Thursday, January 14, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
Universities are not the only postschool education option available to the South African youth, said Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande yesterday, noting that further education and training (FET) colleges could play a critical role in preparing young people for economic participation.
Nzmande said that government encourages school leavers to make use of vocational learning opportunities in FET colleges. However, he added that these colleges had to become institutions of choice, with the Higher Education and Training Department setting the advancement of, access to, and quality of, the college sector as one of its biggest priorities for this year.
Nzimande said that access to universities had to increase, while the Department wanted enrolment in colleges to double in the next five years.

Civil rights group Afriforum yesterday won a court bid to sue Zimbabwe's government over its "cruel" and "revengeful" expropriation of South African-owned farms.
Speaking outside the High Court in Pretoria after a ruling that gave the go-ahead for Afriforum to serve papers on Zimbabwe, legal representative Willie Spies said that this was the first step in recognising the rights of South African citizens in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
In 2008, a SADC tribunal ruled that Zimbabwe's land reform was illegal and racist, and that those who had suffered discrimination by having their farms expropriated had the right to compensation. Afriforum will approach the court next month to force the Zimbabwean and South African governments to register and recognise the SADC tribunal's ruling on land reform.

The Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) provincial executive committee (PEC) denied yesterday that it was pushing for an early party conference because "certain groups want to align government leadership with the party".
The party said that the Gauteng PEC is considering an early conference because of the FIFA World Cup, the scheduled ANC national general council in September 2010 and preparations for the 2011 local government elections.
It was reported yesterday that the PEC was pushing for an early provincial conference because of rivalry over leadership positions. However, the Gauteng PEC stated that the "issue of two centres of power was nonexistent", adding that the party "works very well with government and the leadership is united and cohesive on all issues." The ANC PEC will hold its provincial conference later this month.

Also making headlines :
Britain presses Sudan's former north/south foes to urgently resolve differences over borders and sharing oil revenues.
The South African Presidency confirms, after much inconsistency, that it has received an application for a Presidential pardon from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.
And, an Abuja court rules that Nigerian Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan can perform the executive duties of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua in his absence.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.