A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has declared that a recent shipment of arms from China to Zimbabwe is completely unrelated to the current post-election tension in the country and is part of “perfectly normal trade in military goods between China and Zimbabwe.” But this hasn’t stopped the 300,000 member South African Transport and Allied Workers Union from refusing to unload the shipment.

The South African workers refusal to accept the arms shipment has been publically echoed by the governments of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania with their refusal to accept the arms and ship them overland to Zimbabwe. The U.S. has voiced its support of these countries on the matter and urged the Chinese government to recall the shipment. Although the South African government itself has not endorsed the refusal of the weapons, South African citizen action coupled with the support of neighboring countries has essentially created an informal embargo of the Chinese weapons. These actions contrast sharply with President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy, and refusal to deem Zimbabwe's current political and economic woes a "crisis."

I think this story is an incredibly powerful demonstration of the power individuals and governments have when they work together to take a stand on an issue.

Today's Business Week reports that a disagreement between the EU and South Africa is threatening the unity of the Southern African Customs Union, the world's oldest customs union. Last year several countries broke rank with South Africa, signing a trade agreement with the EU. It is feared that South Africa may use this as a reason to disband the union entirely.

If South Africa does break ranks with other participating countries including Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho, tariffs protecting Namibian beer makers from European beer would not apply to countries like South Africa. The result would be the inability of Southern African countries to effectively protect certain industries (and in this case a significant loss to the global beer supply as well as domestic economies).

Today the Economist posted a briefing on the 2008 Freedom of the World report published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, concluding that in recent years "African countries have made negligible progress liberalising their economies."

For the most part, although not without exception, the Heritage Foundation’s correlation between incomes per head and economic freedom holds good. Seven of the ten economically most free African economies (Mauritius, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Tunisia, Swaziland and Cape Verde) are, in fact, middle-income states. Uganda, Madagascar and Kenya, however, are very low-income countries.

Today, IRIN, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, brings attention to power shortages in South Africa which have halted production and created job losses for miners. The slow down of one of South Africa's most important industries may have a serious impact on government goals of job creation and poverty alleviation.

Any job losses in the mining sector could have an impact on the South African Development Community (SADC), warned Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). South African mines employ 460,000 workers - 40 percent of them from neighbouring countries - and shutting down operations had already affected the incomes of casual workers...

South Africa's economy needs to grow at least 6 percent annually to keep unemployment from rising above the official estimate of 25 percent, although independent economists have put the joblessness rate at nearer to 40 percent.

According to Schussler, economic growth could slow from over five percent in 2007 to three percent in 2008 as a result of the outages and anticipated slower growth in the global economy. The South African economy is the most influential in the region, and any contraction could have a ripple effect on neighbouring countries.