African press review 28 June 2011

A mixed bag in today's African papers....

Four days. That's how long it took a specialised police team to arrest those allegedly behind the attack on the home of Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros, according to today's Star.

The eight were arrested in simultaneous raids across Mamelodi on Monday as police rounded up seven men and a woman, suspected of involvement in the Friday night robbery at the Police Commissioner's Bryanston home.

Petros’s wife escaped injury after she locked herself in a bathroom as robbers kicked down the family home’s front door and searched the house for valuables, stealing a plasma flat-screen TV and electrical appliances.

The arrests follow the apprehension on Friday night of a 28-year-old man, who was caught close to Petros’s home, allegedly attempting to break into another house.

The Star also reports that Greenpeace Africa activists yesterday used three tipper trucks to unload five tons of coal in front of electricity company Eskom’s Megawatt Park offices, blocking the main entrance to the site and causing a huge traffic jam in Sunninghill.

The coal was still there at noon yesterday, but traffic was said to be flowing freely.

The action was intended to highlight the cost of Eskom’s heavy reliance on coal for power, in terms of environmental destruction, the pollution of scarce water supplies and damage to people’s health and wellbeing.

Greenpeace wants Eskom to halt construction of the Kusile coal-fired power plant in Emalahleni, set to produce 4800MW of electricity, using 17 million tons of coal per year.

90 per cent of South Africa’s energy is derived from coal. The republic already emits half of Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from coal-burning power stations.

The Star says that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has been barred by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) from attending the international congress of the world’s biggest education union, to be held in Cape Town next month.

Sadtu’s national executive committee has decided that Zille’s presence at the congress would be an insult to both the labour movement and teachers, branding the Democratic Alliance leader as a union basher and saying she was against labour rights.

Zille, a former education co-ordinator in the Western Cape, has often argued that Sadtu’s apparent protection of underperforming teachers among its members was an obstacle to better teaching and learning.

Sadtu said Zille was “against collective bargaining and believes in passing legislation to oppress teachers”.

The front page of the Kenyan Daily Nation reports from Lusaka that Zambia’s former president, Frederick Chiluba, was hailed as a “great man” by the current president Rupiah Banda, during Monday's nationally broadcast funeral for the leader who ushered in multi-party democracy but became mired in graft claims.

Banda told about 4,000 mourners at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka that Chiluba had helped turn the page on the autocratic rule of the country’s founding father, Kenneth Kaunda, who was among those attending Monday's service.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were also present.

Chiluba’s image was tainted by embezzlement charges. He was tried for stealing 350,000 euros in public money during his time in office, but was acquitted in 2008.

Last year a Zambian judge refused to recognise a ruling by a London court that found him and his associates guilty of siphoning 32 million euros from state coffers.

“If he was a guilty person, Chiluba would have run away to another country. But he didn’t and he was cleared,” Banda told mourners.

In Kenya itself, the Daily Nation gives top coverage to a petition challenging the nomination and appointment of five Supreme Court judges, which has been referred to the recently-appointed Chief Justice.

This, according to the Nairobi daily, sets the stage for Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to appoint a three-judge bench to hear the petition, just three days after picking another three-judge panel to hear an application challenging the appointment of Keriako Tobiko as Director of Public Prosecutions.

The applicants in the latest case argue that the appointment of the five judges to the Supreme Court does not conform to the constitutional provision of gender equity.

They accuse the Judicial Service Commission of violating Article 27 of the Constitution, which says that not more than two thirds of those appointed shall be of the same gender and that men and women have the right to equal treatment. All five appointees are men.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday paid Sh3.4milion in outstanding tax as he called on other Members of Parliament to follow suit.

Gachoka MP, Mutava Musyimi has also paid Sh1.9m as Kenya Revenue Authority piles pressure on MPs to pay up.

Mr Odinga said it was not his mistake he had not paid up since 27 August 2010 when the new constitution was promulgated. The Prime Minister said someone "was sleeping on the job at Kenya Revenue Authority."

He said KRA should have informed Parliament in good time instead of waiting to put MPs in the uncomfortable position of having to pay too much money.

"Nobody is above the law. Not even the President or the Vice president," Mr Raila told the press at his office in Nairobi.

He urged other MPs to pay in line with the new constitution.

Judges have already bowed to pressure and agreed to pay taxes, leaving MPs isolated in their opposition to the move.