South Africa needs to move from coal to renewables, and from an electricity monopoly to a market-based system
of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, people are breathing a heady mix of fear and hope. Since April 11th, when a cabal of army officers pushed out the 75-year-old Omar al-Bashir, the country’s president for the past 30 years, Sudan has had two more of its bloodied leaders step down. On April 12th, just a day after taking control, Awad Ibn Auf, the defence minister and head of the self-appointed “transitional military council”, resigned.
Such transitions offer hope. They show that street movements can effect change, even against brutal regimes. But they are also moments of great risk. The fall of long-standing despots such as Mr Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, is a necessary part of any transition to democracy. But it can also start a civil war, or lead to a new dictatorship as the next strongman builds his own networks of power.
In both Sudan and Algeria the cliques now in charge may hope to cling to power despite the change of figurehead. Under Mr Bashir, Sudan has been run less by a government and more by a cartel of different armed groups. The president, says Alex de Waal, an analyst and former peace negotiator, was “the conductor of an orchestra”.
Changes of leadership will bring lasting change only if they overturn this politics. Other recent coups offer worrying lessons. In 2017 in Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power after the army forced out Robert Mugabe, who had ruled for 37 years. Mr Mnangagwa, Mr Mugabe’s former chief enforcer, impressed gullible diplomats by promising a “new dispensation” and economic reform. But his election campaign last year was violent and fraudulent.
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