On Sunday, ANC chair Gwede Mantashe presented the party’s Nasrec conference with its organisational report. This document, ostensibly authored by Mantashe, is supposed to provide a key to the state of play of the ANC at this time and in its recent past. It covers the way the ANC has worked in the period between the last elective conference – Mangaung 2012 – and this one. But for those hoping for the renewal of the ANC, the report will make for alarming reading. It has distinct echoes of President Jacob Zuma’s final address – criticising alliance partners and playing down State Capture. At the same time, it paints a bleak picture of a party in crisis. By REBECCA DAVIS.
Just before the ANC leadership nominations on Sunday, “Rise, Nkosazana! The time is now!” erupted in the plenary hall of the governing party’s national elective conference. Rules of the gathering prohibit divisive songs like the one supporting ANC MP Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s bid for party president, T-shirts and other paraphernalia. But in the factional machinations, sticking to such rules falls by the wayside of setting the scene by any means possible in a contest that by all accounts was balancing on a knife’s edge. And no one can stop this. By MARIANNE MERTEN.
04:59. The cat. Outside again. The dogs inside. Whining and mewling. What is it with them? You can’t put them in the same room, but they can’t live without each other. Spock (the cat) is always logical in his arguments, his ears forming a perfect triangle as he follows in front as you stumble down the passage, determined to trip you up. It’s the same every morning. And makes me glad the children are in the Republic of the Western Cape at this time, so they don’t hear that dad’s first verbal utterance every morning is a word they are not allowed to say. By STEPHEN GROOTES.
Voting for ANC leaders at the party’s 54th national conference has turned into an extensive exercise of shepherding delegates onto sports fields, robust screaming matches, and vigorous singing. While it may look like chaos, don’t for a moment think things are not organised with military precision in what has once more turned out to be a straight slate-vs-slate contest. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.
Evita Bezuidenhout celebrates 20 years of her Darling venue Evita se Perron with a weekly episode of 'Evita's Free Speech'. Here's the Episode 121. By PIETER-DIRK UYS.
While the ANC elite hold their election contest inside the Nasrec Expo Centre, ordinary South Africans stand outside the hall, far away and behind the fence, waiting for the delegates to be their customers to buy their merchandise. By NKATEKO MABASA.
Postnatal depression doesn’t only threaten the health of parents. Failing to bond with babies in their crucial first months of life can predispose a child to mental health and developmental problems. HEALTH-E NEWS’s Amy Green finds out why South African parents, especially mothers, are depressed and what it could take to lift their moods through connecting with their new-borns.
From across southern Africa, KRISTEN VAN SCHIE brings you a weekly round-up of news making regional waves.
South Africa has on several occasions made its intentions to leave the Rome Statute very clear. Grandstanding and choosing to reiterate what has already been made crystal clear – at the biggest gathering of signatory states, the 16th International Criminal Court Assembly of States Parties in New York – is nothing short of embarrassing. By ANGELA MUDUKUTI.
School is out, and as the class of 2017 await their final results, two young women will be conspicuously absent. One a South African, the other Congolese, they had little in common other than the tragic way that they died. Both committed suicide after being denied an opportunity to write matric. By ROBYN WOLFSON VORSTER and TALIA-JADE MAGNES.
The number of votes a camp would need has gotten lower, as the stakes are getting higher – and it’s probably Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa who is smiling again after this round as the ANC’s 54th national conference gets off the ground. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.
How did such an obscure company win contracts worth R118-million from 2010 to 2016? By GROUNDUP STAFF.
President Jacob Zuma used his last address as ANC president to take aim at critics and groups that he feels have wronged him. Those particularly in his firing line were the South African Communist Party, trade union federation Cosatu, and ANC veterans who have called on him to step down. The reaction from those he took swipes at has been swift and unimpressed – suggesting that Zuma may have further endangered the future of the tripartite alliance. By REBECCA DAVIS.
Follow live updates from the ANC's Elective Conference here. Refresh your browser to see the latest. All times SAST.
US Senator John McCain will miss a key vote on the Republican tax bill because of a viral infection, further narrowing the already-thin margin of support for the controversial plan.
The Wise Ones could not follow the guiding Star, as it was invisible because of the effects of climate change. So they switched on the GPS (on their cellphones) – it was the 21st century after all.
Imagine you wake up one sunny South African morning, switch on eNCA or SABC news and find an unfamiliar face in the place of your regular news anchors confirming the banner running across your TV screen that the news channel has been acquired by the state authorities in pursuance of a state of emergency declared the previous evening.
by Issam AHMED "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" soared to $220 million on its North American opening weekend, data released Sunday showed, backing up months of hype and earning critical praise even as early audiences didn't quite feel the Force.
The resignation of experienced members from the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa after it was hijacked by a group of canned killers should be commended. By PETER FLACK.