Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is a South African heroine and a true and devoted servant of the masses, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The recent sustained and merciless propaganda assault against her was frightening, and ”belongs to wild animals”, he said in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.
A Cape High Court judge on Friday criticised what he called ”unseemly political horse-trading” ahead of the floor-crossing window, and said it resembled transfer season in the English Premiership. Dennis Davis made the remarks before rejecting an application by the former general secretary of the Independent Democrats to overturn his expulsion from the party.
President Thabo Mbeki should accept that Afrikaans place names are also African, civil rights initiative AfriForum said on Friday. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Mbeki had implied that Afrikaners and Afrikaans-speaking people were not Africans, but Europeans, according to AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel.
The African National Congress MPs who had pleaded guilty to Travelgate crimes should be dismissed, not demoted, says Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha. ”They should not be allowed to remain in those positions of responsibility and trust at all,” she said on Friday.
The African National Congress (ANC) declined to comment on Thursday’s media reports that national membership officer Alex Sithole had been suspended for inflating membership figures. Business Day reported on Thursday that Sithole had issued ANC membership cards to branches from head office, despite instructions that these be issued locally only.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is set to entrench its political dominance with a 15-day window period opening this week to allow elected officials to swap party allegiance without losing their seats. The opposition is likely to be further fragmented as representatives at the national, provincial and municipal government levels are free to cross the floor.
The Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday reserved judgement in the dispute between Thint and the national director of public prosecutions over the seizure of documents from the French arms company. State counsel Wim Trengove argued before the Bloemfontein court for the necessity of the search warrants.
The African National Congress (ANC) said on Wednesday it knew about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s dismissal on theft charges from a Botswana hospital in 1976, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported. The Sunday Times reported two weeks ago that Tshabalala-Msimang had been convicted of theft.
Opposition political parties on Wednesday expressed shocked at the reaction of local African National Congress (ANC) leaders on the ruling of the Pretoria High Court preventing the name Pretoria being replaced with Tshwane on road signs. On Tuesday the court granted an urgent interim interdict to the Freedom Front Plus and AfriForum.
A director of French arms company Thint always cooperated with investigators probing alleged corruption and fraud in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal, the Supreme Court of Appeal heard on Wednesday. ”Mr [Pierre] Moynot has at all times offered the investigating team his kind and affable cooperation,” said Thint lawyer Peter Hodes.
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) expressed its ”grave concern” on Wednesday at the tendency of politicians to shame and humiliate colleagues with whom they disagree. ”An increasing number of our political leaders and political parties appear to be going about their business by publicly disgracing one another,” it said.
President Thabo Mbeki and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille met in Cape Town on Tuesday to discuss a range of current issues. These included crime, skills shortages, floor-crossing and the dismissal of former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille and Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille put up a united front on Tuesday against the floor-crossing onslaught of controversial city councillor Badhi Chaaban. Chaaban is facing a disciplinary inquiry over claims that he offered ID and Democratic Alliance councillors cash and positions to join his yet-to-be-formed party.
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Search warrants and not subpoenas were necessary to obtain documents from African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, the state argued in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday. Wim Trengove argued that the lesser means of a subpoena would cause a ”high risk” of evidence being concealed or destroyed.