Friday August 12, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

While the ANC welcomed Cabinet's decision to release the National Health Insurance (NHI) Green Paper for discussion yesterday, the opposition contended it would not achieve its purpose. ANC spokesperson Zweli Mkhize said measures were needed to overcome the huge inequalities characterising the fragmented, inefficient two-tier healthcare system.
However, Mike Waters of the Democratic Alliance said that while solutions for healthcare problems needed to be openly debated, the presently mooted, cumbersome NHI plan would not reach the required outcome of achieving quality healthcare for all.

Egypt has begun procedures to end the country's three-decade old state of emergency, the government said, a key demand of the protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. The Cabinet said it would abide by a pledge to end the emergency law, which gave Mubarak's hated police force sweeping powers to stifle dissent against his rule, before Parliamentary elections expected in November. Rights campaigners say the continued emergency powers are an anachronism in post-Mubarak Egypt that saps the credibility of the interim government as a force for democratic change.

The South African government is ready to take action to cushion the economy against the current global economic situation, which poses greater uncertainty for developing nations. “What we mean is that we will assess and manage debt; we will ensure we do enough for infrastructure. We will do things we need to do to refloat the economy,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said yesterday. On Monday, National Treasury and the Reserve Bank issued a statement that the country would monitor the impact of the downgrading of the US and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe on South Africa’s economy.

Also making headlines:

Libyan rebels said they had captured part of the oil town of Brega while their forces in the west pushed toward Zawiyah, trying to get within striking distance of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's capital.

Cabinet has noted the national position for the negotiations on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said.

And, a white paper outlining the principles and framework of South Africa's foreign policy has been approved by Cabinet and will now make its way to Parliament.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.