Wednesday, September 29, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Dennis Ndaba.

Making headlines:

Organised labour and the government have agreed to form a committee to deal with South Africa's looming water crisis. Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) president Costa Raftopoulos explained on Tuesday, that the committee will look at procurement, budgetary problems and legislative processes. It will also "ensure that an audit of the state of [South Africa's] infrastructure is done [and investigate] why it takes so long to address water-related problems."
Fedusa and its affiliate, the United Association of South Africa, presented the findings of their Section 77 application to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), with regard to the state of water security in South Africa, on Tuesday. Government representatives asked to be given 30 days to consult internally. Nedlac would then convene the first meeting of a steering committee.
Stellenbosch University epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes said at the event, that it is estimated that South Africa will run out of water by 2025.

The first commercial transactions relating to the development of utility-scale solar power generation capacity in South Africa's first designated solar park near Upington, could be completed in the first half of 2011, with the first electricity flowing into the grid by 2012.
Department of Energy deputy director-general Ompi Aphane says that the solar park, which could involve an investment of some R150-billion over a ten-year horizon, has been factored into the yet-to-be-published integrated resource plan, which will provide a framework for South Africa's power generation mix for the coming 20 to 25 years. A technology-neutral solar zone is proposed, operated by a so-called ‘Solar Park Authority', or SPA, where up to 5 000 MW of peaking and base-load solar electricity will be phased in over a ten-year period.
Energy Minister Dipuo Peters, who unveiled the concept at a function in Johannesburg on Tuesday, indicated that the SPA could either be established as a unit within the State-owned Central Energy Fund, or set up as a provincial or local government agency. The organisation would act as an investment facilitator, in a role akin to that of a development authority within South Africa's industrial development zones.

The European Union (EU) must scale back plans to protect its industries if it wants to seal a long-deadlocked trade deal with Southern African States, said South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on Tuesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of an EU-South Africa summit in Brussels, Davies said that "if there are further obligations at this point, it's going to be very difficult to conclude the process" by the end of the year.
Earlier, South African President Jacob Zuma and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the two regions were on target to complete trade negotiations by the end of 2010. But Davies said that a slew of new demands by the EU to protect European place names for wines and foods, as well as the possibility of demands for new antimonopoly rules and an end to Southern African export taxes, could eventually scupper a deal.

Also making headlines:

The United Nations Security Council says that it will send additional peacekeepers to the Côte d'Ivoire ahead of elections planned for next month and urged Ivorians not to postpone the vote after years of delays.
South African Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi says that a new unit to investigate corruption, fraud and maladministration within the government will be launched in November.
The International Monetary Fund says that it will not replace its outgoing representative to Madagascar owing to the continuing constitutional vacuum on the island.
And, diplomats from the United Nations Security Council will travel to Sudan next week to press officials in the north and south to speed up preparations for a 2011 referendum on southern independence.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.