African press review 7 June 2013

Friday’s big story comes from Kenya where the sharing of 29 million euros in compensation granted by the British government for atrocities committed by colonial forces during Kenya’s war of independence has caused controversy.

Kenya’s Daily Nation reports that some 5,000 Mau Mau freedom fighters tortured, castrated or raped during the uprising against colonial rule in the 1950s, have been short-listed to share the money but some of the war veterans are demanding a fresh head count.

According to the paper, the association’s leader, Elijah Kinyua Ng’ang’a alias General Bahati, told the press some fighters had been omitted while some elders put their names on the lists, while leaving out bona fide members.

Standard Digital says that tens of thousands of rebels were killed by colonial forces and their Kenyan allies, while an estimated 150,000 people, many of them unconnected to the Mau Mau, were detained in brutal camps. For the paper some of the victims consider the cash is not enough but admit it is better than nothing.

The Standard also reports that some of the old men and women who gathered to watch live proceedings of the British acknowledgement of atrocities against the Mau Mau broke into song and jubilation when Foreign Secretary William Hague offered an apology.

South Africa's City Press highlights remarks by prominent anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele, who regrets Nelson Mandela’s early exit from politics. Ramphele, who is preparing to launch a new political to challenge President Jacob Zuma’s ruling ANC in polls next year, observed that South Africa would have been a better democracy had Mandela served a second term as president.

Ramphele who heads a new opposition movement, Agang, says she is not sure that Mandela’s successors are as committed as he was, warning that after nearly 20 years of democracy, the country is on a completely wrong track.

Pretoria News takes up the ordeal of a distraught father who alleges that his 11-year-old daughter was hit on the head with a blackboard duster and his 15-year-old son forced to eat food from the floor at a primary school in Soshanguve, a township north of Pretoria. The paper reports that that the Education Department has sent a team to investigate the shocking allegations and provide psychosocial support to children at the school.

The Sowetan posts a video on its website of a man claiming to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

The paper reports that the man, known as Hlongwane, an Eshowe from northern KwaZulu-Natal told the press that he was reborn as the son of God after spending years in the wilderness.

According to the Sowetan, Hlongwane has already gathered over a dozen disciples at his compound, including an 84-year-old man who has abandoned his wife of 41 years and handed his whole pension to the so-called king of kings.