The race for the premiership of the Eastern Cape has already begun as the African National Congress prepares to elect new office bearers in two weeks.

The refusal of African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) member of the provincial legislature Jo-Ann Downs to support a no-confidence motion in Inkatha Freedom Party Premier Lionel Mtshali has forced the two main political parties in KwaZulu-Natal to the negotiating table.

Inkatha Freedom Party members pledged their loyalty to the party and told a meeting held in Durban of alleged inducements to cross the floor offered to them by the African National Congress.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions gears up for battle with the ruling African National Congress over the privatisation of state assets and the government’s HIV/Aids treatment plan as they decide on the agenda of the Growth and Development Summit.

The Inkatha Freedom Party is demanding R155 000 each from both of its former party members who crossed the floor this week.

The organisation is looking at giving conditional support to the ANC in the next poll. This could be used as as a bargaining chip to squeeze concessions on privatisation from the ruling party.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has announced on that it might participate in the Treatment Action Campaign’s planned civil disobedience protest. The turnaround is significant after resistance to the campaign from ”conservative elements” in the federation, said insiders.

Growing government coyness about privatisation has been highlighted by the Budget, which sets low targets for the sale of state assets over the next two financial years

In a strategic move to assert its independence, the South African Communist Party is to launch a Young Communist League and its own policy institute this year. The institute will be designed along the lines of workers’ colleges in Brazil and in Europe.