More than 36Â 000 jobs have been created through the establishment of the Job Creation Trust, said its chairperson, Willie Madisha, on Saturday at the trust’s annual awards evening. Earlier, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had said Madisha would be defying the union if he addressed the awards ceremony.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Friday accused President Thabo Mbeki’s government of deliberately seeking to emasculate the African National Congress. A new style of political leadership is required, he told the National Union of Metalworkers in the Eastern Cape.
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) will stage the first of a series of protests against rising food prices in a march through Polokwane in Limpopo on Sunday, spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Friday. Besides drawing attention to rising food prices, the protesters will also complain about the electricity crisis.
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.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) plans to embark on mass action against rising food, electricity and transport costs, as well as interest rates, media reports said on Wednesday. This comes after the Competition Commission announced the formation of a crack team to investigate price-fixing in the food industry.
African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma on Tuesday criticised the delay in declaring the results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. Zuma, the front-runner to become the next president of South Africa, indicated that ”keeping the nation in suspense … keeping the international community in suspense” was wrong.
Hundreds of delegates arrived at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein on Thursday for the national conference of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Although the programme for the day had not started by 11am, delegates already inside and outside the Callie Human Centre were dancing and singing songs, waiting for proceedings to start.
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The African National Congress (ANC) has come out in defence of its president, Jacob Zuma, after scathing criticism of him by University of South Africa rector Barney Pityana on Monday. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe described Pityana’s statements as ”spurious” and a reflection of ”intellectual bankruptcy”.
The government and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) should bury the hatchet and unite in the fight against HIV/Aids, African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Zweli Mkhize told delegates at the TAC’s fourth national congress on Friday.
Senior Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) officials who are supporters of President Thabo Mbeki are not facing the axe, the trade-unionfederation said on Monday. Cosatu dismissed reports that three senior officials were in the firing line as ”totally untrue”.
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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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/ 21 February 2008
The 2008 national budget took a "business as usual" approach in failing to carry through President Thabo Mbeki’s commitment to change all South Africans’ lives for the better, the People’s Budget Coalition said on Thursday, adding that the government will not be doing anything fundamentally different from what it has done in the past.
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/ 26 January 2008
Residents of the impoverished Skielik community on Saturday buried three loved ones who were gunned down last week, allegedly by 18-year-old Johan Nel. Enoch Tshepo Motshelanoka (10), three-month-old Keditlhotse Elizabeth Moiphitlhi and her 31-year-old mother, Anna, were buried at the Swartruggens cemetery.
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/ 26 January 2008
Racism was still a key issue in South Africa, political party representatives said as they addressed a gathering at Saturday’s funeral of the murdered Skielik victims. Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said alleged killer, Johan Nel (18) had ”no regard for human life”.
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/ 24 December 2007
Reports that South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief executive Dali Mpofu was going to resign were dismissed by the broadcaster on Monday. According to a report in the Sunday Times, Mpofu was heard saying at the African National Congress’s 52nd national conference in Polokwane that he would resign.
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/ 19 December 2007
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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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/ 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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/ 15 December 2007
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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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/ 8 December 2007
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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
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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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/ 5 December 2007
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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
Thousands of mineworkers took to the streets of central Johannesburg on Tuesday, urging industry bosses to beef up safety in South African mines. This year, there have been more than 200 deaths in the mining industry. Major mining companies said they were badly affected by the one-day strike.
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/ 23 November 2007
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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
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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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/ 22 November 2007
South Africa’s trade union federation Cosatu on Thursday threatened to call a strike if state-owned electricity utility Eskom is allowed to raise electricity tariffs by 18%, as requested. Cosatu’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, told reporters that the federation was canvassing members for a possible general strike next year.
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/ 8 November 2007
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) interest in the African National Congress’s (ANC) national conference is influenced by the will to retain an ANC bias towards the workers of the country. This is according to Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi, who was speaking at the general council of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union.
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/ 4 November 2007
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After eight years at the helm of Africa’s economic powerhouse, Thabo Mbeki cuts an increasingly lonely figure as the battle for the reins of the African National Congress (ANC) approaches its finale. As well as taking fresh blows from his political foes, the president has also become the target of senior ANC party members.
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/ 30 October 2007
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Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s statement that President Thabo Mbeki’s re-election to the African National Congress (ANC) presidency would divide the tripartite alliance was unfounded and divisive, the ANC said on Monday.
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/ 28 October 2007
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The tripartite alliance will not survive if Thabo Mbeki is re-elected president of the African National Congress in December, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday. ”A status quo will see the destruction of the alliance itself,” he told what was in essence a Jacob Zuma election rally in Kimberley.
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/ 27 October 2007
Unemployed and casual workers were better off under apartheid than now, said Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Saturday. He said inequality had widened in the past 13 years with a minority of capitalists and bureaucrats getting richer.
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/ 24 October 2007
A crowd of about 500 bereaved music fans thronged in the scorching sun outside music venue the Bassline in Johannesburg’s Newtown cultural precinct on Wednesday for the memorial service of slain South African reggae icon Lucky Dube. Inside were another 1Â 000 fans, family members and friends of the singer.
"He’s behaving like Cosatu belongs to him," muttered one observer. It was a reference to Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi — the high-spirited, joke-cracking star of the show at the federation’s recent central committee (CC) meeting. Everything was going Vavi’s way.