April 30, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove.
Making headlines:

Public Works Minister Thembelani Nxesi suffers another setback regarding Nkandla.

Zimbabwe's opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai expels Tendai Biti.

And, the Carbon Offsets Paper is published for public comment.

Beleaguered Public Works Minister Thembelani Nxesi suffered another setback when the High Court in Pretoria ordered him on Tuesday to provide the Mail & Guardian Centre for Investigative Journalism with a full set of Nkandla documents.

The High Court in Cape Town in February had ordered Nxesi to pay the costs of the Democratic Alliance's application to have the full Nkandla report released.

The application became moot after Cabinet in December last year resolved to release the report and the department informed the DA there was no difference between the January 2013 report it sought and the report released in December.

The report exonerated President Jacob Zuma from any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Judge Vuyelwa Tlhapi ordered Nxesi and the department to furnish the centre with a full set of Nkandla documents, including documents filed at the department's head office in Pretoria, within the next 30 days.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday expelled party secretary general and former finance minister Tendai Biti from the party. This is the latest instalment in infighting that has effectively split the movement into two camps.

Biti's expulsion comes after his faction of the MDC said at the weekend it had suspended Tsvangirai and six top party officials, partly over the failure to unseat veteran President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, said the MDC would recall Biti and eight other officials from parliament.

The turmoil within the MDC is a boost for Mugabe, whose ZANU-PF party has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 amid charges of rigging recent elections.

The National Treasury on Tuesday published the ‘Carbon Offsets Paper’ for public comment, outlining proposals for a carbon offset scheme that would enable businesses to lower their carbon tax liability and make investments that would reduce greenhouse-gas (or GHG) emissions.

The carbon offsets scheme was meant to complement the carbon tax that South Africa planned to introduce from 2016 onwards. It formed part of the measures the country planned to implement to address climate change.

Carbon offsets were sometimes described as being project-based as they typically involved specific projects or activities that reduced, avoided or sequestered emissions.

According to the paper, independent studies suggested that the potential overall national demand for offsets could be up to 30-million tons of CO₂ a year.

Also making headlines:

Mozambique has extended voter registration for elections due in October by 10 days, after a request by the main opposition party, Renamo.

The UN Security Council renewed a UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed North African territory of Western Sahara for another year, but it didn’t call for the UN to monitor abuses.

And, gunmen stormed Libya's parliament on Tuesday and started shooting, forcing lawmakers to abandon a vote on the country's next prime minister and wounding several people.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.