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/ 28 October 2007

Cosatu: Alliance won’t survive Mbeki re-election

The tripartite alliance will not survive if Thabo Mbeki is re-elected president of the African National Congress in December, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday. ”A status quo will see the destruction of the alliance itself,” he told what was in essence a Jacob Zuma election rally in Kimberley.

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/ 26 October 2007

ANC is making steady progress, says Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki on Friday said the African National Congress (ANC) government was making steady progress in meeting the basic needs of poor people, despite attempts to discredit it by the ”left alternative”. Writing in the ANC’s weekly newsletter, he said the Community Survey 2007 showed there had been an improvement in meeting basic needs since 2001.

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/ 26 October 2007

Cosatu says there’s no ANC wish list

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has not compiled a ”wish list” of candidates for the national executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). This follows the Mail and Guardian publishing a list on Friday that it said named the 57 people Cosatu wanted as ANC leaders.

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/ 26 October 2007

What if Jacob Zuma is ANC president?

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>If Jacob Zuma wins his bid for the ANC presidency in December, here is what he is likely to do, say close aides, associates and analysts. First, he will draw up a protocol governing how he and President Thabo Mbeki will work: one running the party, the other the Presidency. While the protocol could iron out possible areas of conflict, the big hurdle to overcome will be the question of who runs the country?

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/ 26 October 2007

Striking a balance

In Africa it is sometimes difficult to balance conservation and development adequately. But a conservation programme — described as innovative and science-based with a landscape-level approach to conservation — is showing how these two goals can be reached without one compromising the other. The African Wildlife Foundation’s Heartland Programme includes both conservation and development goals.

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/ 26 October 2007

Good sign or good riddance?

The appointment of veteran Democratic Alliance (DA) politician Douglas Gibson as ambassador to Thailand signals a thawing in relations between the DA and the ruling party, a senior African National Congress MP told the Mail & Guardian recently. Gibson tended to confirm this reading.

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/ 25 October 2007

US slaps new sanctions on Iran’s military

Ratcheting up the pressure on Tehran, the United States on Thursday designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferater of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism. In total, Washington slapped sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals as well as the Defence Ministry.

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/ 25 October 2007

Chances slim for Darfur breakthrough

Disarray in both government and rebel ranks makes quick progress unlikely in Darfur peace talks billed by the United Nations as a ”moment of truth” to stop four-and-a-half years of violence in western Sudan. The best that can be hoped at the gathering in Libya, which begins on Saturday, is agreement to meet again.