Rapule Tabane

The probe into whether or not the SABC news and current affairs department had a blacklist of commentators who were banned from its airwaves is finally complete. The board received the report from CEO Dali Mpofu this week, though spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago could not say when it would be publicly released.

The R96 000 that Gauteng Provincial Minister Paul Mashatile splurged on a taxpayer-funded dinner at a French restaurant has cast a spotlight on the abuse of government credit cards and is further evidence of the growing high life of our public representatives.

ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who was sacked as South Africa’s deputy president last year, will not ask for his job back despite charges of corruption being thrown out by the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Instead Zuma is expected to extend an olive branch to his political foes, whom he has accused of trying to thwart his ascendancy to the highest office in the land.

The more I read Rory Carroll’s piece ("Why I never quite fell for South Africa", August 18) the more I was reminded of a recent letter from the Herstigte Nasionale Party to Fifa, explaining to world football’s governing body why it had made a mistake by letting South Africa host the soccer World Cup in 2010, writes the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Rapule Tabane.

On the day we visited Bongani Hospital in Welkom, Free State, the CEO was frantically trying to decide what to do with a R12million winning Lotto ticket after the owner had just died in the hospital. Alida Zwiegelaar was very proud that her staff had been honest enough to hand over the ticket, particularly as the owner had not signed it.

Government critics who expected the African peer review team to ride into town last week cracking the whip on the South African government, blaming it for the high crime levels and criticising the unacceptably high unemployment figures were probably disappointed.

Ousted former African National Congress mayors and councillors in the North West have been accused of infiltrating the South African National Civic Organisation as a way of getting back at the ANC. But the allegations, made in a Sanco document sent to the ANC for response, also indicate deep divisions within the civic organisation.

Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils has come out guns blazing against allegations that he and others are plotting against a Jacob Zuma presidency. In a long and frank interview with the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, Kasrils said the claim that the Zuma rape charge was a "honey trap" by his enemies was a "ludicrous figment of imagination".

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is battling to contain serious internal divisions over the party’s stance on African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, with rumours circulating that next year’s SACP congress will be used to weed out the anti-Zuma lobby in the party.

Questions are multiplying as the police delay action against sacked spy boss Billy Masetlha — despite unequivocal findings by the inspector general of intelligence that Masetlha and others were involved in criminal activity around the hoax e-mail scandal.

The African National Congress is facing an unprecedented revolt over some of its mayoral choices, with councillors opting to vote for their preferred candidates and overlooking provincial nominees. In the Eastern Cape alone, councillors have voted for seven "self-chosen" mayors and speakers.

Jacob Zuma’s core supporters still believe that, with his accuser’s credi­bility in doubt, he will go on to clear himself of rape charges and re-establish his chances of becoming the next African National Congress president. And they stress that Zuma’s deepening woes do not necessarily strengthen President Thabo Mbeki’s position, because grassroots ANC members hold Mbeki responsible for engineering them.

The South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), a long-standing but lately dormant ally of the African National Congress, has made a political intervention that seeks a constitutional amendment to allow President Thabo Mbeki to serve a third term as the country’s president.

The African National Congress faces the headache of placating thousands of frustrated would-be councillors eliminated from the nominations process as the party’s list process nears completion. The bitter power scramble has seen all-out attempts by incumbents to hold on to their council seats, while outsiders seek to dislodge serving councillors.

The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust is facing a financial crisis less than three months after it was established to raise funds to help cover Zuma’s legal costs. Barnabos Xulu, the spokesperson for the fund, said: "I can confirm that we are far behind in achieving our budget."

Either Democratic Alliance deputy leader Joe Seremane is a new South African who refuses to acknowledge race, or else he is an archetypical victim of apartheid crying out for sessions on black consciousness. Seremane projects himself as one completely exhausted by the politics of race.

The obvious question after Enyinna Nkem-Abonta denounced the Democratic Alliance as racist after crossing to the African National Congress was: What’s new?Nigerian-born Nkem-Abonta and three other black DA MPs who defected recently justified their move by branding the DA anti-black.

The National Development Agency (NDA) chief financial officer Pule Zwane has quit the organisation after the agency spent more than R1-million investigating him and paying him for sitting at home for two years. Zwane was suspended in October 2003 along with CEO Delani Mthembu for alleged corruption and mismanagement.

When does political lobbying against an opponent become a political conspiracy? Put differently, if we accept that President Thabo Mbeki is opposed to Jacob Zuma succeeding him, is there evidence to suggest that he has improperly intervened to make sure Zuma is not the next president?

The <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Rapule Tabane put tough questions to the ANC’s head of the presidency, Smuts Ngonyama, about the crisis sparked by the axing of Jacob Zuma

Rallying behind former deputy president Jacob Zuma is a coalition of trade union, communist, youth and regional interests organised into the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust. Borrowing the idea from the anti-apartheid struggle, the trust will raise funds from sympathetic business people and members. It plans a million-signature campaign as well as rallies and protests during Zuma’s October trial.

United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa suspended six members of Parliament and provincial legislatures because they questioned him about a local government election pact he had apparently entered into with the African National Congress, according to his deputy.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has announced the formation of a new extra-parliamentary movement with social groupings and civil society organisations to agitate for economic reforms favouring the poor. Fashioned after the United Democratic Front of old, the movement will be launched in Cape Town on August 22.

Opposition parties are united in fear as the floor-crossing period approaches, with many afraid that the African National Congress will once again swallow up their members. The United Democratic Movement and the Inkatha Freedom Party appear to be the most vulnerable, with internal unhappiness rendering their representatives most likely to be poached.

Recently President Thabo Mbeki announced the appointment of a task force to push South Africa’s growth to 6%. He said he is considering importing skills, renewing focus on the labour market as a key constraint to achieving higher growth. However, it appears that the government has an inadequate grasp of exactly what skills it requires and where.

The African National Congress in the Free State says it has been vindicated after police confirmed that the murder of former provincial head of policy Noby Ngombane was not politically motivated. The statement followed the appearance in court on Thursday of the brother and sister of Nokwanda Ngombane — Noby Ngombane’s wife — in connection with the murder.

African National Congress Youth League members believe an attack on their president, Fikile Mbalula, by his deputy, Reuben Mohlaloga, is part of a larger strategy to discredit the league because it does not back Thabo Mbeki for another term as ANC leader. Mohlaloga this week apologised for writing an article attacking Mbalula’s call for the next South African president to double as party leader.

In the world of political miscalculations, none has been as dramatic recently as the African National Congress leadership’s belief that ordinary ANC members would accept the resignation of Jacob Zuma from organisational activities. It was a stupendous mistake that nearly derailed the national general council.

The African National Congress’s national general council opened with a show of unity on Thursday, but senior leaders renewed the criticism of patronage and factionalism within the party that have dominated communication from Luthuli House in recent weeks.

President Thabo Mbeki has confidently set out his stall with the appointment of his protégé, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to the deputy presidency. He has opted neither for the seniority of African National Congress national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota nor the popularity of Trevor Manuel, nor for the trust he places in Sydney Mufamadi.

The African National Congress (ANC) goes into its national general council meeting (NGC) next week facing a convergence of policy debates and leadership battles that is unprecedented in its decade-long rule. Unity — or the lack of it — is likely to colour the entire debate.