March 31, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Schalk Burger.
Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma denies any wrongdoing over his R206-million home upgrade.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says South Africa's strikes are less harmful for the economy than before.

And, West African leaders fail to agree on an EU trade deal.

South African President Jacob Zuma has denied any wrongdoing over a R206-million State-funded security upgrade to his private home, in his first public response to allegations he had benefited unduly from the "excessive" spending.

However, during campaigning near Cape Town on Sunday for the May 7 parliamentary election, the president brushed aside the criticism.

Zuma’s spokesperson meanwhile described Zuma’s reported remarks as "off-the-cuff comments".

Main opposition party the Democratic Alliance has filed corruption charges against Zuma with the police, although legal experts say the party's calls for his impeachment look certain to fail.

Strikes affecting South Africa's platinum mines over the past 10 weeks will cause less economic damage than industrial action in 2012 and have not yet hurt exports, the country's Finance Minister said on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of an economic conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Pravin Gordhan said he hoped the two sides would soon resolve their conflict, which has become South Africa's biggest industrial dispute since the end of apartheid 20 years ago and has cut global platinum output by 40%.

Gordhan said it was unfortunate that the country was getting a continuation of the strikes rather than settling down. He didn't think, however, that it was going to have as big an impact as it did earlier [in 2012].

He noted that companies had stock piles that they had been exporting, which might be affecting production but not exports at this point in time.

West African leaders failed to agree to open their economies to free trade with the European Union at a summit on Saturday after regional heavyweight Nigeria voiced concerns, endangering a decade of talks over a deal.

Negotiations over the Economic Partnership Agreement stalled two years ago after countries of the Economic Community of West African States (or ECOWAS) resisted lifting tariff barriers over fears they could crush nascent industries unable to cope with European imports.

However, an agreement in October to gradually implement a long-delayed West African customs union put a possible deal back on track as ECOWAS agreed to bring their rules into line with countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast that have EU free trade deals.

Also making headlines:

Egyptians will vote on May 26 and 27 in the first round of a presidential election, which former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win easily.

The World Health Organisation says that Liberia has confirmed two cases of the deadly Ebola virus that is suspected to have killed at least 70 people in Guinea.

And, armed militias hold Libya hostage.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.