January 8, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance is expected to appeal the e-toll judgment.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says conflict is "enemy number one" of African growth.

And, Ghana’s opposition boycotts President John Dramani Mahama's inauguration.

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (or Outa) said on Monday that it would appeal a court ruling that hindered its bid to have e-tolls in Gauteng scrapped.

On December 13 last year, the High Court in Pretoria dismissed an application by Outa to have the electronic tolling of Gauteng's major roads scrapped. It also ordered Outa to pay the legal costs of the application.

Outa intends appealing this order, which has to be lodged with the court by January 9.

International Monetary Fund (or IMF) chief Christine Lagarde said on Monday that Africa's emerging nations have become a driving force for world economic growth. However, armed conflicts pose the principal threat to the continent's future development.

The IMF is projecting economic growth of 5.25% for sub-Saharan Africa in 2013. This rate places the region second only to Asia's booming economies and well above a world forecast of 3.6%.

Lagarde said in a speech to lawmakers in Ivory Coast that "it was clear that emerging countries were the motor of world economic growth."  She also said that she was impressed by the continent's resilience in the face of the most serious disturbances seen by the world's economy since the Great Depression.

Africa's diverse mining sector, which offers everything from copper and iron to diamonds and gold, is booming largely on demand from the Chinese industry, so too is its oil sector. Investors are increasingly drawn to its growing and largely untapped consumer markets.

Ghana's opposition boycotted the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, ignoring his appeals to end a dispute over last month's election in the West African state. The election was seen as a model democracy in the coup-prone region.

Mahama, who narrowly defeated his rival Nana Akufo-Addo in a December 7 vote, pledged to focus on development and unite Ghanaians.

Akufo-Addo's opposition New Patriotic Party (or NPP) accused Mahama of rigging the December 7 poll. The NPP also said it was pushing ahead with a legal challenge to the election results.

However, former-president John Kufuor, an NPP member, did attend the ceremony, defyied the boycott and a group of young party members who gathered outside his house to persuade him not to go. South African President Jacob Zuma and Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan joined other African leaders at the ceremony in the seafront Independence Square.

Also making headlines:

South African farm workers are expected to revive the wine region strikes.

Malian Islamist rebels move south toward government forces, raising fears of fresh clashes.

And, Turkey aims to more than double its trade with Africa by 2015.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.