Daily podcast – September 2, 2014

2nd September 2014 By: Shannon de Ryhove - Contributing Editor

Daily podcast – September 2, 2014

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim
Photo by: Reuters

September 2, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.
Making headlines:

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance says e-tolls have failed.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says the poor response to Ebola is causing needless deaths.

And, the EFF says the decision not to proceed with plans to suspend EFF MPs vindicates the party.


Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (or Outa) chairperson Wayne Duvenage told public hearings in Midrand on Tuesday that e-tolling Gauteng's highways had failed, with the system falling short of its intentions.

He said that while the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (or GFIP) was necessary, things could have been done differently to ease congestion on the roads, adding that the system wasn’t thoroughly researched. Duvenage said the fuel levy and taxes were a better option to pay for the GFIP than tolling.

The hearings are intended to examine the economic and social impact of the GFIP and the electronic tolling system set up to fund it. The panel is expected to present its findings to premier David Makhura at the end of November.


The world's "disastrously inadequate response" to West Africa's Ebola outbreak means many people are dying needlessly, the head of the World Bank said on Monday, as Nigeria confirmed another case of the virus.

In a newspaper editorial, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Western healthcare facilities would easily be able to contain the disease, and urged wealthy nations to share the knowledge and resources to help African countries tackle it.

More than 1 500 people have been killed in West Africa in the worst outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 3 000 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, have been infected.


Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said on Monday that the decision not to immediately proceed with plans to suspend EFF MPs vindicated the party.

The EFF welcomed this as one of the first vindications of its position and protest in Parliament demanding that Jacob Zuma pays back the money unduly spent in Nkandla, he said in a statement.

The EFF maintained that none of its MPs acted outside the rules of Parliament, and that it would proceed to robustly demand answers from the executive without any fear or favour.

Chairperson of Parliament's powers and privileges committee, Lemias Mashile, said National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete and the EFF had agreed that Mbete wouldn’t proceed.


Also making headlines:

US forces carry out an operation against al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says more South African engineers are needed to improve social welfare.

And, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says the world's worst Ebola epidemic has put harvests at risk and sent food prices soaring in West Africa.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter [@PolityZA]

That’s a roundup of news making headlines.