African press review 18 April 2015

Xenophobia continues to make front-page news in South Africa, Kenya's president shakes up the army and the cabinet, the UN Security Council is worried about Burundi and another United Nations agency looks at criminality in the eastern DRC. These are some of the stories in today's African papers.

According to the Johannesburg-based financial paper, BusinessDay, police remain on high alert in many parts of the country.

Violence reportedly continued in Jeppestown and Cleveland in Johannesburg on Thursday night. Benoni was reported quiet yesterday.

Separately, BusinessDay reports that the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, has called a meeting of traditional leaders to discuss the latest xenophobic violence. That gathering is scheduled to take place on Monday.

King Zwelithini is expected to use the meeting to stop the rising tide of xenophobia following his statement that foreigners should leave the country. The king reportedly described non-nationals as "lice".

Commentators have attributed the latest spate of xenophobic violence‚ concentrated in Durban and Pietermaritzburg‚ to the remarks‚ which have been cited by several of those involved in the attacks. The king says he was misquoted.

South African police fired rubber bullets and a stun grenade on Friday to disperse a gang of African immigrants who had armed themselves with machetes in a run-down district of east Johannesburg.

South Africa's troubled electricity company, Eskom, has a new chief executive. He's Brian Molefe, formerly of the transport operation Transnet, and he is to begin work immediately to end power cuts.

With over 34 per cent of its capacity unavailable because of breakdowns or maintenance, Eskom has resorted to daily power cuts to prevent a complete collapse of the system.

As CEO of Transnet, Molefe presided over an improvement in rail services to South Africa’s coal industry. He has been overseeing a seven-year plan to increase rail and port capacity to end transportation bottlenecks.

The smuggling of ivory, gold and timber worth over a billion dollars a year is funding dozens of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a United Nations report released yesterday.

According to the UN Environment Programme, large-scale smuggling of gold, minerals, timber, charcoal and wildlife products is financing at least 25 armed groups. Some estimates put the number of such groups at 49.

Control of the region's resources is a key factor in the conflicts that have raged in eastern DRC for decades.

Gold accounts for most of the smuggled value, with organised criminal gangs earning up to 120 million dollars a year from the trade.

Criminal gangs use their cash to support a strategy of divide and rule among the rebel groups, to ensure no one rebel force can dominate and take over the trade, the UN report says.

Kenya's cabinet reshuffle is the main story in this morning's Nairobi Standard.

According to the report, President Uhuru Kenyatta made major changes to the military command and his cabinet by retiring the influential military chief Julius Karangi and firing the experienced secretary to the cabinet Francis Kimemia. Kimemia is being probed over graft allegations.

The president also confirmed that he is out to salvage his dwindling political fortunes in the opposition bastion of Western Kenya with the nomination of former Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa as the new cabinet secretary at the ministry of water and irrigation.

Kimemia's dismissal comes just a week after the cabinet secretary blamed rampant insecurity on the inexperience of managers of the country's security.

According to The Daily Nation, General Julius Waweru Karangi will be remembered as the chief of defence forces who led Kenyan troops to war for the first time in the country’s history.

Under his command, Kenyan soldiers were deployed in October 2011 to fight Al-Shebab in Somalia.

Last year US President Barack Obama awarded Karangi the Legion of Merit for his successes in Somalia.

The main story in The Daily Nation reports that the UN Security Council is worried about the possibility of violence during upcoming elections in Burundi.

The 15-member council called on the government in Bujumbura and the opposition to refrain from acts of violence and intimidation ahead of the May parliamentary vote and the presidential polls that will follow.

Police yesterday fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in Bujumbura calling for President Pierre Nkurunziza to step aside and not run for a third term.

Nkurunziza has not yet confirmed whether he intends to attempt to try stay in power.

Also yesterday the US State Department said it was deeply concerned by the rising tensions in Burundi and called on all parties "to play a constructive and peaceful role in the electoral process".