Matthew Davies
Editor, BBC Africa Business Report

Thousands of workers at South Africa's power company, Eskom, have gone on strike in a dispute over pay, in defiance of a court order.

The state-run firm has called the strike illegal but says its operations are, so far, unaffected.

Around 15,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers, a third of Eskom's workforce, are taking part in the industrial action.

The strike, over pay and housing allowances, is just the latest in a long line of woes that have beset Eskom. It is strapped for cash and has struggled to update the country's ageing power infrastructure.

However, earlier this week it was celebrating having managed to go a year without implementing load shedding - the rolling blackouts which have damaged South Africa's economic growth in recent years.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

It's another busy day ahead Rio for African teams - but two judokas from Democratic Republic of Congo, representing the Refugee Team, may be the biggest attraction.

Popole Misenga will compete in the men’s 90kg Judo event and Yolande Bukasa Mabika in the women’s 70kg event from 14:00 GMT.

Here's a list of other upcoming events:   

Archery:

• Egypt's Mansour Reem women's 1/32 12:26 GMT

• Malawi's David Areneo men's 1/32 14:36 GMT

Cycling - men's individual time trials

• Namibia's Dan Craven (13:00 GMT)
• Algeria's Youcef Reguigui (1300 GMT)
• Morocco's Mouhssine Lahsaini (13:06 GMT)

Fencing -women:

• Algeria's Anissa Khelfaoui (12:35 GMT)
• Morocco's Youssra Zakarani (13:00 GMT)
• Egypt's Noura Mohamed v Tunisia's Ines Boubakri (13:25 GMT)

Football:

• Algeria v Portugal (Group D) 17:00 GMT (Algeria cannot qualify for last eight)

Judo coverage started at 13:00 GMT:

Men:

• Algeria's Abderrahmane Benamadi, 90kg, rnd 62
• DR Congo, part of the Refugee Team, Popole Misenga 90kg, rnd 32
• Sudan's Iszlam Monier Suliman, 90kg, rnd 32
• Kenya's Kiplangat Sang, 90kg, rnd 32
• South Africa's Zack Piontek, 90kg, rnd  32
• Benin's Celtus Dossou Yovo, 90kg, rnd 32

Women:

• Morocco's Assmaa Niang, 70kg, rnd 32
• Angola's Antonia Moreira, 70kg, rnd 32
• Tunisia's Houda Miled, 70kg, rnd 32
• DR Congo, part of the Refugee Team, Yolande Bukasa Mabika, 70kg, rnd 32

Rugby Sevens, Men:

• South Africa v Australia - Pool B 14:30 GMT (To decide who tops the group)
• Kenya v Japan Pool C 15:00 GMT (Kenya must win to have any chance of a best third-paced team and progress to last eight).

Read more: DR Congo's judoka refugees

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

Lawyers are being evacuated from the magistrate’s court in Kampala where they have been holed up this morning after bringing a case against Uganda’s police chief (see earlier post).

The team of lawyers representing those who say they were beaten by police had been unable to leave because the crowd outside turned rowdy and started throwing stones.

Here’s Kampala’s mayor Erias Lukwago, who is also a lawyer, being evacuated from court premises by police:

Another prosecution lawyer's car was pelted with stones. About 20 lawyers are behind the prosecution.

The protesters feel police boss Gen Kale Kayihura should not be prosecuted for police brutality.  

Image source, StarTribune

A Somali-born activist Ilhan Omar is on the brink of making history as the first Somali-American MP in the US.

She has unseated one of the Minnesota Legislature's longest-serving members in a Democratic primary. 

Phyllis Kahn has represented the DFL, affiliated to the Democratic Party, for 44 years in the state assembly.

Ms Omar, 33, and her family escaped Somalia's civil war and lived for four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before moving to the US and settling in Somali-American neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, in Minnesota state, the Star Tribune, external reports.

She will face Republican Abdimalik Askar, also a Somali-born American, in the November election.

Abdourahmane Dia
BBC Afrique

Burkina Faso has banned the lucrative export of donkey skins – trading with China which has soared in recent years.

The number of skins of donkeys exported to China increased from 1,000 to the first quarter of 2015 to more than 18,000 in last quarter, the Burkinabe authorities say.

And nearly 65,000 skins were exported in the first six months of this year.

The ban, which came into force on Tuesday, also includes the hides of camels and horses.

Donkeys are commonly used in farming and to transport goods - and the meat is popular with a few communities in Burkina Faso.

The export boom has pushed up prices - a donkey hide can now cost between 30,000 ($51, £39) and 50,000 CFA now, up from 2,000 CFA a few years ago.

Adama Maiga, the director for public veterinary health, also said in future all animals had to be slaughtered at “officially recognised" abattoirs, the AFP news agency quotes him as saying.

Last month residents of the village of Balole, on the outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou, ransacked an abattoir set up by a foreign consortium in protest at the stench it was producing, the agency reports.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Reuters

Ethiopia's Robel Kiros Habte has evoked memories of Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani, dubbed "Eric the Eel" for finishing last in 100m freestyle at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in almost double the time the other competitors took. 

