Wednesday June 01, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

South Africa's government said it could take legal action if the conditions imposed on WalMart's $2.4-billion bid for local retailer Massmart were not enough to prevent large-scale job cuts. South Africa's competition authorities approved WalMart's bid for 51% of local discounter Massmart on Tuesday, imposing conditions such as a two-year freeze on job cuts.
Unions and three government departments – Economic Development, Trade and Industry, and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – had lined up against the deal, saying it could hurt local suppliers and lead to job losses.

Representatives from north and south Sudan have agreed to set up a demilitarised zone along their shared border, the African Union said ten days after the north seized the disputed Abyei region. South Sudan is scheduled to become an independent country in less than six weeks, but the two sides have yet to settle issues such as the position of the common border and sharing oil proceeds. Khartoum sent tanks and troops into Abyei on May 21, and has since defied calls from the United Nations, the United States and south Sudanese officials to withdraw, saying the land belongs to the north.

Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim. But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb." Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.

Also making headlines:
South Africa will not dispose of a 13% stake in Vodacom because of its important contribution to the national fiscus, the Communications Minister said.
The National Treasury has taken new steps to improve the transparency of government procurement and tender processes through the issuance of an ‘instruction note’ to government accounting officers.
And, “Realistic, credible and achievable targets” were needed to generate positive results for the World Trade Organisation’s stalled Doha round by year-end, director-general Pascal Lamy said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.