African press review 11 February 2014

Burundi buries flood victims. South Sudan peace talks are under threat. Museveni's supporters nobble possible rivals in the next presidential race. Malema fights to save his political career. SA lay-offs reach a 10-year high. Five African countries face elections this year ... will they be peaceful and fair?

The front page of the Burundi daily, Iwacu, is dominated by photographs from yesterday's funerals of victims of Sunday's floods in Bujumbura.

The president, Pierre Nkurunziza, joined mourners at the ceremony.

The official toll at five o'clock Monday was 46 dead, 118 injured, with police saying they expect the final number of dead following Sunday's torrential rains to exceed 100.

Kamengé market was closed yesterday, and the University Hospital was obliged to treat some of the injured in the hospital grounds. Courses at the medical faculty have been suspended to allow students help hospital staff deal with the victims.

TheDaily Nation in Kenya gives pride of place to the news that South Sudan rebels yesterday threatened to stall peace talks aimed at ending nearly two months of fighting, demanding the release of detainees and the withdrawal of foreign troops. Officials said a new round of negotiations had been postponed.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has also called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from South Sudan, warning of a threat of regional conflict. Ugandan troops have been in South Sudan at the request of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir since the conflict erupted on 15 December.

In Uganda the Daily Monitor offers to lift the lid on the plot by a group of MPs who support President Yoweri Museveni, explaining how they outsmarted other ruling party members harbouring ambitions in the 2016 presidential race.

The pro-Museveni camp sprung a well-orchestrated game-plan, hatched sometime back to “fix” Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and any other enthusiastic party member harbouring presidential ambitions.

The Daily Monitor understands that some 40 MPs loyal to Museveni agreed to delay his endorsement as a sole candidate, effectively locking out potential rivals.

Museveni has been Ugandan president for the past 28 years.

Former vice-president Gilbert Bukenya has said the endorsement of Museveni as a sole candidate to lead the National Resistance Movement in the 2016 presidential elections was stage-managed.

He says he intends to push ahead with his plans to represent the NRM as a candidate, saying the ruling party should be less concerned with the elections and more concerned about national issues such as the deteriorating performance of Universal Primary Education, the lack of funds to pay civil servants and the question of the army's involvement in South Sudan.

In South Africa financial paper BusinessDay reports that the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, Julius Malema, has until 26 May to save his political career.

Yesterday, the High Court in Pretoria provisionally seized Malema's assets following a request from the South African Revenue Service, which claims the political leader owes millions of rand in unpaid taxes.

If the order is finalised, any political aspirations Malema may have for a seat in parliament would be dashed, as being an unrehabilitated insolvent would prevent him from being a member of the National Assembly.

The Economic Freedom Fighters are due to launch their election manifesto at the end of next week.

Also in BusinessDay, news that South Africa’s weak economy continued to shed jobs last month, with lay-off levels at a 10-year high.

The Employment Index report published yesterday showed that the economy shed 36,290 jobs last month, most of them in manufacturing and construction.

On its opinion pages, BusinessDay notes that five countries in southern Africa will hold elections this year. Voters in Malawi and South Africa will go to the polls in May, followed by the citizens of Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia in subsequent months.

Considering where Africa stood a generation ago, says the Johannesburg-based daily, the relative calm and peaceful conditions under which these elections will take place are cause for celebration.

But the paper points out that South Africa, a guardian of regional stability, goes into its own elections with a shaky social and political situation.

Poor black youngsters with no hope of getting jobs are questioning the benefits of freedom. Some of them have burned government buildings and houses belonging to local politicians. The police have responded with violence, just like in the bad old days. In the past six weeks alone, South African police have killed nine protesters.

The African National Congress, which built much of its political capital on its ability to control the masses, is, warns BusinessDay, fast losing political control and legitimacy in working-class townships.