African press review 29 March 2017

Pravin Gordhan may be on his way out of his job as South Africa's finance minister. But who will replace him? How did Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye outwit the police yesterday? And why is the Mombasa to Nairobi pipeline project leaking so much money?

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas are on their way out of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet. That's the main story in this morning's Johannesburg-based financial paper BusinessDay. The only questions remaining are: who will replace them and when will they be axed?

BusinessDay says nothing is likely to happen ahead of apartheid struggle veteran Ahmed Kathrada’s funeral later today, as many ministers are expected to attend.

The paper says the removal of the two is expected to have far-reaching consequences, politically and economically. The rand lost 52 cents against the dollar on Monday and remained weaker in late afternoon trade yesterday.

Under the headline "Gordhan still finance minister . . . for now," the Mail & Guardian reports that the minister yesterday dismissed reports that he resigned his job during a meeting with Zuma and other officials at the ANC’s headquarters.

Former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was also seen at Luthuli House yesterday morning, according to the Mail & Guardian, fueling speculation that she would replace Gordhan in an imminent Cabinet reshuffle.

Tabloid daily the Sowetan quotes Gordhan as saying he has no idea why he was summoned to return from an investment promotion in London. He told reporters they'd have to ask President Jacob Zuma for an explanation, stressing that he had not been fired, nor had he resigned.

Juba to review work permit fee hike

South Sudan is to take a second look at its new work permit fees for foreigners.

According to the top story in regional paper the East African, the government has already formed a committee headed by the finance ministry to reanalyse the order.

Juba recently raised the charges from 100 dollars to 10,000 dollars, sparking a flurry of complaints, especially from aid agencies operating in the country.

UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan Eugene Owusu said that most foreigners working in South Sudan are aid workers and that increasing work permit fees was unfair since the personnel were delivering assistance to South Sudanese citizens who currently rely on it to survive.

The ministry said that Juba is looking into the concerns raised by aid agencies, adding that the matter would be sorted out soon in order to safeguard relations with the humanitarian community.

Besigye gives Ugandan police the slip, again

Opposition politician Kizza Besigye and the Ugandan police are up to their old games.

According to the front page of the Kampala-based Daily Monitor, Kayunga District was yesterday the stage for cat and mouse chase scenes between police and opposition politicians led by former presidential candidate Besigye.

The politicians were in the area to hold a rally in support of their anti-land grabbing campaign dubbed “My Land, My Life”. The district has for years been a hotbed of quarrels between land owners and tenants, occasionally culminating in violence.

Chaos ensued yesterday afternoon when police blocked a convoy en route to Bbaale Town where the campaign rally had been planned but realised later that Besigye was not at the scene although his car was spotted.

The opposition figure evaded police and arrived at the rally venue by a different route.

In his address, Besigye said that, after selling off nearly all state enterprises in the 1990s, the National Rainbow Movement government was out of things to take over and was now after people’s land.

Pipeline project plunders Kenyan public purse

And Kenyan taxpayers may have lost the shilling equivalent of nearly 350 million euros to graft in a pipeline tender, according to the Kenyan Daily Nation.

The money was lost in a project to build a new 450-kilometre fuel pipeline linking Mombasa and Nairobi, the paper says.

In contracting riddled with ruthless, old-school corruption, the Kenya Pipeline Corporation has, according to the Nation's report, embarked on a project that renders useless equipment on which the public has already spent hundreds of millions of shillings.

By changing from the original plan for a 16-inch system to 20-inch, they are throwing away perfectly good infrastructure and buying capacity for which the country has no use, according to the Nairobi-based paper.