Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Minister in the Presidency responsible for National Planning Trevor Manuel is to assist President Jacob Zuma with his work in a New Partnership for African Development subcommittee on infrastructure, the Presidency says.
Zuma, as the African Union head of the north-south infrastructure development corridor, is the "political champion" of road and rail links between the north and south of the continent. "We have the enormous task of promoting tangible action, and have to mobilise resources for the development of infrastructure in the continent," he said.
The subcommittee includes Heads of State and government from South Africa, Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal. A Ministerial group on infrastructure is being established to support the designated Heads of State. Manuel has been tasked with this role for South Africa in line with his national planning responsibilities.
The Presidency said that the Ministerial group is to work on the "concept document" of prioritised projects generated by a task team and other "expert institutions".

United Nations (UN) peacekeepers monitoring a fragile 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan, would not be able to stop new hostilities between the northern and southern armies, said UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations Alain Le Roy on Monday, while discussing possibilities for boosting security ahead of a planned referendum on southern independence early next year.
US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has said that there is a possibility of temporarily increasing the 10 000-strong blue-helmet force in Sudan, known as the UNMIS, so that it could better monitor hot spots on the north-south border. However, Le Roy suggested that an increase would not help. "Our best available tool against a return to war remains our commitment in favour of a political agreement," he said.
Le Roy added that preparations for the referendum on independence of the oil-producing south, and a separate plebiscite on whether the oil-rich central region of Abyei should join the south or remain with the north, are severely behind schedule. US-supervised talks in Addis Ababa to work out disagreements that would enable the Abyei referendum to go ahead broke off in deadlock earlier this month. Le Roy said that a deal is crucial, as "tensions continue to increase on a daily basis in Abyei."

Excited talk of currency wars has given way to an uneasy truce, but what has so far been a phony war could yet break out into outright hostilities. The statement thrashed out among finance ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies in South Korea at the weekend, did no more than paper over the radically different views of the two main belligerents - the US and China.
The communiqué resulting from the G20 meeting called for more market-determined exchange rate systems, the avoidance of competitive devaluations and the pursuit of a full suite of policies to reduce current account imbalances. While there was evidence of progress in some key areas, the final communiqué showed all the signs of a "weak compromise between competing interests."
If not much changes as a result of the weekend meeting, questions are bound to be asked again whether a group as disparate as the G20 can be a cohesive steering committee for the global economy.

Also making headlines:

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday is expected to shed light on the State's spending priorities over the next three years.
Uganda clears four candidates, including long-serving leader Yoweri Museveni and his closest rival Kizza Besigye, for next February's Presidential poll.
South African power utility Eskom calculates that South Africa's electricity shortfall could peak in 2012 at 9 TWh, having confirmed that the first Medupi unit will only be fully introduced into the system by the end of that year.
And, Guinea tightens security after a weekend of looting and rioting fuelled by an open-ended delay to its Presidential runoff election.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.