JOHANNESBURG - The leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) will not be drawn into "street fights" over positions, the party's secretary general Gwede Mantashe, says. "We are not going to get into that street fight," he says, referring to reports that he is falling out of favour as secretary-general. He says reports that the ANC Youth League is against him are "neither here nor there". Mantashe has played down tensions within the ruling alliance between the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. He has dismissed reports indicating that President Jacob Zuma was called upon at the national executive committee meeting to intervene and call for unity or else the ANC would "implode". Mantashe, in his reportback on the party's weekend lekgotla, says it has reaffirmed the position of the January 8 statement that the ANC as "the leader of the alliance and strategic centre of power must take responsibility for providing political direction to the alliance".

PRETORIA - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to Com-munications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda to object to a proposed law that aims to levy a 1% personalincome tax on working South Africans to fund the SABC. Party Member of Parliament Lindiwe Mazibuko says that the Public Service Broadcasting Bill, which was gazetted by the Department of Communications late last year, will confer wide-ranging powers to Nyanda in the functioning of the SABC. "The overall aim of this Bill is to locate control over the SABC in the hands of the Minister," Mazibuko says. "A strong board and an effective Parliament are what is needed to steer the SABC in the right direction, not an all-powerful Minister with the authority to make the public broadcaster subject to the whims of the government of the day. Aside from anything else the Public Service Broadcasting Bill is unconstitutional, since the 1% tax proposal renders it a money Bill, which, according to the Constitution, may only be introduced by the Finance Minister." Mazibuko says the Bill represents an attempt to revert the public broadcaster to a government-run State broadcaster, as was the case under apartheid.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has officially joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), after President Jacob Zuma authorised Energy Minister Dipuo Peters to sign statutes joining the organisation and to participate as a full member in all its deliberations. Previously, South Africa was an observer country to the agency and did not have full membership of this body, which was established in January 2009, and will be headquartered in Abu Dhabi. Peters attended the third session of the preparatory commission in Abu Dhabi, where decisions were made on the 2010 work programme and budget of Irena, as well as on the interim financials and staff regulations and rules. "This commission is important as it acts as the main decision-making body of the organisation until the entry into force of the statute after the 25 required ratifications have been realised," says Peters.

KHARTOUM - The Presidential candidate for Sudan's former southern rebels says that he will bring peace to Darfur, end Khartoum's pariah status, and win office with the backing of millions of marginalised Sudanese. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has named Yasir Arman as its challenger against Sudan's incumbent, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in the April elections. Arman, a northern Muslim with political clout in Khartoum but little international profile, says that his priorities, once elected, will include democratic reforms and a public acknowledgement that Darfuris have legitimate grievances. The SPLM says its leader, Salva Kiir, will stand for the separate position of President of oil-producing southern Sudan, where the population has been promised a referendum on whether to split off as an independent state in January 2011. Arman dismisses analysts' suggestions that Kiir's move means the SPLM is more interested in building up its position in the south, before a widely expected ‘yes' vote for independence, than in ruling a unified Sudan.