Friday, November 26, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi on Thursday reaffirmed the trade union federation's commitment to the African National Congress- (ANC-) led tripartite alliance.
Speaking at a Cosatu and National Union of Metalworkers discussion in Newtown, Vavi said that the trade union entered into the alliance “with open eyes." However, he pressed the point that Cosatu's loyalty to the ANC alliance does not mean that the federation has to report to the ANC. Referring to comments made by the ANC after Cosatu hosted a civil society conference, accusing Vavi of taking an "oppositionist" stance towards the ANC-led government, Vavi said that Cosatu is “an independent body [and that] no one will prescribe to [it] who must be [its] friends and who must be [its] enemies."

The number of people living in extreme poverty continues to grow in the world’s poorest countries, despite the 49 least-developed countries (LDCs) showing growth of about 7% over the last decade, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).
Released in Johannesburg on Thursday, the report shows that the number of people living in extreme poverty in LDCs increases by about three-million every year. Unctad economic affairs officer Rolf Traeger says that this trend is mainly as a result of low-income countries’ heavy reliance on the exports of extractive resources and their inability to diversify their economies. Traeger pointed out that fixed investment is essential to growing a sustainable economy, yet LDCs only spend 20% of their income on such investment. Consequently, LDCs are unable to structurally build their economies and continue to suffer from a lack of infrastructure and minimal industrialisation.
Traeger said that efforts from the international community to mitigate extreme poverty over the past decade had for the larger part been fruitless. He explained that while a number of efforts to assist LDCs had been launched, they had proven to be more symbolic rather than practical development efforts. In fact, only two countries, Botswana and Cape Verde, were able to escape their status as LDCs in the last 30 years.

Deeper regional integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will only be achieved if there is a sense of ownership on the part of not only governments, but also business and civil society in the region. Joaquim Chissano foundation CEO Leonardo Simao says that “integration has to be inclusive, though it is the role of government to drive it.”
Addressing delegates at the Southern Africa Trust’s dialogue on doing responsible business in Southern Africa, at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) on Thursday, Simao explained that a bottom-up approach to regional integration might take longer, but the foundation would be stronger.
DBSA division executive David Jarvis explained that the reality from a project financing point of view, was that it was difficult to bring regional integration, or crossborder projects to financial close.

Also making headlines:

Preliminary results show that Burkina Faso's incumbent President Blaise Compaore has won a Presidential election with 80,21% of the vote.
Axed Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda is to become President Jacob Zuma's Parliamentary counsellor, keeping him abreast of developments and providing advice on the course of action required.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti says that the country’s economy is expected to grow nearly 10% next year as the key mining and agriculture sectors expand, but will rely largely on domestic revenue to fund its budget as international donors hold back aid.
And, the United Nations mission to the Côte d’Ivoire urges both candidates in Sunday's Presidential runoff, not to claim victory before the results are announced, amid fears of violence.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.