Top news items in major S. African media outlets

The following are highlights in major South African media outlets on Thursday.

-- Barclays plc has started its sell-down of Barclays Africa Group by hiving off an initial 12.2 percent stake in the subsidiary to institutional investors.

The financial services group said on Wednesday it would sell 103.6-million shares in Barclays Africa in the restricted placing. (Business Day).

-- The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has reiterated its backing of President Jacob Zuma in the wake of last Friday's high court judgment overturning the 2009 withdrawal of corruption charges against him by the National Prosecuting Authority.

Provincial secretary Super Zuma told a media briefing in Durban Wednesday - which was called to discuss the governing party's level of preparedness for the coming local government elections - that the president of the republic and the ANC had "at this stage" not been charged with anything.(City Press).

-- ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu on Wednesday warned Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema and his supporters that the fate of the right-wing Boeremag would soon be theirs.

Speaking during a debate on the Presidency budget vote, Mthembu likened the actions of EFF leader Julius Malema, who recently said in a televised interview that his party was prepared to remove the current government "through the barrel of a gun", to those of the Boeremag, the right-wing group which plotted to overthrow the government. (Mail & Guardian) Endit