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African press review 7 February 2018

How much longer can Jacob Zuma hang on to his job as South African president? Kenya deports Odinga supporter. South Sudan asks Nairobi to deport former army chief of staff, General Paul Malong Awan. Uganda is investigating allegations that its officials defrauded donors by inflating refugee numbers and diverting food aid.

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Has South African president Jacob Zuma just taken another giant step towards the exit?

According to the Johannesburg-based paper BusinessDay, after a dramatic day in which the state of the nation address was postponed, the ANC at the 11th hour called off a special national executive committee meeting intended to recall President Jacob Zuma.

"Recall" is polite ANC-speak for "sack the president's ass".

Yesterday's sequence of event, says BusinessDay, sent the strongest signal yet that Zuma is about to resign. It came after ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa met Zuma in Cape Town last night.

The discussions were described as fruitful and constructive by the ANC secretary-general’s office. Zuma wasn't asked.

It is understood that Ramaphosa made "progress" in his discussions with the embattled president, indicating that Zuma may now be willing to resign.

Zuma has so far refused to step down from the top job, arguing that he has done nothing wrong.

Kenya deports Kenyan citizen in presidential row

As the Kenyan presidential squabble rolls on, this morning's Nairobi-based Daily Nation reports that opposition figure, the self-proclaimed National Resistance Movement “general” Miguna Miguna was last night "deported" from Kenya to Canada.

His lawyer confrimed that Miguna had been forced onto a flight for Amsterdam, en route for Canada. His ticket was paid for by the Kenyan interior ministry.

“We are reliably informed that Miguna Miguna has been forced onto a KLM flight for 'deportation' to Canada," according to another lawyer, who went on to ask,  "How do you deport a Kenyan?”

It is not clear what law the government used to eject him from Kenya as the constitution guarantees him citizenship since he is Kenyan by birth.

A senior government official said that the Interior Ministry will give a detailed statement later this morning.

Miguna was arrested last Friday on suspicion of taking part in a ceremony in which opposition chief Raila Odinga was sworn in as the "people’s president" on 30 January.

South Sudan asks for Awan deportation

South Sudan has asked the Kenyan government to deport former army chief of staff General Paul Malong Awan, reports the Sudan Tribune.

According to the report, Awan was permitted to go for treatment and stay with his family in Nairobi but is allegedly now involved in activities undermining the stability of South Sudan.

The foreign minister in Juba said yesterday that indisputable evidence provided by national security agents implicated Awan in recent attacks in Juba and Wau.

Awan was sacked last May, and his attempt to relocate to his hometown of Aweil was sabotaged after his convoy was intercepted and stopped at Yirol, the administrative headquarters of Eastern Lakes and he was persuaded by elders to return to Juba.

He was later placed under house arrest but released in November to seek medical treatment in Kenya.

Camels to be banned from Giza site

The top story in the Cairo-based Egypt Independent looks at a 20-million-euro project to transform the area around the pyramids in the Cairo suburb of Giza.

The zone has been deteriorating and was recently described by the general supervisor for the Giza Pyramids area development project Mohamed Ismail as an “open zoo”.

Electric cars, additional security, access strictly limited to tourists and a direct link to the Grand Egyptian Museum, scheduled to open later this year, are the principal lines of the project.

Camels and street vendors will be banned from the immediate area around the pyramids.

Uganda suspected of refugee fraud

Uganda is investigating allegations that its officials defrauded donors by inflating refugee numbers and diverting food aid, the prime minister’s office said yesterday.

This is reported in regional paper the East African.

Uganda hosts more than one million people who fled war in neighbouring South Sudan and some 400,000 more from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a massive aid operation that whistleblowers say has become subject to fraud.

The UN has demanded a proper audit of refugee numbers.

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