It looks like it is half-time in the talks between the MDC and ZANU PF. The negotiations on Zimbabwe’s political crisis will be adjourned for a few days to allow Zanu-PF and MDC leaders to return to Harare and consult with their parties. It is also believed that President Thabo Mbeki will travel to Zimbabwe this afternoon to meet with President Robert Mugabe. He is also expected to meet the leader of the second MDC faction Arthur Mutambara in Harare. Mbeki met with MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai and his team of negotiators in Pretoria yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Johannesburg residents and industries can expect an electricity price hike this week. The city has approved Eskom’s electricity tariff hike of 20.6% at its council meeting. City Power’s Managing Director, Silas Zimu, says even though consumers will pay more for electricity, blackouts can be avoided since the city has enough reserves. The tariff would be implemented on August 1. Poor consumers, however, would not be given an additional increase in tariffs and their share would be covered by the city. The more electricity people used, the more they would pay for it by the looks of things. This tariff increase is seen as a way to try encourage consumers to use less electricity. Read the rest of this entry »
Reports this evening suggest that talks between the two Zimbabwe political parties have reached a ‘deadlock’. ZANU PF and the MDC have been in talks since last week Thursday with the aim of trying to reach an agreement about the governance of Zimbabwe. The two parties were meeting in Pretoria and the talks were meant to go on for two weeks. But now after only 5 days, the two parties have stopped talking. These are still unconfirmed reports as there has been a media blackout with regards to what is actually going on with these talks. But it does not surprise me if indeed it is true that talks have broken down.
It was always going to be a difficult task to get these two parties to agree to anything. Just the sheer fact that they agreed to meet was a surprise in itself. According to a report on BBC, the reseason the talks seem to have reached a deadlock is because ZANU PF have proposed to appoint MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai as a ‘third vice-president’ of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe currently has two vice-presidents who are both strong ZANU PF figures but hardly have a say in what happens in the country. Having Tsvangirai as a third vice-president would be “insulting” according to the MDC. The MDC had thought that as part of the negotiations, Tsvangirai would get a more prominent role such as being Prime minister whilst Mugabe would be a ‘figure head’ President.
Can you imagine being lead by a president in prison who would be wearing orange clothes? You only see of such in movies where the leader of a gang is still controlling operations in the real world from his prison cell. But this is not a movie and this is the real world. ANC Youth League President Julius Malema said on Wednesday (23 July) that South Africa will be led by Jacob Zuma - even if it is from prison. This comes of the back of the possibility that ANC president, Jacob Zuma could go to jail if he is found guilty of charges put against him. Read the rest of this entry »
The dark days in South Africa may be back. Consumers have been warned of possible unexpected power cuts after unit two at Koeberg nuclear power station was switched off on Monday night. A technical fault has caused the unit to be switched off. Charles Kadalie, manager of public lighting for Cape Town, said: “Consumers must dust off their load-shedding schedules. We’re at a high-warning stage.” Once those responsible have issued such a warning we can be sure that we are going to be experiencing some problems soon.
If something was to go wrong with unit one at Koeberg then we would be plunged into darkness. Let us hope that we do not get to that stage anytime soon as electricity demands continue to increase do to the winter conditions currently being faced. Many had thought that the electricity problems in South Africa would be worse in winter due to the increase in demand of electricity. But so far there have not been any serious problems up until now with this warning from Eskom.
Thousands of people are expected to participate in a Cosatu protest march in Johannesburg today. Cosatu has organised the march to protest against rising food, fuel and electricity prices. The protests are expected to hamper traffic flow in the Johannesburg CBD. Commuters have been left stranded in Johannesburg due to the unavailability of public transport. Commuters in Soweto have been left stranded and at the Noord Street taxi-rank in Johannesburg city centre there are long queues of commuters waiting for transport.
We have just received an account about what is happening in central Johannesburg from a lady who wishes to remain anonymous:
Braai4Heritage calls on all in South Africa to actively celebrate their common heritage by braaing on Heritage Day this year.
This follows an understanding reached between the National Heritage Council and Braai4Heritage (previously known as National Braai Day). Braai4Heritage and the National Heritage Council aim to make South Africans aware of one of this country’s unique cultural heritage gems… After all, braaing is a deep-rooted tradition in South Africa that cuts across all demographic groups.
Braai4Heritage wants to celebrate this truly South African social union by rallying all to braai on the same day and have conversations with friends, colleagues, neighbours, children about our diverse heritage that makes us a truly unified South African nation. Read the rest of this entry »
For the first time in over a decade, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai have met face-to-face. Today, the two political leaders in Zimbabwe signed a memorandum of understanding. The signing commits them to fully-fledged talks to end the crisis in that country. The agreement was signed by President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare. Chief facilitator President Thabo Mbeki witnessed the signing. Many had thought they would never see the day these two leaders would shake each others hand. If only if it were a shaking to end the crisis in Zimbabwe. But this is a start and hopefully something positive will come out of it.
Could there finally be some hope for Zimbabwe? I hope so. It seems like the two political parties in Zimbabwe have decided to sit down and talk. Mugabe’s, Zanu-PF and both factions of the Movement for Democratic Change are set to sign a memorandum of understanding outlining the framework for talks in Harare tomorrow (20 July). This comes off the back of Friday’s news that South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, called upon ‘help’ to help him as the mediator to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis. Mbeki was appointed mediator for the Zimbabwe crisis by SADC and he has now called upon the United Nations, the African Union and SADC to help with negotiations. It was starting to prove rather difficult for Mbeki to do the job alone and in him inviting others to help in the process, this goes to show that there may now be some progress in resolving the crisis. Read the rest of this entry »
InTheNews.co.za would like to wish Nelson Mandela a happy 90th birthday. On this your special day, we wish you many more.
