The African National Congress (ANC) was pulling in 57.7 percent of the support in South Africa’s legislative election, as the country’s electoral commission neared the end of vote-counting on Friday night. The ANC’s lead comes with 96 percent of the vote counted by 8 p.m., as the commission wraps up…
With just five days to go before South Africa’s legislative elections, the main opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) made the rounds in Johannesburg with a novel way to send its message ahead of a final campaign rally on Saturday. The DA paid for a digital billboard and beamed its campaign…
A four-year investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) advocacy group traced illegally sourced timber from the forests of Congo Brazzaville and Gabon, to discover what it says are extensive holdings by a Chinese firm linked to bribery, corruption, tax evasion and ecosystem destruction. “According to evidence collected by EIA,…
Ten human rights and anti-corruption organizations said Friday that they are aligned in their opposition to Equatorial Guinea, and a decision they say retaliates against the French lawyer who pressed a successful money laundering case against Teodorin Nguema Obiang. The arrest warrant issued by Equatorial Guinea turned the tables, listing…
Sierra Leone has begun a long-awaited inquiry to determine what happened to millions in funding during the nation’s devastating Ebola crisis – money that government officials and outbreak survivors say never reached Ebola patients and their communities. The funds went missing as more than 14,000 people in Sierra Leone contracted…
By Miguel Sanz João Lourenço has been president of Angola since September 2017. About one year later, he cemented his hold on power by taking over the chairmanship of the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA). Although he reshuffled the government, for instance by replacing the transport minister, and the…
Former South African president Jacob Zuma joined his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a show of African National Congress unity on Tuesday as the ANC celebrated its anniversary in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The celebration at the Ohlange Institute – a site founded by the first ANC president in 1912 –…
The Congolese mining entity Gécamines issued a scathing rebuke to international NGOs on Wednesday, with a report that seeks to debunk the years of allegations about corruption and missing millions. The 60-page report begins with an introduction from Albert Yuma-Mulimbi, a close ally of outgoing President Joseph Kabila and the…
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, imprisoned earlier this year after a corruption scandal, now faces new charges that allegedly involved benefits for President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. Federal prosecutors charged Lula with money laundering after he accepted USD$260,000 as a donation to his Lula Foundation…
The Nigerian people were cheated out of an estimated USD$6 billion when a 2011 oil rights deal enriched its own officials but really benefited two international oil majors – Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian Eni – instead of Nigeria, according to a report released Monday by London-based NGO Global…
Teodorin Obiang Nguema, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president and the country’s vice president himself, is immersed in scandal again. This time Brazilian authorities seized USD$1.4 million found in a suitcase as his delegation arrived at Viracopos International Airport in Campinas on Friday. Obiang also traveled with about 20 luxury…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Namibian authorities have launched an investigation into the death of Paulus Tshilunga, a senior intelligence officer found in his vehicle in Windhoek with a single gunshot wound to the head. Tshilunga was a senior manager with the Namibia Central Intelligence Service (NCIS), and had worked as a spy since the…
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic serve as examples of how corruption is at the root of conflict, making war “good business” for profiteers who perpetuate atrocities. That’s according to John Prendergast, who with actor George Clooney co-founded the investigative work at The…
Prosecutors in Kenya have called for the arrest of more than a dozen people, including the heads of the National Land Commission (NLC) and managing director of the state-owned Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), following a fraud and corruption investigation into the country’s USD$3.2 billion railroad project. NLC Chairman Mohammed Abdalla…
In Sierra Leone, former vice president Victor Foh and former mines minister Mansaray Minkailu were arrested Thursday as part of new President Julius Maada Bio’s aggressive crackdown on corruption. Despite claims that the arrests are politically motivated, Maada Bio – the Sierra Leone People’s Party candidate elected in a disputed…