South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma has arrived in court to face corruption charges, as a video by a leading news outlet shows:

Andrew Harding
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Eight weeks ago, Jacob Zuma was president of South Africa, and it seemed to many, untouchable.

This morning he will appear - as an ordinary citizen - before a judge in Durban’s dark, and humid High Court.

It is an extraordinary moment for South Africa’s young democracy.

He faces 16 counts of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering in relation to an arms deal dating back to the 1990s. He denies any wrongdoing.

The charges were dropped, in highly controversial circumstances, back in 2009.

But they resurfaced as his grip on the governing ANC weakened.

This is likely to be a long case, with a battle brewing over whether the state should keep paying Mr Zuma’s legal bills.

But today is hugely symbolic - with Mr Zuma in the dock, and what many here see as an era of impunity - apparently coming to an end.

Mr Zuma’s remaining supporters - and some family members - are anxious to portray this as a political trial, arguing that he’s being targeted for backing a radical economic reform agenda.

But the governing African National Congress itself has turned its back on Mr Zuma, and South Africa’s judicial system retains a strong reputation for independence.

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Welcome back to BBC Africa Live, where will bring you the latest news and trends from around the continent on Friday, 6 April 2018.

That's all from BBC Africa Live today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a man with a lot to handle in Assinie, Ivory Coast.

Image source, AFP

Zimbabwe's state broadcaster has banned programmes by so-called "prosperity prophets", reports the private Daily News paper, external.

It quotes the head of radio at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), Albert Chekayi, as saying he has temporarily suspended such broadcasts while he investigates listeners' complaints.

Prosperity prophets preach about the "prosperity gospel", which links wealth to Christianity.

They say the stronger one's faith and the more one gives to the church, the more wealth one will ultimately receive from God.

Such clerics have been critisised, external for making money out of poor people.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Zimbabwe Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (Timb) has played down the prevalence of child labour in the industry following criticism by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The watchdog says children working on tobacco farms are being poisoned and authorities should outlaw the practice (see earlier entry).

Tobacco farming is intensive and many poor small-scale farmers rely on their children to provide labour to survive.

But Isheunesu Moyo, Timb’s PR manager, told the BBC that the HRW report was not representative as only 125 growers (out of 123,000) and 14 children were interviewed.

The report has also re-ignited the debate here about child labour versus regular chores.

“You can’t consider children doing household chores to be being abused,” Mr Moyo said.

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

Image source, AFP

Julius Maada Bio was sworn in rather strangely on Wednesday night - at a hotel instead of State House, and less than two hours after he was declared Sierra Leone's president-elect (see earlier entry).

Sierra Leone has what many consider a defective transition arrangement. The constitution says the winner of a presidential election must be sworn in "on the same day" he is declared the winner. To have sworn him after midnight could have triggered a constitutional challenge, after a sometimes acrimonious campaign.

Many believe Mr Maada Bio is the most popular of the candidates who ran for the presidency. But his eventual win was a combination of that popularity and former President Ernest Bai Koroma stepping on many toes.

His administration's response to the Ebola and mudslide crises amid allegations of corruption angered many in the capital, Freetown.

On top of this, even with the country's deep-rooted ethnic politics, tribalism came to the fore more prominently than ever before. Many members of Mr Maada Bio's Mende ethnic group - one of the country's largest - almost worship him, while most ethnic Temnes sided with the APC.

With a narrow outcome, the new president has vowed to heal the divisions, and rebuild the country's broken educational system. He has a tough job ahead of him, made harder by the fact that his party does not have a majority in parliament.

Read more: A country where children are scared of elections

Onyinye Chime
BBC Pidgin, Lagos

Image source, Adewale Ademoyega

In all the excitement of the Commonwealth Games, let’s take a peek at the first black African to win a gold medal at the event.

Meet Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna. He hails from the south-east of Nigeria and went on to become a major in the Nigerian army.

