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/ 15 October 2004
The head office of the African National Congress has weighed into the succession debate, by expressing support for the Gauteng ANC, which has publicly raised the issue for debate. ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula and ANC KwaZulu-Natal leader S’bu Ndebele roundly condemned Gauteng for daring to suggest that the discussion on succession start now — ahead of the 2007 congress.
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/ 15 October 2004
It was with a feeling of pride and fair play that I read in the paper about the 7% rise in salaries that, subject to Thabo Mbeki’s approval, is to be awarded to MPs. Notwithstanding that this was nearly a whole percentage point more than Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi was prepared to pay the ordinary run of public servants, this insignificant increment demonstrated an admirable restraint in an exalted profession renowned for its asceticism.
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/ 15 October 2004
The recent attack by African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe on black economic empowerment (BEE) should be seen as a call for established empowerment players to create opportunities for fledgling BEE firms. So says Prince Booi, CEO of empowerment rating agency Empowerlogic, who described such assistance as "succession planning".
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/ 15 October 2004
The mustiness of masonry corroding in the sea air seeps from the Durban High Court building where Schabir Shaik is on trial. A stately, though ageing structure, it symbolises both permanence and decay. This trial is in part about the kind of South Africa we are constructing — one of decay or of rights-based permanence.
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/ 15 October 2004
Former United States president Bill Clinton, forced to sit out the US presidential campaign after heart bypass surgery, is expected to record a number of radio adverts from his home. With only two weeks of campaigning left, the scramble is on to capture selected audiences with a final blitz of TV advertising.
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/ 15 October 2004
So far, so good, for Stuart Baxter and Bafana Bafana, who ended the first round of 2006 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers on a high note. The 1-0 win against Uganda was significant in that they finally managed to win an away game – the first team in Group 2 to do so.
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/ 15 October 2004
The best Currie Cup competition of the new millennium has reached the semifinal stage. It’s worth stressing the quality of the rugby, since next year SA Rugby has committed to return to a 14-team structure from the current eight. That will mean many more one-sided contests than has been the case this year, but probably little change in the make-up of the semifinalists.
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/ 15 October 2004
Part of the strategy of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), when it proclaimed that while there was a prima facie case of corruption against Deputy President Jacob Zuma it would not charge him, was that he would be tried in the court of public opinion. But why is it that ‘vrot’ politicians always get off in the court of public opinion?
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/ 15 October 2004
Minni Minawi does not look like a warlord. The former primary school teacher is a softly spoken Sudanese, in a grey pinstripe suit. Yet 34-year-old Minawi is the military leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, one of two rebel factions locked in battle with the Sudanese government in Darfur. ”This [Darfur] is worse than Rwanda. This is not only killing, but starving, displacing, disease and poverty.”
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/ 15 October 2004
In 1994 the World Bank concluded that South Africa’s industrial development had historically been capital-intensive because of cheap finance. The bank argued that raising interest rates above the rate of inflation and reducing government intervention would prompt firms to use more labour relative to capital, creating employment while fighting inflation. And it appears that SA’s industrial policy is still mired in the past.