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African press review 16 December 2014

Nigerian motorists queue for petrol as oilworkers strike. Nobody opposes Malema in the Economic Freedom Fighters leadership election. Conflict in South Sudan has cost thousands of lives. Kenya's been conned. Media fear new anti-terror moves will hit press freedom. Egyptian protesters are to face a military tribunal.

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In Nigeria Punch reports that the nationwide strike by oilworkers led to long queues at petrol stations in the Federal Capital Territory, Benue, Kwara and Plateau states as motorists besieged the few filing stations still selling petrol on Monday.

In Lagos the situation was normal until yesterday evening when Punch says queues began to form outside many stations in the city.

The paper says the strike slowed down commercial activity in the Federal Capital Territory where many commuters were stranded for hours at bus stops.

Black market operators cashed in on the scarcity by selling the product in jerrycans on the major roads and streets in the FCT at prices well above the pump price of 97 naira. The street price yesterday was as high as 200 naira a litre.

According to Punch, the oil and gas workers are protesting the failure of the federal government to carry out maintenance at the nation’s four refineries, the non-reduction of the pump price of petrol in line with the slump in global prices of crude oil and the delayed passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.

In South Africa financial paper BusinessDay reports that Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu have been elected as president and vice-president respectively of the Economic Freedom Fighters party.

In the party’s first leadership elections, all 2,156 voting delegates raised their hands to second the nomination of Malema. There was a brief attempt to nominate a second candidate but that collapsed when the nominee declined to stand.

Slideshow Mandela

A proposal that no further nominations be taken sealed the election of Malema as party president for the next five years.

BusinessDay also reports that the war in South Sudan is worsening. Rights groups on Monday spoke of "extreme violence" and growing hunger, one year since the start of a conflict in which tens of thousands have died.

Campaigners say South Sudan is locked in conflict, with the bloodshed that erupted in Juba exactly a year ago having set off a cycle of retaliatory massacres across large swathes of the country.

Fighting broke out in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, when President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday said the crisis was "tragic and unacceptable" as he called for a power-sharing deal.

In Nairobi the Standard reports that Kenya was conned out of more than 700 million euros through corruption and tax evasion between 2003 and 2012, according to a US-based research firm.

Says theStandard, the findings could mount pressure on Kenya's bilateral partners whose companies and individuals are accused of perpetrating the crimes with the proceeds ending up in foreign banks. The losses were much larger than the combined foreign direct investment and international aid given to Kenya over the same period.

Kenya's outflows are probably under-reported because researchers were able to find data for only four of the 10 years under survey.

The report says tax evasion by big firms is hurting ordinary households that have to be taxed more to support development projects.

Also in the Standard, media industry figures have criticised the proposed Security Amendment Bill, saying it is a threat to Kenya's free press. Representatives of the owners, editors and journalists yesterday expressed concern that the draft law, due to be debated and passed in Parliament on Thursday, will stifle media freedom in Kenya.

It is alleged that proposed changes to Kenya's security laws are against Article 34b of the constitution which stipulates that the state shall not penalise any person for any opinion or view or the content of any broadcast or publication.

President Uhuru Kenyatta says the changes are neccessary to help fight the threat of terrorism from the Somali-based Al Shebab organisation.

In Cairo theEgypt Independent reports that an Egyptian prosecutor yesterday referred 40 alleged supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, including nine women, to a military court on charges related to their role in protests. The accused are all civilians.

Egypt expanded the jurisdiction of military courts in October to try civilians accused of acts ranging from attacking state facilities to blocking roads.

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