March 17, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Some 500 000 Numsa members are expected to go on strike on Wednesday.

France urges Algeria to respect basic freedoms ahead of elections.

And, opposition party the Democratic Alliance says Public Service Minister Lindiwe Sisulu abused public money.
 

South Africa's biggest union has called a one-day strike for Wednesday to highlight youth unemployment in the country, where one in four people are jobless.

The 340 000-member National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (or Numsa) drew its members from car manufacturing, the metal industry, transport and general workers.

The strike would be the latest in a string of work stoppages in Africa's largest economy, weeks before a May 7 general election.

Numsa deputy-general secretary Karl Cloete said it was a strike that members in all other unions could join.  He estimated that at least half a million workers would take part.

France urged Algeria on Friday to respect the right to peaceful demonstrations and free expression after Algerian police stopped an opposition march this week ahead of presidential elections.

Algerian police prevented opposition leaders from marching on Wednesday to demand a boycott of April's election, in which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seeking a fourth term despite questions about his capacity after suffering a stroke last year.

Last week, the police also prevented a movement called Barakat, a small group of protesters including journalists, from marching in the capital Algiers to call for a boycott.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Romain Nadal called for freedom of the press and expression to be respected in Algeria. He said "the right to demonstrate peacefully was part of the fundamental freedoms and that France hoped that basic freedoms were respected in Algeria like anywhere else in the world.

Reports that Public Service Minister Lindiwe Sisulu spent R11-million for chartered flights on a Gulfstream jet while she was defence minister showed a staggering abuse of public money, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.

DA defence spokesperson David Maynier said this was a staggering abuse of public money and almost certainly contravenes the guidelines set out in the [Ministerial Handbook].

Maynier remarked that since Sisulu thought the millions of rands spent on travelling on Gulfstream jets was "something silly", it suggested that she was out of touch with the reality in South Africa.

Maynier said he would write to Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu requesting him to conduct an audit to find out how many flights Sisulu took on Gulfstream jets between 2009 and 2012.

Also making headlines:

The World Bank and the European Union will resume financial support to Madagascar.

And, a UN official says Nigerian security forces have committed human rights abuses as they fought a near five-year Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram sect.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.