July 27, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane says South Africa is not a failed State.

US President Barak Obama will discuss a 'Plan B' for South Sudan ahead of an August peace deal deadline.

And, National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega breaks her silence on the Farlam report.

Democratic Alliance (or DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said South Africa is not a failed state as some people are claiming. He added that South Africa could be changed for the better if the DA was voted into power.

"South Africa is at a critical juncture in its history. Our economy is in crisis and is not creating the jobs required to address inequality [and] pull many South Africans out of poverty and move our country forward," he said in statement following a DA federal council meeting.

Maimane said dealing with the unemployment problem effectively would require the requisite political will and leadership that was sorely lacking in the current government.

"South Africa requires a government that is committed to building a better future for all South Africans. And only the DA can form such a government," Maimane said.

He said the party would "focus with laser-like intensity" on taking control of the Union Buildings in 2019.

 

US President Barack Obama will discuss a "Plan B" for South Sudan with African leaders on Monday.

The plan could include sanctions or other penalties if the country's warring parties do not forge a peace deal by mid-August, a US official said.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as Obama traveled to Ethiopia from Kenya, the official said Monday's meeting was not expected to lead to a breakthrough to halt the country's civil war, which has raged since December 2013.

Obama is on a two-country tour of Africa. The presidents of Uganda and Kenya, the prime minister of Ethiopia, the chairperson of the African Union, and the foreign minister of Sudan are all expected to attend the meeting in Addis Ababa. Representatives from South Sudan were not invited.

 

National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega has broken her silence on the findings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the deaths of 34 striking miners at Marikana. She said she strongly disagreed with some of them.

She said she fully acknowledged the recommendations made by the Commission and would respond to the President as directed. However, she said there were areas where she strongly disagreed with the content of the report, such as the insinuation that management went to work that day with murderous intent.

She said although the Commission has extensively touched on public violence, condemnation from commentators was not as loud as it should be.

She laid out a detailed progress report on the improvements to the Public Order Policing Unit, including a swelling of ranks and broader scope of training.

It included a R3.3-billion capital boost over a four-year period which provides for the re-opening of dormant Public Order Policing units and starting new ones across the country.

 

Also making headlines:

Southern African Development Community Ministers target 2019 for electricity surplus and cost-reflective tariffs.

A female suicide bomber kills 19 people at a northern Nigeria market.

The first cargo ships have passed through Egypt's New Suez Canal in a test-run before it opens next month, 11 months after the army began constructing the $8-billion canal alongside the existing 145-year-old Suez Canal.

And, the United Nations' humanitarian chief said South Sudan should lift restrictions on transporting aid supplies using the River Nile.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.