DEPUTY PRESIDENT KGALEMA MOTLANTHE
By Prakash Naidoo
As far back as 2005, people in the Zuma camp began talking about the possibility of Kgalema Motlanthe as a compromise candidate for the presidency. There were fears that Zuma could be weighed down by fraud charges when he inherited the m...

CHAIRMAN BALEKA MBETE
By Prakash Naidoo
Originally nominated as deputy secretary-general, Baleka Mbete, the national assembly speaker, was nominated from the floor for the post of chairman. She stood against ANC strategist and Mbeki loyalist Joel Netshitenzhe, seen by most obs...

SECRETARY-GENERAL GWEDE MANTASHE
By Prakash Naidoo
At the ANC's last national conference five years ago, Gwede Mantashe, then secretary-general of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), failed to be elected to the ANC's NEC. But now he's bagged one of the most coveted positions - secre...

DEPUTY SG THANDI MODISE
By Prakash Naidoo
It would be an injustice to see Thandi Modise's elevation to the post of deputy secretary-general on the Zuma ticket simply as a means of achieving gender parity. Modise, speaker of the North West legislature and, until 2004, chair o...

TREASURER-GENERAL MATHEWS PHOSA
By Prakash Naidoo
Given his deeply acrimonious relationship with President Thabo Mbeki, it came as no surprise when Mathews Phosa emerged as a serious player in the Zuma camp. Phosa worked closely with Zuma in exile, where both served in Umkhonto we Sizwe...

ELECTING THE NEXT PRESIDENT
By Carol Paton
The process to select the ANC's candidate for state president and the rest of its parliamentary representatives will happen shortly before the general election, scheduled for mid year 2009. The process is similar to the one for the AN...

BIG EGO; BIG POCKET
By Heather Formby and Jacqui Pile
When it comes to luxury goods, RoE doesn't stand for return on equity, but rather, return on ego. Often, luxury items are not bought for their investment value but for the return they give in the beauty stakes, their show-off appeal ...

JOC SHOCKS CROOKS
By Stuart Theobald
When 11 would-be cash-in-transit robbers were gunned down last week by police near Hammanskraal, it was the culmination of a joint strategy between business and police. Co-ordinated from the so-called joint operations centre (JOC) in ...

THE ONLY RECOURSE
By Jacqui Pile
Earlier this month the specialised labour court system received a shot in the arm after a decision by the constitutional court that the labour courts, and not high courts, must rule on labour disputes. The judgment in Chirwa vs Tra...

BEWARE OF THE BLOG
By Jacqui Pile and Nicholas Haralambous
Last month, a subeditor at media giant Avusa's Sowetan newspaper became the first South African to be fired for blogging. Llewellyn Kriel's personal blog on the blogging platform of rival Mail & Guardian discussed the outcome of a ...

DANGER POINT
By Prakash Naidoo
After more than two decades of decline, the SA tooling industry has launched an ambitious project in an effort to stem an alarming skills shortage crisis that is threatening to impede the sector's growth. SA's tool, die and mould (T...

SABC AND PAY-TV SCRAP
By Matebello Motloung
The public broadcaster and the pay-TV industry are already at loggerheads, ahead of the launch of a number of new commercial TV stations next year. At the centre of the dispute is the SABC's insistence that it should be paid for the content...

GRINDING OUT GROWTH
By David Furlonger
Efforts by the port of Maputo in Mozambique to win business from SA's overstretched ports are likely to be stepped up with the purchase of effective control by Grindrod, the SA transport group whose activities include freight, shippin...

WALVIS FLEXES MUSCLES
By David Furlonger
The Namibian government, SA business and foreign donor agencies are investing heavily to make the port of Walvis Bay more attractive as a trade conduit for Southern and Central Africa. SA transport and logistics group Grindrod has b...