August 13, 2012
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

Expected UN special envoy replacement Lakhdar Brahimi urges powers to unite on Syria.

An ANC membership audit is under way.

And, Mali’s interim Prime Minister will form a unity government within 72 hours.

Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria, the man tipped to replace Kofi Annan as the UN-Arab League mediator on Syria, has urged world leaders on Friday to overcome their differences on the 17-month-old conflict that is slipping deeper into full-scale civil war.

Brahimi said in a statement that the UN Security Council and regional states must unite to ensure that a political transition can take place as soon as possible. This is Brahamini’s first public statement on Syria. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to name the veteran Algerian diplomat to replace Annan, barring a last minute change or cold feet on Brahimi’s part.

Brahimi has served as a UN special envoy in a series of challenging circumstances, including in Iraq after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein; in Afghanistan both before and after the end of Taliban rule, and in South Africa as it emerged from the apartheid era.

The African National Congress has begun auditing its membership in preparation for the party's national conference at the end of the year.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu says "the auditing process has started and is currently underway."

The audit has a direct bearing on the national conference because the provincial membership determines the size of each province's voting delegation. According to the ANC's constitution, at least 90 percent of delegates at the national conference will be from branches.

The number of delegates per branch would be in proportion to its paid-up membership. Each branch in good standing would be entitled to at least one delegate.

Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, reappointed his prime minister on Sunday. He is calling upon him to name a new government of national unity within 72 hours to form a united front against Islamists in the north.

Traore and Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra, a former NASA astrophysicist and political novice, were named as part of a deal that saw a military junta return leadership of the country to a civilian caretaker government.

The Economic Community of West African States, which is pushing for the deployment of a 3 000-troop intervention force in Mali, have called upon Traore to form a more representative government.

Also making headlines:

Sudan is 'very optimistic' about a border agreement with South Sudan.

Food inflation is becoming entrenched in southern Africa.

And, the South African Cabinet approves the gazetting of the draft National Water Resource Strategy.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.