Robel participated in the 100m heats but finished half a lap behind everyone else:

But the Ethiopia-based university student told the Reuters news agency that he was just delighted to have just participated as it was his first Olympics - and was happy to be able to do something different for his country:

Image source, Getty Images

South African swimmer Chad le Clos is the butt of internet jokes following his over-the-top warm-up stunts, external ahead of a 200m men's butterfly race.  

A video of Clos shadowboxing was contrasted to US swimmer Micahel Phelps, who sat the whole time giving a concentrated "no-nonsense stare":  

The rivalry between the two swimmers reached its peak at the 2012 Games in London when Le Clos beat Phelps by five-hundredths of a second to take gold in the 200m butterfly.

Another image being shared on the internet is a shot of le Clos looking at Phelp's during the race with some saying he was trying to goad him. 

Some are using it as an opportunity to use the crying Michael Jordan meme, external again, superimposing the photo of the tearful US basketball player to mock the swimmer:

Phelps had the last laugh, he finished second in the qualifying spot with le Clos finishing fourth.    

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

Anti-riot police just moved in to herd away protesters outside the magistrate's court in the Uganda capital, Kampala, where the police chief failed to turn up for a court hearing (see earlier post).

The protesters have been threatening to attack the group of more than 20 lawyers who had filed the case on behalf of those who alleged they were beaten by police.  

The police chief and the seven other accused officers did not turn up to the hearing – nor did they send a legal team.

Instead their placard-carrying protesters filled the court compound, chanting and singing that they did not back the prosecution.

The magistrate adjourned the hearing to give time for the Director of Public Prosecutions to take over the matter and decide whether to institute fresh investigations.

Coalition talks are under way in South Africa after last week's local elections.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) lost control of major cities including Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth - with the main opposition Democratic Alliance doing very well but not winning an overall majority.

So the party which took about 8% of the vote nationally, the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema, could be an important partner for both sides.

Here's cartoonist Sifiso Yalo's take on the talks:

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's rugby sevens team has had a great start at the Olympics in Rio. They have not just won their first two games but dominated the 14-minute matches and manged to stop their opponents from scoring a single try.

The Springboks beat France 26-0 after seeing off Spain 24-0 in their first match. 

Their next game is today at 14:30 GMT against Australia. 

The Wallabies beat Spain but lost to France in their second game.

Uganda’s police chief Gen Kale Kayihura, who was summoned to appear in court in Kampala this morning, has not shown up.

The case is linked to allegations of police brutality against supporters of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Hundreds of people have turned out in support of the police chief, the BBC’s Patience Atuhaire reports from the scene:

The court was packed inside – and the magistrate has postponed the case until 29 August.

Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo asked the court to issue orders compelling Gen Kayihura to appear at the next hearing.

The crowd outside is still unhappy, and the group of lawyers taking on the case appear to be stuck inside the court:

Image source, Getty Images

It’s been a busy night of mixed results for African countries at the Olympics in Rio:

Swimming

• It was not a good night for South Africa swimmers as Cameron van der Burgh and Jarred Crous both failed to reach the semi-finals of the men's 200m breaststroke. South Africa also missed out on the men's 4x200m final and the men's freestyle semifinals. 

Group B Basketball Men

• Nigeria lost the second group match to Lithuania 89-80. Nigeria had lost the first  66-94 to Argentina.

Group B Basketball women

• Senegal lost the second match 64-101 to China, after losing their first game against USA

Handball: Men's Group games

• Group A Tunisia 23-31 Denmark
• Group B Egypt 26-25 Sweden

Volleyball: Men's Group games

• Egypt 2-0 Cuba

Handball: Men:

• Tunisia 23 v Denmark 31
• Egypt 26 Sweden 25

Image source, AFP

Archery 

• Egypt's Ahmed El-Nemar and Libya's Ali Elghrari were knocked out

Women Football Group Matches:

• Australia 6-1 Zimbabwe
• South Africa 0-0 Brazil

Rugby, Men's Sevens– Pool matches:

• South Africa 26-0 France
• Kenya 5-28 New Zealand

Boxing

• Egypt's Hossam Abdin beat Mauritius Merven Clair men's middleweight category
• Zambia's Benny Muziyo lost to Turkey's Onder Sipal in the middleweight category

Image source, Abubakar Sidiq Usman

Prominent Nigerian news blogger Abubakar Sidiq Usman has been released on bail, the country's anti-corruption agency Wilson Uwujaren has confirmed to the BBC.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arrested him on Monday accusing him of "offences bordering on cyber-stalking".

He was held in custody for 36 hours and has yet to be charged in court.

Last week, Mr Usman published allegations that EFCC acting chairman Ibrahim Magu was bullying his staff.

His arrest sparked fury on social media and was criticised by both the governing and main opposition party.

Today's African proverb:

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Image source, Getty Images

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