African press review 6 August 2016

The results of South Africa's municipal elections continue to dominate the headlines in many national and regional papers after the African National Congress saw its worst election results since apartheid in Wednesday's vote.

The ANC has lost leading black-majority cities like Nelson Mandela Bay for the first time in history to the opposition Democratic Alliance - a political party traditionally led by white South Africans who opposed apartheid but now has many young black leaders. Nonetheless it is regularly criticised for its "white arrogance".

For Business Day it was quite simply "the day that changed the country" - as the ANC and DA are still "in a neck-and-neck race to win Jo'burg".

"The Kingmaker: Malema holds the balance of power as race drives parties to coalitions" declares the front page story of Africa's Mail & Guardian - referring to the election outcome for the leader of the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party, Julius Sello Malema - an ANC renegade who will now hold sway in several major municipalities.

Expelled from the ANC after a bitter conflict with President Jacob Zuma in 2012 - Malema's red beret-wearing party, founded the following year, has now emerged as "electoral kingmakers" in many municipalities, where neither of the major parties won an outright majority - including cities such as the capital Pretoria, and Johannesburg.

The EFF is "the political party of the future" says the paper. Both the DA and the EFF - which between them currently hold 51 per cent of the vote share in Johannesburg and 53 per cent in Pretoria - have rejected forming coalitions with the ANC, making them most likely to join with each other.

In its analysis, the paper notes that when Jacob Zuma ousted Thabo Mbeki as ANC president in 2007, Julius Malema claimed credit for the victory - something it calls "a dubious claim".

But now as South Africa enters into "a new era of coalition politics this week, the name of the Economic Freedom leader known as JUJU had taken on a different meaning".

Another headline reads "ANC wakes up too late as DA takes fight into ruling party’s strongholds" - in many of them the precise nature of ruling coalitions is still far from clear - with Malema saying there was "no possibility of working with the ANC.”

A theme picked up in the Zambia Times under the title "The EFF wants you to pick its coalition partner". It says the EFF "has given voters another chance to have their say". The "red berets" as they are known took to Twitter on Friday the paper says to ask for suggestions about potential post-poll partners. Most of those who replied it noted, seemed to favour a coalition with the DA rather than the ANC.

In other news the Zimbabwe Independent reports that President Robert Mugabe is mulling a fresh cabinet reshuffle, which government and party insiders say will be informed by the need to respond to growing corruption and incompetence among his ministers, as well as calming stormy relations within the party torn asunder by factionalism.

Mugabe, who is under pressure from war veterans to step down amid rising social unrest, intends to send a clear warning that those who are not loyal to him will not be tolerated the paper says.

The so-called "Generation 40" - writes the paper - an ambitious group in Mugabe’s faction-riddled Zanu PF party - has until now been bolstered by the First Lady Grace Mugabe’s proximity to power.

This week it reports "Gen 40" gained ground against another splinter group led by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa - who sees himself as Mr Mugabe’s heir apparent - following the expulsion from Zanu PF of nine party members including four war veteran leaders.