As the African National Congress’s (ANC) new national leadership flexes its muscles, fierce power struggles are raging at provincial level. Many are a continuation of last year’s Polokwane divisions, although there are local twists. The Mail & Guardian looks at three provinces where these dynamics are playing themselves out.

President Thabo Mbeki could face more pressure over the next few months after the Mail & Guardian learned that supporters of Jacob Zuma are informally building a case against the president. The aim would be to force Mbeki to agree to a general amnesty for those with dirty hands in the arms deal or face having to explain himself in court.

A high-powered African National Congress (ANC) delegation that included Siphiwe Nyanda and Billy Masetlha was last weekend barred from entering Khutsong township on the West Rand. Khutsong residents are still up in arms over their transfer to North West province.

The political future of Silumko Nondwangu as leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s powerful National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa appears to be in tatters. He is due to appear before Cosatu’s disciplinary committee for agreeing to be on President Thabo Mbeki’s national executive committee list.

The theory is gaining ground that Cosatu plans to use Jacob Zuma as a Trojan Horse to break into the engine room of government. In an interview this week the federation’s Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, confirmed that the Trojan Horse theory is doing the rounds.

The week-long set of Cabinet briefings in February provide a snapshot of the state of government and of the styles and strengths of ministers. An energy crisis is gripping the country and at its heart is the problem that bedevils both economic growth and effective delivery: a dearth of skills

The South African Communist Party in the Western Cape is poised to suspend Mazibuko Jara from the party after dissolving the Cape Town Metro District structure he was serving in last weekend. This is the second time Jara has been in trouble with party structures — he was expelled from the Young Communist League two years ago.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula shafted President Thabo Mbeki’s careful plans for the Scorpions when he announced this week in Parliament that the unit would be dissolved. Nqakula also pre-empted a parliamentary process and might have acted unconstitutionally.

Mbeki favours collective responsibility without accountability. He told Independent Newspapers after a weekend interview that he did not know of any failures in his Cabinet, even as he alluded to failures in handling electricity in last week’s state of the nation speech and the performance of setas (sector education and training authorities) during a television interview, writes Rapule Tabane/

The national war room for a War against Poverty was one of the more ringing phrases in the State of the Nation speech, but what does it mean? For one, it’s not a room, says Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, but signals a reprioritisation of economic policy from a focus on growth to a focus on caring.