Africa Yearbook Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara in 2018 Volume 15 Edited by Victor Adetula Benedikt Kamski Andreas Mehler Henning Melber LEIDEN | BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents Preface xi List of Abbreviations xiii Factual Overview (as of 31 December 2018) xv List of Authors xix Part 1 Sub-Saharan Africa 3 Victor Adetula, Benedikt Kamski, Andreas Mehler and Henning Melber Part 2 African-European Relations 19 Christine Hackenesch and Niels Keijzer Part 3 West Africa 35 Victor Adetula Benin 46 Alexander Stroh Burkina Faso 54 Daniel Eizenga Cabo Verde 63 Gerhard Seibert Côte d’Ivoire 69 Jesper Bjarnesen The Gambia 78 Alice Bellagamba For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV vi Contents Ghana 84 Jennifer Boylan Guinea 97 Anita Schroven Guinea-Bissau 105 Christoph Kohl Liberia 112 Franzisca Zanker Mali 121 Bruce Whitehouse Mauritania 127 Helena Olsson and Claes Olsson Niger 134 Klaas van Walraven Nigeria 143 Heinrich Bergstresser Senegal 161 Mamadou Bodian Sierra Leone 172 Krijn Peters Togo 179 Dirk Kohnert Part 4 Central Africa 189 Andreas Mehler Cameroon 199 Fanny Pigeaud For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents vii Central African Republic 209 Andreas Mehler Chad 218 Ketil Fred Hansen Congo 227 Brett L. Carter Democratic Republic of the Congo 234 Janosch Kullenberg Equatorial Guinea 251 Joseph N. Mangarella Gabon 257 Douglas Yates São Tomé and Príncipe 264 Gerhard Seibert Part 5 Eastern Africa 273 Benedikt Kamski Burundi 285 Tomas van Acker Comoros 296 Simon Massey Djibouti 303 Nicole Hirt Eritrea 309 Nicole Hirt Ethiopia 317 Jon Abbink For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV viii Contents Kenya 330 Nanjala Nyabola Rwanda 342 Margot Leegwater Seychelles 352 Anthoni van Nieuwkerk Somalia 359 Jon Abbink South Sudan 369 Daniel Large Sudan 378 Jean-Nicolas Bach and Clément Deshayes Tanzania 388 Kurt Hirschler and Rolf Hofmeier Uganda 402 Anna Reuss Part 6 Southern Africa 415 Henning Melber Angola 424 Jon Schubert Botswana 436 David Sebudubudu Eswatini 445 Marisha Ramdeen Lesotho 450 Roger Southall For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents ix Madagascar 456 Richard R. Marcus Malawi 463 George Dzimbiri and Lewis Dzimbiri Mauritius 471 Sheila Bunwaree Mozambique 477 Joseph Hanlon Namibia 487 Henning Melber South Africa 496 Sanusha Naidu Zambia 512 Edalina Rodrigues Sanches Zimbabwe 520 Amin Y. Kamete For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV Zambia Edalina Rodrigues Sanches Edgar Lungu’s presidency faced significant political and economic challenges in a year that marked the fifty-fourth anniversary of Zambia’s independence. Several critics of the regime faced legal action, repression, and intimidation. There were repeated attacks on media freedom. The opposition filed an impeachment mo- tion against Lungu, but a legal challenge prevented it being tabled until the end of the year. The Constitutional Court ruled that Lungu was eligible to run in 2021. Lungu became chairperson of the SADC’s Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation. Important bilateral agreements were established. China continued to be a strategic trade and investment partner. Chinese investments triggered protests and fuelled interparty conflict over the lack of transparency in the government’s dealings. The government increased the minimum wages for various categories of workers. Despite growth in the economy, major challenges remained. Domestic Politics In March, the main opposition party, the United Party for National Development (UPND) filed an impeachment motion against Lungu, alleging various constitutional © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004417663_055 For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV Zambia 513 breaches, namely the president’s failure to hand over power to the speaker of the National Assembly when the UPND had challenged his election in the High Court; the contracting of unsustainably high public debt; interference in the operations of the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH), when he had directed the company to discontinue proceedings it had commenced for the recovery of debt from the Canadian-based mining and metals company First Quantum Minerals, to the detriment of the people of Zambia; and acts of corrup- tion given the unprecedented procurement of personal wealth and assets in his short time as president. Other charges included the disposal of Natural Resources Development College (NRDC) land, the transfer of proceeds from the sale of mu- kula (rosewood) logs to Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation Limited (ZAFFICO) rather than the Consolidated Fund as required by law, and wasting state resources through the acquisition of fire department tenders (42 fire trucks were bought at $ 1 m a piece). The UPND-led motion obtained the signatures of one- third of the 167-member parliament, which was enough to get it tabled before the parliament. However, it needed at least 111 of the legislators to vote in favour to be approved, which meant the motion