Friday May 13, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale emphasised the importance of property ownership at the 43rd South African Property Owners Association convention in Cape Town. “Everyone wants to own property. Everyone has a right to property ownership,” he said, adding that the issue of ownership had to be dealt with. The Minister stressed that, according to the Constitution, no one should be deprived from owning property, except in terms of the law of general application, and that no law may permit arbitrary depravation of property.

An acrimonious power struggle among Somalia's leaders is opening the way for Islamist militants to step up their insurgency against the government, the African Union peacekeeping force said. Military offensives in the capital Mogadishu and in the south of the country earlier this year appeared to put Islamist al Shabaab rebels on the back foot, but there are concerns a lack of political leadership is now letting them regroup.
"The disunity among top government officials is an opportunity for the opposition forces to take root," major Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the peacekeeping troops said.Two peacekeepers and four civilians were killed in the last 24 hours, officials said.

The South African Police Service has partnered with Business Against Crime South Africa and community forums to roll out an initiative that would deploy owner-identifying technology, called microdotting, to mark household assets in an effort to reduce trio crimes. These crimes refer to armed robberies at homes and businesses and carjackings. The initiative would be driven through 136 community police forums in Gauteng that would educate and inform communities on the benefits of marking their assets with these minute identity dots.

Also making headlines:
South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance, trying to shed its image as the party of white privilege, could consider it a victory if its vote total in municipal elections is 40 percentage points behind the ruling African National Congress, analysts say.
Libya's rebel forces need their international allies to supply them with more weapons if they are to make a breakthrough in their fight against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said.
And, South Africa's electricity distribution sector urgently requires a centrally-funded asset recovery plan to deal with a serious maintenance and investment backlog that continues to grow yearly, an industry veteran has appealed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.