South Africa

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa needs to double the rate of its economic growth in order to create jobs, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says. "What South Africa requires is to move out of this cycle of this 3% or 4% or 4,5% growth," Gordhan said in a speech at the University of Johannesburg. "We need to do something that will get us to 7% and sustain it for 20 years." The Treasury last month cut its economic growth forecast for 2011 to 3,4% from 3,5% projected last October. The economy grew 2,8% last year, emerging from its first recession in nearly two decades. About half of South Africa's adult population is unemployed, keeping millions of blacks poverty-stricken even 17 years after the end of apartheid. Gordhan said the New Growth Path – a set of policies released by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel – has some measures that should be considered to fast-track the continent's largest economy. "What the New Growth Path is saying is that these are a set of possibilities, can we explore those possibilities?" "The lesson from other parts of the world is that there is no textbook available to get to 7% growth ... to create 5-million jobs," he added. Patel was handpicked by labour federation Cosatu – an ally of the ruling African National Congress party – to push for a leftist stance into government policies. Part of Patel's proposals include more state involvement in the economy, weakening the rand currency leftist policies into government. Gordhan's comments on the New Growth Path are the strongest yet that hint support for the set of policies that drew a lot of criticism from analysts and the business sector.

JOHANNESBURG – Climate change is probably the world’s biggest distraction and not its biggest and most immediate challenge, which belongs to clean water, says Professor Grant Cawthorn. Cawthorn, Wits University’s School of Geosciences Platinum Industry Igneous Petrology professor, contends that the lack of fresh water will have a much greater global impact than a “one or two degree” temperature rise. In a public climate-change lecture delivered to a packed Origins Centre audience in Johannesburg, Cawthorn singles out clean water as the “world’s most imminent challenge”, pollution as the “world’s biggest single over-riding problem” and slammed climate change as “the world’s biggest distraction”. He recalls that eight of the world’s top economists, including four Nobel laureates, put Kyoto at the bottom of their Copenhagen consensus better-world priority list “because it would cost a great deal and do little good”. Although he concedes that “we have to do something about climate change in the long term”, he contends that clean water and global-scale pollution are of more immediate concern. “The trick is to worry about the right things first,” he says.

PRETORIA – President Jacob Zuma has moved to allay fears about the draft Employment Equity Bill. In a statement issued by the Presidency, Zuma assures members of the Indian and coloured communities that government will not enact or implement any legislation in conflict with the Constitution and the nonracial ethos and foundations of South Africa. “The President met with the Minister of Labour, Mildred Oliphant, to discuss proposed changes to the Employment Equity Act, in particular the concerns raised by members of the coloured community.” Oliphant has assured Zuma that the legislation is intended to improve the employment prospects of the designated groups and not to make it difficult for them to obtain employment or to advance in their careers. The changes in the Act that are of concern relate to Section 42(a) (i), which states that, in determining whether an employer is complying with the Act, certain factors should be taken into account. The Act currently provides for the “demographic profile of the national and the regional economically active population (EAP)”. The proposed change in the Bill refers to the “demographic profile of the economically active population”. The Presidency states: “It is important to note that nowhere in the proposed change is there a proposal to remove ‘regional’ and leave ‘national’; in fact, both ‘national’ and ‘regional’ were removed.” The reason for the removal of the two elements was that employers had been enquiring over the years from the labour department how they should implement both regional and national demographics of the EAP in their workplaces.

