Thursday May 26, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Business Unity South Africa has called on Chinese companies to shift their approach to doing business in Africa away from raw materials exports to China to the creation of productive capacity and value-adding enterprises.
Last year, exports from South Africa to China exceeded $600-million, comprising mainly silver and platinum, fruit and nuts, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones. On the other hand, South Africa imported about $700-million worth of goods including telecommunications equipment and parts, computers, toys, games and sporting goods.

Nongovernmental organisation Greenpeace has called on the government to make “bold and courageous” energy choices, to ensure a cleaner energy future without any additional nuclear and coal-fired power, after construction of the Medupi power station. This would require a much more ambitious renewable-energy policy, climate campaigner Melita Steele said.
Greenpeace launched its report entitled ‘The advanced energy revolution – a sustainable energy outlook for South Africa’, in Johannesburg on Wednesday, after already having met with Department of Energy officials, as well as the Minister, about the report.

South African power utility Eskom, which is battling to keep the lights on in Africa's biggest economy, denied currency market rumours of impending power outages. "Obviously the system is tight and it's been cold, but there has been no load-shedding," spokesperson Hilary Joffe said. "Load-shedding" refers to planned rolling blackouts designed to prevent grid overload. South Africa's national grid nearly collapsed in early 2008, forcing mines and smelters to shut for days and costing the country billions of dollars in lost output.

Also making headlines:
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde joined the race to head the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday despite anger in big emerging economies over Europe's "obsolete" lock on the job.
Russia wants to see Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ousted, but only through a political transition and not a "manhunt", its ambassador to France said.
And, tens of thousands of people fled Sudan's contested Abyei region as northern militias accused of helping seize the area over the weekend moved further south, the United Nations said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.