The University of Witwatersrand again canceled classes Wednesday amid ongoing student protests that have swept across South Africa’s universities. The protests escalated at the Johannesburg campus this week, with clashes between students and police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets. The university’s attempt to resume classes following negotiations with…
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall to 1.6 percent in 2016, but despite reaching the lowest level in two decades is expected to make a modest recovery in 2017. Real GDP is forecast to grow 2.9 percent in 2017, then rise to 3.6 percent in 2018. That’s…
African leaders offered their condolences Wednesday on the news that Shimon Peres, former prime minister and president of Israel, has died. Peres was a 1994 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, following his work on the Oslo Peace Accords alongside the late Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He…
Student protests in South Africa escalated on Monday as both the University of Pretoria and nearby Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) were forced to suspend classes and close their doors. The day began with tires burned on the main TUT campus as students continued protests over high tuition and fees,…
France and Africa have a long and intertwined history. As a former colonial ruler, France still possesses considerable influence and power in its former colonies to this very day, but the connections between Paris and its former colonial brethren are deeper than commonly assumed. The entanglement – a concept referred…
Arnaud is a French freelance writer with an African heart who has lived in 10 different Sub-Saharan countries in the past decade. He is currently based in Paris.
Under tight security, Somalia welcomes IGAD summit leaders Streets and markets in Mogadishu were closed Tuesday, as regional heads of state arrived at the Peace Hotel for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in the Somali capital. Security forces remained vigilant as Somalia, for the first time since IGAD…
Death toll rises from Tanzania’s 5.9 earthquake The death toll from a weekend earthquake in Tanzania continues to rise, with 16 fatalities and more than 250 injured. At least 800 buildings in Bukoba are damaged, according to news reports from AFP Africa and neighboring Uganda. The United States Geological Survey,…
The months and years ahead shall pose growing challenges for the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU). Though vast differences exist in geography, economy, and governance, there is much the AU can stand to learn from the EU – both in achievement and shortcomings – as it progresses…
The recent release of Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2015 showed that has South Africa moved up the rankings by five places from 67th to 61st place. While this signifies a decrease in the perceived corruption within the country, the situation in the country still remains far…
Last month South Africans voiced their discontent over the country’s Telecommunications and Postal Services request to regulate over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp and Skype. Now, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have come out in support of South Africans fighting the proposed policy. In a meeting held on January 26 at…
On Thursday the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) released a statement on the launch of the New Deal on Energy at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The aim of the deal is to attain universal access to energy in Africa by 2025, in order to achieve this goal,…
South Africans have hit back at a proposal to protect the country’s mobile service providers against competition from free communication apps. A South African women’s magazine, All4Women created the petition fighting to prevent telecoms from regulating free to use services (after downloaded) such as WhatsApp and Skype, known as over-the-top (OTT)…
The South African political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has publically condemned the words of Penny Sparrow, the KwaZulu-Natal realtor. Sparrow described black beachgoers on Facebook as “monkeys” in reaction to the rubbish left behind after New Year’s Eve festivities. Before the post was deleted by Sparrow, she had written,…
#Zumamustfall is the hashtag thousands of South Africans are using for the nationwide protest which is calling for the ousting of President Jacob Zuma. Zuma has faced a massive backlash for dismissing South Africa’s Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and replacing him with ANC MP Des van Rooyen. The news was…
Cybercrime, has been on the rise world wide and Africa is feeling it too. African countries are focusing on beefing up their investigators who work on such issues. The New Times reported that 28 investigators coming from 10 different African countries came together in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, in late October…