South Africa

DURBAN - There is nothing wrong with businesses investing in any political party, African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma says. "Funding for political parties is somehow viewed with suspicion by some commentators in this country and there should be no reason for that," he says. "However, wise business sense tells you that investing in the ANC, which is supported by more than 65% of the population, is good value for your money." Businesses play an important role in building infrastructure and contributing to the nation's stability and democracy, he says. "There is, therefore, nothing wrong with the business sector investing in any party. Political parties, such as the ANC, are pivotal to the promotion of that stability and democracy in the country." He says that the national general council (NGC) of the ANC is an important gathering to ensure that the ruling party remains united and strong ahead of its centenary celebration in 2012. "We have to ensure the ANC is strong, united and focused on achieving its mission of uniting the people of this country and creating a better life for all in a nonracial, nonsexist and democratic society." The Sunday Times reports that the ANC's provincial chairperson had to step in to save Zuma from a challenge to his leadership at the NGC, which was held in Durban last week.

DURBAN - Sixty-four per cent of complaints against the print media have been upheld so far this year, press ombudsman Joe Thloloe says. He was reporting back on statistics for the year so far regarding complaints of inaccuracies against newspapers. "A close look at the statistics reveals that, so far this year, the office has given 44 rulings in 36 working weeks." Of these, 16 complaints, or 36% were dismissed entirely, in other words in favour of the newspapers. "Twenty-eight were either partially or fully upheld . . . this represents 64% of all the findings," Thloloe adds. "This is far, far from bias in favour of newspapers, as alleged by the African National Congress (ANC)." This week's ANC national general council discussed, besides other things, the proposed establishment of a media tribunal. Critics of newspapers' self-regulatory system have maintained that the press ombudsman cannot adequately deal with the damage caused by incorrect newspaper reports. Thloloe says that, of the 126 complaints lodged with him so far this year, 43 (34%) were lodged in the past two months alone.

DURBAN - The African National Congress (ANC) sheds more light on some crucial policy positions as the party's national general council (NGC) entered its second day in Durban. Its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, with an initial price tag of R128-billion, will be introduced from 2012, ANC news briefings around the closed session reveal. Party heavyweights also spoke about the hot topics of nationalisation and a proposed media tribunal. ANC's health subcommittee chairperson Zweli Mkhize says that the NHI will be phased in over 14 years. "[It would be] rolled out for start (sic) in 2012 in the seriously underserved areas where people have difficulty accessing health care." The programme is expected to cost R128-billion in its first year, increasing to R376-billion by 2025. It is aimed at providing affordable universal health coverage to South Africa. "Membership of the NHI will be compulsory for the whole population but the public can choose whether to continue with voluntary medical scheme cover," Mkhize says, reading from proposals that will be discussed at the NGC. The proposal suggests that the NHI will be funded from various sources including a surcharge on taxable income payroll taxes for employees and employers, and an increase in value added tax that is earmarked for the NHI. "The main source of revenue for the NHI fund will be allocations from general taxation," Mkhize says. Olive Shisana, chairperson of the Parliamentary portfolio committee on health, says that private hospitals could choose to remain private. Delegates broke into closed commissions on Tuesday, the second day of the week-long conference. Media were barred from attending, and completely locked out of the International Convention Centre. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says that the commissions had to be closed because delegates had to be comfortable to express themselves freely.

