Friday, April 23, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

Speaking at the one hundredth anniversary of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) celebration held in Namibia yesterday, President Jacob Zuma said that the future of the customs union is "undoubtedly in question", if it cannot "pursue the unfinished business of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations as a united group". In 2002, the transformation of Sacu, which was regarded as a ‘colonial tool' began, and a Common Negotiating Mechanism in Article 31(2) was put in place, to ensure a consultative decision-making process so that decisions would not be made by one member alone. However, discord has emerged among Sacu member States on how best to approach negotiations with the European Union (EU) regarding the signing of EPAs. Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland signed an agreement with the EU, while South Africa and Namibia refused. Zuma added that the Sacu member States must "look at how to strengthen the arrangement, how to eliminate all vestiges of colonial systems of domination and dependency, and how to operate within a changing geopolitical environment".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew into Zimbabwe yesterday for a two-day visit condemned by President Robert Mugabe's opponents as a meeting of despots. Ahmadinejad, whose government is pursuing a nuclear programme despite threats of United Nations sanctions, was invited by Mugabe to open Zimbabwe's annual trade fair.
There was no official indication of any link between the visit and Iran's nuclear programme, but Zimbabwe does hold uranium deposits that have yet to be exploited.
Zimbabwean State media said that Ahmadinejad's visit was part of a drive to strengthen ties between countries at odds with the West. But Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party called the visit a "colossal political scandal", while criticising Ahmadinejad over his record on human rights.
The MDC said that Ahmadinejad's visit would send the wrong message about Zimbabwe at a time when it was trying to show the world that it was working to restore democracy.

The repo rate will stay stable "for some time to come", said South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Gill Marcus yesterday.
Addressing a conference hosted by the Bureau for Economic Research, Marcus warned against jumping to conclusions based on one month's data, after rumours that poor retail sales in February would result in another rate cut.
Marcus explained that SARB's unexpected rate cut in March was based on the below-potential pace of recovery. The latest data was confirmation of the fragile nature of consumption expenditure growth, rather than necessarily being a downside surprise requiring further stimulus. Marcus added that the general view of SARB's Monetary Policy Committee, which had prevailed in March, would therefore remain unchanged in the light of recent data.

Also making headlines:

The African National Congress remains silent on Youth League leader Julius Malema's disciplinary hearing, reiterating that it is an internal procedure.
The World Health Organisation reports that Africa is making "dramatic" headway against malaria.
Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande moots compulsory African languages for certain courses at universities.
And, China says that the world needs more cohesion if an agreeable solution to climate change is to be reached.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.