Thursday, February 4, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
South African President Jacob Zuma confirmed late yesterday that he has fathered an illegitimate child and that he is in a relationship with the baby girl's mother, Sonono Khoza. Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist who practises polygamy and has three current wives and now 20 children, said in a statement that the matter was "intensely personal" and that he had taken responsibility for his actions. Zuma argued that naming the child's parents would have serious long-term implications for the girl. It amounted to exploitation under the Child Care Act and Children's Act, as the media was making money from its reports. But Press Council of South Africa chairperson Raymond Louw said that Zuma's criticism of media reports about his love child are "outrageous" and an "unwarranted attack" on the press.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will decide later this month whether to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights, said the country's Finance Minister Tendai Biti yesterday. Biti said that the move was in response to positive reforms implemented by the unity government formed last year between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Zimbabwe, which Biti said needs at least $8-billion to reconstruct its battered economy, had its voting rights suspended by the IMF in 2003 over policy differences with Mugabe's government. Biti says that the US will support Zimbabwe in its push to regain voting rights, and that it had made similar requests for support to Germany and the UK.
The Constitutional Court will today hear the Inkatha Freedom Party's (IFP's) lawsuit against President Jacob Zuma for a six-year delay in dealing with 384 applications for Presidential pardons. The applicants are seeking a declaratory order that the President has failed to diligently consider and decide on their applications for Presidential pardon. The IFP members have claimed that the crimes for which they had been convicted, were committed with a political motive. This court bid follows a September ruling by the Constitutional Court that the President - and not the Justice Minister - should be held accountable for the delay.
Also making headlines:
The African National Congress Youth League says that the latest chapter in President Jacob Zuma's sex life should be considered ‘closed'.
Fighting over top jobs in Guinea's caretaker government delays a transition to civilian rule.
South African Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda says that mobile operators' interconnect fee proposal is ‘unfair'.
And, Sudan says that an International Criminal Court ruling to reconsider genocide charges against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is aimed at hindering elections due in April.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.