African press review 10 September 2013

Kenya and the ICC, investment in South Africa and Nigeria, teachers in Uganda are all subjects in today's African newspapers....

This morning at 10.30am Kenyan time, Deputy President William Ruto will become the first sitting senior government official to go on trial at the International Criminal Court.

Says the Nairobi-based Standard newspaper, the nation will be glued to television to watch proceedings from the court at The Hague in the Netherlands, expected to rekindle memories of the violence which followed the 2007 elections.

Opening statements in the trial of Ruto and his co-accused, radio presenter Joshua arap Sang, who are facing charges of crimes against humanity, will be heard before a three-judge panel.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's trial is scheduled to begin on 12 November. All three accused have denied the charges.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan Senate has been recalled early for a special session to discuss the trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto.

According to sister newspaper The Daily Nation, Kenya has been spared a potential crisis after the international court decided that the president and his deputy will not be tried at the same time.

The judge presiding over the trial of Ruto and Sang, Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji, yesterday ruled that the cases will alternate every four weeks.

The front page of South African financial paper BusinessDay is surprisingly strike free this morning, but that doesn't mean the news is otherwise very cheerful.

BusinessDay reports that South Africa remains the most attractive corporate investment destination in Africa, but that Nigeria is nipping at its heels and may overtake it as early as next year, according to a new survey.

Nigeria has moved into second place, from third last year, overtaking Egypt which is now in third position despite its continuing political upheavals. This is according to the Rand Merchant Bank’s annual "Where to Invest in Africa" report.

The report places South Africa 33rd in the overall world rankings   its worst position ever. Nigeria, on the other hand, has improved 35 places in the past decade to rank 38th on the global scale.

Nigeria’s growth rate is forecast at between 6 and 7 percent a year for the next five years, compared with South Africa’s forecast of less than 3 percent.

Last week, South Africa fell one place from 52nd to 53rd out of 148 on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness list, as Mauritius took sub-Saharan Africa’s top spot. Nigeria is ranked 120th on the same list..

Labour discord, a failing education system and poor healthcare dragged down the South African ranking.

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor reports that teachers have said they will not show up for class when schools open for a third term next week after the government failed to honour its promise to raise their salaries by 20 percent.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Uganda National Teachers Union, three days from the end of a 90-day ultimatum they had given government. Government needs about 56 million euros to increase teachers pay but says it cannot find the money in the current budget. It has also warned teachers against the industrial action.

Schools are due to open for the third term on Monday, 16 September.

According to NewsDay in Harare, 1,6 million people in Zimbabwe are estimated to be dependent on food aid and 34 percent are considered “chronically malnourished”. That is especially significant in the light of last week's World Bank report suggesting that Zimbabwe will produce only 56 percent of its maize requirements for this year, and does not have the foreign cash reserves necessary to make up the shortfall.