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.

In Tanzania, one of the pilot countries for the UN reform programme on “Delivering as One,” the Secretary-General will hold discussions with President Jakaya Kikwete, as well as address the diplomatic and academic community in Dar es Salaam.

In addition, Mr. Ban will inaugurate the One UN Office in Zanzibar which will house all UN agencies under a single roof. He is also due to fly over the receding ice cap of Mount Kilimanjaro on his way to Arusha to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Following that, he will head to the DRC where he will meet with President Joseph Kabila, as well as with parliamentarians and members of civil society. He will then go to Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, to visit Panzi Hospital, where victims of sexual violence are cared for.Then in the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma, he will meet with members of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) and with local authorities. He will also visit the Mugunga camp for people displaced by conflict before flying to Rwanda to meet with President Paul Kagame.

Mr. Ban then plans to travel to the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he will participate in the 2 March “International Conference in support of the Palestinian Economy, for the reconstruction of Gaza,” co-chaired by Egypt and Norway.

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.

In mid-2008, banks and financial institutions in the United States over-extended credit to people who were not credit worthy.When the time came for banks to call in mortgages and consumers were unable to repay, a massive liquidity crisis erupted in banks in the United States, at first, which then quickly spread to European banks.

All major world banks relied on an availability of credit from other banks in order to lend money to ordinary consumers, but once banks were not sure whether they would still be able to recoup those funds from other banks then lending between financial institutions drew to an abrupt halt.

The result was a drying up of funds or liquidity crisis on the markets of the world’s most advanced and developed economies.The finance minister explained that if the balance sheet of a bank shrinks, its ability to lend to consumers is then eroded.

“If its lending is curtailed, businesses and households have to reduce their spending. If demand falls in Birmingham, factories close in Beijing. If production lines in China slow, demand for commodities from Africa dries up.

“The vegetable shop next to the mine closes, and drivers of the delivery vehicles are asked to work short time, on half pay, and if the driver cannot pay his mortgage, the bank forecloses on its bond, and the bank writes down its balance sheets again,” the minister said.

The problem being, however, is that when global car manufacturers scale down the size of their orders for new cars, production firms producing catalytic converters, such as the one in the Eastern Cape are now affected.

The mine producing the platinum that goes into the catalytic converter is near Rustenburg, so the factory worker in Uitenhage and Rustenburg are now without work, he said.

In the United States alone last year, 2.6 million people lost their jobs, while that figure is expected to double in 2009.

Likewise in China, 20 million migrant workers who went home for the Chinese New Year will not return to the cities as those jobs no longer exist he said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has continually revised its forecasts for global growth downwards in 2009, going from 3.8 percent in April 2008 to current estimates of just half a percent.

While the downgraded reductions were initially focused on developed countries, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of developing countries has also now been halved from 6.6 percent in April to 3.3 percent at present.

The US economy has been in recession since the last quarter of 2007 and its economy is expected to shrink by a further 1.6 percent in 2009, the minister said, adding growth in Europe is also expected to shrink by 2 percent this year.

“China’s GDP growth fell to 6.8 percent in the final quarter of 2008 and will slow this year to its lowest level since 1990… [while] India’s growth will fall by almost half.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is feeling the effects of the commodity price plunge and declining investor confidence, [and growth is expected to] slow to 3.5 percent in 2009 from 5.4 percent in 2008,” Mr Manuel told Parliamentarians.

International investors, who had money invested in developing economies like South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola, among others, are in an ironic twist practicing emerging market risk aversion and withdrawing their funds from what is perceived to be riskier markets.

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.

“But,” he added, “we are all too aware that, because we are strongly integrated into the world economy, demand for our exports has declined; access to finance and inflows of capital have turned for the worse; lower demand has precipitated a scaling down of production; the creation of jobs is negatively affected and in some sectors retrenchment has become a reality.”

These developments had forced the government to lower its forecasts for growth and job creation. He said the government will take action in four areas to minimise the impact of global developments:

* It will continue the massive public investment projects in which it plans to spend R690 billion (U.S. $70 billion) on infrastructure and other projects;
* It will boost public sector job creation in areas such as health, social work, education and law-enforcement;
* It will help mitigate “an excessive investment slowdown and unnecessary closures of production lines or plants” in the private sector, and explore giving workers longer holidays and extended training, or placing them on “short-time” and encouraging job-sharing as alternatives to retrenchment.
* It will expand social spending, for example by extending a child support grant to cover children up to 18 years old, and by expanding old-age pensions through making them available to men at a younger age.

