Monday, July 12, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman

Making Headlines:

Just hours before the Dutch-Spanish final, President Jacob Zuma convened leaders from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Togo, Mozambique, the Netherlands and neighbouring Zimbabwe at an education summit in the capital.

At the meeting, he urged African leaders to ensure that parents do not have to pay school fees or buy uniforms, costs that can keep children out of school. He also called on leaders from developed countries to honour pledges to support education in poor countries.

"We convened this summit because of our strongly held view that the first FIFA World Cup tournament on African soil should have a lasting legacy," Zuma said at the meeting, which was also attended by United Nations (UN) and international sporting officials.

"The most important investment in the future of any nation is in education," Zuma said. The summit is the culmination of 1GOAL, a campaign supported by football's governing body FIFA to use the attention the World Cup commands to publicise the need to get more children into school.

Northern and southern Sudanese leaders on Saturday said that they would consider forming a confederation or a common market if southerners chose to declare independence in an upcoming referendum.

They told reporters at the launch that they would consider four options suggested by an African Union panel led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. In one option "we considered the possibility of the creation of two independent countries which negotiate a framework of cooperation, which extends to the establishment of shared governance institutions in a confederal arrangement," said Mbeki, who spoke at the launch in Khartoum.

Another option was for two separate countries with shared "soft borders that permit freedom of movement for both people and goods," said Mbeki. The other two options, he added, were for total separation - with citizens needing visas to cross the border - and for continued north-south unity, if southerners chose that option in the referendum.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has played a key role in the rebranding of the country and forging unity among South Africans, 2010 FIFA World Cup organising committee CE Danny Jordaan said on Saturday.

In a media briefing in Sandton on the impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Jordaan said that the organising committee had five objectives that have enabled the country to be rebranded positively, leave a sense of pride and achieve social cohesion among black and white South Africans.
He told a news conference that the objective of nation building and social cohesion were achieved by soccer's biggest tournament as black and whites celebrated the tournament side by side at fan parks and stadiums. "It was a moment of special unity," he added.

Also making headlines:

Government's proposed wage subsidy for young, first-time job seekers appears to be stillborn because of politicking within the ruling tripartite alliance, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille says.
International donors could soon approve large-scale aid to Zimbabwe to help it repair broken infrastructure and rebuild its shattered economy, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe says.
And, Guinea will renegotiate minerals deals deemed unbeneficial to the West African State, but will not launch a wholesale sectoral review, Cellou Dalein Diallo, the front runner in the West African State's Presidential election says.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.