AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede It will be very unfair to compare President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the current Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli.This is so in the sense that the two African countries face different problems at the moment. For Magufuli he has proved his critics wrong by introducing sweeping reforms in his government that has even forced his doomsayers to acknowledge that its indeed no longer business as usual. On the other hand, Mnangagwa is presently seized with the mammoth task of managing relations within ZANU PF and ensuring that he does not disappoint those who help him ascend to the highest throne in the land. What is rather interesting about these two Presidents is that they all belong to political parties that have been in power for a long time and the founding fathers of their parties (Mugabe and Nyerere) are both credited for their stance on the need for black empowerment. When Magufuli took over Presidency in 2015, Tanzania was burdened by a myriad of problem

By Rawlings Magede The events of the 18th of November 2017 will go down in the history of the country as memorable, yes memorable, in the sense that people from diverse political and socio-economic persuasions united for a common cause and heeded to the call by war veterans to march against former President Robert Mugabe. What was encouraging on the day in question was that even the old, youths and even women who previously shunned demonstrations organized by pressure groups came in their numbers. To me that alone was symbolic and representative of the deep seated problems bedeviling our nation. For me the fact that for that moment people managed to suspend differences and agreed that indeed Mugabe was the elephant in the room. Never in the history of the country had we witnessed such a record crowd during a demonstration against Mugabe. Not to be left out was the media (both public and private) followed developments with enthusiasm right from the time Emmerson Mnangagwa was fired

Over the years I have deliberately avoided writing about the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), South Africa’s vibrant opposition party that was formed in 2013 as I felt that it was too early to measure and evaluate its achievements. The EFF is famed for its vibrancy in the South African Parliament. Not only this, they have also been credited for inciting the public to speak out against injustices that include the Marikana incident, demanding the Executive to be more democratic and transparency among other issues. The strength of the EFF has been its ability to measure the gains of post independent South Africa against those enunciated in the Freedom Charter that was adopted in June 1955.What was striking about the Freedom Charter is that it harboured the aspirations of all the diverse races in South Africa. Its preamble sought to address the more contentious issue of race given the diverse races that even make up present day South Africa. Therefore, its preamble was clear in that it s

Africa is currently grappling and coming to terms with the seemingly interesting news that Africa’s second long serving President, José Eduardo dos Santos will step down after current country elections. This is after 38 years of plunder and self-accumulation of wealth.as part of a “peaceful” transition dos Santos has handpicked his ally, Defence Minister João Lourenço to be his successor. Given the past dominance of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Lourenco is likely to win the Presidential election. Under the new arrangement dos Santos will remain the President of his party, the ruling until at least 2021. This alone vests considerable power in him including power to choose parliamentary candidates. Earlier this month, parliament also passed legislation safeguarding dos Santos’ picks at the head of Defence and intelligence services. While this is cause for celebration in terms of leadership renewal in Africa’s tainted history of military coups, dos Santos’

While Zimbabweans battle coming to terms with the seemingly false news yet true reality of the new Amendment bill, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has slid into a constitutional crisis. The crisis in the country located in central sub-Saharan Africa, started in December 2016 when President Joseph Kabila’s mandate officially and up to this day there are still no signs of an upcoming vote. The current regime led by Joseph Kabila have a sober understanding of the ground rules and is using the crisis to tighten its grip on power. December 19, 2016 should have been his last day in office as president in the country’s first democratic transition since independence in 1960.Kabila won the Presidency in 2001, secured a mandate in 2006 and then romped to victory in the 2011 elections that were described by many as fraudulent. This is partly because the elections failed to pass the democratic test as enunciated in the Congolese law and by various African Union (AU) instruments such as th

I wish to add my thoughts to the ongoing debate on the intentions of President Mugabe youth interface meetings that are currently ongoing across the country. This is one of the most debated issues among political parties today with some opposition parties crying foul alleging that state resources are being used to campaign for ZANU PF ahead of the 2018 elections. In this conversation, I will not try to probe whether its noble for the President to do such a thing but rather on why youths are a key constituency as 2018 elections loom. The Youths interface meetings were also necessitated on the need to capture new voters who seem reluctant to participate in electoral processes. At these meetings his message has been one of rallying this important group to vote for ZANU PF resoundingly in the 2018 elections. What’s rather suspicious is why the interface meetings are specifically targeting youths and not women or men given that in past election campaigns, he has combined his rallies to addr