African press review 3 July 2013

Egypt's protests and South Africa's mining woes dominate the papers today. 

The situation in Egypt is not getting any simpler. The front page of the semi-official Egyptian Gazette this morning confirms that President Mohamed Morsi has called on the armed forces to withdraw their ultimatum for him to share power with his political opponents. The president says he will not be dictated to.

The United States added to the pressure on the embattled Egyptian leader on Tuesday. In a phone call at the end of his African tour, US President Barack Obama told Morsi that the political crisis can be resolved only by talks with his opponents.

The Egyptian Gazette quotes the government press agency, MENA, as saying that the number of Islamist demonstrators in Rabea al-Adaweya Square increased on Tuesday in support of the legitimacy of President Mohamed Morsi, as several marches arrived to the square from various parts of Cairo and other governorates.

The total number of demonstrators in and around the square is given as 4 million.

Mining stories dominate the South African front pages, none too surprisingly, I suppose, with wage negotiations in the sector due to start next week.

According to the top story in financial paper BusinessDay, the mining companies, trade unions and the government are to meet later today in a bid to stabilise the embattled industry and establish a framework for the wage talks .

Next week's negotiations are expected to involve seven of South Africa’s leading gold producers and four unions, including a newcomer, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

The sector is bedeviled by soaring costs, intense inter-union rivalry, a falling gold price and declining productivity. Two unions have demanded entry-level wage increases of 60% and 100%.

Meanwhile, in the platinum mining industry, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has demanded that Anglo American Platinum more than double the monthly pay of underground workers to 960 euros. The average industrial wage in South Africa is 230 euros.

Anglo American plans to cut 6,000 mining jobs and reduce platinum production by 10% this year. The price of platinum is down almost 20% on last year's prices, to $1,380 an ounce, a level that makes many South African shafts barely profitable, according to BusinessDay.

In Kenya, the two main teaching unions appear to have split over the current strike.

According to the front page of this morning's Nairobi-based Standard newspaper, teachers on Tuesday defied an Industrial Court order to resume work and pressed on with their strike as authorities announced tough measures to end the industrial action.

Teachers heeded a call by officials of the giant Kenya National Union of Teachers, which has more than 250,000 members, to ignore the order by the Industrial Court to go back to class.

But officials of the smaller Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, with a membership of 47,000 and who have been on strike for the past three weeks, announced the suspension of the strike for a fortnight to facilitate negotiations with the government.

Talks between the unions and State representatives are scheduled for later this Wednesday. The Kenya National Union of Teachers has, however, vowed to boycott the negotiations.