TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: The Deal’s Signed But Where’s The Action?

Cross-border trader Florence Tjani is sceptical about the free trade agreement (FTA) recently signed by southern African states.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: FTA Will ‘‘Choke’’ Small Business

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments agreed to will boost large South African companies’ reach in the region at the expense of small-scale producers and shops.

TRADE-AFRICA: ‘‘An Injury To One Market Is an Injury to All’’

Southern African non-governmental organisations have put forward demands to their governments in resistance to the continuing talks on economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Civil Society Demands More From Talks

A barrage of banners denouncing Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe greeted passersby in the well-manicured gardens of Johannesburg's Sandton Convention Centre, where that country's political crisis is high on the agenda of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit.

EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: ”It Is All Zero Here. We Have Nothing”

Chippy Ncube, aged 6, jubilantly hurried home as soon as she received her school report. She could not hide her excitement at being the top student in her grade one class when schools closed for the holidays recently in Zimbabwe.

ZIMBABWE: Death Penalty Stifling Free Speech

Zimbabwean rights activists are campaigning with unprecedented vigour for an end to the death penalty as the country’s political and economic crisis deepens, arguing that this is essential for an open debate on the nation’s future and its joining the "civilised democracies of the world".