Paul Stober

The Public Investment Commissioners (PIC) — which has a 12,5% shareholding in Standard Bank — will "in principle" vote in support of the financial group’s plan to sell a 10% stake of its South African banking operations to an empowerment consortium. PIC CEO Brian Molefe is seemingly not overly concerned that the big empowerment deals always seem to involve the same big names.

In a calculated gamble, President Thabo Mbeki has jettisoned the deep privatisation programme the markets want and set a deadline for the implementation of what is effectively a policy of prescribed assets. Te president has created a stronger role for the state and is relying less on markets to break the pattern of low growth and high joblessness.

The inauguration of the president and the Cabinet this week also signaled the start of a new set of political and economic debates in South Africa. The new Cabinet is ANC dominated and African run. The politics of the centre-left will dominate, ushering in an era of new debate. Here is a guide.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>To win the election the African National Congress ruthlessly used its greatest competitive advantage over the other political parties in this election — massive, organised membership.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>

Next week’s Budget will increase state spending on social and economic development programmes and job-creation initiatives while trying to ease the country’s personal tax burden — despite a shortfall in the revenue it is expected to receive in the coming year. This is the key prediction for Manuel’s 2004 government spending plan, due to be unveiled in Parliament on Wednesday.

Even though informal contacts between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have produced a number of detailed options for ending the country’s political and economic crises, the two sides remain a long way off from formal talks.

There is almost no chance of a global trade deal favourable — or at least palatable — to Africa being put in place by 2005, when the Doha round of international trade talks is due to end, says South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) research manager Steven Gruzd. But Africa is not without legal weapons that could be used to try and force advanced economies to open their markets.

The Executive Members Ethics Act and the provisions of the Code of Ethics are not being implemented consistently by Members of Provincial Executive Councils (MECs) and the Presidency, says a new report by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).

Asked once again what the Commonwealth will be doing to get rid of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the organisation’s Secretary General, Don McKinnon, points out with wry humour, and a touch of frustration, that after 40 years of trying, the United States has still not been able to get Cuban leader Fidel Castro out of office.

No matter the significant ring of its formal terms of reference, the Hefer Commission of Inquiry into whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy for the former apartheid government is little more than a political fix that will be discarded in a couple of months.

The ANC has deffered the issue of political activity in Bophuthatswana to the TEC rather than risk a masscare — or upset negotiations with the FA.

The Democratic Party has put Hougton’s Tony Leon on top of its list of nominees for the national assembly.