October 28 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg I’m Sane Dhlamini
Making headlines:  

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe says the Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa collaboration has become one of the most recognized groupings in the global economy.

Drugmakers developing Ebola vaccines are facing a series of technical hurdles if they are to get millions of doses ready for use by next year.

And, The murder of celebrities and high-profile people such as Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa often galvanises the public to help prevent crime, an analyst said on Tuesday.

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe says the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (or Brics) collaboration has become one of the most recognised groupings in the global economy, constituting in excess of a quarter of global gross domestic product, accounting for 43% of the world’s population and holding 40% of global currency reserves, estimated at around $4.4-trillion.

He was speaking at the InnovaBrics Forum in London on Monday and said the platform would promote closer cooperation between member countries to support growth, development and poverty reduction objectives, building on each State’s respective economic strengths. 

The Minister went on to say the economic cooperation agenda has extended beyond trade and investment issues to include customs cooperation, trade facilitation, industrial and innovation policy, intellectual property, e-commerce and small business development.

Radebe said South Africa’s National Development Plan also aimed to unlock the institutional, human and structural impediments to higher growth in the country and that the country remained committed to developing infrastructure that connected it to the rest of the continent as part of the African Union’s Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative.     

Drugmakers developing Ebola vaccines face a series of technical hurdles if they are to get millions of doses ready for use next year even assuming clinical trials are successful.

The challenges include finding sufficient sterile capacity for filling and packaging finished vials, getting fast quality approvals from regulators, and building a supply chain in Africa for products that must be stored at minus 80 ºC.

With the World Health Organization (or WHO) now expecting vaccine efficacy trials to start in West Africa in December, a month earlier than anticipated, the development programme is clearly gaining momentum. According to people who attended a high-level meeting of officials in Geneva last week industry executives, health experts and governments are still grappling with a host of issues -- and some differences of opinion -- on topics ranging from clinical trial design to factory biosafety levels. 

Ebola has killed around half of the 10 000 officially reported cases so far and health experts now see a vaccine as a vital tool in controlling the disease.

Two leading vaccine candidates from GlaxoSmithKline and NewLink Genetics are already in human safety trials, and another five should begin testing in the first quarter of next year. One from Johnson & Johnson (or J&J) will start trials in January.

The three leading companies hope to make millions of doses over the course of 2015, with GSK ordering five production lines and J&J investing $200-million. However, the exact number of doses depends on manufacturing yields -- something that can vary widely, depending on how well cell cultures grow -- and how much vaccine has to be injected into the arm of each person to ensure protection.

The murder of celebrities and high-profile people such as Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa often galvanises the public to help prevent crime,  Institute for Security Studies governance, crime, and justice division head Gareth Newham said on Tuesday.

He said the reason for more attention would be given to the murder of the captain of a high profile national sports team than a person who has a low public profile is because many people already know the victim, saying that when people don't know the victim of a murder they are less affected by it.

Newham went on to say, however, that it was difficult to reduce crimes such as armed robberies or firearm murders and it was not desirable for members of the public to start arming themselves to confront armed criminals saying that it could lead to vigilantism.

Meyiwa, the national soccer team and Orlando Pirates captain and goalkeeper, was shot dead by robbers in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, while visiting his girlfriend, singer and actress Kelly Khumalo, on Sunday night.

Meanwhile National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega announced on Monday that she had set up a multidisciplinary task team made up of forensic, crime intelligence, and visible policing members to handle the murder case.

A reward of up R250 000 was being offered for information that led to the arrest and conviction of the killers.

Also making headlines:

South African prosecutors said they will appeal against the culpable homicide verdict and five-year jail sentence handed down to the Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorious. 

The National Union of Metalworkers said on Monday it was leaving the country's main labour federation, which was allied with the ruling African National Congress, to launch a socialist party, a major blow to a coalition that has governed since apartheid ended in 1994.

Health workers are monitoring 82 people who had contact with a toddler who died of Ebola in Mali last week, but no new cases of the disease have been reported in the country, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said on Tuesday.

And, Talks between Nigeria and Islamist militant group Boko Haram aimed at securing the release of 200 abducted girls have not been jeopardized by a surge in violence, the Nigerian Foreign Minister said on Monday.
 

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.