Africa: Secretary-General Set to Travel Next Week

New York — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is slated to leave early next week for Africa where he will make his first official visits to South Africa and Tanzania, as well as stops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Egypt, his spokesperson announced today.While in South Africa Mr. Ban will meet with President Kgalema Motlanthe, as well as the Ministers for Finance and Environment, Marie Okabe told reporters in New York. He is also expected to meet with former President Nelson Mandela.

South Africa: Manuel Highlights Gloomy Outlook for Global Economy

Drawing a rather gloomy picture of what the world’s economies can look forward to, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday said recession on Anglo-Saxon markets has truly taken grip.”The global economy is experiencing a sharp downturn, spreading from developed to developing countries. Its origins lie in macroeconomic imbalances of an unprecedented scale.”In a very short period…what started off as a financial crisis may well become a second great depression [mirrored on the Wall Street crash of 1929],” the finance minister told Parliament, delivering his 2009 Budget Speech.

South Africa: Govt Acts to Combat Global Crisis

Cape Town — South Africa will combat the effects of the global financial crisis by maintaining high public spending, creating new jobs in the social sector and helping private enterprise to counteract a slowdown in new investment, President Kgalema Motlanthe told Parliament in Cape Town.Delivering the “state of the nation” address at the annual opening of Parliament, Motlanthe said South Africa was less severely affected by the crisis than many countries: “Indeed, in a period in which others are experiencing or projecting recessions, South Africa and the rest of the continent are still poised for growth, even if at a slower rate.

South Africa: Mboweni ‘Guns Blazing’ for an Even Bigger Cut

Johannesburg — THE Reserve Bank cut interest rates by a full percentage point yesterday, with governor Tito Mboweni saying he had gone to its policy meeting with “all guns blazing” for a bigger reduction.Markets had anticipated a cut of that size, which took the Bank’s repo rate to 10,5% and marked the biggest adjustment to SA’s interest rates since 2003. But Mboweni’s disclosure that he had suggested slashing rates by two percentage points indicated that more cuts of similar magnitude were likely this year.

South Africa: Battle Over Future of Public Broadcaster

Cape Town — A powerful coalition of civic organisations is calling for a complete overhaul of the legal framework of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to force it to fulfil its public broadcasting mandate.At a meeting on Jan. 29, the Save our SABC Coalition said they would step up their focus on the SABC Amendment Bill that is awaiting the signature of President Kgalema Motlanthe. However, the coalition is also lobbying for a separate, new SABC Act which addresses programming content and issues like board appointments, transparency and funding models.

Zimbabwe: Local Dollar Redundant As Budget Allows Multiple Currency Trading

The government has for the first time acknowledged that the Zimbabwe dollar has no value, after acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, on Thursday detailed the country’s budget proposal in the US greenback.The proposal, which will officially pave the way for the disappearance of the local currency in trading, will make dealing in multiple currencies legal for all Zimbabweans, in theory to curb hyperinflation. The inflation rate is the highest in the world and has seen the local dollar crumble to its current worthless position. The economy has for weeks been informally ‘dollarised’ with almost all sectors trading in US dollars, and the new budget proposal has made the move official.

Africa: ILO Says 51-Million Jobs May Go

Johannesburg — UP TO 51-million jobs worldwide could vanish because of the global financial crisis, and many of those who kept their jobs could expect an erosion of their conditions of employment, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned yesterday.The ILO says in its global employment trends report that, based on developments in the labour market and depending on the timeliness and effectiveness of recovery efforts, global unemployment this year could increase by between 18-million and 30-million workers, and more than 50-million if the situation continued to deteriorate.

Zimbabwe: South Africa Goes Ahead With Urgent Aid

Johannesburg — A R300 million (US$32 million) South African aid package to Zimbabwe appears to have been distributed without an agreed monitoring mechanism in place to ensure transparency, government officials and diplomats have told IRIN.”The distribution of the first batch of maize, small-grain seed and fertilisers that arrived in the country recently has intensified, with farmers accessing it from the 84 Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots countrywide,” the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported on 14 January.

South Africa: Judges Crush Verdict That Sunk Thabo Mbeki

Johannesburg — THE judgment that was the catalyst for former president Thabo Mbeki being fired only four months ago was overturned in the Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday.In a ground-breaking ruling, five appeal court judges:* Ruled that Judge Chris Nicholson’s findings on political interference in the work of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) overstepped the limits of his authority, and that he failed to confine his judgment to the issues before the court;

South Africa: Court to Decide on Nicholson’s Ruling

Johannesburg — THE expected judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal today on whether Judge Chris Nicholson was correct in setting aside the charges against African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma will not mean an end to the long running battle between the prosecution and Zuma.The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in November appealed against Nicholson’s judgment which stated that Zuma was entitled to make representations to the NPA before being charged, and against his “findings” of political interference by former president Thabo Mbeki and two former justice ministers.