October 18, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines: 
 

Banking group Citi says South Africa risks a Moody's downgrade owing to budget struggles and strikes.

Guinea’s opposition party secures a key seat in a tense parliament vote.   

And, Nersa gets set to deliberate on its smelter contract review.

 

Banking group Citi said on Thursday that South Africa faces the threat of another ratings downgrade, most probably from Moody's, as its struggles with fiscal deficits and strikes that have hit production in key industrial sectors.

Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch have all downgraded the rating of Africa's biggest economy over the past year, largely prompted by often violent strikes in the mining and manufacturing sectors which contribute heavily to GDP.

Citi analyst Gina Schoeman said that because Moody's was still sitting one notch above the others and the country is on negative watch, it was likely to get a ratings downgrade. 

In a credit opinion this week, Moody's said South Africa's credit challenges included regaining control over public finances, weakening labour productivity and strike-related business losses exacerbated by declining terms of trade.

Guinea's election authorities on Thursday declared an opposition politician  the winner of the country's most hotly contested parliamentary seat, a result that should ease tensions and is likely to deny the ruling party of an outright majority.

According to the election commission Mohamed Aly Doumbouya, a candidate for the opposition UFR party, won the Matoto seat, defeating the ruling party candidate by a slim margin.

The Final results from the September 28 vote are due on Friday, but the announcement of the result from Matoto, a heavily populated district in the capital, came after days of recounting and diplomatic pressure to avoid threatened street protests

A period of coalition-building is expected to follow the declaration of results.

 

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (or Nersa) has confirmed that it received BHP Billiton’s official response this week to Eskom’s application for a review of the utility’s electricity supply contracts with the miner’s aluminium smelter in terms of Section 32 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006.

Section 32 compels the regulator to investigate complaints of “discrimination regarding tariffs or conditions of access”. The legislation stipulates that Nersa is required to institute a formal investigation and act to ensure that any licence contraventions are remedied

Full-time regulator member responsible for electricity Thembani Bukula told Engineering News Online that Eskom’s application and BHP Billiton’s response should be deliberated upon at the October 29 meeting of the energy regulator.

Only after that meeting would Nersa be in a position to decide whether it felt it was within its mandate to hold public hearings into the controversial commodity price-linked contracts.

Also making headlines:

The Western Cape’s economy has outperformed the national economy as a whole, and is expected to continue to do so in the years ahead.

Militia rivalries threaten a new war in post-revolt Libya.

Cameroon's veteran president Paul Biya keeps his grip on power through a landslide win in a September 30 parliamentary vote.

And, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Nigeria, Chile and Lithuania are elected by the UN General Assembly to serve a two-year term on the UN Security Council.
 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.