Wednesday August 10, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that South Africa’s financial system remained strong, despite the global financial turmoil following the downgrade of the US credit rating and the ongoing European debt crisis.
Gordhan, South African Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus and members of the country’s financial stability oversight committee had discussions about the possible impact of the US credit rating downgrade and the ongoing sovereign debt concerns in Europe on South Africa’s financial stability. The parties said in a joint statement that South Africa had “deep and liquid financial markets, which continued to function even during this difficult time of global financial turmoil”.

The drought-hit Horn of Africa urgently needs an additional $103-million to rebuild agriculture and fight famine, the United Nations' (UN’s) food agency said, calling for a high-level meeting to help overcome the crisis. At risk of starvation are about 3.6-million people in Somalia and 12-million people across the Horn of Africa, including in Ethiopia and Kenya, the UN says.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it had asked for $161-million to save the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers across the Horn of Africa and had received or had commitments for around $57-million.

South Africa's ruling ANC put off discussions on Monday to bring its Youth League leader Julius Malema to heel after the populist politician angered the party by calling for nationalisation of mines and meddling in foreign affairs. Analysts said the ANC may try to temporarily silence the outspoken Malema but it will be difficult to keep down a man expected to be a power broker when the ANC elects its top officials at a party gathering next year.
The ANC and Youth League met briefly on Monday and decided to postpone further discussions because of the complexity of the issues, an ANC official said. Party sources had said at the weekend the talks would focus on friction between the two sides.

Also making headlines:
Libyan officials said that dozens of civilians had been killed in a Nato strike on a cluster of farmhouses east of Tripoli, but the alliance said it hit a legitimate military target.
Presidential candidate Amr Moussa pledged to build a "new system" of government if elected president to succeed Egypt's ousted Hosni Mubarak.
And, President Robert Mugabe said that Zimbabwe would punish firms from Western states who have slapped sanctions on senior officials in his Zanu-PF party, warning that global miners including Rio Tinto could be hit.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.