Donwald Pressly

The South African Parliament is expected to cost R1,07-billion in 2007/8, with constituency allowances for MPs showing the largest spike. Constituency support will cost R188-million in 2007/8 — up from R105-million in 2006/7, while the estimated allocation for 2008/9 rises to R202-million.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should provide a social democratic budget on Wednesday aimed at the comprehensive upliftment of the poor, says Independent Democrats finance spokesperson Avril Harding. Harding said on Monday that a key element should be the reducing of the state pension age to 60 for both men and women.

The recent African Union summit confirmed that the African continent remains united "in its determination" to pursue the objectives fundamental to the African renaissance, including accelerating socio-economic development, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

South Africa’s Parliament must reassert its constitutional role as the true representative of the people and do its constitutionally entrenched function of framing, debating and passing laws and offering a check on executive power, says official opposition leader Tony Leon.

The African National Congress (ANC) has noted the release on Monday of its former National Assembly chief whip from prison and says that it has "consistently held" that the law must take its course without fear or favour. The party also hinted that there could be a role for Tony Yengeni in what it terms the building of a non-racial society.

It is critical to win the political argument that a decentralised state is more effective than a unitary state in delivering essential services, including crime fighting, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Buthelezi, noting that the South African state’s number one obligation is to protect its citizens, argued that policing in South Africa remains highly centralised.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe has backed an ongoing strike by medical doctors as well as a go-slow at the country’s schools. In a statement on Wednesday, issued by MDC secretary for information and publicity Nelson Chamisa, the party said the strike is a vote of no-confidence in the government.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions says it hopes that a basic income grant will be adopted at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference in June 2007. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "We closed the year encouraged by Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya’s support for a reform [the basic income grant] that Cosatu has been campaigning for."

The Zimbabwean state has started another "blitzkrieg" — this time on businesses, threatening to take 51% of the equity in all foreign-owned concerns, the country’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) economics adviser Eddie Cross has said. Cross said there are already signs that foreign businesses are withdrawing from the embattled state.

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe on Friday laid a complaint — under the Public Protector Act — against Transport Minister Jeff Radebe for disobeying traffic laws and causing danger to other road users as well as setting a bad example.

A member of the old United Democratic Front (UDF) senior leadership may emerge as a strong and even winning candidate in the succession struggle in the African National Congress (ANC), political analyst Frederik van Zyl Slabbert predicts. This has been reported in the Helen Suzman Foundation publication, <i>Focus</i>, as reported by scribe Patrick Laurence.

The tender process for the building of five major stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup is expected to be completed before the end of this year and the host cities will thereafter announce the winning contracts, Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi said on Wednesday.

Praise has been showered on South African Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) for the "strong, courageous leadership she has revealed in her recent interview" in the United Kingdom-based newspaper, the <i>Sunday Telegraph</i>.

The ascendancy of Jacob Zuma to the leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) would be "to the massive political advantage" of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the party’s leader, Tony Leon, said on Friday. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the DA website, the DA leader said that Zuma as ANC leader "would not be in the national interest as we have explicitly stated on many occasions".

The Independent Democrats (ID) says it has been vindicated by the confirmation that national police commissioner Jackie Selebi was driving a stolen car. Member of Parliament and chief whip Lance Greyling said it was "by no means the first time the ID has been vindicated in its anti-corruption campaign".

South Africa’s Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has stuck by his call for a basic income grant in South Africa but he declined to attach a monthly figure that would apply. Asked at a briefing whether he was personally thinking of a R100-a-month grant across the board, he joked that the media wanted to crucify him.

The Presidency received the Donen Commission report into the Iraq oil-for-food programme on November 6 and was studying the report, president Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Mbeki said this in reply to a question from official opposition leader Tony Leon in the National Assembly on Wednesday.