Friday, August 13, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, whose name was mentioned in the Brett Kebble murder trial this week, has warned African National Congress (ANC) members against corruption.
Briefing the media on the Imvuselelo, or renewal, campaign in which the ruling ANC aims to have one-million members by 2012, Mbalula said that corruption is "counter revolutionary" and against the "principles and values of the movement".
Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma has directed the Special Investigating Unit to conduct a probe into corruption in the South African Police Service. The probe, mainly into procurement, "originates from a referral" by police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate.
This proclamation was gazetted seven days after former National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, and comes after revelations about a "dodgy" multimillion-rand property deal signed by National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele.

Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) chairperson says that President Goodluck Jonathan has the right to contest elections due next January, but stopped short of giving him outright backing.
Jonathan would need the support of his party if he was to be sure of success in the polls because of a "zoning" agreement within the PDP, which says that Presidential terms should rotate between the Muslim north and the Christian south every two terms. Jonathan, from the southern Niger Delta, inherited the Presidency when northern President Umaru Yar'Adua died earlier this year.
Sources close to Jonathan say that he is concerned about the implications of abandoning the zoning commitment and about his own credibility as a candidate in the polls that he has pledged to make free and fair.

The proposed media appeals tribunal (MAT) - as put forward in the African National Congress (ANC) National General Council discussion document on media diversity and ownership - should be abandoned, a panel of experts said at a Mail & Guardian ‘critical thinking' series debate on Wednesday.
Alternative Information Development Centre representative Mark Weinberg said that the MAT is an affront to democracy. City Press editor-in-chief Ferial Haffajee said that the recent furore over press freedom has started important introspection and conversation about the media in South Africa, but added that the media could not speak freely and confidently until the MAT was off the table, and the Protection of Information Bill had been slimmed down. University of Witwatersrand journalism and media studies professor Anton Harber added that the MAT was a diversion, which should be taken out of the discussion document, as it would "never" pass through the Constitutional Court.
Defending the idea, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu reiterated that the MAT was not meant to introduce prepublication censorship, or to be a threat to journalists. He said that the ANC is investigating mechanisms that could add value.

Also making headlines:

Niger's civilian transitional authorities adopt a new constitution aimed at watering down Presidential powers and ensuring greater transparency in revenues from natural resources.
Human Rights Watch reports that Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels have abducted 697 people in central Africa in the past 18 months, killing many.
The South African government increases its offer to public servants in an effort to head off a mass strike.
And, South Sudan's ruling party says that its referendum on independence from the north will not happen unless a deadlock within the commission planning it, is broken.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.