Wednesday May 4, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

South Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 25% in the first quarter of 2011, from 24% in the final quarter of last year, Statistics South Africa reported in its quarterly ‘Labour Force Survey’, released on Tuesday.
The number of unemployed grew by 227 000 quarter-on-quarter to 4,36-million, while discouraged work-seekers increased by 73 000 the three months from January to March. Most of the jobs were lost in the transport sector, which accounted for 34 000 job losses, followed by 25 000 jobs in the construction industry. There has been an increase of 37 000 jobs in the finance sector, 20 000 in manufacturing and 15 000 in the mining industry.

Around 1 000 people on Tuesday gathered in the centre of the Sudanese capital Khartoum to praise the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, chanting "Death to America". A radical Islamist party had called for a mass prayer to honour the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, plane attacks in the United States who was killed in a US operation in Pakistan. Mostly men dressed in traditional white robes, some of them arriving in expensive cars, gathered on a square in the centre of Khartoum to attend the prayer and denounce the killing of bin Laden. Veiled women prayed separately in a corner of the square.

While foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa had been on the increase over the past decade, the continent was still not getting its fair share of global investment compared with other emerging markets, said Ernst & Young (E&Y) Africa CEO Ajen Sita in Johannesburg. In 2008, foreign investment into African reached a peak at just over $200-billion, tapering off in line with the global economic recession to the estimated $70-billion investment forecasted for 2011, E&Y’s first ‘Africa Attractiveness’ survey showed. While South Africa was seen by 59% of respondents as being the most attractive investment destination between 2003 and 2010, it was only able to attract 15% of new FDI projects.

Also making headlines:
Dozens of bodies littered the streets of an Abidjan neighbourhood as fighting continued between Ivorian troops and the remnants of a militia loyal to deposed leader Laurent Gbagbo.
South Africa has invested a lot of its skills levy fund on short courses which are of "dubious value" amid a backlog in artisans, accountants and engineers, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said.
And, a north Sudanese army convoy entered the contested border region of Abyei and clashed with southern Sudanese police, killing 12 people, the region's chief administrator, a southerner, said on Tuesday.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.