Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The contents, wording and terminology contained in the Daily News Bulletin (DNB) and SA Editorial Comment (SAEC) are those of accredited sources and do not reflect departmental or governmental policy.
ALL DNB ITEMS ARE EDITED FOR LENGTH
1. POLITICS
1.1. DA PLANS FOR NEXT THREE YEARS: SOWETAN, 20010702, P.2 - The Democratic Alliance (DA) held meetings at the weekend to discuss the party's management plan for the next three years up to the 2004 general election. DA spokesman Mr. James Selfe said yesterday local government councilors had come together to share experiences and ensure the promises made in last year's municipal elections were implemented. The party's federal council had discussed a comprehensive policy platform for the party and a management plan for the next three years.
2. ECONOMICS
SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET STATISTICS: (Source: Business Day)
Latest: 20010629
a. EXCHANGE RATES OF THE RAND (Quoted by FNB)
RAND PER FOREIGN CURRENCY (Buy/Sell)
US-D 7,96 / 8,16
P Sterl 11,15 / 11,55
Euro 6,66 / 6,96FOREIGN CURRENCY PER RAND (Buy\ Sell)
J Yen 15,66 / 15,12
S Franc 0,22 / 0,21
D Mark 0,29 / 0,28
F Franc 0,98 / 0,94
I Lira 290,39 / 277,84
D Guilders 0,33 / 0,31
B Franc 6,04 / 5,78
A Schilling 2,06 / 1,97b. JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE SHARE INDICES
Overall 9223
JSE Gold 1207
Financial 11062
Industrial 78662.1. SA'S 2001 CROSS-BORDER DEALS DROP: THE CITIZEN, 20010702, P.16 - South African companies recorded cross-border mergers and acquisitions valued at $2bn in the six months to June compared with the $3,6bn recorded in the same period in 2000, according to a report by KPMG Corporate Finance, the global business advisory firm. The figures are supplied by Computasoft Research (CommScan), and the analysis is the most comprehensive of its kind representing data on domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions and strategic investments completed during the six months. Deals are accounted for when they are finalized. The drop in South African M&A closely tracks the international trend.
3. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
3.1. ZUMA TO LEAD SA TEAM AT TALKS WITH GERMANS: SOWETAN, 20010702, P.5 - Deputy President Jacob Zuma will lead the South African delegation at the two-day German-SA Binational Commission meeting in Berlin. The meeting, which starts today, is aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries. Zuma, who left the country on Saturday, was accompanied by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Valli Moosa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad and other senior Government officials. The deputy president is scheduled to hold discussions with German politicians and members of the German Chamber of Commerce. Established in November 1996, the Binational Commission meets annually to discuss reports from its special committees. The committees focus on the areas of the economy, defense, development co-operation, environment, culture, science and technology.
4. CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
4.1. FINANCE
4.1.1. RAMOS UPBEAT ON SA: THE CITIZEN, 20010702, P.6 - SA appears to be on track for an international credit rating upgrade later this year, according to National Treasury director-general Maria Ramos. What was needed now was a healthy dose of positive and forward-looking thinking from local investors, she said on Sunday. Speaking on SABC's Newsmaker program, Ramos - whose contract with the Treasury was renewed for three years by the cabinet last week - said SA had made "tremendous progress" since the last international credit rating review. "As you know, Moody's (Investor Service) have got us on a positive outlook, and they will be here some time after September. Last time they had concerns about the privatization program, expenditure on infrastructure, and investment." These issues had all been handled in this year's Budget, and would continue to be dealt with over the next three years, as the Budget framework indicated. "I think the new open forward position - which was also a concern, not just of the rating agencies but of international investors - has come down very dramatically."
4.2. HEALTH
4.2.1. "SA ON RIGHT TRACK IN ADDRESSING HIV/AIDS": PRETORIA NEWS, 20010702, P.3 - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said yesterday that SA was on the right track in addressing the Aids epidemic. She said SA's participation in the special session on HIV/Aids as the UN General Assembly was a great success. Ms Tshabalala-Msimang said SA and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) states had successfully highlighted issues that contributed to the spread of the epidemic, such as illiteracy, poverty and underdevelopment. Ms Tshabalala-Msimang said UN member states had resolved to develop and implement national policies aimed at eradicating poverty and to address the impact of Aids on household income, livelihoods and access to social services by 2003.
