Southern Africa and islands

Spotlight | Botswana
President Boko's election reshuffles cards in diamond industry

Spotlight | Angola
The real reasons for interior minister Eugénio César Laborinho's sudden sacking

Laborinho was dismissed in early November officially because of his handling of the issue of fuel smuggling to the DRC. He had, however, made no bones of his ambitions to run in Angola's 2027 presidential election.

Inner circles | Zimbabwe
Finance minister Ncube struggles to make mark as Harare's debt negotiator

Mthuli Ncube was little known before he became finance minister in 2018, though he came with an impressive contact book from his time at the African Development Bank. However, he has struggled to make Zimbabwe more democratic as demanded by the country's international financial backers.