Vavi sacked in South Africa, too tight to call in Nigerian presidential race, Ugandan prosecutor assassinated . . . some of the stories making front-page news across Africa this morning.
Zwelinzima Vavi has been sacked as general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
That’s the main story in this morning’s Johannesburg-based financial paper, BusinessDay.
BusinessDay reports that plans are already afoot to form a counter-federation with Vavi’s long-time allies, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
The decision to expel Vavi followed a vote by a special central executive committee meeting late last night.
In a highly-politicised power struggle, Vavi was accused of various misdeeds, including fraud and conflict of interest.
Cosatu is set to hold a media briefing later today to explain its decision.
On its African News pages BusinessDay gives top billing to the Nigerian elections, potentially the closest since the end of military rule in 1999. The South African daily says the weekend vote was marred by confusion, arguments and occasional violence.
The election pits incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.
The Abuja stock market was down 17 per cent by lunchtime yesterday.
Even before preliminary tallies were announced, the opposition All Progressives Congress rejected the outcome in Rivers state, denouncing the vote there as “a sham and a charade”.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had said first results from 120,000 polling stations nationwide would be available on Sunday evening but later pushed this back to Monday evening.
In Nigeria itself the Lagos-based daily paper Punch leads with a story claiming that Muhammadu Buhari is coasting to victory.
Results from 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory so far released by the Independent National Electoral Commission late last night showed the All Progressives Congress Presidential candidate Buhari with a two-million-vote lead and victory in 10 states, while his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart and incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan had won eight states and the FCT, the area around the federal capital.
There are no official results yet for any of the north-eastern states, nor for huge swathes of the north west. Only one southern state, Akwa-Ibom, has announced results, showing a huge majority in favour of Jonathan.
The Nigerian Guardian says collated national results are now expected to be announced in Abuja at noon today.
In Kenya the Nigerian elections top the front page of The Daily Nation, under the headline “Close race between Jonathan and Buhari in tense elections”.
The Nation reports that opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari had a slender lead over president Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria’s knife-edge general election with just over half of all states declared.
According to the Nation, international observers gave broadly positive reactions to the conduct of the vote, despite late delivery of election materials and technical glitches with new voter authentication devices.
Also in Nairobi the Standard reports that US President Barack Obama will honour a promise he made three years ago to visit his late father’s home country before the end of his second term in the White House.
State House confirmed that the US leader will attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi set for July 24-26.
The main story in the Ugandan Daily Monitor reports the tragic assassination of Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi, shot dead in what police say was a planned attack.
Kagezi was reportedly shot on Monday evening by two assailants who had been trailing her on a motorcycle.
The Directorate of Public Prosecution said Kagezi was shot at Najjera while driving back to her home.
Kagezi had been prosecuting a high profile case involving the July 2010 Kampala bomb suspects.
In Cairo the Egypt Independent reports that the Arab Network for Human Rights Information has called on the authorities to reveal the whereabouts of a journalist arrested on Sunday morning.
According to the human rights group, security agents stormed the home of Sayyed Fouda, confiscated his cell phone and laptop, blindfolded him and escorted him to an unknown location.
The statement describes Fouda’s arrest and disappearance as a crime of enforced disappearance, claiming that the journalist’s family and lawyer had no opportunity to meet him and do not know the location of his detention or the charges against him.
Since the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, 11 Egyptian and foreign journalists have been killed on duty while covering various incidents of violence.
Press freedom advocates have criticised what they view as a crackdown on independent media under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.