African press review 6 March 2012

Currency manipulation in Kenya, controversy in Uganda over whether male circumcision prevents the spread of HIV/Aids and accusations of corruption against some members of Zimbabwe President Mugabe's cabinet grab the headlines in Africa's press.

There could be bad news for press reviewers on the front page of this morning's South African BusinessDay.

According to the financial daily, a showdown is looming between newspaper publishers and media monitoring agencies over a new copyright licence that would force the monitoring agencies to pay royalties for the content they replicate.

Media monitoring agencies are effectively professional press reviewers, who make money by collecting specialised content from newspapers and magazines on behalf of clients, who range from small public relations firms to the investment banks.

The agencies are paid a lot of money for their reviews, but currently pay nothing to the originators of the stories they reproduce.

Royalties would be a new source of revenue for struggling magazine and newspaper publishers as circulation and advertising revenues remain under pressure.

Under the new rules, media monitoring agencies would be charged a flat annual fee while their clients would pay licences for each individual user within a company. The agencies have welcomed the idea of the fees but have objected to the "exorbitant" rates being demanded by the publishers.

BusinessDay also carries a sports story with a bit of a difference.

Last weekend, the mighty Mamelodi Sundowns beat amateur club Powerlines in the Nedbank Cup. The final score broke a domestic record that has stood since Amazulu beat Bizana Lucky Stars 16-nil in the now-defunct Benson & Hedges Cup back in 1976.

For the record, Sundowns beat Powerlines by 24 goals to nil. The BusinessDay story concerns the unfortunate 18-year-old goalkeeper, Thabang Louw, who had to fish the ball out of the net two dozen times.

Powerlines owner Denziel Ontong told BusinessDay yesterday those making jokes about the teenager in the aftermath of the record defeat did not realise he faces far bigger challenges daily than those against Sundowns.

Thabang Louw has run his family on odd jobs since his mother became ill in 2007. He wants to return to school and would like to be a professional goalkeeper. Of his weekend performance, he simply says: "I was nervous, because I usually see these Sundowns players on television. And all of a sudden they were in front of me."

It costs 1,500 euros per month to run Powerlines. The Sundowns winger Elias Pelembe earns 35,000 euros a month, in a club owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe and with an annual budget reckoned in dozens of millions of euros.

According to the front page of the Daily Nation, Kenyan commercial banks on Monday denied accusations of masterminding and benefiting from last year’s rapid depreciation of the shilling.

The charge is contained in a report by a Parliamentary Select Committee on which debate in the House resumes later today.

The report recommends the sacking of the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya and increasing the fine for banks found guilty of manipulating the currency.

The commercial banks say the report is based on false information and was clearly drafted to find someone to blame as opposed to solving the fundamental issues that expose the Kenyan shilling to volatility.

The main story in Uganda's Daily Monitor says that, contrary to recent popular claims that male circumcision reduces HIV/Aids transmission by 60 per cent, a group of researchers has disputed the findings, saying the action will only increase the spread of the disease.

Data consistently shows that male circumcision does not provide protection against HIV transmission in several sub-Saharan African countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania, all of which have higher prevalence of HIV infection among circumcised men.

Uganda began a medical male circumcision drive two years ago after the World Health Organisation recommended male circumcision as a preventive measure in the fight against Aids.

Also in the Monitor, Zimbabwe’s Vice President Joice Mujuru says some members of President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet are corrupt and are looting farm grants meant for the poor.

She said President Mugabe had worked hard to mobilise funds to finance the grants but was being let down by his corrupt ministers.

Officials from the Zanu-PF party and the state-owned Grain Marketing Board have been accused of profiting from the system.

Senior Zanu-PF officials have also been accused of looting farm implements meant for poor farmers under the veteran ruler’s land reform scheme.

A Transparency International survey last year revealed that 55 per cent of Zimbabweans believed that corruption was on the increase. Most of those questioned said they were being forced to pay bribes to obtain services that they should be receiving at little or no cost.