Ifeajuna represented Nigeria as a high jumper at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

He clinched the gold medal with the winning mark of 6ft 8in (2.03m), which was a games record at the time, wearing only one shoe - on his left foot.

Many feel his sporting prowess was eventually overshadowed by his military career.

He was involved in a coup plot in 1966 and then joined those fighting during the civil war for the breakaway Republic of Biafra – but he was executed for treason in 1967, accused of plotting against secessionist leader Emeka Ojukwu.

Uche Akolisa
BBC Igbo, Lagos

Certain foods in Nigeria once considered as poor man's fare are today favourites of the more wealthy too - mainly because of their health benefits.

Here are five foods whose fortunes have changed:

• Cow hide, known as “ponmo”, is now often served as a peppered delicacy – and unlike beef is low in cholesterol. When an agriculture minister tried to ban it in 2014 to encourage the production of leather, there was a public outrage and he had to backtrack

• Plantain is now out of reach for many people as it in such high demand from those on special diets for diabetes or hypertension making it quite expensive
• Snails, once spurned by those who do not like the tedious process of getting them ready to cook, are also now popular because they are low in calories, considered a “sperm booster” and thought to help those recovering from malaria

• Garri, made from cassava flakes, is eaten as a cereal with water or as “eba”, a porridge ball. A growing awareness of the importance of consuming food high in fibre is making this indigenous staple a popular alternative to Western fare
• Frozen fish was never considered in the same league as fresh fish, but it is no longer derogatorily referred to as “Ókù Ékò”, a Yoruba expression meaning “Lagos corpse”, or "Àkpa asuko nse” meaning “You are dead and yet you are staring at me” in Ibibio. Such is its appeal that today 80% of fish consumed in Nigeria is imported.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 40 people who fled fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died from cholera at a refugee camp in Uganda, the Red Cross has told the AFP news agency.

The Red Cross said the influx of refugees, which came after a resumption of fighting in Ituri province, has overwhelmed hospitals.

This has led to squalid conditions in Kyangwali and Kyaka II refugee settlements, which fuelled the cholera outbreak in February.

More than 2,000 cholera cases are still "being managed", the Red Cross added.

The Red Cross estimates that 70,000 Congolese have arrived in Uganda since the start of the year.

BBC World Service

The French military say about 30 jihadists were killed in Mali on Sunday in a clash with Malian and French troops.

The fighting took place in the Akabar area in the north-east of the country, near the border with Niger.

Local reports say the jihadists, belonging to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, were attacked by a local militia, who were backed by the Malian and French forces.

French troops intervened in Mali in 2013 to drive out Islamist militants who had seized control of most of the country.

Currently 4,000 French troops are deployed in Mali, alongside the 12,000-strong UN-peace-keeping mission in the country.

Image source, EPA

South African athlete Henri Schoeman has won gold in the men's triathlon in the Commonwealth Games.

Schoeman completed a 750m open-water swim, a 20km cycle and a 5km run in 52 minutes 31 seconds.

Australia's Jacob Birtwhistle finished second.

Another African medal winner is Marie Ranaivosoa from Mauritius. The female weightlifter won silver in the women’s 48kg category of weightlifting.

She was beaten to gold by India’s Chanu Mirabai.

Some 19 African nations are taking part in the Commonwealth Games in Australia at the moment.

Keep up-to-date with the Commonwealth Games on the BBC Sport website.

Villagers in Kenya are taking part in the world's largest trial to see what happens when charity cash goes directly to the people who need it.

Watch what happens:

A private university in Nigeria has been criticised for punishing students by shaving a strip into their hair.

Punch newspaper has tweeted some of the pictures of the students:

Earlier this week tweeters shared videos showing men queuing up in an assembly hall for the punishment and walking out with the strips cut out of their hair:

The Nigerian newspapers have differing accounts as to why the students' hair was shaved at the Christian Covenant University in Ota, Ogun State.

