Friday, October 22, 2010

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

Making headlines:

South Africa's economy may expand slightly faster this year than was forecast in the February budget, but midterm growth rates look set to fall short of government aspirations, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday.
In a written response to questions in Parliament, Gordhan added that recent above-inflation wage hikes will weigh on State finances in the longer term, as government borrowing levels and interest costs rise.
In its 2010 budget tabled in February, the Treasury forecast growth of 2,3% this year after the economy contracted 1,8% in 2009. "These forecasts will change when the midterm budget policy statement is delivered on October 27," Gordhan said, explaining that "the economy performed slightly better than projections in the first two quarters of the year, so the actual growth outcome for 2010 may be moderately higher than our budget forecast."

Land purchases by foreign investors in poor countries and the growing use of biofuels are boosting pressures on agricultural farmland and helping make 500-million small farmers hungry, said United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter on Thursday.
The combination of environmental degradation, urbanisation and large-scale land acquisitions by foreign investors formed an "explosive cocktail" for small farmers, he said in a new report presented to the UN General Assembly. "This poses a direct threat to the right to food of rural populations."
On top of that, more than one-third of large-scale land acquisitions - which last year reached some 45-million hectares - are intended to produce agrofuels rather than food, according to the World Bank.
"All these developments have a huge impact on smallholders, indigenous peoples, herders and fisherfolk who depend on access to land and water for their livelihoods," De Schutter said, urging States to recognise these people's land rights.

Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor on Thursday approved the reprioritisation of the Department of Science and Technology's (DST's) budget for 2010/11 to provide increased support for the development of skills required for the National Research and Development Strategy.
To that end, the DST has now allocated R255,4-million to the National Research Foundation, which was mandated to support and promote research at universities, through funding, human resources development and the provision of the necessary research facilities in order to facilitate the creation of knowledge, innovation and development in all fields of science and technology.

Also making headlines:

France plans to do business with Libya in areas including nuclear energy, aiming at narrowing Italy's lead in building lucrative trade ties with the oil exporter.
The opposition Democratic Alliance is to approach Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi regarding the status of the task team set up to review wasteful government spending.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation suspends the award of a prize for life sciences sponsored by Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, whose government is widely accused of corruption and rights abuses.
And, Guinea's election commission chief says that it will be difficult to stage a Presidential runoff on Sunday as planned, citing a "deplorable" lack of preparation that would lead to a disputed outcome.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.