Salim Kikeke
BBC Swahili presenter

Image source, Tanzania's State House

Pictures of President John Magufuli’s wife in hospital have caused a social media frenzy inside and outside Tanzania and also brought up a lot of questions:

• Has this been a PR stunt?
• Has Mr Magufuli been making a point about public services?

My take is that President Magufuli is simply being Magufuli. In fact, he is providing a perfect answer to the famous hashtag that went viral in his early days as president: #WhatWouldMagufuliDo?

It’s very rare to see these kind of images. Generally most high-profile politicians in Africa, including first families, go to private hospitals or even seek medical treatment abroad.

As if predicting the future, one of the first things that Mr Magufuli did when he got into office was make a surprise visit to the very same hospital where his wife has spent the last two days.

What he found at Muhimbili National Hospital initially did not impress him at all. Many medical examination machines were not working and that led to a few top officials being suspended.

It seems that since his visit, things have dramatically changed for the better.

And if a president’s wife can comfortably use these public services, it means that the rest of the citizens will have confidence once again with the public sector, which has had a notoriously bad reputation.

The first lady may have just left the hospital, but that particular image of her in a state hospital bed will no doubt stick in many Tanzanians' minds, and prompt them to see the kind of Tanzania Mr Magufuli wants.

Read more: Tanzania's social media president

Tanzania's First Lady Janet Magufuli has been discharged from Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

A statement from state house says doctors at the state hospital discharged her after her health improved. 

She was admitted on Wednesday after suddenly falling ill and losing consciousness, the statement said - without giving further details.

Image source, Tanzania's State House

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

The boss of South Africa’s state power company Eskom, Brian Molefe, has resigned.

A recent report by the country's former anti-corruption tsar alleged that Mr Molefe had had a close relationship with the wealthy Gupta family.

He was accused of deliberately weakening the financial position of one of Eskom’s suppliers, Optimum Coal, thereby allowing the Guptas to buy it up.

After the report’s publication last week, Mr Molefe gave a tearful press conference denying the allegations.

Mr Molefe says his resignation is not an admission of wrongdoing, and he cited personal reasons for his decision.

He will leave office in January 2017.

The news that Tanzania’s first lady is in a state hospital in Dar es Salaam has prompted lots of commentators on our Facebook page, external to say how this compares in their own country.

Schwaeitzer Lyn Kaunda in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, says this is in stark contrast to the Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe:

Similarly, Synet Chawinga from Rumphi District in Malawi questions whether travelling abroad for healthcare is strictly necessary:

Buhaiti Hussein in Kampala, Uganda, looks at the wider implications of Janet Magufuli's choice of hospital:

But Amaru Pac from Nairobi in Kenya is more sceptical:

And Ahmed Tawakal in Nairobi Kenya asked if the president is doing the best for his family:

Image source, State House, Tanzania

Since 2014, bird flu has been sweeping through West Africa. 

Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria have all been hit by the H5N1 virus and it has decimated poultry populations, costing billions of dollars.

The virus has often been spread by migrating wild birds, and it has been very difficult to contain. 

Earlier this year it hit Cameroon, where there are real fears for the country's poultry industry. 

Watch this report from BBC Africa Business Report's Suzanne Vanhooymissen:

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Earlier we reported that South Sudan's Eye Radio had been shut down by security officials.

This is the notice currently showing on their website, saying that the station is unable to broadcast for reasons beyond their control:

Image source, Eye Radio

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, Reuters

President Jacob Zuma’s office has lashed out at the country’s former anti-corruption tsar Thuli Madonsela.

She stepped down from office last month and her report into allegations of government corruption was published last week.

It detailed allegations that Mr Zuma had an improper relationship with a wealthy business family - the Guptas - and recommended a judicial commission of inquiry.

Since the report’s publication, Ms Madonsela has been explaining why she released separately transcripts and recordings of her interview with Mr Zuma, saying she had acted in the public interest.

Such comments have angered the presidency:

The statement emphasised that Ms Madonsela had no further role to play in the process regarding the report, continuing:

Mr Zuma survived a vote of no confidence in parliament yesterday - a motion which was introduced by opposition parties after the Ms Madonsela’s report was published.

Read more: South Africa's anti-corruption crusader

Anthony Irungu
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Renowned African literary giant Ngugi Wa Thiong'o will receive his first honorary doctorate degree from a Kenyan University today. 

