Economic justice

Oxfam International has criticised the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for celebrating three percent increase in the voting power for poor countries.

Oxfam's advocacy director, Bernice Romero, says the institutions are still far from being accountable to the people hit hardest by the global financial crisis.

Romero says that the G20 have mandated the IMF and the World Bank to tackle the economic crisis globally and for this response to be effective, adding that their decisions need to involve more than a handful of rich countries.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised growth forecasts for most economies as the global economy pulls out of a steep nosedive, but warned recovery faces stiff headwinds.

The IMF projects that the global economy would shrink 1,1 percent this year and rebound to annualised growth of 3.1 percent in 2010, better than July forecasts of a 1.4 percent contraction in 2009 and 2.5 percent growth in 2010.

Over 50000 clothing workers downed tools Monday after wage negotiations between the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and Appelo Manufactures of Southern Africa deadlocked.

Sactwu general secretary André Kriel said the strike had been suspended a week ago after the intervention of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) .

“Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act allows the CCMA to intervene if it feels the resolution of the dispute would be in the public interest,” Kriel said.

A top European Union (EU) team will travel to Zimbabwe to work on normalising ties, the first such visit since the EU sanctioned Zimbabwe's hard-line leaders in 2002.

Swedish International Development Cooperation Minister, Gunilla Carlsson, and EU Aid Commissioner, Karel de Gucht, will travel there after an EU-South Africa summit.

Carlsson and de Gucht will be meeting President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, other ministers, officials and representative of NGOs during their visit.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor has appointed University of the Witwatersrand extraordinary professor of education, Jonathan Jansen, as the new administrator for the beleaguered Mangosuthu University of Technology.

Jansen has six months to help the university back onto its feet after what appears to be more than five years of tyrannical rule by suspended vice-chancellor, Aaron Ndlovu.