Tuesday, March 30, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines:

Lawyers for civil rights group AfriForum and trade union TAU-SA will on Thursday apply for an urgent interim interdict to stop African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema from singing "shoot the boer". This was pending the Equality Court's final adjudication of the complaint laid by AfriForum on March 12.
The application asks the court to interdict and restrain Malema from publicly uttering any words or singing any songs using words "which can reasonably be understood or construed as being capable of instigating violence, discord and/or hatred" between blacks and whites.
In an affidavit forming part of the court documents, AfriForum's deputy CEO Alana Bailey said that Malema may be taking his cue from a former president of the ANCYL, Peter Mokaba, who commenced meetings with an infamous chant which contained the words: 'Kill the Boer, kill the farmer'. "These words were declared hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission in 2003," she said.
The High Court in Johannesburg ruled on Friday that use of the words "dubula ibhunu" (shoot the boer) was unconstitutional and unlawful. The ANC has indicated its intention to appeal against this ruling.

Africa should defy the developed world and subsidise its farmers so that it can to feed its people, said Malawi President and African Union (AU) chairperson Bingu wa Mutharika yesterday.
Developing countries have called on nations in the developed world to open up agricultural markets by cutting tariffs and subsidies - which they say discourage farmers from producing. Wa Mutharika said that food security should top the continent's agenda and investment in agricultural subsidies should be increased.
Speaking at an AU conference of ministers of finance, planning and economic development, Wa Mutharika said that the AU had agreed that food insecurity disturbs peace and security in Africa. He added that, in five years time, Africa should be able to feed itself.

Corruption is theft from the poor, said South African Communist Party (SACP) secretary-general Blade Nzimande yesterday.
Speaking at the SACP anticorruption seminar in Johannesburg, Nzimande said that corruption undermines South Africa's efforts to build a better life for all by diverting the country's resources away from the workers and the poor to the pockets of the elite. He said that the Department of Higher Education is paying particular attention to fighting corruption in institutions of higher learning because some rich people were bribing student leaders to campaign for them.
Nzimande also said that the media missed the point in reporting about life-style audits. The Congress of South African Trade Unions' call for life-style audits had been "opportunistically appropriated by a sensationalist media," he said.
Former judge Willem Heath told the seminar that corruption was more rife in the private sector than the public sector, adding that there is a need for a team of experts to work with the police and the National Prosecuting Authority to ensure that corruption is rooted out.

Also making headlines:

Nigeria offers to lease farmland to Gulf countries seeking food security.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions opposes the banning of the lyrics "shoot the boer", saying that they were part of the historic fight against apartheid.
Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi suggests that Nigeria be broken up into several states along ethnic lines, as diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorate.
And, Zimbabwe's political parties fail to meet a deadline set by South African President Jacob Zuma to resolve a power-sharing dispute.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.