South Africa

CAPE TOWN – Jobs are not being created fast enough to absorb the rising labour force, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says. Taking questions in the National Assembly, he says this is despite two consecutive quarters of job creation. According to a report in The Times, Patel says up to 64 000 new jobs have been created in the past three months and that 150 000 jobs have been created in the nine-month period since the adoption of government's economic policy called the "New Growth Path". However, he points out that, in the first two quarters of the year, some 200 000 new job seekers had entered the market in each quarter. "We are not creating enough jobs to take into account the rate of growth of the labour force," he adds. Patel says 42 000 jobs have been lost in the agricultural sector, but that the informal sector has created 41 000 jobs. The New Growth Policy aims to create 5-million new jobs by 2020. Patel also says that target "was always a stretch target, especially for an economy with such high levels of unemployment." At least 27% of South Africa's workforce is currently unemployed and, according to some, such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions, this actually could be as high as 40%.

CAPE TOWN – South Africa is reviewing its mining law to strengthen the penalty provisions for noncompliance with the Mining Charter, which aims to transfer ownership to the previously disadvantaged, a government official says. "We are looking at beefing up the penalty provisions that may be imposed on mining companies for noncompliance to serve as a deterrent and to ensure there is greater compliance," Andre Andreas, director of mineral policy development at the Department of Mineral Resources, says. Parliament is holding public hearings on the amended charter, which aims at transforming the mining industry by transferring 26% of the key sector into black hands by 2014, a goal the mineral resource minister says is attainable. The Mining Charter, which first came into effect in 2002, was amended last year after mining companies in the world's top platinum and major gold producer failed to significantly transform the economically important sector. Only 8.9% of mines were owned by blacks in 2009, well below a target of 15%. Andreas says it is too early to assess the impact of compliance with the amended charter, although early indications show heightened interest among companies wary of falling foul of compliance targets, which range from ownership levels to better housing and living conditions for miners.

CAPE TOWN – The African National Congress (ANC) has made good on a promise to drastically restrict the application of the Protection of Information Bill, and has proposed narrowing the grounds for classifying information. The ruling party has ditched an unpopular proposal to pass the new law without a definition of national security. Instead, it has tabled a rewritten, simplified definition of the concept, which will serve as the only justification for classifying information under the new State Secrets law. It has done away with flowery language and lofty notions ridiculed by legal experts, defining national security as meaning the protection of the people of South Africa and the territorial integrity of the republic against the threat of the use of force, war, terrorism, espionage, violence and sabotage. This part of the definition was taken almost verbatim from a proposal by prominent media lawyer Dario Milo. His work was, in turn, based on the Johannesburg Principles, drafted by international law, security and human rights experts in 1995. However, the ANC has also inserted clauses necessitating the protection of the country against “exposure of a State security matter” and “exposure of economic, scientific or technological secrets vital to stability, security, integrity and development”.

JOHANNESBURG – The latest South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) copper theft barometer deteriorated to a level of 15.84 in July, from 14.37 in June, but remains below the average of 16, or R18-million a month. Sacci says the figure is suggestive of a “more contained” level of theft, notwithstanding an increase in public attention to the matter, owing primarily to recent disruptions of Gautrain services as a direct result of cable theft. Sacci notes various business and law enforcement bodies are calling for a reclassification of the theft of copper cable and electricity as a serious offence, which was recently dubbed “economic sabotage” by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters. The infrastructure development cluster, of which Peters is part, noted last month that it was working with the departments of Police and Justice to intensify the fight against cable theft. But the Recycling Association of South Africa also warns that escalating the crime to economic sabotage, without having identifiable cables, will be futile.

Africa & the world

OUAGADOUGOU – Burkina Faso, a former recipient of large amounts of Libyan aid, has offered Muammar Gaddafi exile but has also recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's government. Chad, another major aid recipient, also recognised the rebel council. The African nations join a list of more than 40 countries that have recognised the rebels, who have taken control of most of Libya and are now hunting the veteran leader. Burkinabe Foreign Minister Yipene Djibril Bassolet says Gaddafi could go into exile in his country even though it is a signatory to the International Criminal Court, which has charged him with crimes against humanity. "In the name of peace, I think we will take, with our partners in the international community, whatever steps are necessary," Bassolet says, without giving any other details. As recipients of Gaddafi's largesse during his decades in power, the governments in Ouagadougou and N'Djamena had previously been hesitant about taking sides the conflict. Libya's rebels have often accused neighbouring Chad of backing Gaddafi by sending mercenaries to put down the uprising, a charge denied by N'Djamena. But a council delegation was in Chad when Moussa Dago, secretary general for Chad's Foreign Affairs Ministry, recognised its authority and called on it to protect Chadian interests in the country. Burkina Faso, not a neighbour but previously a Gaddafi ally in sub-Saharan Africa, also recognises the council as the only legitimate Libyan authority.

NEW YORK – A New York judge drops all criminal sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn after prosecutors lost faith in the credibility of his accuser. But the formal end of the case awaited the outcome of a last-ditch emergency appeal. New York state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus accepted the prosecutors' request for dismissal of all charges. The move left the man once seen as the leading contender to be the next President of France close to freedom and the chance to try to rebuild his tarnished political career. Strauss-Khan appeared in court with his wife Anne Sinclair by his side and the pair left the hearing smiling, amid a throng of media. He is not yet free to return to France, after Obus stayed his dismissal of the case for an emergency appeal. A lawyer for the accuser, hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, had requested a special prosecutor to continue the criminal case. Obus dismissed the request, but Diallo's lawyers appealed that decision. Obus says that the appeals court would rule on that later, meaning Strauss-Kahn must await that verdict before he is free to return to France.

WASHINGTON – Expected aid cutbacks in developed nations and a push by some African governments to tackle yawning infrastructure gaps by public–private partnerships present a real opportunity for investors on the continent, the World Bank private-sector arm says. The regional head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) also says that Central African nations have generally been slower than those in West Africa in pushing through reforms needed to attract business, but relative stability has created openings for providing power, roads and healthcare. World Bank studies have found that some $93-billion is needed every year to address Africa’s infrastructure needs. Yolande Duhem, head of the IFC’s operations in West and Central Africa, says the private sector alone cannot bridge the gap, but a toll road being built to ease the commute for Senegal’s capital, Dakar, could be a model for the future.

NEW YORK – Agricultural methods need to be radically overhauled to ensure food production rises to meet increasing demand and water resources are not depleted further by doing so, research shows. A radical overhaul of agriculture could create farms that enhance, rather than degrade, the world’s ecosystems, says a report led by the United Nations’ Environment Programme and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). “Managing water for food and ecosystems will bring great benefits, but there is no escaping the urgency of the situation,” says David Molden, deputy director-general for research at the IWMI. “We are heading for disaster if we don’t change our practices from business as usual,” he adds. Water limits are close to being “reached or being breached” in areas such as Northern China, India’s Punjab and the Western US, says the report, entitled ‘An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water and Food Security’. It warns that the number of people living in conditions of water scarcity could rise to 2-billion from 1.6-billion if the intensification of agriculture is not changed.