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African press review 10 July 2012

Cairo's stock exchange doesn't like the Egyptian president's confrontation with the military. Controversy continues over the deaths of two Nigerian politicians at a funeral. Could the ANC be out of power in a decade? And where does Uganda stand on Syria?

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According to The Egyptian Gazette, the Cairo stock exchange saw its sharpest fall in three weeks on Monday after the new president ordered parliament to reconvene, challenging military authority.

Cairo's bourse fell 4.2 per cent, its largest decline since 19 June, with parliament set to meet later today. This despite a court judgment and military order last month dissolving the legislature.

The National Military Council shut down the Islamist-led parliament, following a decision by Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court that ordered the lower house of parliament disbanded last month after finding fault with the election process.

The Cairo exchange has lost another one per cent in early trading this morning.

In Nigeria, the Daily Trust has more on the deaths of two politicians at Sunday's mass burial of victims of an earlier tribal clash.

According to a member of the House of Representatives who took refuge along with the late Senator Gyang Dantong when gunmen attacked the crowd during the ceremony on Sunday, the 53-year-old senator was not shot but died of exhaustion.

Simon Mwadkon also said majority leader of the state assembly Gyang Fulani also died from exhaustion.

The two lawmakers were among the mourners at the burial of dozens of people killed in clashes on Saturday. Shots were fired, leading to a stampede. While family members said Dantong and Fulani had died of heart attacks, aides of the state governor said they had been shot dead.

The death toll from Saturday's original clashes has now risen to 63, and there have been several reports of deaths in subsequent reprisal killings. Parts of northern Plateau State remain under curfew.

According to the South African financial newspaper, BusinessDay, the South African Institute of Race Relations believes that the African National Congress could be out of power within a decade. This analysis is based on voting patterns, the ruling party’s record in power and social change in South Africa.

The main threats are likely to be a transformed Democratic Alliance, a new party seen as "legitimately black" in character, and religious leaders who could decide to plunge into politics.

The ANC has always scoffed at claims it could be out of power in the near future. It points to voting figures showing that it received more than 80 per cent of ballots cast in North-West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

However, poll turnout in those provinces hovers at the 50 per cent mark. The ANC has managed to grow strongly in KwaZulu-Natal, which has boosted its national average. But many voters in the province have voted for the party only once or twice, previously preferring the Inkatha Freedom Party. As a result those voters cannot be relied upon to vote for the ANC in the future.

According to the Daily Monitor in Kampala, Uganda abstained from condemning the Syrian government over the violence in the country at the United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday, saying both warring parties share responsibility for civilian deaths.

Foreign Affairs Ministry permanent secretary ambassador Jame Mugume said it was unfair to accuse only the government of violence and leave out the opposition which is also armed.

The United States tabled a resolution condemning what they described as widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights, acts of violence, ongoing atrocities and indiscriminate targeting of civilians by the Syrian authorities.

The representatives of Uganda, India and the Philippines abstained.

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