4 minute read
OPINION
Q3 / JULY
APPOINTMENTS
Advertisement
PHUTHUMA NHLEKO
The former MTN group executive chairman’s appointment as an independent non-executive director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is effective from 1 July. He will also become the board chairman from May 2022.
EDNAH OTIENO
East African Breweries Group human resources director Otieno, who has been in the profession for 18 years, has been appointed to the same role at Diageo Great Britain as of 1 July.
DENNIS HEARNE
The US Ambassador to Maputo prepares for a second joint training exercise against Islamic State terrorists in July, as Portugal sends in more troops.
40%
Ethiopia is to sell up to 40% of the stateowned telecommunications company, Ethio Telecom, the main internet and telephone service provider in the country, by July. Many international bidders are interested.
BOOK
A collection of poetry by the Congolese award-winning writer of Tram 83, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, celebrates the Congo River – a metaphor for the post-colonial DRC. Previously the main route for exploitation of the country’s resources, it is now a symbol of life, but also of poverty and insecurity. Mixing history, religion and myths from Africa and Europe, the volume, originally published in French in 2013, is translated by J. Bret Maley for Deep Vellum.
ETHIOPIA Fill and be dammed
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has described preventing the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as an “existential issue” for his country. The dam has a capacity of 74bn cubic metres, and the aim is to generate 6,000MW through 16 turbines, but countries downstream are worried about the long-term effects on their water supplies. The first filling of 4.9bn cubic metres took place in 2020, and Ethiopia has scheduled the second for July 2021. Sudan claimed at the end of May that the filling had already begun, heightening tensions between the two countries.
MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AFP
Q3 / AUGUST
HAKA AINDE HICHIL LEMA
Sixth attem mpt for presidency; a aims to restructur re debt
EDGAR NGULUN
Populist appealing to rural and Copperbelt voters, going fo f r his second elec edte term
ZAMBIA Will the debt crisis mean the end for Lungu?
QUETE/AFP PA ROBERTO
On 12 August, Zambians will head to the polls to vote in general elections, which must be held every five years. Due to heavy borrowing and a combative relationship with mining firms, Zambia is struggling to pay its debts. Will President Edgar Lungu and his Patriotic Front (PF) party hold on to power?
Lungu’s backers want him to stay to spend more on infrastructure and talk tough to mining companies. A populist, he has sought to get more support from women and young people with projects to boost agricultural production.
However, since the 2016 election that gave him the legitimacy of a popular vote – he originally stepped into the presidency when Michael Sata died in office – Lungu has been accused of authoritarianism. In 2017 the Conference of Catholic Bishops, who rarely speak out publicly, made a statement concluding that Zambia ‘is now all, except in designation, a dictatorship’.
One of their complaints was that opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema had been arrested on a trumped-up treason charge – a claim supported by Amnesty International. Hichelema was released, but the possibility of re-arrest hangs over him.
A businessman campaigning on a programme to fix the economy, who lost in the 2016 elections by about 10,000 votes, Hichilema and his United Party for National Development are unlikely to have an easy ride. His traditional support base is in the south and west, whereas Lungu polls well in the north and east (the Copperbelt). Hichilema is trying to win over PF-leaning urban voters and says he wants to unify the country, restructure the debt and reduce government spending.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has published a new voters’ register, which addresses many of the opposition and the bishops’ concerns, but Hichilema and his supporters say they still worry that not everyone who is eligible to vote will be able to do so. Lungu has also banned campaign rallies, citing anti-Covid-19 measures.
‘This is a new start, a new deal for Africa’
MACKY SALL
Senegal’s President Macky Sall backs a drive for rich countries to reallocate some $100bn of their special drawing rights at the IMF to provide more finance for African countries.
SOLAR
The government in South Africa is trying to approve 1GW of solar photovoltaic projects as part of its Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Programme.
23.6m
NGOs are warning of an ‘unprecedented’ rise in the number of people facing acute food insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa in the upcoming lean season, which runs from June until August. The biggest contributor to the rise is the growing number of food-insecure in Nigeria.
