Skip to main content

African press review 23 October 2014

Advertising

The South African mid-term budget is, sure enough, the main story in this morning's Johannesburg-based financial paper, BusinessDay.

The top headline reads "Nene Administers Tough Love", with the BusinessDay editorial warning that Minister Nene is not set to be Mr Popular.

Tough measures in yesterday's mini-budget include tax increases, job freezes and across-the-board budget cuts to deal with low economic growth, high debt levels and lower than expected tax income.

It is likely, according to BusinessDay's analysis, that key government ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, will baulk at proposals to sell-off state assets to private investors, and they won't like the imposition of caps on public-sector employment and pay scales. Similarly, there are some in the private sector who will be unhappy at the prospect of tax increases to help plug the budget deficit.

However, concludes the financial daily, the likelihood that nobody will be entirely happy with the taste of the medicine Nene intends dispensing could well be the strength of his approach.

Sister paper The Star reports that South Africa's deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Maseru, Lesotho, yesterday to continue facilitate the country's return to political normalcy.

Ramaphosa was expected to meet various political role players, and pay a visit to His Majesty King Letsie III. The king reconvened Lesotho's parliament last Friday. Elections are due to be held in February

Community leaders in north-east Nigeria have questioned official claims of a ceasefire with Boko Haram militants.

Persistent violence in the region has undermined government claims to have negotiated an end of hostilities with the Islamist militant group.

A lack of detail about the agreement the Nigerian military announced last Friday, and complaints of exclusion from the process by community leaders in the worst-hit areas, are fuelling scepticism about prospects of an end to the five-year rebellion.

As part of the ceasefire announcement, Nigerian authorities said the Islamist militant group had indicated its willingness to discuss the release of more than 200 schoolgirls it abducted from the town of Chibok in April.

Punch and the Daily Trust both report this morning that a further sixty women have reportedly been abducted by suspected members of Boko Haram at Waga Mangoro and Garta villages, both in Adamawa State. The abductions are said to have taken place last Saturday.

In Kenya, ruling Jubilee coalition MPs have launched a fresh attack on the International Criminal Court after judges reprimanded the Kenya government for allegedly leaking confidential information related to President Uhuru Kenyatta's case.

The president is being tried for alleged crimes against humanity.

Close to 50 MPs allied to the ruling coalition accused the ICC of making the ruling to set the stage for a finding of non-compliance against Kenya and advance what they claim is a political conspiracy against President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto's Jubilee government.

ICC judges are trying to decide whether the Kenyan government is guilty of obstructing investigations by the prosecution in the case against the Head of State. This after prosecutors claimed they were unable to secure records of Uhuru's bank accounts and telephone conversations.

Uhuru's lawyers have called for the termination of the case for lack of evidence.

According to Ugandan paper, New Vision, the authorities in Rwanda boosted travel restrictions yesterday to stem the spread of the Ebola virus, ordering travellers who have been in the United States and Spain to send daily updates on their health status.

The requirement applies to all travellers who have been in the US or Spain within the past three weeks. Phone or text messages must be sent every day for the first 21 days they remain in Rwanda.

Visitors who have been to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone within the last three weeks are barred from entry to Rwanda. Nationals returning from those countries are quarantined.

Ebola has claimed more than 4,500 lives in west Africa, and experts warn the rate of infection could reach 10,000 a week by early December.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.