SANDF deployment during national shutdown was “wasteful” – EFF
In the wake of this week’s national shutdown called by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), party leader Julius Malema heaped scorn on government for...
Modise piggery cruelty case not over
Despite another legal setback, the National Council of SPCAs, with the assistance of AfriForum’s private prosecution unit, is going ahead with its case of...
Diplomacy and security on new SA number two’s to do list
South Africa’s new number two, Deputy President Paul Mashatile, is expected to be an active player on the diplomatic, military veterans and wider security...
Hawks boss to ensure country complies with FATF after greylisting
National Hawks head, Lieutenant General Advocate Godfrey Lebeya, says the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) will begin to focus its attention on ensuring...
Government action plan will deal with grey listing
The South African Cabinet’s International Co-operation, Trade and Security (ICTS) cluster notes the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) decision to list South Africa as...
ISS: New targets needed to manage West Africa’s military transitions
Since August 2020, five coups have occurred in three West African countries – Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau have weathered...
ISS: Shades of grey – FATF lists South Africa and Nigeria
The greylisting of South Africa last month by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has made waves in the country, occupying substantial media attention....
Another step on the SADC road to improved disaster management
A working Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional humanitarian and emergency operations centre in Mozambique is the forerunner of a similar one covering the...
US Republican lawmakers launch bill denouncing South Africa’s naval exercises with China and Russia
On 21 February, a new piece of legislation was introduced in the United States Congress — in the House of Representatives — by Representative...
FATF grey lists South Africa over money laundering and terrorism funding concerns
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, has grey listed South Africa because it deems the country’s...
South Africa’s fight against corruption, crime receives financial boost
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana says at least R14 billion is to be allocated to the fight against crime and corruption.
The Minister was delivering...
The Gambia’s thwarted coup leaves many questions unanswered
There was no gunfire in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, on December 20, 2022, or the next day when the government announced it...
Reform of State intelligence and security machinery progressing – Gungubele
Minister in The Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, used his response to last week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to inform South Africans government is...
Link between crime and politics in South Africa raises concerns about criminal gangs taking...
A report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (Gitoc) released in September 2022 argues that South Africa has increasingly become a centre...
Election violence in Nigeria’s south east is threatening to derail voting in the region
Violence is a perennial feature of elections in Nigeria. It happens across the three stages of the electoral cycle – before, on and after...
ISS: Thulani Maseko’s assassination roils Eswatini’s democracy project
The murder on 21 January of Eswatini’s top human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko – also one of the kingdom’s best political activists – has...
West Africa has experienced a wave of coups – superficial democracy is to blame
West Africa has seen coups and military takeovers in three countries in 2022. Like those of the past, they came with promises of a...
SA delegation to Morocco on anti-greylisting mission
South Africa’s next step on the road to avoiding greylisting comes in Morocco this week when a National Treasury (NT) delegation meets the Financial...
ISS: São Tomé and Príncipe’s hidden turbulence
São Tomé and Príncipe, the archipelagic island state just off the coast of Gabon, is regarded as a beacon of democracy in Africa. It...
South Africa’s intelligence watchdog is failing civil society – how to restore its credibility
In October, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet committed to a range of reforms to the country’s intelligence services. He based these...
“Transition” orchestrated by Chad’s military government goes awry
The violent crackdown on the peaceful opposition in Chad exposes the coercive intimidation behind the military junta’s unwillingness to facilitate a genuine democratic transition.
Security...
ISS: Can Mozambique’s march to authoritarianism be stopped?
With outside attention focused on violent extremism and gas exports, Mozambique’s democratic backsliding is proceeding apace.
In his first three years after becoming president in...
Jihadism and military takeovers in West Africa: Burkina Faso coup highlights the links
The West African sub-region at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert has recently attracted significant attention. The main reasons have been an increase...
Understanding Burkina Faso’s latest coup
Two coups d’état in 9 months mark the latest inflection point in Burkina Faso’s political instability, causing heightened uncertainty as the country faces an...
Parliament joins SANDF as anti-DPWI
Patricia de Lille’s Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has again been pushed out of the picture, this time by Finance Minister Enoch...
Defence Minister’s alleged animal cruelty case back in court next year
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise looks set to appoint defence of the legal kind as the AfriForum private prosecution unit served papers...
