Mauritius had these extraordinary Lome trade deals from which to penetrate Europe with light industry. Our comrades there report that the miracle is over now, and class struggle is on the rise. I think a link to the Mauritian left is at the Southern African People's Solidarity Network at http://www.aidc.org.za
Botswana has been *un*successful at "developing the country," though they have achieved regular annual GDP growth rates of 6-10% on the back of a hefty state diamond-ownership deal with DeBeers, plus cattle exports which have screwed the environment and indigenous people. However, that basis also remains fragile, as my colleague Guy Mhone points out in a chapter which I think is out in a book (not yet available in SA): Mhone, G. and P.Bond (2002), "Botswana and Zimbabwe", in M.Murshed (Ed), Globalization, Marginalization and Development, London, Routledge Press. I assume it's still up at the (Helsinki) World Institute for Development Economics Research website (http://www.un.org etc...)
On the Aids front, I'd watch the growing debate about whether dependency and, ultimately, treatment problems will follow from generous antiretroviral drug donations by Bill (please protect intellectual property rights) Gates, instead of encouraging our public health systems to get a Southern African regional generic industry going (as in Brazil, India and Thailand).
Cheers, Patrick