Malawian fuel transporters back President Mutharika's view that the fuel shortage is a logistics problem, not a lack of fuel at ports, and offer to move fuel from Beira, Nacala, Tanga and Dar es Salaam.
Fuel at four regional ports, local trucks ready to move it. If the bottleneck is logistics, putting Malawian hauliers to work is the fastest fix on the table. #Malawi #SADC
nyasatimes.com/fuel-transpor…
@NyasaTimess Malawi's fuel queues are not a truck problem. Even if fuel is sitting at Beira, Nacala and Dar es Salaam, it only moves once it is paid for in dollars. @MalawiGovt has repeatedly pointed to the forex shortage as the cause.
More trucks cannot fix an empty forex account.
A practical step for @APMutharika, @ReserveBankMW and @meramalawi: license USD fuel stations. NGOs, embassies such as @USEmbassyLLW, exporters, tourism operators and diaspora businesses already hold dollars. Let them buy fuel directly through @nocmaMW and @PILMalawi supply chains. That brings in extra stock without drawing on reserves and frees kwacha supply for ordinary motorists.
Zimbabwe did exactly this during its own currency crisis, and the fuel kept flowing.
Fix the dollar, fix the queue.
@NationOnlineMw @Times360Malawi @zodiakonline @mbcmalawi
#Malawi #FuelCrisis #MalawiFuel
Eswatini's Q2 performance report: domestic fuel prices are up 51.2% since April, mainly due to the Middle East crisis. Yet real GDP grew 6.5% y/y in Q2, up from 4.1% a year earlier, with mining and quarrying up 24.3% on coal exports and manufacturing up 14%.
A 51.2% fuel price rise imported from the Middle East crisis, and the economy still accelerated to 6.5% growth. Coal exports and factories are carrying the load. The question now is how long households can absorb the fuel shock. #Eswatini #SADC
times.co.sz/47535/business/f…
Malawi's competition regulator CFTC has approved TNM's takeover of national fibre operator Open Connect Ltd, citing OCL's 'severe financial distress and negative working capital'. Conditions: no discriminatory pricing, all OCL staff kept, wholesale and retail separated, three years of monitoring.
A distressed national fibre backbone rescued, every job kept and rivals protected by ring-fencing. Malawi's regulator has shown how to save strategic infrastructure without handing out a free monopoly. #Malawi
mwnation.com/cftc-nods-to-tn…
Speaking to the Congolese diaspora in Moscow on 30 Oct, President Tshisekedi called a Belgian judicial case over illicit Katanga mineral exploitation that touches his relatives a 'complot', said he is still waiting to be told what was found, and announced a counter-attack.
Belgian searches, no findings disclosed, and a President demanding to see the evidence. If nothing is produced, Kinshasa's argument that Katanga's mineral story belongs in Congolese institutions only gets stronger. #DRC #Katanga
radiookapi.net/2026/11/01/ac…
Zimbabwe's ministries asked for ZiG974bn for 2027. Treasury says it can fund ZiG347bn. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube: 'Everybody is going to accommodate a haircut.' No new domestic arrears, and projects above US$2m need Treasury approval. #Zimbabwe
A ZiG627bn gap, and the answer is not printing money: an infrastructure fund drawing private and pension capital for roads, health and water, plus a pledge that civil servants' bonuses will be paid. Can cash-budget discipline keep the ZiG steady through 2027? #Zimbabwe #ZiG
newzimbabwe.com/government-t…
Bete 𝕏 retweeted
SADC is most peaceful place on the African continent. The reason; we are the only 82% Christian region in Africa.
We must keep it as such across all our 16 SADC countries. We can't let people ran away from beliefs, systems & then bring the same beliefs that failed them here !
King Mswati III paid tribute to the late Princess Lindiwe, former Home Affairs Minister, for building the national prayer gatherings he commissioned in 1987, and named Princess Tsandzisiwe to carry the initiative forward.
A swift handover to Princess Tsandzisiwe keeps a national tradition dating to 1987 running without a gap. Continuity of this kind is part of what anchors stability in #Eswatini.
eswatiniobserver.com/king-pa…
Tshisekedi told the Congolese diaspora in Moscow the national dialogue is advancing, its organising committee will be named soon, and only those with nothing to do with Rwanda will take part. No dialogue with 'Rwanda's proxies', he said.
