Single mother Gertrude Christ stands in front of the corrugated iron shack she shares with her two children in Rehoboth, Namibia. The southern African country has the second-highest housing inflation rate in the world, after Dubai, growing at 29 per cent a year. This places properties beyond the reach of the majority of the population, whose incomes would have to treble before they could afford to buy a home, and has raised concerns that the capital, Windhoek, could become Africa’s next slum city.
Anti-government protesters take over the parliament building in the capital, Ouagadougou. Thousands marched on the presidential palace on 30 October, forcing President Blaise Compaoré to scrap a plan to extend his 27-year rule via constitutional change. With elections due in 2015, interim president Michel Kafando has made peaceful overtures, insisting that all factions must work together ‘to make our mission a success’. But Kafando, who was the army’s candidate of choice for the interim position, is unpopular with many of the protesters, who fear that genuine democracy may continue to elude them.
