Monday May 16, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Government has reiterated Cabinet’s call to all eligible voters to come out in large numbers on May 18, to exercise their democratic right to elect a government of their choice. “Regular, free and fair elections are a cornerstone of our democracy. Our votes on May 18 will go a long way towards entrenching South Africa as a democratic society with a legitimate government that is accountable, responsive and open,” said Cabinet spokesperson Jimmy Manyi. He added that government is satisfied that all institutions involved in the preparations for the elections, including the police, are ready and that the environment is conducive for a free and fair election.

Zimbabwe's central bank said it planned to take punitive measures against foreign-owned banks that resist demands to transfer majority shareholding to local blacks under a controversial empowerment policy. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF is pushing plans to force all foreign companies to cede controlling stakes to blacks, a policy which his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has denounced as "looting and plunder" by a greedy elite. Analysts say the move is likely to discourage foreign investment in the recovering economy.

Uganda's opposition leader who has led protests over rising prices said the action would spread and even soldiers who have battled demonstrators may stop doing so if President Yoweri Museveni fails to offer concessions.
Kizza Besigye has become the face of the often violent "walk to work" protests that urge people to leave their cars at home to highlight soaring fuel and food prices they say are suffocating Uganda's poorest.
"You saw the women on the streets, the lawyers said they were putting down their tools," Besigye says in an interview, in reference to allied marches and protests by womens' groups and lawyers.

Also making headlines:
Sudan said the northern ruling party won an election for governor in the north's main oil state after a vote the south said was rigged, creating a fresh flashpoint before the south secedes in July.
Multinational real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle’s latest report ranked South Africa as having the most transparent real estate market of all the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.
And, Russia said that the United Nations Security Council must decide how to free up and distribute Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's frozen assets, adding that they should not be used to arm any side in the war-torn country.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.