Vol 43 No 24 | SOUTH AFRICA Kraaling out of trouble 6th December 2002 ANC loyalists' worries about leftists and labour are stifling the party and government On 16 December 1838, Afrikaner trekkers were lured into Zulu King Dingaan's kraal and slaughtered. On that day 164 years later, President Thabo Mbeki will try to lure...
Vol 43 No 24 | SOUTH AFRICA The right wing explodes 6th December 2002 More bombings by Afrikaner extremists have attracted some surprising sympathy Afrikaner bombers are busy again. A dozen explosions in the past month damaged buildings, railway lines and a police aircraft hangar in the Johannesburg-Pretoria area, Western and Eastern...
Vol 43 No 22 | SOUTH AFRICA A nuclear waste 8th November 2002 Eskom's nuclear programme appeals to national pride, but it may not succeed The power utility Eskom has asked the cabinet for 1 billion rand (US$100 million) to back a new nuclear research programme which it claims will launch the country...
Vol 43 No 20 | SOUTH AFRICA Scrambling for Africa 11th October 2002 Business hopes that President Mbeki's pan-African vision can produce some profits too As Pretoria flexes its diplomatic muscles in Africa, championing the New Partnership for Africa's Development and sending peacekeeping troops to Burundi and Congo-Kinshasa, its companies are following the...
Vol 43 No 18 | SOUTH AFRICA Deep drift 13th September 2002 The President and the capitalists wrangle about black empowerment and mining investment Mining for precious minerals was the foundation of South Africa's urban riches, and the prime symbol of foreign capitalism, apartheid labour repression and racial monopoly. The African National...
Vol 43 No 17 | SOUTH AFRICA Congress gets scratchy 30th August 2002 The development summit gives Mbeki less trouble than his own party The World Summit on Sustainable Development, which overruns Johannesburg this week, is riven by competing interests and chaired by President Thabo Mbeki. It is also punctuated by street...
Vol 43 No 17 | SOUTH AFRICA Local, global or both 30th August 2002 A coalition calling itself the Social Movement Indaba is organising mass demonstrations around the World Summit on Sustainable Development. President Thabo Mbeki and his African National Congress government...
Vol 43 No 15 | SOUTH AFRICA Buthelezi replays history 26th July 2002 The Zulu leader and some tough friends threaten to open Natal's wounds Relations between the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party are at their lowest since the rivals signed a peace deal on the eve of the...
Vol 43 No 13 | SOUTH AFRICA End of an Alliance 28th June 2002 Squabbles and scandals are now destroying the only opposition which really mattered The most serious opposition group, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has been gravely wounded by corruption allegations and political misjudgement. The governing African National Congress is sticking the knife...
Vol 43 No 13 | SOUTH AFRICA What's left of the opposition 28th June 2002 The Pan-Africanist Congress: Since the African National Congress won power, the PAC has lacked a role or clear political identity. Its five members of parliament and one...
Vol 43 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Will the real Thabo Mbeki stand up? 17th May 2002 Ahead of a hectic six months of hosting world leaders and trying to wring trade concessions from them, Mbeki changes course This year's workload for President Thabo Mbeki is overwhelming. He and his colleagues from Africa's big nations must oversee the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into...
Vol 43 No 10 | SOUTH AFRICA Mbeki's front line 17th May 2002 In a year of international negotiations and party elections, Mbeki will need loyal friends President Thabo Mbeki's rapid rise in the African National Congress after it was legalised in 1990 surprised many outsiders. Yet for years inside the tent, Mbeki built a...
Vol 43 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICA Watch on the spooks 8th February 2002 The intelligence services look like becoming the President's personal agencies The resignation of the Inspector General of Intelligence, Dr. Fazel Randera, has dealt a blow to the civil oversight of South Africa's intelligence agencies. His departure, hastened by...
Vol 43 No 3 | SOUTH AFRICA Airport turf wars 8th February 2002 Mashudu Ramano, chief executive of the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), claims he is under heavy pressure after terminating the contract of a well-connected private security firm....
Vol 43 No 2 | SOUTH AFRICA Crossing the Limpopo 25th January 2002 Zimbabwe threatens the grand African plans of Presidents Mbeki and Obasanjo From the splendour of Pretoria's Union Buildings, President Thabo Mbeki's vision of a resurgent Africa is obscured by the sprawling crisis in Zimbabwe. Almost everything Mbeki wants to...
Vol 43 No 2 | SOUTH AFRICA Managing foreign affairs 25th January 2002 In 2000 South Africa's ministries were grouped in 'clusters', to rationalise policy-making and eliminate contradictions. The Department of Foreign Affairs is grouped with the Departments of Defence, Tourism,...