4.2.2. SA READY TO TEST NEW AIDS VACCINE: THE SUNDAY TIMES, 20010701, P.1 - Human trials of a unique South African vaccine that could make Aids as preventable as measles, polio or hepatitis B are likely to be approved within months. Professor Tim Tucker, head of the R15m-a-year SA Aids Vaccine Initiative, said it was hoped that SA's new candidate vaccine would work against all types of HIV infection, although it was based only on genetic samples of the predominant Southern African strain of HIV. The vaccine - which scientists hope will activate the body's immune system to kill HIV - has been developed with the help of blood samples from HIV-positive prostitutes in KZN. Vaccine testing sites have already been chosen, and 48 people there will receive the first dose, probably early next year, together with another group in the US, said Professor Salim Karim, head of the Medical Research Council's vaccine research. This means SA is one of just a handful of nations to advance to the stage of human trials. It puts the country at the forefront of pioneering a life-saving Aids vaccine.
4.2.3. "AIDS DRUG KILLED HUSBAND": SUNDAY TIMES, 20010701, P.2 - A woman is suing the manufacturer and supplier of AZT, an anti-HIV-Aids drug, for nearly R1,5m. She claims her husband died from taking it, that AZT is highly poisonous and that its risks far outweigh its benefits. Annet Hayman, 41, a teacher from Ladysmith, KZN, has launched legal action against Glaxo Wellcome, on behalf of her young son and herself, for the damage they have suffered as the result of the death of her attorney husband, James, in 1998. In her case, Hayman also names President Thabo Mbeki and the Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, as defendants because of their "interest in the outcome" and because of the statements that they have made on the toxicity of AZT and their questioning of the efficacy of the drug.
4.3 CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
4.3.1. "NO INDEMNITY" FOR CRONJE: PRETORIA NEWS WEEKEND, 20010630, P.2 - Former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje, banned from the game last year for life for his involvement in match-fixing, has not been granted indemnity from criminal prosecution, prosecutors said yesterday. Cronje needed to satisfy the King commission investigating corruption in South African cricket that he had made a full disclosure to win indemnity from the government. But a spokesman for prosecutions director Bulelani Ngcuka said the inability of the commission's head, Judge Edwin King, to decide whether Cronje had come completely clean meant the offer of indemnity no longer held good. "Cronje does not have indemnity," Mr. Ngcuka's spokesman, Sipho Ngwema, said in Pretoria. "The deal with Mr. Cronje was that he must tell the truth. However, his lawyers challenged the commission's legality and the judge couldn't determine whether Cronje had told the truth. The offer of indemnity was completely conditional on that."
4.4. LAND AFFAIRS
4.4.1. "BETRAYED" BY THE GOVT: THE CITIZEN, 20010702, P.5 - A war of words over the pace of land restitution in SA was aired on national television yesterday, along with accusations that government has betrayed the country's poor and counter-claims of propaganda. Speaking on SABC's Newsmaker program, National Land Claims (NLC) director Zakes Hlatshwayo said if government failed to tackle land reform decisively, land invasions would "become inevitable". Asked if he thought such statements would not harm SA's economy, he said: "It is inevitable that the poor and landless people ... would be left with no other action but to occupy the land. It's morally unacceptable to see the perpetuation of landlessness and poverty in the country," he said. His views were strongly opposed by Land Affairs director-general Gilingwe Mayende, who said government's position on land invasions was "unshakeable".
4.5 WATER AFFAIRS
4.5.1. STATE GIVES DETAILS ON SUPPLY OF FREE WATER: BUSINESS DAY, 20010702, P.3 - More than half of South Africans now received a free basic water allowance, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Ronnie Kasrils announced today. In a statement issued to mark the official start of government's policy to supply households with a basic 6k of water for free each month, he said 23 million people enjoyed the benefit. Kasrils said a further 15 million people still needed to be supplied with water.
5. STRATEGIC NEWS
5.1. KOFI ANNAN CALLS FOR MORE THIRD-WORLD FUNDING: SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, 20010701, P.5 - The United Nations general assembly this week accepted its secretary-general's proposal that a global fund for Aids be set up. The fund, Kofi Annan said, should reach $7bn (R56m) to $10bn a year for prevention and treatment programs. He called for spending on the battle against Aids in developing countries to "rise to roughly five times its present level" of about $1,8bn a year. Last month United States President George W Bush announced a pledge of $200m to jumpstart the global fund. However, delegates at the UN's special session on Aids in New York this week left the meeting divided over how to approach the problem of HIV/Aids, and how money aimed at the disease should be spent. There is also widespread uncertainty over how the proposed global fund will be administered. Annan said that the details still needed to be finalized, but that a transitional group would be set up to ensure the fund becomes operational before the end of the year. The fund's board, he said, would comprise governments, non-governmental organizations, donor and recipient countries, and UN representatives.
