Friday September 09, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

A total of 2 071 487 serious crimes were committed in South Africa in 2010/11, according to the crime statistics released by the South African Police Service yesterday. This compared to 2 121 887 cases registered during 2009/10. "This means that the total number of serious crimes was reduced by 2.4% or 50 400 cases," according to the ‘Crime Report 2010/2011’ for April 2010 to March 2011. This exceeded government's target of reducing serious crime by 1 to 1.8% a year.

Reforming South Africa's schooling system was possible within six years with political leadership, according to a Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) report. "The country needs bold political leadership and a new social compact to improve the quality of schooling. South Africa desperately needs much better outcomes," said CDE executive director Ann Bernstein in the report, released on Wednesday. The report, School Reform is Possible: Lessons for South Africa from international experience, summarises discussions held in April with experts from Brazil, Ghana, the US and India, where significant schooling reforms were implemented.

Political parties voiced mixed reaction about President Jacob Zuma's appointment of Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng as South Africa's new chief justice. The IFP expressed disappointment, while the ACDP welcomed the move. The Freedom Front Plus expressed some reservations, but said it would accept Mogoeng's appointment. Cope congratulated Mogoeng on his new position. The IFP said the current system for appointing a chief justice did not allow for the best candidate to be appointed.

Also making headlines:
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said that the police were developing a national small business robbery strategy to fight crimes in this sector.
And, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi vowed to remain on Libyan soil battling Nato and the country's new leaders, dismissing reports that he had secretly fled towards bordering African states as part of a military convoy.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.