Monday January 24, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

Embattled former SABC CEO Solly Mokoetle received a settlement of R3,4-million following his resignation on Wednesday, the SABC said.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said that: "Mr Mokoetle was paid an equivalent of his 12-months' salary which amounts to R3,4-million inclusive of leave and other entitlements as a full and final settlement."
He added that: "Whilst wanting to respect the confidentiality of the settlement, it is in the interests of transparency and to put an end to negative and incorrect media reports, that the Board has decided to make this disclosure.” The disclosure of the settlement was prompted by Communications Minister Roy Padayachie, who met with the SABC board on Friday to discuss developments at the public broadcaster.

World efforts to slow deforestation should do more to address underlying causes such as rising demand for crops or biofuels, stemming from a United Nations (UN) focus on using trees to fight climate change, a study said. It said that a series of projects to protect forests had had limited success in recent decades, as UN figures show that 13-million hectares of forest were lost every year from 2000 to 2009, an area equivalent to the size of Greece. The report by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations suggested that the current UN-led efforts to protect forests had too narrow a focus on promoting trees as stores of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Friday launched a framework to "harmonise" donor money for the public health sector. "Some officials seem to believe that the government money from the budget and donor money are separate," he said at a press conference after a meeting of donors in Pretoria. He added that "donor money was considered a luxury... And we don't think that was correct." The Minister wanted money from donors to be channelled to where it was most needed, and to be audited.
The department's director-general Precious Matsoso said that they were working closely with the Treasury to make this happen.

Also making headlines:

Provisional results from South Sudan's referendum show that almost 99% of voters have chosen independence, the referendum commission's website said after 98,7% of the votes had been counted.
Voters in the Central African Republic complained of long delays at polling booths as the poor but resource rich State staged an election seen as a first step in overcoming years of instability.
And, talks between Morocco and Western Sahara's independence movement inched forward on Sunday, but there was no progress over the basic issue of the disputed territory's future status, a United Nations mediator said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.