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.

“I went there guns all blazing,” he said, after announcing the decision of the Bank’s seven-member monetary policy committee (MPC).”I had hinted they should think about 200 basis points … but they convinced me that 100 would be more appropriate.”Mboweni highlighted the global recession and its effect on SA, warning it was not shielded from what is likely to be the worst downturn in 80 years.”We are going to go through a rough patch for the next three to four years. Any politician who doesn’t convey that message to his supporters is living in cloud cuckoo-land,” he said.

The rand initially weakened on the decision but later firmed 1,8% to R9,82/$, showing it had taken the news in its stride.Government bonds rallied while local money markets moved to price in three more one percentage point rate cuts at the Bank’s meetings this year.

“We expect the Bank to continue to front-load interest rate cuts, opting for more aggressive loosening early on in the year,” said Isaac Matshego, economist at Nedbank. There was likely to be more “modest” easing in the second half of the year, he said.

Bankers and business groups welcomed the decision to cut interest rates by more than 50 basis points, saying it would ease pressure on consumers and companies.”Consumer and business confidence has been tracking lower for several months. Today’s cut will have a positive impact on how people view their finances,” said FNB CEO Michael Jordaan. “While we do not see an early turnaround, we look forward to a period of greater stability and a return to improved conditions in 2010.”Economic growth slowed to 0,2% in the third quarter of last year — its lowest for 10 years — and there is rising concern that output is now contracting.

“I hope that we don’t go into a recession — I think that in the course of this year we will still be in positive territory,” Mboweni said. He put much more emphasis on the threat to SA’s economy than to the inflation outlook, which has not changed since the last MPC meeting in December.

At that time, the Bank kicked off an easing cycle with a half – percentage-point rate cut. It still has a long way to go before a cumulative five percentage points of rate hikes between June 2006 and June 2008 are unwound.”Some risks to the inflation outlook remain,” the Bank said. “The MPC had to assess these conflicting risks against the backdrop of a highly uncertain and volatile international environment.”

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.

The coalition includes the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Monitoring Africa, trade unions under the umbrella of union federation Cosatu, the Treatment Action Campaign – a coalition fighting for the rights of HIV positive people – and independent producers.

“As a coalition we want to see a clearly drafted SABC charter,” Kate Skinner, a media consultant and co-ordinator of the coalition, told IPS. “We want a new, clear and renewable charter drawn up. It should be renewed around every five years.”

Jane Duncan, executive director of the FXI, says the SABC is not fulfilling its public broadcasting mandate to give voice to the concerns of the marginalised, including the gay and lesbian community, women, rural people and the very poor.

“The national broadcaster should give them a platform for their voices to be heard. This is part of participatory democracy. A green paper/white paper process will allow civil society the chance to engage with proposed legislation through public hearings. It is the responsibility of the national department of communication to widely publicise such a green paper process and to encourage public hearings,” Duncan said.

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, an organisation that promotes a free, fair and critical media on the continent, says that the SABC is a critical institution for democracy.

“It should be the epitome of freedom of expression and not the subject of reports about freedom of expression abuses. The majority of South Africans are dependent on the SABC as the medium to inform them on a variety of issues.”

Rehad Desai, chairperson of the South African Screen Federation, told IPS his organisation, through the coalition, hopes to lobby the SABC to promote and inculcate values that are in the constitution.

“There are a whole range of important values, including care for all citizens, from pensioners and children to prisoners and their wives, to address homophobia and to give a voice to the poor. South Africa is a society in transition and there are big controversies out there. These should be addressed by the public broadcaster to help stabilise the democracy and to ensure a plurality of voices are heard.”

According to Desai it can be achieved by awarding contracts to diverse production companies that can deliver content that reflects the different voices. “A culture of accountability and transparency needs to be inculcated. Currently contracts awarded to production companies are often draconian and the artists do not have a lot of freedom. These issues need to be addressed and legislated in the proposed SABC Act.”

For years now, the SABC has been dogged by financial problems, power struggles amongst its top executives and allegations of corruption. The CEO, Dali Mpofu, was again dismissed on Jan. 22 following a protracted internal battle and legal wrangle with the corporation. Mpofu was first removed after he suspended SABC news chief Snuki Zikalala for allegedly leaking confidential documents and information in 2008. Zikalala, who has since been reinstated, was also at the centre of the 2006 controversy in which he was found to have blacklisted commentators critical of then President Thabo Mbeki.

