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/ 17 May 2008

Eskom tariff blow may be softened

Any increase in electricity prices should occur gradually over five years, Eskom was told on Friday at a summit in Sandton on the electricity crisis, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. The government, labour, the African National Congress and community forums were represented at the summit.

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/ 12 May 2008

SACP expels Madisha

Unionist Willie Madisha has been expelled from the South African Communist Party (SACP), of which he was a central committee member, the organisation announced on Monday. It said the move followed a recommendation by a disciplinary committee that found he never disclosed a supposed R500 000 donation, and that he brought the party into disrepute.

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/ 11 May 2008

ANC: There’s no bid to oust Mbeki

African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma has received support from alliance partners to run for presidential elections, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday. ”We will not only be accompanying him to court but to the Union Buildings as the next president of South Africa,” he said, announcing the outcome of an alliance.

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/ 10 May 2008

ANC denies summit talks on removing Mbeki

The South African Communist Party, an ally of the African National Congress (ANC), called at a weekend summit for President Thabo Mbeki to be sacked, newspapers said on Saturday, but the ANC said the issue was not even on the agenda. ANC spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso dismissed any suggestion that Mbeki’s political future was being discussed.

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/ 10 May 2008

Zuma calls for end to alliance tension

African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma on Friday called for a closure of the ”chapter of tension and mistrust” between the ruling party and its alliance partners. The relationship between the ANC and its alliance partners had become somewhat strained under the previous leadership of national President Thabo Mbeki.

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/ 6 May 2008

Slipping, sliding and climbing

If there was ever a period that so ably demonstrated the febrile nature of politics it has been the past week or two. As Jacob Zuma strode into Downing Street after having met with the British prime minister, looking surprisingly at ease in the media glare, Thabo Mbeki was quietly meeting King Mswati III which, with all due respect to the Swazi monarch, pretty much sums up the state of play: Zuma on the ascendant, Mbeki on the slide.

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/ 4 May 2008

Do we want a lame-duck govt?

When was the last time you heard from Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, Northern Cape’s Dipuo Peters or even KwaZulu-Natal’s S’bu Ndebele? I reckon not lately. It may be true that some, such as Marshoff and Peters, have always had a low public profile anyway. But Shilowa and Ndebele?

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/ 1 May 2008

Zuma says land reform must be speeded up

African National Congress president Jacob Zuma addressed thousands of workers at a May Day celebration in the North West on Thursday, saying that rural development was key to fighting poverty. He said access to land for subsistence farming was critical as people should be able to produce food to combat the impact of increased food prices.

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/ 17 April 2008

Thousands march over food, power

Thousands of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) took to the streets of Johannesburg to protest against the rising prices of food, fuel and electricity. The march proceeded to the offices of Eskom and supermarket chain Pick n Pay, where memorandums of understanding were delivered.

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/ 13 March 2008

In the mind of Motlanthe

"I have interviewed African National Congress deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe seven times between 1999 and 2008, and I have watched him change. Yes, he has been buffeted by the winds of neo-liberalism, but in my last interview with him, I see a far more forthright socialist emerging," writes Ebrahim Harvey.

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/ 3 March 2008

SACP urges police to finalise donation probe

The South African Communist Party has asked the South African Police Service to finalise its investigation into a donation scandal after an internal audit cleared their secretary general Blade Nzimande. The SACP audit was set up to investigate the whereabouts of R500 000 donated to the party by controversial businessman Charles Modise.

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/ 27 February 2008

Cosatu’s Madisha given marching orders

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) axed Willie Madisha as its president on Wednesday over his involvement in a missing donation scandal. This comes after a commission probing the matter presented its findings and recommendations to Cosatu’s central executive committee at its meeting this week.

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/ 22 February 2008

Alleged SACP benefactor Modise denied bail

Controversial businessman Charles Modise was denied bail in the Kimberly Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Modise is being investigated by the Scorpions and faces various charges, including fraud, forgery and corruption in the Northern Cape. Magistrate Andre Williams postponed the matter to July 9 for further investigations.

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/ 6 February 2008

Zuma and the press: Soft or hard?

Newspapers are beginning to deal with whether Jacob Zuma and his backers will be magnanimous in his victory … or vengeful towards them. Last week, the new ANC president pruned his legal actions against the press. He can now afford to do so politically, and many of the cases were probably unlikely to succeed anyway.

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/ 3 February 2008

Nzimande launches stinging attack on City Press

South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused City Press newspaper of adopting an ”extremely hostile attitude” towards African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Nzimande tears into the paper in an open letter published on Sunday for ”deliberately” writing about the party in a ”provocatively factionalist, divisive and highly subjective manner”.

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/ 18 December 2007

ANC plans to expand national executive committee

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/327874/livefrompolo.gif" align=left border=0></a>The ANC has resolved to increase its national executive committee from 60 to 86 members to ensure greater representation of the party’s motive forces. The decision came amid concern from some members of the ANC and its alliance partners that the executive no longer represents the party’s core constituency.

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/ 17 December 2007

Rebellion at Polokwane

It was open rebellion as the African National Congress began its 52nd national conference. Traditions of the movement, almost 100 years old, were thrown out as the majority of the more than 4 000 delegates made clear their support for the candidacy of deputy president Jacob Zuma to the top job.

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/ 14 December 2007

Investors fear jump to left under Zuma

Investors will closely eye the African National Congress’s election conference next week, fearing a victorious Jacob Zuma would chart a leftist course. Maarten-Jan Bakkum, an economist at ABN Amro Asset Management, said the thought of Zuma governing Africa’s economic powerhouse left many investors uneasy.

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/ 23 November 2007

ANCYL throws weight behind Zuma

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has thrown its weight behind Jacob Zuma for president of the ANC, with current president Thabo Mbeki not featuring on its list of 66 nominations released in Johannesburg on Friday. ”We didn’t support him [Mbeki] for president of the ANC,” said ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula.

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/ 22 November 2007

‘ANC will emerge from conference united’

The African National Congress (ANC)’s December national conference will serve as a springboard to propel the party to new heights, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. Speaking during the launch of the ANC parliamentary caucus website in Cape Town, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the party would surprise its critics.

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/ 16 October 2007

Hani killers chase presidential pardon

Lawyers acting for Chris Hani’s killers said they would proceed with an application to the high court, asking it to compel President Thabo Mbeki to make a decision on their application for a presidential pardon. Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis unsuccessfully sought amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1999 for the 1993 assassination of Hani.