South Africa

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa must accelerate economic growth to ease the impact of the global economic crisis which has hit the poor hardest, says President Jacob Zuma. Africa's largest economy is in the grips of its first recession in 17 years, while the government faces pressure to ease poverty among millions of blacks still living in townships. Speaking to the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Zuma remarks that "the growing job losses during this year and rising indebtedness have made it clear that the effects of the crisis have hit hardest at the poor and vulnerable, thereby deepening poverty and inequality".

JOHANNESBURG - Government must be sensitive to the needs of people when spending money, says South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande. Responding to a question about the purchase of luxury cars for government officials, Nzimande, who is also Minister of Higher Education, says he wishes the question had not come up. However, he says that he is not speaking for Cabinet, but Cabinet is currently assigning certain Ministers to look at austerity measures, a move which the
SACP supports. "We need to look holistically at austerity measures beyond just the recession," he says, at the release of a discussion document on the SACP's special national congress.

JOHANNESBURG - Unlike countries like China and India, South Africa does not have the "luxury" of cheap labour and, to counter this, the competitive advantage of South Africa's labour force must rest in its quality, efficiency and skill, says Deputy Minister of Science and
Technology Derek Hanekom. Speaking at the 2009 Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy annual symposium, he says that improved efficiencies and better management of labour might lead to job shedding rather than job creation in the short term, but this will open paths for new firms and more opportunities in the long term.

JOHANNESBURG - Absence has not made the heart grow fonder for former South African President Thabo Mbeki, says South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande. "Today, apart from some [Congress of the People] sympathisers, there is hardly a single journalist, opposition party member, academic, business leader, or political commentator who speaks with any nostalgia for the Mbeki Presidential era," says Nzimande on the sidelines of a presentation on the SACP's discussion paper - ahead of its December conference. Nzimande says that when Mbeki was recalled last September there were "dire warnings of chaos and meltdown" from the "reformist centre" "the most hysterical of which was Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu's prediction of imminent civil war". Now, he says: "There is an almost complete national consensus that Mbeki's aloof and intolerant personality was a disaster . . . Thankfully, we are now once more in a situation in which national dialogue and debate are possible."

Africa & the world

NEW YORK - The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has voted to create a new, more powerful agency for women, in a move that supporters hail as a breakthrough for women's equality and rights. An assembly resolution calls for the amalgamation of four existing UN offices dealing with women's affairs into a single body to be headed by an under-secretary-general - a higher rank than exists at present on the issue. It requests secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to produce, within a year, a comprehensive proposal that will specify the new entity's mission statement, organizational arrangements, funding and executive board. The unanimous vote follows three years of negotiations. The existing offices for women have less clout and smaller budgets than a full-fledged agency.

HARARE - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he will not tolerate persecution of members of Parliament or violation of the law by President Robert Mugabe, after a European Union delegation called for implementation of a power sharing agreement. Swedish International Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson says that targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe will not be lifted until human rights abuses end.