African press review 29 October 2016

Ethiopia's prime minister arrives in Juba to talk about the South Sudan crisis. Salva Kiir denies using army escorts to protect Dinka people in Yei state. South Africa's ruling ANC calls on critics of President Jacob Zuma to approach the ruling party directly. And the Kenya health ministry scandal deepens.

Regional paper the East African reports that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn arrived yesterday in the South Sudan capital Juba for talks with President Salva Kiir.

The two leaders were to discuss obstacles to the implementation of the South Sudan peace agreement.

South Sudan has been in crisis since last July's clashes between troops loyal to President Kiir and supporters of his former deputy, Riek Machar.

The fighting that ensued marked the collapse of a 2015 peace deal to end a 20-month civil war.

Desalegn, who has been mediating in the South Sudan crisis since May 2014, has his own problems, with Ethiopia itself under a state of emergency imposed earlier this month following a series of violent anti-government protests.

Kiir denies sending troops to help Dinka

The Sudan Tribune gives its main headline to a report in which Salva Kiir denies claims that he sent a military convoy to the controversially created Yei state to help in the relocation of members of the Dinka, the ethnic group to which Kiir himself belongs.

Earlier reports claimed that 10 military trucks loaded with government soldiers had been dispatched to the area south-west of Juba to help in the relocation of Dinka who fear they could be targeted by non-Dinka tribes in the area.

Internal rumblings trouble South Africa's ruling ANC

In South Africa the Sowetan says more names of ANC veterans concerned about decisions made under the watch of President Jacob Zuma are surfacing.

Among the 101 signatories of an open letter by ANC stalwarts to Zuma and party leaders‚ warning that the organisation is in trouble‚ are the writer‚ poet and former MP‚ Mongane Serote; ANC intellectual Pallo Jordan‚ former minister of arts and culture‚ whose academic qualifications were exposed as a lie; and Siphiwe Nyanda‚ former minister of communications and chief of the South African National Defence Force.

In BusinessDay ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says the disgruntled veterans should talk to the party directly instead of sulking on the sidelines.

Mantashe said the ANC had written back to the 101 veterans and urged them to approach the party in an organised and structured fashion.

Cairo criticises criticism of Sisi's local and foreign policy

The Cairo-based Egypt Independent reports that the Egyptian foreign ministry has slammed Middle East analyst Steven Cook for an article in the current edition of the magazine Foreign Affairs criticizing Egypt’s local and foreign policy.

Cook's article entitled "Sisi’s Dangerous War on Terror” appears in the November/December issue of the US-based journal.

The ministry described the article as “shallow”, saying it attempted to clear the Muslim Brotherhood of charges of extremism, while claiming that Egypt's policies are motivated by an obsession with revenge against the group.

Cook is a Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a right-wing US think-tank which the Egypt Independent says is often associated with promoting regime-change in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Opposition says Kenyan government must have been aware of health scam

In Kenya the Standard reports that opposition leaders yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Jubilee administration over the reported 44-million-euro scam in the health ministry.

The opposition blames the president and has demanded decisive action and the resignations of top public officers named in the scandal.

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy co-principals Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang'ula, and the Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi separately called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve the government, accusing the Jubilee administration of either being unwilling or unable to fight corruption.

In a press briefing yesterday Odinga claimed that the scam involved individuals in Kenyatta's social circle.

Odinga said it had emerged that one the companies mentioned, Estama Limited, which was paid to provide 100 container clinics with supplies worth 9,000 euros for each container, never provided these supplies; he said the company was associated with people close to the presidency.