Wednesday February 15, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Henry Lazenby

Making headlines:

South Africa had taken a "welcome" principled stance in voting for United Nations resolution on the unrest in Syria, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday. Speaking in Cape Town, Hague said people were dying in Syria because the UN Security Council (UNSC) had failed to agree on a united response on the assault against protesters by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We welcome the principled stance that South Africa took in voting, as we did, for the UNSC resolution," Hague said. He said Britain and South Africa agreed about wanting Syrians to be allowed to resolve their differences peacefully.

The European Union (EU) is expected to keep up sanctions on Zimbabwe but remove a third of the people from its list of those affected by asset freezes and visa bans, EU diplomats said. The arms embargo will remain in place and a freeze in development aid will be extended for another six months, the diplomats said. The decision, expected to be announced on Friday, comes after President Robert Mugabe's coalition government stabilized an economy that a few years ago struggled with food shortages.

Government does not intend to scrap the nine provinces altogether, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Richard Baloyi clarified on Tuesday. “One of the department’s functions is to support and strengthen provinces in fulfilling their constitutional and legal obligations. It has been made clear in the Constitution that government shall have three spheres and that includes provinces and as a department we will just continue to strengthen it and we call on everybody to join us in supporting and strengthening the provinces,” he said. Baloyi was responding to a question during the Social Protection and Community Development Ministerial Cluster briefing in Cape Town.

Also making headlines:

The Unemployment Insurance Fund paid out R4.7-billion in benefits in the first nine months of this financial year, it was announced.

And, The UN Security Council called on Sudan and rebels in areas bordering South Sudan to grant immediate access for UN aid workers to the turbulent region, expressing "deep and growing alarm" at rising hunger levels.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.