Vicki Robinson

"Enoch Godongwana leads me to his computer to show me the title of his column for publication in the <i>Daily Dispatch</i> that Friday. ‘The rules of fairness must prevail,’ he reads with a chuckle. It was the week former deputy president Jacob Zuma had been charged with rape, and Godongwana wanted his say: rape must be condemned but Zuma shouldn’t be castigated until proven guilty," writes Vicki Robinson.

By the time you read this, President Thabo Mbeki will be roaming the country’s quiet corners taking landscape photographs, and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka will have assumed the roll of <i>makoti</i>. Arguably two of the hardest working Cabinet ministers, Mbeki and Mlambo-Ngcuka take ordinary holidays.

The Young Communist League is considering suspending its deputy national secretary, Mazibuko Jara, for questioning the league’s support for Jacob Zuma. It is understood that the league met recently to discuss the suspension of Jara over a paper he has written titled <i>What Colour Is Our Flag? Red or JZ?</i>. The paper has been leaked to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>The police forensic laboratory in Pretoria that is testing DNA samples obtained from the complainant in the rape claim against African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma is being heavily guarded to ensure that crucial evidence is not tampered with or the results leaked.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma is determined to fight on, despite agreeing to the issuing of a public ANC statement that projected his cause as a lost one. Zuma’s aides insist the statement issued by the ANC after its national executive committee (NEC) meeting last weekend was a "public relations exercise" to project the image of a unified movement.

The government’s comprehensive HIV/Aids treatment programme was launched 18 months ago and a proper system for monitoring and evaluating the roll-out is still not in place. Delays in installing the system account for a large chunk of the R39-million underspend by the Department of Health’s HIV/Aids cluster this year, revealed by the mini-budget.

E-mail messages allegedly exchanged between senior African National Congress leaders outline a plan to work the financial destruction of ANC general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> established this week. The existence of the messages was confirmed at the weekend by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, and they are reported to have been unlawfully obtained by the National Intelligence Agency.

The Eastern Cape government spent R3-billion on consultants — 15 times more than it spent on training its own employees — between 2002 and last year, according to a comprehensive report by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) based in Grahamstown.

A number of African National Congress leaders in KwaZulu-Natal have warned that they will not support Premier S’bu Ndebele’s re-election at the 2007 provincial conference unless he shows decisive leadership over the Jacob Zuma saga. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> spoke to leaders from eight of the 11 ANC regions in the province.

Judgement in the high-profile fraud trial clearing three former executives at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation has strengthened pervasive perceptions in the province that Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s government is using state machinery to purge individuals loyal to former premier Makhenkesi Stofile and provincial African National Congress deputy chairperson Enoch Godongwana.

Prince Tutu Buthelezi, son of Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi, spoke to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> about his relationship with his father, the state of the IFP and his new party, Ziba Jiyane’s National Democratic Convention.

The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week reveals the key strategies of leading
tripartite alliance leaders for dealing with the trial of Jacob Zuma and the presidential succession. Senior leaders want to convince African National Congress president Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Zuma not to stand for election as party president and to find a compromise candidate to preserve unity in the ruling party.

A troika of laws under government review seek to further centralise political power by strengthening the government’s hold over its lower tiers. The Intergovernmental Relations Bill, amendments to the Public Service Act and the draft Municipal Employees Bill will enable the national government to set goals from the centre, monitor administration and exercise overall supervision of provincial government and local councillors.

President Thabo Mbeki has staked his leadership on a Programme of Action — a 53-page scorecard of social pledges to be fulfilled by 2009. Every two months the presidential policy unit, headed by Joel Netshitenzhe, updates the programme on the government website as a goad for ministers and checklist for the public.

Senior Inkatha Freedom Party officials say that IFP chairperson Ziba Jiyane has fallen into a carefully laid trap by letting himself be drawn into a public slanging match with party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. A member of the party’s national executive committee told the <i>Mail & Guardian </i> that Buthelezi’s strategy was to "send out his lieutenants", to vilify Jiyane and draw him into political mudslinging.