“The SABC board is supposed to be independent, but because of the commercial arm, the minister of broadcasting has become a shareholder in the company. It has given her certain rights and responsibilities towards the board, and this overrides the independence of the board. The three top executives – the CEO, the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer – are now under direct control of the minister,” a situation Duncan describes as “extremely inappropriate” for the national broadcaster.

“There are a number of policy assumptions underlying the Broadcasting Act of 1999 that are problematic and out of date,” said Duncan.

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.

Analysts from South Africa’s Standard Bank had said the official dollarisation of the Zimbabwean economy would be confirmed if taxes and duties were charged in forex – an action that has now been drafted in the new budget proposal.

SW Radio Africa’s Harare correspondent, Simon Muchemwa, explained on Thursday that US$1.9 billion has been proposed for ministerial allocation, with the majority of the money being set aside for the education and health ministries. Muchemwa said that while not specifically stated, salaries and wages are included in the funds allocation. However, it’s understood that civil servants will still not be paid the foreign cash they have demanded, and it’s widely believed payment will remain in the worthless dollar. Reports suggest they may get a small forex ‘allowance.’Muchemwa detailed the key points of the proposal, including the move that tax, VAT and excise duty would be charged in forex. Muchemwa also explained that the government is “trying to get as much money in as possible” by extending its tax branch, with the budget proposing that “high earning accounts in the informal trading sector” will be hit with 40% tax charges, although it is yet unclear how this will come into effect.

The budget speech was reportedly met with laughs and jeers from the MDC parliamentarians and the party has yet to submit its own ideas for the proposal. The mere fact that the budget was drafted without the inclusion of the MDC has once again emphasised the hollow nature of the unity deal that will somehow be implemented in the coming weeks,

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.

The ILO warned that in a worst-case scenario, about 200-million workers, mostly in developing economies, could be pushed into extreme poverty, earning $1,25 or less a day.ILO director-general Juan Somavia said: “The ILO message is realistic, not alarmist. We are now facing a global jobs crisis.

“Many governments are aware and acting, but more decisive and co-ordinated international action is needed to avert a global social recession.”Progress in poverty reduction is unravelling and middle classes worldwide are weakening. The political and security implications are daunting,” Somavia said.

The report, which is based on various scenarios, says that at best the global unemployment rate could rise to 6,1% — 18-million people — this year compared with 5,7% in 2007, while the worst case was 7,1% — more than 50-million people.

The document says there will be a sharp increase in the number of working poor people — those who earn $2 and less a day.Altogether 1,4-billion people, or 45% of the world’s population, will fall into this category.

SA, like other countries, has been hard hit, with Stanlib’s Kevin Lings saying yesterday that he expected local employment to decline by 1,5%, reflecting 250000 job cuts, over 12 months, starting in the third quarter of last year.

Job creation has been the main feature of political party manifestos released ahead of this year’s elections.The ILO says that sound policy is necessary, and in developed and developing economies measures should be focused on vulnerable groups, such as women and youths, who are more likely to be pushed into poverty.

Special attention should be paid to small and medium enterprises as they account for the bulk of employment and are affected most by the credit crunch as they often have difficulties accessing credit in good economic periods.

Policies should also be aimed at “green jobs”, which would see the creation of low-carbon, employment-intensive, and povertyreducing growth.The report suggests construction and rehabilitation of physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges as another employment opportunity.”It is evident that the world is facing a dramatic and unprecedented crisis that calls for creative solutions,” it said.

North Africa and the Middle East had the highest unemployment rate at the end of last year, at 10,3% and 9,4% respectively.Central and southeastern Europe and the former Soviet republics ended last year with a jobless rate of 8,8%, sub-Saharan Africa’s was 7,9% and Latin America’s was 7,3%.

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.

Nelson Chamisa, national spokesman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), commented: “We are absolutely in the dark – all we know is that the aid has disappeared in ZANU-PF [the ruling party] structures and its machinery. It is out of our control.”

The GMB is the state-owned monopoly for the purchasing and distribution of all grain in Zimbabwe, and has long been accused of denying access to food deliveries to perceived opponents of the government.

Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe in the capital, Harare, told IRIN: “To us here it’s black and white – the assistance has already been distributed.” He noted that it would be difficult to insulate the aid from partisan considerations.

The agricultural inputs package was initially envisaged to be released in cash on condition that a power-sharing government, agreed by ZANU-PF leader President Robert Mugabe and both factions of the opposition MDC, would be formed.

