Monday, May 25, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
South Africa's Department of Health acknowledged yesterday that an ageing infrastructure, as well as problems in general and financial management, continue to hamper the public health system.
The department's spokesperson Fidel Hadebe says that the new Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi has committed to addressing these problems, which are largely concerned with financial and human resources management.
This was in reaction to a Sunday Times report showing that South Africa has one doctor per 3 800 people without medical aid. This is three times lower than the World Health Organisation recommendation of eight doctors per 10 000 people.
Gauteng Health and Social Development MEC Qedani Mahlangu says that a detailed plan will be presented in the next month, with clear timelines on how Gauteng's public health-care sector can be improved.

In regional news, Zimbabwe's farming sector is in "dire straits" despite the new power-sharing government, with invasions of white-run farms continuing unabated and major food shortages inevitable.
Deon Theron, vice-president of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents the few white farmers left in Zimbabwe, poured scorn on official predictions of large improvements in output of key crops such as maize and wheat in 2009.
He said that Zimbabwe's farm sector was being "talked up" in an attempt to persuade foreign donors to loosen their purse strings.
He explained that in many cases, government forecasts are four-times the reality. State media has said that Zimbabwe will produce 1,2-million tons of maize this season, more than double last year's crop.
Since commercial farmers are being physically prevented from planting crops and banks are refusing to grant loans because they can not trust land deeds as collateral, Theron says that the figures the Zimbabwean government has released, are "not even close" to reality.

In South African news, president of the Congress of the People, Terror Lekota, says that South Africa's democracy is being undermined by a culture of intolerance within the African National Congress. This intolerance resulted in violence against members of Cope during the April elections.
At the young party's conference in Cape Town, Lekota said that the ruling party's culture of "intolerance of opposition and critical voices" was particularly focused on Cope, citing numerous examples of political violence in the period leading up to the elections.
Lekota left the ANC in protest last year after Thabo Mbeki was recalled as President, but says that a failure to address corruption was one of the reasons that convinced him to leave.

Also making headlines:
The African National Congress says that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille's allegations of a suspect land transfer just before last month's election, is just more "hot air".
Talks in Madagascar to resolve the island's political crisis are derailed.
And, Darfur rebels accuse Sudan of daily bombing.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.