Key African National Congress provincial structures are poised to reject two seminal discussion documents at the national general council this weekend — a move that could derail ANC president Thabo Mbeki’s ambitions to legislate a dual economy and redesign the ruling party.
President Thabo Mbeki has confidently set out his stall with the appointment of his protégé, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to the deputy presidency. He has opted neither for the seniority of African National Congress national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota nor the popularity of Trevor Manuel, nor for the trust he places in Sydney Mufamadi.
"Ambitious men get sick if they think their chances are ruined, I’m telling you, I’m not ambitious," an apparently relaxed Jacob Zuma told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week. In the first full interview he has given since his dismissal as deputy president, Zuma spoke about the Schabir Shaik judgement, the divided state of the African National Congress and his new job as a full-time ANC official.
An intense political contest over the future structure of the labour market has been taking shape for the past six months in the African National Congress, as the ruling party weighs up radical steps to accelerate job creation and economic development. A suggestion that the party consider supporting the introduction of a ”two-tier” labour system, has the backing of some of the party’s most senior figures.
An new report has revealed that poverty in sub-Saharan Africa has doubled over the past 20 years, while in East Asia it has fallen by half. Poverty, Inequality and Labour Markets in Africa: A Descriptive Overview was released by the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit recently.
National chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party Ziba Jiyane has lashed out at party members who are ”fighting to undermine” him, and has branded the IFP youth brigade’s recent attack on him as ”a pack of lies”. This is the latest salvo in an acrimonious leadership tussle plaguing the party.
Mandla Langa, the author and the outgoing chair of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), will be the next chief executive of the SABC — if, insiders claim, the Presidency has its way. Langa, who has built a reputation for independence at Icasa, last week confirmed that he had been approached to ”put my name in the hat”, but denied it had been from the Presidency.
The political temperature is rising in KwaZulu-Natal after the Inkatha Freedom Party withdrew from constitutional talks in the province, claiming that the African National Congress had reneged on its legal obligations. The withdrawal follows a rash of killings of IFP and ANC councillors, which some analysts link to the upcoming local government elections.
The struggle for free, quality, basic education continues, despite the Cabinet’s endorsement this month of a comprehensive action plan to address cost-related barriers that still hinder full access to basic education. The action plan is the product of the government’s review of school education costs, which Minister of Education Kader Asmal released in March. ‘Sixty […]
The University of Natal has come to the rescue of a matriculant who, despite passing with four distinctions last year, had resigned himself to being another unemployment statistic. When Julius Mojapelo of Gauteng received his results in December last year, he realised that he had inadvertently forfeited his exemption – the big ticket for any […]