The Johannesburg Greater Metropolitan Council stands accused of wrecking the livelihood of the city’s 15 000 street traders in its pursuit of a "world-class city". Researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies Paul Thulare, who is studying the effects of the Jo’burg 2030 plan, said it "has undermined the city’s weakest members".

A revolutionary discussion document presented at an Inkatha Freedom Party national parliamentary caucus has called for "fundamental changes" to the party’s identity and leadership to stem voter decline and ensure the party’s survival. The document has angered party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi to such an extent that he recalled all copies after the meeting.

South Africa is poised to seize an expanding share of a booming global business process outsourcing and offshoring market, such as call centres. By 2008 this market is expected to grow from about $10-billion today to about $55-billion and create three million jobs worldwide. The country’s share of this market could reach $0,8-billion and create between 60 000 and 100 000 jobs

A more streamlined, technocratic ANC, with unruly regions and branches brought firmly under the control of Luthuli House, is at the centre of plans to align party structures with those of the government. But the plan is likely to face stiff resistance; some provincial leaders told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> they have already resolved to contest it.

"Ambitious men get sick if they think their chances are ruined, I’m telling you, I’m not ambitious," an apparently relaxed Jacob Zuma told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week. In the first full interview he has given since his dismissal as deputy president, Zuma spoke about the Schabir Shaik judgement, the divided state of the African National Congress and his new job as a full-time ANC official.

Jacob Zuma took the first step in a thousand-mile journey this week when he made it clear that his sights are still fixed on the country’s presidency. Zuma has until the African National Congress’s next national conference in 2007 to mount a challenge for the ANC leadership, as a bridge to the highest office.

The Trade and Industry Department is expected to approve a growth strategy for the country’s Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring (BPO&O) market by September that could create 100  000 jobs and cumulative foreign direct investment of about R1,4 -billion by 2008.

Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade leader Thulasizwe Buthelezi has launched a stinging attack on the party’s national chairperson, Ziba Jiyane, for "using the youth with the covert aim" of ousting IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The youth leader told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> this week that "there is a battle for the soul of the IFP raging in party ranks".

Absa Bank is withdrawing its annual funding of R500-million from Verus Farm Group, a risk management company that provides input profits for South Africa’s grain farmers. This decision comes amid a crisis in the agricultural sector as a three million ton oversupply of maize from last year.Maize accounts for more than 50% of grain farmers’ income.

The African National Congress appears to be shying away from legislation regulating the funding of political parties — despite an apparent commitment in court to enact such a law. The Cape High Court last week dismissed the Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s plea for a ruling to force parties to disclose the source of their donations. The ANC argued that taking the matter to court usurped the powers of Parliament.

The University of Natal has come to the rescue of a matriculant who, despite passing with four distinctions last year, had resigned himself to being another unemployment statistic. When Julius Mojapelo of Gauteng received his results in December last year, he realised that he had inadvertently forfeited his exemption – the big ticket for any […]

Communist youth and leaders appear sharply divided over the South African Communist Party’s weekend decision to establish a commission to inquire into the party’s electoral future. Communist League secretary general Buti Manamela insisted that there was consensus at the SACP’s special conference in Durban that the party would go it alone in elections, in opposition to its ANC ally.

A paper trail leading to the suspension of a senior government official in the Eastern Cape government bolstered evidence that "[Premier] Nosimo Balindlela is using the state against particular comrades under the pretext of fighting corruption," Irvin Jim, regional secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, said this week.

Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya frankly admitted in his budget vote speech this week that the government does not have the human resources capacity to "adequately exercise oversight of the work" of the newly formed South African Social Security Agency. This confirms the views of leading NGOs that the agency may not be a panacea for the corruption that has crippled the social grant system.

Political divisions in the Eastern Cape have been entrenched by the failure of Premier Nosimo Balindlela to take action against housing, local government and traditional affairs minister Neo Moerane-Mamase, arrested last Friday with her husband, former agricultural minister Max Mamase, and charged with corruption. The Mamases were taken in by the joint anti-corruption task team.