A fresh court bid by ANC members this week challenging Free State party chairperson Ace Magashule and his executive has thrown a harsh light on infighting among provincial ANC chiefs.
<b>COUNTERPOINT:</b> While we agree with our colleague Drew Forrest that Mbeki is a man past his sell-by date, we do not agree that the paper was ahead of its time in its appraisal of Mbeki. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> 2001 and the<i> M&G</i> 2008 are two different papers.
ANC veteran and member of the party’s national executive committee Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has become the latest leader to finger Thabo Mbeki’s government for the country’s woes, including the violence. In an exclusive interview with the Mail & Guardian she called the xenophobic attacks the worst tragedy in the post-apartheid era.
Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana are set to announce their withdrawal from politics as the curtain falls on the Thabo Mbeki era. They will join the growing exodus of Mbeki-appointed ministers and senior government managers who are leaving public life.
President Thabo Mbeki has scoffed at his detractors on the left of the tripartite alliance, with an official close to him saying he considers the demands of the alliance summit mere ”noise”. ”These people need lessons on how government is run. You can’t ignore the ANC and government processes and try to hold people ransom with new demands.”
When was the last time you heard from Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, Northern Cape’s Dipuo Peters or even KwaZulu-Natal’s S’bu Ndebele? I reckon not lately. It may be true that some, such as Marshoff and Peters, have always had a low public profile anyway. But Shilowa and Ndebele?
This week a visibly angry African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe accused the Democratic Alliance, ”the recycled National Party”, of sharing with the Scorpions a common hatred for the ANC. He said the unit was full of apartheid security-branch operatives who still saw the ruling party as the enemy.
The restructuring of the African National Congress’s (ANC) head office and consolidation of the new party leadership is slowly taking shape. This week the Mail & Guardian has established that former ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula is to be appointed head of campaigns.
Rapule Tabane says that, if confirmed as the new African National Congress Youth League president, Julius Malema is likely to continue predecessor Fikile Mbalula’s tradition of pompous, reckless and fiery bombast. The 27-year-old from Limpopo will be even more ”militant” than Mbalula.
African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe has accused University of South Africa principal and vice-chancellor Barney Pityana of refusing to be challenged about his views on Jacob Zuma. Mantashe said he tried several times to meet Pityana, who ignored his overtures.