July 16, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm David D’Oliveira.
Making headlines:

Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters announces an e-toll 'reprieve.'

Brics leaders set up a new development bank to counter the West’s hold on global finances.

And, over 25 people have been killed in a Nigerian militant attack and government air strike.

 

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters on Tuesday announced a "reprieve" for the users of Gauteng's toll roads. Opening debate in Parliament on her department's budget, she told MPs this was being done "to make it easier for people to comply" with e-tolls.

Peters said users would "have an extended payment period of 51 days, from the day they pass through the gantry, as opposed to the [current] seven days". Users would also receive the time-of-day discount.

She added that non-registered users would receive 60% off the alternative tariff if they paid within 51 days.

For registered users, the "reprieves" which would be introduced included a 48% e-tag-holder discount; time-of-day discounts; frequent-user discounts, and a "R450 calendar-month cap for class A2/light vehicles".

Peters said, to applause from ruling party benches, that she trusted the concessions "would go some way towards lessening the financial burden on the part of users".

Leaders of the Brics emerging market nations launched a $100-billion development bank and a currency reserve pool on Tuesday in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system.

The bank, aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations, will be based in Shanghai. India will preside over its operations for the first five years, followed by Brazil and then Russia, leaders of the five-country group announced at a summit.

They also set up a $100-billion currency reserves pool to help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures. The long-awaited bank will be called the New Development Bank.

 

At least 26 people were killed when suspected Islamist Boko Haram militants stormed a village in northeast Nigeria and a government warplane opened fire to repel the attackers, local residents and a security source said on Tuesday.

The warplane strafed Boko Haram fighters fleeing in pick-up trucks after raiding Dille, near Lassa in the south of Borno State, for several hours on Monday. The attackers fired on inhabitants and burned homes and churches.

Most of the deaths occurred during the raid but cannon fire from the government jet also killed at least six civilians – four women and two children, residents said.

Also making headlines:
 

A United Nations panel monitoring sanctions on Somalia has accused the country's president, a former minister, and a US law firm of conspiring to divert Somali assets recovered abroad.

India's central bank deputy governor Urjit Patel says the five Brics countries have not discussed coordinated forex intervention in global markets, but it is an idea worth thinking about.

And, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the Department of Human Settlements will have delivered 1.5-million houses by the end of the current government’s term of office in 2019.

 

Also on Polity:

Watch the latest episode of Suttner's View with researcher and analyst Professor Raymond Suttner, as well an interview with activist Malaika wa Azania on her book ‘Memoirs of a Born Free.’

Also, be sure to read Human Rights Watch’s latest report on barriers to HIV services and treatment for persons with disabilities in Zambia.

Follow us on Twitter (@PolityZA) for updates on breaking news.
 

That’s roundup of news making headlines today.