One site, The Pulse, external, says the punishment was doled out to students who were not carrying bibles.

Another, Naija, external, says the punishment was for not going to all the religious services during Easter.

But, as Punch reports, external, they all agree that the University has come under an onslaught of criticism.

Among the disapproval is the accusation that the university is treating the students like children, that the students' right to dignity was not taken seriously and that it was unhygienic to use the same clippers on multiple students.

The university has not yet commented in the Nigerian press.

Olubayode Alebiosu
BBC Yoruba, Lagos

Image source, Science Photo Library

Nigerian doctors may start refusing to attend to patients with Lassa fever if they are not provided with the right equipment to protect themselves.

Dr Mike Ozovehe Ogirima, president of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), told BBC Yoruba that eight doctors had died of the disease since the beginning of the year after contracting it from patients.

He issued the warning as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) issued its latest figures showing that Lassa fever has now spread to 20 states in Nigeria, killing 142 people since January.

Dr Ogirima said the authorities should do more than just “enough” to end the outbreak.

Lassa fever is usually transmitted to humans via food and objects contaminated with rodent urine or faeces.

Health Minister Isaac Adewole told the BBC the government was putting in more resources to tackle the outbreak.

He admitted the government was worried with increase in the number of health practitioners contacting the disease.

“It represents a new dimension because for doctors and others it is human-to-human [transmission].

“But we are confident that in the next one or two months everything will fizzle out.”

Most people who catch Lassa will have only mild symptoms such as fever, headache and general weakness.

However, in severe cases, it can mimic another deadly haemorrhagic fever, Ebola, causing bleeding through the nose, mouth and other parts of the body.

Read more: The killer disease with no vaccine

The rapper Skepta has been made a chief in his parents' home state of Ogun in Nigeria.

The MC, who was born in north London, posted a video of the occasion on Instagram:

Skepta has been in Nigeria for a "Homecoming" concert, which he invited the likes of J Hus, Not3s, Wizkid and Davido to perform at in Lagos.

His chieftaincy title is "Amuludun of Odo Aje", which literally means the "Chief Entertainer of Odo Aje".

The grime artist has spent a lot of time in Nigeria over the past few years, performing at festivals and putting on his own shows.

The title he's been given is for "entertainers in all forms", according to BBC Lagos reporter Busayo Akogun.

Read more.

The relationship between a camel and its herder is often so close that it is hard to tell who owns whom.

That's according to Said Yusuf Abdi who was showing the BBC's Mary Harper around a camel market in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

One of the ways herders show their love for camels is to sing to them.

Our correspondent found herself in the middle of an impromptu camel-herder singing competition:

The Nigerian singer Kiss Daniel is looking for the fan who handed back a very valuable chain during his performance.

He posted on Instagram the moment the fan in the front row gave back the chain:

It looks like it was filmed at a concert in the Nigerian city of Lagos. The singer said on the post:

He went on to ask fans to ask find the person for him:

The news site Naija.NG says, external the necklace really could be worth a fortune - 14m naira ($39,000; £28,000), to be precise.

The jewellery designer Olusola Awujoola posted a close up of the necklace on his Instagram feed recently:

A tour operator has denied that a group of tourists in Cameroon were taken hostage, as reported by the government.

African Adventures said they had simply been stopped on Monday by armed people who had checked their documents and vehicles.

Yesterday, a government statement said that 12 Europeans and six Cameroonians had been seized by "secessionist terrorists" and were freed in an operation by the military.

It happened in an English-speaking region, which has been demanding independence.

No group has come out to say it carried out the alleged kidnapping.

A group affiliated to the main Anglophone secessionist group - the Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF) - denied that it had taken part in an abduction.

African Adventures also disputes the government's account of the events.

"Our negotiation carried out with this group resulted in their granting our permission to leave," the tour operator said in a statement on its website, reports Reuters News agency.

"Shortly before our departure, Cameroon army force special forces arrived on the scene and a brief engagement followed," it added.