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African press review 4 March 2014

The pace of economic growth in South Africa, Mugabe's daughter's wedding in Zimbabwe, teaching local languages to younger pupils in Kenya's primary schools and new prospects for US-Africa trade: all in today's papers ...

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The top story in the South African financial paper, BusinessDay,reports that an African National Congress heavyweight has questioned the pace at which the government is implementing policies aimed at boosting economic growth.

Joel Netshitenzhe is executive director of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection and was policy chief under former president Thabo Mbeki. He was re-elected to the ANC’s national executive committee in December 2012. He is still considered to be one of the party’s most prominent intellectuals.

South Africa has started with the implementation of its 30-year growth and development framework, the National Development Plan, which calls for more investment into labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and infrastructure development.

Netshitenzhe said on Monday that manufacturing-focused policies such as the Industrial Policy Action Plan would need swifter implementation to improve competitiveness.

BusinessDay also looks back at Saturday's wedding of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s only daughter, Bona.

It was a lavish ceremony attended by members of the political élite from South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

The wedding, seen as a show of opulence, has been criticised by some Zimbabweans who have pointed out that the largesse comes at a time when the country’s economy is comatose, and hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid.

Mugabe, Africa’s oldest ruler who celebrated his 90th birthday a fortnight ago in another lavish ceremony, gave the young couple 100,000 euros in cash and 55 cattle.

The Soweto String Quartet provided the entertainment.

More than 300,000 people are facing famine in Mozambique. According to the country's agriculture minister, central and southern regions are the worst affected, by a combination of factors including drought, flooding and insect plagues.

According to the front page of the Nairobi-based Daily Nation, all primary schools in Kenya must start teaching in local languages in lower classes, in line with a directive issued yesterday by the Education ministry.

A ministry spokesman said the use of local languages in the formative stages of child development was critical and had been proven to be beneficial.

Last week, teachers opposed the policy, saying it was not only difficult to implement but also retrogressive.

The Cabinet Secretary criticised those opposing the decision, saying that other Third World countries that had embraced learning based on their local languages had witnessed tremendous social and economic growth.

Malaysia and India were cited as examples.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers have asked the ministry to suspend the policy and consult teachers before implementing it.

Regional newspaper The East African reports that the Obama administration is currently looking at ways to reshape the 14-year-old US preferential trade programme for Africa.

Florizelle Liser, who is the top US trade official for Africa, recently told a Washington forum that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act could be transformed into a set of free-trade agreements with specific countries and regional groupings.

Once the US and European Union conclude their current round of negotiations, Africa will be the only part of the world without a free-trade agreement with the United States.

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act is due to expire in September, 2015.

The East African also reports that the United Nations could impose a full arms embargo on Somalia following revelations that the Mogadishu government has allowed the sale and diversion of weapons to foreign arms traffickers, criminals and terrorists.

The UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, whose mandate includes reporting on any violations of the arms embargo imposed on Somalia in 1992, says in its latest report that agents of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group, al-Shebab, are known to obtain military equipment on the Somali black market.

Attempts by Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to forge a common strategy to combat the arms trade in the region have largely failed due to the conflict in Somalia.

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