The carpet that for many years carried visible stains of the blood from the stabbing of South Africa’s apartheid Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd has been removed from the Old House of Assembly at Parliament in Cape Town. Veteran politician Helen Suzman on Wednesday said she wondered what "had been swept under it over the years".
Nine municipal by-elections will take place in South Africa this Wednesday, but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has already won another five wards uncontested. Trends indicate that the ANC could win all but two of the contested by-elections.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance says the resignation announced at the weekend of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka proves the point that it is unwise to put high profile African National Congress politicians into jobs which require impartiality.
Experience the world over has demonstrated that economic growth and development requires strong guidance from the state "and a certain level of intervention in certain sectors", South Africa’s ruling African National Congress says on its website.
A Dedicated Banks Bill will be submitted to the South African Parliament in October this year and details of its contents will be released then, says South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. In June, Manuel said new laws would be on the table to create the second tier of commercial banks better equipped to serve millions of South Africans who were largely overlooked by large commercial banks.
The South African government gave the signal on Wednesday that the public debate about foreign ownership of land in the country will continue. President Thabo Mbeki backed the national discussion of the issue of foreign land ownership during his Budget vote in the National Assembly in June.
A succession plan or a renewal of contract for South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni should be made public to avoid any "unnecessary uncertainty" that might arise in financial markets, Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson Raenette Taljaard has warned in a statement to parliamentary media.
The proposed system of electronic prisoner tagging has been put in abeyance by South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services "as one of its long-term projects", says Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour. But the Democratic Alliance says this is code for the end of the programme.
South African Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin has promised that he will intervene in the matter of the relocation of a tank farm operated by petroleum companies at the Port Elizabeth harbour. Erwin has indicated that while the National Port Authority would not pay for relocation, it would provide land at the new Coega port.
The African National Congress is trying to achieve a messy compromise between state intervention in the economy and underpinning an open market, says Democratic Alliance leader. Leon also took issue with the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande, who has disagreed with those saying the ruling party’s economic policies have shifted.