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African press review 25 April 2017

Why has South Africa welcomed Emmanuel Macron's showing in the French presidential first round? An Egyptian court confirms 20 death sentences for some of those accused of the Kerdasa killings in 2013. And South Sudan and Uganda start talking about their common border.

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In South Africa, they're pleased about Emmanuel Macron's showing in the French presidential first round.

As a result of the centrist candidate's lead, the local currency, the rand, started the week on a positive note, firming more than 20c against the US dollar, approaching the levels seen before South Africa’s sovereign credit-ratings downgrades at the beginning of April.

According to BusinessDay's analysis, the main reason for the boost is the weaker dollar, with the euro gaining after the victory of the pro-European Union Macron in the first round at the weekend. This raised the possibility of Macron beating far-right, anti-European candidate Marine Le Pen in the final round on 7 May.

Analysts admit that the improvement in the rand is simply down to the weakness of the US currency, but also point to new confidence among investors because of what the Johannesburg-based daily calls more market-friendly noises from the new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and the continued positive inflation outlook, which is putting pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut rates.

The rand is expected to strengthen further to move back in line with its emerging-currency peers.

South Africa back in the direct investment index after two-year break

Even better is the news that South Africa is back in the top 25 in the foreign direct investment index, after an absence of two years.

BusinessDay's editorial welcomes the return, noting that, whereas in 2014, the country was ranked 13th on the index, up from 15th in 2013, this time South Africa just edged in at 25th out of 25 countries.

The leader article says it’s clearly better to be in than out. The index is drawn from an annual survey of global business executives and ranks which markets are most likely to attract the most investment over the next three years.

Death sentences confirmed over Kerdasa killings

Twenty people were sentenced to death in Egypt yesterday.

According to the front page of this morning's Cairo-based Egypt Independent daily, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 20 defendants to death following their retrial for crimes committed during the storming of Kerdasa Police Station in a suburb of the capital in August 2013.

One month after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by the army, security forces forcibly dispersed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in an operation that killed more than 700 people.

Hours later a furious crowd attacked a police station in Kerdassa, where the officers were killed.

The court has set 2 July to issue the final verdict after requesting Egypt's Grand mufti's opinion on the death sentences.

The defendants were accused of killing 12 police officers and two passersby, attempting to murder 10 other police officers, destroying the police station, burning police vehicles and illegally possessing firearms.

In February the Court of Appeal quashed an earlier death sentence against 150 defendants on the same charges.

Uganda and South Sudan agree to fix fence

Regional paper the East African reports that Uganda and South Sudan have agreed on a blueprint for redrawing their common border.

The report says a technical committee from the two countries has concluded a three-day meeting for the “delimitation and demarcation” of the border in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a process facilitated and to be overseen by the African Union.

The meeting considered the technical, logistical and security requirements that will need to be straightened out before the exercise to delineate the 470km boundary stretch can begin.

Since attaining self-rule in 2011, South Sudan has had several run-ins with Uganda over ownership of border areas in the West Nile, specifically in the districts of Moyo and Lamwo.

The border was first drawn by the British, who colonised both Uganda and Sudan, in 1914.

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