Tuesday April 12, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

More than a third of South Africa’s metropolitan residents indicated that South Africa’s mines should be nationalised, TNS Research Surveys reveal. A survey of 2 000 metropolitan residents found that 38% of adults were in favour of nationalisation, while 28% disagreed and a considerable 34% gave a “don’t know” response, suggesting that the positive and negative aspects of the issue have yet to be fully explained to people.
The survey showed that the level of agreement differed considerably by race, which could be a divisive issue.

The Côte d’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo was arrested by opposition forces on Monday after French troops closed in on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been holed up in a bunker for the past week. A column of more than 30 French armoured vehicles moved in on Gbagbo's residence in Abidjan after helicopter gunships attacked the compound overnight to end a drawn-out political standoff that had descended into civil war. Gbagbo refused to step down when Alassane Ouattara won November's presidential election, according to results certified by the United Nations, reigniting violence that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people.

Justice Minister and the African National Congress' (ANC's) head of policy Jeff Radebe on Monday distanced himself from an alleged plot to oust President Jacob Zuma at the ANC's 2012 elective conference. "I am neither aware of any such plot nor do I know of any group whose mission it is to work towards ousting President Zuma at the next ANC Conference," Radebe said in a statement issued by his spokesperson Tlali Tlali. "I consider these allegations spurious and malicious." This followed a report by the Sunday Independent which named Radebe among alleged conspirators plotting Zuma's removal as president of the ANC.

Also making headlines:
An African Union plan to halt Libya's civil war collapsed, and rebels said the increasingly bloody siege of the city of Misrata by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's troops made talk of a ceasefire meaningless.
Soaring oil prices and inflation in the emerging economies that were a welcome source of stability during the financial crisis pose dangerous new risks to the world economy, the International Monetary Fund said.
And, employment in South Africa showed strong growth of 5,6% in March, with positive growth recorded across all sectors for the first time in two-and–a-half years, said JSE-listed Adcorp.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today