Efforts to push legislation through Parliament to disband the Scorpions are falling behind schedule, the deputy president’s office said on Thursday. ”It’s mainly because of consultation … which has taken much longer than was thought,” said Thabang Chiloane, spokesperson for Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The saga of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has won the Mail & Guardian‘s investigations team the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Award for story of the year, it was announced on Wednesday evening at the seventh annual awards ceremony held at the Wanderers club in Johannesburg.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national working committee (NWC) will discuss its youth league’s recent national congress in Bloemfontein next week, spokesperson Jesse Duarte said on Wednesday. ”We will speak at the NWC meeting on Monday,” Duarte said.
Claims by chairperson of the Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) Abbey Makoe following a South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) finding against the FBJ — which Makoe labelled a ”judicial ambush” — are mischievous and untruthful, the SAHRC said on Wednesday.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday it was time to remove former South African president Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) from a US blacklist drawn up during the apartheid era. ”I really do hope that we can remove these restrictions on the ANC,” Rice told a Senate committee.
The change of African National Congress (ANC) leadership should not cause anxiety about stability in the country, as the government would continue to implement its policies, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”The resolutions taken at the ANC conference late last year have guaranteed continuity,” she said.
African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma on Tuesday criticised the delay in declaring the results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. Zuma, the front-runner to become the next president of South Africa, indicated that ”keeping the nation in suspense … keeping the international community in suspense” was wrong.
Zimbabwe’s opposition slammed the ”deafening silence” on Tuesday of Africa in the aftermath of the country’s elections, warning of blood on the streets unless pressure is brought to bear on Robert Mugabe. Meanwhile, party lawyers argued at the High Court for an immediate announcement of the result of the presidential poll.
The City of Cape Town has launched a high court challenge to the legality of the Erasmus commission, city speaker Dirk Smit announced on Tuesday. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool last year to probe the city’s own investigation of renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
Abbey Makoe, chairperson of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ), has lashed out at a South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) finding regarding a controversial FBJ meeting where white journalists were barred based on the colour of their skin, calling it "nothing more than a judicial ambush" and a "banning order".
Zimbabwe awaited a key court ruling on Tuesday, which could order an end to the 10-day wait for presidential election results as pressure on veteran leader Robert Mugabe mounts. The High Court was due to rule on a petition by the opposition demanding the electoral commission immediately declare the outcome of the March 29 polls.
The national congress of the African National Congress Youth League was indefinitely postponed on Monday evening after being unable to finish its work or confirm the results of its leadership election. Electoral commission member Malusi Gigaba told journalists in Bloemfontein that the League would ask the ANC to help solve its differences.
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Political leaders should never stay in power for over a decade, South Africa’s ruling party president Jacob Zuma has said, making clear his opposition to the path taken by some African rulers. Zuma spoke to the Wall Street Journal in an interview before neighbouring Zimbabwe held elections last month.
Kgalema Motlanthe, deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), on Sunday criticised the ”state of disorder” that characterised the ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) national conference in Bloemfontein. Outgoing ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said that ”forces” had tried to disrupt the congress but that they had failed.
Struggle stalwart Ncumisa Kondlo was a warrior, revolutionary and patriot, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said at her funeral in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. It was with ”deep sorrow and sadness” that she was laid to rest, Zuma told dignitaries, families and friends who gathered to mourn her at her village of Ndwayana.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille on Friday accused the African National Congress (ANC) of shutting down the space for free and informed debate. Writing in her weekly newsletter, Zille said recent events suggested the image of openness that ANC president Jacob Zuma was cultivating was just a smokescreen for closing down the public space.
The deadline for public comments on Eskom’s proposed massive tariff hike is April 29, and there will be a public hearing a month later, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa said on Wednesday. Eskom, which was granted a 14,2% increase at the end of last year, is now seeking a 53% hike.
African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe has agreed to meet the Democratic Alliance (DA) to discuss the future of the Scorpions, DA leader Helen Zille said on Wednesday. ”Unfortunately, Mr Mantashe’s letter indicates that [ANC president] Jacob Zuma will not be attending the meeting, as I originally requested,” she said in a statement.
If laughter is fine medicine, then it’s appropriate that South Africa’s lead dispenser — the ace cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro — can now be called ”Doctor”. For his world-class cartoons that both hurt and heal, the journalist received an honorary doctorate at Rhodes University last week.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s allies have rallied to his defence in the wake of University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana’s indictment of his character on Monday. The Young Communist League said it had noted the ”disrespectful and dastardly remarks made by the deplorable” rector.
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The African National Congress (ANC) has come out in defence of its president, Jacob Zuma, after scathing criticism of him by University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana on Monday. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe described Pityana’s statements as ”spurious” and a reflection of ”intellectual bankruptcy”.
The establishment of a media appeals tribunal as proposed by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) threatens the right to press freedom, the press ombudsman said in Durban on Monday. Ombudsman Joe Thloloe warned that ”once media freedom is threatened, it is an individual’s freedom of expression that is threatened”.
The person allegedly responsible for sending a letter suspected to be laced with poison to the office of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) acting head Mokotedi Mpshe has been identified. NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said on Monday that the authority’s security and risk unit had made ”significant headway” relating to the letter.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma has failed to inspire confidence during his first few months at the party’s helm, says University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana. ”We now enter a new era. It is a time shrouded in anxiety and uncertainty with the looming presidency of Jacob Zuma and a new assertive leadership of the ANC,” he said on Monday.
The African National Congress (ANC) Youth League on Monday called for the immediate closure of Johannesburg’s Noord Street taxi rank after a second woman was assaulted. Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the continued abuse and harassment of women by taxi operators at the rank undermined the dignity and freedom of women.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Monday again asked African National Congress president Jacob Zuma for a meeting to discuss the Scorpions’ future. ”In a press interview published on the weekend, Jacob Zuma declared that he is willing to ‘debate anything’ — even the future of the Scorpions,” said Zille.
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”.
Partly prompted by Andrew Feinstein, there appears to be influential support for an amnesty-based approach to dealing with the unresolved questions of the arms deal. This idea should be nipped in the bud. It has a superficial attraction, but it is ill-conceived. This country has had enough amnesty; it is time for some justice, writes Richard Calland.
The Presidency and the African National Congress moved on Friday to dispel Democratic Alliance (DA) allegations over President Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to release the Khampepe commission’s report on the Scorpions. There was no intention to ”cover up” the report as alleged by DA leader Helen Zille, the Presidency said.
President Thabo Mbeki and African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma have established a ”solid working relationship”, the ANC said on Friday. ”Contrary to some expectations, a solid working relationship has been established, with the president of the Republic interacting regularly with the officials,” ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said.
Those persisting with efforts to move a motion of no confidence in Cricket South Africa president Norman Arendse do not have the interests of transformation at heart, the African National Congress’s (ANC) Butana Komphela said on Friday. The ANC’s parliamentary sport and recreation study group rejected the idea of a motion of no confidence, Komphela said.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Thursday added his voice to calls for a judicial inquiry into the multibillion-rand arms deal. In the text of his speech for the Dullah Omar memorial lecture at the University of the Western Cape, he said South Africans could not pretend corruption was no longer a serious problem.