Gwede Mantashe

South Africa
ANC mulls abolishing top court

The ANC and the South African Minister of Justice are considering merging the Constitutional Court, a pillar of the post-apartheid political architecture, with the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Inner circles | South Africa
Nkululeko Poya seeks to take control of faltering PetroSA

PetroSA's interim chairman is trying to secure the vacant post of CEO with the support of minister Gwede Mantashe. He is counting on a handful of businessmen to help him relaunch the moribund state-owned company.

South Africa
Army of consultants mobilised to forge South Africa's future state oil company

Five well-known South African consultancies, including Kearney, Mazars and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, have been asked to provide legal and technical support to the Central Energy Fund (CEF). The aim is to merge three of its subsidiaries into a single state-owned company.

South Africa
South Africa 2024 election risks new delay to oil law

The future petroleum bill, almost a decade in the making, could be further delayed by 2024 general elections.

South Africa
Planned national oil company still stuck in limbo

The launch of a new state-owned oil company merging three subsidiaries of Central Energy Fund is still a long way off.

South Africa
ANC uptight over secretive Eskom CEO selection process

Six months after André de Ruyter's shock departure from the national utility, his seat still lies empty and the highly political process of finding his successor is keeping a handful of senior ANC members on the alert.

Spotlight | Ghana
PetroSA's case for TEN and Jubilee shares poisons relations between GNPC and energy ministry

The Ghanaian authorities are still refusing to approve a transaction authorising PetroSA to increase its stake in the offshore permit Deepwater Tano. GNPC seems to have taken sides with the South African firm, which has teamed up with the discreet local firm Bluestar Exploration for the transaction.

DRC
China Three Gorges may be back on track to bag Grand Inga deal

The Congolese government, after a series of U-turns in the Grand Inga mega-dams project, is now looking again at plans proposed by China Three Gorges. Much to the chagrin of Australia's Fortescue Metals Group, which fears that it will lose the project.

South Africa
Ramaphosa's Eskom power gamble backfires

A court case forced Cyril Ramaphosa to revoke the state of national disaster he had decreed in a bid to resolve South Africa's persistent electricity crisis. This was a slap in the face for the president, who was seeking to sideline heavyweight ANC ministers he holds partly responsible for the crisis.

Palace Intrigues
Louise Mushikiwabo, Sameh Shoukry, Catherine Colonna, Abderrahim Atmoun, André de Ruyter and Pierre Haik

Intrigues big and small... Every Tuesday, Africa Intelligence takes a peek into the corridors of power in Africa and beyond.

GabonOIF shuns One Forest Summit

EgyptMinisters Sameh Shoukry and Catherine Colonna fail to meet in Geneva

MoroccoAbderrahim Atmoun, ambassador in Warsaw and hotel owner in Paris

South AfricaFormer Eskom boss's accusations rattle ANC

France/AfricaVIP turnout for French lawyer Pierre Haik's funeral

South Africa
Hyve Group and African Energy Chamber go head-to-head in court

The event industry rivals have taken their dispute to Johannesburg's High Court. Hyve was the first to launch hostilities last June, and now African Energy Chamber has retaliated by filing a complaint in the same court.

South Africa
Transparency initiative seeks to curry favour with Ramaphosa

Gwede Mantashe, South Africa's powerful minister of mines and energy, is reluctant to divulge the ownership of mining permits, one of the key principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. With Senegalese President Macky Sall's help, EITI hopes to convince Ramaphosa to attend June's global GA in Dakar and join the initiative.