WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-01-08 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
[Mbeki may fight back, but he is not succeeding. Jan]
The new ANC leadership will decide on Monday whether to purge Thabo Mbeki’s strategic thinkers from the party’s engine room, the National Working Committee.
ANC president Jacob Zuma was to preside for the first time over the new National Executive Committee, which will elect the NWC.
The NEC itself has been enlarged from 60 to 80 members, and the NWC membership will be increased from 15 to 20.
“The composition of the new NWC will be an indication of whether Zuma and his backers will opt for compromise or battle,” said a senior source in the top level of government.
Another source in the ANC told the Cape Argus this morning that the NWC had historically contained the party’s most respected thinkers, its wisest heads and most experienced and capable figures.
This was aside from the top six NEC positions, now headed by Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe and secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.
The source said the test of Monday’s NWC election would be whether key figures under the Mbeki leadership such as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, the SACP’s Jeremy Cronin, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan and key strategist Joel Netshitenzhe would be retained.
“Pallo has never been in either the Mbeki or Zuma camp. He offers intellectual stimulation.
But, more importantly, he could play the role of elder statesman in a potentially divided organisation. That’s his great asset,” said analyst Adam Habib.
“You need people to serve as a bridge between the two camps. Joel is smart and has been integral to ANC policy. So has Trevor Manuel.”
Analyst Richard Calland recently identified, in a book called Anatomy of Power in South Africa, the six most powerful people in South Africa; in descending order they were Mbeki, Netshitenzhe, Manuel, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin, Mbeki’s legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi and Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.
Gumbi was not an ANC office-bearer, but both Erwin and Pahad failed to make it on to the new NEC.
It was said that Manuel headed the “government within a government”, but his popularity, judged by votes for NEC positions, fell sharply.
Netshitenzhe is officially head of government communications, but many are of the opinion that he plays a significant role, while Mbeki focuses on his African agenda.
Sources said on Monday that Netshitenzhe was not viewed favourably by Zuma’s supporters, but his experience would make him “hard to ignore”.
Newly elected ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday that no one matter would take prominence, but that “we regard all matters as urgent”.
Mbeki, as an ex-officio member now, had a “standing invitation” to attend, but Mantashe said he did not know if he would.
Sources predicted that for strategic reasons Mbeki would indeed attend, as boycotting the meeting would be an invitation to Zuma’s supporters to take a hard line against his remaining lieutenants in the NEC.
An ANC source said the election of the NWC would be of critical importance, as this group met weekly and was the ANC’s “engine room”.
Their most important function was to monitor government and try to ensure that it implemented ANC policy as closely as possible.
It would have the power to summon members of Mbeki’s Cabinet to explain important decisions or pending policy matters.
Because of the sheer size of government, the party could not even attempt to “micro-manage” government. But sources said Zuma’s new top team would certainly be “hands-on” in engaging the Mbeki government.
“NWC members are not paid, but they are extremely powerful,” one source said. “The election on Monday is going to be fiercely contested.”
Mantashe said the meeting would be held on Monday at Esselen Park, north of Oliver Tambo International Airport.
Zuma is expected to make his second big speech on Tuesday, in which he will outline the ANC’s priorities for the year ahead.
Meanwhile, DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha added her voice to calls for calm and for the rule of law to be respected in the build-up to Zuma’s court case in August.
Supporting a call by legal practitioners George Bizos SC and former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson to to let the law take its course, Botha said that “ordinary, law-abiding South Africans should also make their voices heard in support of the principles enshrined in our constitution, which make clear the separation between the executive, the legislative and the judicial arms of government”.