Friday January 13, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The relationship between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union should be institutionalised, President Jacob Zuma said in New York yesterday. "We therefore believe that we should institutionalise the relationship between the two councils if our common objective of maintaining international peace and security is to be maintained," he said during the Security Council summit debate. This was one of four proposals Zuma made on how to strengthen cooperation between the two bodies. He said aligning policies and mechanisms for conflict prevention, mediation and resolution in Africa was paramount.

One of Nigeria's main trade unions said talks with President Goodluck Jonathan over the government's removal of publicly popular fuel subsidies were 'fruitful' and ongoing, but strikes would continue until an agreement was reached. Nigeria scrapped subsidies on petrol imports on January 1, more than doubling the pump price to around 150 naira a litre, sparking bitter protests across the country. Tens of thousands of Nigerians had been demonstrating in cities up and down Africa's most populous nation for four straight days as neither side was ready to concede an inch.

The performance of the Eskom power supply system has improved since Monday, when it warned of a "very high" risk of rolling blackouts, the utility reported, but it warned that the system remains constrained. Yesterday, the capacity available to meet the evening’s peak demand was 34 618 MW, while demand was forecast at 31 168 MW. Planned maintenance stood at 4 461 MW, with unplanned outages expected to be about 3 678 MW.

Also making headlines:

Libya expects the International Criminal Court to agree that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of Libya's late leader, can be tried in Libya, where he could face the death penalty, the Justice Minister said.

An expanded further education and training college sector has a central role to play in increasing artisan numbers and other mid-level skills, Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande said.

That’s a roundup of news making headline today.