The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday it would again write to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to request that she reconsider her decision to turn down a request for a special sitting of Parliament to debate the crisis in Zimbabwe. DA chief whip Ian Davidson said his party believed that President Thabo Mbeki’s policy on Zimbabwe had been a failure.
Parliamentarians cannot remain silent about Zimbabwe, a case of ”democracy gone wrong”, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete said in Cape Town on Sunday at the opening of the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting. In his speech, President Thabo Mbeki congratulated the IPU for its stance on gender equality in government.
African observers charged on Saturday that they had discovered fraudulent voters rolls in the Zimbabwe election, listing more than 8Â 000 apparently non-existent people. Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan African Parliament, said that in one Harare constituency, ”8Â 450 [voters] have been registered under block 081083 … which is a deserted land with a few scattered wooden sheds”.
A Malian Tuareg politician said in an interview published on Friday that two Austrian tourists held captive by al-Qaeda in the Sahara were not in the country, as previously suspected. ”They are not in Mali. I would know and our president would know,” said Assarid Ag Imbarcaouane.
Releasing the Khampepe commission’s report on the Scorpions at this juncture will ”cause prejudice” to South Africa’s national security, says President Thabo Mbeki. In a letter faxed to the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday night, Mbeki’s office refused the DA’s request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act for access to the report.
Pakistan’s Parliament prepared on Monday to elect a new prime minister as the coalition government appeared set for a confrontation with key United States ally President Pervez Musharraf. Yousuf Raza Gilani, the candidate nominated by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, is a virtual certainty to win.
A decision on what disciplinary measures, if any, will be taken against Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy over the Browse Mole report is expected ”soon”, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Thursday. ”A recommendation has been made to the minister and she will act,” said spokesperson Zolile Nqayi.
South Africa is well positioned to weather the current global economic turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. While a difficult set of challenges lay ahead, he was confident that ”our ship is strong [and] that we will weather the present storms that are raging worldwide”, he told the National Assembly.
The government will not abandon its inflation-targeting policy of between 3% and 6%, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. ”Our adoption of inflation targeting in the late 1990s has enabled our economy to grow and to become more competitive,” he told the National Assembly. ”We cannot, at the first signs of stress, abandon our anchor,” Manuel said.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has come out in support of a Johannesburg businessman’s attempt to seek an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions crime-fighting unit. ”Just call me a concerned citizen,” said businessman Hugh Glenister. ”I believe our constitutional rights are being violated.”
A Johannesburg businessman is seeking an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbandment of the Scorpions elite crime-fighting unit. In a statement issued by Hugh Glenister, he argues that the disbanding of the unit would ”not be rationally connected to a legitimate governmental purpose”.
Stifling the private healthcare industry could see it shift resources to foreign operations, placing greater strain on the public sector, a consulting company said on Thursday. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced in Parliament on Wednesday that unregulated private healthcare cannot be sustained.
The government will table draft legislation intended to regulate the private health sector within two months, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday. ”It is clear that we cannot sustain unregulated private healthcare service delivery in this country and at the same time regulate the medical-schemes industry,” she said.
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/ 29 February 2008
Chad extended a state of emergency by a further 15 days on Friday, saying it was needed to maintain state authority almost a month after a rebel attack on the capital, Ndjamena. The state of emergency gives the government wide search-and-arrest powers and also permits control of media reporting.
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/ 26 February 2008
The so-called ”Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report”, dismissed by the Presidency as the product of a campaign by discredited ”information peddlers”, was produced illegally by the Scorpions and in contravention of their mandate, Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence said on Tuesday.
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/ 21 February 2008
There would be some very ”tough negotiations” with Eskom over the repayment of its R60-billion loan, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The terms will have to be worked out, it’s not in our interests to try to squeeze a short-term return,” he told a breakfast meeting.
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, while delivering his national budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, made a point of replying to a number of South Africans who had sent budgetary suggestions to him under the "Tips for Trevor" programme.
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/ 20 February 2008
Landowners who opt to preserve habitats and biodiversity on their land are set to receive an income-tax deduction for their efforts, according to the Budget Review tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 726 trees, almost 37 tonnes of paper, were used for the paperwork and the documents of the national budget.
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/ 20 February 2008
The government will fund embattled electricity producer Eskom to the tune of R60-billion over the next five years, according to national budget documents tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. At the same time, it will introduce a levy in a bid to get consumers to save electricity.
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/ 20 February 2008
Despite global economic turmoil, South Africa’s economy remains robust and the longer-term outlook favourable, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. "It is time for neither gloom nor panic," he said in his 2008/09 budget speech to the National Assembly.
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/ 20 February 2008
The party of assassinated former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto began stitching together a coalition on Wednesday that could spell the end for President Pervez Musharraf, after winning the most seats in a general election. The United States welcomed the vote as ”a step toward the full restoration of democracy”.
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/ 19 February 2008
Looking at the options available to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel when he delivers his national budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the experts of the Old Mutual Investment Group reckon that he could have as much as R25-billion to play with. But how would he spend it?
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/ 19 February 2008
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. Castro (81) said he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24.
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/ 18 February 2008
Fears of violence kept many Pakistanis away from the polls on Monday with 80 000 troops backing up police to watch over a vote that could choose a Parliament set on driving President Pervez Musharraf from office. Results are expected to start emerging by midnight and trends should be clear on Tuesday morning.
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/ 18 February 2008
Fears of violence overshadowed Pakistan’s general election on Monday with 80Â 000 troops backing up police to watch over a vote that could return a Parliament set on driving President Pervez Musharraf from office. Musharraf has lost much popularity over the past year because of his manoeuvres to hold on to power which included a clash with the judiciary.
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/ 17 February 2008
Leaders of Pakistan’s opposition parties have been making frantic last-minute efforts to convince fearful voters to turn out in crucial parliamentary elections on Monday that may plunge the 164 million-strong nation into chaos. As the last day of official campaigning in the most troubled contest for decades drew to a close on Saturday, no one was confident of a victory.
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/ 15 February 2008
The Ginwala Commission of Inquiry on Friday received a submission from suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. The submission was delivered to Ginwala’s offices before midday. It was Pikoli’s response to a government submission received by the commission in January.
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/ 13 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) has rejected the call made on Tuesday by the Democratic Alliance for Parliament to be dissolved and new elections held, as well as the call made by the Independent Democrats for the government to resign. A statement issued by the ANC on Wednesday said: ”We believe that such calls have no merit.”
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/ 12 February 2008
Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille on Tuesday moved a motion calling on President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet to resign over the energy crisis. Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said the ID has lost confidence in the government and its leaders.
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/ 12 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha tabled a notice of motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday calling for Parliament to be dissolved. Speaking during debate on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, she said in order to tackle the challenges currently facing South Africa, it is necessary to start from a clean slate.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s elite, FBI-style Scorpions anti-crime unit will be dissolved, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. ”The Scorpions … will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new, amalgamated unit will be created,” Nqakula told Parliament in Cape Town.