6. REGIONAL
6.1. PREPARATIONS FOR OAU SUMMIT CHAOTIC: BUSINESS DAY, 20010702, P.5 - The annual Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit will go ahead in the Zambian capital despite logistical chaos just a week before D-day, officials said yesterday. Information Minister Vernon Mwaanga insists Zambia can successfully host the event although many of the facilities tailor-made for the summit will not be ready in time. "We cannot get any worse off than Togo (last year), where heads of state climbed 15 floors to reach some meeting rooms. We are ready," Mwaanga told reporters. Preparations for the summit moved into top gear yesterday when senior officials and ambassadors started meetings ahead of a ministerial session on 7 July. The heads of state converge in Lusaka on 9 July.
6.2. MUGABE LASHES OUT AT WHITES AHEAD OF POTENTIALLY CRIPPLING TWO-DAY STRIKE: SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, 20010701, P.1 - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has unleashed another string of threats directed at whites, in the same week that his government identified more white-owned farms for confiscation and moved to outlaw a two-day national strike. Mugabe, at a meeting of the ruling party's central committee, accused whites and farmers of "hostile acts" against the government, and hinted they would be forced to leave the country. He said whites were "supremacist, arrogant and exclusive". They had "never accepted defeat" after independence from white minority rule in 1980, and were "a community which discountenances the development of a just society predicated on principles of equality and fairness, and would rather there was a continuation of the Rhodesian socio-economic system". "They continue to nurture and pledge membership to the Rhodesian lobby across the world, which they use to undermine our sovereignty and to organize other hostile acts against the black majority."
7. SOCIAL/GENERAL
7.1. MEDIA, GOVT DECIDE TO BURY THE HATCHET: SOWETAN, 20010702, P.5 - President Thabo Mbeki and his Government have come to a historic agreement with SA's leading editors to make peace and build trust for the sake of national interest. The pact - made at a closed workshop at Sun City Resorts at the weekend - includes a plan to establish a Government media briefing center where all departments could disseminate information, present ministers to make announcements and answer journalists' questions. This way, distortions of fact resulting from "exclusive stories" would be minimized. The parties agreed to setting up, with immediate effect, a pilot project that would see journalists seconded to Government departments and media liaison officers spending time in newsrooms to have a greater understanding of issues on both sides. Further training would be facilitated by both the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) and the Government. The aim of the Cabinet-Sanef indaba was to end the acrimonious relationship and deep-seated mistrust between the Government and journalists, which had deteriorated to the extent of "threatening national interest".
8. SPORT
8.1. BOKS WIN BUT COACH UNHAPPY: SOWETAN, 20010702, P.29 - Springbok coach Harry Viljoen highlighted a number of areas of concern after his team's comfortable yet unconvincing 60-14 win over Italy in a one-off Test played in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. The Springboks were woeful in the first half, leading 17-9 at the break but a second half seven-try blitz managed to add some respectability to the scoreline. Viljoen admitted that the Boks were not dominant in the scrums, lacked sufficient cohesion and still had plenty to do in the lineout.
8.2. BAFANA GET IT RIGHT: THE STAR, 20010702, P.1 - SA joined Cameroon as the first qualifiers for next year's World Cup finals after forcing a 1-1 draw in their group E match against Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou yesterday. They now have an unassailable lead in their four-team group, after Guinea were expelled by Fifa, with 13 points from five games. Zimbabwe are second with six points from four games. But the South Africans had to withstand a second-half onslaught by their hosts to get the point they needed to reach the finals.
SAEC 20010702 SAEC 20010702 SAEC 20010702 SAEC 20010702
EDITORIAL COMMENTS ARE SELECTED IN TERMS OF RELEVANCE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS, CONTRASTING VIEWPOINTS AND INFORMATION VALUE. DESPITE SUSTAINED EFFORTS TO OBTAIN EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM NEWSPAPERS COUNTRYWIDE, PROBLEMS IN DELIVERY CAUSE A CONSTANT FLUCTUATION IN AVAILABLE MATERIAL. EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED TODAY: BUSINESS DAY, PRETORIA NEWS, SOWETAN, THE CITIZEN, THE STAR.
EDITORIALS MAY BE EITHER ABRIDGED (A) OR COMPLETE (C)
1. DEALING WITH THE CORRUPT: THE STAR (EDITOR: PETER SULLIVAN), 20010702, P.10 (A) - There is likely to be a fierce exchange between politicians as to how corrupt SA really is; with academics also chipping in following publication of Transparency International's latest corruption perceptions index. This shows that SA has dropped four places to 38th. That should not overwhelmingly depress us. What should be of concern is that corruption could become entrenched; it could become a way of life. To grasp what we are dealing with, let's offer a definition of the problem. The Collins Concise Dictionary says: "Corruption is being open to or involving bribery or other dishonest practices." In terms of the 2001 index, SA scored 4,8. The scale is nought to 10, ranging upwards from most corrupt to least. In 1999 SA scored exactly 5 and was ranked 24th. Two significant points have emerged. The first is that almost two-thirds of the ranked countries scored less than five. And the second is the observation by Transparency International's chairperson that "there is no end in sight to the misuse of power by those in public office - and corruption levels are perceived to be as high as ever in both developed and developing worlds".
