Ask any senior African National Congress official who is going to be in the next Cabinet or who will lead the provinces, and they will tell you: ”Chief, the president is unpredictable.” Unofficially, there are murmurs that Mbeki is keeping his options open for as long as possible, to see if he can use the premier posts to solve some sticky political problems in the ANC.
Two vital education sectors were inexplicably overlooked in this year’s Budget and the national Department of Education should explain its thinking in these areas, according to an analysis of the education budget released this week by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is on a collision course with empowerment companies, which, it says, do little to advance workers’ interests or real broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE). Two deals announced within the past month in the Western Cape have sparked Cosatu’s ire:
For some time now a desperate invective has been directed at the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Its leadership has been accused of elitism, failure to mobilise the youth and being right wing, among other things. The latest in the comical series is the charge that the league has become a vehicle for churning out elites.
In order to run the African National Congress’s Vision 2004 election manifesto, computer users will first have to install a version of Microsoft’s popular operating programme that has been specially designed for South Africa. The new version is called Shack Windows and is totally compatible with all standard computer systems. Copies may be pirated from the Independent Electoral Commission website.
The Democratic Alliance is facing an exodus of black members, who accuse the party of racism in its ranks. This week the DA caucus in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, suspended two of its leaders in Thembisa, accusing them of encouraging members to desert the party and join the opposition.
Despite achieving the best matric results in the country for three years in a row, the Northern Cape is not benefiting from the knowledge of school-leavers in the province. "We are suffering from a massive brain drain," a worried Tina Joemat-Pettersson, provincial minister of education in the Northern Cape, told the <i>M&G</i>. "But we believe that we can turn it around."
Qummergal grimaced as she bared her face to a camera for the first time. But when she saw her portrait, she giggled with delight. ”I can’t believe it’s me,” she said. ”Look at me. It’s wonderful!” Qummergal was registering to vote in Afghanistan’s first elections since the advent of war 25 years ago.
South African president Thabo Mbeki on Thursday expressed shock and dismay at the three explosions on commuter trains in Spain that left at least 198 people dead and hundreds injured.
Another bomb was found following Thursday’s bombings of four Madrid trains that killed 192 people, radio reports said on Friday. The undetonated bomb was found under a pile of luggage which had been deposited after the terrorist attacks in a police station in the southeast of Madrid.