Tuesday, September 8, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has urged Cabinet Ministers who bought cars of R1-million or more to trade them in for more modest transport. Cosatu praised Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan for contenting himself with a "modest Lexus car for R557 673 and an Audi A8 for R590 500".
Gordhan's decision was welcome in light of public anger at the unnecessary expenditure of up to R1,4-million a vehicle on cars for other government Ministers. Cosatu said that while those who purchased top-of-the-range BMWs had acted within the government rules, they had also displayed great insensitivity to the plight of South Africa's poor.
Cosatu's tripartite alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP), has defended Higher Education Minister and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande's purchase of a BMW for R1,1-million, saying that he would never betray his political ideals for luxury. The SACP reiterated that its concern for the safety of its officebearers played a role in the decision to buy a BMW.

The European Union (EU) has proposed that the United Nations (UN) should set up a war chest to help process the billions of dollars that poor countries would be paid to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. The facility would sit separately from an existing "Adaptation Fund", which aims to soften the impact of climate change on crops and water sources.
The EU hopes to find unity on its financial support for the developing world, to boost the chances of success at international climate talks in December in Copenhagen. This suggestion by the European Commission is one of the first attempts to deal with the practicalities of collecting and distributing the billions of dollars poor countries say they will need before signing any such deal.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says $100-billion will be needed annually by poor nations by 2020, but some environmentalists put the figure near $140-billion. Ethiopia says that Africa will veto any deal that is not generous enough in funding to counter the effects of climate change.

Southern African States are looking to hold a special summit on Zimbabwe in efforts to end a row over a power-sharing pact between its leaders. The Zimbabwe issue was pulled from the agenda of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Kinshasa at the last moment.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's spokesperson says that an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe is likely to take place, but did not elaborate on when and where, which resulted in doubt over whether such a summit will in fact take place.
South Africa President Jacob Zuma is being closely watched at the conference for signs that he will take a tougher line than his predecessor over Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who faces travel bans and asset freezes in the West as punishment for alleged human rights abuses and voterigging. Zuma has urged an end to the sanctions but also stressed the need for respect for democracy and human rights. However, his speech at the opening ceremony of the SADC summit made no mention of the sanctions nor any direct reference to Mugabe.

Also making headlines:
Gabonese opposition parties demand a re-count of the disputed election which brought the son of long-time leader Omar Bongo to power.
Public service and labour agree on a 11,5% increase for public servants.
And, South African President Jacob Zuma calls for closer regional cooperation to counter the effects of the economic crisis.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.