<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>Neither President Thabo Mbeki nor ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma is suitable candidate to lead the party. So said Archbishop Desmond Tutu this week. The country needs an inspirational leader to take the reins of the ANC. "The nation is in distress and needs a political leader who cares for them and makes them feel as though they matter," he said in an interview with the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>"The media call me ‘Tony Yengeni, disgraced ANC leader, convicted fraudster and former chief whip’ and, by doing that, you ridicule and pour scorn on me. There’s a selective morality at play for people like myself and Jacob Zuma," Western Cape ANC strongman Tony Yengeni said in a rare interview this week. Yengeni, who was arrested again recently on charges of drinking and driving, is an angry man.

More than a third of patients on HIV medication in sub-Saharan Africa die or discontinue their treatment within two years of starting it, a survey shows. The study found that many start taking antiretrovirals (ARVs) too late, while for some it is impractical to travel to distant clinics. The American researchers also found evidence that in cases where patients have to pay for ARVs, some stop treatment.

Standard Bank’s BEE status hangs in the balance following its sale of a 20% stake to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. It might be forced to do a second BEE deal to keep black ownership at current levels. Should its black-owned shareholding drop to below 10%, it could be disqualified from claiming ownership points under the financial charter.