The country military sources told al jazeera the yemeni army has taken the town of el al year after three years of fighting its located in shabwah provinces by a hundred a key oil and gas region youre up to date with all of our top stories much more coming up and the news hour ill have that in twenty five minutes time so do join me then inside story starts now. Battle for power in south africa the ruling a. N. C. Chooses a new leader who will probably be the next president but can the successor to jacob zuma that make a difference and does the a. N. C. Still appeal to the aspirations of South Africans this is inside story. And welcome to the program the watershed meeting to elect a new leader for south africas ruling party the African National congress faced legal challenges as it kicked off some delegates were bob from by court orders from attending the a. N. C. Leadership contest the African National congress is deeply divided over who should take over from jacob zuma and. Is the South African president s preferred candidate the other main contender poza supporters say his business background makes him the best option to turn around south africas flagging economy well get to our guests in just a moment but first tanya page has more from johannesburg. The African National congress a licht of conference is underway and its going to be unfolding here over the next five days but most of the discussion and debate will be happening behind closed doors and those buildings there just in the distance behind the fence we can see some of the delegates there about five thousand or so have come here from branches of the a. N. C. All over the country they want to just be voting for the top job of president but deputy and in fact all the top one hundred he is the shins but of course its the presidency that is the most contested the most important to the future of the a. N. C. And there are really two main contenders the first being of course as many zuma she is a very experienced politician she was a member of parliament and a minister under successive governments of the a. N. C. Shes a former chair person of the African Union very experienced shes had a bit of a catchphrase in the campaign that of radical Economic Transformations shes seen as being very pro force and accused of being populist fi some of the main rival is the current defeating president Cyril Ramaphosa another a. N. C. Still water neither of these individuals is a new name a new face they have a long history in South African politics and in the liberation struggle in the struggle for freedom so around oppose it was a trade unionist he helped formulate this countrys constitution a very popular man seen as being probusiness he has a business background and a bit of a darling of the markets hes got more to find economic policies perhaps because of that many zuma is the favored candidate of president zuma in fact they used to be married to have Children Together she is believed to be the one most likely to protect him from any legal action there are hundreds of corruption charges hanging over him that could resurface where is his deputy so rehman pose a potentially the next president of the a. N. C. Is less likely to protect. The outgoing suma from those charges thank. You well lets take a closer look at the African National congress and why this vote is such a big deal formed in one thousand nine hundred twelve the parties govern for twenty three years since the apartheid jacob zuma has dominated the Political Landscape since he became leader ten years ago but with zuma tainted by corruption scandals the n. C. Suffered its worst losses ever in government last year polling fifty four percent of the vote in local elections whomever wins the party vote in giles bogle either lead the a. N. C. To its First National electoral defeat or become the next president lets get the thoughts now of our guests and joining us from johannesburg. A National Security advisor to the South African minister of police via skype from cape town is last night i do executive secretary of the council of the advancement of the South African constitution and from just outside johannesburg also via skype is trevor a social activist and research of the center for social change at the university of johannesburg thank you all very much for joining us bongani this is set to be a tight race why do you think lami damini zuma should win. Or i mean besides your package which clearly states that here we have a highly experienced individual with the world of knowledge in government we also have someone who has been nominated by true very key constituencies of the African National congress there is the a. N. C. Womens league and the a. N. C. Youth league these are very critical components of of our struggle in fact of the mest Democratic Movement and as such she stands a very good chance of being nominated this weekend. Delegates who were barred from this conference because courts dean that theyve been illegally elected they were pro law means in their you concerned thats going to upset the vote up well they is a suggestion that they were pro the meanies woman but that is not quite it you can never be certain of see in quite a lot of several of these conferences you can go to a conference thinking youve got in your bag certain delegates only to find that in fact you dont part of the tech ticks of conferencing in the a. N. C. Is really to hold you or your final wood into your heart things changed we saw things changing in twenty two thousand and seven in fact in a conference in