Friday, September 17, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Nationalising South Africa's mines is not part of government policy, said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday, adding that he does not expect any change of policy on this issue.
The Minister also said that South Africa is currently using reserve building and currency swap operations to control the rand, which has strengthened almost 5% against the dollar this year. Powerful trade unions have led calls to tame the currency through a capital inflows tax but Gordhan said that the Finance Ministry will first study other countries' experiences on this.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday that a noninflationary way to build reserves would be for South Africa to accumulate gold from the mining companies, which it wants to nationalise.
Gordhan reiterated that mine nationalisation is not government policy, but added that "in a democracy you have a right to express your point of view and [that] these issues will be debated."

South Africa will directly link the failure to reform key international institutions, including the United Nations (UN) Security Council, with the recent regulatory shortcomings that led to the global financial crisis, during lobbying efforts at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, kicking off on September 23.
South Africa, along with many other developing countries, has long been seeking reform of the powerful body, as well as a permanent seat for Africa on the Security Council.
Speaking at a briefing ahead the departure of a high-level delegation to New York for the UN meeting, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane stressed that the economic crisis confirmed that the current structures and instruments of global economic governance are "largely inadequate" and "in need of reform". However, she went further by arguing that an unwillingness to transform the UN and other multilateral structures, including the Security Council, had been a factor in the current economic destabilisation. South Africa is also seeking reforms at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the International Labour Organisation. "Reform of the international financial architecture is necessary to ensure a system that is better equipped and geared to achieving Millennium Development Goals," she said.

If the Public Service Broadcasting Bill is passed through Parliament, it would be a great disservice to the public, said Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird on Wednesday. Speaking at a colloquium on press freedom at the University of the Witwatersrand, Bird said that the Bill would mean that the Minister of Communications would be given extensive powers of intervention in the public broadcaster, the SABC, and that this would undermine media independence as a whole.
Kate Skinner of the Support Public Broadcasting Campaign, added that the Bill would change how public broadcasting would operate, right from the SABC down to community broadcasting.
Both Bird and Skinner stressed that the implementation of the Bill was a serious threat to media freedom and that giving the Minister of Communications greater powers of intervention sets a dangerous precedent that would undermine democracy in the country.

Also making headlines:

The United Nations envoy to Somalia says that there is an urgent need to boost military support for Somalia's government and African Union peacekeeping forces.
Sudan's Cabinet approves a new strategy for resolution of the Darfur conflict, which rebels dismiss as a "recipe for war".
South African Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan tells Parliament that government has decided to stop investment in the pebble bed modular reactor project.
And, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says that the country's new law to increase local black ownership of foreign firms would not amount to expropriation as there would be no forced sales.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.