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African press review 12 September 2011

Monday's press highlights the fate awaiting the ANC's controversial youth leader Julius Malema and the interest, or not, of South Africans in whether the Springboks will hold on to their Rugby World Cup title.

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Julius Malema is facing a tough week at the office.

The main headline in The Star in Johannesburg reads "Malema Against the Ropes", with the small print explaining that the next few days could very well decide the political future of the controversial leader of the ANC's Youth League.

Later on Monday, the High Court in Johannesburg will give its verdict in the hate-speech trial in which Malema is accused of racism for singing a struggle song including the words "Shoot the Boer".

Judge Colin Lamont has to decide whether Malema was being normally patriotic in belting out the aggressive little ditty at Youth League meetings, or whether he was inciting racial hatred.

The Star suggests that the worst that can happen if Malema is found guilty is that he'll be ordered to stop singing the song.

The racial justice group, AfriForum, which originally brought the case against Julius Malema, says they'll go the the Supreme Court or to South Africa's Constitutional Court, if he gets off too lightly today

But his real problems will start once the various courts get finished with him, because the powers-that-be in the African National Congress are just waiting for Malema's civil position to be made clear so that they can launch proceedings against him in three other cases, all involving alleged misconduct.

The police have already moved reinforcements into the south Johannesburg area around Kibler Park where the ANC hearing will take place on Wednesday. The Star sees this as an attempt by the authorities to head off any demonstration by pro-Malema supporters.

The last time the ANC tried to charge Malema, at the end of August, Youth League supporters laid siege to the party building at Luthuli House, and the whole affair degenerated into a riot.

The Star also gives pride of place to the national rugby team, the Springboks, who got their campaign to retain the Webb Ellis trophy off to a shaky start at the World Cup in New Zealand.

The Star has a front-page picture of fans at Fourways, enjoying the sun while the Boks were being run right to the wire by a very determined Wales.

Seventeen points to 16 the margin at the end, in favour of South Africa, with the world champions' fans back home breathing a huge collective sigh of relief.

The Star has another picture with the same story, of two men sitting in front of one of the giant TV screens in Soweto, the pair surrounded by empty seats and open space.

Two of the four parks set up in Soweto reported no fans at all. Clearly the fate of the Springboks is not a priority issue for residents of the South Western Township.

The Daily Monitor in Uganda gives its main story to the Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki. He has been complianing about interference by various African governments on the independence of the judiciary.

Judge Odoki specifically criticised Uganda’s refusal to obey and enforce court decisions, complaining of open attacks on the courts, such as the March 2005 storming of the High Court in Kampala.

Odoki was speaking at the annual Southern African Chief Justices Forum, a meeting of 11 chief justices taking place in the Uganda capital.

“Most judiciary both in Africa and beyond face challenges to their independence because their independence on paper has not been translated into real independence in practice,” said Chief Justice Odoki.

He referred to several surveys of judicial independence by both the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, in which African countries consistently fare worse than their counterparts in the northern hemisphere.

There's a picture of US President Barack Obama on the front page of Kenya's Daily Nation, but the story has nothing to do with the 9/11 anniversary. The headline reads "US might cut  500 million euros in health aid to Kenya".

The story explains that American lawmakers may block a 2.1 billion dollar three-year aid package to fight Aids and malaria in Kenya, a deal already budgeted for by President Barrack Obama’s government.

According to The Daily Nation, the US Congress has demanded cuts in foreign aid to address domestic shortfalls. The health package, under which Kenya’s health sector was to be supported with 500 million euros each year for three years, could be one of the casualties.

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