October 23 2012
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

South African President Jacob Zuma proposes a new land plan.

US President Barack Obama becomes aggressive in the final foreign policy debate with challenger Mitt Romney.

And, Uganda may stop mediating in the Congo over accusations by the United Nations.

President Jacob Zuma proposed a new land reform plan in Pretoria on Monday evening. He told the first annual general meeting of the African Farmers' Association of South Africa that the plan is an innovative proposal that needs testing.

The plan proposed a district-based approach to land reform and it’s financing.It proposes that each district should establish a district land reform committee where all stakeholders are involved. This committee will be responsible for identifying 20% of the commercial agricultural land in the district and giving commercial farmers the option of assisting its transfer to black farmers.

Implementation of this land reform proposal would include five steps. These steps would entail identifying land readily available from land already in the market; the state buying the land at 50% of its market value; commercial farmers being protected from losing their land and gaining black economic empowerment status; a stepped-up programme of financing would be created; and  investment into agricultural research and development would be increased.

US President Barack Obama repeatedly attacked Republican challenger Mitt Romney on foreign policy on Monday in their third and final debate in an effort to blunt his opponent's surge in the polls with only two weeks left until Election Day.

The high-stakes debate strayed frequently into domestic policy, with Romney seeking to bolster his argument that Obama had bungled the US economic recovery with high unemployment and rising debt.

Neither man threw a knockout punch or made a noticeable gaffe in the 90-minute encounter at Lynn University in Boca Raton. However, Obama scored enough debating points to be declared the winner in the first surveys.

Uganda said on Monday it would stop mediating in the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the M23 rebels if the United Nations Security Council endorsed accusations that Uganda was supporting the rebels.

A report, written for the UN Security Council's Congo sanctions committee, said Uganda had allowed M23's political branch to operate from Kampala in addition to providing M23 with troops, weapons, technical help, political advice and facilitation of external relations.

Analysts say Uganda and Rwanda have maintained extensive commercial and military networks in Congo's mineral-rich east.

Junior foreign minister Asuman Kiyingi said that the allegations were undermining the perception of Uganda as a neutral mediator.

Also making headlines:

The South African Wind Energy Association says that financial closure on renewable projects is needed to maintain investor confidence.

Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany could assist in a Mali training mission.

And, global wind energy capacity is expected to double over the next five years.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.