Wednesday February 29, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Gia Costella

Making headlines:

The ANC is expected to make an announcement about the future of its suspended youth league president Julius Malema today. Spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said the national disciplinary committee will meet to finalise discussion on Malema. The ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeal upheld the conviction of Malema and five Youth League officials for bringing the party into disrepute and sowing division.

Detailed technical work was required before a definitive cost figure could be ascribed to South Africa’s proposal to build a 9 600 MW fleet of nuclear power stations, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said, indicating that the “indicative” R300-billion figure outlined in the Budget Review still had to be firmed up. Earlier, it had been reported that the programme could cost as much as R1-trillion, which had helped animate the already significant opposition to the programme, which had been included in the Integrated Resource Plan for electricity. It was also reported that nuclear would contribute 23% of the new generation to be added between 2010 and 2030. Opposition had increased following the Fukushima nuclear accident, in Japan last year, which had led government to set up a task team to reassess the approach that the country should adopt in rolling out its nuclear energy plan.

The independence of the judiciary is not under threat, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Jeff Radebe assured South Africans on yesterday. Radebe said the review of the judiciary and the assessment of the Constitutional Court decisions by his department were aimed at strengthening the judiciary so that they could play an effective role in transformation in South Africa. He also released a discussion document on the transformation of the judicial system and the role of the judiciary in the developmental state.

Also making headlines:

Senegal's presidential election will need to go to a second-round run-off, the campaign spokesperson for President Abdoulaye Wade said after partial results showed Wade well short of an absolute majority.

And, the South African National Roads Agency Limited has been pulled in to improve delivery on the R22-billion provincial and municipal roads maintenance programme, which is due to run until 2014.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.