Monday, March 15, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines:

Organisations yesterday showed fierce opposition to attempts by the government to change the country's land ownership system. Democratic Alliance spokesperson Annette Steyn said that the official opposition party will vehemently oppose any attempt by the African National Congress government to amend Section 25 of the Constitution, the provision that protects private property against expropriation. The Freedom Front Plus party said that declaring agricultural land a national asset would amount to nationalisation. Party leader Pieter Mulder said that such a move would be unconstitutional, chase investors away and destroy food security.
This was in reaction to an article in the Rapport newspaper reporting that the government was considering declaring agricultural land a "national asset" and instituting a quit-rent land tenure system in which the farmer pays rent to the State.
Director-general of the Rural Development and Land Reform Department, Thozi Gwanya, was quoted as saying that problems with land reform showed that the system of land ownership had to change. He said that his department was considering either declaring all agricultural land a national asset or keeping the current land ownership system, but capping the amount of land owned by an individual. Gwanya denied that declaring land a national asset is the same as nationalisation.

The number and scope of pirate attacks is seen to be increasing worldwide and could trigger more joint military operations to keep shipping lanes safe, says Deputy Chief-of-Staff of Operations at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) Allied Maritime Command, Commodore Hans Christian Helseth.
Attacks around the Horn of Africa are expected to become more frequent in the coming months owing to less stormy weather, and will likely spread further east towards India and south towards Madagascar.
Pirate attacks risk maritime trade, which accounts for 90% of global trade volume. Last year, piracy hit its highest level since 2003, with Somali gangs accounting for more than one-half of the 406 worldwide incidents.
Besides Nato, the European Union, India, China and the US-led Combined Maritime Forces are also conducting antipiracy operations in this region.

Disciplinary action will be taken against any African National Congress (ANC) leaders who engage in public spats, said secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at a briefing on the ruling party's weekend National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting yesterday.
Mantashe said that the NEC noted with astonishment the disrespect shown by some leaders and structures of the ANC to the decisions of the NEC, particularly relating to the succession debate around the 2012 national conference.
This new culture of public spats, thetrading of insults and personalised attacks among its leaders, detracts from the historic mission of the ANC, its discipline, traditions and protocols. Mantashe said that the practice is "alien" to the ANC and needs to be "nipped in the bud". He added that it could be caused by a lack of "political understanding" by some ANC members.

Also making headlines:

Civil rights groups call for the new junta ruling in Niger to review and renegotiate uranium resource exploitation contracts.
The African National Congress chief whip's office says that it "regrets" unauthorised comments made by an MP about ministers having to appear before Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
The US denies coordinating plans for an offensive against Islamist fighters, saying that it has no plans to "Americanise" the Somalia conflict.
And, the Johannesburg Equality Court finds African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema guilty of hate speech and harassment regarding comments that he made about Jacob Zuma's rape accuser.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.