South Africa

DURBAN - The African National Congress's (ANC's) national working committee (NWC) has announced that the party's national general council (NGC), held in Durban last month, was a "resounding success" and had "fulfilled its intended outcome of being a massive political school as it afforded branch delegates [the opportunity] to be part of regional and provincial general councils", spokesperson Jackson Mthembu says. "It enabled the organisation, as a whole, its leagues and its alliance partners to evaluate and review progress made since the fifty-second conference held in Polokwane in 2007." It ensured that discipline was enforced "without blinking". On the economic front, the NGC informed the ANC to reduce high unemployment, deepening poverty and growing inequality.

PRETORIA - The Presidency has lost office furniture and computer equipment worth R5,8-million in seven years and incurred irregular expenditure of R939 000. "The assets amounting to R5,8-million, which have been written off, date as far back as 2002 up to last year," the Presidency says in a statement. "These assets relate to office furniture and information technology equipment. They were written off because they could not be located or accounted for over the years." The R939 000 in irregular expenditure is due to "emergency situations" where officials are expected to procure services before an official order could be generated. "This practice is also being looked at to ensure that our system is able to generate orders even in emergency situations." Beeld reports that the Presidency further incurred unauthorised expenditure of R17-million. The figures are contained in the Presidency's 2009/10 annual report. The Presidency's audit did not, however, receive any disclaimers from the Auditor-General. It has put in place systems to rectify the "weaknesses" and ensure there is "proper and improved financial accountability". It has implemented an asset management system to make sure office equipment is properly accounted for. "These anomalies are identified through our internal controls and voluntarily disclosed to auditors. In this manner, we are entrenching a culture of accountability, and the ability to detect problems and solve them in our financial management system. We have introduced the correct approach and it is bound to work," says Minister in the Presidency responsible for administration Collins Chabane.

JOHANNESBURG - Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi calls for the creation of a single public sector union. "The overriding lesson from this strike is the urgent need to create a single public sector union that will have specialised units for all the professions that exist in the public service," Vavi says. He urges South African Democratic Trade Union (Sadtu) to ensure that a unified education sector union is part of their discussions. "The next step is to ensure that you merge with all other teacher organisations in the country." He says that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) and South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) have long threatened to "marry" and this has to happen soon. "It will be in our best interests to push for unity," he adds. "Currently, getting things done in the bargaining council is a "nightmare". The "aggressive egos" of everybody involved did not help. He says that union leadership wants to be on television to be seen by their members. "We can't be presidents, all of us, comrades, it's not possible. Division is a luxury that we cannot afford. This is the overriding lesson or message of the strike." The recent public sector strike saw the relationship between labour and government turn sour and caused friction among the ruling alliance Cosatu and the African National Congress (ANC). Vavi says that the alliance is left "unsatisfied" by the ANC national general council's position on the strategic centre of power. "Cosatu has never questioned the role of the ANC as the leader of the alliance and as a centre of power on its own; but it is mischievous and contradictory to argue that the alliance, which has the ANC at its helm, is not in itself a strategic political centre of power," he says. The question of the centre of power has been a sticking point between the ruling alliance partners, the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu.

PRETORIA - President Jacob Zuma's approval level in metro areas has dropped to a new low of 42% in the third quarter, according to the latest TNS Research Surveys poll. Zuma's end-2009 approval rating in metro areas was 58%, but dropped to 43% in February - the biggest drop in a President's rating in 15 years, TNS says. His approval rating partially recovered to 51% at the end of May, but dropped to a new low of 42% at the beginning of September, with 44% saying that he was not doing a good job as President - the highest disapproval level yet seen for Zuma. The studies were each conducted among a sample of 2 000 South African adults from the seven major metropolitan areas, interviewing them face-to-face in their homes, with a margin of error of under 2,5%. TNS says that the decline in February occurred at a time when Zuma's personal life was much under the spotlight and there were growing service delivery protests. The May study was conducted just prior to the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and these issues, as well as service delivery protests, were much less in the public eye. The latest study was conducted during the lengthy public servants' strike during part of which Zuma visited China with a large trade delegation.

