There was no question about the ANC winning this election, despite disaffection with its performance. The opposition parties have not worked hard enough to convince voters that they are a better alternative.

In the latest news involving Africa's engagement with China, India and other emerging powers: Asian giants extend assistance to Ghana; No prominent African politician congratulates Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo; China keen on investing in Sudan; China urged to withdraw funding from Ethiopian dam; Exim Bank gets $150 mn to push India-Africa trade; Uganda seeks easier study visas, job permits in India; India’s total trade with COMESA rises more than three-fold; Russia's LUKOIL wants more oil from Ghana and Nigeria Approves $2.5 Billion Sale of Nitel to Dubai's Minerva.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Exim Bank of India to open office in Addis, IBM says Africa is the new growth frontier, Chinese consortium mulls $20bn investment in Nigeria’s infrastructure, and South African construction firms look North as work dries up.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, Zimbabwe, China strengthen economic cooperation, China Cement Maker Signs S. Africa Deal, Chinese-built hospital risks collapse in Angola, India commits USD 6.7 mn to African bank, and Lula da Silva to visit Cape Verde in July.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, will Japan follow in India and China’s footsteps?, World Bank votes $180m for research in Africa, China and Africa envision new security cooperation, China's Sinopec reports oil discovery in Nigeria, and SA and Brazil pledge to boost trade.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, India’s complacency leads to Chinese takeover of huge Ethiopian rail project, Airtel Enters into Strategic Partnership with Oglivy Africa, UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2010 “South-South Cooperation is launched, and Chinese tuition offers solutions for Africans.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers in Africa news, South-South cooperation offers new opportunities for transforming African economies, Kenyan green group seeks ban on Ethiopian power, China hunts for resources in North Africa, World Bank blacklists Chinese firms, and Botswana seeks Indian companies' investment.

Following South African President Zuma’s first official visit to India last week, Sanusha Naidu investigates what kind of ‘strategic partnership’ was being forged between the two countries and who the partners were. Despite Gandhi’s vision for the commerce between India and Africa to be of ‘ideas and services’, this strategic partnership, says Naidu, is ‘really about the business of business is business’.

Chinese investments across Africa require ‘more than just a superficial understanding that China and other actors are going to be panaceas for Africa’s development or merely that they represent the next set of neo-imperialists’, writes Sanusha Naidu. Naidu explores the extent of these investments and suggests that a realistic assessment of where the practical benefits lie for Africa is needed to determine whether such a relationship is in the continent’s advantage.

The Shanghai Expo, which opened on 30 April, was not only a chance to showcase China's soft power, but also to catapult the country as a global trendsetter and strengthen the world’s fastest growing economy through design, tourism and cultural diplomacy by moving further up the global value chain. Sanusha Naidu explores what African countries seek to get out of their engagement with China within the context of the expo and beyond.

Sanusha Naidu writes about the China-Africa joint research and exchange program that was launched at the end of March by the follow-up committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in partnership with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).

'How is India’s relationship with Africa different?', asks Sanusha Naidu. She demonstrates that the latest conclave on the India-Africa Project Partnership – during which India emphasised its focus in Africa to be on capacity building, training and private sector development – revealed that African delegates felt that India is more a stakeholder than a shareholder on the continent. But Naidu suggests that Africa needs to critically examine India’s involvement. She concludes that: ‘For there to be an effective partnership, developing a dialogue between civil society, government and business would be a valuable platform to make this engagement different from the others.’

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, China wary of ICC genocide ruling against Sudan president, Asia unseats South Africa in gold race, India re-draws strategy in African oil assets, and Brazil accelerates its investment in Africa.

In this week's emerging powers news, south-south cooperation is cemented in new partnerships, Africa seeks frameworks for managing new resource-driven weatlh, BRIC and South Africa commit to mitigating climate change, and the AU keen to forge closer ties with China.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, South Korea pledged to double aid to African nations over the next three years, China and the World Bank plan to set up low-cost factories in new industrial zones in Africa, China turns to Egypt for production of ready-made garments.

In this week's emerging powers roundup, China is set to have a massive foreign exchange surplus for the foreseeable future, gobbling up natural resources producers in Africa and elsewhere, and is starting to pay more attention to its press, given its position as a major trading partner.

This week's emerging powers news roundup focuses on the the FOCAC Sharm El Sheikh meeting, reports by the World Bank and OECD on Africa's infrastructural needs, the African land grab by rich nations, and growing Chinese investment on the continent.

In this week’s Emerging Powers news roundup, Sanusha Naidu looks at India and Russia’s investment forays in Nigeria, Namibia and Angola, respectively. China continues to establish itself across the continent, from Cape Verde to Cameroon and Ethiopia. China has also received mention for policies that will benefit domestic and global economic recovery. Elsewhere, Brazil, India and South Africa have held an inter-ministerial meeting to strengthen ties. There is also emerging evident that there is growing competition between India and China in the investment stakes

In light of the rapid growth of China’s investment in Africa and bi-lateral trade worth US$100 billion in just two years, Sanusha Naidu, debates whether the country is promoting development across the continent, or is driven largely by mercantilist imperatives. The questions to ask, says Naidu, are which Africans are benefiting from Chinese money, and whether China will continue its large-scale investments in Africa as the financial crisis bites. Naidu cautions that Beijing may ‘become more strategic and perhaps more prudent around which of its investment projects it wants to initiate based on overall benefits and viability’, making it unwise to bank on China’s massive foreign reserves. If Chinese investment is to promote development, Naidu argues, it must take ‘a bottom-up approach that recognises the daily social justice struggles of ordinary Africans for socio-economic survival rather than intensifying them’.

Underlining the importance of South–South cooperation and a new 'look east' policy for the new South African premier, Sanusha Naidu considers the prospects for the country's foreign policy under Jacob Zuma's presidency. With China likely looking to diversify its risk portfolio through providing loans to companies like the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Naidu highlights South African banks' probable desire to serve as intermediaries between the African continent and India's burgeoning private sector.