Wednesday September 14, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The City of Johannesburg has denied reports that a strike by Emergency Management Services (EMS) staff was because of maladministration and corruption. "The city calls on workers with legitimate grievances or evidence of alleged corruption to present it to the city so that it can be investigated," spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said in a statement. He said the city could not recklessly suspend any employees without any tangible evidence of misconduct and due process being followed. On Friday, Samwu announced that about 700 EMS workers would down tools to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the acting head of the EMS, Tshepo Makola.

Mitigation and adaptation, political smartness and smart policy were crucial to developing Africa’s agricultural industry, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change Andrew Steer said. He said at an African Ministerial conference on climate-smart agriculture, in Johannesburg, that harnessing political enthusiasm to address food security, climate change and disaster management, coupled with smart policies and effective partnerships would unlock financing for agriculture. Steer said that one of the best ways to reduce poverty was to invest in agriculture. “On average, good money invested cleverly into agriculture will get four times the impact in reduced poverty.”

South Africans were likely to benefit from a positive, but conservative hiring pace in the fourth quarter of this year, with hiring intentions showing little change from the previous quarter, according to the ‘Manpower Employment Outlook Survey’ released yesterday.  Manpower South Africa MD Peter Winn said overall, the survey indicated that hiring intentions would remain positive during the fourth quarter. With seasonal variations removed from the data, the net employment outlook stood at +3%; however, year-over-year the outlook declined by 4 percentage points.

Also making headlines:
Libyan fighters handed out free petrol to help hundreds of civilians flee a desert town held by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces ahead of an onslaught aimed at capturing one of the ousted ruler's last bastions.
The disciplinary hearings of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, four other office bearers and spokesperson Floyd Shivambu has been postponed until Thursday, said ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza.
And, Kenya's Cabinet has proposed delaying next year's elections by four months.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.