Wednesday October 19, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon De Ryhove

Making headlines:

South Africa's ANC has failed the people and its policy shortcomings have set the stage for an uprising similar to the ones that toppled longstanding governments in North Africa, an influential political analyst said on Tuesday.

Moeletsi Mbeki, economist, author, businessman and member of one of the most prominent families in the country's liberation struggle, said that the ANC was running out of ideas.

"The banana part of the republic is the public sector," he said. "The private sector is very powerful, very strong and very well managed."

Few analysts have got under the skin of President Jacob Zuma as much as Mbeki, brother of former president Thabo Mbeki, whose access to top ANC officials has led to some of the most stinging attacks on the government.

There was no evidence yet to suggest that inflation pressures were becoming entrenched, Reserve Bank deputy governor Daniel Mminele was quoted in the Business Day newspaper.

Annual inflation has edged higher since hitting a 5-year low of 3.2% in September 2010 and is expected to rise to 5.6% in September from 5.3% in August. The September data is due to be released today.

Mminele said higher food, petrol and electricity prices had clouded what would otherwise had been a "somewhat more benign inflationary environment".

President Jacob Zuma will release the report of the Donen Commission of Inquiry into the involvement of South Africans in the UN’s Iraq oil-for-food programme, his office said yesterday.

Spokesperson Mac Maharaj said the report would be released in recognition of the public interest in the subject matter.

"The Presidency is aware of the potential misuse of the contents of the report," he said.

In 2006, former president Thabo Mbeki commissioned an investigation into illegal transactions by South African individuals and companies in the oil-for-food programme.

Also making headlines:

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema said leaders were not indispensable and could be removed at the wish of those who elected them.

Preliminary results for Cameroon's presidential election showed a widely expected landslide victory for incumbent Paul Biya.

And, the IMF said sub-Saharan African economies were expected to post nearly 6% average economic growth in 2012, rising from above 5% on average this year.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.