Monday, October 19, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma told members of the party's provincial general council at a meeting in Cape Town yesterday that they had failed in the Western Cape.
Zuma said that this failure is the reason that the national ANC appointed a team "in a very deliberate manner" to manage the province, solve problems and take the Western Cape out of difficulty. Turmoil within the ANC in the Western Cape played a major role in the ANC losing the province in the general election earlier this year.
Zuma pinned the blame for the party's poor performance on what he called the "twin" problems of lust for authority and positions, and money. These two are destroying the ANC, Zuma warned.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused the West of being reluctant to improve the terms of trade between rich nations and Africa. He added that the continent would gain more if allowed to trade freely and openly with the West.
Kagame explained that the removal of trade barriers with the West would be many times more beneficial than aid packages which have cost billions of dollars over the last 50 years but have brought few visible improvements.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said on Friday that the Doha Round of trade negotiations was moving so slowly that it would be difficult to conclude it in 2010, as leading wealthy and developing nations struggle to agree on trade issues.
Kagame, a strident proponent of "trade over aid", says that Africa should seek investment from around the world, including China, as a long-term development strategy.
Botswana's incumbent President Ian Khama secured a new five-year term yesterday after his governing Botswana Democratic Party swept to victory in a Parliamentary election.
Khama, son of the country's first President, will remain at the helm of the diamond producing nation, which is battling a recession and hit by internal party squabbling, after his party secured 45 of the 57 constituencies.
Also making headlines:
The Côte d'Ivoire election scheduled for November 29 is hit by new delays as pressure from former colonial power France increases.
South African President Jacob Zuma appoints Advocate Thulisile Madonsela as the new Public Protector.
The terrorism trial of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change official Roy Bennett is expected to be postponed today.
And, campaigners say that the Kimberley Process controlling trade in conflict diamonds is failing Africa.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.
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