South Africa’s four major political parties will refuse to disclose the sources of their funding, arguing that to do so would threaten the country’s multiparty democracy.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is on a collision course with empowerment companies, which, it says, do little to advance workers’ interests or real broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE). Two deals announced within the past month in the Western Cape have sparked Cosatu’s ire:

In what could be a landmark judgement for South African women, the appeal of Anita Ferreira, the woman who received a life sentence four years ago for killing her abusive common-law husband, will be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein this Friday, March 12.

”From the modest interiors of their jail cells, beyond the noise of electioneering, South Africa’s 185 000 prisoners will join every other eligible South African voter next month to make their cross. Some prisoners talk to the M&G about 10 years of democracy, drugs, Thabo Mbeki and God.

”South Africans choose to vote for political parties for many reasons — sometimes obvious, and sometimes subtle — but they are not simply trapped into casting their ballots along racial and ethnic lines. ”Casting a ballot is primarily not an instrumental calculation but an expression of who a citizen is,” said Steven Friedman, senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies.

While party leaders in KwaZulu-Natal step up the rhetoric and war-talk ahead of the elections, communities on the ground are increasingly refusing to be used as cannon-fodder in political ”turf” wars. Eight people have been killed in clashes between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal in the past month.

It seems that while we cannot escape our history, prescient politicians are thinking quickly. For if they continue with their commitment to balance the halls of power — 50-50 gender parity by 2014 — South Africa’s second decade of freedom will be herstory.

At the helm of this country’s toughest upcoming challenge — to synchronise, for a day, 20-million South Africans — are two stylish and savvy women: Dr Brigalia Bam, the chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and advocate Pansy Tlakula, IEC chief electoral officer.

Negotiations to settle the countrywide strike by 950 baggage handlers reached crisis point this week as the workers’ employer and their trade union again clashed.
On Monday Equity Aviation Services, a private baggage handler contracted by, among other companies, SAA, gave the striking workers an ultimatum to return to work by 5pm and accept its conditions of employment.

As the countrywide strike of baggage handlers enters its sixth week, disturbing questions about the fallout of privatisation for workers have refocused union attitudes towards the sale of state assets. Unionists say the dispute between airport workers and their employer illustrates their point that deregulation and privatisation lead to retrenchments.