(Pe)Ace out, budget balancing act in SA, vaccine patents

The suspension of Ace Magashule, the Secretary General of South Africa’s ruling ANC party is likely to go some way in strengthening the hand of President Cyril Ramaphosa in an intra-party fight. But the president still faces a mountain of challenges. And while South Africa's budget deficit came in smaller than expected in the last fiscal year, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni still has his work cut out to stabilise the debt ratio in the face of political pressure mounting against austerity plans. And the US moving to back the waiver of vaccine patents is a step in the right direction to ramp up supplies, but plenty of hurdles remain for Africa’s inoculation campaigns.