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Polity
Article by: Amy Witherden
Published: 30 Jan 2009
Daily podcast - 30 January, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe stated at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, that while the country will be adversely affected by the global economic downturn, it has experienced more difficult times.
Contextualising this remark, Motlanthe spoke of the state of the South African economy that the African National Congress inherited in 1994. He said that it was an economy in decline, with high debt and high unemployment. South Africa was also an isolated State with few diplomatic and trading partners.
Motlanthe said, however, that the current economic crisis has affected South Africa, most notably with a drop in export demands. The contraction of demand in economies heading for recession such as the US, the European Union and Japan, will have a direct impact on South Africa's manufacturers and the labour it employs.

In other news, at the presentation of Zimbabwe's budget yesterday, acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said that business conducted in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwean dollar, will now be legal. This was merely acknowledging a common practice in Zimbabwe, in an attempt to confront soaring inflation.
Chinamasa told Zimbabwe's Parliament that the government would pursue "strict and painful" monetary measures, while the central bank would be barred from printing money in a bid to tame runaway inflation and shore up the near worthless local currency.
The Finance Minister proposed a total 2009 budget of 66,5-quintillion Zimbabwe dollars, or 1,9-billion US dollars.
This budget announcement comes with the report that unemployment stands at 94% in Zimbabwe, with a food and fuel crisis, an out-of-control cholera epidemic, and an official inflation rate, last assessed in July 2008, at 231-million per cent.

Back home, African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma's legal team, reports that Zuma may seek immunity from prosecution if his attempt to have the graft charges against him dropped, fails.
Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, said that the Presidential front runner's legal team is involved in ongoing discussions with the National Prosecuting Authority, in an effort to have the corruption charges against the ANC leader dismissed.
Hulley explained that if representations to the NPA fail, Zuma will pursue other avenues to nullify the litigation that has raised concern with foreign investors. These approaches include a Constitutional Court challenge, and an application for a permanent stay of prosecution. The latter would be a separate and distinct application before the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Also making headlines:
In Zimbabwe, the food crisis intensifies.
In Uganda, a rebel leader wants to surrender and claim amnesty.
And, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe sends two Bills back to Parliament.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.