Skip to main content

African press review 23 June 2015

South Africa's Jacob Zuma is back in the legal wars, the leader of the ANC thinks the International Criminal Court is dangerous, Europe issues a stern warning to Burundi, while Nigeria's recently installed president Muhammadu Buhari says his predecessor has left him nothing but debts and empty coffers.

Advertising

South African president Jacob Zuma says it would be "rational" to drop corruption charges against him.

The story is at the top of the front page of this morning's Johannesburg-based financial paper, BusinessDay.

Zuma believes the charges against him were "irrevocably tainted" by political motives.

Slideshow Mandela

A corruption case against the president failed in 2009 because his defence showed that the charges were politically motivated. The aim was to damage Zuma in his battle with former president Thabo Mbeki for the presidency of the African National Congress at the ruling party's 2007 conference in Polokwane.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has challenged the 2009 decision to drop charges against the president, saying that decision was irrational in law and unconstitutional.

The DA has argued that the manipulation, if any, related only to the timing of the indictment and not to the substantial charges against Zuma. The president's lawyers say the prosecution is so tainted that "the good could not be separated from the bad".

Zuma's legal representative yesterday said that the opposition case was itself an abuse of process and politically motivated and was doomed to fail.

Also in BusinessDay, a claim that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is "dangerous" and South Africa should withdraw from it. This was announced by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday, as he defended the government’s decision not to arrest indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

President Jacob Zuma’s government and the ANC have come under fire for allowing Bashir, who faces charges of genocide at the court, to slip out of South Africa through a military air base after attending the African Union summit in Johannesburg last week.

Zuma is due to answer questions about Bashir’s departure in the National Assembly later today.

The European Union (EU) warned Burundi yesterday of the possibility of sanctions against those responsible for violence. Europe will consider other steps against the aid-reliant nation, which has been plunged into turmoil by the president’s plan to run for a third term.

A grenade attack killed four people on Sunday. President Pierre Nkurunziza’s opponents say his bid for another five years in office is unconstitutional, while he cites a court ruling that found he was entitled to run.

Nigeria's recently installed president Muhammadu Buhari is also under pressure. Yesterday, Buhari said he inherited a country with a virtually empty treasury from his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.

Buhari, who met with State House correspondents on Monday to mark his first day in the presidential office, said his administration was weighed down by debts running into millions of dollars.

Money is far from being Buhari's only problem.

The Nigerian president yesterday ordered the removal of military checkpoints set up in the wake of Boko Haram attacks in the north-east of the country.

The order was given a few hours after twin bomb blasts rocked Maiduguri, capital of Borno State on Monday. Thirteen people lost their lives and many others were injured in the incident.

The presidency later issued a statement in which it explained that the order for the removal of the checkpoints was intended to end lengthy traffic jams caused by the military roadblocks but the new order concerns only secure parts of the country.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.