Government and African National Congress structures in the Eastern Cape are under siege because the province is viewed as spearheading a planned left-wing challenge to the ANC leadership at the party’s national conference in December, senior members say.

Tensions between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress have hit new heights over a land reform Bill and a draft White Paper on traditional leadership.

Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, who is facing charges of corruption and fraud in court, is being backed by the ANC Youth League, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape for re-election to the party’s national executive committee.

Rape is a largely risk-free activity in South Africa, says a shock internal government study in the possession of the Mail & Guardian. The study finds that only 7,7% of reported rapes in 2000 resulted in convictions.

Two of the Mail & Guardian‘s journalists, John Matshikiza and Thebe Mabanga, were recognised at Vodacom’s Journalist of the Year awards. Matshikiza shared his prize in the Specialist Print Category with the Cape Times‘s Melanie Gosling.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, his deputy Jeremy Cronin and treasurer Phillip Dexter are being targeted as ”ultra-leftists” to be blocked from nomination to the ANC’s national executive committee.

Divisions over the candidacy of Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile and Mluleki George for the African National Congress’s provincial chairpersonship is believed to have led to the suspension of the OR Tambo region’s conference last weekend.

Ammonia nitrate, a common white crystal fertilizer widely used by farmers, may be brought under regulation if the new Explosives Bill and comment by a senior legislator is anything to go by.

The South African Communist Party has slammed a document penned by Gauteng MEC for Finance Jabu Moleketi and former diplomat Josiah Jele attacking the party, calling it a ”modern form of rooigevaar”.

President Thabo Mbeki performed a gutsy version of the defiance campaign song Senzeni na (What have we done?) during his three-day imbizo tour of Gauteng last week. Mbeki’s point was that there was no longer any need for defiance.