No image available
/ 17 December 2007
![]()
Heavy rain on Monday did nothing to dampen the spirits of supporters of the front-runners in the African National Congress leadership race as the second day of the ruling party’s 52nd national conference got under way.
No image available
/ 17 December 2007
![]()
On Sunday a picture emerged of strong support for Jacob Zuma, overshowing the rest and spectacularly managing to humiliate national ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota. As strong an indicator as it was, some delegates supporting President Thabo Mbeki insisted that an Mbeki win remained a possibility.
No image available
/ 17 December 2007
![]()
Delegates to the ANC’s national conference in Polokwane were on Sunday concerned about disruptions, but also hopeful that the party will emerge stronger and better. Motsotose Ndyalivani (49), a delegate from the Rogersfontein region of Grahamstown, said the conference was different from the six that he had attended in the past.
No image available
/ 16 December 2007
![]()
The first day of the African National Congress’s (ANC) Polokwane conference ended abruptly just after 9.30pm on Sunday, without dealing with nominations for the party leadership. ANC national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota told delegates to come back on Monday, explaining there were ”a few details” the national executive committee wanted to tie up.
No image available
/ 16 December 2007
![]()
The African National Congress’s (ANC) 52nd national conference in Polokwane got off to a shaky start on Sunday when the opening ceremony was disrupted by the ANC Youth League opposing the counting method to be used in party elections.
No image available
/ 7 December 2007
”Unfortunate and regrettable” was how Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Friday described the publication of a letter in which he criticised Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. ”I wish to state that the letter was intended for internal discussion within the African National Congress, and not for public consumption,” he said.
No image available
/ 5 December 2007
A reported spat between Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota was an indication of how the divisions within the African National Congress (ANC) were running through the Cabinet, a political analyst said on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 5 December 2007
What does President Thabo Mbeki like to do in his spare time? Ballroom dancing? Playing the piano? No, the man likes to work during leisure hours, says his spokesperson. As the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane approaches members of the South African Cabinet certainly need ways to unwind.
No image available
/ 30 November 2007
African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma asked to be dismissed from the Cabinet in 2005, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said in an interview published in the Times on Friday. Lekota told the newspaper on Thursday that the ANC could not ”keep quiet” about the truth anymore.
No image available
/ 30 November 2007
The African National Congress (ANC) must defend its principles and values without hesitation or ambiguity, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Some people seemed very keen to denounce any restatement of the most basic ANC positions as constituting an attack on ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, he said in his weekly online newsletter.
No image available
/ 28 November 2007
The South African National Defence Force Union on Wednesday threatened to lay a criminal charge against Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota for contravening the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The union also wants the Labour Department to take action against the South African National Defence Force for non-compliance with health and safety legislation.
No image available
/ 27 November 2007
More than 28 000 animals were stolen from farms around the country over the past 18 months, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Less than 40% of the stock — including game, cattle, sheep and goats — was recovered, DA rural safety spokesperson Ryno King said in a statement.
No image available
/ 25 November 2007
![]()
The African National Congress (ANC) in the North West has come out in support of President Thabo Mbeki to retain his position as the party’s president, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday. Mbeki also received the Western Cape’s support.
No image available
/ 20 November 2007
South Africa and Mozambique on Tuesday signed a treaty for the establishment of a Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security. Speaking at the signing of the agreement, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said cooperation on defence and security between South Africa and Mozambique is critical with an eye on the 2010 World Cup.
No image available
/ 15 November 2007
Southern African countries face a ”very real challenge” of regime change encouraged by foreign powers, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday. He was opening the ministerial session of the South Africa-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent Commission on defence and security in Vanderbijlpark.
No image available
/ 14 November 2007
![]()
The Sandton branch of the African National Congress (ANC) has not drawn up or endorsed any list of desired candidates for ANC leadership positions due to be determined later this year. The branch responded on Wednesday to a City Press article published this week that alleged the party had created such a list.
No image available
/ 7 November 2007
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is ”unaware” of having received any money from German arms manufacturer Thyssen-Krupp during the arms deal. Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Patricia de Lille said the African National Congress and the children’s fund benefited inappropriately from the arms deal.
No image available
/ 6 November 2007
African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota has rejected allegations by Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille that the ANC and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund benefited inappropriately from the arms deal. De Lille on Tuesday said such allegations had been speculation up until now.
No image available
/ 28 October 2007
![]()
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.
No image available
/ 24 October 2007
The nine South African soldiers killed during a military training exercise at Lohatla base were on Wednesday hailed as heroes and heroines during a memorial service in Kimberley. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said that the five men and four women had fallen in defence of South Africa’s hard-won democracy.
No image available
/ 23 October 2007
![]()
African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota is being one-sided in calling for a clampdown on T-shirts showing support for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma while defending T-shirts bearing President Thabo Mbeki’s image, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 17 October 2007
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s ”hostility” towards the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was reflected in his ”ignorance” of its policies, presented as an alternative to those of the government, Cosatu said on Wednesday. Lekota had challenged Cosatu in a radio broadcast to ”present alternative policy positions to those of the ruling party”.
No image available
/ 17 October 2007
A military board of inquiry into an accident in which nine soldiers were killed has begun its work, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday. Lekota was visiting seven troopers in various Bloemfontein hospitals, who were injured in the anti-aircraft gun accident at the Lohatla training area in the Northern Cape last Friday.
No image available
/ 16 October 2007
African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota in the National Assembly on Tuesday defended the decision to suspend National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, as well as the police probe into the alleged theft of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s health records.
No image available
/ 16 October 2007
The accident at the South African National Defence Force’s Lohatlha training grounds last week happened immediately after technicians had finished repairing the weapon, a Mark V twin-barrelled 35mm gun, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
The Congress of South African Students on Monday expressed shock at African National Congress chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota’s stance against singing liberation songs outside court buildings during criminal cases. The student body was also disturbed at Lekota’s view on the wearing of T-shirts bearing certain political slogans.
No image available
/ 14 October 2007
Six names of the nine South African National Defence Force soldiers who died during a training accident at the South African Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatla, Northern Cape, were released on Saturday. The Department of Defence has appointed a high-level board of inquiry to investigate the accident.
No image available
/ 13 October 2007
A female artillery officer risked her life at Lohatlha on Friday in a desperate bid to prevent members of her battery being killed by their own anti-aircraft gun. By the time the gun had emptied its twin 250-round auto-loader magazine, eight soldiers were dead. A ninth soldier, a woman, died soon after being airlifted to Bloemfontein.
No image available
/ 12 October 2007
Nine South African soldiers were killed on Friday in a shooting accident involving an anti-aircraft gun during a training exercise at a base in the central Bloemfontein region, the army said. "I can confirm that nine of our people have died and another 15 were injured and taken to various," a South African National Defence Force spokesperson said.
No image available
/ 21 September 2007
The African National Congress is intent on turning South Africa into an authoritarian state, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille warned on Friday. ”The evidence is now overwhelming: the ruling party is increasingly authoritarian, intolerant of criticism and hostile to the principles of an open society,” she said.
No image available
/ 18 September 2007
”Palace politics” are the biggest threat facing the national democratic revolution, South African Communist Party secretary general Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday. ”Like all palace politics, it is the politics of backstabbing, the pursuit of individual wealth,” he told delegates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions central committee meeting.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
South Africa on Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of Steve Biko’s murder as the country’s current leaders face accusations they have neglected the poor masses. His legacy is a rallying cry for some of the discontented, who believe the ANC leadership have placed the interests of the business community above those of the country as a whole.