Tuesday April 19, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

South Africa has found widespread violations during an audit of miners and other mineral rights holders in the country, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said. Shabangu said the inspections, conducted during a moratorium on the awarding of new prospecting rights, had resulted in over 400 notices being issued for prospecting violations. Over 700 notices were issued for environmental violations. The notices include intentions to cancel previously awarded prospecting and related rights. In the case of environmental infractions, the minister said the "rights holders are being given an opportunity to rectify cases of non compliance", but she added that some of the licences would be revoked.

The African Development bank (AfDB) is cutting its 2011 growth forecast for the continent mainly due to political unrest in North Africa, AfDB chief economist Professor Mthuli Ncube said. The AfDB will give its formal economic forecasts in June, but Ncube said that growth in the continent was likely to come in no higher than 5% this year, down from a previous projection of 6%. "Our expectation is that for Egypt, growth is going to be as low as 0,5% and for Tunisia as low as 1,0% so that has dragged down growth in the whole region," Ncube said.

More companies closed down in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter last year, Statistics SA said on Monday. "The total number of liquidations recorded for the first quarter of 2011 increased by 12,5% (from 944 to 1062) compared with the first quarter of 2010," Stats SA said. This increase was due to an increase in the number of voluntary liquidations and compulsory liquidations. The highest number of liquidations occurred in the financing, insurance, real estate and business services industries at 35%.

Also making headlines:
The Department of Transport's multi-billion rand road maintenance programme will create 70 000 jobs, Minister of Transport Sbu Ndebele said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appealed for unity on Monday after deadly riots erupted in largely Muslim opposition strongholds over his recent presidential election victory.
And, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation may have to intensify attacks on government forces to break the military stalemate in Libya, while the United Nations pushes for a humanitarian presence to help civilians trapped in the conflict.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today