November 2, 2012.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.

Making headlines:

South Africa’s third-quarter unemployment rate rises to 25.5%.

Kenyan police make three more arrests in the Venezuela diplomat murder case.

And, South African President Jacob Zuma says the gap between the rich and poor is not widening.

Statistics South Africa, in its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (or QLFS) said that South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25.5% in the third quarter. This is up from 24.9% in the previous quarter, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 197 000. The agency put the number of unemployed people at 4.6-million. This is the highest level recorded since the QLFS started in 2008.

Investec analyst Annabel Bishop said the expanded unemployment rate eased to 33.4% in the third quarter, from 33.5% in the second quarter.  The expanded unemployment rate is made up of the official unemployment rate plus discouraged work seekers. The number of discouraged work seekers fell by 141 000 to 2.17-million.

Bishop noted that this is an important measure of unemployment as many discouraged work seekers are those who have become so impoverished they can no longer afford the transport costs required to seek employment. It is for this reason the work seeker’s grant has been suggested. However, she added that government needed to be sure that it was fiscally affordable in an environment where the number of civil servants is ballooning, particularly in administrative positions.

A senior officer in the Kenyan police service said that police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the murder of a Venezuelan diplomat in the capital Nairobi in July.

Olga Fonseca, Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting.

Nairobi regional police commander Moses Ombati told a news agency that three suspects have been arrested, including one Kenyan and two foreigners who were assisting the police with their investigation. The suspects will be arraigned in a court of law as soon as the police finish interrogating them.

President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday that notions that the gap between the rich and poor in South Africa is widening are a farce.

Speaking at the official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament, he inferred that the income gap was a lie, which has been repeated several times in the past 18 years, and that comments on the growing gap between the classes in South Africa are a "spin" meant to unfairly criticise the government.

Zuma, instead, said that the government was on track to change the quality of life of South Africans, and that poverty was worse before 1994 than it is now, as people are now getting grants, which they didn't get before.

Also making headlines:

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele wants the proposed changes to the Info Bill reversed.

Mauritanian opposition leaders tell army to stay out of politics.

And, economist Linette Ellis warns that South Africa’s consumer spending is likely to remain subdued into 2013.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.