The Independent Democrats, contesting its first election on Wednesday, surpassed the long-established New National Party in early poll counts on Thursday morning. By mid-morning, the ID had garnered 123 292 votes or 2,24% of the votes counted, putting them in fourth place. The NNP was in fifth place with 121 928 votes, or 2,21%.
"What the third democratic election has emphatically indicated is that the country is well on its way to being a mature democracy. The fact that, when we compare the electoral process from 1994 up to now, things are generally getting better, says volumes about the country, voters, political parties, politicians, civil society and many other sectors of society." Thabisi Hoeane reflects on the 2004 elections.
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As expected, the race for control of the South African provinces of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal remains tight. In the Western Cape, with 23% of the votes counted, the African National Congress was only slightly ahead of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, with figures indicating that a hung legislature could result.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Initial results from South Africa’s national election released early on Thursday morning indicated that the African National Congress (ANC) was heading for an unsurprising victory of near two-thirds of the vote, with 63,77%. Working off a low base of votes counted at 16%, the official opposition Democratic Alliance, with 19,75%, appears to be faring far more strongly than in the 1999 national election.
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The Pan Africanist Congress on Wednesday laughed off comments by African National Congress leader Thabo Mbeki that it was ”looking for other excuses” with its election complaints. Mbeki had said the Inkatha Freedom Party and the PAC were trying to discredit South Africa’s democracy because they knew they would not do well in the elections.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Tensions between the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance flared on Wednesday morning, with accusations that the official opposition workers had placed DA stamps and stickers in a number of identity books.
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The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has called on landless and poor people to boycott the elections on Wednesday. LPM spokesperson Mangaliso Kubheka said in a statement on Tuesday the boycott will ”deliver a resounding warning to political leaders over the country’s land crisis”.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday congratulated the Independent Electoral Commission on its readiness to hold Wednesday’s general election and urged political parties to do their part to ensure the poll is free and fair.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=34069">’No land, no vote'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=34047">De Lille ‘more popular’ than Leon</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34067">Tutu allays fears about ANC win</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34055">Eastern Cape ANC apologises to DA</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
The African National Congress in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday formally apologised for the disruption of three Democratic Alliance election meetings in the province last month. The apology follows incidents in which an ANC sound truck with 15Â 000 watt speakers was used to blast DA meetings in East London and Port Elizabeth.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has emerged as the favourite opposition politician in South Africa, according to a Markinor survey. The survey also showed the ANC has the backing of 72,3% of registered voters.
For the democratically elected leader of a country it was a strange motto but Thabo Mbeki seemed to relish it: no one likes me, I don’t care. It started as a terrace chant of defiance by fans of Millwall, the London football club loathed by rivals, and at some point South Africa’s president made it his own.
Wet and windy conditions are set to make driving over the Easter long weekend even more perilous, Arrive Alive said on Thursday. Spokesperson Wendy Watson said traffic was expected to increase on all major routes as worshippers and holiday makers made their way to various destinations.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday rejected calls for the Transkei to become South Africa’s 10th province. He was speaking to several thousand African National Congress supporters at a pre-election imbizo at the Great Place of Pondo King Mpondombini Sigcawu near Lusikisiki.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
The Democratic Alliance says it is to notify the auditor general of an incident in which an Eastern Cape municipality allegedly paid over R3Â 000 for a lunch for an African National Congress election campaign team. DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said he had copies of invoices and a cheque made out by the Tsolwana municipality to back up the claim.
The results of a survey conducted to find out whether President Thabo Mbeki is doing a good job show that sentiments vary according to race, location and age — but the bottom line is that Mbeki’s popularity is improving. According to the research, 47% of respondents said Mbeki is doing a good job, compared with 27% in February 2002.
Ten years ago he was living in a presidential palace, with a gold-braided uniform, a bevy of bodyguards and a country at his command. In the visitors’ book in the palace’s elegant foyer, there was a warm message from Nelson and Winnie Mandela, praising him as a progressive leader who had brought his people ”back into the centre of the struggle”.
Most parties have not given much prominence to environmental issues, focusing instead on jobs and crime. Yet we are already seeing the first frightening heralds of climate change, caused by excessive greenhouse-gas emissions. This could mean crop failure and famine in Southern Africa in the near future. Are any of our politicians paying attention?
