Tuesday May 31, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has called on researchers and academics to help government improve South Africa’s labour market statistics, which he believes remain distorted by flawed information gathering processes. Speaking at the inaugural 'Development Conference on the New Growth Path', Patel said it was well known that the labour-market information relating to South Africa’s ‘African’ workforce, prior to the democratic era, had been highly “distorted” – a fact that made an analysis of historical trends difficult. Since 1994, the statistical authorities had improved their coverage of the African population, using new instruments. But these continued to throw up anomalies.

Nuclear energy is not a quick-fix solution for South Africa's energy shortages, said Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters. "We in South Africa understand that nuclear is not a quick fix solution but a long-term method to address the energy crisis and climate change challenge," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the second regional conference on Energy and Nuclear Power in Africa, held in Cape Town. Nuclear energy forms part of the integrated resources plan which sets out the country's energy mix up to 2030. Nuclear would contribute 23% of the energy supply.

Under pressure from a new round of defections, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi renewed a ceasefire call in talks with South African President Jacob Zuma, but gave no sign he will heed Western-led demands that he step down. Zuma said after a visit on Monday that Gaddafi wanted a ceasefire including an end to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing – terms already rejected last month after an earlier mediation mission by Zuma. Zuma added, without elaborating: "We discussed the necessity of giving the Libyan people the opportunity to solve their problem on their own."

Also making headlines:

North and south Sudan have agreed to negotiate an end to the crisis in the disputed Abyei region, the southern Vice President said on Monday.

Botswana public sector unions said they had conditionally accepted a 3% pay rise but a 6-week strike that has shaken the ruling party's 45-year grip on power would continue until all demands were met.

And, the African National Congress and the National Freedom Party will work together in all hung municipalities in the Kwazulu-Natal province.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.