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Welcome to Creamer Media's Polity. In this podcast, read by Shannon O'Donnell, and compiled with the assistance of Reuters and Sapa, we bring you a review of the past week's activities on Polity.

In this week's breaking news:
- South Africa's African National Congress reports that everything is on track for its fifty-second National Congress;
- The United Nations makes a last-ditch appeal to rebel Congolese soldiers to rejoin the national army; and
- Sierra Leone's new president finalises his 20-post Cabinet.

ANC CONGRESS ON TRACK

The African National Congress is on course to hold its fifty-second national congress in Polokwane in December.

A total of 3 675 voting delegates, from the nine provinces, will converge on Polokwane, together with an additional 400 from the ANC Youth League, the Women's League, the National Executive Committee, and Provincial Executive Committees.

In total, around 5 000 voting and nonvoting participants are expected at the conference, including observers from the South African Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African National Civics Organisation.

The number of voting delegates is proportional to the provinces paid-up membership; the Eastern Cape is represented by 906 delegates, KwaZulu-Natal by 608 delegates, Limpopo has 400 delegates, with the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the North West, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape following in that order.

Once branch nominations have been concluded, each province will hold a nomination conference.

A provincial nomination conference will then be called, reflecting the provinces' representation to the national conference.

The 60 nominees who receive the most branch nominations will automatically become the provincial nominees for the National Executive Committee.

However, the conference in December is about more than just leadership elections, and ANC branches are continuing discussions around policy issues which emerged at the party's policy conference in June. The conference may also see amendments to the ANC's constitution and there is a possibility that the amendments would include the provision for gender parity in all ANC structures.

UN URGES DRC REBELS TO DISBAND

The United Nations has made a last-ditch appeal for rebel Congolese soldiers to rejoin the national army after their leader ignored a government deadline to disband his forces in the east.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila had given renegade general Laurent Nkunda until Monday October 15 to send his Tutsi fighters in eastern North Kivu to army integration centres or see them forcibly disarmed.

However, the rebel leader, whose recent battles with government troops have forced thousands of civilians from their homes, ignored the ultimatum and called for more talks.

Amid widespread expectations of an imminent all-out government military offensive against Nkunda, Kabila and key Ministers discussed the eastern revolt with UN officials and foreign ambassadors in the North Kivu provincial capital Goma.

Kabila, who vowed to pacify all his vast country after winning the elections in the war-scarred former Belgian colony last year, has made clear he is running out of patience with Nkunda, who has led a three-year rebellion in North Kivu.

Nkunda says he is defending the Congo's Tutsi ethnic community against attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels who he says are supported by Kabila's government and army. Kabila denies such support exists.

UN relief agencies and foreign governments fear an offensive against Nkunda will sharply worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in North Kivu, where some 370 000 people have fled fighting this year.

SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENT NAMES CABINET OF NEW FACES

Sierra Leone's new President, Ernest Bai Koroma, has finalised his 20-post Cabinet, mixing technocrats with little-known members of his All People's Congress party.

Koroma, a 54-year old former insurance executive, was sworn in last month after winning a tense presidential run-off against a candidate from the Sierra Leone People's Party.

The new leader has seemingly made good on his promise to appoint newcomers to politics, amid lingering political tensions following a prolonged civil war that ended in 2002.

While the Cabinet does not include any SLPP members, despite promises of a government of inclusion, it does include four people from southern Sierra Leone, a heartland of the Mende people who traditionally support the SLPP. Three members of the new Cabinet are women.

That concludes the news portion of this week's podcast.

Also available on the Polity website are a number of recommended reports and documents that provide for interesting reading, including a recent report by the International Poverty Centre on the South African child support grant.

Also freely downloadable on the site are several new pieces of South African legislation, such as the Higher Education Qualifications Framework.

Finally, don't forget that Polity's Speeches page contains a collection of important addresses made by South African government leaders and other leading figures from around the African continent.

That's a roundup of this week's activities on Creamer Media's polity.org.za.

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