10 September
Guinea/AU: After suspension by Ecowas on Wednesday, Guinea has now also been suspended by the African Union (AU) following Sunday’s coup.
BBC Africa Live 10 September 2021. 14:00
Ethiopia: In one month from now, the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will start producing electricity. At first, two turbines will produce 750 MW. Later, the dam will produce 8 times more.
BBC Africa Live 10 September 2021. 14:52
09 September 2021
Zambia: Before appointing his government, new president Hakainde Hichilema got rid of all the country’s “security chiefs”, accusing them “of wilfully negating the spirit and letter of Zambia’s Constitution and being brazenly partisan and unprofessional in their conduct” – complicity in former president Lungu’s autocratic tendencies and abuses including arbitrary detentions of political activists. Hichilema’s action will raise alarm “(i)n most SADC countries (where) the military and ruling party are joined at the hip, enabling the army to act as guarantor of the regime.”
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/zambias-new-president-takes-aim-at-the-security-sector
Global warming: Bigger appendages (ears, tails, beaks, etc.) are of advantage in warmer environments (they help in cooling down, e.g. elephants flapping their ears); in colder climates, warm-blooded animals tend to have smaller appendages. With global warming, some animals have started to increase their appendages, especially birds their beaks.
https://theconversation.com/new-research-reveals-animals-are-changing-their-body-shapes-to-cope-with-climate-change-166267
South Africa: “(T)he democratic transition in 1994 was the result of an ‘elite pact’ which transformed the country’s politics but did little to undermine the foundations of white economic power”, so “inequalities of the present (…) continue to have a strong racial dimension.” But can capitalism be deracialised? Equity employment and black economic empowerment legislation have tried but have certainly not been an overall success. Is the ANC capable of achieving a profound transformation? Or does the ANC need to be removed from power for profound change to happen?
https://theconversation.com/race-and-capitalism-no-easy-answers-but-posturing-will-get-south-africa-nowhere-166976
Nigeria: The country being one of the top ten borrowers at the World Bank is no problem – the external debt/GDP ratio was at 12.7% in 2019 and the debt-service ratio (debt/export earnings) at 7% in 2019. But the country faces economic challenges that could have an effect on debt – over-dependence on oil being one, sluggish growth and bad economic management are others. The country should also work to improve its reputation on international financial markets.
https://theconversation.com/nigerias-debt-is-sustainable-but-dangers-loom-on-the-horizon-166372