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African press review 20 February 2014

Boko Haram threatens the Niger Delta. The ball in the SA platinum strike is in the union's court. Malema belives he can be a powerbroker after the next election. Kenyan teachers' unions fall out over merger plans.

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The papers in Nigeria give plenty of coverage to statements made in a video released yesterday by Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the armed Islamic fundamentalist group Boko Haram. 

Shekau claims responsibility for the killing earlier this month of another radical Islamic leader, Sheikh Auwal Albani, who had criticised Boko Haram's war against books and education as being contrary to the Koran.

Shekau vowed that his fighters would soon destroy oil installations in the Niger Delta. He said "our work is not confined to Yobe, Borno and Adamawa", the northern states where Boko Haram has recently killed at least 500 people.

He also threatened that his group would kill prominent northern leaders including politicians, clerics and traditional rulers whom he said were supporting democracy and Westernisation. Shekau also warned that his fighters will destroy schools wherever they see them.

Last year Nigerian military authorities claimed that Abubakar Shekau died of gunshot wounds in Amichide in Cameroon but he has released at least four videos since then.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities on the latest message.

In South Africa BusinessDay reports that the next move in the stalled platinum sector wage talks lies firmly with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

Slideshow Mandela

Yesterday representatives of the platinum companies gave the striking union an ultimatum to adjust its pay demands.

Anglo American, Impala and Lonmin threatened to walk out of the talks organised by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration if the union does not adjust its wage increase demands.

The CEOs of the three mining companies said their offer of between 7.5 per cent and 9.0 per cent over three years would not be changed. The trade union is demanding a 150 per cent increase for underground workers.

The strike is about to enter its fifth week.

BusinessDay also carries an interview with Julius Malema. The man expelled from the ruling African National Congress sees his Economic Freedom Fighters taking on the role of "kingmaker" in the upcoming polls, where he believes coalitions will come to the fore in what is arguably the most hotly contested election since 1994.

His role in the ANC and that of the organisation he used to lead, the African National Congress Youth League, are being revived in Malema's reincarnated political career.

In the interview with Business Day Malema says he is willing to enter a coalition with any other party, provided it adheres to strict conditions, including nationalisation of the mines and banks.

He predicted an exciting election, saying South Africa could see a rerun for the first time in 20 years of democracy, suggesting that the parties might be unable to constitute a government without the Economic Freedom Fighters.

While he did not exclude the ANC from potential partners, he remains among President Jacob Zuma’s harshest critics, saying Zuma is a "securocrat" who does not care about the economy.

In Kenya the two teachers’ unions have clashed over a merger deal they signed early this year to bolster their bargaining power.

According to the Standard newspaper, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers yesterday disowned the merger agreement and accused the larger partner, the Kenya National Union of Teachers, of “mischief and dishonesty”.

Representative of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers say they agreed to work with the larger union but not to be swallowed up by it. They want to see a federation of the two distinct organisations and claim that the Kenya National Union of Teachers is working towards a merger.

 

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