African press review 1 April 2017

Will ANC chiefs axe President Jacob Zuma over a wreckless cabinet shake-up? MTN struggles to clear the collossal Nigerian fine for failing to close millions of undeclared Boko Haram SIM cards. And looming fuel shortges in Nigeria as petrol truckers calls crippling strike over working conditions.

 We begin in South Africa where the papers are counting down President Jacob Zuma's days in office, amid reports that top ANC leaders were upset by his sacking of finance minister Pravin Gordhan in an extensive cabinet shake-up.

Up to 10 ministers and ten of their deputies were dismissed in one of the biggest culls of the cabinet since the advent of democracy in the country leading the Johannesburg Star to conclude that the battle for the soul of the ANC has moved into overdrive, with the president moving decisively to strengthen his hand.

Cape Times leads with a statement from the National Freedom Party denouncing the axing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas as an "early April fool’s Day joke".

On its part Business Day reports that Credit rating agency Fitch had warned on Friday that the axing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had increased the likelihood that the government’s sovereign credit rating will take a knock.

Zuma has gone rogue‚ and must step down, screams the Sowetan, the paper attributing the comments to former minister Barbara Hogan.

ANC leaders activate plan to get rid of Zuma, headlines, the influential Mail and Guardian. The paper quotes a top ANC National Executive council member Ngoako Ramatlhodi sacked as Minister of the Public Service and territorial administration as saying that Zuma's cabinet reshuffle had caused irreparable damage to the governing party.

The Times leads with a statement from the South African Communist party, a partner in the ruling alliance calling on President Zuma to step down, saying he had plunged the nation into a “deep crisis."

And according to the Citizen, Jacob Zuma's South Africa has become a mafia state which can only get worse. The quotes analysts as warning that Zuma is likely to be forcefully removed by ordinary citizens, if the ANC does not recall him.

In Nigeria the Guardian says the mobile telephone provider MTN has cleared one third of the colossal fine of 975 million euros slapped on it for failing to deactivate over five million unregistered SIM cards, allegedly linked to the Boko Haram insurgents.

The newspaper names the Director of Corporate affairs at Nigeria’s Communications Commission as the source of the information, claiming that he spoke after the South African company made the latest payment of 92 million euros on Friday.

The Guardian reports that the severity of the penalty was to serve as a deterrent to other service providers, whose action or inaction undermine the precarious security situation in the country. MTN has up till May 31, 2019 to settle the fine.

Vanguard issues an alert to car owners that the country is facing another crippling shutdown as drivers of petrol tankers notified the authorities about plans to begin indefinite strike starting on Monday to protest working conditions.

The paper reports that drivers are going through hardships including poor wages and the high risks of transporting inflammable products across long distances and insecurity.

Vanguard says the nationwide strike was endorsed yesterday by the powerful branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, regretting that all letters, meetings and appeals to government agencies to intervene to stop the strike had gone unheeded.