The success of the latest rescue plan for the department of home affairs hinges on uprooting the “institutional culture of indolence, lethargy and arrogance”, say experts in public administration and government leaders. Merely installing state-of-the-art technology would not do the trick, they said.
Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils is the latest high-profile politician to be subpoenaed by former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha. Masetlha’s lawyers have instructed Kasrils to hand over a report called Presidential Special Investigation as evidence to be used in his fraud trial in July.
An amalgam of Cabinet ministers, provincial leaders and ex-political prisoners is said to form the bulk of the group lobbying for businessman Tokyo Sexwale to take the Union Buildings in 2009. But other senior party leaders have lambasted his pronouncement that he would accept a presidential nomination.
”The elections process within the ANC is clear. There is lobbying, followed by informal nominations, followed by formal nominations, followed by elections. What is happening now in my case is lobbying — people approach me and say: “We are discussing your name.” So, have I been lobbied? Absolutely, ” says Tokyo Sexwale.
ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s security personnel were forced to take additional precautionary measures last year after rumours originated that he would be poisoned, the Mail & Guardian has learnt. It is unclear from where the rumours emanated, but the M&G understands that Zuma’s aides were tipped off by sources within the National Intelligence Agency.
For a commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi has a rather unfortunate history of association with stolen cars. As early as 1998, when he had just been appointed director general of foreign affairs, Selebi was reportedly shocked to discover that he owned a stolen BMW.
South Africa’s only civil society network for rape and abuse victims, Themba Lesizwe, has collapsed after the European Union withdrew â,¬20-million it had pledged to the organisation over the next three years. Themba Lesizwe, established in 2001 by four NGOs, had grown into a network of 269 affiliates in the victim empowerment sector in South Africa.
President Thabo Mbeki has submitted, in a potentially far-reaching argument for separation of powers, that courts are not equipped to review his 2006 decision to dismiss National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha. If they did, Mbeki has argued in the Constitutional Court, national security would be threatened.
The Eastern Cape African National Congress’s call for President Thabo Mbeki to retain the party’s presidency for a third term moved to the national stage this week when all ANC provincial secretaries gathered for a one-day meeting on Thursday in Bloemfontein to discuss the party’s presidential succession battle.
Former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha has subpoenaed African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe to hand over the ruling party’s ”hoax” email report. The report, sealed and classified as confidential, will form part of Masetlha’s defence in his fraud trial in July.