Tuesday April 10, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove

Making headlines:

The US should take the lead and break the long tradition of an American always heading the World Bank, Nigerian finance minister and a nominee for the top post said yesterday. Speaking after a "marathon" three-and-a-half-hour interview by the World Bank board, she said the decision on who leads the global development institution should go to the candidate with the best skills for the job. During her interview, she said she did not ask for the support of countries but pressed them to ensure that the selection process was open and merit-based.

Malawi's finance minister expects suspended international aid to be restored under its new president, Joyce Banda, helping prop up a Budget increasingly under strain after the previous president picked fights with overseas donors. Finance Minister Ken Lipenga also said that former President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday of a heart attack, had blocked plans called for by the IMF to devalue the currency because he was worried the move would hurt the poor. Aid-dependent Malawi slid into economic crisis over the past year as Mutharika, a professorial but temperamental former World Bank economist, squabbled with major western donors who then froze millions of dollars of assistance that had traditionally bankrolled about 40% of the Budget.

Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure resigned on Sunday, paving the way for the soldiers who ousted him in a coup to stick by a deal to restore civilian rule and hand power to the president of the National Assembly. Neighbouring States meeting to discuss turmoil in Mali's north, a major reason for the military's ousting of Toure, said they would seek dialogue with the northern rebels, a mix of Tuareg separatists and Islamists with links to al Qaeda, but warned they would consider military intervention if it failed. The twin crises – a coup in the capital that led to a rebel seizure of vast tracts of the north – have threatened Mali's previous reputation for democracy and widened a security void that regional and Western nations fear will exacerbate regional instability, terrorism and smuggling.

Also making headlines:

If ANC Youth League president Julius Malema wants his latest suspension lifted, he will have to approach the ANC's appeals committee, national disciplinary committee chairman Derek Hanekom said.

And, South Africa's economy will grow modestly over the next three years, weighed down by the impact of the eurozone debt crisis and easily outpaced by an inflation rate kept high by a weak rand, a Reuters poll showed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.