Jacob Zuma’s blitzkrieg for control of the ANC was triumphantly concluded this week with the election of the new national working committee (NWC), the party’s 28-member inner leadership core. The NWC, charged with the day-to-day running of the ANC, will spearhead the next stage in Zuma’s campaign — the attritional warfare for control of government that will likely be more reminiscent of Stalingrad.

Why has the ANC repeatedly elected former mine union bosses as its secretary general? An important reason, analysts say, is the historically close bond between the influential National Union of Mineworkers and the ANC and a shared political outlook reaching back to the Eighties.

Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda group was recently reported to be seeking a stake in the Mail &Guardian. Drew Forrest quizzed M&G proprietor Trevor Ncube about these reports, his media philosophy and the growing anti-media clamour in ruling circles.

In a stirring tribute to former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo, ANC elder statesman Kader Asmal has delivered what reads as a veiled criticism of the leadership styles of both Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Asmal does not specifically name either man in his address, given at the launch of the book, Oliver Tambo Remembered, in Johannesburg.

The appointment of veteran Democratic Alliance (DA) politician Douglas Gibson as ambassador to Thailand signals a thawing in relations between the DA and the ruling party, a senior African National Congress MP told the Mail & Guardian recently. Gibson tended to confirm this reading.

A top legal academic has dismissed as ”a red herring” suggestions that suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Vusi Pikoli has jeopardised South Africa’s national security interests by indemnifying and plea-bargaining with criminals in exchange for their testimony.