”Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi [Let the women’s name be praised]” — the rallying cry of the African National Congress Women’s League first adopted at the party’s national conference in 1957 — is today the name of a trust that appears, through its proximity to the ruling party’s women’s wing, to have landed a string of lucrative empowerment deals.
The African National Congress’s provincial executive council in the Eastern Cape has revoked all the powers and functions of the party’s ”disruptive” Amathole region — the second largest in the province — a month before the provincial African National Congress’s elective conference. The move is likely to galvanise a power struggle between senior party leaders in the province.
As many as 82% of African National Congress MPs have left Parliament since 1994, debilitating the legislature’s oversight powers as its ranks have been filled with junior ruling party members who lack the political clout to hold the executive to account. Only 49, or 18%, of the ANC’s 274 MPs have remained since 1994.
Black ownership is now concentrated in more than 20 significant empowerment groupings, including Mvelaphanda Holdings, Johnnic Holdings, Sekunjalo, Thebe Investments, Matodzi Resources, Worldwide African Investment Holdings, Safika and Shanduka.
Thabo Mbeki’s tough message to the African National Congress to switch its focus from internal divisions to building the party and improving service delivery has won him acclaim from party structures for finally providing leadership. However, a view persists on the left that the ANC president is trying to heap blame on Jacob Zuma for the party’s internal woes, evading his own responsibility.
The African National Congress’s national executive committee (NEC) has begun debating the future of South Africa’s nine provinces, in line with a resolution at last year’s national general council that the party should "review [the] provinces in the context of the increasing devolution of powers and functions to municipalities".
In this season of nascent political larvae, when allegations of conspiracy and other creeping unpleasantness are to be found under every rock, supporters of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential metamorphosis are leaving no stone unturned. Reports that the unionist-turned-tycoon is readying his campaign for the presidency are part of the plot against Ramaphosa, they charge.
A multibillion-rand manganese empowerment deal is on the brink of collapse because a Chinese-led company has attempted to monopolise the deal through shareholder misrepresentation, sources close to the transaction have claimed. The Department of Minerals and Energy will invoke Section 47 of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act to cancel the lucrative manganese prospecting rights.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>Jacob Zuma’s upcoming fraud and corruption trial threatens to become the next round of the ugly power struggle in the African National Congress, with the trial potentially being used to embarrass President Thabo Mbeki by placing him on the witness stand.
The Democratic Alliance is arguably the best placed among opposition parties to make the advance towards a meaningful black vote. But to do so, the party must change. Armed with a war kitty, experience and growing electoral support, Tony Leon is valiantly trying to break the political mould.