African press review 31 May 2011

South African President Jacob Zuma in Libya for peace talks, Uganda's Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya before the Anti-corruption court and the ICC's rejection of an attempt by Kenya to have the cases of election violence suspects tried back home are some of the stories making headlines in Africa. 

The main story in this morning's Johannesburg Star is the same as the main story in our news programmes. Moamer Kadhafi is ready for a truce to stop the fighting in his country, according to South African President, Jacob Zuma, who met the Libyan ruler yesterday.

Zuma said Kadhafi is ready to accept an African Union initiative for a ceasefire that would stop all hostilities, including Nato airstrikes in support of rebel forces.

Zuma said Kadhafi wants Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves to decide the country's future.

The South African president did not say Kadhafi is ready to step down, which is the central demand of the rebels.

In April, Zuma led an AU delegation to Tripoli with a proposal for a truce. Kadhafi said he would accept the truce but quickly ignored it and resumed his attacks, while the rebels rejected the ceasefire out of hand because it did not include Kadhafi’s exit from power.

Don't expect peace to break out soon.

The Star also tells us that the South African Social Security Agency has lost 24 million euros to fraud since 2005.

The agency was defrauded of 1.2 million in 2005, the year it was established. In 2006, the figure more than doubled, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said in reply to a Parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance.

The minister said 18,000 fraud cases had been brought to court by December 2010, with 15,000 people so far convicted of social grant fraud.

Dlamini said the government had recovered 8.5 million euros from fraudsters by the end of last year.

If the current French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, is to get the top job at the International Monetary Fund, she'll do it without too much encouragement from South Africa's Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan.

Developing countries have called for an end to the tradition of appointing a European to head the IMF. While there has been some moral support from G8 nations for a break with tradition, this has never translated into active support for a non-European.

Yesterday, Minister Gordhan said it was a pity that the rich preach about democracy, transparency, accountability and good governance but when they are put to the test of practising these principles in the process of choosing the IMF managing director, they forget them and look for backroom deals.

Gordhan described the situation as “highly regrettable”.

The South African government has bucked the world trend against continued investment in nuclear power by backing a shared continental approach to electricity generation projects, including nuclear power.

At a conference on nuclear power in Africa, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said nuclear and renewable energy will have a significant contribution to make to South Africa’s anticipated power mix.

In stark contrast to Germany, which announced yesterday an about-turn on its nuclear policy and the ultimate abandoning of its nuclear capacity, Peters said while nuclear power was “not a quick-fix solution” it was a long-term method to address the energy crisis “and the climate change challenge”.

The main local story in Uganda's Daily Monitor says former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya was yesterday called to appear before the Anti-corruption Court over procurement of executive cars for the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala.

Bukenya faces two charges of abuse of office and fraudulent practice, according to the Government Inspectorate.

Bukenya says he is ready to fight to clear his name.

In Kenya, The Daily Nation leads with yesterday's rejection by the International Criminal Court of Nairobi's claims to be serious about investigating and punishing election violence suspects.

Efforts to have the six cases pending at the ICC brought back home were thrown out, with the international judges unconvinced by Kenyan claims to be serious about punishing crimes against humanity.

The Kenyan government gave the international court a letter from the Attorney-General ordering the Commissioner of Police to investigate persons alleged to have masterminded the 2008 violence.

However, the letter was written after the government started efforts to have the so-called Ocampo Six tried at home.

The Hague judges also noted that Kenya is short on measures to punish impunity and long on promises of future action.