The Northern Cape provincial department of health will remain under the administration of the provincial treasury and the premier’s office “until such a time that our turnaround strategy is complete,” says the department’s acting MEC, Gomolemo Lucas. Instead of operating independently, the day-to-day running of the department will be in the hands of the treasury and the premier.
The health and public service ministers’ lack of response to the urgent court order to reinstate 41 healthcare workers shows their ”total disrespect for the rule of law and is characteristic of how government ministers are treating poor people and the courts”, says Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign.
Ecotourism outfits based in one of South Africa’s most fragile ecosystems are discovering that coal mining and prospecting permits have been granted on their land without their knowledge or participation. Landowners in the Mpumalanga highveld have gone to court to stop the miners. Some have vowed to deny the miners access to their properties.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders returned to their supporters eager to report some progress after their first direct talks with the ruling Zanu-PF recently, but found fresh evidence of widespread concern that infighting in the ruling party poses a threat to dialogue. The first round of formal talks has been overshadowed by the story of how four travel agents planned a military coup to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
As the African National Congress reflects on the state of our nation in the coming months, and reviews policy and direction, it must be evident that the government’s substantially punitive response to crime and violence has not been successful. If anything, this stance has exacerbated an over-reliance on criminal justice processes in responding to the social ills of the nation.
SACP Gauteng chairperson Nkosiphendule Kolisile has stepped down from his administrative post as assistant organiser, throwing the SACP into a fresh controversy. Kolisile’s resignation came in a week when SACP leaders tried to fend off allegations by its national treasurer, Phillip Dexter, of ”Stalinist” tendencies in the party.
ANC delegates from KwaZulu-Natal will go to the party’s national policy conference at Gallagher Estate on June 27 armed with a clutch of resolutions seeking, among other things, greater state control of the media and the abolition of the position of ANC national chairperson. Other resolutions reflect disenchantment with government deployees and sympathy for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
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ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma would not alter the broad parameters of South Africa’s economic policy, but believes the national treasury has usurped the people "as the driver of economic change" and that "participatory democracy" has foundered under President Thabo Mbeki.
The Johannesburg Labour Court on Thursday reserved judgement on whether South African Police Service (SAPS) members could join the public-service strike. Arguments by the lawyers for the police and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union centred largely on whether SAPS administration and support staff were essential-service workers or not.