July 31, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Chantelle Kotze.
Making headlines:

 

Zimbabweans face a third Robert Mugabe-Morgan Tsvangirai election showdown.

Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti says the State is seen as a cash cow.

And, South Africa’s unemployment rises to 25.6% as the labour force expands.

Zimbabweans begin voting on Wednesday in a fiercely contested election pitting President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa's oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power.

Polls opened on time at 05:00 am across the country, with long queues of people braving a bout of unseasonably cold weather to stand in line from well before dawn. Both sides are forecasting landslide wins;  however, in a country with a history of election violence, the bigger question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll dogged by logistical problems and allegations of vote-rigging.

Asked on the eve of the vote if he and his ZANU-PF party would accept defeat, Mugabe said "If one goes into a process and joins a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can't be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said the party was prepared only to accept the results if the poll was "free and fair."

Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said on Tuesday the view that the state was a cash cow had hampered the willing buyer, willing seller principle in land restitution.

Speaking at a three-day National House of Traditional Leaders lekgotla in Durban, he said the market mechanism was good for individuals, but when the state entered that market, the price shoots up because people think the state is a cash cow.

For this reason, the government had drafted the Property Valuation Bill. The land valuation bill was meant to shift the system of buying land by the state from private hands without using the market.

Nkwinti said the bill would be presented at the next sitting of Cabinet after public submissions had been taken into account. Should the bill become law, it would see the establishment of a valuer general's office to determine the price that the government paid for land.

Statistics South Africa said in its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Tuesday that South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25.6% in the second quarter, from 25.2% in the previous quarter, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 122 000. 

Stats SA said since the first quarter of 2008, unemployment levels had been fluctuating in certain quarters, but the trend has been upwards. The lowest level of unemployment was observed in the fourth quarter of 2008, at 3.9-million people, while this quarter’s number is the highest at 4.73-million.

This was largely attributed to an increase in the labour force, which saw 222 000 people join in the three months between April and June 2013, bringing the total available labour force in the country to 18.45-million.

Also making headlines:

South African Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus says reducing chronic unemployment on a sustainable basis is the single most important economic objective.

Nigeria says it will begin withdrawing its troops in Mali on Wednesday and redeploy them in security operations at home.

And, South African power utility Eskom launched a $1-billion, 10-year bond at a yield of 6.875%.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.