Wednesday, March 25, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Darren Parker.
Making headlines:
South Africa's two biggest political parties, the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance, remain unwilling to reveal the extent of their election budgets.
At a discussion on political parties' media strategies yesterday, ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte and DA CE Ryan Coetzee both refused to put a price tag on their election campaigns. The Congress of the People, which has indicated that their funders will be revealed in the interests of transparency, said that this will only be done at the party's annual general meeting in nine months' time.
Steven Friedman, an analyst from the University of Johannesburg's Centre for the Study of Democracy, cautioned that many businesses provide political party funding in the hope of "benefits" and influence.
He explained that there is nothing illegal about this practice, but South Africa's problem is that it is entirely unregulated.

In African news, the United Nations special envoy to Madagascar says that the crisis in the island country could grow worse, as supporters of the ousted President protest in the capital, and global leaders condemn Andry Rajoelina's takeover as a coup.
The UN envoy says that the country's new leader should hold elections to set up a legitimate government.
The African Union has suspended Madagascar, and Southern African Development Community leaders are expected to consider applying sanctions to Rajoelina's fledgling administration when they meet next week.
There are reports that Madagascar's ex-President Marc Ravalomanana is under threat and in hiding, while members of the former government have also been harassed. The UN is concerned that the situation in Madgascar has reversed, so that it is just as dangerous as before the takeover.

Back home, the South African Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee yesterday cut the repo rate by 100 basis points.
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said that the South African economy has not escaped the impact of the growing global economic slowdown. Domestic production has contracted as a result of weak domestic demand and a significant decline in export demand.
Mboweni explained that it is against this backdrop of widening domestic and global output gaps that the balance of risks to the inflation outlook has altered.
It is for these reasons that the MPC decided to cut the interest rate by 100 basis points. The repo rate now stands at 9,5%, while prime has been reduced to 13%.

Also making headlines:
The United Nations finds that there are gaps in Darfur aid delivery after Sudan's government expelled certain aid groups from the region.
A South African peace conference has been postponed owing to the government's refusal to grant the Dalai Lama a visa.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees reports that requests for asylum in the West climbed by 12% in 2008.
And, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says that it should be a priority to right the global economy.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.