Polity - News this week

South Africa

PRETORIA - South Africa's official jobless rate has fallen, says Statistics SA in the Labour Force Survey for the fourth quarter of 2008. This is mainly owing to the fact that the construction industry has added jobs. The jobless rate has fallen to 21,9% of the labour force in the fourth quarter of 2008 from 23,2% in the third quarter. At the end of last year, the number of unemployed people totaled 3,873-million. The total amount of employed people has increased by 189 000 to 13 844-million. However, Statistics SA says that 97 000 people have stopped looking for work, taking the broader definition of unemployment to 29,3%.

JOHANNESBURG - Ruling African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma says that he will not give himself immunity from graft charges if he becomes President after the April elections, and that he will respect any court ruling. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Zuma says that South Africa is a constitutional democracy, so he will not try to get out of the charges against him. Speculation has been rising that the ANC will try to get Zuma immunity from corruption charges if it retains a two-thirds majority in the election. This would allow the ANC to change the Constitution.

CAPE TOWN - African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema is a product of the ANC's failed education policy and will eventually become a casualty of its infighting, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. The opposition leader says that the ANC has failed Malema and his entire generation. While it is tempting to dismiss Malema as a political lightweight or a "harmless buffoon prone to delivering crass sound bites", he is in fact, she explains, the logical but disturbing product of a "closed crony system" that has evolved in the ANC around party leader Jacob Zuma.

PRETORIA - The Congress of the People (Cope) says that it is looking forward to tapping into the experience and talents of its new high profile members Saki Macozoma and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in order to build the party. Rumours have abounded for months that prominent businessman Macozoma and former deputy president Mlambo-Ngcuka were leaving the African National Congress (ANC) for Cope. Mlambo-Ngcuka was just one of several Cabinet ministers who resigned after the ANC announced that it had recalled former president Thabo Mbeki last year. Macozoma has now joined Cope's branch in Port Elizabeth, while Mlambo-Ngcuka has joined the branch in Gauteng. The party says that it is excited to have attracted some of the "most talented and prominent" leaders in business, the government and the apartheid struggle.

Africa & the world

HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says that land seizures from white farmers will continue, and vows to press ahead with plans for locals to take majority stakes in foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe. The veteran leader says that there is no going back on land reform. Farms will not be returned to former white farmers, he says, but those farms have to be used properly. Mugabe adds that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal, which last year ruled in favour of a group of white farmers whose farms had been targeted for occupation, had no right to rule on the land seizures. Zimbabwe has courts that can "determine the rights of people". He emphasises that Zimbabwe's land issues are not subject to the SADC tribunal. Mugabe also says that the unity government will continue to push for a majority stake in companies operating in Zimbabwe. He explains that in the areas of mining, agriculture and manufacturing, a methodological and systematic identification of areas in which the State and indigenous entrepreneurs can participate, is being carried out, in line with the Indigenous and Empowerment Act. The nationalisation law, which Mugabe signed a few days before last March's general election, seeks to transfer majority control of foreign firms to locals.

BRUSSELS - European environment ministers have met to discuss how to raise billions of dollars needed to help poor countries prepare for global warming and to coax them into a global deal to tackle the problem. Success at upcoming global negotiations in Copenhagen to find a successor to the Kyoto protocol will largely hinge on whether developing nations can be persuaded to tackle a problem they say has been caused by industrialised nations. Martin Bursik, environment minister for the Czech Republic, which holds the European Union's (EU's) rotating Presidency, says that the group is offering two kinds of financial mechanism based on which developed countries will share the responsibility of financing the mitigation and adaptation measures in the developing countries. The latest version of a document detailing the EU's stance in global talks estimates that net global incremental investment in fighting climate change needs to increase to around 175-billion euros by 2020. Around 100-billion euros of that will need to be spent in developing countries.

CAPE TOWN - Southern African finance ministers have agreed to push for donor help to rebuild Zimbabwe after economic collapse, and put the initial need at $2-billion. Zimbabwe's new unity government of old rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is heavily reliant on donors to revive the suffering country. Western donors and foreign investors are cautious, however, and want to see concrete signs that a democratic government is created and economic reforms implemented before money will flow to the once relatively prosperous country.