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From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shona Kohler. Making headlines:
Democrat Barack Obama captured the White House on Tuesday, after an extraordinary two-year campaign. Obama defeated Republican John McCain to make history as the first black person to be elected US President.
Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the US in January 2009.
He will face a crush of immediate challenges, including tackling the economic crisis, ending the war in Iraq, and striking a compromise on the overhaul of the US healthcare system.
In South African news, the Democratic Alliance has urged Health Minister Barbara Hogan to tackle the healthcare budget crisis.
DA spokesperson Mike Waters explains that South Africa’s two most populous provinces – Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal – are using budget restrictions to justify clamp downs on employing doctors and nurses.
Further, he indicates that there are significant and life-threatening waiting lists in several provinces.
Provinces have given various reasons for the budget constraints, including that salary increases arising out of occupation-specific dispensations have absorbed more of provincial budgets than anticipated. The antiretroviral rollout and other health programmes have also been noted as using significant portions of provincial funds.
Moving to the Congo, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has asked the Security Council to approve a “surge” of more than 3 000 troops and police to help prevent a full-scale war.
Ban urged the 15-nation council to consider the request “expeditiously”, given the possibility of an escalation of fighting in eastern Congo. However, there is no sign that the divided Security Council will discuss Ban’s request any time soon.
The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world, with 17 000 troops and police across a country the size of Western Europe. Ban has indicated that this level of presence is no longer enough.
Also making headlines: ANC rally to coincide with new party launch. SADC to meet in South Africa on Zimbabwe crisis. And, Zimbabwe says Khama’s election call is a “provocation”.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.
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