Reconciliation 'will not happen without justice', Tshisekedi said. Drawing the line at backers of the armed rebellion keeps the dialogue from becoming a reward for violence. Can it still be broad enough to hold? #DRC #SADC
actualite.cd/2026/11/01/rdc-…
Ramaphosa closed the ANC campaign at the Siyanqoba rally in Mdantsane: 'the ANC is still mighty', and on 4 November the party will 'show those that say ANC is going to lose'. More than 500,000 volunteers were told to get voters out.
A promise to remove mayors and councillors who fail to implement mandates is the accountability test Buffalo City voters will hold the ANC to after 4 November. Can a 500,000-strong ground game beat the polls? #SouthAfrica #LGE2026
sowetan.co.za/politics/2026-…
Bete 𝕏 retweeted
Michael Joseph is generally accepted as the father of mobile money - MPesa, Ecocash, Airtel Money, MTN MoMo etc
He was the CEO of Safaricom.
Joseph himself says he isn’t the father of mobile money, but the mother. He credits the mobile money idea to Nick Hughes, a Vodafone executive whom he says was the mobile money inventor.
Joseph navigated powerful banking cartels and skeptical politicians in Kenya who didn’t like the ideal of a mobile phone company providing banking services. They sponsored lawsuits designed to shut down MPESA and called it a Ponzi scheme.
In 2008, then acting Minister of finance John Michuki ordered the national treasury and central bank of Kenya to aggressively audit it. “I will investigate the matter and it will not end well”, he famously said.
To navigate the oncoming shut down, Joseph sought a meeting with the minister. He tried a technical presentation of the software and trust accounts set up. After realizing the minister was not convinced, he pulled out his phone in the minister’s presence, The minister had a foreman at his farm in Nyandarua mountains north of Nairobi. Joseph initiated a live MPesa transfer of money to the minister’s farm foreman. The foreman at the rural farm up the mountains called Michuki’s office to confirm he had received the funds instantly. That live demo softened the minister’s stance.
Zimbabwe caught up 3 years later to the Kenyan bandwagon but somewhat faced the same nightmares as MPESA
Contrary to popular opinion, the mobile network that started mobile money in Zimbabwe wasn’t Econet. It was Netone. On 1 January 2011, the @RewardKangai led Netone launched OneWallet, a P2P service similar to MPesa.
Econet launched @EcoCashZW 9 months later on 29 September 2011.
These launches were not without serious headaches. They followed the same trajectory as in Kenya.
Because of Zimbabwe’s dollarisation and change problems in 2011, mobile money grew faster than anywhere in the world. This spooked banks who made a major pushback against the innovation - using the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe to lean on the RBZ to nudge mobile money out.
Munyaradzi Kereke, then Gono’s special assistant even wrote a paper claiming that Ecocash was going to used by Strive Masiyiwa to distribute money to far flung rural areas to get Tsvangirai’s part (at that time it wasn’t in opposition as it was in the GNU) to win the 2013 elections.
The fight was a bitter infrastructure and political feud, with banks seeking to get mobile money shut down. Later banks demanded access to Ecocash USSD infrastructure, which Econet initially refused to share.
The first bank to actually adopt Ecocash in a manner that forced other bank’s hands was CBZ. It was also around that time that Econet acquired a 45% stake in TN Bank which was later rebranded Steward Bank. Econet gave USSD access in a discriminatory fashion causing the banks to launch lawsuits against Econet at the Competition & Tariff Commission, accusing Econet of corporate bullying and being an unregulated monopoly.
To navigate the complexity, Ecocash hired an expert from MPesa, Japhet Aritho, a Kenyan who was for a while the COO of Ecocash.
Every innovation you use today didn’t come easy, some people had to fight. Others lost, you probably use it because someone won the fight. Others had sleepless nights trying to keep the innovation alive - never take this for granted.
Madagascar National Parks raises entry fees from 1 November: Ranomafana general access doubles from 55,000 Ar to 110,000 Ar and birdwatching rises to 200,000 Ar, the first revision in 12 years, with revenue tied to conservation.