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;

* Found that the decision by acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe to charge African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma was not a review of a decision by former prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka, which was no longer extant; and

* Ordered that Zuma pay the costs of the prosecution’s application to strike out paragraphs alleging political meddling in the decision-making process of the national director of public prosecutions.

Last September, Nicholson declared invalid the NPA decision taken in December 2007 to charge Zuma on 17 counts, including charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud.

Nicholson also inferred that there was political meddling in the work of the prosecution, and said Mpshe did not maintain his independence, and was not in a proper position to carry out his duties to honour the promise to hear representations from Zuma or to respond properly to the request to receive representations.

A week after the ruling, the ANC recalled Mbeki from his post as president.

Appeal court deputy president Louis Harms delivered the unanimous judgment of the five judges.

Harms said that it would be naïve to pretend that the appeal court was oblivious to the fact that Nicholson’s judgment had far-reaching political consequences, and that there might be an attempt to employ his judgment to score political points.

The judges found Zuma never accused former justice minister Penuell Maduna of acting improperly in going with Ngcuka to a press conference in 2003, where Ngcuka announced he would not charge Zuma.

Nicholson concluded Maduna acted improperly in attending the press conference.

Maduna’s supposed machinations around the Ngcuka decision were then extrapolated to cover Mbeki and the whole cabinet.

“Once again, the ’strategy’ involving Dr Maduna, Mr Mbeki and all the other members of cabinet, as well as the causal connection between the Ngcuka decision and Mr Mbeki and the cabinet as found by the trial judge, were not based on any evidence or allegation.

“They were instead part of the judge’s own conspiracy theory, and not one advanced by Mr Zuma.”

Harms said Nicholson also attacked the merits of the Ngcuka decision, finding it was “bizarre”, and that it brought justice into disrepute.

He said the merits of the decision were not before Nicholson, and were irrelevant.

“It is correct that if there is prima facie evidence of a crime in the sense of reasonable prospects of success, the NPA should, in the absence of other germane considerations, initiate a prosecution.”But the term ‘prima facie evidence’ has more than one connotation, and may mean, as Mr Ngcuka conveyed, that there may be evidence of the commission of a crime which is nonetheless insufficient to satisfy the threshold of a reasonable prospect of success, especially if regard is had to the burden of proof in a criminal case.”

Harms said it made no sense to strike out allegations of political interference made by Zuma and objected to by the national director of public prosecutions.

“The damage has been done,” he said.

“This does not mean that the order of the court below should stand.”

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.

Nicholson’s judgment in September meant the NPA could not proceed with its trial against Zuma, and his findings on political interference indirectly led to the recall of Mbeki as president.

If the court upholds the appeal, the NPA could re-charge Zuma immediately, but Zuma indicated after the hearing in Bloemfontein that he would take the matter to the Constitutional Court should the NPA succeed. The NPA’s lawyers also feared that Zuma might apply for a permanent stay of prosecution on the charges relating to the arms deal on the basis of Nicholson’s findings of political interference .

Issues argued on appeal were whether Zuma was entitled to make representations to the NPA before being charged, whether there was any legitimate expectation that Zuma was entitled to make representations, and whether Nicholson’s findings of political interference should be removed from his judgment.

While the prosecution argued its case with ease before the full bench, Zuma’s counsel had a difficult time convincing the judges that Nicholson was correct in finding that Mbeki and the ministers conspired against Zuma.

Judge Louis Harms forced Zuma’s counsel Kemp Kemp SC to concede that there were no allegations in Zuma’s papers that former justice minister Penuel Maduna was involved in political interference. Harms said Nicholson was not allowed to make any ruling on Maduna and former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla, whose name was not mentioned in the papers.

The roots of Zuma’s case began in 2003 when former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Bulelani Ngcuka told a press conference that while there was a prima facie case of corruption against Zuma, he would not charge him together with his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

When Shaik was convicted of corruption and fraud in 2005, the then NDPP Vusi Pikoli brought charges of corruption against Zuma. Mbeki then removed Zuma as deputy president of the country.A year later, Judge Herbert Msimang struck the case off the roll when the prosecution said it was unable to continue with the case. The prosecution had applied for a postponement, which Msimang refused.

Acting NDPP Mokotedi Mpshe brought back charges against Zuma in December 2007, a few weeks after Zuma was elected ANC president .

Zuma succeeded in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have the charges against him set aside on the basis of Nicholson’s ruling . Nicholson later granted the prosecution leave to appeal against his judgment , saying that he believed there was a reasonable prospect that another court might come to a different finding.