Monday, May 4, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
South Africa's incoming President Jacob Zuma has warned that there will be no jobs for friends in his new Cabinet. This comes as criticism within the African National Congress mounts against some of the party's newly chosen Premiers.
The ANC president said that being a friend of his was not a guarantee for a government job. He added that he would not tolerate incompetence.
Zuma last week announced the nominated Premiers for each province, notably choosing Gauteng's housing MEC, Nomvula Mokonyane, over the widely expected choice, the current Premier, Paul Mashatile.
Zuma explained that the ANC leadership in each province had put forward three candidates for Premiers, and that the national executive committee was free to choose any of those candidates.

In international news, the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group has given the poverty-fighting agency a mixed review for its efforts to improve health in poor countries. The bank received low marks for its work in Africa.
The group said that while two-thirds of the bank's health projects between 1997 and 2007 had achieved their development objectives, one-third, mostly in Africa, did not.
Although aiding the poor is the bank's main objective, the watchdog found that only one-half of the bank's support for health, nutrition and population projects had a propoor focus, and fewer projects were explicitly committed to achieving better results for the poor.
Emma Seery, head of essential services at development group Oxfam, questioned how the World Bank could claim to have a comparative advantage on health when many of its projects in Africa were unsatisfactory.

In regional news, Britain says that it wants to see more reforms in Zimbabwe before it will consider large-scale aid for the shattered country.
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti held talks in London last week with UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown.
The British Ministers told Biti that "not only the UK, but the international community as a whole, needs to see significant further progress" in implementing Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement, before financial aid can be considered.
Zimbabwe's new unity government has appealed for international help to rebuild the economy after a decade of economic contraction, hyperinflation and chronic shortages of basic goods. The country says it needs about $8,3-billion for the task.

Also making headlines:
ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa calls on foreign governments to give the Zimbabwe government a chance.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille claims it was the party's ‘Stop Zuma' campaign that denied the ANC a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki says that an African Union panel on Darfur will meet with the International Criminal Court over the issue of the Sudanese President's impending charges.
And, the new Madagascan government gives no guarantee of a Presidential election.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.