Thursday, January 8, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shona Kohler.
Making headlines:
The Democratic Alliance has called on the African National Congress to fire five Cabinet Ministers ahead of this year's national elections. The Ministers identified by the DA for firing are those in the Foreign Affairs, Land and Agriculture, Trade and Industry and Home Affairs Departments, a well as the Minister in the Presidency.
The DA was reacting to a statement by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe that if the ANC wins the election, its new policy institute and not the President, will monitor the performance of ministers and sack those who are incompetent.
DA chief whip Ian Davidson says there is no need to wait until after the elections. Davidson says that the failure to remove these ministers now would mean that the ANC cannot expect the electorate to take its promise of good government seriously.
Davidson added that many of the current members of Cabinet do not fulfill their duties with integrity and responsibility, so the DA challenges the ANC to immediately remove them.

In African news, Sudan's biggest investor, China, says that a war crimes indictment against Sudan's President would have a "disastrous" impact on the Darfur conflict. China echoes Sudan's call for the case to be postponed. It is feared that an indictment against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir could derail peace efforts in the country.
Liu Guijin, Beijing's envoy for the troubled Darfur region, says he plans to try and find some way to postpone the indictment, so that the international community can have more time to address the problem in Sudan. Liu said it is still possible for a member of the United Nations Security Council to table a motion to delay the indictment, which is the International Criminal Court's first against a sitting president.
Liu added that it would be more appropriate if one of the Security Council's three current African members - Burkina Faso, Libya and Uganda - pushed for the postponement.

In international news, the outgoing US trade chief has called for members of the World Trade Organisation to step back and review progress on the Doha round of trade talks. She did, however, reject a suspension of the long-running round.
Susan Schwab, who will step down as US Trade Representative on January 20, says that now is the time to step back and review progress on the Doha talks. She calls for intense, detailed, behind-the-scenes work to be done in an effort to move forward.
This comes after WTO director-general Pascal Lamy decided last month against calling ministers to Geneva to seek a breakthrough in the Doha talks. This was owing to significant differences between the US and major emerging countries.
Also making headlines:
South Africa's Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa calls for police commissioner Jackie Selebi to be replaced.
Mediators call for a truce in Congo ahead of the upcoming Heads of State summit.
And, Ghana swears in opposition leader John Atta Mills as President.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.