Wednesday, January 20, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Petronel Smit.
Making headlines:
The African National Congress (ANC) yesterday sought to "put to rest any interpretations" of a report by national executive committee (NEC) member Tokyo Sexwale on the booing of its members at a South African Communist Party (SACP) special conference in December. The document, on the booing of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and other party heavyweights, was "retrieved" and "referred for processing" by the party's national working committee. However, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and policy chief Jeff Radebe said that the report was not discussed at the NEC lekgotla over the weekend. A "composite report" of all delegates at the conference will only be presented to the NEC ahead of bilateral talks with the SACP.
South Africa failed to escape the effects of a sharp pullback in global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows during 2009, with a new report showing that FDI inflows to South Africa slumped by 24,6% to $6,8-billion last year, from $9-billion in 2008.While South Africa did not perform as well as expected in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (Unctad's) initial FDI forecasts for South Africa, its performance was slightly better than the estimated 39% fall in global FDI flows for 2009, with the UN agency calculating that inflows fell from $1,7-trillion in 2008 to around $1-trillion last year.It was also better than the performance for developing countries generally, whose FDI flows declined by 35%, and Africa, in particular, where FDI inflows retreated by 36% in 2009, after peaking in 2008. However, the UN body expects the overall environment for international investment to improve slowly during 2010.
Although the most pressing signs of the global economic meltdown seem to be ebbing, the political impact of the downturn on Africa will only be seen at a later stage, said the Institute for Global Dialogue (IDG) yesterday.Speaking at an event hosted by research and strategy company Frontier Advisory, IDG political analyst Siphamandla Zondi said that the recent economic crisis was the largest threat to Africa's long-term political and economic ambitions in the last few decades.He argued that it was the delayed economic impact of the crisis that would see a slow and subtle shift in African politics. The slowdown in the economy would have a three fold impact on the African continent, the first of which would be a decline in export earnings. The second hit would come in the form of a reduction in private capital inflows into Africa. Zondi added that the political dynamics, involving a deepening of conflict, which are going to arise on the continent, born out of a combination of economic and social crisis, would be the third area of impact.
Also making headlines:
Nigerian Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan orders troops to Jos to restore order after nearly 150 people were killed in three days of religious clashes.
The Democratic Alliance repeats its call for a review of Schabir Shaik's medical parole.
And, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir pledges support for south Sudan if it chooses independence in an upcoming referendum.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.