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African press review 23 April 2014

SA's platinum mining strike looks set to drag on. A record number of parties will stand in the general election. Cairo's drivers have a poor sense of direction. Al-Sisi is accused of bribery. The ICC is still waiting for Uhuru's financial records. And was Kenya's 2013 election riggged?

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In South Africa financial paper BusinessDay reports that negotiations between strike-hit platinum producers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union on the employers’ revised wage offer concluded yesterday with no sign that the union is in a hurry to take the new offer to its members.

Slideshow Mandela

The new offer falls short of the union’s demand for an increase in the basic wage over the next four years, while cash allowances, such as housing and holiday pay, would remain frozen.

The union's national leadership is to meet to discuss the offer ahead of convening mass meetings with members.

Also in BusinessDay, a warning that next month's South African ballot papers are going to be complicated affairs, with a record number of 29 parties participating.

Of the 26 parties which contested the 2009 polls nationally, only 13 secured seats in parliament.

Inkatha Freedom Party breakaway, the New Freedom Party, will test its support nationally for the first time in the May election.

It is joined by a number of newcomers to the political space, including the Economic Freedom Fighters led by Julius Malema, Agang SA led by Mamphela Ramphele, and the Workers and Socialist Party, which emerged from the unrest in the mining sector after the Marikana massacre in 2012.

In Cairo, according to this morning's Egypt Independent, the local police issued 94,000 tickets in just 15 days for traffic violations. They included 1,387 for driving in the wrong direction.

The Egypt Independent also reports that presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi has accused his rival, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of bribing citizens to sign endorsements of the former defense minister's candidacy.

Each candidate was required to gather 25,000 notarised endorsements across the republic.

The Standard in Kenya reports that the period provided to the Nairobi government to respond to the International Criminal Court (ICC) demand regarding President Uhuru Kenyatta’s financial records is coming to an end.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Kenyan Attorney General Githu Muigai have until this day week to file an update with the Trial Chamber on the progress of the request, described by the Standard as the only barrier standing between Uhuru and his freedom. The prosecutor hopes the financial records will prove that Uhuru Kenyatta financed the mobilisation of Mungiki Sect members involved in the violence which followed the 2007 presidential election.

Before updating the judges next week, the government is also supposed to notify the prosecution of any problems which may impede or prevent execution of the request. Yesterday the prosecutor’s office declined to tell the Standard whether the Nairobi authorities had contacted her office as directed and instead asked the paper to direct its questions to the attorney general as the government’s chief legal advisor.

In the Kenyan Daily Nation suspended electoral commission boss James Oswago wonders why he is the only official being mentioned in the scandal about alleged malpractices in last year’s general election.

Earlier this week a Kenyan TV documentary played a tape-recording of a conversation in which a senior electoral official alleges that last year’s presidential election was rigged.

The official claims that the national intelligence service and Kenyatta’s party, the National Alliance, hacked into the commission’s computer servers prior to the commission transmitting the final election results, which showed Kenyatta to be the outright winner after the first round.

James Oswago denies being the official involved and further denies knowledge of any conspiracy to fix the 2013 presidential poll.

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