December 10, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jonathan Rodin.
Making headlines:

The Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency has launched a three-year, R100-million agro-processing programme.

Mass drug treatment for malaria is a key step towards preventing a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Ebola-stricken countries.

And, Chamber of Mines president Mike Teke expressed the chamber’s concern about the negative impact of load shedding on the mining sector.

Rural development financier the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (or ECRDA) CEO Thozamile Gwanya on Tuesday launched a three-year R100-million agro-processing programme aimed at benefiting 996 landowners in the rural towns of Bizana and Lady Frere, in the Eastern Cape.

R53-million had been committed to Bizana and R46-million to Lady Frere over the next three years.

In the first season of planting, 1 000 hectares of white maize would be planted in Bizana and 100 hectares of sorghum would be planted in Lady Frere. R20-million had been committed for the initiative at both sites, with the bulk of the funding, about R19.2-million, going toward mechanisation units and equipment.

Gwanya said that the R100-million for the initiative was sourced from the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury and was in addition to the previous R91-million committed in 2013 by the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s (or DBSA’s) Jobs Fund to the ECRDA and the Eastern Cape Development Corporation to roll out another three-year agroprocessing programme in Ncora and Mqanduli, also in rural Eastern Cape.

Mass drug treatment for malaria is a key step towards preventing a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Ebola-stricken countries and to ease the burden on medical staff.

Sierra Leone began a campaign last week to protect 2.4-million people – nearly half its population – from malaria, reducing pressure on health services from people visiting clinics wrongly fearing they have Ebola.

Executive director of Roll Back Malaria Fatoumata Nafo-Traore told a news agency that it was a good example of how looking at the broader picture is the right approach – because the number one killer in Sierra Leone is malaria, not Ebola

More than 9 300 trained community health workers in Sierra Leone have been going door-to-door in districts where the risk of Ebola is highest to administer anti-malarial tablets to people aged six months and above.

Families will also be educated on the similarities of the symptoms of Ebola and malaria and the importance of taking the life-saving medicine during the campaign spearheaded by the United Nations' children's agency.

Malaria symptoms of fever, headache and aching joints are similar to Ebola in its early stages.

Chamber of Mines president Mike Teke expressed the chamber’s concern about the negative impact of load shedding on the mining sector and said mining’s non-production has a direct impact on upstream and downstream industries.

He invited power utility Eskom senior executives to engage with mining leadership to prevent production stoppages caused by continuous reductions to electricity supply, saying these hurt the economy as a whole.

Teke said the mining industry was willing to engage to find solutions that will help improve electricity supply. However, he was concerned that the cost of resuming mine production was much higher than cutting electricity supply to a mine.

He noted that the industry had already taken steps to cut its use of electricity demand by 10% to assist the power utility to improve the electricity reserve situation.

Also making headlines:

South African Airways will begin implementing a 90-day action plan to enable the full implementation of the airline’s already approved Long-Term Turnaround Strategy.

The African National Congress has called on Eskom to fast-track the construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations to alleviate the strain on the grid that has seen rolling blackouts.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has fired his long-time deputy Joice Mujuru and several of her allies in the latest sign of a power struggle among the ruling elite.

And, a push at the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on South Sudan's warring parties has reached an impasse due to a dispute over whether to include an arms embargo.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.