Thursday, August 12, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines:

Media houses need to be regulated as they tend to go "overboard" at times, President Jacob Zuma told the SABC on Wednesday, in defending the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal. The media claims to be the "watchdog of the people", he said, but they were never elected. The media cannot be the only body that understands rights, he added, as the African National Congress (ANC) had fought for these rights.
On Tuesday, the ANC said that it did not want to curtail press freedom with the tribunal, but that the print media did not seem committed to transformation. ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said that a tribunal would be set up to "assist" editors and that the ruling party valued media freedom.
However, the possibility of a media tribunal has drawn widespread criticism. Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe has warned that a media tribunal would be an "imposition" on media freedom, while the South African National Editors Forum has crafted a plan of action to fight attempts to regulate the media.

South African power utility Eskom expects to almost double the level of generating capacity that its grid will get from independent power producers (IPPs) by March next year.
Eskom, which is battling to raise some of the R385-billion needed to pay for new capacity, is keen to have private players enter the market to boost supply and cut its own cost of building plants. Eskom divisional executive system operations and planning head Kannan Lakmeeharan says that the utility has signed up around 215 MW of generation capacity from IPPs in the last few months, and is expecting to get that up to 400 MW by March 2011. However, the doubling of capacity depends on IPP board approval for two new contracts.
Lakmeeharan did not want to divulge the names of the companies involved, except to say they are local. Eskom has already signed IPP agreements with petrochemicals company Sasol and independent producer Ipsa, and also reportedly with paper group Sappi.

A recent Southern African Development Community-European Commission (EC) meeting on the future of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) governing trade between the two regions, has been described as constructive by a top South African trade negotiator.
Department of Trade and Industry International Trade and Economic Development deputy director-general Xavier Carim cautioned that, while the meeting was encouraging, "we are not out of the woods yet," and there is still much work to be done. The meeting, held in Brussels at the end of July, focused on tariffs and rules of origin, as well as unsolved negotiating issues relating to legal issues in the EPA texts.
Carim noted that there seemed to be a strong push from the EC side to conclude the negotiations, which have dragged well beyond the initially proposed implementation date of 2008.

Also making headlines:

Government and public sector unions are to meet for another round of wage talks at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council in Centurion this evening.
Nigeria's Cabinet approves the purchase of three new Presidential jets, after the country's electoral commission said that it would have to raise debt to fund elections scheduled for six months time.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane says that the reporting lines of specialised prosecution units have changed, raising questions about whether he respected Ministerial orders to suspend a restructuring plan.
And, Madagascar's government has agreed on new election dates with minor political parties, but without the three main opposition parties, the latest bid to end a dragging political crisis could fail.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.