August 18, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe urges southern Africa to reduce its dependence on aid and optimize its natural resources.

South Africa’s central bank disputes Moody's downgrade of local bank Capitec.

And, a R2.7-billion youth fund is launched.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has urged southern Africa to reduce its dependence on foreign aid and to make better use of its natural resources such as minerals and land.

Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader and one of its longest-serving, was speaking at the opening of a two-day summit of the 15-member Southern African Development Community (or SADC) in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls tourist resort.

He said the region’s continued over-reliance on the goodwill of cooperation partners compromised the ownership of SADC, he told the meeting.

Days before the summit, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human rights said SADC's credibility was at stake if the bloc did not address human rights violations among its members, including arrests of political activists and journalists. The groups cited Angola, Malawi, Swaziland and Zambia as having committed human rights violations.

Critics say Mugabe's regional standing has been undermined by a long-running economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which they partly blame on his seizures and redistribution of white-owned commercial farms to landless people among the black population.

South Africa's central bank has disputed credit rating agency Moody's downgrade of Capitec Bank. It says it disagreed with the rationale behind the two-notch rating cut for the local lender.

Moody's cut the financial strength rating of the lender to D from D+ on Friday as well as downgrading deposit ratings, citing concerns about its exposure to risky consumer lending.

Worries about consumer lending in Africa's most developed economy are growing after the South African Reserve Bank launched a $1.6-billion rescue of African Bank Investments last week.

Spokesperson for the Reserve Bank, Hlengani Mathebula, said in a statement that while the bank respected the independent opinion of rating agencies, it didn’t agree with the rationale given in taking this step.

Capitec also disagreed with Moody's downgrade, with its financial director calling it "unfair and inappropriate" in a statement issued on Saturday.

The National Youth Development Agency (or NYDA), Industrial Development Corporation (or IDC) and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (or Sefa) have launched a R2.7-billion Youth Fund aimed at creating millions of sustainable jobs.

The three agencies joined hands to launch the fund following the signing of the Youth Employment Accord of April last year, where government and its social partners made a commitment to prioritise youth employment and skills development.

The accord is one in a series of social pacts intended to help achieve the New Growth Path goal of five million new jobs by 2020. Sefa has set aside R1.7-billion for the fund, with the IDC contributing the remaining R1-billion.

NYDA CEO Khathutshelo Ramukumba said the launch of the fund was good news for youth development, adding that it would help break the chains of poverty amongst jobless young people by giving them a chance to participate in the economy.

Also making headlines:

Health care workers in Liberia have administered three doses of the rare, experimental Ebola drug ZMapp to three doctors suffering from Ebola.

Rebel gunmen kill 34 people in Central African Republic.

And, two UN peacekeepers were killed and nine others injured in a suicide attack on a patrol base in northern Mali.
 

Also on Polity:

Read the latest speeches and statements by government, civil servants and social stakeholders.

Keep up to date with Government by reading the latest schedule of Parliament.

Remember to follow Polity on Twitter.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.