May 18, 2012

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Henny Ngoveni

Making headlines:

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says Gauteng created nearly half of the 305 000 net new jobs that emerged over the past 12 months.
Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows that the number of employed people decreased by 75 000 during the first quarter of 2012.
The number of unemployed people rose by 282 000.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will urge leaders of the world’s biggest economies at the G8 Summit to work together to stop the eurozone economic crisis from spreading worldwide.
Cameron has been increasingly vocal in urging Europe's rulers to do more to quell the debt crisis.
The summit begins today at the US presidential retreat of Camp David.

Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says Smart ID cards could be in use by the next general election.
She says the Independent Electoral Commission is aware of the process and they are making sure they are ready.
The department will start issuing the smart cards to all first-time applicants within 18 months, with green identity books eventually being recalled and replaced by smart cards

Also making headlines:

Morocco says it has lost confidence in the UN envoy to the contested Western Sahara territory.

And, the UN Security Council is calling on Sudan to immediately withdraw troops from the disputed Abyei border region but Khartoum pledged only to do so after a joint military observer body was created for the area.

That’s a round-up of news making headlines today.