Paulo Garnier where the then president really thought he was going to wean president in big and who in fact in his ticket he was running against jacob zuma with was on of i mean is a woman so the two of them where in a ticket against jacob zuma in harlem what plantar who. Also became president of south africa for a brief moment so you can never be too sure what we know for sure is that the numbers are very very close the race is tight and there the key provinces are backing goes on as i mean is room together with the in the the the leagues there of mention so its very very important to understand that you can never properly run or many just the a. N. C. As a leader if you do not have these key constituencies on board where women inside africa for instance make up about sixty two percent of or voting pool in general elections ok the a. N. C. Womens league is is very much a very important factor here get so lost in the race does still seem to be wide open lets examine the other front runner now also run run oppose that he is proposing a new deal what does that mean. Well firstly let me agree that the race is incredibly tight and i think itd be foolhardy to try and make a prediction even at this stage just minutes after the conference has finally gotten underway in johannesburg this afternoon and i think you know the difference between the two essentially i think and i agree with bongani and thats because on it let me as i had a stellar career in Public Service in south africa shes been a very experienced cabinet minister but where i think i am opposed to have the edge over is in his ability to turn ideas into to strategies and policies within his background as you mentioned as a unionist as a key part of the constitutional negotiations process recently as Deputy President but also very importantly as chairperson of the National Planning commission that developed the National Development plan for south africa which is formally part of the policy and i think the new deal that im opposed to put on the table a couple of weeks ago is really premised on trying to inject some life into that National Development plan to give it some energy give it some focus and one of the criticisms of the Development Plan has been the lack of focus on implementation and the lack of prioritize ation of its many many recommendations so i think were beginning to see that with someone like ram oppose that and i think as you say thats why the markets of warm to him because theres kind of a political set and policy sets and see that flows from that would threaten that would flow from out from those a victory this weekend ok lets just take a look outside of the a. N. C. Now and go to trevor at this either can do that hair spot the interest of the people the support of the people. Unfortunately you know you try to be a good election because you might to each of people executed these in intent agency. Power strategy and the people who vote i that for either of the country deeds there could be our own press or no putsch kind of interest which almost the organization are in financially on so theres a sense from the president must see is that what goes on inside the n. C. T. Half the time its got nothing to do with them ok cos as you know yeah i just want to let you know if they say they have got a say in it of the say this is an a. N. C. Vote but if theyre looking at the can that somewhat that propose that we just had that imposes new deal on the other side weve got meanies who has a radical income at Transformation Plan and to either of those policies excite people no they dont because we could have a poor sub you know hes a. Mining magnate be a net and hes pure was associated with you might have gotten a muscle car where thirty four striking where cars were short that hes come by nation who got hit nine percent stake in learning mean and he was in one exact youve got a top were going to be entering the muscle car and air base if you dance that he actually gave and down which in got actually led to the shooting with clothes on has that i had to conduct a clinic transformation. Poorly served in c. Has been to create hurt by what his court years did capture where to be shown that the president himself. Dreams associates are you know in the pocket of a family court which is actually getting government contracts sometimes. And in fact. Your family owns a television station here and also employed barry put in job a british based p. R. Company populations where they protest the idea of critic i really feel to understand what else has to do with the conference or small pangani of everything steady n. Z. Conference because many people look at monies there are as i said somebody is going to make it sound af im not on the same path as her exhusband look lets first say this and make it very clear that the radical Economic Transformation is not course as honest as i mean is a muslim making or dream its an a. N. C. Polisi which dates back to two thousand and seven in fact that is just the lexicon that dates back two thousand and seven when you look at the a. N. C. Itself you see that in most of its policies in particular the underpinning grand policy framework the freedom charter adopted in one thousand fifty five clearly talks about a rather cult Economic Transformation where really in the majority of South Africans who happen to be africans or black. Excluded in the economy and thats a big issue here we have a ninety percent of the population not taking part not partaking in the real economy radical Economic Transformation therefore