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Daily podcast – April 4, 2014

4th April 2014

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April 4, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Opposition party Democratic Alliance says President Jacob Zuma is avoiding responsibility on the Nkandla graft report.

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A Statistics South Africa Poverty Trends Report reveals that four-million people have been lifted out of poverty in South Africa since 2006.

And, Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry to talk about security issues.

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South Africa's main opposition party accused President Jacob Zuma on Thursday of trying to "run away" from explaining his role in a $23-million State-funded security upgrade to his home that was heavily criticised by anti-corruption investigators.

Zuma met a Wednesday deadline for him to respond to parliament but said that before he acted he wanted to see the findings of a separate probe by the police's elite Special Investigating Unit that he ordered in December. However, the opposition Democratic Alliance said this was merely stone-walling until after a May 7 election.

"The reality is that President Zuma is trying to run away from accountability and delay having to explain his actions to South Africa until after the elections," DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said in a statement.

Zuma has been pilloried over the Nkandla scandal, including by senior members within the ruling African National Congress. Despite the outrage, the ANC is widely expected to win the election, giving Zuma another five years in office.

 

Statistics South Africa statistician general Pali Lehohla revealed on Thursday that, based on an upper-bound poverty level (or UBPL) of R620 a month, some four-million South Africans have been lifted out of poverty since 2006, leaving 45.5% of citizens, or 23-million South Africans, living below this threshold in 2011.

This data emerged from StatsSA’s Poverty Trends Report, which analysed trends in poverty and inequality between 2006 and 2011 based on money-metric data collected through the Income and Expenditure Survey 2005/06 and 2010/11, and the Living Conditions Survey 2008/09.

A growing "social safety net" in the form of social grants, real income growth, above-inflation wage increases, decelerating inflationary pressures on households, expansion of credit and the growth in formal housing were attributed to the contraction of those living in poverty.

 

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, to discuss better security cooperation in the Maghreb region in one of his longest appearances since a stroke a year ago.

The meeting was one of the few times the Algerian leader has been seen talking so openly in public since the illness that put him in a Paris hospital for months and raised questions about his bid for re-election this month.

The state of the 77-year-old Algerian leader's health has been in question especially since he announced he would run for a fourth term in April's ballot after 15 years governing the North African oil producer.

Western governments will be watching for any potential transition in Algeria, which is a major supplier of gas to Europe and a key partner in the campaign against Islamist militancy in North Africa.


Also making headlines:

Nersa expects to make a determination on Eskom’s Regulatory Clearing Account balance submission in either April or May, but insists that there will be no tariff implications for consumers before April 1, 2015.
 

South Africa’s sole nuclear power station Koeberg marks 30 years of operations as the country mulls a new nuclear chapter.

And, energy utility Eskom says South Africa’s power system would remain stable into the weekend.

 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.

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