African press review 15 October 2013

François Hollande in South Africa, and the AU's decision to try to protect serving heads of state from prosecution are two of the stories covered in today's papers ..

In South Africa, financial paper BusinessDay notes the arrival of French president, François Hollande, without getting too excited about the two-day state visit. Mo Ibrahim's fruitless search for an African leader worth five million euros, sackings at South Africa's food processing company Pioneer, and further delays at the Marikana hearing, all get higher billing than the Hollande trip.

Says the Johannesburg-based daily, the visit forms part of efforts by Paris to seek new partnerships beyond France’s former colonies, and will include talks on economic ties. Fair enough.

But a separate story in BusinessDay suggests that there's more than euros and rand to be talked about.

France and South Africa were on the same page on Monday about the need for urgent action to prevent the Central African Republic from sinking further into conflict and even religious war, says BusinessDay.

But on the first day of French President François Hollande’s state visit, the two leaders skirted around a new fault-line opening up between Europe and the African Union about how the International Criminal Court should treat African leaders accused of crimes against humanity and other grave offences.

Fourteen African leaders, including South Africa's Jacob Zuma, backed Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir at a special AU summit last Saturday, basically saying that serving heads of state should be immune from prosecution.

The BusinessDay editorial is scathing in its condemnation of Saturday's decision, saying that, by choosing solidarity over justice for the victims of oppressors and cruel dictators, the African Union has sent an appalling message to the rest of the world.

The fact that only 14 African leaders attended the summit suggests that the majority may not want anything to do with what is being said and done in their name under pressure from Kenya and Sudan. This, says BusinessDay, is consistent with the way the AU has behaved in the past, and recalls the Southern African Development Community’s pathetic response to Zimbabwe’s defiance of the Sadc Tribunal, which was subsequently disbanded.

It is going to be extremely difficult for the AU to defend itself in future against accusations that it is little more than an old boys’ club dedicated to ensuring that dictators enjoy impunity. After taking a number of promising steps forward in recent years, the AU rolled way back by going ahead with this special summit and allowing a handful of leaders to pass such an ill-considered resolution in its name.

What incentive is there now for any one of the five African leaders who have been in power for more than 30 years to ease their iron grip voluntarily? The message is a tragic one. Until we are told otherwise, that message carries South Africa’s endorsement.

In Liberia, Charles Taylor appears on the front page of the Monrovia-based daily New Dawn. The former president is afraid that he could be attacked and killed by fellow inmates if he serves his 50-year jail term in the UK. He has written the UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone asking to serve his jail term in Rwanda.

In Kenya, The Daily Nation reports that a stand-off is looming between secondary school head teachers and the Education ministry over the release of cash for the subsidised learning programme.

Unless it is resolved, this could affect thousands of students who will be sitting the national examinations due to begin next week.

The national secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers yesterday told union members across the country to send all students home tomorrow if schools have not received the money that was supposed to be released at the beginning of third term last September.

The government has promised to release funds for the free learning programme by Friday.

The Daily Nation also reports that Kenya’s national security is among the worst in Africa.

The latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance report released in London on Monday groups Kenya with failed nations like Somalia and others facing unmanageable security situations at the bottom of the list ranking 52 African nations.

Kenya is in position 42 overall, and ranks poorly in terms of personal security for its citizens and visitors as well as in the separate safety and rule of law indexes.

A spokeswoman for the Ibrahim Foundation said Kenya’s poor performance was largely affected by its unstable neighbours and the situation is unlikely to change, unless the security situation in Somali improves.

On a brighter note, the same report says that 94 per cent of Africans live in countries that have experienced overall improvement in governance since the year 2000.