Isalo's proposed natural-pool fee was withdrawn by official note, and Malagasy visitors still pay 15,000 Ar at Isalo. Can tourism-funded conservation keep the island's parks less dependent on donors? #Madagascar #Tourism
fr.allafrica.com/stories/202…
In Moscow, transition President Michael Randrianirina was made honorary professor of Russia's RANEPA. The sides plan training for nearly 5,000 Malagasy students in Russia and a University of Antananarivo link with St Petersburg State University.
Randrianirina asked for a concrete, structured partnership with measurable results. Skills transfer at this scale could prove the transition's most durable foreign-policy gain. #Madagascar #Russia
fr.allafrica.com/stories/202…
DRC Presidency welcomes the exit from the FATF grey list, saying the task now is to 'transform this advance into opportunities', crediting the government and Finance Minister and urging reforms to continue.
Off the grey list after monitoring since October 2022. Will Kinshasa convert the win into cheaper cross-border payments and stronger investor confidence for business? #DRC #FATF
7sur7.cd/2026/10/31/sortie-d…
Zimbabwe's Master of the High Court confirms Wicknell Chivayo's estate has been registered and an initial meeting held, but no executor is appointed yet. The US$25m tied to his matrimonial dispute is not a confirmed valuation; a Supreme Court ruling is pending.
Registration within weeks, an initial meeting held, and the US$25m question left to a pending Supreme Court ruling: the estate of one of the country's best-known businessmen is moving through the courts by the book. #Zimbabwe #RuleOfLaw
nehandaradio.com/2026/10/31/…
ARM plans a R15.2bn upgrade at Bokoni platinum mine: a refurbished 60ktpm concentrator from 2028 and a new 120ktpm plant by 2030. Chair Patrice Motsepe says water infrastructure challenges must be addressed, with Vaal Central bulk supply listed as a top-10 risk.
A R15.2bn bet on Bokoni says South African platinum still draws long-term capital. The open question is water: if bulk supply to mines is fixed, how much more PGM investment follows? #SouthAfrica
timeslive.co.za/news/busines…
Zimbabwe's Mine Rescue Association president Shepherd Manamike, speaking at the national mine rescue competition in Hwange, warned that active rescue teams are declining and BG4 breathing-apparatus support may end within three years, and urged mines to set dedicated rescue budgets.
Output is growing, and the industry itself is asking for rescue capacity to grow with it. Dedicated rescue budgets now, before BG4 support runs out, is the consequence-minded answer: rescue readiness 'cannot wait for an incident'. #Zimbabwe #Mining
miningzimbabwe.com/mraz-warn…
Madagascar's Health Ministry has extended the Ebola quarantine and medical follow-up already applied to arrivals from the DRC to travellers from Kenya and Nigeria, under ministerial note n°569, with checks at Ivato airport. The ministry reports no suspected or confirmed case in the country.
No case at home, yet the border net is widened anyway. Acting before the virus arrives is the cheapest public health there is. Will other island states in the region follow Antananarivo's lead? #Madagascar #Ebola
fr.allafrica.com/stories/202…
Lesotho's Natural Resources Minister Mohlomi Moleko says Rasebala Dam rehabilitation in Mafeteng, planned for a year, could be finished within six months at contractors' current pace. The Lowlands Water Development Project is due to start in 2027, expected to benefit about 150,000 people.
A dam job planned for twelve months, now on course for six. If that pace holds, drought relief reaches Mafeteng half a year early, with the 2027 Lowlands project set to extend supply to about 150,000 people across Mafeteng and Mohale's Hoek. #Lesotho #WaterSecurity
lena.gov.ls/rasebala-dam-reh…
Western Cape SANTACO rejects the provincial Mobility Department's claim of an unofficial taxi go-slow in Cape Town, saying statements were issued without verification. TimesLIVE reports fears some residents may struggle to reach polls on Wednesday.
With a court interdict in force and CATA Langa suspended, the priority now is safe transport to the polls. Can the province and taxi bodies align before 4 November? #SouthAfrica #LGE2026
ewn.co.za/2026/10/31/wc-sant…
