March 4, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

The National Assembly approves the appointment of Vuma Mashinini to serve on the IEC.

The final results of Lesotho's general elections reveal no outright winner.

And, the Gauteng government has set aside R10-billion to fund its five development corridors.

The National Assembly on Tuesday approved the appointment of Vuma Mashinini to serve on the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (or IEC), despite objections from opposition parties.

Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee last week recommended that Mashinini take over as IEC head. The post was left vacant following the controversial departure of its former chairperson Pansy Tlakula.

Mashinini at one time acted as a special adviser to President Jacob Zuma.

However, in declarations ahead of the vote, opposition parties contended that an IEC head should be "above suspicion", and that the appointment of a former adviser to the president into the post could not be supported.

The final results of southern African kingdom Lesotho's general elections revealed no outright winner as the ruling All Basotho Congress party narrowly edged out its nearest rivals in the weekend poll.

Incumbent prime minister Thomas Thabane's party won 40 constituencies, just three more than the Democratic Congress as the close race tested the durability of a South Africa-brokered truce following an attempted coup by the army last August.

The Gauteng government has set aside R10-billion of its R95.3-billion 2015/16 budget to fund its five development corridors, which are being pursued across the so-called ‘City Region’.

Gauteng, which is South Africa’s smallest province by area, is also the country richest, contributing R1-trillion, or 34%, of the country’s gross domestic product (or GDP) and almost 10% of Africa’s GDP.

Releasing the budget in the provincial legislature on Tuesday, Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said the corridors, while dependent on each other, would seek to tap into their respective comparative advantages.

She indicated that, over the next three years, the province and the various Gauteng municipalities would spend just over R100-billion on physical assets and capital transfers in the City Region.

Gauteng itself would allocate R38.2-billion for the delivery of infrastructure over the period.

Also making headlines:

Shanduka Black Umbrellas COO Seapei Mafoyane said there was enough scope in South Africa to make local procurement of goods and services feasible.

As Proudly South Africa moves to encourage local procurement to bolster small and medium-sized enterprises, the newly established Department of Small Business Development aims to boost these enterprises’ contribution to gross domestic product by up to 50% in the next decade.

South Africa's central bank will keep interest rates unchanged in the short term as it lowered its inflation outlook but will continue to monitor European and US economic events closely.

The UN Security Council established a sanctions regime for South Sudan but stopped short of imposing worldwide travel bans and asset freezes on officials in the conflict-torn country or an arms embargo.

An Egyptian court deferred a long-awaited parliamentary election due in March indefinitely after another court declared the election law's provision on voting districts as unconstitutional.

And, rival Libyan forces carried out tit-for-tat airstrikes on oil terminals and an airport, escalating their battle for control of the country days before United Nations peace talks were due in Morocco.

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That’a a roundup of news making headlines.