The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

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Their meeting in Harare today follows Washington’s  year-long extension of punitive measures against Mnangagwa and some of his party colleagues for posing a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

The communique at the end of the binational commission between Zimbabwe and South Africa  says the adverse effects of sanctions slapped on Robert Mugabe’s government for stealing elections and violating human rights has been far-reaching across Zimbabwe’s political and socio-economic spectrums.

The presidents agreed on the important of boosting trade and investment to driven the strategic relationship between the  Southern African neighbours. 

They expressed their condolences to the families of those who died in last Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash near Addis Ababa.

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Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu says South Africa remains ready to help Zimbabwe wherever they might need assistance .

Briefing the media in Pretoria, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu says South Africa has a strong interest in having Zimbabwe as a peaceful and prosperous neighbour.

She says lifting international sanctions imposed against the Mugabe regime in  Zimbabwe is central to this.

Which is why sanctions will feature prominently in bilateral talks between Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Cyril Ramaphosa in Harare on March 12.

“We believe that as long as Zimbabwe has sanctions imposed on it, the possibility of it recovering from its economic woes remains  grim and dim,” she said.

Sisulu says Ramaphosa will be accompanied by a  business delegation.

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In Harare President Emmerson Mnangagwe says the act of terror won’t stall Zimbabwe’s elections next month.

And Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed insists his reform will continue despite the grenade attack.

The South Africa statements on Zimbabwe and Ethiopia express President Cyril Ramaphosa’s shock and dismay at the terror attacks  against his counterparts Emmerson Mnangagwa and Abiy Ahmed.

He sends condolences to those wounded in the blasts  – 41 in Zimbabwe and 44 in Ethiopia – and the families of the two people killed in Addis Ababa.

He joins the African Union in expressing solidarity with the governments and people of Zimbabwe and Ethiopia in their efforts to create unity, reconciliation, peace and democracy.   

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Police in Lusaka have arrested 55 people protesting against the tough measures taken to counter the disease.

Soldiers have been in the streets of the Zambian capital chasing a friend street vendors and closing markets they regard as unhygienic.

Schools have not reopened for the New Year.

Gatherings of more than five people are banned. This includes funerals and weddings.

Police tear gassed people attending a church service.

Zambians are prevented from travelling abroad and the country’s passport offices hav been closed.

Zimbabwe’s new President Emerson Mnangagwa has deferred a visit to his neighbour until the emergency is over.

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Their meeting, already postponed once, meant they could not attend the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangawa who they wished well as he steers his country through its transition process.

Presidents Jacob Zuma and Joao Lourenco raised the structured bilateral mechanism between South Africa and Angola to the level of the Bi-National Commission which will be presided over by the heads of state.

The presidents added to the thirty-three agreements and memoranda of understanding between the countries.

They believe the agreed  visa waiver for ordinary passport holders will facilitate easy movement of people between the two countries.

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