African press review 8 November 2011

Drugs and diamonds in the African papers today...

The Daily Monitor in Uganda confirms that the parliamentary Appointments Committee yesterday approved Police chief Major General Edward Kale Kayihura’s re-appointment on a three-year contract.

This after he reportedly apologised for the excesses of the force he has led for the past six years.

The ruling-party-dominated committee questioned the police chief for more than three hours, mainly about violations of human rights by police officers, and corruption.

The decision to re-appoint Kayihura was unanimous.

Also in the Monitor, news that the Ugandan parliamentary committee charged with investigating alleged corruption in the country’s oil sector starts work today at 10am.

The committee, which is to sit for three months, was formed last month after a two-day special debate.

The Minister of Energy and ministry officials will be the first witnesses.

The Kenyan Daily Nation reports that Eritrea has protested at threats by Kenya to review ties, intensifying the diplomatic row between the two countries ahead of a meeting of their foreign ministers.

A statement from the Eritrean foreign ministry describes as "regrettable" Kenya’s implied warning that Nairobi will view the alleged arming of Al-Shabaab by Asmara in a very serious light.

Foreign minister Moses Wetangula’s warning followed last week’s reports that three planes loaded with weapons for the militia landed in Baidoa, an Al-Shabaab stronghold.

Reports said the arms came from Eritrea, but Asmara has denied any involvement.

In South Africa, The Sowetan reports that three former Krugersdorp organised crime unit police officers were jailed for between 20 and 25 years by the High Court in Johannesburg yesterday.

The three were arrested in 2009, and faced charges of racketeering, dealing in drugs, fraud, theft, attempted theft and defeating the ends of justice.

They confiscated drugs as part of their official duties and then sold them to other drug dealers for personal gain.

It also emerged during their trial that the three policemen ran a drug smuggling enterprise in the Johannesburg area.

The Guardian in Nigeria tells us that a massive joint security operation involving the Army, the Police, the State Security Service, the Air Force and others was in force in Abuja yesterday, in the wake of the bombing threat from the Islamic fundamentalist Boko Haram sect.

The huge security effort became necessary after the US Embassy warned the sect could next strike hotels and other targets in Abuja during celebrations of Eid el-Adha, which started last Sunday.

A lull in activities was observed in three of the major hotels which were identified as prime targets of terrorists.

The terror warning came after a series of explosions claimed by Boko Haram killed 150 people last Friday in Yobe and Borno States.

Newsday in Harare reports that Zimbabwe's Mines and Mining Development minister, Obert Mpofu, has admitted there could be massive smuggling of diamonds from the eastern region of Marange into neighbouring countries.

Mpofu said he was shocked last week when Zambia and Mozambique sought to join the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, despite the fact that neither country has any known diamond deposits. What they do have, however, is enormously long borders with Zimbabwe.

The minister said police were doing their best despite budgetary constraints to monitor the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border, a stretch of about 1 700 kilometers. He lashed out at Human Rights Watch for campaigning for a total ban of Zimbabwe’s diamonds.

The Kimberley Process last week lifted a ban on diamond exports from Zimbabwe. The country is now set to earn in excess of $2 billion in gross revenue annually from the sale of the gems.

The main story in the government-run Herald in Zimbabwe says party organisers from the Global Political Agreement met in Harare yesterday and agreed to convene a meeting on Friday to address rising inter-party tensions.

President Mugabe has been calling for a high-level meeting of the senior leadership of the parties to the GPA to send a message to the grassroots that it's possible to differ amicably.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba last night said reference was made to the disturbances that rocked Chitungwiza on Sunday when MDC-T and Zanu-PF supporters clashed at a Movement for Democratic Change rally.

It was agreed that the Zanu-PF Central Committee and the national executive councils of the two MDC formations should meet and be addressed by their leaders.