A schism about the division of revenues in the world’s oldest customs union threatens to derail the process of regional economic integration in Southern Africa. The internal problems plaguing the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for the past year have entered a new phase. A concept study looking into revenue sharing from the SACU pool proposes a radical overhaul in which South Africa receives more money, while Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) see their shares drop.

COSATU has condemned the continued persecution of political activists in Zimbabwe and the never improving situation in that country. 'The detention of about 52 activists of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) in Harare on baseless charges of plotting to topple the government indicates the state of insecurity in that country. Amongst those arrested was a former MP for Highfield, who is also the general coordinator of International Socialist Organisation (ISO).'

The Accra-based media rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), is pushing for the inclusion of issues of freedom of expression and media rights in UN Human Rights Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of West African states. Sources told PANA on Saturday in Dakar that MFWA is at an advanced stage of working on 'stakeholders’ reports and recommendations' to State delegates on the 'free expression situation' in West Africa.

A subsidiary of one of the world's largest commodity trading companies stands accused of a series of tax irregularities in Zambia - a desperately poor developing country where life expectancy is 47 and tax revenues are urgently needed. According to a leaked auditors' report, the copper and cobalt mining company Mopani Copper Mines Plc may be using derivatives trades to shift profits out of Zambia in order to minimise its tax bill in the country. Swiss giant Glencore International AG has a 73 per cent interest in Mopani through one of its subsidiaries.

Multiple pre-dawn explosions rocked opposition offices in oil-rich southern Nigeria, the latest in a wave of attacks ahead of April elections, police and the party said Monday (21 February). The explosions went off at the Labour Party campaign offices in Bayelsa, President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state.

Malawi’s security forces blocked a demonstration against fuel shortages on 14 February and arrested organisers of the protest, reports Bloomberg. Mavuto Bamusi, the national coordinator for the Human Rights Consultative Committee, was among those detained, Deputy Commissioner of Police Innocent Botomani told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe.

African Union (AU) election observers say Uganda's presidential poll suffered from several shortcomings, while two losing candidates are calling for Egypt-style protests. Two of the losing presidential candidates on Monday threatened to mobilise mass protests against the government. Museveni said last week he would jail anyone who tried to spark Egypt-style unrest.

Across Morocco, peaceful protests have emerged, with thousands taking to the streets from Tangier to Fes. In the southern city of Marrakech, however, reports that the protests turned into chaos emerged, with claims of vandalism and attempts by protesters to storm police headquarters.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa's longest serving leaders, won election to a fourth term in office by a huge margin on Sunday but the opposition rejected the outcome. Electoral commission results handed Museveni 68 per cent of the vote against challenger Kizza Besigye's 26 per cent.

Ivorian security forces killed at least three civilians when they opened fire to disperse gatherings in an Abidjan district on Sunday, and African leaders ended meetings to resolve a three-month post-election stand-off. There were no organised protests, but security forces fired bursts of live rounds to prevent groups from forming.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team is due to travel to Harare, to meet with representatives from Zimbabwe’s three main political parties. Zuma’s international advisor, Lindiwe Zulu confirmed the trip, saying the parties had given her 'people to work with'. She explained that her team would meet with the parties separately, and collectively, to draw up a framework and discuss what is to be included in the roadmap for elections.

Egypt could soon be looking for a new economic model – one that will be different from the traditional system that has been promoted for years by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), under the reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Since the mid 1980’s, the World Bank, the IMF, and USAID have sought to encourage policies that limit the role of government in the economy, cut budget deficits, and give more influence to the private sector and corporations.

Bad governance and the persistence of the tax avoidance industry allow billions of dollars of profit to be siphoned out of Africa, untaxed, every year. For the past 25 years, tax revenues in most African countries have missed even the low target of 15 per cent of gross domestic product, far less than rich countries’ average of 35 per cent, according to a recent report of the Tax Justice Network’s Africa section.

could not be more timely coming as it does at the heels of Egypt's popular revolution. She provides much food for thought and important principles to potentially guide countries in the throes of change. Her analysis was indeed refreshing to me and others who still value the emancipatory works of Ake, Davidson and Rodney. Keep it coming Dr Daley and many thanks.

In an interview with Basta! at the World Social Forum (WSF), Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, discusses the problems of the ‘aid industry’, the resurgence of Africa’s popular movements and the need for a new people-centred ideology.

‘Baffled, appalled, angered, enraged and deeply disappointed’ by the University of Cape Town’s administrative decision to disestablish the Centre for African Studies without their input or consultation, Concerned CAS Students include their response and position here, hoping that their voices ‘will be heard and taken seriously.’

The reconstruction of a viable Somali state depends largely on the rebirth of a united Ethiopia, writes Samir Amin.

Mubarak has stepped down but that is just the end of the first phase of Egypt’s revolution. What is also at stake is ‘whether the self-organisation learnt from Tahrir Square will take on a class character and whether the public political space, the democratic space opened up by the revolution, will remain open,' writes Nigel C. Gibson.

David Kato, a prominent Ugandan gay rights activist, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in broad daylight at his home in Uganda, dying on his way to hospital. News of Kato’s death reverberated throughout the world as friends, leaders, activists and human rights organisations paid tribute to a man whose lifelong legacy championed human dignity in the face of man’s inhumanity to man.

In January, a judge ruled in favour of a group of gay individuals stating that all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation, have a right to privacy and dignity. One of the plaintiffs recounted her story to the Kampala Dispatch.??