Features

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, would reduce the size of the government to help curb the country’s ratio of debt to gross domestic product, leader Mmusi Maimane said. The continent’s most-industrialized economy has to “deal with the question of a bloated state,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Thursday, three weeks before general elections. Given the opportunity, the party would also sell state-owned companies, allowing international partners…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The family of a Kenyan man who died in a Boeing Co. 737 Max 8 that crashed in Ethiopia last month filed a complaint against the planemaker in a court in Illinois. George Kabau was an engineer with General Electric Co., according to his brother Tom Kabau. He was among the 157 people who died when the 737 Max plane went down shortly after take off from the Ethiopian capital,…

GABORONE (Capital Markets in Africa) – The president of Botswana, the nation with the world’s largest elephant population, likened the country’s travails with its numerous pachyderms to the number of Africans who have migrated to Europe to find a better life. Botswana, where the number of elephants is estimated at anything between 115,000 and a quarter of a million, has been praised for its wildlife policies, which have included a ban on both the hunting…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s parliament is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to amend the constitution to let President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi remain in office until 2030. The amendment, approved Sunday by parliament’s legislative committee, moderates earlier proposals that could have kept El-Sisi in office until 2038. Under the latest version, the presidential term would be extended to six years from four, with a limit of two terms. An exception would be made for El-Sisi, who would…

KHARTOUM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sudanese pro-democracy protesters won further concessions from the army that overthrew President Omar al-Bashir, as upheaval in the ruling military council signals a power struggle among the remnants of his 30-year regime. Since taking control on April 11, the council has canceled its curfew, freed prisoners, changed leadership and vowed to review laws that brought trials for perceived indecency or apostasy, all in response to mass protests. Yet it hasn’t…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Both Theresa May’s government and the opposition Labour Party said Sunday that their talks represented the best chance of finding a Brexit solution and ending months of deadlock. But even as David Lidington, May’s de facto deputy, said there was common ground between the two sides, a former leader of May’s Conservative Party called on her to end the discussions, pull Britain out of the European Union and then resign as…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Jeremy Corbyn being elected U.K. prime minister would be just as damaging to British banks’ profits as the country crashing out of the European Union without a withdrawal agreement, according to Citigroup Inc. While London-listed bank stocks have recovered from last year’s lows as the risk of a “no-deal Brexit” gradually subsides, a snap election is becoming more likely as lawmakers in Westminster remain unable to agree on a future…