Top news items in major S. African media outlets

The following are news items in South African major media outlets on Thursday:

-- The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) will not be strong-armed into divulging the name of the "shock candidate" who they want to take over from President Jacob Zuma.

ANCYL secretary general Njabulo Nzuza told the media at a press conference held in Pretoria on Wednesday that they would not be pressured into pronouncing on the succession debate ahead of the party's 54th national conference in December this year.(City Press).

-- African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has warned that a Donald Trump's administration threatened global progress on climate change and women's rights.

Africa should counter this by establishing the planned continental free trade area this year, she said in her last speech at the opening of the AU executive council of ministers' meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Wednesday. (News24)

-- The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) believes Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa missed an opportunity to confront neo-liberalism at the World Economic Forum (WEF) this month.

"Whilst the rest of the world is engaging in a different narrative, our government, led by Ramaphosa, has vowed not to deviate from the backwards neo-liberalist policies, which are responsible for entrenching the colonial character of post-1994 South Africa and increasing poverty," NUMSA said in a statement on Wednesday.(Fin24) Endit