African press review 4 October 2011

Storm warning in South Africa after tornadoes kill two at the weekend. Are Joburg bosses too numerous and too costly? Who will captain South Africa's cricketers in AB de Villiers's absence. A top Kenyan cop faces an international court. EU and US crisis drag African economies down but there's good news for Rwanda. And a Ugandan ex-VP goes to jail.

The Star in South Africa looks back to the tornadoes that destroyed homes and killed two children on Sunday in Duduza in the East Rand and Ficksburg in the Free State. The two communities are 350 kilometres apart.

Four hundred homes were completely destroyed and hundreds of others badly damaged. Jack Bloom of the opposition Democratic Alliance said many of the victims were complaining about their houses, saying they were of poor quality.

The SA Weather Service has been unable to confirm if the phenomena were indeed tornadoes, but believed it was highly likely.

The two events were not believed to be related. However, a weather service official did say that the southern parts of Gauteng may be in for some severe storms in the next few days, and that the service had issued a warning for possible further unusual weather events, including tornadoes.

The Star is also up in arms about the amount paid to city top brass. The City of Joburg hires twice as many top managers as any other metropolitan area and accounts for two-fifths of all metro spending on top managers in the entire country.

The City of Cape Town manages a budget slightly bigger than Joburg’s but needs less than half the managers.

The top 40 staff in Johannesburg were together paid nearly 59 million rand (5.4 million euros) in 2009/10. That included more than five million rand (450,000 euros) paid in bonuses.

On The Star's sports pages, news that Hashim Amla will captain South Africa in this month's limited-overs series against Australia.

Opening batsman Amla will lead South Africa in two Twenty20 internationals and three one-dayers against the touring Australians. He's deputising for AB de Villiers who misses the series due to a fractured finger.

Veteran wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, left out of the Proteas cricket World Cup squad this year, returns to the one-day squad, and 23-year-old batsman Richard Levi is the only uncapped player included.

In Kenya, The Daily Nation reports that former police boss Hussein Ali yesterday opened his defence at International Criminal Court in The Hague, arguing that he never received instructions from head of civil service Francis Muthaura to ask the police to stand down during the 2008 post-election violence.

Former Police Commissioner Ali’s first witness had a hard time explaining inconsistencies in his various statements. Peter Otieno, an official of the Kenya Plantation and Agriculture Workers Union in Naivasha, was twice reprimanded by the presiding judge for turning to defence lawyers rather than facing the judges during cross-examination.

Financial bad news dominates the front page of The East African. Growth in east Africa’s economies is showing signs of faltering in the face of spiralling inflation and currency pressures as the eurozone and US economic crises come knocking on the region’s doors.

The latest economic data from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi shows that growth in key sectors such as manufacturing, construction and financial services is under threat from surging financing charges, higher input costs and lower international and local demand.

The East African also reports that the decision by the US to approve an investment deal with Rwanda, the first with an African country since 1998, is being seen as a political victory for President Paul Kagame.

On Monday, the US Senate approved the United States-Rwanda Bilateral Investment Treaty initiated by former US president George W Bush and Kagame in 2008.

The treaty between the US and Rwanda is intended to promote trade between the two states by providing legal protections for both countries   including transparency in governance and neutral arbitration.

Analysts suggest that the deal indicates that the Obama administration regards the Rwandan leader as a force for stability and economic progress in central and east Africa.

But the Kagame regime also has critics in the US. Human-rights groups charge that Kagame has sought to silence domestic opponents by brutal means and has generally acted more like an autocrat than a democratic leader.

Former Ugandan Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya was sent to Luzira Prison yesterday after he was committed to the High Court for trial and had his bail cancelled. As reported in The Daily Monitor, Bukenya is charged with abuse of office for his alleged role in a deal to supply 204 executive vehicles four years ago during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala.