Matthew Newsome speaks to policy maker, professor, author and activist,Yash Tandon, about kleptocratic capitalism, African sovereignty and the challenges to creating a fair and sustainable society.

In two new reports 'What has Tax got to do with Development: A critical look at Mozambique's Tax System' and 'What has Tax got to do with Development: A Critical look at Zimbabwe’s Tax System', AFRODAD analyses the role played by taxation in the development of the two countries. The link between development and taxation has come up in various fora as development practitioners and activists discussed methods of mobilisation of domestic resources for financing development in the South. The reports reveal that mobilising domestic resources as a means to financing development has become an important development issue, a shift from the past emphasis on financing development from aid and external borrowing.

THE REVOLUTIONS FROM TUNIS TO OUAGADOUGOU: OR IS IT THE RESPONSE OF AFRICAN MASSES TO 'THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE'? (TINA)
Guy Marious Sagna

According to Jan Tibergen, '908 years is enough' to see the 'remedies' of the World Bank aimed at curing our countries of their social evils under structural adjustment. '908 years' is the response in 2011 of African masses from Tunis to Ouagadougou via Cairo – 'it is more than we can wait for. It is too much!'

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FACED WITH THE CHALLENGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC JOKE: INVENTING THE DEMOCRACY OF TOMORROW
Samir Amin

In the wake of what he terms a 'democratic joke', Samir Amin raises a crucial question: ' Give up on elections?' The answer is no, but this begs for a new interrogation: 'How to associate new, rich and inventive forms of democratisation, which enable the making of an election a practice other than that conceived by conservative forces?' Such is the challenge, according to Amin.

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FORMER MOROCCAN POLITICAL PRISONERS CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE
Naridah Khalid

Former Moroccan political prisoners are taking the European Union to task, which recently granted their country an 'advanced status' without actually respecting the criteria on human rights necessary for this status. In this letter the former political prisoners explain how they continue their struggle for their social rehabilitation after years of detention and torture.

Political unity across much of African has proven to be a question of ‘glorified clubs of leadership chums’ protecting one another through regional institutions, writes William Gumede. With the rise of new emerging powers in the world, Africa needs a new ‘revamped’ African Union involving member countries who meet appropriate standards around democracy and economic governance, Gumede argues.

This is that has refused to stop resonating with me... Quite an eye opener and a continuous clarification of just how skewed motives and decisions, purportedly for the good of the people, in reality really are. Well put across. Thank you for this.

Renditions, an underground prison and a new CIA base are elements of an intensifying US war, according to a Nation investigation in Mogadishu, by Jeremy Scahill.

Attending Santiago de Cuba’s Festival of Fire to deliver a lecture on CLR James at a colloquium on Pan-Africanism in the Caribbean, Norman Girvan finds that ‘culture is to Cubans what shopping is to Americans’.

Chaacha Mwita, former managing editor of The Standard in Kenya, and Ron Singer discuss the state of freedom of the press in Kenya, Mwita's newspaper’s experience of a raid during the 2007–08 election and the behaviour of particular elements of the press during the post-election period.

Independence celebrations in Juba, discrimination against civil servants of southern origin by the Sudanese government, the Arab world’s troubled relationship with South Sudan, secession in the DRC and criticisms of the Caine Prize for African Writing feature in this week’s review of African blogs, compiled by Dibussi Tande.

Norman Girvan examines the politics of the Caribbean through the life of CLR James, the influential Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist.

Claims that internet-based tools where behind the Egyptian revolution have angered activists. Nancy Messieh explains why.

Through reference to the history of Chinese medical assistance across the African continent, Li Anshan considers the differences in approaches and understandings behind Western and Chinese ‘aid’ and the scope for potential trilateral (West–China–Africa) cooperation.

The social unrest that has swept through Africa in 2011 has its roots in the stripping of African economies by international finance, argues Pambazuka News editor-in-chief Firoze Manji, in a speech delivered for the Beyond Juba Distinguished Lecture on 22 June. Now is the time to map out a path towards emancipation, he writes.

South Sudan’s independence is ‘a dream come true’ for the country’s people, but ‘to avoid turning that dream into a nightmare, the new nation’s leadership will need to adopt a line of governance that reflects greater commitment to human rights, public freedoms and justice for all,’ cautions Aloys Habimana.

Thanks so much for sharing our story with the world. Our Pambazuka article – – was picked up on AllAfrica and all major international outlets on Africa news, and many friends throughout the world have told me they found out about the Senegalese revolution through your website. Thanks for allowing our voices to be heard and our story to be told in our own words. We are beyond grateful for this.

I'll keep writing as the struggle continues.

Angola's commodity-based economy is tied to global oil and diamond prices, and is thus highly susceptible to exogenous shocks, says this Chatham House briefing paper. 'Urban poverty is a source of social strife. The ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) will need to improve service delivery and quicken the pace of social reform to stave off potential unrest. If mismanaged, the task of choosing a successor to President José Eduardo dos Santos could spark a destabilising power struggle within the MPLA.'

The United Nations should ensure that peacekeepers have a strong mandate to protect civilians and should increase the number of troops deployed to South Sudan, a global coalition of eight international nongovernmental organisations said. The UN Security Council is expected to authorise a new peacekeeping mission in South Sudan to succeed the current United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). The UN secretary-general has recommended increasing the number of troops from the current 5,000 to 7,000. However, some member states have urged lower troop levels, citing cost concerns.

A joint meeting that sought to end the current power crisis in the country on 11 July ended without any solution after lawmakers on the budget committee threw out government officials, including ministers, over accountability concerns. Four ministers were in Parliament pleading for the approval of Shs207.5 billion needed to pay for the outstanding thermal power subsidy bills but without success.

Contrary to popular belief, intra-regional trade has actually been slowly going up since 2000, though the figure still pales into insignificance compared to what the rest of the region trades with the outside world, specifically China and United States of America (USA). SADC Secretariat trade policy advisor Paul Kalenga told The Southern Times that intra-SADC trade grew in absolute terms to US$34 billion in 2009 from US$13.2 billion in 2000, a 155 percent increase.

The acting president of the party of former strongman of Cote d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo has quit. Mamadou Koulibaly resigned, accusing some executive members of being opposed to 'any change'. Koulibaly, who is also the Speaker of the National Assembly, accused the Ivorian People’s Front (FPI) of being 'static, immovable, walled up in disorder, idolatry, worship of its founders, hopeless contradictions and fear of innovation'.