ISS: Security priorities for Burkina Faso’s new transition
On 30 September, disgruntled army officers staged a coup that toppled Burkina Faso’s transitional military leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba. Eight months earlier, Damiba had...
No Public Protector sanction for Mapisa-Nqakula’s 2020 Zimbabwe flight
Current National Assembly (NA) Speaker and former defence and military veterans minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was “sufficiently sanctioned” for the Zimbabwe “taxi flight” two years...
Cocaine, coups plague Guinea-Bissau
Since gaining independence in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has experienced at least nine different coup attempts.
The most recent plot, in February, shared similarities with others in...
ISS: Can Nigeria finance its war against insurgents?
Nigeria now spends more than it earns just to service its debt – a crisis that raises serious concerns about the government’s ability to...
Nigeria’s next president faces a collapsing security situation: five things he can do
Election season in Nigeria is an interesting time. It is, expectedly, characterised by heated contestations and conversations that are inherently partisan.
It is also often...
New senior police officer is NatJoints co-chair
The South African government’s top security structure – NatJoints – now has a new three-star police general as a co-chair.
Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili who...
KZN still on course to rebuild in aftermath of July 2021 unrest – Zikalala
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala says the July 2021 social unrest left many households in untold suffering and desperation.
Zikalala made the remarks on the one-year...
ISS: Cameroon’s missed foreign policy potential in Africa
In April, Cameroon renewed a military cooperation agreement with Russia as Moscow intensified its offensive in Ukraine. The timing certainly supports Russia’s claim that...
Fellow Africans are not our enemies – Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to exercise tolerance and to fight xenophobia in all its forms.
This as the continent marks Africa...
NA Speaker wants a stop to unconstitutional changes of government
National Assembly (NA) Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula added her voice to that of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for a stop to unconstitutional changes...
Kiir and Machar: insights into South Sudan’s strongmen
Salva Kiir and Riek Machar loom large over South Sudan’s recent history. And they will keep holding the future of the young nation in...
ISS: Burkina Faso’s junta under pressure to deliver on security promises
The junta in power in Ouagadougou justified the 24 January coup by citing the inability of former president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré’s government to...
ISS: Rising insecurity a setback for The Gambia’s transition
After two decades of dictatorship, The Gambia embraced democracy with President Adama Barrow’s 2016 election victory. But as is often the case in transitions...
Defence Minister and her deputy no high flyers in the gifts and hospitality stakes
The civilians appointed by SA National Defence Force (SANDF) Commander-in-Chief, President Cyril Ramaphosa, are not high flyers in the accepted sense with both Minister...
Guilty verdict in Sankara trial shows power of activists to fight impunity in Burkina...
On April 6, 2022, a military tribunal in Burkina Faso found 11 men, including the former president, Blaise Compaoré, guilty of “attacks on state...
Peace in South Sudan hinges on forging a unified military force: but it’s proving...
Implementation of the 2018 peace agreement in South Sudan lags significantly behind its mandated schedule. One of the reasons for this slow progress is...
ISS: New SA police chief’s main test is winning public trust
South Africa’s new national commissioner of police, General Fannie Masemola is by all accounts a competent career professional. When he took office on 1...
No signs of a true transition in Chad a year after Idriss Déby’s death
Many Chadians are looking to the capital of Qatar where almost 50 political-military movements and representatives of the Chadian transitional government have been engaged...
Vigilantism, crime, illegal migration will be dealt with – President Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has used his weekly newsletter to condemn anti-foreigner sentiments, acts of vigilantism and assure citizens that government is dealing with illegal...
Easter service address by Chief of the South African National Defence Force General Rudzani...
The Chief of Staff of the SANDF Lt Gen L. Yam, Chiefs of Services and Divisions, Members of the Plenary Defence Staff Council, the...
Ramaphosa lifts national state of disaster
Over two years of government imposed regulatory measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa ended on Monday when President Cyril Ramaphosa...
President Ramaphosa starts testimony at July unrest hearings
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country “stared into the heart of darkness” during the height of the July 2021 unrest.
The President was giving his...
President Ramaphosa to present testimony at July unrest hearings
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to appear at the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) National Investigative Hearing into the July 2021 Unrest in...
