June 11, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Chantelle Kotze.

The World Bank cites labour tensions as it again cuts South Africa’s growth outlook.

The East African bloc threatens South Sudan's feuding sides with sanctions.

And, US President Barack Obama congratulates Egypt’s new president.

The World Bank has made a further material downward revision to South Africa’s growth outlook for 2014. It cites tense labour-market conditions as a key reason, along with weak electricity supply and tighter monetary policy.

The bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects, released a day after government’s intervention to end the protracted platinum industry strike stalled, forecasts that South Africa would grow by only 2% this year, 3% next year and 3.5% in 2016.

The revision was made amid a larger warning that developing countries were headed for a year of disappointing growth of 4.8%. This was down from its January estimate of 5.3%. The latest South African forecast represents a sharp pullback from the 2.7% outlook published in June 2013 and is also substantially lower than the 2.3% it predicted in April this year.

The forecast is also worse than the 2.3% figure published by the International Monetary Fund in its April World Economic Outlook and follows the economy’s 0.6% contraction in the first quarter of 2014. This was the quarter in which the mining sector’s contribution fell by a massive 24.7%, largely as a consequence of the platinum industry strike.

East African states have threatened to slap South Sudan's warring sides with sanctions unless they cease all military operations in a conflict which has sparked fears that it could spiral into genocide.

On Tuesday, leaders from the Intergovernmental Agency for Development (or IGAD) – the East African bloc brokering peace talks – held discussions with both President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar to push for an end to fighting ahead of negotiations on the formation of a transitional government.

"Kiir and Machar agreed fully to commit themselves to the already signed agreements and to complete all negotiations within the coming 60 days and then establish a transitional government of national unity," Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn told reporters after the meeting late on Tuesday.

Hailemariam, who is also current chair of the bloc said that if they don't abide to this agreement, IGAD as an organisation would act to implement peace in South Sudan. He noted there were different options, which included sanctions, as well as other punitive actions.

US President Barack Obama called new Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday and affirmed their commitment to a US-Egyptian strategic partnership, the White House said.

Sisi was sworn in on Sunday, almost a year after toppling elected President Mohamed Mursi, an ouster that Obama resisted calling  it a coup because it would have prompted Washington to cut off assistance to Egypt.

The White House said Obama called Sisi to congratulate him on his inauguration and "to convey his commitment to working together to advance the shared interests of both countries."

Also making headlines:

A decision on where evicted shack dwellers will be moved to in Cape Town has not yet been made.

Algeria said a 66-year-old man died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, the first deadly case of the virus in the North African country.

And, the National Prosecuting Authority has been ordered to pay thousands of rands in maintenance money to the mother of three children because it never appointed an investigating officer to follow up on the father.

That’s a roundup of news-making headlines today.