African press review 21 November 2016

South African ex-couple injure 19 in high-speed car chase around Pretoria, while President Mugabe fears for his life as battle rages for his successor.

We begin in Kenya where the Daily Nation investigates "a ruthless cartel which operates a parallel multi-million Liquefied Petroleum Gas market in the country, putting thousands of lives at risk.

According to the paper, lack of vigilance and pathetic law enforcement has allowed the the black market of leaky cooking gas bottles, filled by cowboy suppliers to dump damaged or old cylinders into the market.

The papersays the cartels are also at war with another pool dominated by multi-nationals – adding that in the ensuing tussle for the cooking gas billions, Kenyan consumers end up paying one of the highest costs for gas in the world.

At least 26 illegal gas filling plants located in eight counties now run this black market business that has seamlessly intertwined itself with the legal supply chain, confusing consumers and undercutting revenue from genuine dealers.

Another top Nigerian judge in graft scam

In Nigeria, the newspapers are reporting another big fish in the Buhari administration's dragnet after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission announced it had filed 30 charges against Federal High Court judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia.

Punch quotes the graft agency as saying that it traced movements of up to 790,000 euros through two bank accounts belonging to the judge between 2012 and 2015, which she reportedly used to buy a house in London.

According to the paper,  Ajumogobia who had already been placed in custody for 10 days in connection with an alleged bribry scandal was allegedly unable to explain the source of the wealth and is due to be arraigned before a Lagos State High Court this week.

Veteran Mugabe fears for his life

In Zimbabwe, the Standard leads with a grim admission by President Robert Mugabe of a battle for his succession raging within the ruling ZANU/PF party when he reportedly told Veterans of the liberation struggle on Sunday that some senior officials of the movement he created wanted him to die so that they could take over.

The paper reports that 92 year-old Mugabe made the remarks on Sunday while addressing nearly 350 war collaborators, ex-detainees, widows of war veterans and non-combat cadres attending a forum in Harare.

According to Standard, Mugabe, had been expected to use the meeting to address concerns raised by the veterans, including calls for a crackdown on corruption but he reportedly avoided responding directly to the issues.

And in South Africa, Times Live leads with the incredible story of a couple whose domestic dispute degenerated into a high speed chase through the streets of Pretoria resulting in two car accidents involving 19 people.

News 24 reports that, after a row, the woman apparently sped off in her car after the fight‚ forcing her ex-spouse into hot pursuit.

According to the newspaper, it in his attempt to force the woman off the road that her vehicle crashed into a boundary fence injuring the women.

News24 says in his attempt to flee the scene the man caused another accident between a car and a taxi‚ resulting in 18 people being injured who had to be ferried to hospital in three ambulances.