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• Eskom CE Jacob Maroga briefs a routine Cabinet meeting on the state of power supply in South Africa, stating that the impact of load shedding on the economy, citizens and the country's image is regretted. Cabinet is to discuss the country's electricity supply crisis at its lekgotla this week. Nationwide load shedding has left parts of the country in the dark for extended periods over the past two weeks and is tipped to become more severe if the public and business do not pull together in an effort to save electricity.
• Jacob Zuma leaves to attend the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Zuma, who was invited in his capacity as the president of the African National Congress, will not be speaking officially at the meeting, but will support the call for elevation of the voice of poor countries, particularly those from Africa. A South African government delegation to the forum includes Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Unlike in previous years, South African President Thabo Mbeki will not attend the global business summit.
• Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan begins holding talks with Kenya's feuding parties in an effort to find a rapid solution to weeks of political crisis. The 69-year-old African statesperson faces a tough challenge resolving a bitter standoff between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition challenger Raila Odinga over a disputed poll that plunged Kenya into chaos and ethnic bloodshed. Clashes between Kibaki and Odinga supporters, ethnic unrest and a brutal crackdown by the security forces have killed at least 650 people over the past month.
Also making headlines:
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledges to hold free elections at the beginning of a European trip aimed at bolstering outside support, but urges the West not to hold Pakistan to unrealistic rights standards.
• The United Nations World Food Programme starts supplying aid to tens of thousands of Mozambicans hit by floods that have swept through Southern Africa.
• Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama engage in a bitter crossfire as their US presidential campaign takes a personal turn. The back-and-forth between the two candidates became so fierce that former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, running a distant third in the Democratic race, accused them of squabbling and was scarcely given the opportunity to speak.
This bulletin has been compiled with the assistance of Reuters and Sapa.
Also available on the Polity website are a number of recommended reports and documents that provide for interesting reading, including:
• ‘Preparing for a warmer world’. A report outlining a blueprint for the protection and voluntary resettlement of people displaced by climate change.
• A United Nations Childrens Fund report which brings together current thinking and practice on human rights-based approaches to education. And;
• The African National Congress fifty-second National Congress 2007 Resolutions
Also freely downloadable on the site are several new pieces of South African legislation and a collection of important addresses made by South African government leaders and other leading figures from around the African continent.
That’s a roundup of this week’s activities on Creamer Media’s polity.org.za.
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