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/ 23 December 2006
There is an ineluctable rule of politics in developing democratic states: ruling liberation parties tend to grow in influence from election to election and the opposition declines. It holds true for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress — and for the current bleak picture for the opposition.
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/ 22 December 2006
South African President Thabo Mbeki has pointed to South Africa’s good economic performance in 2006, which produced "some of the best news about our country" and world recognition of this success. In his internet column, <i>ANC Today</i>, on Friday, the president devotes much space to the strength of the business and fiscal environment.
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/ 22 December 2006
The African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance formations are themselves largely sidelined from policymaking, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has argued in its end-of-year report. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement issued on Thursday evening that political power resides in the Presidency.
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/ 22 December 2006
The Congress of South African Trade Unions says it hopes that a basic income grant will be adopted at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference in June 2007. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "We closed the year encouraged by Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya’s support for a reform [the basic income grant] that Cosatu has been campaigning for."
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/ 19 December 2006
One thousand balloons were released on Tuesday by the Solidarity Youth Movement on top of a hill in the administrative capital of Pretoria ”to symbolise the plea of head boys and girls from schools across the country to be exempted from affirmative action”. The movement announced that it was planning a campaign in 2007 that will include music concerts and petitions to Parliament.
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/ 19 December 2006
The African National Congress (ANC) government is undermining Parliament through its inability to respond to 177 written questions posed by the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) during 2006, DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said on Tuesday. Gibson said four departments were responsible for 97 of the outstanding replies.
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/ 18 December 2006
The glue that has kept South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) together ”is fast becoming unstuck”, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in his online letter on Monday. ”This may not be a bad thing for democracy — or for the ruling-party,” said Buthelezi.
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/ 15 December 2006
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe on Friday laid a complaint — under the Public Protector Act — against Transport Minister Jeff Radebe for disobeying traffic laws and causing danger to other road users as well as setting a bad example.
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/ 13 December 2006
A member of the old United Democratic Front (UDF) senior leadership may emerge as a strong and even winning candidate in the succession struggle in the African National Congress (ANC), political analyst Frederik van Zyl Slabbert predicts. This has been reported in the Helen Suzman Foundation publication, <i>Focus</i>, as reported by scribe Patrick Laurence.
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/ 13 December 2006
The tender process for the building of five major stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup is expected to be completed before the end of this year and the host cities will thereafter announce the winning contracts, Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi said on Wednesday.