Tuesday, September 7, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi has welcomed trade unions' decision to suspend the public sector strike. "We urge those who are returning to the workplace to ensure that we deliver the services that are so sorely needed by all communities across our country," he said.
African National Congress spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said that the party "believe[s] this is a step in the right direction in ensuring stability and normality in our public sector offerings, particular[ly] around education and health services."
This, after public sector unions announced that the 20-day pay strike was suspended pending the outcome of more consultations with members and the government in the next 21 days.

South Africa ranks nineteenth in a table of "top priority host economies" for foreign direct investment (FDI), which was released on Monday as part of the latest ‘World Investment Prospects Survey 2010-2012' compiled by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). Hitherto, South Africa had fallen outside the top 20.
The survey results show that there is renewed optimism being expressed by transnational corporations and investment promotion agencies about prospects for FDI in 2010, pointing to a likely recovery from the recession-induced slumps of 2008 and 2009. The results also indicate that there could be further FDI growth in 2011 and 2012.
As was the case in 2009, China heads the ranking of the top priority host economies for FDI, followed by India, Brazil, the US and Russia. It is also the first time that the four major emerging markets (China, India, Brazil and Russia) all ranked among the top five investment destinations. Unctad noted the continued rise of developing Asia's relative importance as host for FDI, with six countries among the top 15, as against five in the 2009 survey. By contrast, the attractiveness of developed countries declined slightly, with only six countries ranking among the top 15, with countries such as the UK and Australia moving down the list.

The rate at which rhino are being poached in South Africa is heading for a point where the number killed will exceed the number born, warned World Wide Fund for Nature African rhino programme manager Joseph Okori on Monday. Should the current surge in poaching continue, then "in two years, we could start to expect a decline" in the population growth rate," he said.
In a written reply to a Parliamentary question on Monday, Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said that 139 rhino - five black rhino and 134 white rhino - had been poached on private land, provincial reserves and in the Kruger National Park between January 1 and July 16 this year. Responding to a question by Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament Gareth Morgan, the Minister said that she had no plans to institute an investigation into the reasons for the escalation in rhino poaching. However, current measures are not sufficient to curb poaching, and her department is setting up an interim national wildlife crime reaction unit.

Also making headlines:

South African National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele denies lying to Parliament about the rentals of two buildings amounting to over R700-million.
Potential Egyptian Presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei says that change in the leadership of the country will come in the next year and calls for a boycott of Parliamentary polls in November owing to vote rigging.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki says that African universities are key to remaking the continent.
And, Sudan plans to more than double its gold output in the next two years to help make up for a possible fall in oil revenues if its crude-producing southern region chooses to secede in an upcoming referendum.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.