African press review 10 April 2012

Joyce Banda settles into the job in Malawi, rumours about Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the legal woes of Julius Malema in South Africa, all feature in the African dailies today. 

The privately-owned Daily Times in Malawi makes no mention of the sacking of the national police chief, Peter Mukhito.

Mukhito was one of the key figures who appeared alongside Joyce Banda last Sunday as she confirmed the news that President Bingu wa Mutharika had died of a heart atack, and that she was taking over.

Despite the fact that her party does not have many seats in Parliament, The Daily Times says Banda is likely to pursue her agenda of revamping the economy and improving good governance without too many obstacles, as many key figures, including her former political foes, have already promised to support her.

The sacking of Peter Mukhito will obviously help to focus the minds of any politicians who still doubt Joyce Banda's capacity to take on the top job.

Interestingly, the Times also reports that cabinet ministers who had initially rebelled against Banda by declaring that she could not take over following the death of the former president have now withdrawn their remarks and have apologised to the new leader.

In Zimbabwe, NewsDay reports that the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet said that the cabinet meeting scheduled for today has been postponed to later this week, according to the State broadcaster, ZBC.

The paper simply says that this comes at a time when President Robert Mugabe who chairs Cabinet is in Singapore on a private visit where he normally receives medical attention.

In South Africa, The Sowetan reports that there seems to be no end in sight to the legal woes of embattled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and League spokesman Floyd Shivambu.

Today, opposition Democratic Alliance leader and Western Cape regional Premier Hellen Zillè will drag the pair to the Cape Town High Court for allegedly defaming her.

Malema reportedly called Zille a "racist" describing her cabinet as composed of "her boyfriends and concubines".

The ANC's national disciplinary appeals committee will on Thursday hear Malema and Shivambu's appeals against their sentencing. Malema has been expelled from the ruling party and Shivambu suspended.

Malema was suspended again last week for calling President Jacob Zuma a dictator during a centenary lecture at Wits University.

On the basis that no publicity is bad publicity, JuJu seems to be doing very nicely, thank you.

In Kenya, according to The Daily Nation, more than 300 striking employees of the Kenya Airports Authority were on Monday sacked for defying orders to resume work.

A statement from KAA managing director Stephen Gichuki, said all workers who were still engaged in the illegal strike had been deemed to have deserted their posts and were summarily dismissed.

Gichuki said the management had put into place contingency measures with the support of other government agencies and that there had been no disruption for travellers.

The Nation also reports that Prime Minister Raila Odinga remains the candidate to beat in the presidential race according to a new opinion survey. The latest poll also places Odinga ahead of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta in a potential run-off.

According to the poll, Odinga would garner 53 per cent of the vote in a run-off, against Kenyatta's 47 per cent.

Kenya's Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered the police to investigate an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Odinga.

Yesterday, we reported that Chief Whip Jakoyo Midiwo alleged that, at a meeting held ten days ago, involving two ministers, a senior security officer and a permanent secretary, the elimination of Raila Odinga was discussed as an option in clearing the presidential succession race. Midiwo further claimed that mercenaries had been hired to carry out the plot.

The DPP now wants Midiwo to be questioned alongside other persons mentioned as being privy to the conspiracy.

Regional newspaper The East African reports that The East African Community is experiencing steady growth in trade volumes among member countries, but says this is not necessarily translating into a better standard of living of the people of the region.

This is the fundamental message of a comprehensive new survey by the global think-tank Society for International Development.

The report highlights the fact that, in the past decade, every economy in the EAC grew at a faster pace than its population, implying a collective rise in per capita income. But in truth, the number of east Africans living below the poverty line actually increased from 44 million to 53 million.