The African National Congress has reversed its policy on disclosing party donors in the wake of a landmark legal challenge to force political parties to divulge their private funders. The court case, which was launched by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa on Thursday, has also brought the ANC and the Democratic Alliance together on their key defence arguments.

A R1,2-million scandal dubbed ”Flatgate”, involving 22 members of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature and 40 squatters, has erupted in the province. The KwaZulu-Natal legislature’s public accounts committee is to bring the members of the legislature before the disciplinary and ethics committee to account for R400 000 they owe to the legislature in unpaid rent for government-owned flats in Ulundi.

A barefoot man with a pickaxe ignores the ”Prohibited” sign — entry to the disused colliery could mean injury or death. At 7am a hot berg wind is already blowing across the flyblown northern KwaZulu-Natal valley. A nastier form of self-employment — scouring abandoned mines for coal to sell — is hard to think of, yet 45 retrenched miners and their families in Verdriet, south of Dundee, depend on it.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele has questioned whether reconciliation among blacks is proving ”more difficult than fighting the oppression of apartheid” . He has blamed the divided leadership between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party for infusing the province with ”hatred”. Ndebele has also made an unprecedented call for unity in the province.

Three senior staffers have been suspended from the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and R30-million has been slashed from the parastatal’s budget. The disciplinery action was ordered by provincial minister for economic affairs, environment and tourism André de Wet. However, an auditor general’s report — one of two reports on which the minister says he based his decision to suspend the staff members — appears not to exist.

Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela has yet to take disciplinary action against provincial minister of agriculture Max Mamase, although it was revealed a month ago that he used government funds to sponsor an illegal R16-million empowerment deal, allegedly in return for a mansion. The premier has also stopped an investigation by the provincial legislature into the affair, claiming it must await a provincial cabinet probe.

National government is rejecting calls to bail out delinquent provinces brought to the fiscal brink by chaotic accounting, social grant fraud and inadequate budget controls. And with even well-off provinces squeezed for cash, the debate over provincial taxation is gaining a sharp new edge as some provinces plan to impose their own fuel tax.