Tuesday September 21, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg I'm Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines

The African National Congress' (ANC) national general council (NGC) goes into a closed session on Tuesday, the second day of the midterm policy gathering. Delegates were expected to break into commissions to discuss a host of issues including economic transformation and peace and stability. The NGC began on Monday with a firm President Jacob Zuma laying down the law on discipline, lobbying, relations within the ruling alliance and public spats.
Zuma's political report, which was both conciliatory and critical of the alliance, was well received by the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions after months of strained relations. The ANC Youth League got a dressing down, with Zuma calling for a return of "revolutionary discipline" and described the chaos at some ANCYL conferences as "unacceptable" He once again called for the debate over the 2012 leadership battle to be shelved until the appropriate time. He ended by deviating from his prepared report, saying that the NGC was not the time to debate new policy.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed debt-ridden donor countries on Monday not to cut aid to the poor despite their budgetary woes. "We should not balance budgets on the backs of the poor," Ban told 140 leaders at the start of a three-day summit to review progress in meeting UN poverty goals by 2015. During their speeches, leaders pledged to step up efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - agreed ten years ago. But, as expected, they offered little in the way of new resources to help the world's poorest countries. The UN agreed that the world will meet the goals to halve global poverty and hunger by 2015, but is behind on other goals which cover improving child education, child mortality and maternal health, combating diseases including HIV/Aids, and promoting gender equality and environmental sustainability. Rising incomes in emerging economic powers like China is the main reason for progress in tackling poverty there, while population growth has set back efforts in Africa and India.

It has taken less than a decade for South Africa to slide 40 places in the ‘Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report' rankings, the Free Market Foundation (FMF) said on Monday.
South Africa is ranked 82nd in the ‘Economic Freedom of the World: 2010 Annual Report' released by the FMF on Monday. Last year, South Africa ranked 70th, and in 2002, 42nd.
"It has taken less than a decade to slide 40 places down the rankings. This is a matter of grave concern," the FMF said. This year's report showed that economic freedom experienced its first global downturn in a quarter of a century, with the average score falling to 6,67 in 2008 (the most recent year for which data is available) from 6,74 in 2007.
Also making headlines:

The African National Congress has called for concrete proposals on what more can be done on transferring the country's mineral wealth to the poor.
Nigerian state governor Abubakar Bukola Saraki entered the Presidential election race on Monday, the fourth candidate from the ruling party in the predominantly Muslim north to take on southern incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
It was time for the African National Congress to act against those prematurely mobilising and lobbying for succession, party president Jacob Zuma said at the party's National General Council on Monday.
And, South Africa is not the first country to consider nationalisation, African National Congress national executive committee member Tokyo Sexwale said on Monday.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.