Polity - News this Week

South Africa

PORT ELIZABETH - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is biased, says the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo). The party's Eastern Cape secretary, Funani ka Ntontela, says that the manner in which the public broadcaster covers political parties, demonstrates a bias in favour of the African National Congress (ANC) and its splinter group Congress of the People (Cope). Ntontela says that there has been a commitment from the SABC for fair and equitable coverage in the run-up to the elections, but Azapo feels that this has not been fulfilled. Members of Azapo disrupted a televised political debate in Port Elizabeth, forcing police officials to use tear gas to disperse the protestors. Nontela says that it is unfair that Azapo does not get much coverage owing to its level of representation in Parliament.

PRETORIA - Gauteng Premier Paul Mashatile accuses the Democratic Alliance (DA) of using apartheid tactics. In response to DA provincial legislature leader Jack Bloom's filing of a complaint against him related to the alleged fraud and corruption of Carl Niehaus, Mashatile says that the DA's strategy is to make the African National Congress (ANC) look corrupt. Mashatile says that the DA's complaint against him is to try and have him removed as a leader, just like the apartheid government did. Mashatile accuses the DA of using the issue of Carl Niehaus as an election ploy, because they lack their own ideas. In response to this statement, the DA's Bloom says that it is ridiculous to accuse him of apartheid tactics, as he is just exercising his rights under the Constitution.

Africa & the world

KHARTOUM - Sudan's energy and mining minister says that investors are delaying projects in Sudan because of uncertainty over the outcome of a looming war crimes case against its President. Judges from the International Criminal Court are currently deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges that he masterminded genocide and other atrocities in the country's Darfur region. Energy Minister Al-Zubeir Ahmed al-Hassan says that the case has already hit investor confidence despite Sudan's key oil industry showing signs of continued growth. This is harming Sudan. The country's largely oil-fired economy has been hit hard by the recent falls in energy prices, caused by the global financial slowdown. Wide-ranging trade sanctions, which the United States has imposed on Sudan since the 1990s, have already weighed on the price Sudan can get for its oil, so that this new development does not bode well for the country

VIENNA - The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) says that the world's poorest nations need help from richer countries to exploit manufacturing rather than natural resources or agriculture if they are to escape from poverty. Director-general Kandeh Yumkella says that a failure to help the "bottom billion" - the poorest billion people in 60 countries living on less than a dollar a day - could lead to mass migration and global insecurity. Manufactured exports are reported to have made up 81% of world exports in 2005. While commodities may provide a ready source of money, poor countries with large natural resources often see industrial output fall during a commodity boom. Yumkella explains that Africa has been dogged for decades by the "happy peasant syndrome", where donors give money to alleviate poverty instead of targeting the aid for economic growth. While UNIPO favours manufacturing over natural resources, it warns that poor nations must think carefully about what products they make for export. Specialising in specific, smaller items can build expertise and increase market share. Wealthy nations can help poor ones succeed by investing in their industries and allowing them access to world markets, possibly through trade preferences.

LONDON - Representatives from Africa and the poorer Asian nations have been asked to attend the Group of 20 (G20) financial crisis summit in London in April, says British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Brown has asked the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the Association of South East Asian Nations and the African Union Commission (AUC) to send delegates to the summit. This will give a voice at the meeting of leading developed and emerging economies to less wealthy countries across Africa and Asia. One of Brown's key aims for the summit is to make international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund more representative by giving more power to developing nations. To be effective in addressing the global financial crisis, Brown says that partners from across the world have to be brought in

NEW YORK - After a decade and a half of backroom argument, the world's nations have launched full negotiations to expand the powerful 15-nation United Nations Security Council to reflect present-day realities. Diplomats say the negotiations among the 192 UN member States are likely to stretch at least into next year and might not come up with a definitive solution even then. The council currently has five permanent veto-holding members, as well as ten members with no veto power who are elected on a regional basis for two-year terms. Developing countries have long resented the clout of the veto-holders on the council, whose composition stems from the post-war balance of power. Most nations agree that the body needs to be enlarged, but there is no consensus on how. A world summit in 2005 resolved that reform of the Security Council will make it "more broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thus further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions." But regional rivalries and a concern by the big powers that their preeminence may be diluted are likely to drag out the talks on key details of how to achieve this goal.