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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s government said on Tuesday it remained firmly under the control of President Thabo Mbeki, dismissing concerns that his defeat in the battle to lead the party had made him a lame duck. Mbeki lost control of the African National Congress last month when delegates chose Jacob Zuma as the party’s new leader.
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/ 15 January 2008
Zimbabwean parties engaged in negotiations are within days of finalising a political document that would cover all the important issues needed to ensure a free and fair election. This emerged from a meeting at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday between President Thabo Mbeki, who is facilitating the talks, and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
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/ 14 January 2008
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern expressed ”great concern” over the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe at the outset of a visit to South Africa on Monday.
”I would like to thank President [Thabo] Mbeki for his work as the SADC [Southern African Development Community] mediator in Zimbabwe,” Ahern said.
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/ 31 December 2007
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As tensions between the camps of former African National Congress (ANC) president Thabo Mbeki and his successor, Jacob Zuma, reach boiling point over the decision to charge Zuma, the newly elected ANC president has retreated to his Nkandla homestead ahead of the party’s January national executive committee meeting.
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/ 19 December 2007
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The African National Congress’s 52nd national conference got down on Wednesday to the nitty-gritty work of the commission that discusses the party’s policies in an atmosphere that one delegate described as the ”cessation of hostilities” over its new president Jacob Zuma.
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/ 19 December 2007
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An attempt to get the principle of gender parity elevated to the top structures of the ANC was trounced on Monday night, the Mail & Guardian has learned.
The policy, also known as the 50/50 principle, is a steep change in empowerment in the ANC and requires that every alternative position available for leadership be reserved for a female candidate.
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/ 18 December 2007
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Jacob Zuma is the new president of the African National Congress. The announcement was greeted by an outpouring of joy and ecstatic cheering by ANC delegates at the party’s conference in Polokwane shortly before 9pm on Tuesday. Thabo Mbeki received 1 505 votes and Zuma received 2 329.
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/ 17 December 2007
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On Sunday a picture emerged of strong support for Jacob Zuma, overshowing the rest and spectacularly managing to humiliate national ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota. As strong an indicator as it was, some delegates supporting President Thabo Mbeki insisted that an Mbeki win remained a possibility.
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/ 15 December 2007
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An atmosphere of excited anticipation took hold in a hot Polokwane, Limpopo province, on Saturday as thousands of delegates to the African National Congress’s (ANC) 52nd national conference arrived by bus, car and taxi. Buses from all over the country jostled for space with large pedestrian groups of ANC supporters from various provinces.
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/ 5 December 2007
What does President Thabo Mbeki like to do in his spare time? Ballroom dancing? Playing the piano? No, the man likes to work during leisure hours, says his spokesperson. As the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane approaches members of the South African Cabinet certainly need ways to unwind.
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/ 2 December 2007
Tens of thousands of people filed into Ellis Park Stadium on Saturday for a 10-hour music extravaganza beamed to millions around the globe for World Aids Day. The concert at the 50Â 000-seater stadium got under way in the afternoon and lasted late into the night, with 30 local and international artists performing, ranging from Ludacris to Peter Gabriel.
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/ 30 November 2007
The Aids crisis, already one of enormous proportions, is forecast to get even bigger, says Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille. ”Though a slight decline was experienced this year, analysts still predict South Africa’s HIV infection rate to increase from its current 10% to 18% by 2025,” she warned in her weekly online newsletter, SA Today, on Friday.
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/ 22 November 2007
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The African National Congress (ANC)’s December national conference will serve as a springboard to propel the party to new heights, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. Speaking during the launch of the ANC parliamentary caucus website in Cape Town, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the party would surprise its critics.
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/ 15 November 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged the public to hold government to account by participating in the party’s process of evaluating Cabinet ministers. Briefing the media during the launch of the party’s Cabinet report card website, DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said the process accorded the public a rare opportunity to rate government ministers.
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/ 29 October 2007
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Groutville, the party branch founded by former African National Congress (ANC) president Albert Luthuli, has nominated Thabo Mbeki for ANC president, the Daily News reported on Monday. Arch-rival Jacob Zuma did not even make the branch’s list of its top six preferred candidates.
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/ 25 October 2007
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Most South Africans think Jacob Zuma will become South Africa’s next president, TNS Research Surveys said on Thursday — although many also fear a Zuma presidency would be disastrous. Two thousand respondents were asked in a survey who would become the next president of South Africa in 2009.
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/ 24 October 2007
The African National Congress (ANC) wants to consider setting up a media tribunal to discuss how participation of the public is juxtaposed with current self-regulation in the media. ”It’s not a policy position, we just want to set up a task team to investigate this,” ANC information head Smuts Ngonyama said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 October 2007
Five men were arrested on Sunday in connection with the murder of reggae star Lucky Dube, East Rand police said. Police arrested the five, aged between 31 and 35, in Spruitview on the East Rand on Sunday morning. Police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said police seized two stolen handguns and a VW Polo.
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/ 20 October 2007
A crack team of detectives was on Friday hunting for the killers of reggae star Lucky Dube as public outrage against violent crime mounted. Gauteng’s police commissioner Perumal Naidoo has hand-picked a team of investigators to track down Dube’s killers.
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/ 15 October 2007
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South Africa may have reached the World Cup final, but they will have achieved nothing if they don’t beat England in Saturday’s showdown, said coach Jake White on Sunday following the Springboks’ 37-13 victory over Argentina. The 43-year-old also insisted that the 36-0 walloping of England four weeks ago counted for nothing.
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/ 10 October 2007
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The Springboks might be used to hordes of female supporters, but usually they are not of the stature of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe. In what could be described as a case of all the president’s women, the two politicians would lend ”moral support” to the national side ahead of Sunday’s semifinal.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad is still not well enough to travel back to South Africa after being admitted to a Swedish almost a week ago. ”He is stable and improving,” Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday when asked at an unrelated press conference about the well-being of her deputy.
African National Congress (ANC) succession battles are unlikely to be a feature of President Thabo Mbeki’s imbizo (meeting) in the Ladysmith this weekend, according to local party bosses and analysts. Mbeki’s visit will be the first presidential imbizo in the province since allegations that certain ANC members were trying to make the province a no-go area for Mbeki.
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/ 18 September 2007
The vacancy rate in the Presidency, which comprises the offices of President Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, is 25% and staff turnover stands at 13,5%. CEO for the Presidency Trevor Fowler said the high turnover was a result of public-service salary structures, which could not compete with those in the private sector.
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/ 17 September 2007
President Thabo Mbeki last year approved 477 foreign visits by government ministers, gave 515 pardons and concluded 195 international agreements, according to the Presidency’s Annual Report released on Monday. The report highlights the work of the Presidency and its three political heads.
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/ 10 September 2007
The South African National Aids Council is on track with its National Strategic Plan on HIV and Aids, which would see the halving of new infections by 2011, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday. She chaired the first meeting of the newly constituted council in Pretoria, which officially brings together the government and civil society in the fight against HIV/Aids.
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.
Embattled Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was accused by Aids activists on Wednesday of fuelling the country’s HIV crisis by obstructing efforts to combat the disease. A raft of NGOs, including the leading Aids lobby, said the recent sacking of the deputy health minister had raised fears that a widely praised Aids programme was being undermined.