September 20, 2012
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

The Constitutional Court is expected to present a judgement on e-tolling today.

Angola’s Constitutional Court rejects main opposition UNITA’s appeal against the national elections.

And, the South African government aims to stub out tobacco branding.

Gauteng motorists will be informed whether e-tolling will go ahead today.
The Constitutional Court is expected to decide on whether to overturn an interim interdict preventing e-tolling.

The High Court in Pretoria granted the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance an interdict on April 28. The ruling stated that a full review needed to be carried out before electronic tolling of Gauteng's highways could be put into effect.

South African National Roads Agency Limited (or Sanral) and the National Treasury appealed the court order. Sanral argued that delays in the project, due to the court's order, prevented it from paying off debts incurred in building gantries. On a similar note, the National Treasury’s lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett said that High Court Judge Bill Prinsloo did not provide adequate reasons for his decision to grant the interdict.

Sanral lawyer David Unterhalter admitted that there were mistakes and faults with the system. However, he said that the system was ready to be introduced.

Angola's top court has rejected appeals by the main opposition UNITA and two smaller parties over alleged irregularities in an election won comfortably by the MPLA party of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last month.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court means that the opposition parties have run out of legal avenues to contest the vote outcome. This paves the way for Dos Santos to be sworn in.

Dos Santos, who has been in power in Africa's number oil producer for 33 years, and his party secured a new five-year term in the August 31 election, obtaining 72% of the vote.

The court's president Judge Rui Ferreira said that the Constitutional Court has finished its assessment of the appeals about the election and concluded they are unfounded.

South Africa is aiming to follow Australia's lead and compel tobacco companies to use plain packaging for their tobacco products.

The Department of Health’s director for health promotion Vimla Moodley said that the department would be testing plain packaging. This means there will be no branding on tobacco products. She also said the department was also testing the use of "pictorials" on tobacco packaging.

The department is currently testing pictorials and the health messages that appear with them, in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Reports on these would be completed by December this year.

Also making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma says he is in touch with the people.

The department of international relations and co-operation has released the names of the victims of the suicide bomb attack in Kabul.

And, South Africa is exploring European Union science and technology partnership opportunities.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.