A hard-hitting document by former Mpumalanga premier Matthews Phosa criticising the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for being compromised by party politics was held back “for sterilisation” by the ANC’s top brass, an ANC leader has told the Mail & Guardian.
Polo Radebe, the chief director of the black economic empowerment (BEE) unit in the department of trade and industry, said that the greatest challenge the unit faced was regulating the labyrinth of empowerment legislation, which included eight Acts and 15 industry charters. On February 9, the broad-based BEE codes of good practice passed into law.
Forget Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma’s battle over the presidency. The ANC’s December national congress will be dominated by a struggle over the party’s national executive committee (NEC) — its highest decision-making body between conferences. The NEC will undergo its most extensive leadership overhaul since 1994 at this congress.
“I often joke to the men that they have a genetic defect — they don’t see capable women,” quipped Frene Ginwala this week. Ginwala, the former speaker of Parliament , is a member of the constitutional affairs sub-committee of the ANC’s NEC. This body has the ultimate responsibility for implementing the new quota system by adjusting the ANC constitution.
The African National Congress (ANC) task team investigating the ”hoax” email saga has found the email messages to be genuine, the Mail & Guardian can exclusively reveal. The investigators identified those they considered responsible — but could not release their names after the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) rejected the report at its weekend meeting.
Nearly two years after it made a public commitment to do so, the ANC has made no progress in developing legislation to regulate private funding to political parties. The ANC’s pledge to develop legislation followed the dismissal in April 2005 of a high court application by civil society group Idasa aimed at forcing the DA, the ANC, the IFP and the former New National Party to reveal major private financial donors.
ANC treasurer general Mendi Msimang and the trustees of the ANC-linked Batho Batho Trust are at loggerheads over who decides how trust money should be spent. The origin of the disagreement is Msimang’s belief that the proceeds from a lucrative sale of trust shares last year should be used to pay off the ANC’s massive debts.
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/ 22 February 2007
Alec Erwin, Minister of Public Enterprises, has been hobbled by the national treasury which, contrary to expectations, advanced only a miniscule portion of the billions of rands the minister needs for his elaborate plans for state-owned enterprises. The finance minister indicated that a transfer of funds were contingent on Erwin’s business plans.
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/ 18 February 2007
On the one hand President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address showed a man of steely resolve — without the characteristic poetry, Bible verses and George Soros references, his speech was concise, pragmatic and resolute. His marching orders to his Cabinet, "let us roll up our sleeves and get down to work", set out the blueprint for his final two and half years in office.
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/ 16 February 2007
Astonishing new allegations relating to the ”hoax e-mail” affair and the sacking of former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha have emerged from a previously secret affidavit. In it the former spy boss accuses Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils of being the tool of a sinister ”grouping” that was pursuing political objectives with the help of a unit within the Scorpions.