South Africa

JOHANNESBURG – State-owned development financier the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) reports that it has approved funding worth R5.2-billion for 12 of the 28 preferred bidders recently identified by the Department of Energy (DoE) as part of a process to procure 3 725 MW of renewable energy capacity from independent power producers (IPPs) by 2016. The 28 projects are among an initial batch of 53 bids submitted for the first bid window and collectively represented potential capacity of 1 415.52 MW. The preferred bidders now have until June 2012 to take their projects to financial closure. CEO Geoffrey Qhena says the IDC has been mandated to play a central role in the deployment of government’s New Growth Path policy, which has prioritised green industries as part of a larger plan to deliver five-million jobs by 2020. Green industries business unit head Rentia van Tonder says the projects being supported by the IDC are located in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the North West. In total, the IDC has allocated R25-billion over the coming five years towards developing and financing industries that enhance South Africa’s transition to a green economy. Meanwhile, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) also welcomes the DoE’s announcement, saying that it will help mobilise private sector participation more fully in electricity generation.

CAPE TOWN – The Democratic Alliance will ask Public Protector Thuli Mandonsela to investigate the involvement of South African companies or individuals in the "oil for food" scandal, its leader Helen Zille says. "The question is: Why did it take the Presidency five years and a legal tug of war with Independent Newspapers to release a report in which no former or current member of government is implicated?" she asks, referring to the Donen Commission report. The report on allegations of illicit activities in the United Nations' (UN’s) Iraq oil-for-food programme found that no one whose name featured in the investigation had contravened any South African law. "It has to be stressed that the Donen report does not make any definitive final findings in respect of the conduct of the named individuals in so far as the impact of such conduct on [UN] resolutions and policy is concerned," Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj says. President Jacob Zuma released the report earlier. The commission was established on February 17, 2006, by then President Thabo Mbeki to investigate alleged illicit activities by certain South African companies or individuals relating to the UN programme. Maharaj says Mbeki had refused the commission's last request for extra time and the commission consequently handed in its final report in September 2006. Interim reports had been handed in in May and June that year.

JOHANNESBURG – Actual delivery on South Africa’s R802-billion public infrastructure programme could offer an important “shock absorber” for the South African economy in the context of the slower-than-expected domestic recovery, as well as the potential for recession in key partner markets during 2012, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) stresses. But deputy CEO Raymond Parsons adds that the business community remains distressed at the current failure of all three tiers of government, as well as State-owned companies, to spend their capital budgets as planned and has called for urgent action to deal with the problem. He welcomes the acknowledgement by government that infrastructure spending is lagging budget allocations, as well as efforts to strengthen the management of capital budgets. In the context of plateauing growth, there is a need for “every rand to make its presence felt” and the recent creation of a Presidential commission to oversee and leverage the infrastructure roll-out, in support of growth and job creation, could support that objective. However, the correct balance also has to be struck between cost recovery from the users of the services and general tax funding. “While business supports the need for better infrastructure, the ‘bunching up’ and the cumulative effect of excessive rises in administered prices are currently having a negative impact on our economic performance.” There is also a need, Busa says, for public–private partnerships to be deployed on a larger scale.

CAPE TOWN – The poor will likely suffer more under the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system, the Democratic Alliance (DA) says. “Our research shows that not only are there serious doubts around the feasibility of the NHI, but also that it will actually work against its stated objective to provide improved quality health services for all South Africans,” DA spokesperson Mike Waters says. “We believe that the poor will suffer more under the NHI because it will divert billions of rands from other development challenges, such as provision of basic services, education and housing.” The NHI will also create a bureaucratic and inefficient healthcare superstructure that will diminish the quality of public healthcare. There are a number of specific reasons why the NHI will not improve the quality of healthcare to the poor. Among other things, the NHI does not fix the real problem of low-quality healthcare provision in the public sector. Instead, the Green Paper focuses on accessibility and finance, when there already is universal accessibility and enough funding to run a high-quality public health system. What it lacks is quality, which should be government’s main priority. The NHI does not adequately attend to accountability and management structures. The Ministerial task team report on healthcare funding states: “No part of the health system is held properly accountable for poor health outcomes or poor service delivery.” While the Green Paper called for an office of standards compliance, its members will be appointed by, and will answer to, the Health Minister. “It will not be truly independent, making it vulnerable to political influence,” Waters says.

DURBAN – Deputy Energy Minister Barbara Thompson says the pace will need to be stepped up if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be met globally by 2015. Speaking at a seminar focusing on meeting the MDGs and financing energy access, Thompson says the progress towards achieving the MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education, “did not paint a good picture”. “It has taken us almost ten years to make a decision on how to move forward and today we are talking about the same issues we discussed those many years ago. It is now time to start implementing decisions,” Thompson says, referring to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, also known as Earth Summit II, or Rio +10, which took place in Johannesburg, in 2002. She adds that most countries are “far away” from providing for the basic needs of its people as prescribed through the MDGs. Finance remains a key mechanism in ensuring that the MDG are achieved, and Thompson adds that governments cannot close this gap by themselves and need support from the private sector.

Africa & the world

HARARE – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe calls for elections next year to end a fragile coalition with rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and says he will not back down in forcing foreign firms to sell majority stakes to local blacks. The 87-year-old leader told supporters at an annual Zanu-PF conference that the unity government that has ended a decade of economic collapse and seen a thawing in political tensions is dysfunctional. Mugabe, whose Zanu-PF party is accused of political violence in past elections, told his supporters to renounce violence, saying the party could win any vote with better policies, such as the empowerment drive. "We're saying time has come now to prepare for elections. We just have to have elections next year," Mugabe says in a speech that lasted more than two hours. "Let's go to an election so people can choose a government of their liking." In the last election, Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the first round vote but was forced to pull out of a run-off, citing violence against his supporters from independence war veterans and youth militia running Mugabe's campaign. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is expected to be formally endorsed as Zanu-PF's presidential candidate at the conference that ends on Saturday.

ANTANARIVO - Madagascar's interim leader wants to hold elections on the Indian Ocean island as early as May to end political and economic instability, but warns the return of its exiled former President risks stoking tensions. Madagascar has been plagued by instability for most of the past three years. At the start of 2009, then-opposition leader Andry Rajoelina spearheaded often-violent street protests against increasingly the unpopular president, Marc Ravalomanana. Rajoelina – now head of the High Transitional Authority – seized power in March 2009 with the help of dissident army officers, but many donors branded his power grab a coup and froze nonemergency aid. In September, major political parties signed a road map mediated by a regional bloc, the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It confirmed Rajoelina as President, allowed for the unconditional return of Ravalomanana and paved the way for elections within a year. "Our hope is to have the elections . . . at the start of May," Rajoelina says. The United Nations, the National Electoral Commission and the Organisation of Francophonie are to fix the date by the end of the year. The 37-year-old Rajoelina met President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris as he looks to improve ties with Madagascar's former colonial ruler which suffered under the previous President, who had courted Anglo-Saxon investment.