Friday March 30, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

Africa is ready to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor reiterated at a briefing yesterday. But the site selection was likely to be pushed out beyond April 4, which had been set down as the possible deadline for the allocation of a preferred site for the hosting of the radio telescope development. Australia is also in the running to host the international science project. It emerged that the final decision might be delayed as the members of the SKA organisation consider inputs that could affect the decision. The recommendations of the independent SKA site advisory committee had been referred to the members of the SKA board and would be central to their considerations.

The UN and the African Union urged the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to convene for talks as soon as possible after two days of clashes between the neighbours threatened a relapse into a full-scale war. South Sudan pulled troops out of Sudan's oil-producing Heglig area on Wednesday after it accused Khartoum of bombing major oil fields and other areas on its side of the border. Sudan denied the air raids but said South Sudanese troops started the fighting by attacking Heglig, one of the major oilfields left on the Sudanese side of the border.

The City of Johannesburg tabled its Integrated Development Plan and Flagship Programmes for the next five years to the city council, highlighting green projects and infrastructure upgrades as being critical to achieve the Joburg 2040 Strategy outcomes. Executive mayor Parks Tau said in his recent State of the City address that council had adopted an integrated planning and budgeting process that would see the city changing course. He identified four pillars on which to build Johannesburg, namely human and social development, sustainable services, economic growth and governance.

Also making headlines:

Mali's neighbours gave the leaders of last week's coup 72 hours to begin handing back power to civilians or face a crippling closure of trade borders, diplomatic isolation and a freeze in funding from the regional central bank.

And, the SA Reserve Bank has left the repo rate unchanged at 5.5%, Governor Gill Marcus said yesterday.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.