April 6th, 2023: @Twitter has been randomly shutting down API access for many apps and sadly we were affected today too. Hopefully we will be restored soon! We appreciate your patience until then.
#SouthAfrica: Today the finance minister went back on the decision to exempt #Eskom from reporting expense regularities and the electricity minister lifted the state of disaster declared two months to deal with #loadshedding. These developments are good, but--
--it's alarming that they were made in the first place, because the first was an attempt to cover up the #corruption that we know to have occurred and the second would've simply opened the door to further corruption.
Then, to see government flip flopping on decisions is never a good sign, primarily because it signals a lack of decisive leadership with a vision. What was the plan? Was there a plan? And what was the end goal? Surely only something nefarious.
It's growing increasingly difficult to look at government and not despair.
*two months ago
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I recently spent two weeks in #Zambia, mainly in Lusaka, meeting clients, conducting research, speaking to government officials. Here are some of my key takeaways 🧵🇿🇲
DEBT - this issue came up everywhere, and with good reason. Not only is it driving macroeconomic instability, but the government is nowhere near concluding a deal. And why? Because its largest creditor, #China, isn't happy with the terms laid out by the G20.
It's NB to note Chinese debt is both bilateral (i.e. issued by govt) and private (e.g., held by companies/individuals). Govts generally don't mind debt repayments being deferred, but private creditors are different - they usually want their money back sooner, even at a loss.
#Russia's whistle-stop tour of southern Africa included a visit to #Angola, despite President Lourenço's pivot away from the former Soviet power in recent years. A 🧵 on what's happened between the two countries lately and what it all means.
#Angola in October 2022 became one of just a handful of African states to condemn Russia's invasion of #Ukraine, having previously abstained. Apparently this came from pressure from the EU (mostly Portugal). voaportugues.com/a/angola-vota-…
In December 2022, Lourenço announced his desire for #NATO to equip the military. Russia has supplied Angola with arms for years, but the president spoke of wanting to move away from the Soviet-technique: voaportugues.com/a/grande-entre… (Analysis in English here: news24.com/news24/africa/…)