October 22, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is adament that anyone younger than forty years will not get a free house from government.

Pledges to a United Nations trust fund calling for nearly $1-billion to fight Ebola in West Africa have more than doubled.

And, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies has reiterated his department’s support for agroprocessing.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday that anyone younger than 40 will not get a free house from the government. Sisulu said it had to be understood that these individuals were not her department’s priority unless they were heads of child-headed households.

Sisulu went on to say that the intention in giving free houses was to right the wrongs of the past and to make sure that people’s dignity was restored.  

She noted that government’s free housing projects were not sustainable, but were aimed rather at helping those who had suffered under apartheid.

Sisulu also warned that her department was aiming to liaise with the Department of Justice to set up special tribunals that would prosecute people who sold free government housing or rented out housing they had received from the government.

 

Pledges to a United Nations (or UN) trust fund calling for nearly $1-billion to fight Ebola in West Africa have risen to almost $50-million. This is just days after it was disclosed that only one $100 000 donation had been deposited.

The UN said that $988-million would be needed to try to halt the spread of the deadly virus over the next six months. 

Donors can contribute directly to UN agencies like the World Health Organisation, including aid groups working in West Africa, or to the trust created by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

UN spokesperson Stephen Dujarric encouraged those who have yet to contribute to do so as a matter of urgency.
The trust fund aims to raise at least $100-million by the end of October in an effort to combat the virus that has killed more than 4 500 people in the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
    

Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies has reiterated his department’s support for agroprocessing, saying that it had injected some R1.2-billion into the industry since 2009. Government’s Industrial Policy Action Plan had identified the agroprocessing industry as a manufacturing subsector that could act as a vehicle for value-addition to the country’s agricultural products.

Emphasising the sector’s economic importance, Davies cited a report released earlier this year by financial services firm KPMG, which indicated that Africa produced and exported $6-billion worth of coffee, which was then processed and transformed into products that sold for $100-billion.

Davies said that the promotion of agroprocessing was an extremely important stream of industrialisation not just in South Africa but across the African continent at large.

 

Also making headlines:

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has released details of the remuneration of the chairpersons and nonexecutive directors of the various State-owned company boards falling under her Ministry.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has established a task team comprising construction and property industry stakeholders to develop concrete, workable plans to accelerate transformation in the built environment and establish processes to monitor and evaluate its implementation.

South African Development Community facilitator and South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will later today return to Lesotho to carry out the regional body’s mission of stabilising the political situation in the mountain kingdom.

And, Burkina Faso's government will submit a Bill for Parliament to call a referendum on removing a two-term limit for the presidency.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.