African press review 7 March 2014

Nigerian security forces clash with Boko Haram and women demonstrate against them. The ANC vets potential candidates. Zuma's booed again. Ugandan women arrested for wearing miniskirts. A Kenyan court orders gays to be flogged.

In Nigeria Punch is reporting the killing of 20 Boko Haram insurgents by security forces during clashes in two communities across Borno state on Wednesday. The paper reports that the attacks followed the massacre of seven travellers in the nearby Gwoza local government area by suspected Boko Haram members.

Vanguard highlights a nationwide march by Nigerian women on Thursday to protest at the spate of bombings and killings in the north, especially the killing of the 43 students of Federal Government College (FGC), Bunu Yadi, Yobe state and the abduction of 25 female students of the school by Boko Haram.

According to the paper, protesters in Lagos defied the early morning downpour across the state and converged in Ikeja to demand that the federal government and the 36 states governors and the military agencies proffer solutions to end insurgency in the country.

In South Africa the Mail and Guardian scrutinises what it describes as the new test set for people vying to represent the ruling African National Congress come the 7 May general election.

Do you have extramarital lovers?

Have you ever leaked party information and do you have extra-marital children?

These, according to the paper, are some of the questions parliamentary candidates have to answer in their party’s stringent vetting process.

The Sowetan takes up the booing incident against President Jacob Zuma at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg after a one-sided football friendly between the national team and Brazil.

Bafana Bafana suffered a five-nil thrashing in the game. This is the second time Zuma has been subjected to the humiliating treatment after the catcalls he suffered during Nelson Mandela’s funeral in December, the paper points out.

City Press also comments about Zuma’s booing problem. It takes up the harsh reaction from Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula promising political defeat for those he describes as hooligans, wolves hidden in the sheepskin and cowards of non-description.

The paper quotes Mbalula as saying that booing will not diminish Zuma because he is a “tsunami, more than a hurricane”.

In Uganda Daily Monitor takes up the saga of two women handed three-hour jail terms on Thursday for wearing miniskirts banned under Uganda’s new Anti-Pornography Act.

The paper reports that the pair were appearing before Bukomansimbi Magistrates Court for breach of contract when the judge’s attention was drawn to their attire. According to the Monitor, the presiding magistrate, who incidentally is also a woman, then ordered the women’s immediate arrest on grounds that their dresses distracted her court

New Vision reports that the controversial verdict comes as the government appeared to have tentatively withdrawn the law on account of a spate of attacks on women deemed skimpily dressed by rogue vigilantes.

The paper reports that the government is also about to unveil a plan to filter the internet for pornographic material and "shield the nation from an insidious vice more addictive than alcohol".

And in Kenya the Daily Nation is looking at Nigeria in its ongoing coverage of the anti-gay winds blowing across Africa. It reports that an Islamic court in northern Nigeria on Thursday ordered four men to be flogged with horsewhips and fined after being convicted of homosexuality.

The paper says the four, aged between 22 and 28, were sentenced and received 15 lashes each in secret after a trial at the Upper Sharia Court in the Unguwar Jaki district of the city of Bauchi.