Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Print media in South Africa is a threat to democracy, said South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande on Monday.
Speaking at the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union congress in Ekurhuleni, Nzimande said: "We have a huge liberal offensive against our democracy... The print media is the biggest perpetrator of this liberal thinking." He added that the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal is necessary to protect the future of socialism in South Africa.
"We need a revolutionary, not [a] liberal, defence of our constitution," said Nzimande.

The criticism that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is against African countries is unfair, said Judge Richard Goldstone on Monday.
Speaking at a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg on international accountability for war crimes, Goldstone acknowledged that this was the perception because of the many Africans under investigation by the ICC.
The ICC has opened up five investigations into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya and Darfur in Sudan. Goldstone said, however, that this would change in the near future, as individuals in Latin America are coming under investigation. He added that the ICC only begins its activities after officials in those countries decline to open their own investigations. The ICC is "a court of last resort," he said.

South Africa should not let itself be paralysed by the daunting scale of the socioeconomic challenges it faces, said Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel on Monday.
Delivering the annual Imam Haron memorial lecture in Cape Town, he said that inequality levels in South Africa are among the highest in the world.
Patel explained that the government's plan to develop a new growth path for the country, had to start with the recognition that economic policy should be consciously designed to address poverty and inequality. A new growth path would involve major changes in delivery in government, he said. Among the proposals being examined are fiscal and monetary measures actively directed at promoting more jobs. These include, a more competitive and stable exchange rate, linked with measures to control inflation and improve efficiency across the economy.

Also making headlines:

South Africa's international relations spokesperson Saul Kgomotso Molobi says that the country will press again this week at a European Union summit, for targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.
Nigeria's Petroleum Resources Minister says that its Parliament should adopt a new law governing the nation's oil industry very soon.
South Africa's Environmental Management Inspectorate, dubbed the Green Scorpions, will carry out compliance assessments as part of a campaign to ensure conformity with environmental legislation throughout the country.
And, North Sudan's dominant National Congress Party threatens to reject the results of a southern independence referendum unless the south withdraws its troops from disputed areas and allows free campaigning.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.