Wednesday April 20, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The Department of Human Settlement's (DHS's) budget for the 2011/12 financial year has increased by 38% to R22,5-billion from 2010/11 and is expected to grow to R26,6-billion in 2013/14, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said in his budget vote speech. The DHS’s conditional grant to provinces over the 2011 medium-term expenditure framework period was also set to grow from R14,7-billion in 2011/12 to R16,2-billion in 2013/14. The DHS’s main cost driver remained the human settlements development grant, together with the new urban settlements development grant for cities, representing about 94% of the DHS’s total allocation with an amount of R21,2-billion.

Western Sahara's independence movement and its supporters on the United Nations (UN) Security Council voiced disappointment that a new draft resolution on the territory was not stronger on human rights. But Western diplomats said the draft, which would renew the mandate of UN peacekeepers in the disputed north-west African territory, had beefed up rights language in previous resolutions and marked progress that they were satisfied with. Sahara's Polisario Front independence movement has long called for the UN mission there to report on what it says are rights abuses by Morocco, which annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. Morocco denies the charge and opposes the move.

Stimulating South Africa’s productive capacity will be key to creating more jobs, President Jacob Zuma said, as he warned that the country is likely to take longer to recover from the job losses of the recession in 2009.
Zuma said in a speech delivered at a labour summit on job creation that the economy had started to show positive signs of recovery, but added that it might take longer to make a real dent in the 24% unemployment rate.
Government has set a target of achieving five-million new jobs by 2020, which would mean reducing the narrow unemployment rate to around 15%.

Also making headlines:
South Africa’s Public Protector is going ahead with an investigation into reported allegations of abuse of taxpayer's money against Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka.
The Côte d’Ivoire’s newly-formed military is not ready to conduct security patrols without United Nations and French help as soldiers might be prone to looting on their own, a top Ivorian commander said.
And, western powers committed to helping rebels overthrow Libyan leader colonel Muammar Gaddafi face increasingly difficult choices on the military, economic and diplomatic front as the conflict enters its third month.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.