| INSIDE PARLIAMENT |
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Uncertainty is SA theme for global food price crisis 2008-04-21 06:00:01 Some time ago, when Alec Erwin was still trade and industry minister, he was asked if biofuels - then a pretty new concept - would distort markets. He believed they would not. [Full Story...] Media bosses sick of Bullard's rants? Let them eat cake 2008-04-14 06:00:01 The hasty axing of David Bullard from the Sunday Times - and his move to one of the Independent papers - has sent ripples through the media industry. [Full Story...] Well-schooled SA will remain immune to Zanufication 2008-04-07 06:00:01 Awhile back, Jeremy Cronin, the deputy secretary-general of the SA Communist Party, warned of the "Zanufication" of South Africa's governing party. [Full Story...] Mboweni makes life like a box of (half-eaten) chocolates 2008-03-31 06:00:01 There are, as the saying goes, no free lunches. This includes champagne and cigars over dinner with South Africa's munificent central bank governor, Tito Mboweni. [Full Story...] Gas pipeline could be power solution or a pipe dream 2008-03-17 06:00:01 Just as I was hurtling off to listen to the minerals and energy portfolio committee discuss ways of integrating liquefied petroleum gas into the energy system to reduce our national dependence on electricity, the service officer serving the media delivered yet another departmental strategies and tactics document to my office door. [Full Story...] Is it too early to put the lame ducks out of their misery? 2008-03-10 06:00:01 There is much talk of an early election as parliament's programme for the second half of the year is rather thin. Opposition parties suspect that the ruling party's two-leader structure is too unsettling to be sustained until a scheduled election next year. [Full Story...] Mbeki-ites use the short time left to try out transparency 2008-03-03 06:00:01 Polokwane, that political sword of Damocles, is hanging over the heads of members of President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet. Most, bar a few who switched allegiance timeously, will surely not make it into the cabinet of Jacob Zuma or Kgalema Motlanthe . [Full Story...] Zuma allows dark cloud to blight SA's rainbow 2008-02-25 06:00:01 Race seems to have been a predominant theme in the national debates, both inside and outside parliament, in the last two weeks. ANC president Jacob Zuma attended a media briefing on Thursday organised by the Forum of Black Journalists, led by SABC political editor Abbey Mokoe. [Full Story...] Ministerial gobbledygook gets bizarre message across 2008-02-18 06:00:01 A trip with Pik Botha when he was foreign minister took me to Tunisia and the ruin of Carthage, which is now a suburb of Tunis. Botha turned to his senior official, Derek Auret, and asked: "Is hierdie plek oorspronklik?" ("Is this place original?") Auret, without a moment's hesitation said: "Nee, minister, dit is 'n Hollywood set!" ("No, minister, it is a Hollywood set!") [Full Story...] ANC and DA each offer a tale of two leaders but with different plots 2008-02-11 06:00:01 Both the government and the official opposition now have two leaders - inside and outside parliament - and it is fascinating to watch from the sidelines just how they are managing this political challenge. [Full Story...] Opposition should exploit void left by ANC's split 2008-02-04 06:00:01 Some doth protest too much. Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) boss Mangosuthu Buthelezi said recently: "For the umpteenth time, I don't care a fig that [Jacob] Zuma is a Zulu! It has about much relevancy as Tony Blair being English and Gordon Brown being a Scot. They are both Labour." [Full Story...] Lights are going out on Mbeki and his regime 2008-01-28 06:00:01 While president-in-waiting Jacob Zuma was wooing international investors in Davos, Switzerland, last week, the new ANC was rearranging the parliamentary deck chairs and the old ANC was dealing with perhaps the biggest crisis the government has had to manage since it came to power in 1994. [Full Story...] Ramaphosa could bridge the Mbeki-Zuma divide 2008-01-21 06:00:01 Anthony Butler clearly anticipated that Cyril Ramaphosa was headed for the presidency of the ANC when he timed his book, titled Cyril Ramaphosa, to come out about the time of Polokwane. [Full Story...] Quiet changing of ANC guard due in Polokwane 2007-12-10 06:00:01 When the names of the winners of the top posts in the ruling ANC are announced at Polokwane next week, it will seem like old news that Jacob Zuma will be president of the party. [Full Story...] Zuma's mystique might surprise us in unforeseen ways 2007-12-03 06:00:01 I suspect not even Wilbur Smith, Andre Brink or Xolela Mangcu - all adept at crafting accounts of political intrigue - could have constructed a fictional plot to match the real-life struggle for power among ANC/Cosatu/SA Communist Party elites, with all its infighting, conspiracies, antagonisms and deviousness. [Full Story...] Evita still deftly takes political loads off troubled minds 2007-11-26 06:00:01 While there was not much evidence of election fever in parliament - even though the ruling party is electing its new president next month - when the house rose