Monday April 16, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The African National Congress (ANC) has warned its youth body against making pronouncements that undermine the Constitution of the organisation. "Regrettably, the ANCYL's decision to undermine and defy the decision of the NDC (National Disciplinary Committee) effectively defines the organisation outside of the ANC constitutional parameters," said party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu in a statement issued last night. He was reacting to yesterday’s decision by the league's national executive committee for Julius Malema to continue his role as league president, despite a suspension that was imposed by the NDC.

Former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo is set to withdraw his nomination for the World Bank presidency in an agreement among emerging and developing countries to coalesce around one nominee, three sources said. Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would remain as the sole candidate from developing nations in a race against US nominee Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American health expert who is seen as the favorite to win the race. Emerging market nations are seeking to challenge US leadership at the bank to increase their influence in global economic institutions long controlled by rich nations.

The prevailing shortage of engineers has been identified by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) as a major potential impediment to the effective implementation of South Africa’s ambitious infrastructure investment programme, which currently comprises 17 Strategic Integrated Projects. The PICC’s newly released infrastructure plan indicated that there were nearly 23 000 registered engineers in South Africa, of which about 5 500 were working in the public sector, including at the large State-owned companies, such as Eskom and Transnet. Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, whose department acts as the secretariat for the PICC, indicated that as part of a multipronged response to the “bottleneck” government would consider further easing immigration rules for technical professionals.

Also making headlines:

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau dispersed anti-military demonstrators and closed down private radio stations as their commanders put in place a transitional council that effectively consummated their coup.

And, Algeria launched the campaign for a Parliamentary election that the ruling elite hopes will soak up the pressure for change that has been building since the "Arab Spring" revolts in neighbouring countries.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.