South Africa
 

PRETORIA – Some 67,8% of matrics passed last year's exams – up from 60,7% in 2009, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says. She describes the pass rate as a "remarkable achievement" and says it is possible that the 2010 public sector strike might have robbed the department of its targeted 70% pass rate. Chief Director of Exams Nkosinathi Sishi says that 364 513 pupils passed their exams. There were 643 546 candidates who sat for the exams of whom 537 543 wrote all seven subjects. Of those 23,5% obtained university entrance, up from 19,9%. There were 18 schools where no pupils passed and 504 schools that achieved a 100% pass rate. In 2009, 60,7% of matrics passed the exams, which was just under 2% down from 2008. In 2008, 62,5% of matrics passed. Sishi says that nine subjects had been adjusted upwards and ten had been adjusted downwards. Exam papers were marked at 127 marking centres and the results were made available to Umalusi, the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Council, on December 24. Gauteng was the top province with a 78,6% pass rate, followed by the Western Cape, which achieved 76,8%, Motshekga adds. This was followed by the Northern Cape with 72,3% – the biggest improvement by a province. In 2009 the Northern Cape had a 61,3% pass rate. KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State each had a pass rate of 70,7%. The Eastern Cape had a 58,3% pass rate followed by Limpopo and Mpumulanga, which had 57,9% and 56,8% respectively.

JOHANNESBURG – The Gauteng Health Department has approved the hiring of specialists to fill vacant posts in the province’s hospitals, an official says. “It is not true that the hospitals are starting the year in a crisis because of the moratorium on the filling of specialist posts,” departmental spokesperson Simon Zwane says. The moratorium is intended to avoid hiring “nonessential staff, which only serve to bloat the bureaucracy at the expense of medical and allied health professionals”. He was commenting on remarks made by the Democratic Alliance’s Jack Bloom in December. He said the department had “frozen” posts and this would negatively affect hospitals in the province, whichalready had a shortage of staff. “Any new appointments now have to be approved by Dr Kamy Chetty, the head of the Department [of Health in Gauteng] . . . this is a retrograde move since it will add to the delays in filling critical positions,” said Bloom. Zwane labels Bloom’s comments as “mischievous, misleading and disingenuous”. “Mr Bloom has been informed that posts will be filled in a coordinated manner, so that there can be effective utilisation of resources,” adds Zwane. He says his department is prioritising the filling of service delivery posts, which includes specialist medical doctors and other health professionals.

Africa & the world
 

WASHINGTON – The US will help south Sudan set up as an independent country if voters opt to secede in Sunday's referendum, and is pleased by cooperation from Khartoum, once seen as spoiling for war over the oil-rich region, US officials say. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, the Obama administration's top diplomat for Africa, says Washington is encouraged that the referendum, starting on January 9, will take place without a hitch; starting a process most analysts expect to result in south Sudan formally declaring independence in July. "We think that it will reflect the will of the people, that it will occur on time, peacefully and in a well-organised manner," Carson says. Carson says the US stands ready to help south Sudan to achieve full independence, a tantalising prospect for an impoverished and landlocked region that is one of Africa's budding oil producers. "The US has invested a great deal of diplomacy to ensure that the outcome of this referendum is successful and peaceful," Carson adds, calling the weeklong vote for south Sudan the culmination of years of work following a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war. "We will also, as a country, help that new nation to succeed, get on its feet and to move forward successfully, economically and politically."

WASHINGTON – Well-planned, permanent expenditure cuts were highlighted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the most effective fiscal adjustment for Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, or the BLNS countries, in light of the global financial crisis, which shrank the shared Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) revenue pool. In a newly released report by the IMF African Department, ‘In the wake of the global economic crisis: adjusting to lower revenue of the Sacu in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland’, the IMF notes that fiscal adjustment within the BLNS to date, has been uneven. The IMF estimates a large revenue shortfall for the smaller economies of Sacu, while the impact on South Africa is expected to be small, at about 0,3% of gross domestic product (GDP), while the Sacu revenue shortfall in Lesotho and Swaziland will be 23,3% and 15,9% of GDP respectively, over the next three years. The report further indicates that, in Botswana, adjustment – as presented in the 2010/11 fiscal budget – was based on significant spending restraint, including a substantial cut in development spending, as recent projects approached completion. The Botswana government is also implementing a civil service salary freeze, while the value added tax rate has also been increased from 10% to 12%. In Lesotho, in the context of an extended credit facility arrangement with the IMF, the authorities have increased administrative fees, charges, and fines; and, on the expenditure side, they have contained the growth of the wage bill, goods and services and transfers. In Namibia, the fiscal adjustment to the lower Sacu revenue is expected to start with the 2011/12 budget, mainly on the expenditure side. The Swaziland authorities have recently developed a fiscal adjustment roadmap that sets out a plan to improve tax administration, introduce comprehensive civil service reform, and improve the quality of spending to realise further savings. The IMF suggests that an appropriate mix of fiscal adjustment and financing should ease the adjustment process over the medium-term without endangering debt sustainability, growth or poverty reduction.

HARARE – Zimbabwe is likely to postpone a Parliamentary election that President Robert Mugabe’s party wanted by midyear to allow completion of Constitutional reforms, a State-owned newspaper reports. Two weeks ago,Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party endorsed plans to call early polls, despite strong opposition from rivals that the political climate is not right for a free and fair vote. The Sunday Mail newspaper, which is tightly controlled by Zanu-PF officials, quotes unidentified sources as saying it is not feasible to hold elections in the first half of 2011 and that Zimbabwe said so to fellow members of the Southern African Development Community weeks ago. “Sources say it is highly unlikely that the polls will be held before June as the crafting of the new supreme law looks certain to spill into the second half of the year,” the weekly says, citing also what it called “intervening complications” in the implementation of Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement. Mugabe, 86, and archrival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change were forced into a coalition government two years ago, after a disputed 2008 election, which had exacerbated a severe economic crisis.

NEW YORK – At least $30-billion a year would have to be invested in sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture sector if the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the hungry by 2015 is to be achieved, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation calculates. The ‘International Tradeprobe’ report, published by the National Agricultural Marketing Council, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, reports that, with 33 of the world’s 49 least-developed countries forming part of the sub-Saharan African region, foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important source of revenue for development. Africa is among the world’s regions most affected by hunger, with more than 200-million people across the continent suffering from chronic malnutrition. The report states that one in three Africans do not have enough to eat. While developed countries still account for the bulk of total FDI flows into Africa, research by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has found that FDI from developing countries increased from an average of 18% between 1995 and 2000 to 21% between 2000 and 2008.

ABIDJAN – Côte d’Ivoire’s incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, says he will reject a demand by African heads of State that he cede power to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, or face force. Four leaders representing West African regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union are due to meet with Gbagbo to ask him to give up the Presidency after a November 28 poll that internationally recognised results show he lost. More than 170 people have been killed since the start of the standoff in the world’s top cocoa grower, which threatens to restart open conflict in the country still split in two by a 2002/03 civil war.