Big business and government leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa, agreed on Tuesday that there was ”no need to panic” over the matters of transition from an Mbeki presidency to a new one. These words were used by Standard Bank’s Saki Macozoma.
The number of South African companies doing business in Africa has more than doubled since 1994, Minster of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told MPs on Monday. She noted that the figures were drawn from <i>Who Owns Whom</i> and the South African Institute of International Affairs.
The head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli, on Monday briefed the presiding officers of Parliament and the chief whips of the various political parties on the progress being made in the ”Travelgate” prosecutions. At a briefing to the media afterwards, Pikoli indicated that 30 people will face the court on July 31.
South Africa will be playing a leading part in building an affordable broadband network for the continent, Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has told parliamentarians. She said the initiative to build the network involves in the initial stages 22 countries in Southern and East Africa.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has come out firing against the Democratic Alliance over what she describes as its "hypocrisy", by entering into coalitions with its arch-rival African National Congress in towns "all over the Western Cape". De Lille has been sparring with the DA after it accused her of lying.
Recent global events, including high costs of imported oil, have necessitated a review of South Africa’s planned liberalisation of the petroleum sector, outgoing Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks said on Thursday. The minister said that the impact of the increases could result in the slowing down of global economic growth.
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has taken a cautious stance on what he termed growing imbalances in world markets, noting that South Africa’s rand currency saw "a lot of movement" in one day on Monday. He was addressing the National Assembly finance portfolio committee during the National Treasury budget vote briefing.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon took to the streets of Mitchells Plain on Monday, where his party is fighting a key by-election against Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats in the coloured working-class district of Tafelsig. He argued that voters were being given a chance to vote against De Lille’s flirtation with the African National Congress ”reign of ruin”.
South Africa’s indigenous people who are yearning for land are "running out of patience" and the return of the land to those dispossessed should be accelerated, an African National Congress select committee chairperson said in the policy debate on agriculture and land affairs on Friday.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has opened the door to a review of floor-crossing legislation — which allows MPs, members of the provincial legislatures and local government councillors to defect from their political parties — but said the matter was ”eminently political” and should be dealt with by MPs and not the executive.