February 11, 2013.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.

Making headlines:

The presidency says President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address will focus on the National Development Plan.

New fighting erupts in the borderland between Sudan and South Sudan.

And, Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki's party quits the Islamist-led government.

 

The presidency said on Sunday that President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address (or Sona) this year will be the first to be delivered in the context of the National Development Plan (or NDP). It said in the Sona 2013, the president would provide an update on all key programmatic areas, especially the five priorities of education, health, creating decent work, the fight against crime; as well as rural development and land reform.

Zuma will also outline progress made in the implementation of the New Growth Path, which is the economic strategy within the NDP.

The New Growth Path promotes inclusive growth and job creation in six job drivers. These include infrastructure development, agriculture, mining and beneficiation, manufacturing, the green economy and tourism.

The presidency said preparations for the day were at an advanced stage. Zuma will deliver the state of the nation address on Thursday in a joint sitting of Parliament.

 

At least 24 people have been killed in fresh fighting in the volatile borderland between Sudan and South Sudan.

South Sudan's army spokesperson Philip Aguer said his troops had killed seven fighters from a militia supported by Khartoum, which had crossed the poorly-defined border. He said the South's army captured a Sudanese army truck used by the fighters during the skirmish in Obed in Upper Nile state in the northeast of the country.

In separate violence on Sudan's side of the border, rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North accused a militia from South Sudan, supported by Khartoum, of having attacked a village and killed 17 people.

The African Union twice brought together Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir in Ethiopia last month but there has been no sign of progress. The AU is hosting another round of talks next week between the neighbours, aiming to set up a buffer zone, which is a precondition for Sudan to restart oil exports.

 

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki's secular party has withdrawn from an Islamist-led government already reeling from last week's assassination of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid.

Belaid's killing on Wednesday, which is Tunisia's first such political assassination in a decade, has thrown the government and the country into turmoil. The assasination has widened rifts between the dominant Islamist Ennahda party and its secular-minded foes.

An official of Marzouki's party, Ben Amor said the Congress for the Republic Party's (or CPR’s) withdrawal was unconnected to Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali's decision, announced after Belaid was killed, to form a non-partisan government of technocrats to run the country until elections can be held later in the year.

Political analyst Youssef Ouslati said the party was "trying to jump out of a sinking ship", but that its decision had no great weight because Jebali was now the central player.

Amor said Marzouki's CPR would formally submit the resignation of its three ministers to Jebali on Monday.

 

Also making headlines:

South African police arrest a suspected 'mastermind' Congo rebel.

Egyptian protesters clash with police after days of calm.

And, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay says South Africa must do more to tackle the 'pandemic of sexual violence'.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.