the Sierra Leone Special Court presently sit in The Hague to ponder the fate of Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, for his role in the ‘blood diamond war’ of Sierra Leone, a book has just been published in London which recounts more of the background to one of Africa’s [...]
South Africa is celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday by urging people to undertake 67 minutes of voluntary work to honour the 67 years Mandela dedicated to fight apartheid in the country. Mandela, who has not appeared at a public engagement since the closing ceremony of the football World Cup in July 2010, is spending the [...]
For the second time, South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma went Libya to seek peace accord. In the first visit as part of an African Union delegation, Zuma headed to the strife-torn northern country in order to push for a deal which would bring fighting between Libyan government troops and the opposition to an end. The [...]
The country’s latest local elections ‘went well’, according to Pansy Tlakula, the Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). She spoke with pride at seeing a higher turnout than in previous years during what was a remarkably smooth process that has left most party leaders satisfied. The campaign itself was a lively one, [...]
