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/ 7 February 2003
The spin doctors of the left had a very hard time convincing anyone, but their line at least was clear. Trevor Manuel is a jolly nice man, well loved by his colleagues in the NEC, a good egg, whose stock as master of his financial ministry increases along with the rand.
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/ 27 January 2003
In the build-up to the last general election in 1999, I found myself sitting at a workshop lunch next to the then head of the Independent Electoral Commission, Judge Johann Kriegler. The chief story of the week concerned emigration.
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/ 21 December 2002
I felt bad for Thabo. So I think did many people. Though most of the delegates in the hall were too busy ululating their praise song for Nelson Mandela to have time to contemplate the feelings of their current president.
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/ 6 December 2002
Edwin Castro has many of the typical personality traits of a chief whip, which is the position he currently holds for the Sandinista National Liberation Front. He is warm, charming, mischievous and full of you know what.
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/ 22 November 2002
The African National Congress is obviously a very well-off organisation: R50 000 is clearly small fry to it. A cheque for this amount was sent to the party by Anglo Platinum in 1999/2000. But the cheque was not banked, it expired.
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/ 7 November 2002
Small things please little minds they say. Well my favourite moment this political year (so far) was when Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad came to the end of his briefing to the media at the outset of the parliamentary session.
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/ 25 October 2002
Thank God it’s over. The daily e-mailed "scoresheet", recording the latest tally of NNP "rats", is a thing of the past; the daily gloat from either NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk or his ANC counterparts a footnote of history.
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/ 22 October 2002
I’m not sure it’s quite what Andy Warhol had in mind with his famous quip about how everyone would get their 15 minutes of fame, but according to Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota: ”The 15 minutes are over. It’s time to move on.”
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/ 11 October 2002
On Tuesday, the game of musical chairs known as floor crossing began at last. Not a pretty sight; but nothing constitutionally offensive with it either, said the Constitutional Court a week ago. When the music stops, in 10 days’ time, what will be longer-term legacy of this judgement?
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/ 13 September 2002
Heading from Kingston towards the sea you can take a route through an area called Olympic Gardens. Few do, unless they have to. It’s a classic Jamaican "garrison": politics and drugs merge with dangerous consequences.