Journalist, Editor and authoritative commentator on African Affairs. Radio talk-show host and prominent guest speaker.
Full disclosure: I did a walk-in COVID vaccination. Waiting for the sms from the vaccine authority seems rather like standing in an orderly queue for a lifeboat on the Titanic. Admirable, but unwise. Completing the process at the DisChem headquarters in Midrand took five hours. Sure it was a Ben
Morocco’s latest piece of diplomatic vandalism has met with a swift and embarrassing repost from the Pan African Parliament. The mendacious Mediterranean kingdom sought to take advantage of the continental talkshop’s leadership paralysis. Using PAP official stationery, a certain Roger Nkodo attacks the European Parliament for criticizing Morocco’s cynical use
South Africa is ready to sign a memorandum of understanding with Finland on access to water and sanitation as a basic human right, says Dr Trevor Blazer of the Department of Water and Sanitation. Finland’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr Jaana Husu-Kallio expresses the hope that Water Affairs
President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Brahim Ghali has left Spain after six-weeks of treatment for COVID. He is in Algiers tonight and will return to his country much of which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. Algeria supports the SADR and provides shelter in refugee camps
“This really is a lightning visit,” says Wandile Mabaso on the lawn of the Boer War hospital that is today the French Ambassador’s residence in Pretoria. “We came here to cook breakfast for him,” says the man now back home in South Africa after two years at a two-Michelin-star Paris
Many of the two dozen African presidents arrived in Paris this week expecting another talk shop. That is the way of multilateral diplomacy: the host builds up a meeting and then hopes to hold it together well enough to give the pre-determined final communique some credibility. What it actually achieves
At a specially erected conference facility within the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a summit on Tuesday of two dozen African leaders. Their agenda is topped by economic recovery from the COVID pandemic. The meeting, which will include international economic groupings, is unashamedly a French
It is back to the drawing board for the Musina-Makhado Special Development Zone. A meeting this week between the farmers in the region and Chinese developers backed by the Limpopo provincial authority was cancelled. The environmental impact assessment for what is South Africa’s largest special economic zone has been thrown
Like all the friends and supporters of the apartheid regime, the absolute monarchy that is Morocco hates being reminded of this. So I was not surprised when the envoy from Rabat Youssef Amrani walked up to the podium where I was speaking from at the Pretoria Country Club and yelled
Web design by Web Guys