Country: South Africa
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South Africa FM: Debt is the Hippo Eating the Next Generation’s Inheritance
South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni issued a dire warning to the parliament on Wednesday about the country's debt crisis. With South Africa's debt-to-GDP levels breaking new records this year and forecast to grow to 82% in the next few months, Minister Mboweni compared the debt ...
Chinese Immigrants in Africa Assimilate Far More Than You May Think
It's often widely assumed that Chinese immigrants in Africa prefer to isolate themselves from local communities and generally resist assimilation. That perception, though, is incorrect according to the findings of two leading scholars from Hong Kong, Yan Hairong and Barry Sautman, ...
Acting Ambassador to South Africa Li Nan Summarizes the Key Obstacles in China’s Ties With Africa
China's Acting Ambassador to South Africa, Li Nan, spoke on Monday about the obstacles facing China-Africa relations and provided a list of challenges that he feels need to be overcome. This is not the kind of tone we would have heard from Acting Ambassador Li's predecessor, Lin ...
Another High Profile Chinese Ambassador in Africa Heads Home
China's ambassador to Kenya, Wu Peng, will reportedly make a quiet exit tomorrow when he boards a flight back to Beijing where he'll apparently take on a new assignment. Wu is the second high-profile Chinese envoy in ...
China’s Misguided Twitter Strategy in Africa
There's been a lot of discussions recently over the rise and effectiveness of China's new class of "Wolf Warrior" diplomats, named after the hugely successful 2018 China-Africa action movie, who've made a name for themselves by targeting the U.S. and other critics with aggressive ...
Africa’s Private Debt: What to do About Those Vulture Funds Circling Overhead?
It's been almost three months since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued one of the first calls for emergency debt relief for Africa. Back in March, when the prime minister posted his appeal to the G20 on Twitter, COVID-19 had ...
African Leaders Plead For Faster Debt Relief at International Summit
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta used his opening speech at a virtual leaders summit of the Organization of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) to plead for more debt relief, particularly for the world's poorest countries. "The debt of many member states continues to rise. ...
Ramaphosa: China to Increase PPE Shipments to Africa and Deploy New Centralized Distribution Hub
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that all African countries will be able to procure COVID-19 medical supplies shipped from China through a new central gateway. “What we are now doing, is to set up a procurement platform, which we are going to launch next week, ...
He’s Back! China’s Outspoken Former Ambassador to South Africa Reappears on State Media
After hurriedly leaving South Africa in early April to return to China, apparently because of the pandemic-related shutdown of commercial flights between the two countries, former ambassador Lin Songtian has kept a low profile over the past couple months. But ...
In Xi-Ramaphosa Call the Chinese President Gently Reminds His South African Counterpart About Taiwan and Beijing’s “Core Interests”
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. The bulk of the discussion, according to a summary published by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was what one would expect:
South Africa’s President Doesn’t Just Want a 9-Month Debt Reprieve. He’s Now Calling For a Two-Year “Standstill”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on G20 countries and other international creditors to extend a proposed debt repayment moratorium from nine-months to two years. The president issued the appeal on Friday during a virtual summit of African leaders that he convened in his capacity as chairperson ...
Africa’s Cost of Borrowing is Orders of Magnitude Higher Than the Rest of the World
To understand why African finance leaders are so determined to avoid a default on their Eurobond debt all you have to do is look at the current interest rates that many of the continent's largest economies are paying for their government bonds.