African press review 11 December 2014

Mugabe picks his new V-Ps and claims someone has triedto kill one of them already. All South Africa's languages are equal but some are mor equal than others. Kenyan politicians slam new anti-terror measures as "oppressive".

In Zimbabwe the government-owned Herald reports yesterday's appointments of Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko as vice-presidents, along with the presidential nomination of a 33-member politburo to run the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The article goes on to say that the new cabinet is expected to be named later today or tomorrow. President Robert Mugabe has to replace seven ministers sacked because of their association with Joice Mujuru, who lost her job as vice-president, according to the Herald, for wasting her time on "graft, factional politics and undermining the authority of the president who she sought to depose or assassinate".

By the way, the eighth minister who was to be sacked, Sydney Sekeramayi at defence, yesterday retained his Zanu-PF central committee seat and so is likely to hold onto his portfolio.

The Herald's editorial compare the strategies of Mujuru and Mnangagwa, saying the new man at Mugabe's right hand has suffered his own time in the political wasteland, having been demoted for his involvement in the the "Tsholotsho Declaration of 2005", an internal Zanu-PF attempted coup to remove the president, but he suffered his disgrace patiently and behaved like a loyal supporter. He now has his reward and could well be the next president of Zimbabwe as a result.

Over at privately owned NewsDay the main story says that Mugabe yesterday made sensational allegations that there was an attempt to assassinate Mnangagwa.

While speaking at the ceremony to announce the recycled Zanu-PF politburo, Mugabe claimed that unknown assailants sprinkled cyanide in Mnangagwa’s office at the new government complex in Harare.

The state broadcaster ZBC reported that the poison had affected a secretary who entered the office on the morning of Mnangagwa’s promotion to vice-president.

The secretary was rushed to hospital for treatment. NewsDay does not say how she's doing.

There's an interesting report on an inside page of the South African financial paper BusinessDay.

The article reminds readers that the South African constitution ensures the equality of all indigenous languages but says that giving them the status of English and Afrikaans in court proceedings may be a distant dream.

This was apparent from a remark by a judge of the high court in Pietermaritzburg yesterday when reviewing a magistrate’s decision in a criminal case.

The reviewing judge complained that it had taken three months to transcribe the record for the court because the proceedings were conducted in isiZulu.

The magistrate defended his decision to hear the case in isiZulu, saying everyone involved was Zulu-speaking and the constitution called for the equality of all 11 official languages. He said the transcription took so long because the clerk of the court had misfiled the record.

The law provides for magistrates to hear cases in any official language and the constitutional right to a fair trial includes the right to be tried in a language the accused understands or, if that is not practical, to have the proceedings interpreted.

Yesterday the reviewing judge said the courts lacked the infrastructure to realise the ideal of using indigenous languages.

There's no doubt about what the Kenyan Standard thinks of the proposed anti-terror laws.

Under the headline "Shocking, draconian laws in Kenya’s proposed bill on terror", we are told that several senior political figures yesterday described the amendments as "oppressive". Opposition leader Moses Wetang’ula warned the National Assembly against passing the amendments, saying that the opposition would challenge the new legislation in the courts.

Over at the Daily Nation we have President Uhuru Kenyatta trying to rally Jubilee MPs to pass the amendment to fight terrorism and banditry.

The president hosted ruling party MPs and senators at State House where he explained that he needed more powers to deal with terrorism and asked them to pass the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill.

The opposition says the amendments infringe freedom of expression, the media and the right to privacy of Kenyans.