Monday December 12, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The two-week-long seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) came to an end in Durban this weekend with a fund launched to help poor nations fight climate change, countries agreeing to negotiate a legally binding deal on emissions reductions by 2015 to take effect by 2020, and the Kyoto Protocol extended. The ‘Durban Platform’ would result in the full implementation of the package to support developing nations, agreed last year in Cancun, Mexico. Particularly key, is the $100-billion a year Green Climate Fund, which would become fully operational in 2012. Countries have already started to pledge to contribute to start-up costs of the fund, said COP 17 president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, also South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. This meant that the fund could be made ready in 2012, and at the same time could help developing countries get ready to access the fund.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was endorsed again by his party to stand for elections expected next year, but analysts say even for a veteran political survivor, the 87-year-old leader will find it harder to convince voters to extend his rule after 32 years in power. Mugabe, they said, would face young voters, many born after independence from Britain in 1980, who may not be overly impressed with his party's tales of its leadership role in the liberation struggle and are instead desperate to find jobs in the country which has the world's highest unemployment rate. Zanu-PF members want Mugabe to hand over the reins to a younger leader, but nobody has ever openly challenged him due to a generous political patronage system and his ability to patiently wear down opponents and keep them guessing on his next move.

The Côte d’Ivoire awaited results from its first Parliamentary election for a decade, with officials saying a boycott by the opposition had done little to disrupt voting in the country recovering from a crippling civil war. Election officials said they expected most of the results from Sunday's vote would be known by Tuesday, with the outcome seen us strengthening the hand of President Alassane Ouattara's ruling coalition. The election was boycotted by the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who is in The Hague facing war crimes charges, over allegations of unfair treatment of his supporters.

Also making headlines:

Angola's political parties reached a deal on a new electoral law, ending months of negotiations over who will organise a general election next year.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's opposition will call for peaceful marches across the country early next week to protest against Joseph Kabila’s disputed election victory, a spokesperson for veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.