Tuesday December 7, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines:

South Africa’s Department of Energy (or DoE) received 384 responses from renewable energy developers in response to a request for information (or RFI) issued at the end of September for the initial phase of the country’s renewable energy feed-in tariff programme.

In total, the projects represented some 20 000 MW of renewable energy capacity, as well as 4 000 MW of cogeneration capacity.

However, the DoE indicated on Monday that only a small number of the projects were in a sufficient “state of readiness” to participate in a full-blown procurement process, which would culminate in a power purchase agreement with Eskom.

Fewer than 30 of the projects proposed through the RFI process had, for instance, received an indicative quote and preliminary timeframe for grid connection, which gave an indication that grid readiness was a potential barrier for deployment.

South Africa’s Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa said on Monday that police officers who continuously and recklessly lose their guns will be fired from the South African Police Service.

Spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement that the Minister made the remark with reference to a Parliamentary reply to lost, stolen and recovered guns for 2009/2010.

According to the reply, SAPS lost 3 453 guns and recovered 1 210, while civilians lost 8 498 firearms, while 3 985 were recovered during the 2009/2010 period, the statement read.

The Minister said that if a gun was lost due to negligence, a police officer would be considered incompetent to carry a gun, which would make them redundant in carrying out duties.

A Public Service Commission (or PSC) report has found that hundreds of senior managers in the national and provincial housing departments have potential conflicts of interest between their private interests and official duties.

The Consolidated Monitoring and Evaluation Report on the Departments of Housing, published on Monday, finds some 576 senior managers out of the sample of 2 628 didn’t disclose some of their directorships/partnerships in private companies and close corporations.

"The PSC recommends that executive authorities should ensure that transgressing heads of department and other members of the senior management service, or SMS, are charged with misconduct for failing to disclose their financial interests in terms of the Disciplinary Code and Procedures, as contained in the SMS handbook for not complying with the Financial Disclosure Framework," the report reads.

Also making headlines:
The soccer World Cup helped to rebrand South Africa, but brought in far less money than expected.
Ivory Coast's presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara offers jobs to rival Laurent Gbagbo’s ministers.
And, Madagascar's government hopes for recognition after a new constitution was passed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.