BBC Africa Live
Dickens Olewe

That's all from the BBC Africa Live page this week, we'll be back on Monday. In the meantime, keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with picture of a man in traditional Khoi San regalia in Cape Town as he attends a public hearing about the South African government's plan to expropriate white-owned land without compensation. It's one of best pictures from this week.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC World Service

Nigeria's anti-human trafficking agency, Naptip, says that thousands of Nigerian women and girls have been tricked into travelling to Saudi Arabia, and then subjected to forced labour, torture and rape.

Naptip said that its staff had managed to interview about 50 girls during a recent visit to Saudi Arabia.

It said they had been tempted there by false promises of good jobs, only to have their travel documents confiscated on arrival, before they were forced to work in appalling conditions.

The agency said it was working with the Saudi authorities to try to secure their return.

Zambia's former football star Kalusha Bwalya has responded to Fifa's decision to ban him for two years over his links with banned Qatari official Mohammed Bin Hammam following an ethics committee investigation.

Bwalya tweeted that he had not done anything wrong and was going to appeal against Fifa's decision.

Read his full statement:

Image source, AFP

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir will run for a third term in 2020 after the ruling party backed him as its candidate.

Mr Bashir, 74, came to power in a military coup in 1989. He had said after the 2015 election that he would not run again.

Sudan's constitution only allows two five-year terms, but it will likely be amended to accommodate Mr Bashir's ambition.

The party's advisory council chief, Kabashor Koko, said the decision to nomiante Mr Bashir was taken by the party at all levels.

"We have decided to adopt all necessary procedures for him to run in the 2020 election," he told reporters after the meeting.

Mr Bashir won 94% of the vote in the last election amid calls by the opposition to boycotts.

Previous presidential elections have been criticised by human rights groups as lacking credibility.

Mr Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide in the conflict-wracked western region of Darfur.

He however denies responsibility for the killings.

Image source, Getty Images

Zambia's former African Footballer of the Year, Kalusha Bwalya, has been banned for two years by world governing body Fifa.

It follows a Fifa investigation into his links to banned Qatari official Mohammed Bin Hammam.

Fifa's Ethics Committee said Bwalya, a Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive committee member, was banned for two years from "all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level".

Fifa said in a statement, external it had been investigating the 54-year-old since February 2017 "focused principally on benefits that Mr Bwalya had received from Mr Bin Hammam".

Read the full story on the BBC website.

Two Somali-born men have appeared in court charged with terror offences in the UK.

Ahmed Aweys, 32 and Abdulaziz Omer Munye, 26, who are relatives, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.

Mr Aweys has been charged with dissemination of terrorist publications and Mr Munye has been charged under the UK's Terrorism Act.

The men were ordered to next appear at the country's highest criminal court on 31 August.

The London police said the charges stemmed from an ongoing counter-terror operation which has resulted in four arrests.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is sounding confident in his tweet about his legal challenge to the victory of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in last month's presidential election.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Mozambique's government is set to introduce hefty license fees for local and foreign journalists in an apparent attempt to discourage reporting from the country.

Foreign correspondents will pay $2,500 (£1,900) per trip for media accreditation while foreign correspondents living in Mozambique will be charged $8,300 per year.

Mozambican journalists reporting for foreign news outlets will be required to pay $3,500 for an annual accreditation.

This is 50 times more than the country’s statutory minimum wage, estimated at around $70 per month.

In addition, Mozambican freelancers working for foreign publications will be expected to pay $500 annually.

Until now, registration for foreign correspondents in Mozambique has been been almost free.

Typically, media accreditation for foreign correspondents in most African countries is around $100. That's if it's required at all.

Most Mozambican individual journalists and media organisations say they were never consulted or informed about the new measure which comes into effect on 22 August.

It will be implemented a month before crucial municipal elections, scheduled for October this year.

Mozambican journalists, reporting for foreign media say they have been invited for a meeting by Gabinfo, the government entity charged with licensing and accrediting media houses and journalists, apparently to get official explanation of the measure.

The new prohibitive fees are described by media managers in Mozambique and abroad as a blatant attack on the press freedom.

They say the fees will squeeze out local independent media and bar foreign press from reporting on Mozambique.

Furthermore, journalists say the new fees are against the current and existing press law and infringes the constitutional rights of the country’s citizens.

Read more: Mozambique country profile

Robert Misigaro
BBC Africa

As cheating in school exams goes, the Burundian record has just been broken by a high school headmaster who disguised himself as a student to sit a national exam so that the student could qualify for university.

Headmaster Benjamin Manirambona, from the Buterere Technical College in northern Bujumbura, was working on his last paper when the police together with education authorities stormed the examination hall and confronted him.

With nowhere to run, Mr Manirambona pleaded guilty on the spot and admitted he was taking the exam on behalf of a soldier who was deployed in Somalia, promising him a payment once he gets back.

He was arrested together with other students also suspected of cheating after a tip off was given to the police.

He is still being held in custody.

Lawyers representing Zimbabwe opposition party MDC Alliance and its leader Nelson Chamisa have arrived at the Constitutional Court in the capital, Harare, to file a challenge to President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election win.

Mr Chamisa says he has evidence to show that he was cheated out of the presidential election.

The court will have 14 days to make a ruling.

An organisation that monitors politics in Zimbabwe has shared pictures and a video of the legal team's arrival.

A local journalist is reporting that Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is yet to officially file a challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa win in the 30 July election.

She reports that officials at the Constitutional Court have told reporters that the submission deadline is 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) which is less than half an hour from now.

Kenyan drag queens discuss the difficulty of living in a country with strict anti-gay laws.

They say they also face a lot of social stigma.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration plans to cut 30,000 jobs from the civil service have angered the country's biggest trade union federation.