talks to. That as for the new deal im not able to actually comment on it because. It does not come from the a. N. C. At all i dont know weighed in money from wooden no as a member of the a. N. C. Who drafted it or what actually influences or or really gets it to be alive. Lets let it all turn really onward up then risk from gani because isnt that the point the new deal brings fresh thinking to south africa and south africa desperately needs a new path when it comes to its economy. Absolutely and i think we all we all agree that you know the fundamental challenge that traces of africa is inequality and we need to devise a set of policies thats going to be able to to to do to tackle that issue of inequality in south africa and a quick fix such as radical Economic Transformation which to me is really a little more than a slogan and can mean lots of Different Things to different people so what we need are a carefully crafted policies that bring together the broadest range of South Africans in order to check all the challenges that we face and trevor is also right the issue of state capture and the poor levels of governance in south africa have really hampered the ability of the African National government to deliver to its people so weve got to tackle issues of corruption of state capture of the undermining of the rule of law in south africa in order to just strengthen the foundations of our democracy so that we can live a live out the vision and the dream that is there now constitution and thats a challenge that i think whoever wins this president ial battle of the a. N. C. Conference is going to be confronted with and thats thats a big challenge for either of them Going Forward and and the ability of the African National congress to then translate that message into something that appeals to the broader masses of our people outside the membership of the a. N. C. Is the huge challenge that looms on the horizon as we approach the twenty nineteen general elections one of the huge issues in south africa as we keep referring to is corruption is the state of the economy just just give us an idea if you can. How corruption affects South Africans in their daily lives and how well they are of it at the political level as well where the corruption of history of. Every reader attraction. The page were talking about the cash on how to come in to be a future president in it because of the good god and the work product is very much trying to be clarity and change your core clarity that we get more than a hundred men to appreciate and you know please call if you came in because your government if you need or Security Program it mork meant i. P. C. S. Out of her speakers into n. G. O. S which were not quite a fight to take care of them and it has been shown that they were moved into and she owns which were owned by cronies of the n. C. P. People who knew nothing about me to have cared about rick trying to make money so what im trying to say is that it is not only at the top we ask our state Electricity Company but also at the ports on these corruption some of those delegates maybe half of them there was a good deal on the ground in the local schools in the lookout hospital so its really not just thats going to be under fire you can see thats. Really unfair to post such a special its really unfair to pass a specials on people you do not know its really really grossly unfair and infix defamatory you can not see that about those delegates that the good deals how do you know that how many people out of the five thousand to you know how many people black people for that matter a get contracts in the government you need to tell. We that two thousand five hundred of those delegates have some contract or the other with government i mean thats total rubbish this is the hyperbole that we deal with in south africa which is now just totally disconnected from the true facts the real facts and not some creation of someones. You know imagine the sion honestly we have to be honest and the deal with matters in a manner of that can generate some kind of constructive debate ok honey i mean we know more than we get you know in my soul theres disagreement on that. They want to jump in there because youve got about facts lets talk about that south africa thirty percent unemployment fifty five percent below the poverty line its a fact that its got worse in the decade that zuma has been and power how can you assure people that youre not going see more of this with jacob zuma as exwife and this socalled zip difficulty of south africa how can you assure people that theres not going to be more you know. Its its disheartening for you as a woman true in fact i understand your point about grown women to power get that im in full support of women but im not talking about that are let me tell you might have looked a little run and let me make that might be for sure thats affecting less and that may be an alarmist play allow me to make my point because you dont know what i was going to say allow me to make my point dont jump allow me to make my point please lower its disheartening to hear it woman disparaging on another woman because that woman was once married to someone else. One of them is whom is an independent worse isnt the leader of the a. N. C. Yes she was once married to jacob zuma yes they are divorced yes theyve got children but herr a. N. C. Membership and her leadership ability has nothing to do with jacob zuma she does not poor or her mind and thinking from jacob zuma ok only patrick and chauvinism will talk like that and we