April 19, 2024.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.

Making headlines:

An ACDP government promises safety, respect and a return of the death penalty if elected

Labour Party files court papers to postpone election date

And, IMF says sub-Saharan Africa incomes falling further behind rest of world

An ACDP government promises safety, respect and a return of the death penalty if elected

The African Christian Democracy Party is underscoring its commitment to a safer South Africa for citizens and investors, with an emphasis on respect for all and a promise to bring back the death penalty to deal with the country’s high levels of crime, if the party is elected to govern after the May election.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe spoke exclusively with Polity today, and unpacked the party’s policies laid out in its 2024 election manifesto, as well as his resistance to enter into a coalition with the African National Congress or the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Discussing employment opportunities, he said, for the country to be able to create jobs, security needed to be addressed.

Another priority for the party in dealing with crime and corruption is the incentivisation of whistleblowers.

Labour Party files court papers to postpone election date

The Labour Party wants the Constitutional Court to find in its favour to postpone the date of the upcoming elections to July or August, citing Electoral Court delays in its case to reopen the Independent Electoral Commission’s online portal.

The Labour Party’s application to reopen the IEC’s online portal, which the party argues was unstable during the uploading period, was dismissed on Monday. However, the Labour Party noted that two of the five Electoral Court judges agreed with the party's arguments.

The Labour Party says the IEC’s online portal malfunctioned before the March 8, 17h00 deadline, resulting in many new parties being unable to upload the supporting documents required by the amended Electoral Act, which now requires new parties to upload up to 62 000 names, surnames, ID numbers and signatures of registered voters in order to contest the election.

The Labour Party argued that the Electoral Court “dragged the urgent application” to reopen the portal for over a month.

Now the Labour Party wants the Constitutional Court to find its exclusion from the elections “inconsistent with the Constitution and unlawful” and for the President to postpone the elections.

IMF says sub-Saharan Africa incomes falling further behind rest of world

Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa are falling further behind the rest of the world amid a "tepid" economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund said today, warning of risks from geopolitics, domestic instability and climate change.

The IMF earlier this week said the region's economy would grow 3.8% this year, up from 3.4% in 2023, as it begins to emerge from four years of shocks, from the Covid-19 pandemic to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising global interest rates.

It said, when accounting for population growth, the income gap with the rest of the world is widening.

It noted that other developing countries saw real income per person more than triple since 2000, while they grew 75% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 35% in developed countries.

However, there were some positive developments.

It said two-thirds of the countries are already experiencing acceleration in growth; diversified and fairly broad-based growth.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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