Wednesday, March 10, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Mary-Anne O'Donnell.

Making headlines:

Struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has lashed out bitterly at Nelson Mandela in an interview published in the London Evening Standard this week. She said that South Africa's first democratically elected President, who is her ex-husband, had become a "corporate foundation" who was being "wheeled out to collect money".
"Mandela let us down," said Madikizela-Mandela. "He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside." She added that Mandela had no control over the African National Congress anymore and was just being used by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to get funds.
Madikizela-Mandela criticised the statesman for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with the apartheid government's last President, FW de Klerk, adding that the name "Mandela" is an albatross around the neck of her family. He was not the only one who suffered in the struggle, she said.
Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin", while criticising the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD Dominique Strauss-Kahn yesterday called for greater global cooperation in regulating the world's financial systems.
Addressing students and academics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he argued that alignment in the global governance of the financial markets was critical in order to mitigate the effects of potential future crises and other market shocks.
Strauss-Kahn argued that Africa had become the "innocent victim" of the crisis and was hit particularly hard owing to its reliance on primary commodities, remittances, as well as a drying up of foreign investment
However, he pointed out that a number of African countries, including South Africa, were able to mitigate some of the worst effects from the crisis owing to their strong fiscal policies and high levels of public expenditure. Strauss-Kahn also said that policies to devalue the rand through a decrease in interest rates, were a "short-sighted" approach to curbing South Africa's unemployment.

African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema yesterday expressed support for President Jacob Zuma as leader of the ANC for a second term.
Speaking at the University of Johannesburg, Malema asserted that Zuma was the "only man guaranteed in 2012 for a second term." He also alluded to the Youth League's hopes to replace ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe with Fikile Mbalula in 2012.
Further, Malema expressed concern over what he called the "apartheid regime of the Western Cape", under the premiership of Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille and accused her of "suffering from Satanism"

Also making headlines:

Minister in the Presidency for National Planning Trevor Manuel is appointed to a high-level United Nations Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing.
The US State Department apologises for dismissive comments about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's call for a "jihad" against Switzerland.
African National Conhress spokesperson Brian Sokutu is under fire for comments he made on the controversy surrounding President Jacob Zuma's assets.
And, peace talks between Darfur's main insurgent group and Khartoum are to begin today after months of clashes and protracted negotiations.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.