Thursday June 23, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Henry Lazenby

Making headlines:

Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane, will meet the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) at the Union Buildings tomorrow to discuss the deteriorating relationship between the media and the government. Government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi, who has been blamed for the tension, is set to attend the meeting. Editors held a meeting with him and a Government Communication and Information Systems delegation on Wednesday last week to address the matter but the gathering "broke down very badly".
Sanef then requested an urgent meeting with Chabane, Manyi's boss, to discuss the deterioration of relations between government communications and themselves.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is exploring an alliance with 17 liberal and other parties that could lead to electoral cooperation, in an apparent move to allay liberal concerns about the Islamist group's goals. The Brotherhood, Egypt's most organised political force, is widely seen as best prepared for the September parliamentary election as many secular parties struggle to get ready for the first free vote since President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow. The Brotherhood, officially banned but semi-tolerated under Mubarak, has said it will contest half of Parliament's seats, seeking to capitalise on the grass roots networks it has nurtured during decades of medical, social and charity work.

Black economic empowerment in terms of black people owning and operating mines in South Africa had not been successful to date, said black-owned Kuyasa Mining CEO Ayanda Bam. Speaking at the Coaltrans conference in Johannesburg, Bam put the failure down to transformation laws and a lack of commitment from some black miners to develop sustainable businesses. Over the past 16 years, South Africa’s laws have progressed to open the market for all, but in the process, the BEE policy had enriched only a few, rather than lifting people out of poverty.

Also making headlines:

A split has opened within the Nato-led air campaign against Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with France and Britain rejecting an Italian call for a halt to military action to allow aid access.
South Africa’s National Treasury has contributed R200-million towards the hosting of the 17th conference of the parties on climate change, in Durban from November 28 to December 9.
And, ANC veteran Kader Asmal has died aged 76.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.