Wednesday, February 4, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Guy Copans.
Making headlines:
In his submission to the Constitutional Court yesterday, African National Congress President Jacob Zuma maintained that he is innocent of all the charges that the National Prosecuting Authority is restoring to the court roll.
The papers that Zuma's lawyers filed with South Africa's highest court aim to challenge last month's Supreme Court of Appeal ruling on whether Zuma should have been entitled to make representations when a previous decision not to prosecute him was reversed.
Meanwhile, Zuma and the NPA return to the Pietermaritzburg High Court today to map a schedule for the renewed graft prosecution. Zuma's court date has been set for August 25.
One political analyst says that the ANC's move to use the opportunity for an election rally, is an attempt to deflect attention away from its Presidential candidate's legal predicament. Another analyst holds a different view. He says that the ANC has every right to defend Zuma as he is innocent until a court of law can prove differently. In the ANC's view, the continued prosecution of Zuma is purely political.

In other news, the UK has expressed scepticism about Zimbabwe's new coalition government, but pledges its support because of the suffering of the Zimbabwean population. This indicates a shift in the Western world's stance on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
These comments from Mark Malloch-Brown, Britain's Minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, follow a similar shift in tone from Washington. This has come about since Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to enter a power-sharing government with President Robert Mugabe last week.
The new Obama administration has dropped its public demand for Mugabe to step down, and the European Union also welcomes the deal. Western powers say, however, that they are not ready to lift sanctions on Mugabe and his supporters until there is substantial evidence of political and economic reform.

Back home, Statistics South Africa reports that December's price growth was lower, under a new, re weighted index. However, the fall in price was less than expected, offering a note of caution for this week's Central Bank meeting on interest rates.
The Stats SA data comes as it switches to the new basket as of January this year, dumping the Consumer Price Index, the previous measure which stripped out mortgage costs. The change is expected to lead to a broader fall in headline inflation.
Stats SA maintains that the lower rate of change in the new index confirms its expectation that the re-weighting will result in a decrease in the level of measured inflation.
The Central Bank has forecast inflation to return to its 3% to 6% target range in the third quarter of this year.

Also making headlines:
Investec Asset Management says that next week's budget is likely to be Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's toughest undertaking yet.
The United Nations struggles to find new peacekeepers for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
And, the Democratic Alliance says that new evidence warrants a renewed probe into the controversial arms deal.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.