Friday, January 15, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
The National Prosecuting Authority filed papers yesterday with the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to oppose the State Security Ministry's application for leave to appeal a judgment that would allow former national intelligence coordinator Barry Gilder to testify in the trial of former National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
The Ministry lodged a petition at the SCA to overturn a decision by Judge Meyer Joffe to compel Gilder to testify in Selebi's corruption trial in the Johannesburg High Court.
Gilder is expected to testify about a 2005 draft intelligence report which contained a single paragraph about allegedly untoward payments that Selebi received from late mining magnate Brett Kebble. In its petition, the Ministry has argued that Gilder's testimony could compromise national security, while prosecutor Gerrie Nel insists that the testimony is already in the public domain.

Southern African leaders have urged the international community to reject plans by Madagascar's military-backed President, Andry Rajoelina, to ignore power-sharing talks and hold an election.
After a special summit on Madagascar and Zimbabwe organised by the security organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the leaders said that they were deeply concerned about the Indian Ocean island's political crisis and called for the resumption of power-sharing talks. Rajoelina, who toppled former President Marc Ravalomanana in a military-backed coup last March, is forging ahead with unilateral plans for Parliamentary polls, weeks after a power-sharing government appeared within grasp.
The SADC summit said little on Zimbabwe, apart from urging all parties in the power-sharing government to "implement decisions made".

The World Wide Fund for Nature of South Africa (WWF-SA) has raised questions about the integrity of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa's hearings into Eskom's request for tariff increases of 35% a year between 2010 and 2013, as well as the intentions behind the Department of Energy's eleventh-hour publication of a so-called integrated resource plan (IRP).
The three-page IRP, described by some as a "tick-the-box-style" exercise, was published in the Government Gazette on December 31, 2009, outlining the source and timing of new electricity generation to be installed in the country over the next five years.
WWF-SA climate change programme manager Richard Worthington says that such a decision "potentially removes the prospect for meaningful consideration of stakeholder input and interests into Eskom's controversial tariff increase applications". He adds that the so-called IRP "makes a mockery of government policy and legislated requirements regarding integrated energy planning, in terms of both content and process".

Also making headlines:
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza is sworn in for his second term.
A dispute over the Côte d'Ivoire's voter register brings the precarious question of Ivorian nationality into the spotlight once again.
Zimbabwe's Attorney-General accuses State witness Peter Hitschmann of damaging the terrorism case against Movement for Democratic Change official Roy Bennett.
And, former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, exiled in South Africa, says that he is ready to return to help his country in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.