South Africa

PRETORIA – South Africa's Presidency called on media to mark Press Freedom Day by taking a softer line on embattled President Jacob Zuma. Zuma has been criticised by the media, allies of his ruling African National Congress (ANC) and ANC members as being ineffectual and failing to take action against corruption. "We have noted with great concern how the coverage of the President, in particular, has become trapped in two story lines," Presidency spokesperson Mac Maharaj says. "This stereotyping and pigeonholing does not constitute fairness and objectivity that is expected of the media and misinforms the public." The ANC has faced criticism from media groups at home and abroad for proposing two measures seen as muzzling the media, including a secrecy law that could put whistleblowers in jail for divulging State secrets. Maharaj says the media needs to remember that freedom also carries responsibilities. "Do you think it only works one way? Unless on Press Freedom Day all you think we have to do is pat ourselves on the back," he says. Zuma has faced a series of scandals since he took office, with one of his sons being investigated over a questionable mining deal and two cabinet ministers being charged in separate government reports of misusing State funds. Since Zuma took office in 2008, South Africa has fallen in the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. In 2010, it ranked 38th in the world compared with 26th in 2002. South Africa's Press Freedom Day commemorates the closure of prominent newspapers and the arrest of a host of journalists by the apartheid government more than 30 years ago.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa has given its key carbon-emitting sectors including energy and transport two years, to October 2013, to finalise ‘carbon budgets’ that are calibrated to South Africa’s aspiration to reach a peak in yearly emissions by 2025 and enable the country to begin reducing the production of greenhouse gases (GHG) from 2036 onwards. The adoption of the carbon budget model reflectes government's acceptance of the relative energy intensity and, thus, carbon intensity of the South African economy and the need to create the space required for industries to make the transition to a more carbon-constrained environment. Significant emitting sectors and subsectors will be required to formulate mitigation and low-carbon development strategies, in which a suite of mitigation programmes should be outlined. These programmes will be monitored. In fact, also within two years, government will design and publish a draft Climate Change Response Measurement and Evaluation System based on domestic measurement standards, but adapted to any emerging global measuring, reporting and verification requirements. In officially releasing the National Climate Change Response Policy, which was endorsed by Cabinet on October 12, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa stresses that the policy has been canvassed broadly across government, the private sector and civil society. Further, government will actively consult with industry on the development of the carbon budgets to identify an "optimal combination" of mitigation actions at the least cost to, and with the most sustainable development benefits for, the affected sectors and the economy as a whole.

JOHANNESBURG – Accountability and transparency should be part of all institutions in South Africa, says Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Speaking at the second annual Good Governance Conference, in Pretoria, the Minister said accountability, transparency, consistence and good leadership are some of the essential elements required for good governance. On the issue of accountability, Dlamini-Zuma says public representatives and government are accountable to the electorate to ensure that the electoral mandates are delivered on. “It means that when we are fortunate enough to be entrusted by the citizens of this country to be in positions of leadership, we must understand we are there to govern these institutions – public or private – on behalf of those who have elected us into these positions. We cannot, therefore, take these positions for granted, nor can we govern with impunity,” she points out. With regard to public funds, the Minister says careful consideration is needed before entering into transactions. Dlamini-Zuma has called for strict adherence to the Public Finance Management Act, which aims to regulate financial management in national and provincial government.

JOHANNESBURG – There needs to be internal regional agreement to aid negotiations in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to make the Assembly an effective and legitimate body to govern global affairs, says president of the sixty-fifth session on the UNGA Joseph Deiss. “These positions need to be consolidated within regional political groupings, such as the European Union and the Southern African Development Community, to improve the UNGA’s ability to take decisive action on urgent issues affecting the global community,” he said at a South African Institute of International Affairs roundtable discussion, held in Johannesburg. Deiss argues that, because of the democratic one-country-one-vote model of the Assembly, decision-making is a complicated process within the body as a result of the number of countries involved in the negotiating process (South Sudan was recently inducted as the 193rd member of the UNGA). By limiting the number of players in the Assembly, he argues, decision-making would be less complex, thereby allowing the body to take efficient action on matters of concern.

