Politics.za

Knowing that the ANC will do whatever they can to piss off the DA, Trevor Manuel must be feeling his chance of going all the way to the presidency is getting slimmer and slimmer with every arrival of the DA weekly email newsletter.

Manuel is one of the few ANC top dogs to get praise from the DA and this weeks newsletter was no different, first starting off with a hearty congrats for getting GDP growth to 5.1% and then copiously quoting Manuel as if he was Helen Suzman guiding the DA down the correct path to take.

If Manuel is ever overlooked by the ANC in the presidential succession battle you can be damn sure that the DA will be sending non-stop gift baskets and flowers to the Manuel-Ramos household trying to get Manuel to jump to the DA. Not that it will ever happen but even Tony Leon’s got to have a dream right?

And his list of potential successors is rather lean at the moment.

Tomorrow the Supreme Court will decide whether same sex marriages will be legal. Government is actually opposing the case because they believe that parliament should decide on this and not the courts, and I see their point. However in the 9 years since the new constitution has been in effect no law has been made (or amended) legalising same sex marriage despite the equal rights offered to everyone under the constitution regardless of sexual orientation, so I also understand those who have grown a bit fed up waiting.

Funnily enough I was expecting the ACDP to be having a small fit over this but their latest weekly e-newsletter doesn’t even mention anything about it.

As ex-Vice Pres Zuma’s political career seemingly begins it’s slow spiral into oblivion, new VP Phumzilie Mlambo-Ngcuka has decided to step into the spotlight at last. When she was nominated, we mentioned on this website that she was chosen as she seemed to be a non-player in the upcoming ANC succesion battle. And for a while it seemed we were correct, as she refrained from talking to the media or placing any kind of attention on herself.

Until now.

In a multi-part interview with the Sunday Times she drops a few, how shal we say, interesting comments. The first is the almost almost admission that BEE so far has been a balls up and that it will be going under review to sort out it’s “unintended consequences”.

Secondly she also mentions that SA’s labour legislation will also be up for review. Now this is a big deal. If legislation is made more employer friendly, in any way, COSATU and SACP will go batshit crazy but it may all be for nought. With Zuma’s political career careening into what might be a brick wall, SACP and COSATU might not be able to do anything about it. If Mbeki is able to consolidate his supporters power in the next ANC NEC election, SACP and COSATU might have no choice but to go it alone or face total sidelining in the tri-partite alliance.

So some taxi drivers and some metro police decided to get into a fire fight in Hillbrow yesterday. Now while that alone is a kak situation, a quote from metro police spokesman Edna Mamoyane caught my eye:

Some of those not arrested came back and started opening fire on the police. They were obviously showing solidarity for their colleagues.

No Edna, if they had gone to the police station where those arrested had been taken and held a candlelight vigil outside all night while singing “We Shall Overcome” that would have been showing solidarity. What you’re describing is attempted frickin’ murder.

Isn’t it great being a republic. We don’t have roaylty hogging the public holidays and Christmas eve television programming… What’s that? We do have royalty you say? Well yes you’re obviously referring to King Goodwill Zwelithini, Chief of the Zulu, but he is more of a cultural leader, not one to be a burden on his people… Six million rand you say? For armoured waBenzi? For each queen? And R300 000 for medical aid? Well I guess those are vitals needed in todays day and age… Are sheets a vital need? Well yes of course, everyone needs a nice bed… Yes I’m sure I’d also sleep nicely on sheets costing R280 000.

First we had Trevor Manuel telling the unemployed to get a job already, and now Tito Mboweni is telling some business leaders to quit yapping about the Rand being too strong and “learn to live with reality”. Free market and all that.

Next thing you know Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma is going to start quoting Ayn Rand in parliament.

It seems the rumours of a rethinking of Zuma as “champion of the left” were true. The Sunday Times has a paper written by SACP honcho Jeremy Cronin which mentions that Cronin certainly doesn’t think Zuma is their man.

Now considering that this was written before the Zuma rape allegations came to the attention of the public it seems that with these new allegations Zuma might be finding himself even more isolated in the near future.

Although Cronin does say that Zuma has a “peasant” demeanour about him. Is that a compliment or an insult? With the Commies you can never tell.

After the first day of the ANC NEC meeting there’s still no indication of what is going down in the ANC. There seems to be plenty of tension in the air, although as the article mentions, it’s nice to see rivals put differences aside so they can enjoy a quick smoke out back.

One notable rumour that the article mentions is the “Plan B” option that some Zuma supporters are discussing in case they have to ditch JZ in the wilderness and throw their support behind someone else, possibly ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe. Which is wierd because he’s never seemed to me to be the most charismatic guy, which is one of the areas Mbeki also lacks and where any challenger could easily one up him.

Latest poll numbers show that the IEC has registered 82% of all available voters. How many will turn up on the 1st of March 2006 is another story.

Mark your calendars! Municipal elections will take place on the 1st of March 2006.

This is gonna be a very revealing election. Firstly we’ll see if voter dissatisfaction with service delivery will actually translate to people not voting for the ANC (or not voting at all).

We’ll also see if voters still remember their distate for floor crossing. If they do expect to find some floor crossing Nats without a job, especially if Cape Town goes back to under DA control.

And thirdly we’ll see if Mbeki can get the ANC membership back under control and moving forward. I’m not sure how much control the ANC national organisation has over the local electoral lists but he’ll be trying to get anybody he feels is a threat to his plans out of any sort of position of influence as soon as possible and these elections will be the first opprotunity before the next ANC NEC is chosen in 2007.