President Thabo Mbeki on Monday paid tribute to the role South African women played in the struggle against apartheid. Addressing a half-full stadium in Witbank, Mbeki said South Africa had to salute every woman who contributed to the country’s liberation. ”We must look and see at what our women leaders did and what it is that we must do to follow in their footsteps.”
President Thabo Mbeki will spend his 62nd birthday on ”work, work, work”, his spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said on Friday. ”The president doesn’t believe in festivities and big bashes. It embarrasses him,” said Khumalo. However, his colleagues in the National Assembly decided that his big day could not go unmarked and in a motion the political parties wished him a happy birthday.
New National Party Gauteng leader Johan Kilian has resigned from the party but says it has nothing to do with weekend talks the party held with the African National Congress. Kilian, who has been with the party for 24 years, said he is leaving politics to return to the business world.
There will have to come a point when South Africans stop being black, white, Indian and Coloured and are merely South Africans, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday. ”When will we cease to be Africans, coloureds, Indians and whites and merely South Africans? This is the question we must ask ourselves,” said Lekota while briefing the parliament’s portfolio committee on defence.
Nine people were injured at Brenda Fassie’s funeral at the Langa stadium in Cape Town on Saturday when fans surged into the VIP area where Fassie’s body lay in a gold-coloured coffin. Three had to be taken to hospital and the remaining six fans were treated at the scene.
While Inkatha Freedom Party supporters protested against the declaration of the elections as free and fair, the party leadership continued talks with the African National Congress on setting up a broad-based provincial government in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
IFP ‘regrets’ king’s statement
Talks between the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party on an ”ANC-led broad-based government” continued on Friday ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of MPLs in Pietermaritzburg. IFP national spokesperson Musa Zondi said ahead of the ceremony that both parties were in caucus and no decision had been made.
There was excitement and relief in the halls of Parliament on Thursday as MPs arrived to register for the third term of the African National Congress government. Pamela Mnandi, an ANC MP from KwaZulu-Natal, said the third term of government would represent her ”liberation” from the Inkatha Freedom Party’s rule in her home province.
The Inkatha Freedom Party says it has no intention of ending its Coalition for Change agreement with the Democratic Alliance, even if it is invited to govern KwaZulu-Natal with the ANC. IFP national spokesperson Musa Zondi said on Wednesday that he did not understand what all the ”fuss” was about.
NNP, ANC talk about govt posts
There were virtually no surprises on Tuesday as political parties finalised the names of candidates to be sworn in to the National Assembly on Friday. The African National Congress’s list includes President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, and there are 21 new faces who will represent the Democratic Alliance.