Wednesday, September 9, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amanda Strydom.
Making headlines:
The African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe states that the ruling party is confronting the "dangerous intersection" of people holding public office and simultaneously having business interests. Speaking at the Tshwane University of Technology, Mantashe said that the ANC would refuse to accept that getting elected to a position of influence was a licence for personal wealth accumulation.
If the party does not succeed in defeating this tendency, it will continue to see bitter fighting for positions from which patronage could be dispensed and wealth accumulated. He explained that the ANC is not against individuals going into business, but is against people in government channelling tenders into their own businesses.

World Bank Africa region chief economist Shantayanan Devarajan says that aid to Africa is currently one of the best investments other countries can make. The Group of 20 industrialised and developing nations should be challenged to seize the opportunity and make financial commitments to Africa.
Speaking at a lecture hosted by the South African Institute of International Affairs and the World Bank, Devarajan said that the policy environment on the continent has never been better for generating growth and reducing poverty with additional resources. However, the need for these additional resources is "extraordinarily" high, not only in the short term to get the continent back on track after the global financial crisis, but also owing to the fact that the continent still had a huge development agenda.
The economist noted that the global economic crisis could not have come at a worse time for Africa, given that the continent had been growing at the same rate as other developing countries for the first time in two decades. However, with the onset of the global economic crisis, private capital flows and foreign direct investment and remittances had slowed and commodity prices fell.

The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) is supporting a move by legal organisation Freedom Under Law (FUL) to challenge the handling of the judicial complaint against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.
The Institute's deputy CEO Frans Cronje says that it supports the FUL‘s challenge, as the supremacy of the rule of law depends heavily on respect for the institutions responsible for applying and interpreting the law. Cronje said that the Judicial Service Commission's (JSC's) decision not to investigate further, left questions over the good standing of all parties involved, including the JSC, the Constitutional Court justices and Judge Hlophe.
Cronje added that the Institute was also concerned over the "open and aggressive display of crude racial solidarity" by many Hlophe supporters. Last week's announcement by the FUL head Johann Kriegler that the organisation would challenge the JSC's decision, precipitated an "unwarranted series of racist insinuations". Cronje said that by questioning the JSC's decision, the Institute was holding Hlophe to the same high standard as society held all judges. Keeping quiet would amount to holding a black judge to a lower standard, he said, so the FUL's move is neither racist nor patronising.

Also making headlines:
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale launches an austerity drive for departmental spending.
Alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, deny any rift over expensive Ministerial cars.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa admits in reply to a Parliamentary question, that dozens of South African police have been charged with murder and rape in the last year.
And, Southern African leaders call for an end to Zimbabwe sanctions.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.