The ANC is preparing to go to war with a new organisation that purports to be broadening the debate on subjects considered taboo in the 95-year-old liberation movement. The Progressive ANC Voters Network, which was founded by, among others, leader of the Treatment Action Campaign Zackie Achmat, has been rejected by the ANC as a cheap ploy by people with ulterior motives.
As the expiry date for Uthingo’s licence as the national lottery operator looms, the two losing bidders continue to put pressure on Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa to throw the Gidani consortium out of the race. By late Thursday Mpahlwa had still not decided on the new operator, raising fears that the country might soon find itself without a functioning national lottery.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have vowed to campaign for a change in the way the tripartite alliance operates. They said on Thursday the status quo in the alliance — comprising Cosatu, the SACP and the ruling African National Congress — encouraged opportunism.
Judgement was reserved on Thursday on further applications made in an interdict to suspend the election of new office bearers by an African National Congress (ANC) regional conference. Judge Corne van Zyl in the Bloemfontein High Court reserved judgement until April 4 after hearing argument on an application by 17 people wanting to join the original applicants in the matter.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party (SACP) will campaign to change the manner in which the tripartite alliance is operating, both organisations said on Thursday. ”The days of … decisions being left exclusively in the hands of the African National Congress are now over,” SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande said.
Elements in the African National Congress (ANC) are planning another bid to make Cape Town ungovernable, city mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. Tabling the city’s R20-billion budget, Zille said Cape Town might declare an intergovernmental dispute over the R500-million it spends every year on unfunded mandates — functions the province should be performing.
The African National Congress (ANC) leadership debate must shift from personalities to the collective to take the ruling party forward and retain its working-class bias, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said at a bilateral summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad on Tuesday again rejected suggestions that economic sanctions should be imposed as a means to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. Briefing the media at Parliament, he said: ”It should now be clear that those who imposed so-called smart sanctions have themselves questioned the effectiveness of such actions.”
A growth that was surgically removed from White House press secretary Tony Snow was cancerous and the cancer has spread to his liver, the White House disclosed on Tuesday. Snow, a colon-cancer survivor, underwent surgery on Monday at an undisclosed hospital to remove the growth from his abdomen region.
KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) coastal municipalities will get help from the National Treasury in footing the bill to clean up in the wake of the freak surf that battered the province’s coastline, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Tuesday. However, Mufamadi refused to be drawn on how much aid would be forthcoming.