Africa & the world

HARARE – Zimbabwe's electoral commission needs $220-million to stage a referendum on a proposed new constitution and a general election, both of which are expected next year, State media report. President Robert Mugabe was forced to share power with his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, after disputed 2008 polls and the two have been haggling over democratic reforms and the timing of a fresh vote. However, both have recently said an election could be held in 2012 to end a fragile coalition government. The Southern African country is currently drafting a new constitution – seen as key before any poll – to be tabled for a referendum next year. Zimbabwe Electoral Commission deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe says that $104 million is needed for the referendum and $115 million for the election. "As long as we get the money, we are ready to roll," she says. Funding for the election will take up about 6.5% of the proposed $3.4 billion budget for 2012. Finance Minister Tendai Biti is forecasting a slowdown in economic growth from 9.3% this year to between 7.8% and 9% in 2012. Biti says that funding for elections will exert pressure on government finances, while "corrosive politics" in an expected 2012 election season will affect the economy. The coalition has presided over the recovery of an economy, which shrank by as much as 50% between 2000 and 2008. Inflation has dropped to single digits from a peak of 500-billion per cent in December 2008.

DOHA – World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy is backing a new approach to the stalled Doha round of global trade talks, suggesting that the WTO's members could agree bite-size chunks, rather than swallowing the indigestible whole in one go. The Doha round has reached deadlock this year after a decade of talks, but trade diplomats, who have weaved a massive web of interlinked concessions and promises in the quest for a deal, say nobody will dare to declare the negotiations dead. However, there has been no agreement so far on how to move forward on the talks, officially called the Doha Development Agenda, which will be the biggest step towards global trade liberalisation since the WTO was created 16 years ago. Pressure is on trade ministers from the WTO's 153 member countries to come up with an answer when they convene in Geneva in December. Lamy invited about 35 ambassadors to the WTO to prepare the ground for the ministerial conference, one of the participants at the meeting says on condition of anonymity. The Doha talks are at an "impasse" and the current economic crisis is making progress even harder to attain, although nobody is suggesting giving up on the Doha agenda, Lamy says, according to the source. Lamy advocates trying to reach deals on specific parts of the negotiation that are considered "low hanging fruit", the least contentious areas that could be agreed quickly on their own. More difficult issues will be tackled more slowly.

ANTANANARIVO – Madagascar’s interim government has resigned, a move required under the terms of a political roadmap signed by the Indian Ocean island’s main political parties that paves the way for elections within a year. Madagascar has been rocked by political instability and economic decline since President Andry Rajoelina overthrew his now exiled predecessor, Marc Ravalomanana, with the help of rebel troops in March 2009. “President Rajoelina has accepted the resignation,” says a statement by the Office of the President. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet will remain in office until a consensus government accepted by the main political movements is appointed, the statement says. The road-map calls for a new Premier to be appointed by November 1 and a new government to be installed by November 17. All but one of Madagascar’s three main opposition parties signed the September agreement, which, if stuck to, diplomats say, will open the way for donor nations to formally recognise Rajoelina’s leadership for the first time since his power grab.

WASHINGTON – The deployment by President Barack Obama of 100 military advisers to help defeat Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) may yield him a popular foreign policy win but risks triggering more violence if it fails. In a letter to Congress, Obama says he authorised the mission to help local armies hunt LRA leader Joseph Kony, whose rebel sect is blamed for years of abductions, killings and acts of brutality in remote Central Africa. While the US has assisted unsuccessful local efforts to snare Kony since 2008, the announcement is seen as potentially significant if it heralds a renewed commitment to end a two-decade-long scourge to regional security. “If there were suitable special forces with the right equipment, it would be possible to take him out,” says Tim Allen, professor at the London School of Economics.