Thursday, December 10, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.
Making headlines:
Business Unity South Africa (Busa) warned yesterday that, should State-owned electricity producer Eskom's push for a 35% tariff increase be approved by the regulator, it would have a detrimental effect on South Africa's growth and employment outlook.
Busa deputy CEO Raymond Parsons says that South Africa's economic growth could be shaved by 0,5% during the first year of the tariff hike, 0,7% during the second year, and 0,3% during the third year. Employment rates would also be cut by an estimated 0,2% during the first year of the tariff hikes, 0,3% during the second year, and 0,1% during the third year.
Busa CEO Jerry Vilakazi noted that while South Africa had technically ended its recession in the third quarter of this year, any recovery from the crisis was likely to be gradual and would be heavily reliant on the pace of the global recovery. He added that employment growth was likely to lag the economic recovery.

News reports from the second day of the 192-nation climate change conference of the parties (COP) taking place in Copenhagen were focused on the "leaked Danish texts", which were made public by the UK's Guardian website on Tuesday.
The text was a draft proposal for the final political agreement that should be signed by national leaders, and was said to cause a greater rift between developed and developing nations at the conference. However, those familiar with the negotiating process have claimed that this has been blown out of proportion, and that draft texts doing the rounds at this kind of negotiating forum are not an abnormal occurrence.
The furore over the "leaked texts" appears to have grabbed the attention of the media, as had what is now known as "climategate". The climate change scientific community was tested by ‘climategate', after a computer server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia was hacked and emails from the system disseminated. However, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairperson Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed the climategate scandal at the beginning of the conference, stating that world governments had approved of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report and "therefore have full ownership of its contents".

The poorest of the poor must expect and demand only the best from the government, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said yesterday in an address to civil society and government at a conference focused on refining South Africa's antipoverty strategy.
Motlanthe said that South Africa's antipoverty strategy aimed to freeze poverty "through universal access to services that eliminate indigents". The process towards its development started two years ago and was now reaching its final stages.
Motlanthe said that it was important to ensure that civil society and government worked together in alleviating poverty but also cautioned that their roles should remain distinct from each other. He backed a proposal by civil society to establish a council on poverty where government and civil society could streamline their response.
Also making headlines:
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is re-elected as head of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.
South African leaders vowed to root out corruption on International Anti-Corruption Day yesterday.
Accountants call for a global standard on climate reporting.
And, South African President Jacob Zuma says that Zambia is a model country for investment.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.