Since the news of her firing on Wednesday night went public, many voices, including the ANC Women’s League in the Northern Cape, Cosatu, the SACP, the Treatment Action Campaign, Independent Democrat leader Patricia de Lillie, the DA and private individuals have come out supporting her, querying the motives for her dismissal.
Provincial legislatures are the most likely casualty of a review of provincial and local government systems, which analysts have described as the most candid admission of failure by the government. Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi has announced that the government is inviting public submissions on how to reconfigure the powers and functions of provincial and local government.
President Thabo Mbeki is not about to intervene in the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge — despite their clash over conditions at the Mount Frere Hospital in the Eastern Cape.
The booming economy in South Africa has resulted in greater demand for products and workers from other African countries and added to the revenues already being enjoyed as a result of the high price of commodities. Ian Marsberg, senior economist at Absa, says in 1998 13,6% of South Africa’s merchandise exports went to the rest of Africa and this rose to 14,1% in 2005.
Less than a month after its policy conference, the ANC is battling the “two centres of power” as the party fights with its government structures about who is in charge. In the past two weeks the party has overruled two municipalities and the North West provincial government over deployments. In the Eastern Cape, the party told the Nelson Mandela Bay metro mayor Nondumiso Maphazi to put her reshuffling on ice.
Thabo Mbeki says he is prepared to serve another term as ANC president if the ”leadership” asks him to stick around. But, in the face of strong opposition within his party, why is the president so determined to take it to the wire? A generous interpretation of the ANC policy conference, at least on the leadership issue, was that it registered a draw: half of the ANC wants Mbeki to continue as party president and the other half doesn’t.
The ANC Women League’s proposal of a special women’s ministry has run into flak from the ANC and from women’s activists who feel it could “ghettoise” women’s issues. The league insists the ANC policy conference last week had agreed to set up a special ministry for women’s affairs.
The SACP in Gauteng has nominated its provincial secretary, Zico Tamela, to challenge Blade Nzimande for the general secretary’s post in a move calculated to embarrass Nzimande. The SACP will elect new leaders at its national conference that takes place at the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth from next Wednesday to Saturday.
ANC President Thabo Mbeki’s call to the South African Communist Party to carve out its own path and leave the ANC to its own devices has created a new dilemma for the SACP’s leadership, which is battling to contain a strong drive within the party for it to contest the elections on its own.
Zwelinzima Vavi does not seem to run out of hyperbole to illustrate what is wrong with the government’s economic policies. "It is like a doctor saying an operation has been successful when the patient is dead," he said to great laughter when addressing a youth rally in Mangaung in the Free State last Saturday.