Tuesday July 19, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove

Making headlines:

The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (or Seifsa) signed a three-year wage agreement with six trade unions on Monday. However, they said that the National Employers Association of South Africa (or Neasa) didn’t endorse the settlement agreement.

According to Seifsa, Neasa didn’t sign the agreement because it felt that its demands for a lower entry level grade for new employees and its priority to create work were “brushed off the table”. The Federated Employers Organisation of South Africa also refused to sign the final agreement.

The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council said the refusal of the two parties didn’t impact on the settlement agreement and wouldn’t materially affect the representivity of the council. The council has, therefore, resolved to proceed with an application to the Labour Minister to have the agreement extended to all nonparties in the industry.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has committed his government to providing practical support to the new African tripartite free trade area (or T-FTA), which, once concluded, could span from Cape to Cairo and include 27 countries, should Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, decide to join one of the three blocs participating in the talks.

The so-called “grand” T-FTA negotiations include members from the East African Community, the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community, and it’s anticipated that the enlarged bloc could be established during 2013.

Speaking at the Union Buildings on Monday, Cameron said the T-FTA had the potential to raise gross domestic product on the continent by $62-billion a year, which would dwarf current yearly aid flows of around $20-billion.

The leaders of South Africa and Britain disagreed on Monday over how to proceed in Libya, with South African President Jacob Zuma saying he wanted to see negotiations aimed at ending the five-month-old rebellion there.

Zuma, speaking at a news conference after talks with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron, pushed for NATO to give an African Union "roadmap" involving talks between Libyan rebels and leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi the chance to succeed.

NATO has been bombing Libya for nearly four months under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians from bombardment by forces loyal to Gaddafi, who has shown no sign of being prepared to end his 42-year rule in the face of the rebellion.

Also making headlines:

Prime Minister David Cameron has further curtailed a trade trip to Africa and will return to Britain late on Tuesday to address a phone hacking crisis that has raised questions over his judgment.

South Africa celebrated Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday on Monday, but the nation he led out of apartheid is divided by poverty and his African National Congress movement seems to many to be losing its moral compass.

And, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was taken to hospital because of blood pressure problems on Monday, and the swearing in of a much-changed Cabinet was delayed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.