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Africa is changing dramatically – and so are outsiders’ attitudes toward it, with the US finally seeming determined to catch up with China, Europe, and India in their interest in the continent. US President Barack Obama’s recent summit with 40 African heads of state and more than 200 US and African business leaders suggests a new, more confident mood. That is encouraging; but as long as parts of Sub-Saharan Africa continue to struggle with violent conflict, poverty, and corruption, the continent’s economic potential will not be fully realized.

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Zimbabwe’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Christopher Mutsvangwa, who is also the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front legislator for Norton, says ZANU-PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa is destroying the party…

Oppah’s war continues – Oppah Muchinguri’s war of words over control of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front Women’s League continues. The women’s leader, who last week said she was stepping down from her post to give way to First Lady Grace Mugabe because of the nasty things that are being done by some leaders, said some women were being kidnapped ahead of the league congress so that they could not contest.  “In some cases, the League has received reports which border on criminal conduct where its members have been kidnapped or sequestered against their will and without the knowledge of their families who do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones. These reports are very worrying and they must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The League wants to make it very clear and put it on record that any of its members who are kidnapped or sequestered ahead of the conference will be deregistered and will thus not be allowed to participate in the conference without fear or favour to enforce discipline as well as to protect and ensure the integrity of the conference.  For the same reasons, the League calls on law enforcement authorities to take the kidnapping reports seriously and let the law take its course against the culprits regardless of their standing or station in the party or society.”

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Capital City of corruption– Finance Minister has described the State Procurement Board, which is responsible for awarding all major government tenders, as the “capital city of corruption” which was even awarding tenders to briefcase business people.  “When you talk about corruption, be it in government or the private sector, first look at the procurement system. This is the capital city of corruption.  Public procurement systems are strategic tools that can either make or destroy a country. They are central to economic value chains and it is the procurement function that can normalise or distort the cost structure in an economic system,” Chinamasa said, according to The Herald.  “When it comes to tenders, something which I have noticed and which worries me is the dominance of briefcase businesses in the tender system. People come to bid yet they do not own anything and, say it is a tender for soap, you will find out they do not have a factory but they are the people who get the tender. The next thing after winning the tender they go to the people who make soap. By so doing the cost structure is different.  We have to do due diligence on those who tender and find out where they are going to find their supplies. We have to enhance the public procurement legislation and governance structures to minimise distortions, that is, the role of middlemen and collusion (with SPB) that increases the cost of doing business and also reach out to a broader supplier base.”

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The Movement for Democratic Change has no intention of mimicking or replicating the structures of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front because one dictator is enough.

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