Africa & the world

DAKAR - Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has sacked his Energy Minister as public anger grows over a new wave of power cuts hitting business and households in the West African State. Wade has replaced Energy Minister Samuel Sarr with his son, Karim Wade, already the most senior Minister in his liberal government and in charge of the international cooperation, air transport and infrastructure portfolios. "Now Sarr has been appointed
Minister of State and financial adviser to the Presidency," Wade spokesperson Serigne Mbacké Ndiaye says of a demotion, which, nonetheless, retains the well-connected Sarr in a key government post. Street protests have mounted over the past week after the breakdown of two power plants exacerbated a long-standing shortfall of national capacity of between 30 MW and 50 MW, rising to 130 MW at peak times. Utility company Senelec has sought to save energy with daily outages lasting virtually all day in some parts of the country, prompting the International Monetary Fund to cite the problem as a risk to Senegal's tentative economic recovery. Separate shortages in cooking gas are adding to discontent over the power cuts. An angry crowd briefly blocked the main road in and out of the capital, Dakar, in protest at the power cuts. Wade last month named January 2012 as the date for the next Presidential election.

LONDON - No African leader qualified this year for an exceptional leadership award, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation says. For the second consecutive year, the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership is not awarded. "We are always disappointed when we can't award the prize," says foundation board director Mamphela Ramphele. "It is for exceptional leadership. We are not going to say, because someone did a reasonable job, we are going to [make the] award." Ramphele says that the foundation decided that it would undermine its cause, which is to promote excellence, if the award was made this year.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank believes the rapid return to growth of African economies following the financial and economic crises of 2008 and 2009 is indicative of sound policy choices made by African leaders, which had be absent during previous downturns. It, therefore, continues to forecast that the continent will be among the fastest growing territories in 2010, recovering to a growth rate of 4,9%, following a fall to a growth rate of 1,8% in 2009. Growth is expected to return to 5% in 2011 and 2012, slightly below levels of around 6% that were enjoyed for the three years preceding the financial meltdown. Speaking to 200 African journalists in 32 countries via a video link from Washington DC ahead of major World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in the US capital, vice-president for the Africa region Obiageli Ezekwesili applauds the policy actions taken by African governments. By sticking with reforms through the crisis, despite some painful consequences, the "private sector is increasingly looking to the continent as a credible investment destination". But she says that it is important to focus on policy choices that will galvanise further growth, which is a "necessary condition" for poverty reduction - the bank estimates that the 6%-type growth rates achieved ahead of the crisis had helped Africa reduce poverty rates by a full one percentage point every year, which is in line with what was achieved elsewhere. "So, with the rebound in growth, we hope that we will see a situation where the decline in poverty gets back on to its previous track," Ezekwesili says, noting that seven African countries are on target to halve poverty by 2014.

KAMPALA - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says that the United Nations (UN) Security Council is considering a proposal to raise more funding for an expanded African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission to Somalia. Ugandan troops make up the bulk of the 7 200-strong AU Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and Kampala says that it will be willing to add more to provide the entire 20 000 soldiers thought to be needed to squelch a raging insurgency in the Horn of Africa country. "Members of the Security Council are studying (the proposal) to get more familiar with the issue," Museveni says, after meeting UN envoys visiting his country. He adds that he has not received any promises from the group. Museveni has been advocating greater urgency in regional and international efforts to stabilise Somalia since the country's al-Qaeda-allied al-Shabaab militia claimed responsibility for twin bomb blasts in July that killed nearly 80 people. The AU and the seven-nation East African Intergovernmental Authority on Development says it could take 20 000 troops to help quell the insurgents in Somalia, a country without a stable central government for nearly 20 years. The presence of foreign Amisom troops, which include Burundians, gives Somali militants a reason to pose as nationalist champions and wins them easy recruits and financial support at home and by Somalis abroad. Some analysts say that the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government is a lost cause and not worth the support of Amisom soldiers, who endure frequent attacks by Somali militants.