July 25, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

The IMF cuts South Africa’s 2014 growth outlook again and warns of tighter financial conditions.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions says motorists should burn their e-toll bills.

And, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu says existing SMME support programmes won’t be scrapped.

The International Monetary Fund (or IMF) has once again lowered its 2014 growth forecast for South Africa to 1.7%, having previously forecast that Africa’s second-largest economy would expand by 2.3%.

The 0.6% downward revision, which is contained in the World Economic Outlook Update, released in Mexico City on Thursday, is also well below the 2.8% projection outlined by the IMF for South Africa in 2013. However, its 2.7% growth projection for 2015 was maintained.

The new figure is in line with the 1.7% forecast released recently by South African Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus. The reserve bank’s July 17 downward revision was its second for the year, having initially been published as 2.8% at the start of 2014, before being lowered to 2.1% and now to 1.7%.

The IMF revision came against the backdrop of a marginal lowering of its forecast for global growth in 2014, from 3.7% in April to 3.4%. However, the outlook for sub-Saharan Africa was sustained at 5.4%.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (or Cosatu) urged motorists in Gauteng to continue to use the highways without paying the e-toll bills.

Gauteng provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile called upon people to continue to defy the system, suggesting that those who received e-tolls bills should burn them.

Cosatu welcomed the establishment of the review panel by Gauteng premier David Makhura that was tasked to review the impact of the system in the province.

However, Dakile said Cosatu also rejected attempts by Sanral and the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute those who were not registering and not paying the bills. He said tolls added to the cost of living of workers and the poor.

Despite a degree of ambiguity around the transfer of small business-focused promotion programmes from under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry (or DTI) to the newly formed Department of Small Business Development (or DSBD), Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has confirmed that these programmes are unlikely to be abandoned.

These programmes include the Incubation Support Programme; the Centres for Entrepreneurship; and the Support Programme for Industrial Innovation, among others.

Zulu outlined that the DSBD would “take its time” to review the various programmes, working with the DTI to ensure that they were effective and delivered on the emerging department’s mandate of providing access to supply-chain opportunities, providing development assistance and driving skills development.

Also making headlines:

A study undertaken by the HSRC’s Economic Performance and Development research unit reveals lagging growth and a lack of diversification in the City of Johannesburg’s economy, as it struggles to return to its pre-financial crisis growth levels.

Doctors Without Borders has warned that malaria is the leading killer in the impoverished Central African Republic.

The wreckage of an Air Algerie plane carrying 116 people is found in Mali.

And, Mali's government and Tuareg-led rebels on Thursday signed an agreement for a roadmap toward securing a broader peace deal to end decades of uprisings in the north.
 

Also on Polity:

Be sure to read the latest budget votes speeches and statements, as well as the latest opinion piece by the South African Civil Society Information Service about the Gaza situation.

Follow us on Twitter @PolityZA for updates on breaking news

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.