African press review 23 October 2012

Electricity bills in South Africa and Kenya's voter registration problems are two of the stories in today's African papers...

Eskom, the South African electricity supplier, announced yesterday that it was seeking a 16 per cent increase in electricity prices each year for the next five years. That is going to force up further the cost of doing business in South Africa, where credit is now more expensive following the recent sovereign debt downgrade by the international ratings agencies.

Eskom has been trying to get out of the contracts stipulating that it sell power to mining group, BHP Billiton at below cost. The commodity-linked electricity pricing and supply agreements were signed when South Africa had excess capacity. BHP currently pays about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour but can expect that price to rise to 120 cents by 2018.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions says it will mobilise its 2.2 million members to protest against the dismissals of thousands of mine workers for participating in illegal strikes.

The strikes this year have cost the mining industry millions of rand in lost revenue and thousands of jobs, as companies begin dismissing their workforces.

AngloGold Ashanti on Monday issued its striking workers with an ultimatum to return to work by tomorrow or be dismissed.

"If the mining bosses do not accede to this demand, the totality of the capitalist class will face the full might of organised workers and also will face stiff resistance in every corner of the economy," the muscular, not to say Maoist, Cosatu statement warned.

Last week, the African National Congress Youth League tore into the former head of the Johannesburg Stock Eechange, Russell Loubser, accusing him of being an "uninformed and reckless loud-hailer" after he criticised the league’s so-called programme for economic freedom and nationalisation as "constant emotional brainless talk".

Today, on the opinion pages of the financial paper BusinessDay, we learn that both Loubser and the Youth League have fallen into the trap of overstatement. Much of the substance of the Loubser-Youth League debate, we are told, was buried in an avalanche of overblown adjectives.

The main headline in The Sowetan reads "South African scientists in HIV breakthrough".

According to the paper, two South African researchers have discovered a vulnerability in the Aids virus that enables the body to produce an antibody response.

Dr Penny Moore, one of the research team, was quick to say it was not a vaccine, but rather a "possible pathway to discovering a vaccine".

It's reported in the Kenyan Daily Nation that President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have summoned electoral commission and Treasury officials to discuss the voter registration crisis.

This comes after the State Law Office on Monday evening approved a financing agreement, clearing the way for procurement of 15,000 Biometric Voter Registration kits from a French company.

The move should pave the way for the release of about 14,800 kits being withheld in France by the supplier and allow for the start of voter registration.

Regional newspaper, The East African, reports that Ugandan and Rwandan businessmen are threatening to revive a 2009 court case against Kenya over a 36 million euro compensation claim arising from the 2008 post-election chaos.

The two countries are demanding compensation for the destruction of their trucks and goods along the Northern Corridor, the highway linking Nairobi and Kampala through Eldoret.

The businessmen have given the Kenyan government to the end of this month to pay compensation. Otherwise, they say they will revive the case that had been stayed to allow negotiations out of court.

According to the Harare Herald, political parties in Zimbabwe have praised the new rule compelling candidates for all national polls to submit authorisation letters from their parties when they file nomination papers.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission rule is intended to put an end to the fielding of several candidates for the same political party in a single constituency.

The new regulations are contained in the amended Electoral Act.

According to the rules, all aspiring parliamentarians seeking to be elected on a party ticket are required to bring a certificate of authorisation from the secretary general of their party.

Independent candidates are, logically enough, spared this requirement.

The Herald also reports that former Mozambican rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama has moved out of Government and set up camp in the bush again, 20 years after the end of the civil war.

Dhlakama claims the Maputo Government has failed to meet some of his demands.

An official at the Mozambican embassy in Harare said Dhlakama called a battalion of former rebels back to their old military base close to Gorongosa Game Park last week.

Mozambique’s economy is already growing at more than 7.5 per cent   one of the fastest in the world   and the country is set to start cashing in on a mineral resource rush in the next five to 10 years.

Dhlakama has lashed out at President Armando Guebuza, calling him the "robber-in-chief of public funds".