South Africa has launched urgent steps to woo more African fans to the World Cup this summer, after complaints that FIFA’s complex ticketing system has excluded them.
South Africa and FIFA are facing up to the very real prospect of stadiums devoid of fans this summer. Marketing errors, cultural differences and the crisis have all piled on the pressure for the organisers to ensure that the games will be a success.
Despite the continuing political strife between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's allies and those of President Robert Mugabe, residents of Harare say things have improved significantly since the unity government came into power in February.
Amid a wave of arrests of politicians in Zimbabwe, the former opposition is accusing supporters of President Robert Mugabe (pictured) of using the courts to wipe out their party’s parliamentary majority.
FRANCE 24 South Africa correspondent Alex Duval Smith is one of the only international journalists to regularly cross the border into Zimbabwe. She brings us these reports from the heart of the political and humanitarian turmoil.
While demonstrations struggled to draw huge crowds in Zimbabwe, labour activists hoped Zimbabweans would descend en masse on the country's banks on Dec. 3 to protest against crippling government-imposed withdrawal limits.
Amid the political chaos that has gripped Zimbabwe since March, villagers just a few kilometres from Harare live with neither water nor electricity. Here, international food aid does not reach the dust and desolation.
Alex DUVAL SMITH 
