The stalemate in the Armsgate saga, starring SA’s ex-president Thabo Mbeki and featuring bribes for arms, will only be broken from outside South Africa. That’s been my gut feel for a while. A report in today’s Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) raised my hopes in this regard. [Read on]

When the opposition to Thabo Mbeki’s presidency came to a head in 2008, I sided with the group which wanted him out. (Click on tag “Thabo Mbeki” in the right column for articles on Mbeki, or simply look at this.)

[Read on]

This blog is really about hard news. More specifically, news made by South African businesses in Europe. But, every now and then I indulge in an opinion piece, or crystal ball gazing. And then get a helluva kick when my “forecasts” later turn out to be spot-on.      [Read on]

My gut tells me the ANC won’t split, and this article is fuel on my fire. [Read on]

The Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) published a lengthy report on its international pages this morning under the headline “ANC faces split”. [Read on]

On 26/8/2008 the German DAX company MAN Ferrostaal published a comprehensive denial on its website of the claim made by The Sunday Times (on 10/8/2008) that MAN Ferrostaal had paid R30 million under the table to ex-president Thabo Mbeki in exchange for an arms contract.
And repeated its request that the newspaper publish a correction of the report containing the allegations – or face legal action. [Read on]

First published on my old blog on 12/8/2008. 

Roughly nine days have elapsed since a South African newspaper published its first claims of bribery involving the SA president Thabo Mbeki and the German company MAN Ferrostaal on 3 August.  [Read on]

So, they did not get it right, after all.

I refer to the debacle around Trevor Manuel leading to his convening a “hasty news conference in Washington” to say Zuma had asked him to stay on. [Read on]