The paralysis in the ANC and government due to the scandals that are engulfing President Jacob Zuma, his refusal to step down willingly, and his attempts to anoint a successor of his own making, and the pushback by opponents, means that South Africa will remain rudderless until at least the 2019 national elections.

An incredibly focused, dogged officer with a take-no-prisoner attitude toward corruption, Magu has played an invaluable role in the remarkable success story of President Buhari’s fight against graft. It is therefore puzzling that several months after his appointment in acting capacity as Nigeria’s anti-corruption Tzar, Magu has not been screened by the Senate for conformation at his post.

Ghana goes into a hotly contested presidential election next month. The voters expect nothing less than a free and fair poll. Key institutions such as the electoral commission, judiciary and security organs must ensure this happens. But the people themselves must also be vigilant.

Contrary to all the propaganda, Namibia’s SWAPO was a moderate Pan-Africanist party with close links to imperialism – especially the United States. This peasant-based party had a leadership that was uninterested in a determined armed struggle or the internal mobilisation of the Namibian working class. Its legacy in independent Namibia is appalling.

A protest march organised in Nairobi last week by civil society organisations demanding action against runaway corruption in government was brutally repressed by the police. Besides a series of multi-million-dollar scandals recently unearthed in Kenya, the Auditor General’s report for 2015 says only 1% of the national budget was properly accounted for.