When President Thabo Mbeki visited the Eastern Cape recently, he was offered a cow and an ox as gifts by King Maxhoba Sandile at Mngqesha place. During the presentation, women journalists were barred from attending because their presence was said to be taboo. But, Lemmer has to ask, what about all those uncircumcised male journalists?
The thing is, we all now fervently believe that it is safe to venture out of the woods. The thing is, it isn’t. Consider this. Nosimo Balindlela, provincial minister for sports, arts and culture for the Eastern Cape, has just instituted a civil claim to the tune of R100 000 against a (presumably white) woman, Erika de Beyer, who called her a baboon in the parking lot of an East London shopping centre some time last year.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki is still an Aids dissident, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa told about 25Â 000 cheering supporters at a party rally in Umtata on Saturday. The gathering, in the UDM’s heartland, was billed as the major rally of the UDM’s election campaign.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>When President Thabo Mbeki entered the crowded lounge of the Xhola home in Despatch’s Khayamandi on Friday, an elderly man rose to offer his chair. But the president didn’t take it. "[Mbeki] said he is younger than that old man and he said he would go sit there on the floor," said the household matriarch afterwards.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Health departments in the Eastern Cape and North West provinces were still investigating on Thursday the possible cause of recent outbreaks of cholera. Thirteen people died of the disease early in March in the rural Eastern Cape, and at least nine people are still being treated in the North West.
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President Thabo Mbeki was presented with a cow and an ox on Thursday morning as he kicked off two days of electioneering in the Eastern Cape. The presentation was made at the Mngqesha Great Place of Maxhoba Sandile, king of the Rharhabe or Western Xhosa.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Parties that campaign only to oppose the African National Congress are also opposing its efforts to deal with poverty and unemployment, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. He was speaking to Rharhabe King Maxhoba Sandile and chiefs and counsellors at the Mngqesha Great Place north of King William’s Town.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33497">A cow and an ox for Mbeki</a>
Twenty-seven facilities had met the basic requirements for accreditation to provide quality care for Aids patients, the national Department of Health has announced. The 27 facilities will begin admitting patients and performing HIV testing and medical examinations.
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The Democratic Alliance has accused the Eastern Cape African National Congress of ”high decibel” intimidation after a bid on Tuesday to disrupt a DA meeting with a massive sound truck. The truck parked outside a Port Elizabeth hall where a DA lunch-time meeting was in progress.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The number of man days lost in South Africa due to strike action fell from 945Â 000 in 2002 to 700Â 000 in 2003, according to labour analyst’s Andrew Levy strike report for 2003. The report says strike action in the country has levelled off significantly since the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Tuesday faces interrogation by Advocate Kessie Naidu, the man who had South Africans glued to their television screens as leader of evidence in the recent Hefer commission hearings. Naidu was appointed at short notice to replace advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33347">Nieuwoudt mum on ‘interrogation'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33337">Nieuwoudt sorry for saying ‘terrorist'</a>
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt said on Monday he did not remember how he persuaded a trained freedom fighter to cooperate with him after being arrested. Nieuwoudt is applying for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb murders of three black colleagues and an informer at Motherwell.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33337">Nieuwoudt sorry for saying ‘terrorist'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33325">Motherwell bombing hearings resume</a>
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt apologised on Monday for using the word "terrorist" to describe trained guerrillas who infiltrated apartheid-era South Africa. His application for amnesty for the 1989 car bomb murders of three black colleagues and an informer at Motherwell is being heard afresh in Port Elizabeth.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33325">Motherwell bombing hearings resume</a>
Eastern Cape premier Makenkhesi Stofile says he would have no problem if a troubleshooting report on his administration were released before the coming election, because it contains ”nothing new”. The report was scheduled to be released two weeks ago.
It’s been a confusing few months for world-weary observers of African elections, as they’ve sat and watched South Africa and waited for the smoke to rise. Where’s all the razor wire? This isn’t an election campaign, it’s a queue. And no one is cutting in. Frankly, this year’s election campaign has been decidedly dull.