Monday August 22, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman


Making headlines:

South Africa's special police investigation unit, the Hawks, said that it would look into allegations of corruption and fraud against ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema. Civil society group Afriforum has reported Malema to the police, repeating media allegations that he set up a trust fund into which businessmen and politicians paid thousands of rand in return for government contracts. Malema has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said the fund is a charity that supports different causes.
He had denied the trust was used for receiving bribes and said media reports probing his finances were "the imaginations of right-wing, narrow-minded and obsessed white people".

Jubilant rebel fighters swept into the heart of Tripoli as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces collapsed and crowds took to the streets to celebrate what they saw as the rapidly approaching end of his four decades of absolute power in Libya. Rebels waving opposition flags and firing into the air drove into Green Square, a symbolic showcase the government had until recently used for mass demonstrations in support of the now embattled Gaddafi. Rebels immediately began calling it Martyrs’ Square. Two of Gaddafi's sons were captured by the rebels, but the whereabouts of Gaddafi himself were unknown.

South Africa's Mines Minister Susan Shabangu said she is confident that a government-set ownership target for blacks in the mining sector would be exceeded and, if the process was done right, the policy may no longer be needed. The government's Mining Charter calls for 26% of the mining industry in Africa's largest economy to be transferred to black owners by 2014 as part an empowerment drive to rectify the disparities of white apartheid rule. "I am confident that we will exceed the 26% by 2014... We have seen progress," Shabangu said on Saturday on the sidelines of a mining conference.

Also making headlines:
Agricultural methods need to be radically overhauled to ensure food production rises to meet increasing demand but water resources should not be depleted further by doing so, UN research showed.

And, Liberia will hold a constitutional referendum tomorrow to determine whether elections due in October will be pushed back, and the voting process itself will be seen as a test of the country's readiness for its second post-war election.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.