Friday, October 30, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.
Making headlines:
Schools and local governments are not delivering the results that South Africans need to overcome the recession and the ravages of apartheid, said President Jacob Zuma in the National Council of Provinces yesterday.
Although spending on education absorbs a significant amount of South Africa's budget, Zuma said that the country's education system does not produce the necessary outcomes.
The President added that his administration has chosen to respond to the global economic crisis not by propping up banks and businesses, but by correcting long-standing problems, many of them part of the legacy of apartheid.
The government therefore sees the economic crisis as an opportunity "to improve the operation of government and ensure that it better utilises scarce resources."

African nations will ask developed States to speed up work to conclude the Doha Round of trade talks and to make early concessions on reducing cotton subsidies that hurt poor farmers, said South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies yesterday.
African trade ministers have been working on a unified position in Cairo this week to try to pry open the markets of developed countries ahead of a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Geneva on November 30.
A draft communiqué adopted at the Cairo meeting states that African nations want a developmental component at the core of the Doha Round, which has become imperative as a stimulus for African economies.
Delegates at the conference said that continuing delays on a new global trade deal are crippling African development, especially in the wake of the global economic crisis.

Opposition Members of Parliament on Thursday blasted the South African Police Service (SAPS) for its inability to promptly and properly respond to most emergency calls.
The House was considering a report by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts on an audit, conducted earlier this year, of service delivery at police stations and 10111 call centres.
The report lists numerous shortcomings and areas of operational weakness in the SAPS, including: its sector policing, vehicle management, training and handling emergency calls, among others.

Also making headlines:
The United Nations Security Council extends its sanctions on the Côte d'Ivoire.
South African President Jacob Zuma calls for greater efficiency in the handling of corruption cases.
The African Union imposes sanctions on the leaders of the Guinea junta that seized power last year.
And, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza seems headed for a re-election.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.