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/ 17 December 2004
With only one veteran premier, Gauteng’s Mbhazima Shilowa, left in office after the April elections, the African National Congress has battled inexperience and careerism for most of 2004. And the ruling party is also suffering from the ”dented ego” syndrome, where leaders who had expected high national or provincial office and did not get appointed, now snipe at incumbents.
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/ 3 December 2004
Disgraced former Northern Cape ANC chairperson looks set to regain party leadership, John Block is expected to return to topple the acting chairperson, Premier Dipuo Peters, this weekend. Block resigned from all his positions in the government and the ANC last year after he admitted to abusing taxpayers’ money to finance an expensive jazz habit.
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/ 26 November 2004
While it is the Democratic Alliance’s racial profile that is often quoted as the factor limiting its ability to expand into black areas, its foreign policy is a forgotten conundrum. While most black South Africans view Cuban leader Fidel Castro and deceased Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat as heroes, the party seems to see them as anti-heroes.
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/ 19 November 2004
Something unexpected happened when a teetotal country bumpkin participated in a fun run organised by a Wits University residence 13 years ago. He won the race. Hendrick Ramaala was not much of a political firebrand while staying at Glyn Thomas, a bastion of resistance against apartheid and Wits liberal policies.
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/ 29 October 2004
The African National Congress’s lack of policy clarity and direction on how to approach the Zimbabwean crisis has placed it in an awkward position with its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said on Thursday. The uling party has failed to back its union ally after expulsion, vitriolic attack by Zimbabwe government.
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/ 22 October 2004
The Reverend Frank Chikane will stick with President Thabo Mbeki as head of his office almost until the end of his term. Cabinet has announced that Chikane’s contract has been extended for another three years. His appointment was one of a number of senior appointments approved by Cabinet at its meeting this week.
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/ 15 October 2004
Part of the strategy of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), when it proclaimed that while there was a prima facie case of corruption against Deputy President Jacob Zuma it would not charge him, was that he would be tried in the court of public opinion. But why is it that ‘vrot’ politicians always get off in the court of public opinion?
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/ 13 October 2004
Two years ago this month, President Thabo Mbeki told Bekkersdal residents that he was so touched by their poverty the government would implement special measures to help them. Mbeki told about 10 000 residents: "After listening to all the issues raised, I have decided that we should make Bekkersdal a special project because it appears different from other places." Last week, a visit to the site showed only one visible sign of progress.
Schabir Shaik will tell the Durban High Court next week that there was nothing improper in his relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma, but that they were bound together by deeply personal ties of family and political struggle. Central to the fraud and corruption charges Shaik faces is the allegation that he had a corrupt relationship with Zuma, who facilitated contracts for Shaik’s company in return for bribes. Both Zuma and Shaik have disputed this.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Insight-National&ao=123337">Politics of patronage</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Insight-National&ao=123340">Zuma’s popularity undented</a>
Free State local government councillors have had to face a dressing down by President Thabo Mbeki and the Free State minister for local government, William Kotsoane, after violent community protests against a lack of services. The popular uprisings started in Ntabazwe township, outside of Harrismith, where police killed a youth, Teboho Mkhonza, after residents demonstrated on the N3.