South Africa’s white and black workers are increasingly finding common ground, as shown by their joint participation in the public service and metal industries strikes. The Mail & Guardian‘s Matuma Letsoalo poses questions to Dirk Hermann, the deputy general secretary of the union Solidarity.
Earlier this week news from Pakistan was dominated by the siege at the Red Mosque, which ended late on Tuesday. Scarcely a mile from the seat of power in Islamabad, the madrasa students and their two leading clerics inside the mosque first claimed attention with kidnappings, threats of suicide bombings and demands for the imposition of sharia law.
A weaker appetite for expensive cars and other imported goods in South Africa could have dire consequences for some of the poorest countries in the region, economists and officials at the national treasury have warned. South Africa’s consumer boom has been financing a huge — and disturbingly fragile — surge in the budgets of other countries in the Southern African Customs Union.
Howard West draws up a marketing plan for the launch of a vehicle insurance company’s new call centre for southern Africa that will offer its services in 13 languages.
It is not the kind of militaristic statement expected of the peace-loving Canadians. In front of a choreographed line-up of 120 sailors in their summer whites at a naval base outside Victoria in British Columbia, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, gave a warning to other nations with their eye on the potentially oil-rich Arctic.
Problems are piling up for Republicans as they seek a presidential election candidate with the strength and charisma to overcome the ”Bush deficit”. The choice on offer has failed so far to inspire the party’s base. And polls suggest adverse ideological and demographic shifts could confound any future nominee.
Attempts to claim guardianship of the ANC’s icons and traditions as a weapon in the party’s leadership battle appear to lie behind the postponement of celebrations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of former ANC president Albert Luthuli.
I read with incredulity Ferial Haffajee’s diatribe against the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) (Polokwane Briefing: "The state, revolution and rhetoric", June 30). While engaged in the struggle to discontinue private ownership of the means of production, the SACP also strives to build a coherent and united nation, and end patriarchy.
The road trip from Midrand to Polokwane may only be 284km, but the political round-trip seems far longer for the ANC — and perhaps for the country. The ruling party must move from its policy conference last month to its decision-making conference in December, then back to the halls of government.
Elder statesman Shimon Peres took office as Israel’s ninth president on Sunday at the age of 83, pledging to devote the full seven-year term to realising his lifelong dream of bringing peace to the Middle East, despite the limitations of the largely ceremonial post. He entered Parliament to military fanfares.