August 14, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Natalie Greve.
Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma says legislative changes will be supportive of offshore oil and gas drilling.

Cosatu plans to organise the 'mother of all stay-aways'.

And, six Cameroon villagers are massacred by Boko Haram.

President Jacob Zuma says the finalisation of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (or MPRDA) Amendment Bill, which is currently in the Parliamentary process, will assist the country to accelerate offshore oil and gas exploration.

Delivering an update in Pretoria on government’s Operation Phakisa, Zuma said there was still an aspiration, under the Oceans Economy Phakisa, to stimulate the development of 30 offshore exploration wells in ten years.

However, uncertainty surrounding the legislative environment was perceived as a major impediment to such investment, with the oil and gas sector having raised major reservations when the MPRDA amendments were first released.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (or Cosatu) says it will be holding the "mother of all stay-aways" on October 7th.

Cosatu acting general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said a section 77 notice had been tabled at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (or Nedlac).

The section 77 notice focused on job losses, the lack of accessible, affordable and reliable public transport, the proposed increase in VAT, the electricity crisis and the crisis in the public health sector.

In the notice, Cosatu demanded an immediate halt to pending retrenchments and proposed that Nedlac facilitate "social dialogue" to find a solution to the job crisis in the country.

 

A Cameroon defence ministry spokesperson said Boko Haram militants massacred six villagers in Cameroon before government soldiers, who killed 12 of the Islamist fighters, repelled the overnight attack.

The raid was launched during the night from Wednesday to Thursday on the village of Blamé in Cameroon's Far North region, where the Nigerian Islamists have stepped up attacks in recent months.

Cameroon has deployed thousands of soldiers in its northern border areas as part of a military operation aimed at curbing the spillover of violence from Boko Haram's strongholds in northeast Nigeria.

However, cross-border attacks by Islamist gunmen have become an almost daily occurrence.

Also making headlines:

Goldman Sachs says China's yuan devaluation will put pressure on commodities.

Durban’s troubled and sometimes non-existent municipal bus service is set to be managed again by the eThekwini Metro Municipality after several years of being run by private operators.

The Davis Tax Committee’s first interim report on mining tax has come out against a full overhaul of the current tax regime imposed on mining companies.

And, market participants in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are in talks to launch the cross-listing of exchange-traded funds to provide domestic investors access to opportunities from another market.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.