South Africa

SHARM EK SHEIKH - The Non-Aligned Movement (Nam) needs to strive for more unity in dealing with the challenges facing its members, says International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. South Africa strongly believes that Nam should be better organised, coordinated and coherent. This is necessary to effectively deal with the current and immediate crises facing humanity, besides other things, food security, the flu pandemic, fuel price increases and the threat of climate change. "A strong revival of the movement on the international scale of a peace movement is vital," she adds. Another essential pillar of South Africa's foreign policy is the promotion and strengthening of South-South cooperation, which will contribute towards the speedy recovery of the world economy, she says. Another key aspect in this engagement is cooperation in the scientific, technical and trade fields.

CAPE TOWN - The African National Congress (ANC) is determined to prevent the Democratic Alliance (DA) from introducing its policies in the Western Cape, says DA leader Helen Zille. In her weekly newsletter, Zille states that this is the real reason for the ANC's renewed threats to further centralise control over all spheres of government. Some commentators have supported the move, but criticism has been muted, with even staunch defenders of the Constitution unusually ambivalent. Part of the reason for this, Zille opines, is the "erroneous belief that provinces have very few powers, and that it would make little difference if they are changed or scrapped". This is incorrect, says Zille. Provinces have substantial powers, with the power to make policy and pass laws on a range of issues, including education, housing and health. Even in "concurrent matters", in which jurisdiction is shared between national and provincial spheres, national policy and law can only trump provincial policy and law under specific and limited circumstances. Throughout its election campaign, the DA made it clear that if it won at provincial level, it would use provincial powers to put its policies into practice. "I have little doubt that this has given impetus to the ANC's plan to curb the powers of provinces," states Zille.

Africa & the world

GENEVA - The global economic downturn is far from over and few countries have dismantled the dangerous protectionist barriers they imposed as a response to the crisis, says World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Pascal Lamy. In remarks to the WTO's 153 members, Lamy says that import penalties and other border restrictions are closing off markets and causing more difficulty in a time of depressed demand. These measures may be challenged in WTO courts if they persist. While there has been no "outbreak of high-intensity protectionism" to date, Lamy raises the possibility of a rash of trade disputes, retaliatory restrictions and sanctions in response to unfair barriers that are kept in place. He also warns that difficult economic times may persist, and cautions against "excessive optimism". Although financial markets are showing signs of stabilising, the crisis is far from over. This is particularly so in developing countries that are only now starting to feel the full force of the downturn on their trade and economic growth.

BEIJING - Global climate talks are progressing too slowly and too many countries are demanding action from others rather than acting by themselves, says Sweden's Environment Minister, Andreas Carlgren. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) for the rest of the year, during which time global climate talks, culminating in a conference in Copenhagen, in December, are supposed to agree on a successor to the Kyoto
Protocol. The negotiations are too slow because too many nations are pointing at others and requesting them to do more, says Carlgren. The EU has no ‘plan B' beyond Copenhagen, so the bloc will reduce emissions by 20% regardless. If other parties begin moving forward in such a way, great things could be achieved in Copenhagen, he says. The current Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012, holds developed countries to a higher standard than developing countries, since the former are committed to caps on emissions, while the latter have no such obligation. Carlgren says that, this time, everybody needs to make sacrifices.