September 18, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Chantelle Kotze.
Making headlines:

The World Bank says Ebola could drain billions of dollars from African economies.

Nestlé South Africa integrates its African export ambition into its R2-billion investment plan.

And, Nigeria says 70 people died in the church building collapse, querying President Jacob Zuma's comments.

The largest-ever outbreak of Ebola could drain billions of dollars from economies in West Africa by the end of next year if the epidemic is not contained, the World Bank said in an analysis this week.

The global development lender predicted that slow containment of the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could lead to broader regional contagion, particularly through tourism and trade.

Under the worst-case scenario, Guinea's economic growth could be reduced by 2.3 percentage points next year while Sierra Leone's growth would be cut by 8.9 percentage points. Liberia would be hardest hit, with a reduction of 11.7 percentage points next year.

Nestlé South Africa announced plans on Wednesday to invest a further R2-billion over the coming five years to grow its domestic manufacturing base. This would increasingly be used as a platform to supply into fast-growing sub-Saharan African markets.

The Swiss food and beverage group, which first entered South Africa in 1916, recently emerged from a R3.5-billion domestic investment programme. The new project pipeline would be focused on areas such as coffee and infant-nutrition products.

The previous investments had been directed towards modernising and expanding breakfast cereals and noodles production at its Babelegi factory, in Hammanskraal, launching a Cremora plant in Potchefstroom, in the North West province, and improving its distribution and supply-chain networks.

Outgoing CEO Sullivan O’Carroll, who would be succeeded by Ian Donald from October, indicated that the goal was to mimic the success of the Cremora facility in directing a good portion of the expanded output to markets in the rest of Africa.

Seventy bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a collapsed church building in Lagos but remain unidentified, a Nigerian official said on Wednesday, questioning South Africa's assertion that 67 of the victims had come from there.

South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday night that at least 67 of his compatriots had died in last Friday's accident at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria, describing it as one of the worst tragedies in his country's recent history.

Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, however, said it was too early to know how many people had been killed or their nationalities. Some 131 people had been rescued alive.

Also making headlines:

The Department of Public Works says that it’s had attained 60% of its 81 listed targets, which it believed was an indication that the department had “stabilised” and was “starting to turn around for the better”.

Former Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bedie has endorsed President Alassane Ouattara as the sole candidate for the ruling coalition in the 2015 election.

And, Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s employee home ownership scheme will give all RBPlat employees the opportunity to become homeowners, ushering out the use of single-sex hostels and unsanitary rented shacks that had become the normal standard of living for many mineworkers across South Africa.

Also on Polity:

An Institute for Security Studies report models and forecasts water demand and supply until 2035.

And, a new Human Rights Watch report highlights cases of police brutality in Vietnam that resulted in deaths and serious injuries of people in custody between August 2010 and July 2014.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.