Monday February 21, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The Presidency has come out in support of former President Thabo Mbeki regarding his mediation efforts in the African Union (AU) which the Sunday Times newspaper have claimed cost taxpayers R20,5-million. Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said that: "Media reports suggesting that the move is designed to clip the wings of former President Mbeki are incorrect and misleading”. "The Presidency will continue to provide support to former Presidents and Deputy Presidents, guided by the regulations and available resources, " he added. He said that South Africa was committed to supporting the AU, its structures and regional organisations, in working for peace and stability.

Veteran Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni looked set for three decades in power, provisional results of a Presidential poll showed amid opposition claims of irregularities and the spectre of unrest. Analysts had forecast a closely fought contest, but provisional electoral commission results from more than 40% of polling stations handed Museveni 71% of the votes counted, with rival Kizza Besigye trailing on 23%. Ugandans also voted to elect 327 Members of Parliament, though results are trickling in slowly.
Opposition frontrunner Besigye planned to release his own poll tally before the official results and said that, if both sets of figures did not match, it would mean the elections were rigged and his supporters would take to the streets.

Egypt has appointed a member of the liberal opposition Wafd party as Tourism Minister in an unprecedented move, State news agency MENA said. Mounir Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd party, has accepted the position in Egypt's interim government, MENA added.
"Accepting the position is a national duty to push for change in the right direction," MENA quoted Abdel Nour as saying to the Mehwar television channel. Abdel Nour called on Egypt's next elected President to change the country's constitution, which he said was outdated, MENA said. Veteran leader Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising on February 11, and handed power to the army, which has vowed to restore civilian rule with swift elections.

Also making headlines:
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has pledged to form an anticorruption commission and hinted he may retire, a party official said, a move critics said aimed to quiet dissent within the Arab world awash in prodemocracy unrest.
The US has issued its strongest condemnation yet of Libya's violent crackdown on protesters, citing what it called credible reports of hundreds of deaths and injuries and threatening to take "all appropriate actions" in response.
And, Djibouti has detained three leading opposition politicians, its chief prosecutor said, in a move to quash opposition protests triggered by a wave of political unrest sweeping through the Middle East.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines this week.