Tuesday September 13, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

The Presidency reports that President Jacob Zuma will not be 'haphazard' in responding to the Public Protector's reports on lease deals for two new office buildings for the police. Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela, who released her second report on the leases in July, has given Zuma until Monday to respond. Madonsela found that the Department of Public Works had deviated from the tender process, that the lease agreements were not at the market rate, and that businessman Roux Shabangu had allegedly pressured officials to finalise the deals. She calls on Zuma to take action against the Minister of Public Works Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, National police commissioner General Bheki Cele and senior officials involved in the deals.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is prepared to provide external financing to Libya, if necessary, but does not expect the country to need such help beyond the short term, says a senior official of the global lender.
"If there is a need for short-term financing, the IMF is there to provide," says Masood Ahmed, director of the Fund's Middle East and Central Asia department. But he adds that Libya is not likely to need an extended aid programme, since an estimated $150 billion of sovereign assets once controlled by ousted Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his inner circle, now frozen abroad, will ultimately be available to the country.

The ANC has bemoaned yesterday’s court ruling that translations of the words "shoot the boer" and "they are rapists" is hate speech. The ANC is appalled at the decision because it thinks the decision does not appreciate the history of the ANC and the history of the liberation movement, says spokesperson Keith Khoza. He says the ANC will carefully study the judgment and develop a full understanding of its implications before deciding how to proceed. Judge Collin Lamont ruled in the High Court in Johannesburg that the singing of the song constituted hate speech.

Also making headlines:
The European Union will contribute €126-million to South Africa's fight against Aids and tuberculosis, in a region battling to gain ground in preventing HIV infections.
Libya's interim leader has made his first public speech in Tripoli, warning against reprisals after loyalists of the ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi struck out at the revolutionaries pursuing them.
And, former French president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin have denied accusations by a one-time aide that they took millions of dollars in illicit cash handouts from African leaders.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.