February 22, 2013.

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

Making headlines:

Investec economist Annabel Bishop says Minister Pravin Gordhan is unlikely to raise taxes ahead of the budget speech, but future rises are likely for high income earners.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga denounces a plot to rig the March 4 presidential election.

And, Oscar Pistorius’ bail judgment is expected in a South African court.

 

Investec’s Annabel Bishop says Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is unlikely to announce any major new tax hikes during his Budget address next Wednesday. However, she warns that the upcoming tax review could result in additional taxes on high income earners from as early as 2014.

She said President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address announcement that the National Treasury would conduct a study into whether the prevailing tax policies were appropriate to support public spending implied possible future hikes. This is in line with government’s redistributive income policy.

Bishop argues that the immediate 2013 Budget focus, will be to send a signal that there won’t be any further ‘fiscal slippage’, beyond that which was outlined in last year’s mini-Budget.

Bishop also says that government should be cautious before pursuing tax increases, noting that only six-million of the country’s 50-million citizens were currently in the tax net. In addition, just 1.7% of those individuals were contributing 24.3% of all income tax collected.

 

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has accused the head of the civil service of recruiting officials to back his main rival's presidential campaign as part of a wider plan to rig the election next month.

Analysts have warned that the infighting in top government ranks will possibly raise tensions ahead of the closely-watched March 4 vote. The vote will be the first since a disputed presidential contest unleashed violence that took the country to the brink of civil war five years ago.

Odinga says there’s a pattern emerging which is very akin to what the country saw in 2007, where civil servants are being involved in the campaigns. He adds that the threats reported by the chief justice are part of a vote-rigging plot.

Adams Oloo, a professor of political science at the University of Nairobi says there's a question mark over the upper echelons of the Kenyan civil service, and whether meddling is going on, adding these questions are raising temperatures.

 

A judge is expected to decide on Friday whether to grant bail to Oscar Pistorius, with prosecutors arguing he is a cold-blooded killer and his own lawyers that he is far too famous to have any chance of fleeing prosecution.

Defence lawyers for Pistorius say the athlete shot dead his girlfriend only by terrible mistake, and deserves bail to prepare for a case that has garnered global attention and has been marred by a bungled police investigation. Bail hearings in South Africa allow for prosecutors and defence lawyers to layout their basic arguments, based on preliminary evidence.

The arrest of Pistorius stunned millions. Meanwhile, police investigating Pistorius pulled their lead detective off the athlete's case on Thursday after it emerged he himself faces attempted murder charges for shooting at a minibus.

 

Also making headlines:

Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party is expected to pick a hardliner to replace moderate outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.

French and African forces aim to hunt down and eradicate Islamist rebels in northern Mali.

And, Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has called on parliamentary elections to begin on April 27 in the hope of concluding Egypt's turbulent transition to democracy.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.