The Congress of South African Union (Cosatu), an influential player in the governing ANC, said that it will make sure that its members do not accept the voluntary early retirement offers.

Cosatu’s chief public-sector wage negotiator Mike Shingange said:

“They must only retire when they are ready. We are going to mobilise all public sector and unions through the federation. And at the next central executive committee meeting, the matter will have to be raised with a view of initiating a meeting with the government urgently.”

Government officials with details of the layoffs plan said that treasury has set aside four billion South African rand ($288m; £225m) in this financial year to begin the process of issuing severance packages.

President Ramaphosa’s administration hopes the layoffs will reduce government’s wage bill by $1.4bn (£1.1bn).

The United Arab Emirates will build an oil pipeline connecting Eritrea's port city of Assab with Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reports.

It did not give details of the project but added that a study for the pipeline would be done.

The UAE played a critical role in bringing about rapprochement between the Ethiopia and Eritrea after a two-decade long dispute over border territories.

The oil-rich Gulf state, driven by a desire to tap Ethiopia's growing economy and by a fear that rivals such as Iran or Qatar could gain a foothold, has been pushing its involvement in the region for more than a decade, news agency Reuters reports.

US President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill that imposes tough new conditions that have to be met before sanctions are lifted.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that his country is open for business, but this new law - the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act, external - could scupper those plans as far as the US is concerned.

Official results show that Mr Mnangagwa won last month's presidential election with 50.8% of the vote, but the opposition alleges that the figures were manipulated.

The US law says that in order for sanctions to end the election has to be "widely accepted as free and fair".

One condition mentioned is that the army has to "respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons and to be nonpartisan in character".

In the days following the poll, six opposition supporters died in clashes with the army, which has led some to question its neutrality.

Zimbabwe is also required to take steps towards "good governance, including respect for the opposition".

In recent days, the US has criticised the treatment of opposition supporters and in particular key opposition figure Tendai Biti, who has been arrested in connection with the post-election violence.

Image source, AFP

"The United States government is gravely concerned by credible reports of numerous detentions, beatings, and other abuses of Zimbabweans over the past week, particularly targeting opposition activists", State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, external.

"We call on Zimbabwe’s leaders to guarantee Mr Biti’s physical safety and ensure his constitutional and human rights are respected."

The US started imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2001. They target individuals, as well as banning trade in defence items and direct government assistance for non-humanitarian programmes.

BBC World Service

Crowds of reporters have gathered outside Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court in the capital, Harare, where the opposition MDC Alliance is due to mount a legal challenge to last month's presidential election.

The coalition claims ballot boxes were stuffed and figures inflated to give Emmerson Mnangagwa his narrow victory.

If the court decides in favour of the challenge it could order a recount or nullify the election results.

The MDC Alliance has until midnight to submit its challenge; the court must then make its judgement within 14 days.

A man operating an excavator to demolish a mall in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, has survived after part of the building collapsed onto his machine.

The demolition is part of an operation by Kenya's environment agency (Nema), which is aimed at reclaiming wetlands and areas reserved for road building.

One local TV station has shared a video of the incident.

The Daily Nation newspaper, however, reports that the operator emerged from the debris, covered in dust but unharmed.

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

A video showing Tanzanian police assaulting a journalist is being widely shared on social media.

The 80-second clip shows at least four police officers hitting Silas Mbise, a broadcast journalist with a local radio station, with a wooden club and kicking him until he falls down.

The incident happened on Wednesday in a stadium in the main city of Dar es Salaam after a football match between Tanzania's Simba Sports Club and Ghana’s Asante Kokoto.

Mr Mbise says the problem started when police officers tried to stop journalists from entering a post-match press conference, even though they had identity cards.

“They were forbidding us from attending when we asked why, they started pushing us. Then I told them to be more professional and allow us do our job, and that’s when they singled me out and started beating me,” Mr Mbise said.

He said he had sustained injuries on his back and ribs.

When contacted for a comment, the Dar es Salaam Regional Police Commander said he was in a meeting.

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has issued a critical statement: “TFF has been saddened and is condemning the assault by the police against a sports journalist Silas Mbise."

A local radio station has shared the video of the assault:

In Kenya, the government environmental agency (Nema) has been leading an operation to demolish an iconic mall in the capital, Nairobi, that had been built on a wetland, Daily Nation reports., external

The Ukay Centre, which houses a big supermarket and other small shops, was reduced to rubble by excavators.

The owners of the building had failed to get a court injunction to save the $9m (£7m) property, the paper reports.

A tenant told the Nation that he thought they had until next week Tuesday to move out.

"We were notified that we had until Tuesday to move out but changed this morning when excavators arrived here. We are waiting for them to demolish then see what we can salvage,” Kavit Shah said.

Other tenants said they had been caught off guard and that most of their stock was still inside the mall.

Nema said that a three-month notice had been given but it had expired on Sunday.

At least 4,000 buildings have been identified for demolition because they sit on land in a river catchment area, or areas earmarked for public utilities and roads, the Daily Nation reports.

Nema says that operations are part of a regeneration plan for Nairobi.

Image source, AFP

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has said he hopes around a million refugees from South Sudan will return home following the signing of a peace deal to end the civil war by the country's leaders, news agency Reuters reports.

“We hope that with the UN support in regards to food and basic essentials, the refugees could return home by January and take advantage of the rains... to grow some food,” Mr Museveni was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.

About two million South Sudanese are internally displaced, while a similar number have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

On Sunday, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a ceasefire and power-sharing deal to end nearly five years of conflict.

Uganda's welcoming attitude towards refugees, external has been praised by the UN and other international organisations.

The government gives South Sudanese a plot of land to allow them to build a home and start a farm.

Read more:The details of life in a refugee camp