on Thursday for its Christmas break, just down the road at the Cape Town Press Club, the erstwhile ambassadress extraordinaire to the independent homeland of Bapetikosweti was sending up the new South Africa and the gloom and doom that surrounds that ANC succession battle. [Full Story...] Maybe voters could sway Mboweni on inflation 2007-11-19 06:00:01 A report in a weekend newspaper said Australian Prime Minister John Howard was under pressure from a recent domestic interest rate hike that was likely to do him no favours in the coming parliamentary election. [Full Story...] History casts scary light on issue of media control 2007-11-12 06:00:01 It was entirely coincidental that the Cape Town Press Club hosted Rex Gibson, the last editor of the sadly long-deceased Rand Daily Mail, at the launch of his book Final Deadline last week, amid rumours that agents of President Thabo Mbeki were trying to buy Johnnic Communications (Johncom), which used to own that very newspaper. [Full Story...] Manuel has presidential stature but not the support 2007-11-05 06:00:01 Finance minister Trevor Manuel was not in a particularly cheerful mood when he addressed the media at the regular briefing during the medium-term budget policy statement last Tuesday. [Full Story...] Lunch with a billionaire is a priceless opportunity 2007-10-29 06:00:01 It is not often one hosts a billionaire for lunch. That is what I did last Thursday with Tokyo Sexwale, albeit along with 329 other people at the Cape Town Press Club. The difference was that Sexwale sat next to me and, as he put it, gave me the opportunity to ponder whether I should put my money on him as a candidate for the ANC presidency. [Full Story...] Sexwale's hero potential remains to be unveiled 2007-10-22 06:00:01 Excitement arose when the Cape Town Press Club last week announced that Mvelaphanda boss Tokyo Sexwale would speak there this Thursday. [Full Story...] Primary Coloured paints politics of rainbow nation in bold shades 2007-10-15 06:00:01 Fictional character Joel Moritz, a theatre producer turned campaign manager for the notional Social Democrats, explains to a New York broker that he has turned to politics because it is not all that different from theatre. [Full Story...] There's some comfort in what Mboweni doesn't say about repo rates 2007-10-08 06:00:01 The Cape Town Club hosted Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, an honorary member, on Friday night - fortuitously just ahead of this week's monetary policy committee (MPC) decision on the repo rate. [Full Story...] How battle for ruling party's soul becomes battle for large empty space 2007-10-01 06:00:01 "There is a heavy responsibility for a leader elected unopposed. He may use that powerful position to settle scores with his detractors, to marginalise [them] … to get rid of them and surround themselves with yes-men and women." [Full Story...] Do public sector high-flyers deserve to earn as much as mega-capitalists? 2007-09-17 06:00:01 It's that time of the year, when parliament is flooded with the annual reports of the state-owned entities. [Full Story...] In Theatre SA, a Mugabe by any other name is still a Bad Bob 2007-09-10 06:00:01 If parliament were a theatre, it would not require its actors to change their performances all that much. It's all about raising or lowering curtains on the truth; disguise and smoke screens; and people talking in riddles and metaphors. [Full Story...] Spare a thought for those who cross the floor for honour, not politics 2007-09-03 06:00:01 What do Francois Beukman, Gavin Woods and Themba Godi have in common? [Full Story...] How far is SA from mirroring Zimbabwe in suppressing criticism of president? 2007-08-27 06:00:01 Two issues have dominated media coverage of the government in the past two weeks: the parlous state of Zimbabwe and whether health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is fit for office. [Full Story...] How do you classify a previously white, slightly Chinese-looking African? 2007-08-20 06:00:01 South Africa seems to have come a full circle back to an obsession with racial categorisation. [Full Story...] Mbeki can take awkward questions, but not from too close to home 2007-08-13 06:00:01 Just up the road from parliament is the Cape Town version of the Rand Club - the Cape Town Club - where the mighty and meek meet over lunch, at high tea or cocktails to discuss the events of the nation and of the day. [Full Story...] Mboweni calls the press to order, but one country still has no name 2007-08-06 06:00:01 Usually the prickly issue of Zimbabwe is raised either by the media or by the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the halls of parliament, but this time, Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni referred to the country before anyone had thought of it. [Full Story...] Youth fund may steer SA towards more sensible affirmative action 2007-07-23 06:00:01 Umsobomvu Youth Fund, a state-sponsored fund that dispenses about R250 million a year to promote business among the young, may well have hit on a novel idea that could resolve the vexing question of how to extract race from South Africa's upliftment equation. [Full Story...] SA subtly acknowledges Zanu-PF's weakening grip on Zimbabweans 2007-07-16 