May 10, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:    

The City of Johannesburg has budgeted R30-billion for infrastructure development over the next three years.

Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says Government will establish its own skills school.

And, Kenya asks the United Nations Security Council to end an International Criminal Court case against president Uhuru Kenyatta

City of Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said on Thursday the city has budgeted R30-billion for infrastructure development for the next three years. He said this would form part of an ambitious public transportation development programme dubbed "freedom corridors".

He said mixed income housing, schools, offices and community facilities would be erected along the corridors. This would eradicate previous settlement patterns, as well as slow the uncontrolled spread of informal settlements around the city, adding that Johannesburg would lead in South Africa and in Africa to link transport development with high density housing and create viable, sustainable and integrated communities.

Tau said each resident had a right to an integrated and united city, and that this would be achieved by reconnecting the divisions created by apartheid.  He also said that Special Economic Zones would be established across Johannesburg.

Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday that Government would establish its own government school in order to improve skills, ethics and professionalism in the public sector.

She said to achieve the developmental state discussed in the National Development Plan, government must ensure that state administration at all levels was effective, efficient, professional and capable. She added that the new school of government would as a consequence seek to institutionalise a culture of professionalism and innovative thinking within the public service and serve as a catalyst for reform.

She said public servants, regardless of their political orientation, religious background, rank or seniority, would attend this school, which will be established before the end of October this year.

Kenya has asked the UN Security Council to end International Criminal Court proceedings against President Uhuru Kenyatta and others. However, council diplomats who discussed the request on Thursday said the 15-member body could not stop the case.

In a letter to the Security Council, Kenya said the implications of Kenyatta's trial "for the viability and continuity of the state should be self evident." Kenyatta's trial is due to start in July.

A senior council diplomat  said the letter from the Kenyans is slightly bizarre because they are actually asking the Security Council to do something that it has no authority to do.

The Security Council is only able to defer International Criminal Court proceedings for one year under article 16 of the Rome Statute, which established the Hague-based court a decade ago. The council would need to adopt a resolution to do that.

Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were among six suspects initially charged by ICC prosecutors with orchestrating tribal violence after the 2007 election, when some 1 200 people were killed. Kenyatta and Ruto both deny the charges.

Also making headlines:

Department of Energy director-general Nelisiwe Magubane says South Africa is nowhere near advertising the nuclear tender.

Ninteen more renewables projects close as South Africa gears up for the third bid round.

The National Youth Development Agency welcomes the Department of Economic Development’s R3-billion commitment for young entrepreneurs.

And, South Africa's military flexes its muscles ahead of an unprecedented "peace enforcing" deployment to eastern Congo.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.