African press review 28 March 2014

The Egyptian media react to Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s announcement of his decision to stand in the 17July presidential elections. Nigeria gets tough with dodgy telecom operators. Uhuru promises power to Kenya.

Daily News Egypt reports that Al-Sisi resigned from his position as head of Egypt’s armed forces and defence minister Wednesday to meet a key clause of Egypt’s 2014 constitution which bars military personnel from entering the presidential race. Al-Sisi was defence minister under former President Mohamed Morsi and during the interim

government following Morsi’s ouster in July 2013.

Al Ahram Online claims that Al-Sisi’s path towards announcement of his presidential candidacy has been marked with careful calculations, the support of the army's command and some trepidation. According to the paper, Al-Sisi is hoping for better luck than Morsi even though he understands that, once he is out of the protective confines of the army, he will become an easier target for the public contempt which forced out the country’s last two presidents.

In South Africa City Press takes up the decision by the African National Congress to take the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) to court for “spreading malicious lies” about President Jacob Zuma and his Nkandla homestead.

According to the paper, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu issued a statement on Thursday citing bulk SMSes, allegedly distributed by or on behalf of the DA, “falsely accusing the president of having stolen public money to build his private residence in Nkandla”.

Mthembu announced the governing party had therefore launched an urgent application in the high court in Johannesburg to stop the DA from “violating” the Electoral Act and the Electoral Code of Conduct by “deliberately distorting” the findings in the public protector’s report.

The Mail and Guardian reports that DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko has welcomed the court challenge, describing it an opportunity to prove that Zuma improperly and materially benefited from the 16-million-euro “security upgrade” of his private home in Nkandla.

Business Day compares the Nkandla saga to a cricket match. According to the paper, if Zuma, clearly out on three occasions, can see off Madonsela and her straight delivery he will surely make his century.

In Nigeria Punch is shedding light on new tough plans by the country’s Communications Commission to crack down on worsening telecoms services after reports that the NCC had set up a task force to carefully collate statistics from the network operating centres of all the major networks on a daily basis.

Punch says the NCC has this month already slapped heavy fines on the providers for the poor quality of their services, Airtel and MTN to pay N185m each (800,000 euros), while Globacom paid N277.5m (1.2 million euros) earlier this month. That’s an example that should be copied by other African countries suffering from obsolete telecom networks.
In Kenya the press scrutinises President Uhuru Kenyatta’s State of the Union address after his first year in office. 

The Daily Nation says Kenyatta made a raft of promises that could radically change the quality of life for the citizens if implemented. One of the promises cited by the paper is the pledge that his government would supply affordable electricity to 80 per cent of homes and institute measures to generate an extra 5,000 megawatts of power.

He said the Olkaria Geothermal power project, expected to generate 800 MW, will start working soon.

The Daily Nation also underlines his promise to connect all primary schools to the national grid, in tandem with my Administration’s ICT initiative ”by the end of the next financial year”.

The president also backed devolution, saying he had kept faith with the public’s choice by setting up a fully fledged two-tier state. Another policy success highlighted by Uhuru is the establishment of 47 counties, increased their funding from the 15 per cent of total national revenue, as required in the constitution, to 32 per cent and transferred well trained civil servants to the counties to deliver services.

“Uhuru juggles shillings and high expectations,” comment Standard Digital. Kenyatta’s inaugural State of the Nation address gave a glimpse of the headache he faces in trying to mobilise resources to meet the nation’s huge expectations, it argues.