Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi issued a statement after Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting — the last before the national election — indicating strongly he thought it would be his last as part of the government. In the statement, he admitted that at times Inkatha Freedom Party participation in the Cabinet had ”not been easy”.
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Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson on Wednesday disagreed with one of his MPs when he contended that the DA is not actively campaigning for the lesbian and gay vote in the April elections. Gibson and gay MP Mike Waters were responding to a statement from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the British Parliament’s investigation into the activities of Britain’s Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) — which will probe part of South Africa’s arms deal. BAE Systems is one of the biggest clients of the ECGD, which has financed the purchase of BAE arms by South Africa.
Old Mutual plc, the London- and South African-listed financial services company that is South Africa’s largest life insurer, has reinforced its support for troubled banking subsidiary Nedcor, while maintaining a tough line on its future performance.
The DA has requested that the National Prosecuting Authority investigate whether the government has contravened the National Conventional Arms Control Act by shipping arms to Haiti using a South African Air Force aircraft. The DA has dismissed responses from the presidency on the matter as being ”evasive”.
The South African government signed the sale agreement for 75% of the state Komatiland Forest assets, which will place R396-million in the fiscus, at a ceremony in Pretoria on Wednesday. This follows the Cabinet’s announcement in December to appoint Bonheur as the preferred bidder.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Polls indicate that South Africa’s former ruling party will be lucky to get 15% in the upcoming election — down from about 38% in 1999 — in its stronghold of the Western Cape. But there was no sign of despondency in its ranks when its leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, took to meeting voters on the West Coast on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
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The United Democratic Movement on Monday lodged a formal complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission against an African National Congress Cape Town city councillor, following a weekend incident in the city. The incident happened during a UDM election rally in Philippi on Sunday.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The African National Congress is demanding a public apology from the <i>City Press</i> newspaper following what the party calls "false" reporting of its campaigning in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, at the weekend. The ANC said the newspaper had reported that the ANC campaign there had "ended in disarray".
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Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says that the 500 members who allegedly left her party at the weekend had not been members of the party and she intended to take legal action against at least one defector. She was responding to an announcement on Sunday by Charles Golding, who claimed to be from the Welcome Estate branch.
Special Report: Elections 2004
South Africa’s traditional leaders, once scorned as ”servants” of the apartheid regime, have since had their powers legalised, but the chiefs say the government wants to take away control of what matters most — land. The amakhosi say their real power and influence lies in the land.
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The battle between the official opposition Democratic Alliance and the fledgling Independent Democrats took on a new election campaign spin with a battle of wills between veteran liberal politician Helen Suzman and ID leader Patricia de Lille.
Suzman versus De Lille
Special Report: Elections 2004
There has been a strengthening of businesses in townships across South Africa over the past decade, Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin said during a small-business breakfast meeting in Langa on Friday. He urged Langa business people to come together to help establish a business centre.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki launched a scathing attack on the Democratic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party on Friday, saying voters will decide the fate of this "right-wing coalition". He accused the IFP of siding with various right-wing groupings to protect "white interests" since 1992.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33240">Haiti inspires Africans, says Mbeki</a>
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Following this week’s approval by South Africa’s competition authorities, global energy group ExxonMobil and South Africa’s Engen Petroleum will be teaming up in a lubricants deal, under which Engen becomes the sole marketer and distributor of a range of ExxonMobil’s lubricants in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
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In a protest on Thursday against the unequal donation policies of big business during the elections, the Freedom Front Plus handed back R10Â 000 to Sanlam at its head offices in Bellville, near Cape Town. ”We don’t want this donation … it is humiliation,” FF+ leader Dr Pieter Mulder told journalists.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande says the alliance of the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party represents the most backward elements created by apartheid. ”These two parties represent not only the interests of beneficiaries of apartheid but are reluctantly part of the new order,” he said.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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Western Cape Premier and New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk has emerged as the most popular premier candidate in that province in a Markinor poll conducted in January/February. In KwaZulu-Natal, the African National Congress’s top-ranking candidate for the legislature, S’bu Ndebele, won the popularity stake in the poll.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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South African official opposition leader Tony Leon has questioned the shroud of silence which hangs in ruling African National Congress circles over the prospect that Finance Minister Trevor Manuel could be deputy president one day.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Western Cape director of public prosecutions has decided not to prosecute three men arrested in connection with a fatal shootout last week in front of former president Nelson Mandela’s Constantia home, SABC radio reported on Tuesday. The three men had been facing charges of attempted murder.
The bomb that killed three black policemen and one informer in Motherwell in 1989 will feature at an amnesty hearing starting this week. The justice ministry says the three former security policemen, including Gideon Nieuwoudt, who had been convicted of being responsible for the bomb would apply for amnesty.
Education Minister Kader Asmal’s intention to appoint a truth commission to deal with the damage of apartheid education would be a divisive step, says Western Cape education minister Andre Gaum. It would merely open up old wounds and not contribute to improving the education system, says Gaum.
Thousands of Capetonians participated in Monday’s Freedom Parade, the public launch of the 10 Years of Freedom celebrations in the Western Cape. The parade saw two processions parading from opposite sides of the Cape Flats to converge at Athlone Stadium.
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The African National Congress won six of nine municipal by-elections held on Wednesday — just four weeks before the national election for provincial and national government on April 14. Two of the seats went to the ANC, two were won by the official opposition Democratic Alliance and one by the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Special Report: Elections 2004
A decision on whether to prosecute three men arrested following the shooting of an ex-soldier outside former President Nelson Mandela’s home will be made on Thursday. Authorities have 48 hours from their arrests to charge the men, or free them.
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The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, saying she is getting a ”free ride” in the build-up to the April 14 elections.
There were no al-Qaeda cells operating in South Africa, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Wednesday. He was responding to a question from U Managing Conflict director Yvette Geyer at an international criminal justice conference in Cape Town.
The Greenpoint and Seapoint areas of Cape Town, known as relatively high crime areas in the city, are set to receive eight new CCTV cameras as part of an expansion of the municipal government’s crime-fighting efforts. Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk said that R4,3-million had been allocated for the project.
The man shot dead by police at former president Nelson Mandela’s Cape Town home was a former SA National Defence Force member, Cabinet ministers said on Wednesday. He was relieved of his duty earlier this year, the cluster of security ministers said in a statement.
Former president Nelson Mandela was completely shocked to learn about the shoot-out outside his Bishopscourt house in Cape Town on Tuesday that claimed the life of an attacker, said his spokesperson Zelda le Grange.