06:00:01 South Africa appears to have buried its head in the sand about that country on our northern border, which our local politicians seem fearful even to mention by name. [Full Story...] ANC conference trendsetters choose to avoid the Mugabe look 2007-07-09 06:00:01 Parliament is in recess this month, but the SA Communist Party (SACP) is having its conference in Port Elizabeth this week and the ruling ANC has consulted with its members about the direction it should take in the formulation of draft policies to be put to the national conference at the end of the year. [Full Story...] Democracy takes a step backwards as government gets opaque 2007-06-25 06:00:01 Apart from a few committees that are sitting this week, the work of parliament for the second term, which started with plenaries on May 15, is pretty much over. [Full Story...] It's shadow-boxing time as MPs hit the perilous preholiday rush 2007-06-18 06:00:01 This is the last week of plenaries in this parliamentary term, which goes to show how short the terms are these days. Committees will meet next week, but that will be it until well into August. But the week is full of business, much of it arcane and much of it of high importance. [Full Story...] If minnows unite they might just out-splash the controlling party whale 2007-06-11 06:00:01 One of the odd features of the budget debates presently dominating the plenary sessions of both houses of parliament is the participation of the minor parties - that is, the seriously minor parties. [Full Story...] Frustrated power distribution camp to seek constitutional amendment on REDs 2007-06-04 06:00:01 There have been more than a dozen amendments to the current constitution since it became law in 1996. [Full Story...] Suspicions of money dumping inspire Ralane's sharp tongue to lash out again 2007-05-28 06:00:01 Tutu Ralane, who chairs the select committee on finance, is at it again. [Full Story...] Dark horse on public enterprises committee refuses to be bridled on privatisation 2007-05-21 06:00:01 Yunus Carrim, chairman of the public enterprises committee, last week accused me of being too nice to him. People, he said, were asking him how much he paid me. [Full Story...] Municipal managers refuse to open their arms to Manuel's tightening fist 2007-05-14 06:00:01 Speaking for the body representing municipal finance officers, Krish Kumar, Durban's deputy city manager, told parliament's finance committee last week: "We love the minister." All the same, he said, they hated what he was doing to them. [Full Story...] MPs seek guidelines for negotiating with Mboweni on monetary issues 2007-04-02 06:00:01 Every three months the governor of the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni, comes to parliament's finance committee to brief MPs about what's happening in the economy out there. [Full Story...] Cronin's bolshevism helps spice up routine and boring committee discussions 2007-03-26 06:00:01 Last week I caught part of an SABC2 programme called 90 Plein Street. The address is the old Revenue Service building in Cape Town, now occupied mostly by the committee secretaries and administrators of parliament. [Full Story...] New wind of oversight clears the air, but gives the executive a cold 2007-03-19 06:00:01 There is clear evidence of further determination on the part of MPs to stiffen their oversight of the government. [Full Story...] MPs begin to question whether the Scopa watchdog needs real fangs 2007-03-12 06:00:01 If you keep a watchdog, tethered but fierce sounding, and it growls and shows its teeth, what do you do if miscreants take no notice but carry on with their nefarious work, regarding the noise and sour exhalations as a mere inconvenience, and no serious impediment to their task? [Full Story...] In the art of economics, 25% seems to be the favourite option on the palette 2007-03-05 06:00:01 The amount of tax that the commissioner of revenue, Pravin Gordhan, takes from the economy is running at just one-tenth of a percentage point under 28 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Twelve years ago it was 22.8 percent. [Full Story...] Lumbering mechanics of legal procedure now in motion to bring Dora to life 2007-02-26 06:00:01 Now that the excitement of budget day is well and truly behind us, there's a hefty amount of hard work to be done by our elected representatives. [Full Story...] Mbeki sets off chain of candid statements that even shed light on Eskom debacle 2007-02-19 06:00:01 There has been quite a refreshing change in government statements, from both senior politicians and from civil servants. [Full Story...] Is Scopa barking in the night when it calls for the Imvume affair to be probed? 2007-02-12 06:00:01 Almost 11 months ago, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), that sometimes noisy parliamentary watchdog, passed a resolution about PetroSA's questionable dealings with Imvume. [Full Story...] How broad-based is BEE? The numbers are too baffling to give much help 2007-02-05 06:00:01 How broad-based is broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE)? The question came up last week, during the briefing to MPs on the trade and industry committee on the new codes, which are to be gazetted this week. [Full Story...] |
