African press review 17 September 2016
Controversy looms over South Africa's giant nuclear projet after the reported award of a juicy contract to President Zuma's family friend. Nigeria splashes out 900 million euros to stear the economy out of recession, and dozens of Kenyan politicians hang on a dangerous political cliff after defecting to the ruling party.
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We start in South Africa where some papers voice strong concerns about the direction taken by the country's looming nuclear deal.
Mail and Guardian
This is after a preliminary contract worth 171 million rand - close to 11 million euros - was awarded, ithe Mail and Guardian says, in practical secrecy, to a company called Empire Technology.
Milk Money?
According to the newspaper, Empire Technology is wholly owned by Shantan Reddy, the son of controversial businessperson Vivian Reddy, who it claims has given President Jacob Zuma considerable financial support over the years, including a contribution to the building of the president’s family complex in Nkandla.
The publication says the project, which will be South Africa’s biggest financial and construction deal ever, if it happens, had already been an issue of heated debate by commentators, including MPs and civil society groups worried that Russia’s notoriously oligarchic government, was part of the process.
The Mail and Guardian claims pledges made to ensure the transparency of the deal had not been respected and it now appeares that the nuclear deal has become Jacob Zuma's pet project for a so-called predatory elite waiting to "milk money from the state".
BusinessDay
The economic newspaper quotes the head of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation‚ Phumzile Tshelane‚who insists that a nuclear tender is still open to all bidders prepared to manufacture locally and share technology.
Tshelane told the Sowetan on Friday that Russia was not the frontrunner in the bidding‚ despite reports that after meetings between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and President Jacob Zuma‚ Rosatom had been considered the leading candidate to build the 9.6 GW nuclear reactor.
In Nigeria, the press welcomes the Federal Government's decision to pump N350 billion 995 million euros into the economy in the next few days in a move to steer the country out of economic recession.
The Nation
The paper says Finance Minister Finance, Kemi Adeosun announced the decision in Abuja on Friday. She reportedly explained that the money was being allocated to ministries, departments and agencies alongside an additional 60 billion Naira for social intervention programs aimed at putting money into people’s pockets, in the Ministers own words.
Several papers also quote Adeosun as saying that once the resources are released they would take the total amount of money earmarked by the Federal Government for capital projects in 2016 to 5 billion euros more than double the 2 billion euros originally budgeted for the year.
The Standard
Meanwhile, the Standard in Keny addresses the ordeal of dozens of opposition leaders who defected from their political parties to join the ruling Jubilee Party and who are now reportedly hanging on a dangerous political cliff.
Nairobi University professor Francis Owakah tells the publication that many of the turn coat politicians now have to prove their mettle by standing for the ruling party in opposition strongholds and brave an electorate not yet fully liberated from the yoke of tribalism waiting to punish them for their alleged betrayal.
Professor Owakah explains to the paper that the feeble ones will simply not go back home having already understood that President Uhuru Kenyatta's national popularity will have no bearing whatsoever on their electoral fortunes if they decided to run for re-election.
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