June 11, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says Sanral is R20bn in debt.

Burundi delays presidential vote to July 15 after unrest.

And, newly-elected NUM general secretary David Sipunzi wants to save  ZwelinzimaVavi and NUM. 

 

The South African National Roads Agency Limited still owes about R20-billion on its various bonds, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday during a question and answer session in the National Assembly.

He said money was raised through a variety of bonds that have certain timeframes.

Ramaphosa also addressed the "new dispensation" of e-tolls in Gauteng, saying government sometimes had to take unpopular decisions.

"There comes a time when a government must take difficult decisions and act in the best interests of the country and its citizens," he said, referring to e-tolls in Gauteng.

Ramaphosa added that people in Gauteng were not opposed to the user-pays principle for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, but rather the high toll tariffs.

 

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has issued a decree delaying the presidential election to July 15 from June 26, his spokesman said on Wednesday. This is after six weeks of protests sparked by Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in office.

His spokesperson Gervais Abayeho confirmed that Nkurunziza had published the decree, adding that the parliamentary vote, already delayed once, would now go ahead on June 29, about a month later than initially planned.

The revised dates were proposed by the county’s electoral commission CENI. Meanwhile, opponents have criticised the election body, saying it had not been neutral in the election debate.

Newly-elected National Union of Mineworkers (or NUM) general secretary David Sipunzi has two top priorities, to save expelled Congress of South African Trade Unions (or Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and to save NUM from oblivion.

Sipunzi wants unity in the trade union federation with Vavi's expulsion from Cosatu turned around, and he wants to win back ex NUM members who left to join the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (or Amcu).

NUM had seen a massive drop in membership over the last three years due to the rise of the AMCU during the violent protests at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana in 2012.

Sipunzi, who was NUM Free State secretary, defeated the union's long-standing general secretary Frans Baleni at an elective congress last week. He secured 357 of the votes and Baleni 345.

Baleni had been NUM's general secretary for nine years. If he had been re-elected it would have been his fourth term at the helm.

Sipunzi said the congress was "water under the bridge" and it was now time for the union to hold hands and work together.

Also making headlines:

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says the power crisis is something that South Africa will have to endure for at least the next two years.

Two workers at Eskom's Medupi power station were shot and wounded on Thursday morning.

The plan by African Union member States to establish a continental free trade area by 2017 is on track.

Ghana halts Ebola vaccine trial due to community protests.

Lawyers for Madagascar's president and the opposition launched legal arguments on whether he should be sacked after Parliament voted to impeach him last month.

And, Tunisia rescues 350 migrants heading by boat to Italy from Libya.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today