Thursday July 14, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The Gautrain Management Agency and Bombela are in discussions to start with the full service operations between Johannesburg and Pretoria “as soon as possible”, a statement said yesterday. Gautrain Management Agency CEO Jack van der Merwe said that water seeping through the walls of the Gautrain tunnel between Park station and Rosebank station was delaying the introduction of the train service from Johannesburg to Pretoria. Bombela said that the seepage did not affect the safe operation of trains, as was also confirmed by the certification from the Railway Safety Regulator on Monday. Nonetheless, the concession company said that additional engineering work to reduce the seepage of groundwater was envisaged.

The world should recognise the efforts made by Sudan in bringing peace to its southern region, now an independent state, and normalise relations with Khartoum, state media yesterday quoted a senior Chinese diplomat as saying. Sudan has long been under a US trade embargo, and its leader, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, faces indictment from the International Criminal Court over war crimes charges stemming from long-running fighting in the Darfur region. But Beijing has maintained close trade, energy and military ties with Khartoum, and last month played host to Bashir.

The leader of the ANC Youth League Julius Malema is unlikely to gain enough support to pass nationalisation as ANC policy at the ruling party’s national conference in December next year, political analyst Justice Malala said yesterday. Speaking at a business breakfast in Johannesburg, Malala said that the youth league leader needed majority support in all nine provinces to pass the nationalisation of mines and banks as policy. “Julius probably has Limpopo, but the majority support will remain with what Jacob Zuma says in all the other provinces,” he predicted. Malala also said that big trade unions and the military veterans were not in favour of nationalisation, as these parties realise that such a policy would probably lead to a reduction in jobs.

Also making headlines:
France's Defence Minister said it was time for Libya's rebels to negotiate with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's government, signalling growing impatience with progress in the conflict.
Industrial action in South Africa's petroleum sector that is threatening fuel and medicine supplies is likely to intensify after a union said it would join another union already on strike.
And, Egypt's parliamentary election may not be held until November, about two months later than originally planned, an army source said after some political groups called for the vote to be pushed back.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.