| Title | Post date | Teaser |
|---|---|---|
DRC fighting due to failed security sector reform |
New report calls for complete overhaul of security sector
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Shining a light on Malawi's darkest day |
July 20th 2011 was the darkest day in a very dark period for Malawi – when twenty innocent protestors were killed by police during mass demonstrations calling for an end to President Bingu wa Mutharika’s increasingly repressive and authoritarian policies. More than a year later, a Commission of Inquiry has finally produced its report into the killings – and it is a damning condemnation of the Mutharika government and the police. |
|
DRC's crumbling legitimacy |
On 9 December 2011, incumbent president Joseph Kabila, who had run as an independent, was declared the winner of the disputed November 28 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with 49 percent of the vote. His nearest rival, Etienne Tshisekedi of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) placed a distant second in the official count with 32 percent. In concurrent elections for the 500-seat National Assembly, Kabila’s People’s Party for reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) and its allies won a total of 341 seats. |
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Spotlight on the London Stock Exchange |
Report claims LSE is a haven for laundered conflict assets
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Who funds Botswana's political parties? |
Botswana is often referred to as one of the few shining examples of democracy in Africa. But scratch the surface and things are sometimes less than shiny – such as discovering that there is no public funding for political parties, which gives the ruling party a huge (and perhaps unbeatable) advantage. Indeed, a recent study by the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa concluded that, “The lack of state funding of political parties [in Botswana] has created an uneven political playing field for aspiring candidates, with a particularly negative impact on opposition parties.” |
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People's Parliament meets in Swaziland |
3000 Swazis call for multi-party democracy
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Lesotho PM steps down after 14 years |
Boost for regional democracy as opposition wins election
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Not your average president |
If you do a search of President Joyce Banda’s speech on May 18 2012, you will find a range of international media articles with headlines such as “Malawi president vows to repeal gay ban” (BBC, Huffington Post); “Malawi to overturn homosexual ban” (Guardian); “Malawi president to repeal gay laws” (Al-Jazeera) or “Malawi’s Banda seeks repeal of gay ban” (South African Independent Newspapers). These headlines do not reflect the truth of Banda’s speech, and unfortunately they completely miss the significance of the occasion. |
|
Why Botswana has never had a coup |
Lauded as a ‘shining example of democracy’, Botswana is one of the few countries in Africa that has never experienced a military coup. I recently studied a paper by Dr Naison Ngoma, a senior researcher at Institute of Security Studies in South Africa titled, Coups and Coup Attempts in Africa: Is there a missing link? In the paper, Ngoma talks about how Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius have never had military coups or even coup attempts – although he doesn’t go into detail about why not. |
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African Commission vrs Swazi government |
ACHPR alarmed by actions of Swazi authorities
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