June 19, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Africa’s flagging peer review system gets a boost with three countries set to be reviewed this year.

Central African Republic to hold elections on October 18.

And, Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi says taxi industry needs to come to the party in tempering bad road behaviour. 

The African Union’s (or AU's) flagging programme for improving the governance of its member countries received a boost at the AU summit this week. It was decided that three more countries would be scrutinised this year.

Djibouti, Chad and Senegal would be the first countries to be probed by the African Peer Review Mechanism (or APRM) since 2013, Mustapha Mekideche, the newly-elected chairperson of the African Peer Review panel of Eminent Persons said at the summit. 

Mekideche was elected at the summit by the African Peer Review Forum, (or APR Forum) which comprised of the heads of state of the 35 African nations which had volunteered to be “peer reviewed.”

Mekideche, an Algerian, complained last month at a meeting in Gaborone that the APRM was losing momentum, in part because the member countries were not paying their dues and so inhibiting the organisation to conduct reviews.

Meanwhile, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the current chair of the APR Forum told the forum meeting at the summit that the APRM was short of $12-million in unpaid dues.

Central African Republic will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on October 18. The elections are seen as critical to drawing a line under a two-year inter-religious conflict.

The country descended into chaos in March 2013 when the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power. This sparked reprisals by "anti-balaka" Christian militia, who drove out tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition of the landlocked country.

A transitional authority currently in place was charged with organising elections and restoring democratic rule.

The taxi industry was a vital player in the transport sector but it needed to come to the party in tempering bad behaviour on the road.

In an interview with a news agency, Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi said the industry would remain a vital player for the foreseeable future.

Vadi said people knew the value of the taxi system and were simply asking for taxi drivers to be courteous to them, to be polite, to treat them as clients, to drive safely. They were also asking for a reliable system.

Vadi said his Department was engaging with the industry because changing the behavioural conduct of drivers could be a huge boost.

Also making headlines:

Trade unionist Zwelinzima Vavi has apologised to former president Thabo Mbeki for siding with Jacob Zuma.

The South Africa-Mauritius tax treaty has come into force.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura shifts the province’s 2015 focus to implementation and accountability

And, the UN says Malawi's recovery from devastating floods may cost $400-million and could take five years.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.