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/ 22 September 2006
ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who was sacked as South Africa’s deputy president last year, will not ask for his job back despite charges of corruption being thrown out by the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Instead Zuma is expected to extend an olive branch to his political foes, whom he has accused of trying to thwart his ascendancy to the highest office in the land.
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/ 8 September 2006
ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma is posing a new dilemma for the party, which is unable to stop him from embarking on what appears to be a rejuvenated campaign for the presidency. Zuma is due to address several upcoming alliance activities in several cities, including meetings of trade unions and activities organised by the ANC Youth League.
President Thabo Mbeki will keep Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in her post, despite mounting calls for her to resign. Mbeki has defied critics over the years by showing confidence in her and re-appointing her for a second term even when she had already antagonised stakeholders during her first term.
The more I read Rory Carroll’s piece ("Why I never quite fell for South Africa", August 18) the more I was reminded of a recent letter from the Herstigte Nasionale Party to Fifa, explaining to world football’s governing body why it had made a mistake by letting South Africa host the soccer World Cup in 2010, writes the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Rapule Tabane.
There was little in the way of visible fanfare to mark the fifth anniversary of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in July. Depending on where you stand, it could be five years of slow, laborious, but promising progress; or five years of a predictable diminishing of another continental project started with much hope and celebration.
By putting Thoko Didiza in charge of the Department of Public Works, President Thabo Mbeki elevated it from the portfolio where ministers go to retire, to one that is central in job creation and development. This was accentuated even further after the recent Cabinet lekgotla.
Thabo Mbeki’s tough message to the African National Congress to switch its focus from internal divisions to building the party and improving service delivery has won him acclaim from party structures for finally providing leadership. However, a view persists on the left that the ANC president is trying to heap blame on Jacob Zuma for the party’s internal woes, evading his own responsibility.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>Jacob Zuma’s upcoming fraud and corruption trial threatens to become the next round of the ugly power struggle in the African National Congress, with the trial potentially being used to embarrass President Thabo Mbeki by placing him on the witness stand.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa has instituted an investigation into the affairs of his provincial finance minister Paul Mashatile following Mail & Guardian reports of possible conflicts of interests. But Shilowa immediately qualified the possible effectiveness of such an investigation by saying that on the basis of a brief conversation he had with Mashatile, he did not see any wrongdoing.
Personal hardship stories and media stunts precede local summer album releases, writes Rapule Tabane.