Features

TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tunisia’s powerful labor federation said it will go ahead with a day-long strike on Thursday after talks with the government collapsed, a new hurdle for authorities under intense pressure to cut spending. The powerful General Labor Union, or UGTT, had been pressing for higher public sector pay. But the raises it sought would undercut an economic reform plan that was a condition for a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan. The…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Martin Fayuluwill go to court to challenge results that showed he lost last month’s presidential election. Fayulu claims official results showing rival opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi won the Dec. 30 poll were rigged and has urged his supporters to protest against them. Fayulu topped an opinion poll before the vote, and Western diplomats have said an observer mission run by the country’s influential Catholic Church found…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia deported another of Israeli diamond billionaire Lev Leviev’s managers at an emerald mine where he is embroiled in a $51 million dispute, Leviev’s local lawyer said. Immigration officials took Sergey Kuznetsov, a Russian who was Leviev’s only remaining manager at the operation and was in charge of the vault where the gems were stored, to the airport and put him on a plane, lawyer Dickson Jere said by phone….

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The surprising outcome of a flawed election demands scrutiny and a willingness to hold any malefactors to account. After a long-overdue election marred by irregularities and a delay in reporting results, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has been provisionally declared the next president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Under happier circumstances, cheers might be in order for Congo’s first peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960. A particle of good news is certainly overdue:…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In a surprise twist, Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of last month’s presidential election, although his victory is being marred by claims by a rival that the poll was rigged. The African country is the world’s main supplier of battery ingredient cobalt and a key source of minerals from copper to tantalum. That means miners, analysts and users of the metals — which range from carmakers…

KINSHASA (capital Markets in Africa) = The first-ever win by an opp osition presidential candidate in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being marred by claims by a rival and an influential Catholic Church body that Felix Tshisekedi’s victory wasn’t a fair reflection of the vote. Official results show Tshisekedi, 55, beat the protege of outgoing President Joseph Kabila, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, and another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu, to become leader of the world’s biggest cobalt producer. Fayulu called…