Tuesday July 26, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Lawmakers drafting the Protection of Information Bill yesterday turned to the potentially fraught issue of prescribing a review process for all state secrets classified in past decades. The ANC proposed that organs of state be ordered to consider all their secret files and where they decide that classification was no longer necessary, hand them to the State Security Ministry to release. In the case of now-defunct apartheid era Ministries, the decision would fall on the National Intelligence Agency and the Secret Service. The process would be overseen by an independent review panel – a body agreed to by the ANC last month when it made a raft of concessions on the highly contentious Bill.

South Africa is not seeking to overturn the competition regulators' approval of Wal-Mart buying control of local retailer Massmart, but wants tougher conditions for the deal, the Business Day newspaper reported yesterday.
Wal-Mart finalised its $2.4-billion purchase of 51% of discount retailer Massmart on June 20, after winning approval with minimal conditions from South Africa's Competition Tribunal. It was reported last week that the government was appealing against the tribunal's decision and wanted the court to either set aside the ruling or send the matter back for further consideration.

South Africa's ruling ANC said that it will give its Youth League leader and political powerbroker Julius Malema a chance to explain charges made in a newspaper that he had a slush fund to pay for his lavish lifestyle. Malema's call to nationalise mines and seize white-owned land has unnerved investors but has also seen him gain ground among poor blacks who make up the majority of the country and envision him as a future leader of Africa's most powerful economy. At a separate news conference held at ANC headquarters but not attended by Malema, Youth League executives dismissed the allegations, saying the fund in question was a trust fund used for charitable purposes.

Also making headlines:
South Africa's main fuel sector trade union will meet employers today in a bid to end a two-week strike that has hit fuel supplies in Africa's biggest economy, a union official said.
The UN envoy to Libya and the Benghazi-based rebel council discussed ideas for ending the civil war, but said a firm initiative had yet to take shape.
And, plans are being outlined to bring more business meetings, events and conferences to South Africa, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.