Denmark's Queen Margrethe (C) gives a toast to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (3rd L), U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (L), China's Premier Wen Jiabao (3rd R), South Africa's President Jacob Zuma (2nd R), Mexico's President Felipe Calderon (R) and other guests during a dinner at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 17, 2009.
As the economic powerhouse of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has long dreamt of being a global player since the end of apartheid – and been frustrated by the fascination of so many economists with the big four emerging economies, the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), to the exclusion of South Africa.
Now, however, South Africa is daring to dream again, as is Jacob Zuma, its sometimes controversial leader, who just may have found a compelling geopolitical theme for his nine-month-old presidency.
Much has been made of the dramatic final evening at December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen when Barack Obama paid a call on the Chinese delegation, only to find that a meeting was already under way between Chinese, Brazilian, Indian, and South African leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Nigeria’s state-run oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday reassured Oando, ONGC Mittal Energy (OMEL), and other oil firms that it fully supported building the OPEC member’s first crude refinery in more than 20 years.
South Africa’s market architecture has withstood the seismic shocks unleashed by the global financial market collapse. While the rest of the world, including the in-favor quartet of Brazil, Russia, India and China, dusts itself off and revisits the drawing board, South Africa is ready to capitalize on its solid foundation and prudent construction in an environment of fast-paced recovery.
Kuwait’s largest telecommunications company, Zain, whose shareholders voted to lift a cap restricting ownership on Monday, is in talks to sell a stake in its African operations, says Zain CEO Saad al-Barrak.
Social networking kingpin Facebook is now trialing a new streamlined service dubbed Facebook Lite, with an emphasis on mobile and dial-up users in geographic regions where broadband services are limited, non-existent, or simply too expensive for most users.
Seacom, the $600 million underwater fibre-optic cable, has opened the prospect of much greater competition in one of the developing world’s most expensive and limited telecommunications markets. 
As a small boy, Zondwa Mandela regularly visited his grandfather Nelson Mandela and grew close to the legendary leader of the anti-apartheid struggle. After Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he would often interrupt his paperwork to conduct impromptu exercise sessions and dispense advice to his young grandson.
