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African press review 24 April 2014

The situation in South Sudan is not getting any less complicated. According to this morning's Sudan Tribune, conflicting reports emerged on Wednesday evening as rebels loyal to Riek Machar claimed have seized the town of Renk in Upper Nile state while the army said a small revolt there had been quelled.

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Deng Chol, a Member of Parliament from Renk County told the Sudan Tribune that a rebel attempt to take control of the town by instigating internal revolt by ethnic Nuer member of the SPLA was crushed by government forces.

 Renk is the main town north of the Paloich oilfields. Observers say its capture by the rebels would expose the oilfields to attack.

Rebels earlier said they wanted to control all the country’s oilfields in order to deny President Salva Kiir from using oil revenues to finance the war.

According to the main story in this morning's Nairobi-based Daily Nation, President Kiir yesterday sacked his army chief after rebels seized a major oil hub, unleashing two days of ethnic slaughter in which the UN says hundreds of civilians were massacred.

Rebels loyal to sacked vice president Riek Machar seized Bentiu last week. The United Nations says they hunted down civilians sheltering in mosques, churches and a hospital, in a wave of ethnic killings.

The president gave no reason for removing general James Hoth Mai, a decision announced on national television, but sources attributed the decision to recent military setbacks in the oil-rich north of the country.

On the political analysis pages of the South African financial paper, Business Day, we learn Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters could emerge as the official opposition in Free State, Limpopo and North West provinces following the general election on May 7.

According to research by two political parties with established polling capacity, there were strong indications that the Economic Freedom Fighters were set to take most of the Congress of the People vote in these provinces, after COPE all but unravelled in the wake of continued leadership squabbles.

Business Day says becoming an opposition party in provincial legislatures will test Malema’s party's administrative ability, and its capacity to govern.

On its African business pages, Business Day reports that Zimbabwe will not take any foreign investment capital as part of its controversial indigenisation policy, according to Harare's finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa.

The indigenisation law, introduced in 2010 with the aim of empowering local people, forces foreign companies to cede majority shares to Zimbabweans.

So far it has only been applied to mines, but critics say the policy has been a deterrent to badly needed investment.

Chinamasa described as nonsense a perception that the Harare government would claim 51 per cent of foreign investment.

The minister said the government was drawing up a comprehensive plan to handle the indigenisation issue sector by sector.

Business Day also reports the persistence of what the paper calls "Mozambique's kidnap scourge".

The recent arrest of a businessman with links to the ruling Frelimo party, in connection with a series of kidnappings, has shocked Maputo and refocused attention on a scourge that had seemed to be receding.

The arrest of businessman Moniz Carsane marks the first time someone with close links to the circles of power has been implicated in connection with the kidnaps-for-ransom that have earned Mozambique a reputation as the Colombia of southern Africa.

According to local reporters, Carsane had trouble finding a lawyer when he was arrested earlier this month, because many of Maputo’s top attorneys shied away from the case.

Carsane attend a ruling party congress as a Frelimo representative in 2012, and a prominent Frelimo mayor attended his wedding.

The authorities suspect him of being linked to four kidnappings: two dating back to 2011 and two earlier this year.

Police say they registered 44 kidnapping cases last year. Unofficial sources say the actual number is probably double that, as many families are too afraid to contact the police.

The Standard in Kenya gives some background details on last night's fatal explosion outside Pangani police station in Nairobi. At least four people, including two police officers, died in the blast.

According to The Standard, two police officers intercepted a car with two occupants at about 8 pm. They got into the vehicle and ordered the driver to proceed to Pangani police station.

The vehicle exploded at the police post gates, killing all four people on board.

 

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