Slain revolutionary leader Chris Hani would not have believed that 14 years into democracy, South Africa is still an unequal society, the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Thursday at a memorial service marking 15 years since the assassination of Hani, the then-head of the South African Communist Party.
Struggle stalwart Ncumisa Kondlo was a warrior, revolutionary and patriot, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said at her funeral in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. It was with ”deep sorrow and sadness” that she was laid to rest, Zuma told dignitaries, families and friends who gathered to mourn her at her village of Ndwayana.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s allies have rallied to his defence in the wake of University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana’s indictment of his character on Monday. The Young Communist League said it had noted the ”disrespectful and dastardly remarks made by the deplorable” rector.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Friday threatened to "take to the streets" in protest against South African power utility Eskom’s proposed electricity hikes. "We will announce in due course a rolling mass-action programme to stop this neo-liberal attack on the quality of life of South Africans," the SACP said in a statement.
Most of us are multifaceted beings — we expose our different sides in our interaction with different people. Others might have known Ncumisa Kondlo differently, but I was among those who experienced her as an open, lively, engaging, funny, perceptive, determined person.
South Africa’s economy and civil society are strong, ensuring the country will not follow the downward spiral of Zimbabwe, FW de Klerk, the last white president of the country, said in an interview published in Germany on Wednesday. De Klerk also predicted a period of great uncertainty and warned that crime was driving skilled white people out of the country.
Ncumisa Kondlo, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) and deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party, died in East London on Monday, the ANC said. Kondlo was elected to the NEC in December 2007 and also served on the party’s national working committee.
A decision on what disciplinary measures, if any, will be taken against Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy over the Browse Mole report is expected ”soon”, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Thursday. ”A recommendation has been made to the minister and she will act,” said spokesperson Zolile Nqayi.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
Willie Madisha plans to take legal action in both the high court and Equality Court over his dismissal as president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, media reports said on Tuesday. Madisha, who was axed last month, wanted to be reinstated, according to the reports.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) was locked behind closed doors on Friday at its second meeting since the Polokwane national conference in December, media reports said. The aim was to rid the party of internal wrangles simmering since its policy conference.
Nationalising the University of the Free State (UFS), ”to protect the national asset”, must start immediately, the African National Congress and its alliance partners said on Friday. About 1 000 workers from various unions marched to the UFS to hand over the demand, contained in a memorandum on racism at the institution.
The government has suspended further payments of Jacob Zuma’s legal costs over his impending corruption trial, it was reported on Monday. The Star quoted the head of the state attorney’s office as saying that the government would not pay future legal costs until Zuma provides a detailed account of how he had spent money previously received from the state.
European Union member states and the United States have been excluded from a list of observers who will be invited to monitor the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, the government announced on Friday. The only European country that had been invited to send monitors was Russia, while the Commonwealth was also left off the invitation list.
African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma asserted, in an interview published on Friday, that power in South Africa rests with the ruling party, not with his rival, President Thabo Mbeki. ”Power lies in the ANC,” Zuma — who ousted Mbeki in a bitter ANC leadership contest three months ago — told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper.
Hundreds of members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) were arrested on Thursday after invading the Nelson Mandela 2010 Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the union said. Branch chairperson Nomvula Hadi said workers were leaving the stadium when police opened fire with rubber bullets and teargas.
The South African Communist Party (SACP), a partner in the governing alliance, said on Sunday it would not tolerate threats by mining companies to cut jobs in the country’s politically-charged power crisis. ”If heads must roll we cannot allow it be the workers who take the knock,” it said in a statement after its central committee met over the weekend.
The South African Communist Party has asked the South African Police Service to finalise its investigation into a donation scandal after an internal audit cleared their secretary general Blade Nzimande. The SACP audit was set up to investigate the whereabouts of R500 000 donated to the party by controversial businessman Charles Modise.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday said it will no longer take a ”triumphalist” approach to the outcomes of the African National Congress (ANC) Polokwane conference. ”The campaign to save the ANC from the clutches of the technocrats who sought to bureaucratise the liberation movement is far from being over, ” he said.
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/ 27 February 2008
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) axed Willie Madisha as its president on Wednesday over his involvement in a missing donation scandal. This comes after a commission probing the matter presented its findings and recommendations to Cosatu’s central executive committee at its meeting this week.
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/ 24 February 2008
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha might be fired on Tuesday, City Press newspaper reported in its online edition on Saturday. Madisha’s fate is likely to be decided at Cosatu’s four-day central executive meeting that is expected to start on Sunday.
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/ 22 February 2008
Controversial businessman Charles Modise was denied bail in the Kimberly Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Modise is being investigated by the Scorpions and faces various charges, including fraud, forgery and corruption in the Northern Cape. Magistrate Andre Williams postponed the matter to July 9 for further investigations.
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/ 20 February 2008
A damages claim of almost R1,4-million, instituted by Gaye Derby-Lewis against Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for her alleged unlawful arrest more than five years ago, was postponed indefinitely in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
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/ 19 February 2008
The South African Communist Party (SACP) bade Cuban President Fidel Castro farewell after he left office on Tuesday. The ailing Cuban leader said he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.
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/ 15 February 2008
South Africa’s left is riding high as the government prepares to unveil a budget that is expected to raise spending on social programmes and shift policy more towards fighting unemployment and poverty. Powerful trade unions and the South African Communist Party have recently seen their influence within the ruling African National Congress rise.
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/ 7 February 2008
Liliesleaf Farm in Rivionia, north of Johannesburg, will reopen in June 2008 for people wanting to tour the former secret headquarters of the African National Congress’s Umkhonto we Sizwe. The farm was purchased in 1961 by the South African Communist Party, according to the Liliesleaf Trust.
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/ 6 February 2008
Newspapers are beginning to deal with whether Jacob Zuma and his backers will be magnanimous in his victory … or vengeful towards them. Last week, the new ANC president pruned his legal actions against the press. He can now afford to do so politically, and many of the cases were probably unlikely to succeed anyway.
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/ 3 February 2008
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused City Press newspaper of adopting an ”extremely hostile attitude” towards African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Nzimande tears into the paper in an open letter published on Sunday for ”deliberately” writing about the party in a ”provocatively factionalist, divisive and highly subjective manner”.
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/ 27 January 2008
Is it our business as journalists to pronounce on who is best placed to lead the ANC? If you look at some of the personalities in the party’s new leadership, such as unrepentant convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, or former Mpumalanga health minister Sibongile Manana, who tried to frustrate provision of treatment to people with HIV, the temptation exists to damn them all.
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/ 26 January 2008
Mourners streamed to marquees set up on a patch of land next to the highway past the informal settlement of Skielik on Saturday to bury three people killed there by a lone gunman last Monday. There was a heavy police presence at the marquees, where women stirred pots of food in readiness for the funerals.
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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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/ 20 January 2008
It is no accident that a meeting held to commemorate the life of Yunus Mahomed was attended by scores of luminaries from the African National Congress and the United Democratic Front (UDF). Current and former Cabinet ministers paid tribute to their comrade, who died of a heart attack on January 6.