Friday, July 2, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

Africa's largest economy, South Africa, boasts the highest unemployment ratio on the continent, with almost 60% of people being unemployed and 25% choosing not to participate in the country's economy.
Economist Mike Schussler, who presented the '2010 United Association of South Africa, South African employment report' in Johannesburg on Thursday, said that, in fact, more people in the country are currently receiving money from welfare than from employment, with 12,8-million people working and 13,8-million people receiving welfare payments from the proceeds of only five-million people.
Schussler pointed out that 40,8% of adults in South Africa are employed, compared with 83% in Uganda, 80% in Rwanda and 78% in Tanzania and Malawi. "If South Africa was just able to up its employment numbers to the average ratio in Africa of 64%, adult employment in the country would have grown with seven-million jobs," he added. In fact, Schussler said that the only countries that are doing worse than South Africa in employment numbers are countries ridden by war such as Gaza, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Changes to laws forcing foreign firms in Zimbabwe to sell a majority of shares to locals are "cosmetic", leaving risks to multinationals that could stall economic recovery, according to research firm Eurasia Group.
The country's unity government is divided over regulations published earlier this year, requiring foreign-owned firms, including mines and banks, with assets over $500 000 to sell at least 51% of their shares to black investors within five years.
A government minister said last week that the rules had been revised to attract investment into an economy emerging from a decade of recession. However, Eurasia said in a research note that a major overhaul of the legislation looks unlikely, and that changes made to the law are only "cosmetic". "There remain real risks for multinationals ... and the law will deter fresh investment and the prospects for economic recovery," the research group said.

South Africa should focus on its position in the India, Brazil, South Africa (Ibsa) trading bloc, but it is also imperative to strengthen bilateral relations with the Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) grouping to strengthen its position globally, as well as consolidate its position as the economically dominant power on the African continent.
Speaking at a forum held by the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) in Pretoria, IGD research associate for emerging powers Francis Kornegay argued that South Africa should focus on what is obtainable by focusing on reinforcing and consolidating the importance of Ibsa as an important anchor for South-South cooperation, as opposed to focusing on Bric, which is more of an icon of high politics that represents economic reform on a global stage. South African Institute of International Affairs emerging powers programme head Dr Mzukisi Qobo added that South Africa needs to focus its foreign policy goals through the Ibsa framework, which provides greater strategic value for the country as opposed to strategies through Bric.

Also making headlines:

The Congress of the People, in Gauteng, threatens legal action against party president Mosiuoa Lekota over "unconstitutional" congress national committee meetings.
Opposition leader Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo has won Presidential elections in the breakaway Somali enclave of Somaliland
South African Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa says that any violence against foreign nationals in South Africa will not be tolerated, as rumours of xenophobic tensions grow.
And, a European Union-funded study shows that crime and corruption are the main obstacles to doing business in Nigeria.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.