The Young Communist League will on Tuesday launch a ”Right to Learn” campaign in memory of Joe Slovo. Spokesperson Castro Ngobese said the purpose of the campaign was to to ensure that schools re-opened smoothly. ”He was a selfless and dedicated communist, a fighter par excellence for the working class and the poor,” he said.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Tuesday denied that the decision to prosecute African National Congress president Jacob Zuma had been forced upon it by Zuma’s opponents. ”The decision has been made by the NPA and the NPA alone,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali in a statement.
When the African National Congress (ANC) presents its traditional ”January 8” statement on its 96th birthday at a gathering in Pretoria next week, it will have to contend with the new charges its newly elected president faces — and reported threats against the authority of his predecessor, President Thabo Mbeki.
Levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality remained the biggest problems in 2007, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said in its New Year message on Monday. ”The number, and quality, of new jobs being created are nowhere near enough to meet the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa,” said Cosatu.
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/ 31 December 2007
Communities should heed African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s call to use 2008 as the year to intensify the fight against crime, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said on Monday. ”All South Africans, especially the working class, should use the year 2008 as a launching pad to reclaim our streets,” the party said.
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/ 24 December 2007
Jacob Zuma, the new leader of the African National Congress said on Sunday that he would look at inflation targeting, a key monetary policy tool used by the Reserve Bank to reign in inflation. The country adopted the policy in 2000 as a framework through which the central bank estimates a ”target” inflation rate.
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/ 23 December 2007
The new chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Khanyisiwe Mkhonza, paid tribute to the outgoing board in a statement to the media on Sunday. Mkhonza, who is the current chairperson of the public broadcasting services board sub-committee, also acknowledged challenges facing the new board.
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/ 20 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/327874/livefrompolo.gif" align=left border=0></a>"We cannot have a Zuma camp or a Mbeki camp; there is only one ANC. None among us is above the organisation or bigger than the ANC," said new African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma on Thursday as the party’s 52nd national conference in Polokwane came to an end.
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/ 20 December 2007
Newly elected African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma was facing the prospect on Thursday of being slapped with corruption charges as he prepared to deliver a keynote address at the party’s national conference in Polokwane.
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/ 19 December 2007
While welcoming the outcome of Tuesday night’s election of Jacob Zuma as African National Congress leader, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has come out against the notion of President Thabo Mbeki stepping down as the country’s president before 2009. Zuma’s victory should not be a signal for revenge or retribution, the ANC’s alliance partners said.
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/ 16 December 2007
African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe’s organisational report, delivered on Sunday at the party’s national conference in Polokwane — was the first comprehensive admission from a party leader that the factionalism in the party was a result of a power struggle between two personalities: Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
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/ 16 December 2007
Ministers and aides in President Thabo Mbeki’s government were heckled by delegates on Sunday when the African National Congress opened a conference that could see Mbeki losing control over the party. Some of the delegates booed Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Essop Pahad, a top aide to Mbeki, as they arrived.
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/ 15 December 2007
Sara Kadi, a volunteer Aids worker who lives in a shack without electricity in an impoverished part of Soweto, wants a better life. That is why she wants Jacob Zuma to win the race for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress and become the next president of South Africa.
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/ 14 December 2007
Investors will closely eye the African National Congress’s election conference next week, fearing a victorious Jacob Zuma would chart a leftist course. Maarten-Jan Bakkum, an economist at ABN Amro Asset Management, said the thought of Zuma governing Africa’s economic powerhouse left many investors uneasy.
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/ 13 December 2007
The African National Congress Women’s League’s decision to postpone its planned Thursday meeting with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has deprived the latter of an opportunity to explain its general secretary’s controversial gender remarks made at the weekend, Cosatu said on Thursday.
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/ 13 December 2007
The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) has expressed ”dismay” at the African National Congress’s (ANC) succession debate focusing on the personalities of President Thabo Mbeki and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma. ”The PSAM believes that debate should be refocused on the protection of civil and political rights,” it said.
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/ 13 December 2007
President Thabo Mbeki risks being cast aside by his party next week in favour of an arch rival who may yet be charged with corruption. Mbeki still has two years left as head of state but analysts say a defeat at the hands of Jacob Zuma in the African National (ANC) Congress leadership contest could leave him a lame duck.
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/ 8 December 2007
Countering revenge will triumph over unity as the key challenge after the African National Congress’s (ANC) national conference in Limpopo, the South African Communist Party said on Saturday. Meanwhile, a failed high court bid to stop the ANC conference will now be taken to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
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/ 6 December 2007
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will not accept a nomination to the national executive committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), Cosatu said on Thursday. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the congress was seriously concerned about leaders who embraced ”patronage”.
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/ 6 December 2007
The African National Congress will remain divided after its Polokwane conference, South African Communist Party chairperson Gwede Mantashe on Thursday. He was speaking at a public seminar about the future and challenges of the ANC. ”The ANC will come out more divided after Limpopo. Divisions will last longer if any of the main competing groups win.
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/ 5 December 2007
According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), the broadcast by President Thabo Mbeki on 15 South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio stations on Wednesday evening confirms for South African listeners at large the conviction that the public broadcaster is a party organ.
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/ 5 December 2007
South Africa’s economic boom looks set to persist but concerns linger over the direction of policy after the crucial African National Congress (ANC) conference, which seems likely to choose Jacob Zuma as the ruling party’s new leader. Economic growth jumped to 5,4% in 2006 — its fastest rate since 1981 — and wealth is spreading to a burgeoning black middle class.
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/ 4 December 2007
In the fierce debate raging around the man tipped to become South Africa’s next president, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, there are few neutrals. With less than a fortnight to go before the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane, reports show a country split over the politician.
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/ 3 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has declined to discuss the withdrawal of its protection services for South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande. ”It’s not something we can discuss in the public domain,” said national police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo on Monday.
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/ 2 December 2007
The South African Communist Party (SACP) would not support particular candidates at the African National Congress (ANC) national conference later this month in Limpopo, SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande said on Sunday. ”The electoral contest within the ANC is an internal matter.”
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/ 23 November 2007
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has thrown its weight behind Jacob Zuma for president of the ANC, with current president Thabo Mbeki not featuring on its list of 66 nominations released in Johannesburg on Friday. ”We didn’t support him [Mbeki] for president of the ANC,” said ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula.
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/ 22 November 2007
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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/ 21 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement on Wednesday of a ”window of opportunity” for people convicted of alleged political offences before June 16 1999 has been warmly welcomed by most political parties. Pan Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko hailed Mbeki’s announcement as an act of courage against odds.
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/ 17 November 2007
About 500 members of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and farm workers marched through the streets of Rustenburg on Saturday, protesting against the state of clinics and hospitals, as well as living conditions on farms. The march was part of the SACP’s Red October programme, which focused on public health institutions.
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/ 15 November 2007
A new process of presidential pardons for people who have committed alleged political offences appears in the offing, it emerged on Thursday. President Thabo Mbeki has asked Parliament’s presiding officers to convene a joint sitting of the two Houses next Wednesday for him to make an announcement in this regard.
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/ 15 November 2007
Matatiele residents were set to march through Pietermaritzburg on Thursday to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in protest over their incorporation into the Eastern Cape. Matatiele-Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee chairperson Mandla Galo said that at least 45 minibus taxis had transported residents to Pietermaritzburg.
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/ 12 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki has denied that the government is behind the Koni Media Holdings’ bid to buy media giant Johncom. He described as ”irrational” the media storm around the bid by Koni — which is partly owned by Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa, presidential political adviser Titus Mafolo and former chief of protocol Billy Modise.