Is it right or fair to judge someone’s actions based on their matric results? Last week, reports surfaced about ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema’s matric results. Apparently an email containing Malema’s results showed that the outspoken leader scraped through matric with an H in maths and a G in woodwork, both on the Standard Grade (SG). The email reveals that Malema, passed matric with Es in Sepedi HG and second language Afrikaans HG, an F in geography HG, D in history SG and a C in second language English HG, the latter being his highest mark. The ANC Youth League was quick to come out and say that this information was not true and that the email was fake and compiled by a person with an agenda.
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The whole country has to continue to suffer just because of a passport! This is the situation Zimbabwe is facing. There was meant to be a meeting in Swaziland yesterday with Heads of State from SADC together with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara from the political parties in Zimbabwe. The meeting was also meant to be attended by mediator, Thabo Mbeki as all parties involved look to find a solution to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. The meeting and talks yesterday were meant to hopefully reach an agreement between the parties in Zimbabwe as to who will govern which ministries. But alas, that meeting did not take place all because of a passport!
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The possibility of a new political party in South Africa is gathering momentum. Former Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa are at the forefront of this new party which is set to be formed as a rival to the ruling ANC with members of this new party set to break away from the ANC. What is worrying for the ruling ANC is that about 50 of their MP’s are set to join this new political party. Who exactly these 50 MP’s are still awaits to be seen.
The first true test is going to come when Parliament has to vote on the controversial legislation that will disband the Scorpions and set up a new unit in its place. Observers think that the 50 MP’s set to leave the ANC and join Lekota and Shilowa will vote against the bill and side with the opposition and thus disbanding the Scorpions will not go as easily and smoothly as had been initially thought. So all eyes will be on Parliament this Thursday to see what happens when the votes for the bill come into play.
It looks like the days of calling our nation rugby team the Springboks could be over. An intense first day of the National Sports Indaba ended in Durban today with many delegates calling for the Springbok emblem to be stripped off from the national rugby team. South Africa’s sports federations are calling for the Boks to loose their emblem as they are the only national team that still uses the Springbok and that they should use the King Protea just like everyone else.
As expected, this decision has not been welcome in some quarters, most notably from SA Rugby themselves. The Springbok has not only become an emblem that the whole country relates to the national rugby team with but it has also become a huge commercial brand for SA Rugby. It would be a drastic change for many to have to leave the Springbok. Can you imagine going to watch the Springboks (okay, for now we will call them ‘The National Rugby Team’) and be chanting “Go Protea!” instead of “Go Bokke”? Go Protea does not seem to have that ring to it.
Could this be the dawn of a new political party in South Africa to rival the ruling ANC and DA? It is rumoured that a breakaway ANC party may be formed in the aftermath of Thabo Mbeki being recalled from his position as President of South Africa by the ruling ANC party. Sacking Mbeki as president was not met well by many, including quite a number from the ANC including ministers in the South Africa government that Mbeki had appointed.
It is going to be interesting to see if there is any truth in this speculation. What will be even more interesting is to see who will be part of this new party. One can assume there will be some ‘big names’ in the party as they will try to take over power from the ANC. It is also suggested that there could be some leading business people who are willing to fund this new party. Will Thabo Mbeki be part of this new party, if so in what capacity? Surely he can not be the leader of this new party. I do not think he will be interested in leading a party again and may just assume a ‘godfather’ role and provide leadership and guidance to this new party.
How will the ANC themselves react to the formation of a new party which is most likely to be formed by its own members? In any political party there will be some divisions. It really is just a matter of how huge these divisions are. By the look of things, it seems as if the division in the ANC is rather large. Large enough for a new party to be formed?
Barely has Thabo Mbeki had time to take a break after leaving his office as President of South Africa, he is being called upon already to do somemore work. No, it is not work for the ANC but he needs to head back to Zimbabwe and try sort out this power sharing deal that he thought he had concluded. I bet you Mbeki had thought that once the deal was signed between the parties in Zimbabwe so that they share power, his job would be done. But guess again Mr. Mbeki, Zimbabwe still needs you!
The problem in Zimbabwe is that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims that Mugabe’s ruling party wants to retain key posts - believed to be the defence, home affairs, state security and finance ministries. Apparently this is in violation of the deal that was agreed. It is thought that these key ministries were meant to be shared i.e. defence and state security to Mugabe and home affairs and finance to Tsvangirai but it looks like Mugabe wants all of them! These issues should have been included in the signed deal but I guess that is why it took forever for the deal to be signed as I am sure the decision about who would govern which ministries was a sticking point. Probably Mbeki just decided to leave the ‘who gets which ministries’ part out of the deal and just get the parties to sign the deal so that he (Mbeki) comes out and looks like the hero for brokering the deal.
