Vol 53 No 24 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma sweeps the boards 30th November 2012 President Jacob Zuma is tightening his grip on state-owned enterprises and purging boards and executives. His advisors say the SOEs often ignore his government’s objectives, behave too independently...
Vol 53 No 23 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma or else 16th November 2012 A ruthless re-election campaign is set to win Jacob Zuma another term as ANC leader and national President The re-election of President Jacob Zuma as African National Congress (ANC) President is an ‘unstoppable tsunami’, say his backers, yet many members of his original coalition of trades...
Vol 53 No 23 | SOUTH AFRICA How the branches voted 16th November 2012 Of the 4,500 voting delegates who will decide the African National Congress presidential election at the party conference, 4,103 (91.2%) will come from ANC branches, each of which...
Vol 53 No 23 | SOUTH AFRICA Undiplomatic corps 16th November 2012 A furious row has erupted in cabinet between the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and her counterpart at National Planning, Trevor Manuel.
Vol 53 No 21 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma’s campaign pays off 19th October 2012 On the brink of the ANC conference in Mangaung in December, incumbent Jacob Zuma has outmanoevered his rivals for the party presidency African National Congress leaders are trying to stitch together a deal that would avoid a contest for the party Presidency between incumbent Jacob Zuma and Vice-President Kgalema Motlanthe...
Vol 53 No 21 | SOUTH AFRICA Winning them over one by one 19th October 2012 The plan to secure President Jacob Zuma certain victory at the African National Congress’s leadership election focuses on one-to-one meetings with his main opponents. Zuma’s enforcers are concentrating...
Vol 53 No 19 | SOUTH AFRICA Zuma hits back as mining unrest spreads 21st September 2012 The Marikana massacre shocked South Africans and unnerved the markets but President Zuma tells the trades unions that he needs another term A rousing welcome at a national trades union conference and a belated wage deal at the Marikana platinum mines are the first signs that President Jacob Zuma is...
Vol 53 No 19 | SOUTH AFRICA Disunited unions 21st September 2012 Despite some stage-managed glad-handing, quarrels over tactics and ideology haunt Cosatu’s conference A political fix negotiated on 16 September allowed the leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Unions to paper over their differences as Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi...
Vol 53 No 17 | SOUTH AFRICA The Marikana massacre 24th August 2012 The ANC’s anti-Zuma faction tries to use the shootings to help depose the President Senior politicians, not least of all President Jacob Zuma, are failing to deflect public anger about the massacre of 34 miners by police on 16 August at Lonmin’s...
Vol 53 No 17 | SOUTH AFRICA Battle of the unions 24th August 2012 The dispute at the Lonmin mine is as much about rivalry between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and the National Union of Mineworkers as about wages....