Africa & the world

TRIPOLI – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son told rebels that they face a full-scale assault to crush their three-week-old uprising as troops, tanks and warplanes punch into the rebel-held east of the country. "It's time for action. We are moving now," Saif al-Islam says. "Time is out now...we gave them two weeks (for negotiations)." As he spoke, Gaddafi's forces intensified their counter-attack on the insurgent heartland, bombarding rebel positions in the oil port of Ras Lanuf. Warplanes also hit Brega, another rebel-held oil hub further east. Gaddafi forces and rebels also fought in the streets of the western town of Zawiyah, close to Tripoli, which has changed hands several times in recent days. Residents describe scenes of carnage, with women and children among the dead. As the military momentum appears to turn against the rebels, who have set their sights on advancing to the capital, foreign powers are at odds over how to end the turmoil and force Gaddafi out. Gulf Arab countries say that Gaddafi's government is no longer legitimate and France and Britain jointly called on the European Union to recognise the rebel council based in Benghazi. Despite a flurry of meetings, foreign governments came no closer to deciding on action. The US and Nato's head expressed doubt over the wisdom of imposing "no-fly zones" without full international backing and a legal justification. The African Union rejects any form of foreign intervention but says it is sending a delegation of five heads of state to Libya soon to try to arrange a truce in the hostilities.

ANTANNARIVO – Madagascar's Prime Minister and his government resigned on Thursday, in line with a road map proposed by international mediators to end a two-year political crisis on the Indian Ocean island. Eight out of 11 political groups in Madagascar initialled the plan backed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Wednesday. It calls for a new Prime Minister to be appointed, based on proposals from the political parties. "The Prime Minister and the government he ran have presented their resignations to me," President Andry Rajoelina says. "I have accepted the resignation of the government." "I am calling on all political actors to propose the names of people they consider capable of becoming prime minister and running a government to move towards elections," he adds. The new road map allows Rajoelina to remain in office until free and fair elections are held, and to appoint a Prime Minister proposed by the parties. Parliament and the electoral commission will expand to become more inclusive. "We will know the name of the prime minister at the start of next week at the latest. The person will then form a government," Rajoelina, Africa's youngest president, says. Madagascar plunged into crisis in 2009. Weeks of often violent protests drove former President Marc Ravalomanana into exile in South Africa and Rajoelina took over.

TORONTO – South Africa’s mining licence cadastre that Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu will launch publicly on March 30 will show who owns mining rights, the type of rights, and the duration of ownership, she says. It will be posted on a website and can be accessed by anyone, she adds. “If somebody claims they own a licence, [they] can go on the website and check whether that company exists. It will be able to tell whether it’s a prospecting licence or whether it’s a full mining licence, and the period it has been granted for,” Shabangu says. “I’ll launch it publicly on March 30 so everyone is aware of what we have done,” she said in an interview at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention. Shabangu adds that the Mineral Resources Department is already running the system to ensure it is working properly. “It will assist investors,” she says. Addressing a question from the audience after her speech, Shabangu said that President Jacob Zuma had expressed concern to her over investors that applied for an exploration licence in the country, only to sell it before developing a mine. “[Zuma said] we must consider a process where [the rights revert] to the State. But that’s the view of the President,” she says. Asked to elaborate on this, Shabangu commented: “If you wanted to apply for the same rights and you wanted to exploit the rights, you have been disadvantaged by someone who has passed it on. It is unfair.” The issue will be addressed as one of the amendments to South Africa’s mining legislation, the Minister explained.

HARARE – A Zimbabwe court has freed 38 political activists detained for weeks on charges of organising protests against veteran President Robert Mugabe similar to those that toppled long-serving leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. Police arrested 46 people in the capital, Harare, on February 19 as they watched videos of protests in the North Africa States and discussed possible demonstrations in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe, 87, has held power for 31 years. Defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama says that State prosecutors had agreed to free a majority of the accused activists, who faced treason charges and possible execution if convicted. “Out of the 46 who were in custody, 38 have been released after the State agreed with us that they had no case to answer.” He adds that the remaining eight – including Munyaradzi Gwisai, who heads a small but radical pressure group called the International Socialist Organisation – will be back in court for a remand hearing session on March 21. They have all pleaded not guilty. Defence lawyers say the accused were engaged in an academic debate on African politics when the police pounced on them. International human rights groups have appealed for their release.