African press review 7 August 2018

The first cracks appear in South Sudan's latest peace agreement as two opposition groups distance themselves from Sunday's deal. Did a Kenya opposition figure call for the rejection of Zimbabwe's election result? What makes South Africa's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital such a dangerous place?

South Sudan's latest peace deal is already coming under pressure.

According to the top story in this morning's Sudan Tribune, the National Salvation Front, part of the opposition umbrella South Sudan Opposition Alliance, yesterday distanced itself from the agreement signed last weekend to resolve outstanding issues of governance.

Opposition Alliance leader Gabriel Changson Chang signed Sunday's deal following promises that detailed talks will continue.

The National Salvation Front is the second opposition group to mark its disapproval of the deal and this, according to the Sudan Tribune, confirmed the growing rift within the opposition alliance. The People’s Democratic Movement, another alliance member, has already rejected the weekend agreement.

In a statement issued on 2 August, the National Salvation Front regretted that the latest deal does not meet its aspiration for a strong decentralised federal system.

Bail opposed for MDC accused

Twenty-seven members of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change appeared in court yesterday on violence charges in the wake of post-election protests last week.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, declared winner of the first elections since the downfall of Robert Mugabe, has vowed to protect rights since his re-election but the opposition say their members have been targeted.

Police with assault rifles were on duty in the court precinct, with a truck of other officers stationed outside.

Prosectors opposed bail, saying the accused   19 men and eight women   were "linked" to the deaths of six people when the army opened fire on opposition supporters protesting against alleged election fraud.

Did the ODM encourage the MDC?

In a bizarre twist, those elections in Zimbabwe are making front-page news in Kenya.

According to the Nairobi-based Daily Nation, Kenyan opposition group, the Orange Democratic Movement, yesterday had to defend itself against claims that party associates had fuelled the post-poll violence in Harare last week.

This after police in Harare claimed that one of the Kenyan party’s strategists had incited protesters.

Zimbabwe police claimed that Silas Jakakimba, a supposed ODM strategist, had travelled to Harare as party leader Raila Odinga’s envoy during the elections and had incited protesters to reject the poll.

Orange Democratic Movement national chairman John Mbadi refuted the claims, saying the party’s only wish across Africa is for peaceful, free and fair elections.

Hospitals in South Africa are dangerous places

A front-page story in this morning's Johannesburg-based paper BusinessDay reports that more than 20‚000 patients have been harmed due to negligence in the past two-and-a-half years at state hospitals in Gauteng, the nation's smallest province.

The report says there have been 20,417 cases since 2016 of patients in provincial hospitals suffering serious adverse consequences because of the negligence or incompetence of staff members, unrelated to the patients' underlying illness or condition.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, the third largest hospital in the world, is the most dangerous place for patients in Gauteng‚ with 4‚320 recorded incidents.

Nigeria facing government shut down

Nigeria is on the brink of a total government shut down, according to the top story in this morning's Lagos-based Guardian.

The report quotes Senator Ita Enang, a special presidential assistant, as warning of a government shut down, if the National Assembly does not reconvene urgently.

President Muhammadu Buhari has called for the National Assembly to reconvene immediately to pass supplementary budget legislation.

The senator says that only 15 to 20 percent of the national budget is covered by available finance.

Senator Enang went on to say that a failure to reconvene the National Assembly would sabotage democracy itself, since there will be no funds for the electoral commission to begin preparations for Nigerian elections due next year.