December 10, 2013
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

World leaders and singing crowds gather for Nelson Mandela’s memorial at FNB Stadium.

Egypt is expected to hold a mid-January constitutional referendum.

And, Zimbabwe plans to build three solar power plants.
 

World leaders from US President Barack Obama to Cuba's Raul Castro joined thousands of South Africans to honour Nelson Mandela today, in a memorial that will celebrate his gift for bringing enemies together across political and racial divides.

Obama's plane, carrying the US leader and former president George W. Bush and their wives Michelle and Laura, touched down at Waterkloof airport as singing and dancing South Africans made their way in the rain to the Johannesburg soccer stadium where the homage to Mandela was to be held.

Coinciding with UN-designated Human Rights Day, the memorial service for Mandela in the 95 000-seat Soccer City stadium is the centre-piece of a week of mourning for the globally admired statesman, who died on Thursday aged 95.



A government minister said on Monday that Egypt would hold a referendum on a new constitution in the middle of January.

In an interview with Egyptian TV channel CBC, Hany Mahmoud, minister of administrative development, said the vote would be held nationwide over two days.

The new constitution is an important milestone in the political transition plan drawn up by the army-installed interim government that took office after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was deposed by the military on July 3.

A 50-member assembly finished the draft last week and handed it to interim President Adly Mansour, who has yet to set the referendum date. Mansour is expected to set the date this week.

 

Zimbabwe plans to construct three solar-powered plants in the west of the country at a cost of $540-million in a bid to ease electricity shortages in the country, an official with the state power company said on Monday.

The southern African nation, which has no shortage of sunshine, produces about 1 200 MW of electricity against a peak demand of 2 200 MW, resulting in long outages that have hit domestic consumers, industry and agriculture.

Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority chief executive Josh Chifamba said the country had received an overwhelming response from investors and was at the stage of shortlisting candidates.

Construction of the three solar-powered plants, which will each generate 100 MW, is expected to begin by end of 2014, Chifamba said.
 

Also making headlines:

University of Johannesburg physics Professor Simon Connell says the growth of science in South Africa owes much to Nelson Mandela.

And, the government says an inter-ministerial report about the security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home will not be released this week as planned.
 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today