African press review 16 September 2015

Why was Algeria's military intelligence chief sacked this week and who ordered his departure? Is President Joseph Kabila thinking of postponing next year's  elections so that he can hang on to power? And could Sudan's Omar al-Bashir make a return visit to South Africa before the end of the year?

In Algeria, the daily papers continue to rake over the implications of this week's sacking of intelligence chief Mohamed Mediene.

According to opposition figure Ali Benflis, quoted in the daily Al Watan, no one knows who took the decision to sack the former head of the information and security division, the DRS. Benflis says the situation in Algeria is far from normal, with a vacuum instead of real leadership. The opposition leader points out that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has suffered several strokes, has not addressed the nation since 2012.

Ali Benflis goes on to say that the identity of those taking key decisions remains a mystery.

Another Algiers daily, Liberté, suggests that the sacking of Mohamed Mediene is actually an indication that the ailing president is making an effort to retake control from the security and intelligence wing, transferring control of DRS operations to the regular army command.

Other commentators in the Algerian daily press wonder, perhaps more logically, if this week's sacking is not a symptom of a military clan war among those already taking positions with a view to the period after the Bouteflika presidency.

According to the front page of regional paper The East African, leading parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo's ruling coalition have told President Joseph Kabila that actions by his allies had given the impression that he intends to violate the constitution by hanging onto power beyond 2016.

In a letter to Kabila the heads of the "G7 parties" demanded immediate steps to ensure that the presidential election, scheduled for November 2016, is held on time. If held successfully, the vote would mark the country's first peaceful transition of power.

The letter warned that violating the constitution's two-term limit risked destabilising the vast central African country.

Kabila's opponents accuse him of attempting to manipulate a packed diary of local, provincial and national elections planned over the next 14 months to postpone the presidential vote.

Kabila has refused to comment publicly on his political future.

There's a possibility that Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, could make a return visit to South Africa before the end of the year. This according to the front page of this morning's BusinessDay newspaper.

In June the Sudanese leader, who is accused of committing war crimes and genocide in Sudan's western Darfour region, defied an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant to attend an African Union summit meeting.

The South African authorities, despite their obligations to the ICC and a local court order to arrest al-Bashir, let him return home, saying he had immunity.

Yesterday South African President Jacob Zuma told diplomats in Pretoria that Sudan was a member of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an organisation linking China and 50 African states which will hold its second summit in Johannesburg in December. Zuma added that he expects that the Sudanese government will participate.

The International Criminal Court has given South Africa until 5 October to explain why it welcomed Bashir at the June summit, and then allowed him to leave.

At yesterday's Pretoria meeting, Zuma also spoke about the European migrant crisis, saying that closing some continental borders to keep Syrian refugees out would not solve the problem.

Zuma said the only lasting solution was to stop the war in Syria. He launched a blistering attack on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) members, saying their intervention in Libya to remove then-president Moamer Kadhafi had contributed to the problem.

The Labour Court in Nairobi has condemned both sides in the current teachers' strike.

According to the main story in this morning's Standard, the court yesterday warned the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) against issuing threats to strikers and also told the unions to stop calling street protests.

The TSC has threatened to sack striking teachers if they do not return to work by Friday.

The court also directed the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers to halt street protests pending a determination on the legality of the ongoing strike, which is in support of a demand for a pay increase.

In the Kenyan Daily Nation the education ministry is reported to be considering closing public schools because of the ongoing strike. However, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has ruled out any postponement of national examinations scheduled to start next month.