Southern Africa Archive

Oil-rich Angola is enduring serious hardship with the slump in global energy prices, and there is a sense of things being in a state of flux in a country deeply dependent on petrodollars over the past decade. Throwing major political uncertainty into the mix, in March, long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announced his intention to step down and retire from active politics in 2018, which would effectively end a four-decade-long tenure as head of state. Whether dos Santos follows through with his pledge remains to be seen; he made a similar announcement in 2001, but then reneged. The context […]

Mozambique’s government was recently revealed to have borrowed $1.4 billion in previously undisclosed loans. In an email interview, Fernanda Massarongo Chivulele, a researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies in Maputo, discussed the loan scandal and the fallout for Mozambique’s politics and economy. WPR: What is the background of Mozambique’s debt crisis, and what are the immediate consequences and implications for the donor-dependent government budget? Fernanda Massarongo Chivulele: Mozambique was taken by surprise by an April report in The Wall Street Journal about the existence of an undisclosed loan to the government in 2013, around the same time […]

Last month, Solonandrasana Olivier Mahafaly became prime minister of Madagascar after Jean Ravelonarivo resigned, ostensibly, due to disagreements with President Hery Rajaonarimampianina over development policy. In an email interview, Professor Richard R. Marcus, the director of the Global Studies Institute at California State University, Long Beach, discussed politics in Madagascar and the country’s political reconciliation. WPR: What are the reasons behind Madagascan Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo’s resignation? Richard Marcus: Ravelonarivo was brought in to perform an impossible role. His predecessor, Roger Kolo, survived only 276 days in office, largely due to his confrontations with President Rajaonarimampianina and his inability to […]

Earlier this year, the U.S. Congress passed the Electrify Africa Act, ensuring the continuation of U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Power Africa” initiative, which aims to expand power-generation capabilities across the continent. In an email interview, Ilmi Granoff, a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute, discussed the state of Power Africa and power generation in Africa. WPR: Broadly speaking, what are the current power-generation capabilities of sub-Saharan Africa, and where are the biggest shortfalls? Ilmi Granoff: The entire installed capacity of sub-Saharan Africa is about 76 gigawatts (GW). The shortfalls are enormous: South Africa has 48 of those 76 […]