August 28, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

The Supreme Court of Appeal dismisses President Jacob Zuma’s 'spy tape' appeal.

African Development Bank says Ebola is causing huge damage to West African economies.

And, a survey reveals that residents see European countries best for gays and lesbians and Africa as the worst.
 

The Supreme Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed President Jacob Zuma's application to prevent the release of the so-called "Spy Tapes".

Within five days, the National Prosecuting Authority (or NPA) must comply with the previous court order, in an application brought by the Democratic Alliance, to release the tapes.

The actual recordings, internal memoranda, reports and minutes of meetings dealing with the contents of the recordings must be provided. Conversations on the recordings were cited as a reason to drop fraud and corruption charges against Zuma, shortly before he was sworn in as president in 2009.

The DA applied for access to the tapes and in spite of winning previous court cases could not obtain them.

African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka  said Ebola was causing enormous damage to West African economies, draining budgetary resources and slashing economic growth by up to 4% as foreign businessmen leave and projects are cancelled.

As transport companies suspend services, cutting off the region, governments and economists have warned that the worst outbreak of the hemorrhagic Ebola fever on record could crush the fragile economic gains made in Sierra Leone and Liberia following a decade of civil war in the 1990s.

Kaberuka said revenues were down, foreign exchange levels were down, markets were not functioning, airlines weren’t coming in, projects were being cancelled, and business people have left, which he said was extremely damaging.

The AfDB this week donated $60-million towards essential supplies to help train medical workers and purchase supplies to fight the outbreak, which has already killed more than 1 400 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Most people in European nations say their community is a welcoming place for gays and lesbians, according to a poll released on Wednesday. It also showed many in African countries see their homelands as hostile to homosexuals.

The Gallup survey of more than 100 000 people in 123 countries found just 1% to 2% of those polled in Senegal, Uganda, Mali and Ethiopia see their nations as gay-friendly in a continent where same-sex relationships are still largely taboo.

One exception appeared to be South Africa, the only country on the continent where same-sex marriage is legal. Nearly half of those polled there said their community was hospitable to gays, although slightly more than half disagreed.

Gary Gates, a researcher at University of California at Los Angeles School of Law's Williams Institute who focuses on demographics and gender issues, said these latest findings showed that for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people around the world, being open about their sexual orientation or gender identity likely comes with substantial risk.

Also making headlines:
 

Cameroon's army has killed 27 members of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram near a northern town.

Consulting Engineers South Africa says e-tolling is the only effective funding model to improve Gauteng's road infrastructure.

And, billions of rands are expected to pour into South Africa when the construction of the Square Kilometre Array in the Northern Cape starts in 2018.

Also on Polity: 

Some recommended readings include a Human Rights Watch report on manual scavenging in India, as well as a paper by the Institute for Security Studies on the eradication of extreme poverty as a key component of the post-2015 Millenium Development Goal process and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Also, watch the interview with award-winning singer and songwriter PJ Powers as she discusses her memoir “Here I Am.”

Follow us on twitter @PolityZA

That’s a roundup of news making headlines.