South Africa

CAPE TOWN – President Jacob Zuma concedes that the state of the global economy will likely prevent South Africa from reaching the growth necessary to create five-million jobs by 2020. He says in the National Assembly that the target – contained in the New Growth Path – was set while the world was recovering from the 2008 economic crisis, and before the latest round of eurozone woes began. "When the government said it was going to create a particular number of jobs, we were discussing that matter in the face of the recovery globally from the 2007/8 financial problems," he says while answering questions in the legislature. "Of course, things have changed. We now have another financial crisis. As long as you have the economic problems you cannot move faster in terms of the growth . . . we are still on the positive not on the negative but we can't grow as fast as we thought we would. Nobody could predict that there would be this global situation when we said this is how we are going to grow. We said that in the economic landscape of the time. What the government is going to do – I don't think we can do magic." The Development Bank of Southern Africa warns that the national economy will need to grow at between 9 and 10% annually to reach the jobs target, not the 7% the government believed was required. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has forecast growth of 3% to 4% until 2013.

JOHANNESBURG – Julius Malema is suspended from the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) for five years and has to vacate his position as president of the organisation. The ANC's national disciplinary committee (NDC) found him guilty of provoking serious divisions in the ANC and bringing the organisation into disrepute, committee chairperson Derek Hanekom told reporters in Johannesburg. The ANCYL's "arrogant" spokesperson Floyd Shivambu was suspended from the league for three years. The youth league's secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa was found guilty of making a derogatory statement about Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba. He was suspended for 18 months. The sentence was suspended for three years. On a charge of disrupting an ANC meeting on August 8, 2011, Malema, Magaqa, ANCYL deputy president Ronald Lamola, treasurer general Pule Mabe and deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi were found guilty. All had their youth league membership suspended for two years. This sanction was suspended for three years. The punishment will come into effect after the appeal process had been concluded. All of them will continue to receive their salaries until then.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa is unlikely to meet its development goals on its current path, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) says. “The DBSA’s analysis suggests that, on our current path and capacity, many of our country’s development goals are unlikely to be met,” the DBSA says in its ‘Development Report 2011, Prospects for South Africa’s Future’. Those goals relate to employment, reindustrialisation, skills development and climate change. “The characteristics and extent of GDP growth and employment creation are unlikely to be sufficient to address high levels of poverty and inequality, whilst the effectiveness of the South African State remains hampered by significant capacity gaps,” the DBSA says. South Africa needs a “higher level of realism” about what it could achieve and the timeframes and parameters. The country needs “a clearer set of actionable priorities, partnerships that can implement them, and a professional public sector that can ensure that these priorities and the State’s routine work are implemented as required,” says DBSA group executive for development planning Ravi Naidoo.

JOHANNESBURG – The United Nations (UN) climate change negotiations, set to take place in Durban at the end of November, are going to be difficult, President Jacob Zuma warns. “We go to Durban with no illusion at all that it will be a walk in the park,” he says at a meeting of the Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society, in Johannesburg. On what South Africa, which is hosting the giant event, expects from COP 17, he says outcomes should be “balanced, fair, and credible, and one that preserves and strengthens the multilateral rules-based response to climate change”. Further, these should be informed by the principles that formed the basis of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations. “These principles include multilateralism, environmental integrity, fairness . . . and the honouring of all international commitments and undertakings made in the climate change process.” The Cancun Agreements had also to be “operationalised”, including the establishment of key mechanisms and institutional arrangements agreed at COP 16 in Cancun.

Africa & the world

JOHANNESBURG – France remains committed to defending the euro currency, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé made clear in Johannesburg. “The situation is very difficult but we are very determined to stabilise the euro and fight against anything that destabilises it,” he says. “We are working on consolidating the European Stabilisation Fund [the European Financial Stability Facility – EFSF].” (Basically, the EFSF is intended to prevent other eurozone countries suffering the same fate as Greece.) “Today, the eyes of the world are on the euro,” he admits. “We are facing a crisis caused by excess budget deficits. The EU [European Union] has responded to this crisis . . . to restore the confidence of the markets. We must stay the course, the world needs the euro.” He suggests that an abandonment of the euro will amount to a reversal of 50 years of European integration, and this is an outcome that “my government, President [Nicolas] Sarkozy, will fight very strongly against.” Expressing his personal opinion, Juppé says that he will like to see “a more integrated eurozone,” centred on French-German cooperation, “with a common budget policy, a common fiscal policy. This is a big challenge for us. I’m not sure we’ll be successful. The unity of Europe, the building of strong unity between the core countries of Europe, within the eurozone, is my dream.” He gives the view that a more integrated eurozone is the only way to maintain peace and stability in Europe.

JUBA – A refugee camp in South Sudan's Unity state was bombed, South Sudan officials and witnesses say, threatening to raise tensions with Sudan in the violence-plagued border region. Taban Deng, the governor of Unity state, accused Sudan of carrying out the attack. "These people (Khartoum) should be taken to book. They should adhere to international laws and regulations," he says. Sudan's armed forces deny they carried out the strike. In a statement before the bombing, South Sudan's president Salva Kiir talked of Sudan's "pending invasion" of its neighbour. The United Nations confirmed the attack in an area where about 20 000 refugees are camped after fleeing violence in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces north of the border, where rebels have been fighting Sudan's army since June. "We can confirm that at least two bombs were dropped near Yida refugee camp, with an as yet unknown number of casualties," the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says. The US strongly condemns the attacks and urges both sides to resume negotiations to prevent the violence escalating into a full-scale conflict. "These provocative aerial bombardments greatly increase the potential for direct confrontation between Sudan and South Sudan. The United States demands the Government of Sudan halt aerial bombardments immediately," the White House says.

JUBA – South Sudan rejects allegations that it is arming insurgents in two conflict-stricken border regions in Sudan after its old civil war foe brought the charges to the United Nations (UN) Security Council. South Sudan became the world’s newest country in July, after a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war with Khartoum, but violence along the poorly drawn border has strained relations between the two since then. The two countries – which have yet to agree on issues such as how to manage the formerly integrated oil industry – have accused each other of supporting rebellions in their respective territories. Some analysts say the conflicts risk sliding into a proxy war. Khartoum has submitted its second complaint to the Security Council, accusing South Sudan of supplying anti-aircraft and antitank missiles, ammunition, landmines and mortars to the insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Army North. “This accusation is false. We are not supplying anybody. The north are supporting rebels in the south and they want to cover it up,” South Sudan’s army spokesperson, Philip Aguer, says. “It should be the other way round. We should be complaining to the Security Council. We don’t even have anti-aircraft missiles ourselves.”

MARANGE – The decision to allow the export of rough diamonds from the Marange fields is “a pure business deal” and fails to address the risk of the diamond industry financing political violence in Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the country’s election next year, the Kimberley Process (KP) Civil Society Coalition of Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs) warns. Zimbabwe has been given the green light to start rough diamond exports from all operations in the controversial region, according to an agreement reached at the eighth KP Plenary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The NGOs state that each election in Zimbabwe over the last decade has been accompanied by widespread violence and intimidation, adding that significant money is needed to coordinate the violence.