Given the daft things that some people get up to, I have decided to award a Mampara accolade for public figures that engage in really silly behaviour from time to time. A ‘mampara’, a term used... 

A mea culpa is in order before I proceed: this piece focuses on an unforgettable quotation from someone I have mentioned multiple times in this column, and I might therefore sound like a broken... 

The adage that it takes two to tango appears to be perpetually in the blind spot of those who don’t miss an opportunity to highlight how venal politicians can be. It’s always the Jacob Zumas of... 

Social commentator and broadcaster Lukhona Mnguni courted controversy last year when he branded politicians amasela – Xhosa for thieves – who steal public money. The context of this unsavoury... 

Two days ago (assuming you are reading this piece on its publication date, May 27), many Africans at home and abroad were celebrating the fifty-ninth anniversary of the founding of the antecedent... 

One will be hard-pressed to name a country whose economy has not been ravaged by Covid-19. Many countries are now ‘building back better’ – some in not-so-conventional ways – as they attempt to... 

How do you tell when an African leader is about to go rogue? The clearest tell-tale sign is when he (there are very few she’s) starts displaying a propensity for engaging in such behaviour as... 

As some predicted, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has proved to be a drawn-out affair, a far cry from the swift conquest that the Kremlin powers that be had bargained for when they issued the orders... 

This week I revisit the issue of migration, which I touched on a few months back in a piece in which I cited Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Americanah, where the point-of-view character retraces... 

In a move that will go some way towards the realisation of the dream of an integrated Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joined the East African Community (EAC) late last month,... 

A couple of weeks back, I wrote about how, despite being thousands of kilometres away, the Russia-Ukraine conflict would hit African countries hard. But there could be a silver lining, at least for... 

That teachers are an important cog of any society is not debatable. They give children hope, set them up for success as citizens of the world and inspire in them a drive to do well and succeed in... 

South Africa may be half a world away from the war theatre that Ukraine has become since its invasion by Russia on February 24, but the implications of that conflict – which, in my view, will be a... 

I may not have any survey data to back this up, but I don’t think I would be far off the mark in saying commuter taxi drivers and traffic cops who use the slightest pretext to squeeze a bribe – the... 

A FIFA World Cup sans Russia, which was a presence at 11 previous tournaments, starting in 1958 is what is in store when the desert nation of Qatar hosts the quadrennial tournament from November 21... 

Remember former President Jacob Zuma’s 2013 blooper about the state of roads in Malawi, uttered when explaining why his government was introducing urban tolling on Gauteng freeways? His exact words... 

South Africa’s under-fire top cop goes by the name of Khehla Sitole. But it’s surprising how his last name gets misspelt, with the culprits being not only several of the country’s major media... 

There may be debate as to who coined the phrase ‘the beautiful game’ – some say it’s the man known to much of the world as simply Pele, while others aver it’s the brainchild of English former media... 

One of my ‘go to’ sources of international news is the website of The Washington Post. The credibility of the newspaper – which hardly gets its ‘facts’ wrong and promptly corrects any errors that... 

Planet Earth will be home to more than eight-billion of us before year-end and a further ballooning to 9.5-billion by 2050 is projected as sustained high fertility rates and declining mortality in... 

Southern Africa’s political overlords had their first regional shindigs of 2022 early this month. The events, hosted by Malawi, whose new leader offered much hope initially but is proving to be an... 

A repeat of the last two years, when Covid-19 decimated lives and livelihoods, is the last thing anyone would want to see this year. But it appears that the pandemic is here to stay, at least for... 

China has been a key African benefactor for a while, providing financing for all manner of infrastructure and rendering other forms of assistance. Even Mzansi’s Eishkom – as the national... 

This week I’m aboard a time machine that has taken me to the year 2121, a century from now. Time is moving ever so slowly. To avoid descending into boredom, I decide to do some light reading. After... 

I have a suspicion that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an obscure name to many Africa Beat readers. But that’s certainly not the case in the world of the literati. The Nigerian-born novelist is... 

The 2021 local government elections have come and gone, and pundits have written column centimetres upon column centimetres about them. But the temptation to also weigh in has been too much for me.... 

Having looked into my crystal ball, I wrote in this column not so long ago that military coups were on the comeback in Africa and that they were poised to become an all too frequent mode of power... 

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi comes across as someone who is so cool headed that one would expect him to always display diplomatic nous, even in the face of provocation. But that façade... 

Presidential elections are due in six African countries next year, namely Angola, Djibouti, Kenya, Mali, Somaliland and Sudan. While in some countries elections have tended to be robust affairs –... 

A key consensus among Africa’s postcolonial leaders is that the national boundaries drawn by the European powers that partitioned the continent in Berlin in 1884 are as sacrosanct today as they... 

Someone once remarked that football matches are the most heated contests in much of Africa. But in today’s environment, where most countries are doing their best to at least be seen to be abiding... 

Just over six decades ago, former United Nations (UN) secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold died in mysterious circumstances in what is now Zambia. Some cried assassination, with more than a couple of... 

Africa’s got talent! For the latest evidence of this, one need not look further than US news magazine Time’s 2021 list of the most influential 100  individuals on Planet Earth in various spheres of... 

We Africans are an unhappy lot. I am not joking – scientifically derived statistics are available to back this up, and it appears the advent of Covid-19 has exacerbated our collective melancholy.... 

I remember, as a freshman in journalism school, a lecturer telling us that some Western newspapers and other media organisations had settled on a stock headline to use each time an African... 

While the joblessness numbers released by Statistics South Africa recently make for sad reading, bringing the country’s unemployment scourge into sharp focus, the key takeaway is that it is young... 

Africa’s despots – and they are numerous – are increasingly developing a worrying penchant for switching off social media networks to prevent citizens from sharing information they dislike or when... 

I guess you are busy moving house, following your electoral defeat, which spelled the end to your tenancy at State House in Lusaka. When things are less hectic, please spare a few moments to read... 

When Covid hit African shores in early 2020, many predicted the death toll would be much higher than in other regions, given the parlous state of the healthcare system in many countries on the... 

Zweli Mkhize has always come across as a conscientious fellow, which is why it came as a shock when allegations that he used his influence as Health Minister to have a contract awarded to a... 

Late last month, Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations started deploying troops to northern Mozambique to help quell an Islamist insurgency that is threatening the development of... 

That the rest of Africa sets great store by this country is a no-brainer. After all, Mzansi’s is the most developed economy on the continent and, until the Nigerians tweaked the numbers in a...