Tuesday, June 22, 2010

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

Making headlines:

The two review processes into State-owned enterprises (SoEs) will complement each other and be "synthesised" into a single report to help Cabinet make policy decisions, the Presidency said on Monday. Harold Maloka, spokesperson for Minister in the Presidency for Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane, said that the two reviews would run parallel to each other.
A review of SoEs, run by Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was set up by Cabinet, while President Jacob Zuma set up his own nongovernmental review committee, headed by former Absa corporate affairs executive Mangwashi Phiyega in March.
Maloka explained that the Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up to conduct an internal government review of SoEs and determine how government can strengthen alignment between its development objectives and the strategic role to be played by SoEs in the economy, while the Presidential SoE Review Committee would review the current governance arrangements relating to SoEs and undertake an audit of current practices regarding planning and decision making with SoEs.

Claims exaggerating the danger of human trafficking during the 2010 FIFA World Cup have resulted in the sidelining of other important social issues, the University of the Witwatersrand's forced migration studies programme has found.
Programme director Professor Loren Landau said that despite "alarming" media advertisements, there had been little evidence suggesting high volumes of human trafficking in South Africa, and local and comparative evidence does not indicate that a major sporting event is likely to increase these volumes.
The programme's latest briefing refuted what it feels are exaggerated claims about the crime. Landau said that before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, media reports claimed that 40 000 women and children would be trafficked into Germany, yet research conducted after the event, found evidence of only five cases of trafficking. "This undue emphasis diverts attention and resources from other issues and creates several blind spots," Landau says. Therefore, other human rights abuses and social ills remain unmonitored and this could have long-term consequences in the region.

Civil society groups have urged diamond trade regulators to suspend ties with Zimbabwe because of human rights abuses in its Marange diamond fields.
A meeting in Israel of delegates from some 70 countries in the Kimberley Process (KP), a certification scheme set up to monitor diamond trade, will focus on trade in Zimbabwean gems. The KP angered human rights groups and diamond traders earlier this month when a monitor appointed to assess the Zimbabwean government's mining operations at Marange said that Zimbabwe had met the minimum conditions set by the industry regulator and could start gem exports. Meanwhile, human rights groups allege serious abuses by security forces deployed by the Zimbabwean government to stop illegal diamond digging after up to 30 000 panners descended on the poorly secured fields in 2006.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that Zimbabwean security forces this month raided the offices of a leading civil society organisation and arrested its leader, Farai Maguwu, two days after he met with KP monitor Abbey Chikane to discuss the continued presence of Zimbabwean soldiers in Marange. Rona Peligal of HRW says that the KP risks total irrelevance if it ignores these ongoing abuses.

Also making headlines:

An Eskom strike during the 2010 FIFA World Cup is still possible as the power utility's negotiations with three trade unions ended in disagreement on Monday night.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir creates a Ministry of Peace as part of a new Cabinet ahead of a 2011 referendum on southern independence.
The Southern African Customs Union initiates an independent evaluation of its prevailing revenue-sharing agreement.
And, official results from Ethiopia's election board confirm Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's landslide victory in a disputed May 23 election.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.