Polity - News this Week

South Africa

JOHANNESBURG - African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma expands on the party's approach to morality in his weekly newsletter. He writes that the party's record on the subject dates back decades and "finds expression" in the work of government. Its morality means that it cannot rest while there is poverty. The party's moral standard is not defined by "monitoring and evaluating people's private lives, and by putting forward subjective moral standards against which they must be judged", explains Zuma. ANC members are just ordinary people trying to do the best to improve the quality of life for all. He adds that the ANC's morality also finds expression in the promotion of human dignity through the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity to South Africa's people.

KWADUKUZA - South Africa will not copy the US's stimulus packages initiative, says President Kgalema Motlanthe to business-people in KwaZulu-Natal's KwaDukuza area. The country's response to the economic crisis must be home grown and not just a copy of the stimulus packages of the US. South Africa's problems are different to those of the Western world. Motlanthe was responding to a question as to whether South Africa is going to bail out businesses hit by the economic down-turn. To deal with the issue of massive unemployment exacerbated by retrenchments caused by the economic crisis, Motlanthe says that the South African government will have to invest in infrastructure and also improve the quality of education. Motlanthe adds that South African banks are "doing fairly well" compared with banks in other countries because of the country's sound credit control regulations. He explains that the African National Congress's (ANC's) response to the global economic crisis is concerned with creating more decent jobs and investing in infrastructure. "We need to reposition our country and make it the investment destination of choice," says Motlanthe.

Africa & the world

WASHINGTON - Developing countries could face a financing gap of between $270-billion and $700-billion this year as trade income dwindles and rich nations vie for capital to deal with a global slump, says the World Bank. Even at the lower end of that estimate, resources of international institutions will not be adequate to meet the financing needs as more and more emerging and developing countries are hit. The World Bank says that the crisis could have long-lasting repercussions for developing countries, which are contending with a drop in exports as world trade shrinks for the first time since 1982 and remittances from overseas workers slow and falling commodity prices sap a revenue source many countries rely on. The challenge facing developing countries is how, with fewer resources, to pursue policies that can protect or expand critical expenditures, including social safety nets, human development and critical infrastructure.

KHARTOUM - The United Nations (UN) Security Council may be too divided at the moment to suspend the war crimes case against Sudan's President, but an improvement in peace prospects in Darfur could one day break the deadlock. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region, where UN officials say as many as 300 000 people have died since the conflict erupted in 2003. The Arab League and the African Union have urged the council to use its power under Article 16 of the ICC statute to suspend the case against Bashir to avoid undermining the fragile peace process in Darfur and a rocky 2005 north-south deal that ended a two-decade civil war. Moscow and Beijing back the AU and Arab push for a suspension. But the US, the UK and France say they see no reason for halting the process. Privately, however, diplomats say that all three Western powers could probably be persuaded to back a deferral if they can wrest concessions from Khartoum that would improve the situation in Darfur and restart peace talks.