April 11, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim says it’s time for the working class to organise itself.

US Secretary of State John Kerry urges an end to fighting in South Sudan.

And, African leaders say the continent is still rising but it must cut poverty and create jobs.

It is time for the working class to start organising itself, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (or Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim said on Thursday.  

He said that, while all South Africans loved the ANC, the time had now come for the working class to organise itself as it had become difficult to lobby within the ANC.

Jim used the ANC's 2012 Mangaung conference as an example, where most delegates had supported the policy on the nationalisation of mines, but a "key individual had made sure that that resolution was cleaned out.

Numsa is championing the full implementation of the freedom charter, which it has accused the ANC of ignoring. It resolved not to support the ruling party in the May 7 elections.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told a senior South Sudan official on Thursday that the Juba government needed to end the fighting in the African country, as the State Department brandished the threat of sanctions.

In a meeting with South Sudan's minister of the office of president, Awan Riak, Kerry said the US would not stand by while the hopes of a nation were held hostage to short-sighted and destructive actors.

In a statement about the meeting, the State Department pointedly noted that President Barack Obama last week authorised possible targeted sanctions against those committing human rights abuses in South Sudan or undermining democracy and obstructing the peace process.

The State Department said Kerry noted "his grave concern" about the situation and urged the government "immediately to stop the fighting, provide full humanitarian access, and cease harassment and threats against the UN mission."

Kerry called on the country's leaders "to prioritize the interests of the South Sudanese people over their own personal or ethnic interests."

African presidents and policy makers are pushing back against pessimism to tell the world their continent's economic boom is real and sustained, but they say it must work harder to roll back poverty and create jobs for its restless youth.

From Senegal to Nigeria and Rwanda, officials have played down the impact on investment and capital inflows from the US Fed's unwinding of its economic stimulus programme, or from signs of slowdown in China and its appetite for African commodities.

Speakers during an Africa Summit held in several African capitals this week, said the drivers of Africa's headline-grabbing growth in recent years – investment in natural resources, swelling population, rapid urbanisation, an expanding middle class and mushrooming consumer demand – were undiminished.

 

Also making headlines:
 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon renews calls for human rights monitoring in Western Sahara.

And, the latest Deloitte Business Trends 2014 report reveals that organisations and businesses in emerging economies were “navigating” the new global business environment with greater confidence than leading organisations in developed markets.
 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.