Friday October 14, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Training municipalities to manage their finances will bring better service delivery, says Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande.

He adds that enhanced municipal service delivery, along with cleaner municipal administration may be ambitious, but is critically necessary.

He believes that the expectations of communities have been raised by the State, but not always met.

He says financial management is a key skill in local government which is not up to standard.

Government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi reports that Cabinet has approved the National Climate Change Response Policy.

Manyi says the policy is the embodiment of South Africa's commitment to "a fair contribution to the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa will update the media about this policy next week.

President Jacob Zuma has clarified South Africa’s foreign policy, saying it is independent and the country’s decisions are informed by its national interest.

Delivering a lecture on South Africa’s foreign policy at the University of Pretoria yesterday, Zuma said the country is not dictated to by other countries, individuals or lobby groups.

Government has recently come under fire over the delay in the visa application of spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with some assuming that foreign policy was being dictated by China and the country’s recent inclusion in the Brics bloc of emerging economic powers.

Also making headlines:

An announcement on the terms of reference for South Africa's arms deal inquiry may be imminent, suggests Cabinet spokesperson Jimmy Manyi.

By 2060 three quarters of Africa's 2-billion-plus people will be living in cities and most countries will fall under "upper middle income", but economic growth will still lag in the Asia's, states an African Development Bank report.

And, Cameroonian political parties have launched around 12 lawsuits calling for all or part of Sunday's presidential election to be annulled because of what they called widespread fraud.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.