was doomed to fail as the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) held more than 50% of the seats in parliament. Outside of the parliament, Chishimba Kambwili, leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and for- mer PF cabinet minister, also seconded the motion. On 22 March, a day before the motion was proposed, he was arrested and charged with 37 counts of ‘being in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime’ and two counts of ‘ob- taining pecuniary advantage’. A day later, more NDC members – general secretary Mwenya Musenge, national mobilisation chairman Christopher Mutale, and na- tional elections chairperson Ackson Simwezya – were arrested in Luapula Province while conducting interviews for prospective candidates ahead of the 27 March local government by-elections in that area. In the National Assembly, deputy speaker Catherine Namugala recognised that the motion met all formal requirements, but she declined to table it in parliament, saying that the “Constitution does not give a timeframe within which an impeachment motion must be tabled”. In April, the speaker of the National Assembly, Patrick Matibini, declared he had not yet decided whether to allow the process to begin. Although discussion on the motion was ex- pected in June, PF activists instituted legal proceedings to stop the impeachment motion. In November, and with no resolution on the motion, UPND presidential advisor Douglas Syakalima stated that his party planned to move another motion of impeachment against the president, but eventually gave up due to the time parlia- ment took to approve the 2019 national budget. As in previous years, a number of by-elections took place following the resigna- tion of local and national representatives. Local government by-elections were held on 24 April across 16 wards. The ruling PF won all the seats in Eastern, Copperbelt, Muchinga, Luapula, and Lusaka Provinces, while the main opposition UPND se- cured victories in the remaining four wards spread across Northwestern, Southern, For use by the Author only | © 2019 Koninklijke Brill NV 514 Rodrigues Sanches and Western Provinces. More by-elections followed on 6 September to elect repre- sentatives for parliament (in Kasenengwa) and in five council wards. The PF won the Kasenengwa parliamentary seat and four wards; the remaining ward was won by the UPND. A final round of by-elections took place on 20 November. The PF won the parliamentary seat of Lupososhi and Mangango and elected councils for the Chisanga and Nkhanka wards, while the UPND elected councils for the Lusinde, Tumvwanganai, and Sipuma wards. The results of the year’s by-elections were used by the ruling party to argue that they still enjoyed the support of voters, while op- position parties claimed that intimidation and vote buying had played a major role in determining the results. The PF held intraparty elections in all the provinces for the ward, constituency, and district committees between 1 September and 8 November. This was in line with provisions of the constitution, which requires political parties to hold free and regular elections and to function in accordance with democratic principles. Some of the elections were far from consensual. There was confusion in the 11 October elections in the Copperbelt, after the ‘original’ PF officials were blocked from fill- ing in the nomination forms for the Butungwa ward. The 20 October elections in Matero also were controversial – two PF members took their party’s secretary gen- eral, Davies Mwila, to court seeking an order declaring the intraparty elections held null and void, due to a number of irregularities. In December, the Constitutional Court ruled that President Lungu was eligible to run for president in 2021. This was after much speculation on whether Lungu’s first period in office – between 2015 and 2016, following the death of Michael Sata – counted as a ‘term’ even though it had lasted only 18 months. His second period in office started in 2016 following his victory in the presidential elections held in August of that year. Whereas the opposition contended that his first period in office counted as a term, and that he therefore had already reached the two-term constitu- tional limit, Lungu’s supporters argued that, under the constitution, a president has only served a term if in office for at least three years of the full five-year term. The court’s unanimous ruling raised criticism from the opposition parties. Hakainde Hichelema considered that the ruling effectively opened the way to a third term for Lungu, and Elias Chipimo, leader of the smaller National Restoration Party, claimed the ruling undermined confidence in the judiciary. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia reported several episodes in which media freedom came under attack. Examples of censorship included when an official from Zambia Information Communication and Technology Authority stated that WhatsApp group administrators would be required to register with the Authority, and when the government announced that roughly 200 Facebook pages had been blocked.