have to really disuse of ourselves this whole notion that women can never be strong leaders who are independent able to lead their countries now Hillary Clinton dealt with the severely same thing brutally so its now been transposed into this wonderful great leader of. Telling them they were. A man has thrown his support behind his exwife let me move on to north and i mentioned i think its still ok let me just move on and lets i want to tell us on how little is a muslim mind is all in by looking at the. Same or lets just lets move on to that please bongani the accident jacob zuma is killing heather likely and how is he going to leave the a. N. C. And leave the presidency when are we going to see him go. Well i think hes leaving the a. N. C. In a worse state that he founded in two thousand and seven its a far more divided organization probably the most divided just when thats history you know the fact that the Conference Today was delayed by over six and a half hours before we could get government you know is testimony to the divisions in the tensions that exist within the the African NationalCongress Today which is a sad indictment of an organization of the overall. Even longer. Than rowdy please can we just let some of the other contestants involved get involved in the discussion. And the point is that a persons a mess leaving the end scene in the end in an awful state its facing a crisis as i said earlier a crisis that its going to confront in the next eighteen months as it moves towards the twenty nine thousand elections so whoever takes over from from jacob zuma whether its in causes im going to let me know hes a man or sorghum a person is going to be faced with the huge challenge and the issue about in courses on and as i. Acknowledged contribution as a Public Servant she has taken on the mantle of the populism and the populous slogans of radical Economic Transformation and what monopoly capital that is associated with the jacobson affection and bongani cannot get away from that fact so. Becky actually has of the two thousand long and have passed and if she wants to claim that she could have done so but rather she spotted the populist narratives that have dragged south africa down to the levels of inequality and increasing levels of poverty that we are seeing because as trevor points out of the corruption that has become in demick within the a. N. C. Not just at National Level but at provincial and local government level and i dont think any of us can deny that and thats part of the the that major challenges that we face is to have a name see government that governs in accordance with the constitution and respects the constitution and the laws of south africa this current Jacob Zuma Administration has failed to do that travel lets look ahead to the two thousand and nineteen elections do you think we will see the a. N. C. Winning that fight to be very difficult for in see to make the fifty one percent mark in twenty nineteen and thats part of the crises of that in seat because they want to hold onto power and the part theyre holding on is not for the masses not for the people but hes focused on not imports cut into going as hes not interested at the moment in south africa. We have a very high rate of protest committees coming out in the street and doing detroit to do what they want chant dance in the street crying for electricity for jobs and the United NationsHuman Rights Commission and this other can Human Rights Commission has complained about the response of the a. N. C. Government to protest they sent police there used live ammunition theyre using next in fact they are cracking down and their pet undermining the. Rights of South Africans who are complaining against the rich getting to reach out the poor getting poorer these have tended not to come out when they shut down there before and my husband strike is happening now again the students what human being three d. Crew announced Higher Education each time the response has been to use mentors on the people ok we will have to leave our discussion today clearly a very divided a n c policy will see if this conference can unify the a. N. C. Many thanks to all our guests today bongani. Last night. I thank you two very much for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting a website thats aljazeera dot com and have a discussion to go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com for slash a. J. Inside story you know the join the conversation on twitter at a. J. Inside story from me laura kyle and the whole team here life and. News has never been more available its a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is a simplistic you have boyfriend good logical rational person crazy and misinformation is rife dismissal and denial of well documented accusation and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging Mainstream Media narratives at this time on aljazeera its impossible to underestimate the size and scale of the economic crisis its not just about the billion trillion dollars of debt its not just about the banks its not just about the governments top real people. And the war on terror begins with out but it does not in there no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat than the regime of Saddam Hussein and this is a regime that has something to hide they had prepared a significant propaganda for and guess what not one w m d shite was found in iraq since one thousand nine hundred ninety one iraq a deadly deception at this time on al jazeera. Al jazeera its sweat every. This is aljazeera