The US-based Kenyan writer has already received 10 honorary degrees from top universities across the world.

But he said that this was extra special "because it's an honour from home".

Even Nairobi University, where he was once a lecturer, hasn't given him an honourary degree yet. 

Instead the first Kenyan university to give him the honour is the business college KCA University.

Image source, Getty Images

The surprise victory of billionaire businessman Donald Trump in the US elections is still proving good fodder for cartoonists on the continent, including Kenya-based Godfrey Mwapembwa, aka Gado:

From South Africa, Jonathan Shapiro, known as Zapiro, makes references to the obscene comments Mr Trump has made about women - and the allegations of sexual assault, which the president-elect says are "lies and smears".

Both the US elections and the Ondo State elections have been the subject of prophecies by the popular Nigerian evangelical preacher TB Joshua.

Mr Joshua incorrectly predicted Hilary Clinton would be the next president and then deleted the prediction. 

On the day of the shock election results, showing that Donald Trump had won a convincing victory – one of the would-be Ondo governors tweeted a plea - that is still drawing comments two days on:

Rachael Akidi
Editor, BBC Focus on Africa

Image source, AFP

South Sudan’s first independent radio station Eye Radio has been shut down by national security service officials.

Special editor Nichola Mandil told me security officials moved in at 11:20 local time (08:20 GMT) and locked their four studios and also switched off the transmitter.

No reasons have been given but the chief executive of Eye Media has been summoned for talks with the director general of the National Security Service.

Eye Radio is managed by South Sudanese but funded by USAid and is part of the Internews network.

Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar
BBC Africa, Abuja

More details are coming in of the explosions this morning in Maiduguri, the city in the north-east of Nigeria from where the military is taking on Boko Haram insurgents.

It seems that three suspected female suicide bombers were spotted attempting to enter the city.

A security source told me the women were shot at which caused their bombs to explode killing all three of them.                       

The explosions occurred at Ummarari, not as earlier reported near the barracks, which is in an area with the same name.

It is believed the women entered the city through the Mulai area on its outskirts.

This route leads to the vast Sambisa forest, a hideout for the Boko Haram Islamist group.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, Paula French

A high court in Zimbabwe has thrown out the charges against a professional hunter relating to the 2015 death of the prized lion Cecil.

The black-maned cat was killed by a US dentist in July 2015 sparking an international outcry.

The 13-year-old lion had been a major tourist attraction at Zimbabwe's famous Hwange National Park and had been tracked by Oxford scientists.

The state accused Theo Bronkhurst of helping to lure Cecil out of the national park for the American to kill him with a crossbow and arrow.

He denied the charge of "failing to prevent an illegal hunt" and the court in Bulawayo said the allegation was too vague for him to mount a proper defence.

His lawyer Perpetua Dube told the BBC that high court also upheld their argument that while the offence breached national parks regulations it did not have force of law and was not criminal in nature.

Officials dropped charges in October 2015 against the dentist Walter Palmer.

Cecil had been wearing a GPS collar for a research project by UK-based Oxford University, allowing authorities to track its movements.

His brutal death prompted a global campaign to end lion trophy hunting.  

Image source, AFP

Read more: What Cecil the lion means to Zimbabwe

A bomb has exploded behind one of the military barracks in Nigeria’s north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar reports that details are still sketchy.  

Witnesses say about three to four loud blasts were heard near Maimalari barracks this morning.

President Muhammadu Buhari moved the military’s operational headquarters to Maiduguri last year to better tackle the Boko Haram insurgency.

The Islamist militants have lost much of the land they had captured in the last 20 months, but have been behind multiple bomb and suicide attacks.

Image source, AFP

These photographs of the wife of the president of Tanzania in a state hospital have been spreading on social media:

Image source, State House, Tanzania

Image source, State House, Tanzania

State house released the photos, but did not reveal why Janet Magufuli was in hospital. 

BBC Swahili reports that this is the same hospital in Dar es Salaam that President John Magufuli made a surprise visit to after he won the presidential election.

Afterwards he sacked the boss of the hospital after finding patients sleeping on the floor.

Mrs Magufuli said the hospital had improved and that she had "also received good care from the doctors and nurses".

Her husband visited other patients while he was at the hospital.

African leaders and their families often seek treatment in private hospitals or care overseas.

Image source, State House, Tanzania

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Image source, Getty Images

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