What a difference a week has made for South African MP Nhlanhla Nene: last week a YouTube figure of fun after his chair collapsed under him in a live television interview, yesterday promoted to Deputy Finance Minister.

South Africa fired a warning to President Robert Mugabe and his opposition rivals that patience is wearing thin over delays in concluding a power sharing government in Zimbabwe

I was visiting my grandmother in Memphis the day Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president. Even on her old 19-inch television with the bent rabbit ears and lousy reception, the moment was bigger than life. A nation had begun to turn its back on an evil legacy.

I felt similar emotions this week when Barack Obama, another descendant of Africa, took the stage in Chicago's Grant Park as the president-elect of the United States. And, as he spoke, I thought not so much about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, but of the remarkable leadership challenges that now await him.

IN THE STRUGGLE against apartheid, unity in South Africa's African National Congress was an indispensable virtue. But after wallowing for 14 years in the corruption and sclerosis intrinsic to a one-party system, the ANC's vestigial unity has become a costly vice. That's why this fall's intramural power struggle between ousted President Thabo Mbeki and his would-be successor, Jacob Zuma - and the ANC's ensuing fragmentation - were both inevitable and a boon.

 While South Africa's relationship with the United States was good, it was hoped that U. S. President-elect Barack Obama would inject more dynamism into global events, the South African Foreign Affairs Department said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG (Dow Jones)--South Africa is confident its credit rating won't be downgraded, thanks to sound economic fundamentals and vigilant economic institutions, the National Treasury said Monday.