African press review 28 June 2012

ANC conference delegates don't like the look of a "second transition" - so what do they think of Jacob Zuma? Meet the SA businessman who thinks that 900,000 euros is petty cash. A Limpopo taxi driver is sacked because of Zuma's genitals. Hoping for change in Uganda? Don't hold your breath, says a study. And Africa may soon have its own criminal court.

According to Johannesburg-based financial daily BusinessDay, South African president Jacob Zuma suffered a setback at the African National Congress policy conference yesterday. This is because delegates shot down the "second transition" policy concept, which the president has been championing as a solution to poverty and unemployment.

According to Jacob Zuma, the second transition should ensure a rise in per capita income, full employment, real and visible progress in reducing wealth and income inequalities, as well as changing racial patterns of wealth and income.

How exactly to achieve all that is the crucial question.

Several senior ANC figures have argued that the new document tries to separate the political and economic struggles - which contradicts the ANC’s historic approach. Others see the Zuma document as sneaking socialist programmes into the work of the government.

KwaZulu-Natal (Zuma's home province), Free State and Mpumalanga delegates were the main defenders of the document in discussions yesterday, while Gauteng, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape criticised the concept for being "scientifically poor", according to one delegate.

If the document is rejected outright when discussed later today by the plenary session of the conference, says BusinessDay, those calling for a change in the ANC leadership in December will have scored a major victory.

The Star reports that a South African billionaire says he should not have been treated with suspicion for trying to board a plane with nearly 900,000 euros in cash because that amount of money is insignificant to a man with a personal fortune is estimated at 40 million euros.

Customs officers seized the cash from Christo Wiese at London City Airport in 2009 and a judge later ordered that the money be forfeited as “the proceeds of criminal activity”. Wiese's lawyer yesterday told the court that the money represented less than two weeks' income for his client.

Wiese, South Africa’s third-richest man, owns the Shoprite supermarket chain and has substantial investments in mining and wine companies. He has launched a high court bid to get the cash back, citing his unblemished police record.

Still in South Africa, the Limpopo man who is famous for defacing the controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg last month has been sacked from his job as a taxi driver.

Twenty-five-year-old Louis Mabokela took four days off work to drive to Jo'burg and deface the painting which showed Zuma's genitals. He told his employer that he was ill and needed the time off to see a doctor.

His boss saw him on television as he was beaten up by a gallery security guard after having spray-painted the president's public privates.

The unemployed Mabokela said yesterday he was not worried, having lost his job fighting for a good cause. He is married, with one child.

Mabokela is expected to appear in the Hillbrow Magistrate's Court tomorrow on a charge of causing malicious damage to property.

The main story in the Kampala Daily Monitor is bad news for Ugandan democracy.

Change of government in Uganda is unlikely to occur through elections in the current political environment, according to a new appraisal of the 2011 poll.

The research, carried out by academics from the political science department of Makerere University and the French Institute for Research and Development, indicates a huge degree of disillusionment among voters. The report also observes that the 2011 elections gave a false impression of the ruling National Resistance Movement’s political strength and legitimacy amongst the Ugandan electorate.

President Yoweri Museveni was declared winner of the February 2011 elections with 68 per cent of the ballot against nearest competitor, Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change with 26 per cent. The result was unanimously rejected by opposition political parties who cited voter bribery, outright rigging and violence especially in up-country areas.

The Standard in Kenya reports that an African court to try those accused of international crimes will be established in Arusha, Tanzania.

Kenya’s ambassador to the African Union, Monica Juma, yesterday said that the process of establishing the court to rival the International Criminal Court in Holland has started and that officials from the 54 member states are working to get the court up and running.

The African Union has been lobbying for the establishment of its own court to try perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity because of some political leaders's suspicion that the International Criminal Court is a foreign tool aimed at frustrating African leaders.