Features

HARARE(Capital Markets in Africa) – A decade after Zimbabwe scrapped its own currency to end hyperinflation and began using mainly the U.S. dollar, the economy is back in free fall. Fuel, medicines and other basics are hard to come by and less than 10 percent of the workforce is formally employed. While the new currency regime initially helped stabilize prices, it also increased imports, curtailed exports and gave rise to a chronic shortage of banknotes….

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean human-rights activists criticized President Emmerson Mnangagwa for ordering the arrest of individuals suspected of helping people injured in protests last month. Mnangagwa told supporters at a ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front rally in southern Zimbabwe on Saturday that law-enforcement agencies will detain doctors, lawyers and human-rights activists who provided the assistance. At least 17 people died and hundreds of others were injured when police and men in military uniforms opened fire…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) Theresa May will lead a last-ditch diplomatic drive to persuade European Union leaders to save her Brexit agreement, as she faces a rebellion from Cabinet ministers who want to stop the U.K. leaving without a deal. May’s allies believe she has just nine days left to save her strategy before members of Parliament run out of patience and step in to take over the process in a vote scheduled for Feb….

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Seven Labour politicians quit the U.K.’s main opposition party as Brexit cracked open the structures that have defined British politics for decades, just six weeks before the U.K. is due to leave the European Union. At a snap press conference in London, the members of Parliament stood up to explain why they had resigned in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party. Just five minutes earlier, they’d pressed the button…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, an advocate of Brexit, renewed his hotly debated wager against the British pound as U.K. lawmakers’ failure to agree on the divorce terms heightened concerns the country may crash out of the European Union without a deal. He soured again on the sterling’s prospects last month, betting that the currency will fall further in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Odey said in an interview Monday. The 180-degree…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said the nation’s election commission had been incompetent after a vote scheduled for last weekend was postponed just hours before polling was meant to start. “The reasons why such incompetence manifests itself have to be explained,” Buhari, who’s seeking a second term, told a press conference Monday in Abuja, the capital. “After the election, we have to know who is responsible,” he said, adding the Independent National…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean central bank Governor John Mangudya threw paper files at Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube in an argument over how to handle the nation’s monetary policy, the Zimbabwe Independent reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The altercation took place at a meeting at the Treasury’s offices last week, the Harare-based newspaper said. After tossing the files at Ncube, Mangudya stormed out of the meeting and slammed the door behind him, leaving top government officials…