Vicki Robinson
Guest Author
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/ 3 October 2005

A waste of R16-billion?

The political administration of the country’s nine provinces will cost the taxpayer R16-billion by the end of this financial year, about 8% of the total transfer from national government. Provincial ministers, their bodyguards and private secretaries will soak up R500-million in remuneration alone.

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/ 30 September 2005

Will Cosatu’s summer strikes work?

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will hit the streets on Monday in two provinces, kickstarting a series of provincial strikes planned over the next few months to protest against joblessness. But the potency of localised mass action has ”dubious merit”, say analysts.

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/ 23 September 2005

E Cape ruling exposes political ploy

Judgement in the high-profile fraud trial clearing three former executives at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation has strengthened pervasive perceptions in the province that Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s government is using state machinery to purge individuals loyal to former premier Makhenkesi Stofile and provincial African National Congress deputy chairperson Enoch Godongwana.

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/ 16 September 2005

Smuts fishes in troubled waters

Smuts Ngonyama, who heads the Presidency in the African National Congress, intervened with government regulators to smooth the way for Bato Star, a fishing company in which his family — and allegedly he — holds interests. The company was struggling for permission for its newly purchased trawler, the Sandile, to fish in South African waters, and Ngonyama arranged the meeting between Bato Star and government officials.

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/ 16 September 2005

Chameleon tales

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, president of the Inkatha Freedom Party, reminds me of the main character in a perspicacious Zulu myth. This myth is a message about death, which originated from the failure of human beings, or their messengers, to relay a message of mortality punctually.

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/ 15 September 2005

‘Heavy hand’ behind hotel deal

The fraud trial of three former senior executives at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation has renewed widely held perceptions in the province that Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s government is attempting to purge individuals loyal to former premier Makhenkesi Stofile and provincial African National Congress deputy chairperson Enoch Godongwana.

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/ 2 September 2005

Kgalema Motlanthe: Left’s new hope?

Trade union leaders are increasingly talking of transferring their allegiance to African National Congress general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe as a compromise candidate for the country’s next presidency. A senior Congress of South African Trade Unions leader said this week that there was a growing recognition on the left that Jacob Zuma might not succeed to the presidency, because he was ”tainted”.

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/ 29 August 2005

Border shift sparks electoral angst

Planned boundary changes to an Eastern Cape ”cross-border municipality”, announced recently, were preceded by intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by provincial African National Congress leaders concerned about the loss of electoral support. The Mail & Guardian has learned that the Eastern Cape ANC was particularly concerned about the relocation of Kokstad to KwaZulu-Natal.

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/ 26 August 2005

Neither Mbeki nor Zuma

The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week reveals the key strategies of leading
tripartite alliance leaders for dealing with the trial of Jacob Zuma and the presidential succession. Senior leaders want to convince African National Congress president Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Zuma not to stand for election as party president and to find a compromise candidate to preserve unity in the ruling party.