African press review 1 March 2012

Malema to fight his expulsion from the ANC. Zimbabwe threatens to grab an SA-owned platinum mine. Is democracy on the decline in Uganda? The leader of the Biafra independence battle is buried.

Julius Malema, who was president of the African National Congress Youth League, has been expelled from the ANC.

Derek Hanekom, chairman of the South African ruling party’s national disciplinary committee, made the announcement on Wednesday night in Johannesburg following Malema’s mitigation hearing at which the youth leader had asked for a reduction of the five-year ban imposed after he was found last year to have brought the ANC into disrepute.

No reduction. They threw the man out completely.

According to the South African financial daily, BusinessDay, Malema is, however, likely to appeal against his expulsion and has been given 14 days to do so. He was reportedly in his hometown of Seshego, Limpopo, on Wednesday evening.

He was found guilty of sowing divisions in the party by comparing the leadership style of President Jacob Zuma unfavourably to former president Thabo Mbeki’s. He also made statements on bringing about regime change in Botswana at a youth league press conference in July last year and was further found guilty of propagating racism or political intolerance by his utterances at an election rally in Kimberley in May last year, where he said that whites should be treated as criminals for stealing land from blacks.

According to The Sowetan, Malema last night said he has accepted the ANC's decision to expel him but had not given up hope.

"I am a soldier who is prepared to die in a battle. Even if I am expelled from the ANC, my blood will remain black, gold and green. I am prepared to do blood tests to prove that," he said addressing more than 500 people who had gathered outside his grandmother Sarah's house in Limpopo.

The Star's main headline reads "Juju kicked out". The Johannesburg paper reports that several shots were fired by Malema supporters towards a rival faction outside his grandmother’s house.

He said he was not surprised by the verdict, saying he’d read it in a morning newspaper before the announcement. “It means this country (and the ANC) is run by the media,” said Malema.

The Sowetan also reports that Zimbabwe’s black empowerment minister says he will proceed with a takeover of the country’s biggest platinum mine if the South African owners don’t comply with orders to hand over more stakes in the company.

Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said on Wednesday there is “no compromise” over the eventual handover of 51 per cent of the company stock to blacks.

Last year, Zimplats became the first foreign-owned company to cede 10 per cent of its holdings to a local community trust.

Zimbabwe has ordered the company to hand over another 30 per cent by mid-March. South Africa-based Implats owns 87 per cent of existing shares in Zimplats.

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor reports that the repression of freedoms in the country in an attempt to consolidate power by President Museveni’s administration has been cited by a US consultancy which says that the strength of democracy in Uganda is on the decline.

A report by Flattau Associates, a Washington-based research and consulting firm that conducts government assessment and monitors democratic stability internationally, states that democracy in Uganda has declined to slightly worse than moderate levels in the past few months.

The report notes that Museveni remains credited with bringing economic and political stability to Uganda and fostering efforts to combat HIV/Aids since 1986.

According to the Nigerian daily, Punch, representatives of countries that recognised Biafra during the Nigerian civil war – Gabon, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, and Zambia – have arrived at Enugu for today’s funeral and Friday’s interment of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State on Wednesday also made a cash donation to Biafra war veterans at a requiem mass organised for the repose of the soul of Ikemba Nnewi in Enugu.

Obi did not disclose the amount of money for security reasons but assured the ex-Biafran soldiers that each of them would go home with a huge sum of money.