African press review 18 May 2011

Will South Africans turn out to vote in today's local elections? Will Robert Mugabe's health mean Zimbabwe's political crisis lasts even longer? Namibia's mining companies face windfall taxes. Uganda's Museveni says police were not tough enough on his main opponent. 

The Star looks at the final shots in the war of words before today's local elections in South Africa. Opposition leader Helen Zille sought to sway swing-voters on Tuesday, while President Jacob Zuma hitched his star to anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela as campaigning came to an end.

With an opinion poll showing that support for the ruling African National Congress could slip in today's local elections, Zuma visited Mandela to remind voters of the glory days of the democracy.

In elections where turnout could become the crucial factor in the results, Zuma urged the nation to follow Mandela's lead and cast their ballots. The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner cast a special ballot from his home on Monday.

The ANC has swept every vote since the first all-race elections in 1994 after white-minority apartheid rule, a winning streak set to continue on Wednesday, but possibly by a smaller margin.

An Ipsos Markinor survey of 2,050 voters tips the ANC to win 59 per cent, down seven points from the 2006 local polls, with the opposition Democratic Alliance set to make gains and take just under one fifth of the ballots.

Alliance leader Helen Zille spent the last day of campaigning in the industrial city of Port Elizabeth, where the opposition is seen as having its best chance of displacing the ANC.

About 48 per cent of voters turned out for the last local elections. Analysts say a low turnout this time is likely to benefit the opposition, which looks set to maintain control of Cape Town while making some gains in other big cities.

The ANC's liberation credentials have been tarnished by graft and growing anger at local government, which is blamed for flawed services like water and electricity.

Also in The Star, the failing health of President Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe could jeopardise efforts to resolve his nation's political crisis, South Africa's ruling party said on Tuesday.

Mugabe, who is 87, has travelled to Singapore five times since December to undergo medical treatment there.

The African National Congress, which serves as the chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said in an official newsletter that its mediators reported concerns that “should Mugabe die or retire” before constitutional reforms are complete, rivalry over his succession could delay elections meant to end the nation's troubled two-year coalition.

Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has said despite his age, he is fit to govern. He called for elections this year, but regional mediators say that would be too early to ensure free and fair polling.

In Windhoek, The Namibian reports that government yesterday clamped down on the mining sector for the second time in less than a month, announcing that the industry will have to pay more taxes.

As custodian of the country’s mineral resources, government should also benefit “in good times beyond normal taxes and royalties”, Mines and Energy Minister Isak Katali said when he introduced the State’s planned “windfall taxes” at the annual general meeting of the Chamber of Mines of Namibia.

The news came only weeks after Katali announced that legislation will be changed as soon as possible to allow state-owned companies, like Epangelo Mining, to have the exclusive exploration and mining rights of all strategic minerals in future.

These would be uranium, copper, gold, diamonds, coal and rare earth metals.

The Namibian also reports that the attendance of South African President Jacob Zuma at the extraordinary Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit remained in doubt by late yesterday afternoon, while confusion also reigned over the actual date of the event.

The South African High Commission in Windhoek could not confirm Zuma’s attendance yesterday and attempts to get comments from the SA Presidency’s Office and the country’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation proved futile.

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor tells us that President Moweri Museveni yesterday issued a strongly-worded statement faulting the police for failing to “eject” Dr Kizza Besigye after the opposition leader spent more than an hour on Entebbe-Kampala highway last Thursday.

In a letter to all Ugandan media, the president, endorsed police action in stopping the walk-to work demonstrations, saying its perpetrators had sinister motives.

“Those who were of the view that the ‘walk-to-work’ was harmless were wrong. The police was right to, straight away, block these efforts,” Museveni wrote. “Yes, the police has made its own mistakes, including its reluctance to eject Besigye from Entebbe road when he failed to meet the one-hour deadline as had been agreed upon.”

Though the Nigerian government has denied claims that their President’s convoy was stoned by people in the Besigye procession, President Museveni repeated the claim yesterday.

He said not only was President Goodluck Jonathan’s car pelted with stones but that of his Congolese counterpart, Joseph Kabila, was attacked too.

The foreign presidents were arriving for last Thursday's presidential inauguration.