Matuma Letsoala
Guest Author
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/ 11 November 2005

Death threats for Mr Fixit

Communist heavy-hitter Phillip Dexter says he has received repeated death threats after spearheading corruption investigations into senior Mpumalanga provincial politicians as well as trade union and business figures. The investigations launched by Dexter have touched on business interests of top former Mpumalanga bureaucrats and politicians.

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/ 28 October 2005

Motlanthe targeted in e-mail exchange

E-mail messages allegedly exchanged between senior African National Congress leaders outline a plan to work the financial destruction of ANC general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> established this week. The existence of the messages was confirmed at the weekend by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, and they are reported to have been unlawfully obtained by the National Intelligence Agency.

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/ 2 September 2005

Kgalema Motlanthe: Left’s new hope?

Trade union leaders are increasingly talking of transferring their allegiance to African National Congress general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe as a compromise candidate for the country’s next presidency. A senior Congress of South African Trade Unions leader said this week that there was a growing recognition on the left that Jacob Zuma might not succeed to the presidency, because he was ”tainted”.

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/ 26 August 2005

Neither Mbeki nor Zuma

The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week reveals the key strategies of leading
tripartite alliance leaders for dealing with the trial of Jacob Zuma and the presidential succession. Senior leaders want to convince African National Congress president Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Zuma not to stand for election as party president and to find a compromise candidate to preserve unity in the ruling party.

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/ 29 July 2005

Pilots’ strike looms at SAA

A strike by South African Airways’ (SAA) 800 pilots is looming, in a further blow to the airline’s widely criticised ”emperor”, CEO Khaya Ngqula. The SAA Pilots’ Association started its strike ballot on Wednesday this week, over what it alleges is a unilateral attempt by SAA management to change the terms of its contracts.

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/ 23 May 2005

The great debate

An intense political contest over the future structure of the labour market has been taking shape for the past six months in the African National Congress, as the ruling party weighs up radical steps to accelerate job creation and economic development. A suggestion that the party consider supporting the introduction of a ”two-tier” labour system, has the backing of some of the party’s most senior figures.

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/ 13 May 2005

Senior Scorpion probed

A top Scorpions official, Jeffrey Ledwaba, one of three czars heading the elite police unit, is being investigated in connection with allegations of the plundering of hundreds of thousands of rands from the informers fund. Ledwaba was put on "special leave" last week on the instruction of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli.

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/ 6 May 2005

Langa ‘Mbeki’s choice to lead SABC’

Mandla Langa, the author and the outgoing chair of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), will be the next chief executive of the SABC — if, insiders claim, the Presidency has its way. Langa, who has built a reputation for independence at Icasa, last week confirmed that he had been approached to ”put my name in the hat”, but denied it had been from the Presidency.

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/ 24 September 2004

Left vs ultra-left

Despite the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) reaching breaking-point last week over leadership squabbles, the election results released on Thursday reflected resounding confidence in the union’s current leaders. The union’s Secretary General Slumko Nondwangu and president Mtutuzeli Tom were re-elected for the next four years. The new treasurer is Philemon Shiburi.