Niren Tolsi

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>The period since the completion of the ANC provincial nomination process has been marked by an intense campaign to entice Polokwane delegates across the country to change their voting patterns. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> spoke to delegates from several provinces. "I have been personally approached to vote for Jacob Zuma" said Zoyisile Dyasi from OR Tambo region in the Eastern Cape.

Attribute it to his yoga, but there is a sublime zen that surrounds former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano. The only fracture in his aura appears as we stand in his hotel elevator at the end of our interview: "Well, if the West is concerned about China’s human rights record, then perhaps African countries should reconsider trading with America because of their war in Iraq and their torture of prisoners in Guantanamo," he says.

With the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane two months away, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s lieutenants in KwaZulu-Natal are ensuring that procedural "hiccups" in the nomination process at branch level will not hinder his final push towards the presidency. This emerged from a provincial executive committee meeting held recently.

Attempts to claim guardianship of the ANC’s icons and traditions as a weapon in the party’s leadership battle appear to lie behind the postponement of celebrations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of former ANC president Albert Luthuli.

Despite a dearth of locally made feature films in the past year, the South African film industry is being buoyed by comparatively low production costs that attract foreign films and commercials. And the glitter-dust from Tsotsi’s Oscar win last year and <i>U-Carmen eKhayelitsha</i>’s Golden Bear for best film at the 2005 Berlinale casts a hip glow on the film industry.

Dr Francois Venter has very little time: his controversial op-ed piece in a Sunday newspaper calling for mandatory HIV/Aids testing for all South Africans has made him much sought-after at the third South African Aids Conference in Durban: people are keen to debate the ethics around the issue.

Princess Madikizela laughs without joy: "R10? No that’s too little," she says of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s budget speech announcement of an increase in the child-support grant to R200 — her tone one of dismissive resignation rather than disbelief.

There is an edgy anxiousness to the bond warehouses storing imported second-hand cars from Asia that have sprung up in the area surrounding Durban’s harbour: burly guards, sometimes armed, watch the entrance points; wire perimeter fencing ensures (foreign) passports have to be produced before access is gained.

Witteklip Secondary in Unit Five, Chatsworth, has one of the worst reputations of any school in the Durban township: it is said to be violent, rundown, riddled with problems and a dumping ground for expelled cast-offs from other schools in the area. Yet it has managed to progressively turn around a matric pass rate that was less than 30% in 2000 to more than 90% last year, garnering a certificate of excellence award from the KwaZulu-Natal education department.