African press review 16 July 2013

Kenya's teachers strike, international criminal court trials and mining in South Africa are among today's stories.....

Striking teachers in Kenya have been told to report back to class or face the sack. That's on the front page of this morning's Nairobi-based Standard newspaper.

According to the story, the Education Cabinet Secretary yesterday ordered teachers to go back to work or lose their jobs.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers which represents the majority of the strikers dismissed the warning saying its members are employed by the Teachers Service Commission which is independent. The union warned that strong-arm tactics by the Government would not work.

Most Kenyan public school teachers have been on strike for the past three weeks, demanding increases in allowances unpaid since 1997.

The Standard also reports that judges at the International Criminal Court have ruled that the trial of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto on charges of crimes against humanity will open in the Dutch city of The Hague.

Ruto's legal team had asked for the trial to start in either Nairobi or in Arusha, Tanzania.

The trial is scheduled to commence on 10 September, 2013, in the presence of the accused.

The parallel trial of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta on charges related to the 2008 post-election violence will open on November 12 this year.

Human rights groups have condemned Nigeria for hosting Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, and have demanded his arrest on genocide charges.

Bashir is attending a health summit convened by the African Union in Abuja.

His visit is an "affront to victims" of the conflict in Darfur, rights groups say.

The International Criminal Court accuses the Sudanese leader of committing genocide in Darfur, a charge he denies.

The African Union decided in 2009, soon after the arrest warrant was issued, that member states would not enforce it.

The AU accuses the ICC of complicating peace efforts in the region, and of unfairly targeting Africans.

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor reports that former Ugandan army officer, General David Sejusa, has told British media that he has been targeted by thugs working for the Kampala government.

In a story carried by The Times newspaper yesterday, Sejusa said he had been twice pursued by thugs seeking to intimidate him.

The authorities in Kampala have dismissed the claims, saying the General is trying to build a case for asylum.

Sejusa, who has been living in London since April, kicked up a storm when the Daily Monitor, in May, published details of a letter he had written to the head of the Internal Security Organisation, asking for an investigation of an alleged plot to assassinate top government officials opposed to the “Muhoozi Project”.

The government has denied the existence of such a project, reportedly aimed at helping President Yoweri Museveni’s eldest son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba, succeed him as president.

The Monitor also tells us that the Inspector General of Ugandan Police, General Kale Kayihura, has formed two teams to investigate corruption reports ranking the Ugandan Police Force as the national champion in bribery.

Reports by Transparency International, the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the Inspectorate of Government have consistently shown that the police are ranked highest among the most corrupt institutions in Uganda and the East African region.

A criminal justice expert told the Daily Monitor that salary delays have a direct impact on the morale and enthusiasm of officers and strongly influence their resistance to bribes.

Two mining stories caught my eye on the front page of this morning's South African financial paper BusinessDay.

One headline reads "NUM rejects chamber’s 4% pay offer as ‘insult’". The story explains that as crucial gold-sector wage talks opened on Monday with the Chamber of Mines offering a 4% raise, AngloGold Ashanti rocked the market with news of an asset write-down of up to 1.99 billion euros.

The shock announcement starkly underlined the predicament faced by South Africa’s gold miners, whose wage offer is way below the double-digit increases being demanded by unions.

The National Union of Mineworkers rejected the offer as an "insult", and warned of a looming confrontation in the fraught sector.

The other story reports that from today, the National Union of Mineworkers will lose the benefits and facilities associated with a majority-status union at platinum miner, Lonmin, after an application to prevent the company from terminating the recognition agreement failed.

The Labour Court ruled against the NUM on Monday and Lonmin will from Tuesday withdraw the recognition and benefit of full-time branch representatives and full-time shop stewards, as well as offices and transport facilities.

The ruling places rival group, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, in the driving seat at Lonmin.