Monday August 08, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

ANC leaders are expected to demand tough action against the ANC Youth League at a meeting today, amid fresh allegations that its president Julius Malema is benefiting from multimillion-rand tenders funded by public money. Malema was "happy to make millions from privatisation while calling for nationalisation", the City Press reported yesterday in a front page article under the headline "Two Faced". According to the newspaper, the Limpopo government outsourced essential government functions to the company, which meant it was engaged in the privatisation of state functions.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood held a public internal election on Saturday for the first time in its history in a display of openness before a parliamentary election in November. The Brotherhood, Egypt's most popular and organised political force, was banned and often harassed, but semi-tolerated, during the 30-year rule of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted by an uprising in February. The Brotherhood is generally seen as the best prepared group for the November election in which its newly formed "Freedom and Justice" party will contest half the assembly's seats.

President Jacob Zuma is systematically processing the Public Protector's report into two leases for new police headquarters, the Presidency said yesterday. It was reacting to a Democratic Alliance claim made earlier in the day that Zuma had been silent on the matter and had not taken the appropriate action. "In fact, the president made a speech to the media on August 4 that he was submitting a report to the Speaker (of Parliament) on that same day," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj.

Also making headlines:
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said that his military had defeated Islamist rebels battling to overthrow his Western-backed government.
Voters in the West African archipelago of Cape Verde went to the polls yesterday in a hotly contested election that threatens to split the poor but stable nation's ruling party in two.
And, power and petrol shortages are afflicting the Libyan capital Tripoli, deepening public frustration as months of conflict with Nato-backed rebels take their toll on the seat of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's power.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.