African press review 28 December 2016

In Kenya, the ongoing doctors' strike makes the headline, while the South African government is submitted to a sometimes harsh review.

Kenya’s The Standard leads with the ongoing doctors’ strike, with the headline “Striking doctors risk losing their jobs as counties advertise positions.” This after 45 county governments advertised for 405 replacements.

This is the latest move from them to mitigate the collapse of the health sector that has crippled operations across the country. The strike is entering its fourth week today. Operations have been paralysed in public hospitals since the 5th of December.

The Daily Nation reports that thousands of doctors will not receive their December salaries following this strike

Governors said they would withhold the pay since the doctors, who have been on strike for the past 23 days, had not earned it. Others said they were yet to decide whether to release the salaries or not while in some counties the medics received their full pay.

In an article linked to this one, an Anglican Church bishop has appealed to the government to re-evaluate its priorities and urgently address the ongoing doctors' strike since people have no idea where to seek medical help since the doctors downed their tools four weeks ago. 

Nigeria’s Vanguard leads with the capture of some militants in the Sambisa forest, after The People's Democratic Party, PDP, ordered the Federal Government and the nation’s Armed Forces to clear the forest of Boko Haram insurgents, yet acknowledging that the capture of some of them does not represent an end to the war against insurgency.

Officials have said that beyond Sambisa, all other forests which criminals use as hideouts and bases must equally be cleared by the military. The terrorists had taken refuge into the forest over three years ago and made it their operational base. They had capitalised on its difficult terrain to abduct the Chibok Girls. 

But Vanguard also offers another interesting story this morning.

A study recently released by Check Point - the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime - reveals that five African nations are among the top 10 most attacked countries in November 2016 as cybercriminals made increasing use of ransomware attacks using the Locky and Cryptowall viruses.

Because of these viruses, attacks increased by 10% globally over the past month.

Botswana was the most-attacked country in CheckPoint’s list of 117 nations at risk, followed by Malawi in second place, Namibia in fourth, Uganda in ninth and the Democratic Republic of Congo in tenth place.

South Africa’s Mail & Guardian leads with "The annual grading of cabinet members", a grading that has become a respected barometer of government performance. And the results are not that good.

Example? President Jacob Zuma has been given an “F”, meaning “You’re Fired”, and this opening line says it all: “You have to hand it to Zuma; he has a talent for finding new lows to achieve.”

On the other hand, Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan, whether he likes it or not, has become a "symbol of the fight against the dark forces of corruption as he maintains his tight grip on the public purse and wards off an incredible amount of pressure from rent seekers", the article says.

And while his grade same time last year was a “C+”, meaning “You're okay”, this year, he gets an “A”, meaning “Take a bow. You are doing an excellent job.”

Business Day leads with the St Albans prison fight, outside Port Elizabeth, during which three were killed and several others were injured.

Officials on the scene said the prisoners had used teargas in what they described as "a well-orchestrated attack" against the correctional services Emergency Response Team (EMT) responding to the fracas.

The article states that it is believed a group of prisoners forced their way into the administration building and locked themselves inside while another group attacked warders in the food hall.

It is not the first time that violent events have occurred at this prison and a proper investigation will be launched shortly.