2. ENJOYING THE TRUE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY: SOWETAN (EDITOR: AGGREY KLAASTE/MIKE SILUMA), 20010702, P.8 (A) - It can be said that this weekend saw the Government and editors of the mainstream news organizations grow up when the two met during a no-holds-barred engagement near the "mountains of Kgosi Pilane" in North West. Before the meeting there had been a climate characterized by serious accusations and counter-accusations, with the media spewing more venom than the Government and the Mail & Guardian taking the cake by declaring in a poster story: "Is this man fit to rule?" It was important that these two highly influential institutions face the reality of their situation. But, perhaps more important, that they come understand how either one's weaknesses impact severely on the potential progress of the country. We believe this relationship must be based on truth and openness. It must also be understood to be a relationship between two inherently different entities. The Government, on the one hand, must at all times be seen to be singing from the same score. This requires its communications mechanism to be impeccable. This is possible only if the Government sets clearly measurable objectives over a period, broken down into manageable time frames.
3. SMOKE CLOUDS SA'S PRIORITIES: THE CITIZEN (EDITOR: MARTIN WILLIAMS), 20010702, P.10 (A) - If the big crackdown on smoking in restaurants really begins this month it will be a waste of time on skewed priorities. We hear dire warnings of police and other officials brandishing fines and threatening jail terms against those who do not follow the strict laws separating puffers from the rest. There's even an element of the Orwellian Big Brother syndrome, with people being encouraged to report offenders. We hold no brief for smokers. Many should be more considerate to those around them, especially in confined spaces. But the new rules go too far in criminalizing what should be a matter of choice. In addition, these regulations interfere with the rights and abilities of entrepreneurs to make a living in the hospitality industry. Small businesses which cannot afford to make separate enclosures for smokers will be worst affected. They could face bankruptcy, adding to the unemployment queues. To the snoopers we say, back off. Rather fight real crime and get this country working.
4. MBEKI REJECTS THE MASTER'S VOICE ON HIV: THE SUNDAY WORLD (EDITOR: CHARLES MOGALE), 20010701, P.17 (A) - Amid the widespread criticism of President Thabo Mbeki for his alleged denial that HIV causes Aids, we could do worse than pause and listen carefully to what the man has said. Mbeki was ridiculed and scorned by the world when he refused to acknowledge a causal link between HIV and Aids. The press is again awash with stories of Mbeki sticking to his guns on his US trip this week. There is no question that HIV causes Aids - whether the president wants to acknowledge it or not. But that is not the issue. What is of concern is: did Mbeki ever deny there was a link between the two? Has the man ever uttered the words: HIV does not cause Aids? To our knowledge he has not. All he has done is call for a more holistic view of factors affecting the immune systems of people, particularly in poor communities. A supporter of the president makes a poignant point when he says Mbeki is refusing to be treated like a schoolboy by detractors who say to him: "Come on, say after me: HIV causes Aids." Reports coming out of Washington this week said he had again "refused" to link HIV with Aids, but had conceded that that was "what the scientists say". Whatever the case might be, what the president is saying can only be challenged by morbid minds with sinister agendas, or those who criticize simply for the sake of doing so. However, the president is obviously failing to communicate his message. In the process, the wrong signal is being transmitted - that he thinks HIV does not cause aids. We believe he is not saying so, and if he is, then he deserves every bit of the criticism he is getting. Nevertheless, Mbeki is dead right to refuse to be treated like a little boy who has to recite after his masters.
SA NEWSPAPER WEBSITES
BEELD: http://beeld.24.com;
BUSINESS DAY: http://www.bday.co.za;
DIE BURGER: http://dieburger.24.com;
MAIL & GUARDIAN: http://www.mg.co.za;
RAPPORT: http://www.naspers.co.za/rapport;
SOWETAN: http://www.sowetan.co.za
SUNDAY TIMES: http://www.suntimes.co.za;
THE NATAL WITNESS: http://www.witness.co.zaThe following newspapers are all to be found on website http://www.iol.co.za: CAPE TIMES; PRETORIA NEWS; SATURDAY STAR; THE ARGUS; THE DAILY NEWS; THE INDEPENDENT ON SATURDAY (DURBAN); THE MERCURY; THE STAR; THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT; THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE
Last Revised: Tuesday, October 09, 2007