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledges, in a new report, that South Africa's real exchange rate could be overvalued by between 5% and 15%. But it also asserts that the size of the currency market and the dominance of nonresidents in that market will limit the government's ability to influence the level of the rand. In its ‘2010 Article IV Staff Report', the IMF highlights that nonresidents account for nearly 75% of the daily turnover of $10-billion to $12-billion in the South African foreign exchange market - daily trade in all currencies has been estimated at close to $4-trillion. The IMF, therefore, supports the continuation of a floating exchange rate system, which has been "an important absorber of shocks, enabling the economy to adjust in the face of the global financial crisis". The floating exchange rate, the report states, has discouraged private sector borrowing in foreign currency, preventing a build-up of foreign currency mismatches on household and corporate sector balance sheets, and ensuring that foreign investors share in the adjustment burden in the event of rand depreciation. However, the strong recovery in the rand during 2009 and 2010, fuelled by portfolio inflows, and a 20% deterioration in South Africa's export performance in 2009, "point towards exchange rate overvaluation". The rand rose to a two-and-a-half-year high against the dollar in mid-September, when it traded at R7,054. The report notes that, while increasing foreign exchange reserves may not have much effect on the level of the exchange rate, it could be helpful in absorbing large shocks. Similarly, a "small tax on inflows" might help slow the volume of inflows, or change its composition. "However, taxing inflows might be easily circumvented and its effectiveness eroded over time."

Africa & the World

NEW YORK - As world leaders meet to review a United Nations (UN) bid to cut poverty and hunger by 2015, the Global Campaign for Education warns that the financial crisis has halted improvements in education for children in impoverished countries. There are 69-million children out of school around the world, says a report on the world's 60 poorest nations by the campaign, a coalition of more than 100 organisations. But, if all those children could be educated to leave school with just basic reading skills, about 171-million people could be lifted out of poverty, it says. "If scientists can genetically modify food and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can send missions to Mars, politicians must be able to find the resources to get millions of children into school and change the prospects of a generation of children," says the campaign's president, Kailash Satyarthi. A decade ago, the UN agreed to eight Millennium Development Goals, which include ensuring that, by 2015, all children will be able to complete primary schooling and that gender disparity at all levels of education will be eliminated. "The momentum of the past ten years could still be harnessed to make education for all a reality within five years," says former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a member of the Global Campaign for Education's High Level Panel on Education for All.

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that it has raised $8-billion in new resources for poor countries from four donors, including China, which has a growing presence in Africa. The IMF says that it has signed financing agreements with Britain, Japan, China and France as part of fundraising efforts that will allow it to offer low-cost loans to the world's poorest countries. In July last year, the IMF unveiled a plan to help developing nations hard hit by the global financial crisis and recession by boosting lending by up to $17-billion through 2014.

NEW YORK - It would cost $36-billion a year to enable the world's one-billion energy-starved people to access energy supplies at home by 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. The IEA said, in an excerpt of its 2010 World Energy Outlook, that some 1,2-billion people, equivalent to China's population, will still have no electricity by 2030 if governments made no change to existing policies, down from 1,4-billion currently. The $36-billion a year only represented 3% of global energy investments projected by the agency to 2030. "This is peanuts compared with other investments which are made," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, says. In Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, for instance, where one-half of the 152-million population has no access to electricity supplies, it will cost the country 0,4% of its oil and gas revenues to fix the situation, Birol says. Achieving universal access to energy supplies will only boost oil demand by less than 1% and carbon dioxide emissions by 0,8%, Birol says, adding that this is because most people who lack access to electricity live in rural areas. "Since they are not connected to the cities, in most cases decentralised systems, such as wind, mini-hydro or solar, will be used," Birol adds.


KHARTOUM - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells Sudan that the door is open to better US ties, seeking to coax Khartoum into cooperating with referendums next year that could split the country. Clinton tells Sudan Vice-President Ali Osman Taha that the January 9 plebiscite on the independence of south Sudan could be an opportunity for the northern government in Khartoum, which critics accuse of foot-dragging before the vote, US officials say. "We know that every day is important and we do have expectations that both north and south need to take very specific steps [to] cooperate," US representative PJ Crowley says. "The secretary made clear that the door to improved relations with the US . . . will open depending on Khartoum's cooperation," Crowley says. US President Barack Obama is among those scheduled to attend a special summit on Sudan on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting. US officials say that the summit is intended to send a strong signal to north and south Sudan that the world is committed to helping Africa's largest country ensure that the secession referendum - which finalises the 2005 peace deal which ended decades of war between the two sides - takes place on time. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has named Tanzania's former President Benjamin Mkapa as head of a panel to monitor the plebiscites both in the south and in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei.