Wednesday, June 2, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Megan Wait.

Making headlines:

The Congress of South African Trade Unions threatens to pull out of its alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) if the ruling party persists with disciplinary charges against union leader Zwelinzima Vavi.
It has been reported that the ANC would discipline Vavi for saying that the union federation was concerned that senior ANC members were exploiting political connections to get rich. Last week, Vavi accused Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka of lying in his CV, and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda of running up unjustified hotel bills of half-a-million rand.
Disciplinary action against Vavi would come at a sensitive time for the ANC, just weeks after its youth leader Julius Malema was sanctioned for bringing the party into disrepute. While the ANC has not yet confirmed how it will proceed with the disciplinary action, Vavi said that the charges would not hold because he was speaking on behalf of the union and not in his individual capacity.

Conflicts on the African continent must be resolved as they hinder development, said President Jacob Zuma in France on Tuesday.
An urgent task facing the continent and its strategic partners, such as France, was resolving conflict in Africa, he said in Nice at the end of a State visit, during which he attended the twenty-fifth Africa France Summit.
The African Union position on unconstitutional changes of government must be respected, he said.
Responding to questions on the political impasse in Madagascar, he said that there was a convergence of views between South Africa and France on the need to support the work of the Southern African Development Community on Madagascar.

In the wake of the global economic crisis, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has called for absolute transparency in banking institutions in order to "unburden" South Africans.
Following a meeting with CEs and chairpersons of South Africa's major banks, Gordhan said that the banking sector needed to improve by developing a regulatory environment more conducive to increased access to services for the poor.
Some of the recommendations that banks have agreed to implement are: lowering penalty fees on dishonoured debit orders, improving management of the current debit order system and greater transparency of ATM fees and charges.

Also making headlines:

A study shows that poor living and working conditions for miners have contributed significantly to tuberculosis epidemics across Africa.
Congress of the People leader Mosiuoa Lekota takes the party's presidency disagreement to court.
Norway's Foreign Minister urges Europe to engage with Sudan ahead of the January 2011 southern secession vote.
And, France is to emphasise training African peacekeepers as part of its strategy to hand over security to local forces and eventually reduce its military presence on the continent.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.