South Africa

JOHANNESBURG – The decision by President Jacob Zuma to extend the term of South Africa's top judge is being challenged in court, a legal body and an NGO say. Opposition politicians and investors are concerned about creeping antidemocratic tendencies, including State-led moves aimed at stifling the media by enacting secrecy laws in Africa's largest economy. Earlier this month, Zuma extended the term of Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo for five years. His term as a Constitutional Court judge had been due to end in August 2011. The court application, lodged by the Council for the Advancement of the Constitution (Casac) and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, challenges the legality of Zuma's decision. The organisations say Zuma did not adhere to constitutional requirements before making his decision. For example, he bypassed parliament, required by law to decide on extensions. "This (decision) infringes upon the principle of the separation of powers, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary that are the very cornerstones of our constitutional architecture," Sipho Pityana, Casac chairman, says in a statement. Pityana says the unilateral appointment of the judge by the head of the executive could lead to suspicion that the appointee is beholden to the person with the power to appoint. The application does not intend to impugn the integrity of Ngcobo, but rather to seek clarity on a constitutional principle, they say.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa's controversial African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema dismisses claims he will oppose President Jacob Zuma's re-election as leader of the ruling party. Speaking at the opening of the Youth League's elective conference, where he is set to sail into a second term as president, Malema accuses the media of fabricating a rift between him and Zuma. "Sitting here are your protectors. These are the people who delivered you to the Union Buildings (the official seat of the government) and we will forever protect you," Malema said to Zuma, who was at the event. "You have no reason to doubt us." But ANC insiders say, despite his comments, Malema is at odds with Zuma, who has dismissed the league's drives to nationalise mines in the world's biggest platinum producer and seize white-owned farms. Speaking at the conference, Zuma calls on critics not to read too much into discussions within the ruling party, saying that differing views should not be stifled. "One of the problems that face our critics and the people who tell stories about us is that they are not used to democratic organisations," he says. "If there is an open debate, they think it is a fight." Malema, the son of a maid, has been one of South Africa's most powerful politicians since becoming Youth League president three years ago. The league is regarded as a king-maker within the ANC, and is often used by party bigwigs to launch leadership bids and float policy ideas.

JOHANNESBURG – South African President Jacob Zuma has launched Africa’s biggest free trade bloc aimed at enhancing cooperation between 26 nations to boost economies in the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent. “There is no single country that can prosper on its own,” Zuma said at the launch of the initiative that will see three sometimes-overlapping trade blocs join to create a $875-billion market. “The Free Trade Area will certainly help us accelerate regional integration efforts aimed at ensuring that African countries trade with each other on better terms,” he told African leaders attending the launch. The Southern African Development Community, the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will now work as a joint bloc. The agreement will include about half the continent’s nations, but economic disparities and political instability in countries like Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Libya and Sudan are possible hurdles to improved trade.

JOHANNESBURG – The Property Charter, once gazetted, will seek to promote development and investment in rural areas through a new economic development code, Property Sector Charter Council chairperson Saul Gumede says. The Charter will provide a statement of commitment from all the key role-players in the sector to a growth strategy based on empowering a broad group of previously disadvantaged South Africans. The economic development code will equate to 15 points out of the 107 points of the Property Charter scorecard, which also includes elements of employment equity, socioeconomic development, enterprise development and preferential procurement, as well as ownership and control of enterprises and economic assets. “The economic code is an important inclusion as, under apartheid, development in these areas did not take place. Therefore, people in townships and rural areas had to travel great distances for goods and services. The type of development we would like to encourage includes, for example, the Maponya mall, in Soweto,” says Gumede. Special permission from the Department of Trade and Industry is required to implement the new code. Gumede says that the economic code serves to make the property industry aware of the market within rural areas and townships, and encourage investment in these areas. In doing so, the industry will attain the same returns as it will from property development in Sandton.

Africa & the world

TRIPOL –North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) planes resume bombardments of Tripoli after Muammar Gaddafi's son says the Libyan leader is willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost, an offer rejected by rebels and the US. Gaddafi's son says that the elections could be held within three months and transparency could be guaranteed through international observers. He says his father will be ready to cede power if he lost the election, though he would not go into exile. But Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi appears to throw the potential concession into question, saying that the leader of the revolution is not concerned by "any referendum". A visiting Russian envoy says the Libyan leadership has reiterated that Gaddafi's departure is a "red line". The rebel leadership in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi rejected Gaddafi's son's election offer. "We tell him (Saif al-Islam) that the time has passed because our rebels are at the outskirts of Tripoli, and they will join our people and rebels there to uproot the symbol of corruption and tyranny in Libya," rebel spokesperson Abdel Hafiz Ghoga says. A US State Department official has also dismissed the election idea, saying it is "a little late for that". The proposal – which follows a series of moves the Libyan leader's officials portray as concessions but Western powers dismiss as ploys – comes at a time when frustration is mounting in some Nato States at slow military progress.

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama urges Sudan's government to halt military operations in a troubled border state and calls for a ceasefire in bloody fighting as the south prepares to secede next month. "There is no military solution," Obama says, appealing directly to leaders on both sides, in an audio message issued through the government-funded Voice of America network. The northern military has been fighting southern-aligned armed groups in southern Kordofan – the north's main oil state which borders south Sudan – in recent weeks, raising tensions as the south prepares for independence on July 9. Air strikes on southern Kordofan, which is home to many fighters who sided with the south against Khartoum during the last civil war, may have killed as many as 64 people and caused tens of thousands to flee, the United Nations says. "The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan must live up to their responsibilities," Obama says. "The government of Sudan must prevent a further escalation of this crisis by ceasing its military actions immediately, including aerial bombardments, forced displacements and campaigns of intimidation." The south's main party says that the northern army sparked the fighting by trying to disarm southern-aligned fighters in the region ahead of the split. The north has accused the fighters of starting the conflict.

KHARTOUM – Sudan’s President has agreed to pull northern troops out of the disputed Abyei border region before the south secedes on July 9, signalling possible progress in talks before the split. Fighting in border states Abyei and Southern Kordofan has raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict. The border’s exact position has yet to be defined. Khartoum seized control of Abyei on May 21, provoking an international outcry and complicating talks over other sensitive issues, such as how to divide oil revenue and how to split national debt after secession, opted for in a January vote. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has previously refused to withdraw troops from Abyei, was in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to meet the south’s President, Salva Kiir, to discuss the disputed region and other unresolved issues. “President Bashir has agreed to pull his troops out before July 9, with Ethiopia sending two battalions as peacekeepers. They will be deployed under the UN flag,” one diplomat says.

LUSAKA – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Africa to sell the benefits of US economic partnership to a continent where China has built strong aid and investment ties. Clinton arrived in Zambia to begin her five-day trip, which will take her to Tanzania and Ethiopia to highlight the Obama administration’s drive to deepen economic ties with Africa and help it meet challenges ranging from HIV/Aids to food security. “Increased trade is one of the fastest ways to expand economic growth, spur development and reduce poverty across Africa,” Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, says. The trip is overshadowed by news that Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about moving on next year to become the first female head of the World Bank, which could cast her as a lame duck at a time of huge diplomatic challenges for the US.