African press review 22 November 2011

Millions face more hunger in Zimbabwe. And the government postpones announcing the budget. Ex-Windies captain Chris Gayle pops up in Zimbabwe's cricket. Is South Africa heading backwards when it comes to freedom of expression. And why Kenya's politicians could find themselves running short of campaign resources. 

NewsDay in Harare reports that more than a million people in Zimbabwe will require food aid between now and March 2012, according to a United Nations report published on Monday.

The southern African country has struggled to feed itself since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe began a drive to seize white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks, leading to a sharp fall in agricultural output.

Production is still below the two million tonnes a year the country needs to be self-sufficient.

The World Food Programme says it is facing a 35-million-euro funding shortfall for food aid it planned to provide to vulnerable households in Zimbabwe's hardest-hit areas until the start of the harvest season next March.

That report is not mentioned anywhere in the government-owned Herald. Instead, The Herald gives pride of place to the fact that government has postponed the announcement of the 2012 national budget. This is the second time the budget announcement has been deferred.

Finance Minister, Tedai Biti, has the unenviable task of balancing ballooning current expenditure and financing the government's capital projects. However, Biti should have some leeway thanks to the sale of diamonds from the Marange fields, now approved under the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.

The budget statement is now schedule to be presented to parliament on Thursday afternoon.

A sports story makes the front page of NewsDay. It appears that former West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who is involved in a protracted dispute with his national board, will play in Zimbabwe's domestic T20 competition at the end of November.

Gayle, who is 31, hasn't played for West Indies since the World Cup quarter-finals in March. The West Indies Cricket Board issued a statement last month saying the batsman would be considered for West Indies selection again only if he retracted statements about the board and their officials.

The left-hander responded by asking the board to "state clearly" what he should apologise for.

Gayle will play for the Matabeleland Tuskers in the T20 tournament from 25 November to 4 December.

This is Black Tuesday in South Africa.

The Star says that the controversial Protection of Information Bill is attracting increasing international attention, mostly unfavourable, as it heads towards adoption in Parliament.

Newspapers in the US and Britain have recently written about the so-called “secrecy bill”, focusing on sharp criticism of it from people such as Nobel literature prize winner and ANC member Nadine Gordimer.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph said Gordimer had warned that through the bill the ANC was taking South Africa back to the suppression of free expression under apartheid.

The Washington Post notes that Gordimer is one of many critics of the bill, including prominent ANC members - among them former state security minister Ronnie Kasrils. Critics within and outside the governing party have warned that the legislation will smother freedom of expression and make it harder to fight corruption.

The National Press Gallery has called on South Africans to wear black, a black ribbon or black armband on Tuesday. The Right2Know Campaign will hold protest pickets at six separate venues across South Africa today.

The front page of the Daily Nation in Kenya warns that political bigwigs who use official vehicles or other public resources while campaigning during next year’s elections could be jailed for two years or fined 8,250 euros.

A new law, intended to clean up elections by eliminating bribery of politicians by business people and other special interests is on its way to parliament.

The proposed law prescribes harsh penalties for those who infringe financial rules during campaigns.

It seeks to cap the amount of money a politician can use in an election, as well as to slam the door on those who use public money, sometimes drawn from the accounts of parastatals, in their campaigns.

The Daily Nation also reports that Kenya and the United Arab Emirates on Monday agreed that the resolution of the Somalia conflict and stabilisation of the Horn of Africa nation was a key priority.

Meeting in Abu Dhabi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates underscored their joint support for post-conflict Somalia, a country that has not had a stable central government for the past 20 years.

The two leaders also underscored the need for increased humanitarian assistance for the people of Somalia.