While you were sleeping: 11 January 2016

ANC at 104: “The year of advancing people’s power”

The ANC’s slogan for 2016 could be something of a dare to the people of South Africa. People’s power could sweep the ANC towards another decisive victory at the polls, or it could cause real trouble for the ruling party through popular protest action and ground-level campaigns. The ANC’s 104th birthday celebrations in Rustenburg show that the party still popular and has massive organisational and campaign power. The year 2016 will be a test of whether history, state power, organisational muscle and the ANC brand is sufficient to maintain its electoral dominance or whether this will be its year of reckoning. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

Not even two weeks into 2016 it has already been a hot year in politics. After the ANC celebrated its birthday this weekend, the temperature will keep rising leading up to the elections. By GREG NICOLSON.

Hearing of South African President Jacob Zuma’s exhortations to the ANCYL, J. BROOKS SPECTOR recalls how a former leader of another BRICS country, Mao Zedong, also challenged the youth to push aside the powers that be in China during the Cultural Revolution.

From contentious elections to concerning economies, 2016 promises to be another turbulent year in Africa. SIMON ALLISON looks at the stories that are likely to dominate the continental headlines.

Leading up to the 2016 South African Municipal Elections and the 20th year celebration of her theatre in Darling, Evita se Perron, Tannie Evita has committed herself to broadcasting a Sunday recap of the week's news, with the accent on Free Speech. Here's the Episode 16. By PIETER-DIRK UYS.

For the first time since 1999, Venezuela’s revolutionary socialist regime faces an opposition parliament. But rather than seeking some form of “cohabitation” with its political adversaries, the government has chosen the path of outright confrontation, raising once again the prospect of serious political violence in this nation of 30 million people. By Phil Gunson for the INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP.

A secretive meeting that Hollywood star Sean Penn orchestrated with Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman in a jungle hideout late last year helped Mexico's government catch the world's most wanted drug lord, sources said. By Lizbeth Diaz and Simon Gardner for Reuters.

There really is no such thing as a free market, there never has been, nor can there ever be such a thing. The very concept of an economy that is independent of government and political institutions, is a stark utopia. It is unrealisable, and efforts to bring it into being are doomed to fail, and inevitably have dystopian consequences.

As a human being, and the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, I’m angry. Recently you called me a monkey, in your argument you said that there were some blacks you could tolerate, but those at the beach that day who littered, were monkeys. This angers me.