African press review 21 October 2015

Confusion reigns in Congo-Brazzaville in the runup to Sunday's controversial referendum, with the president assuring the nation that the proposed changes to the constitution are necessary to modernise Congo's fundamental law. And South Africa's medium-term budget will be announced today.

"Sassou Nguesso is no longer president." That's the shock headline this morning on the front page of opposition web site Brazza News.

The anti-government site describes last night's address by the president, in which he justifies next Sunday's controversial referendum which could change the constitution and allow Nguesso to stand for a third term as "political suicide".

Nguesso is one of Africa's longest-serving rulers, first coming to power in 1979 and ruling until 1992 when he lost elections. He returned as president in 1997 after a brief civil war and has since won two mandates.

Brazza News says its Facebook page has been pirated by supporters of the president.

The paper calls on readers to reject the referendum and defend the nation, even at the cost of their lives.

RFI broadcasts are not currently available in Congo-Brazzaville.

In South Africa the editorial in BusinessDay says Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene faces a tough task when he presents his medium-term budget later today.

South Africa's leading universities are in turmoil as students continue to protest about recent fee increases.

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has promised a major, and expensive, expansion of tertiary education in coming years.

His colleagues in the government and in the governing party have made other, even more costly promises.

There is the nuclear electricity programme to which President Jacob Zuma has committed South Africa. And there is the National Health Insurance system that has long been ruling party policy and that the government has committed to start phasing in.

To that could be added the more immediate financial pressures from public servants who won the rand equivalent of four and a half billion euros more in pay increases over the next three years than Nene budgeted for in February, not to mention several financially fragile state-owned opearations that are in frequent need of bailouts.

Where to find the immense additional resources all these will require over the next few years would be a challenge for any finance minister at any time. Nene has had to craft his medium-term budget when the outlook for the global and domestic economies is at best uncertain and, at worst, bleak.

The main story in regional paper The East African reports that the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Uganda has condemned what it called "use of excessive force and degrading treatment" by police ahead of next year's elections.

The report says opposition figures are frequently the targets of police mistreatment and arbitrary arrest.

According to the Kenyan Daily Nation, President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday endorsed the weekly political prayer rallies for his deputy, William Ruto, and asked ruling Jubilee party MPs to ignore warnings by International Criminal Court judges.

Speaking at a rally to mark Heroes Day yesterday the president said those pushing the cases at The Hague should leave Kenya alone.

William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua Sang are accused of complicity in the violence which followed the Kenyan presidential election in 2007.

Last week Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, who is presiding over the Ruto case at the ICC, warned MPs against commenting on the ongoing trial during their prayer rallies. He said such utterances would not sway the court. He also warned that political statements would not bully the judges into making a favourable judgement.

The main story in the Egypt Independent reports that the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Cairo has criticised what it considers are attempts by the foreign press to belittle the House of Representatives' elections following the press focus on the low voter turnout for the first phase, last Sunday and Monday.

Foreign newspapers were "desperate" to publish information on the voter turnout, said a ministry spokesperson, claiming that the foreign media had failed "in every attempt over the past year to tarnish Egypt’s image and give the impression of regression in its democratic transition".

The spokesperson said the foreign press reports, which suggested a lack of real opposition to the current regime, relied solely on the absence of the “terrorist” Muslim Brotherhood group to make that claim. The minister indicated that the conclusion made was insufficient to support such an allegation.