Wednesday June 15, 2011

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

Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma says that job creation, as well as delivering on the New Growth Path’s aspiration to create five-million jobs over the next ten years, remains the primary focus of government for 2011. He says that government will work with other sectors, especially business, to achieve a lowering of the unemployment rate, which has risen above 25%.

Zuma said at The Presidency’s Budget vote on Tuesday that the government sector had created 133 000 new jobs in the past financial year, which compensated for the still weak performance of the private sector.

However, government is also looking to competition policy and to foreign direct investment to raise employment levels.

A survey issued on Wednesday by charity organisation Oxfam says that rising food prices, which are hovering near record highs after a spike in grain costs, are changing consumers diets, particularly in developing countries such as Kenya.

The majority of respondents in the survey, conducted in 17 countries, said their diet had changed over the last two years, with some blaming rising food prices but others citing health concerns.

Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of the international charity says that "huge numbers of people, especially in the world's poorest countries, are cutting back on the quantity or quality of the food they eat because of rising food prices."

Liberia has severed diplomatic ties with Libya. It is the latest African country to distance itself from leader Muammar Gaddafi since a NATO-backed uprising against him.

The move, announced by the office of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, comes after Senegal received a delegation of Libyan rebel leaders last month and Mauritania's president was quoted last week as saying Gaddafi's departure was necessary.

A statement from Sirleaf's office says ties can be resumed when "the people of Libya reach a political settlement which offers the best hope of lasting peace".

Also making headlines:
Madagascar puts conditions on exiled former President Marc Ravalomanana‘s return.
South Africa's Reserve Bank says there are signs of a fragile local economic recovery.
And, US House Speaker John Boehner warns President Barack Obama that he is skating on thin legal ice by keeping US forces involved in Libya.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.