South Africa's opposition Economic Freedom Fighters has failed to live up to its threat to disrupt President Ramaphosa's State of the Nation address, following allegations that he deliberately misled parliament over a donation he received from scandal-hit private firm Bosasa.

Mr Ramaphosa initially denied that Bosasa donated of 500,000 rand ($36567; £28,188) towards his 2017 campaign for the leadership of the governing African National Congress (ANC).

He later admitted that the donation had been made, and said he had been unaware of it when he answered a question about it in parliament last year.

South Africa's anti-corruption watchdog, the Public Protector, is investigating the donation, and whether Mr Ramaphosa deliberately misled parliament.

In his address, Mr Ramaphosa dsaid the government was focusing on economic growth and creating jobs.

He also pointed out that a new chief prosecutor has been appointed - a post crucial in the fight against corruption.

"You watch this space," he said to applause.

The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has started his State of the Nation Address.

You can watch it on South African parliament's YouTube channel live:

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi has sacked the deputy finance minister, who has been implicated in a scandal over alleged fraudulent government loans totalling $2bn (£1.75bn).

A statement from the presidency did not give a reason for Maria Isaltina Lucas's sacking.

But she is one of 17 suspects named by the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office in connection with the “hidden debts” scandal.

This refers to three companies which were given loans, guaranteed by the government.

All three companies are effectively bankrupt, and so the Mozambican state has become liable for repaying the loans.

At the time that the guarantees were made, Ms Lucas was the head of the treasury, which gave the go-ahead for the guarantees.

Ms Lucas has not commented.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated a series of political reforms after decades of autocratic rule.

But not all Ethiopians are happy with the move.

A senior official of the the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, Getachew Reda, told BBC Newsday’s Alan Kasujja that he thinks Mr Abiy is "over-hyped" by the international community:

"Just because Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN are praising you to the skies doesn't mean you are going to create jobs. And I want Abiy to focus on creating jobs," he said.

Listen to the full interview:

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

A senior church leader in Zimbabwe has described the country as angry and traumatised at a meeting which was intended to bring the government and opposition together for the first time since last year's disputed presidential election.

Lutheran Church Bishop Ambrose Moyo said the church was committed to a process of dialogue.

The meeting in the capital, Harare, was attended by opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, but President Emmerson Mnangagwa was not present. He sent one of his ministers to represent him.

On Wednesday, Mr Mnangagwa convened his own meeting - boycotted by Mr Chamisa - to promote "national dialogue" in Zimbabwe, following disputed presidential elections last year, a security force crackdown on protesters, and a worsening economic crisis that has seen shortages of fuel and basic foodstuff.

Davido's hit song Fall continues to break records.

Last year it became the first Nigerian music video to reach 100 million views on YouTube, and now it has been named the longest-charting Nigerian song in US chart history, music news site OkayAfrica reports, external.

In January the star sold out London's O2 arena in the UK. It comes as industry bigwigs in the US and beyond are waking up to the huge popularity of Afrobeats.

In the last two years, Sony and Universal Music have both established offices in Nigeria and struck publishing and distribution deals with up-and-coming musicians.

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Image source, Getty Images

French energy giant Total says it has made a "significant" discovery of gas off the southern coast of South Africa, reports AFP news agency.

Total's CEO Patrick Pouyanne is quoted as saying that the potential quantities "could be around one billion barrels of global resources, gas and condensate light oil".

South Africa's Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said that the discovery was a "potentially a major boost" for the economy which grew less than 1% last year.

Crowds of people are protesting in Sudan's capital Khartoum in support of hundreds of demonstrators who have been arrested since anti-government rallies erupted in December, witnesses told AFP news agency.

People have been sharing videos from the scene:

The latest protest came after Mr Bashir acknowledged that Sudan's controversial public order law and growing economic hardships had angered youths and sent them out into the streets.

The protesters chanted their campaign slogan "freedom, peace, justice," and "bring all your soldiers but today you will fall," witnesses told AFP.

Riot police quickly confronted them with tear gas, as videos shared on Twitter show:

BBC World Service

There have been protests at a London conference on the development of Somalia's oil and gas reserves.

Demonstrators accused the government of trying to illegally sell offshore oil exploration zones.

The upper house of Somalia's parliament has boycotted the event, saying there is no agreement yet on how resources will be shared.

The government says the conference is only a presentation of geological findings and the regulatory framework.

It insists that a planned auction of oil blocks has been postponed.

Several days ago, the director-general of Somalia's petroleum ministry told the media that the government was inviting offers from bidders.

Image source, Getty Images

Two bosses of an investment firm in Benin have been jailed for 10 years each for defrauding more than 150,000 people in a Ponzi scheme.

The case has been described as the biggest financial scandal in Benin's history and has been compared to the one run by Bernie Madoff in the US, reports French broadcaster RFI, external.

The chief executive of ICC Services, Guy Aplogan, and the director-general, Ludovic Dohou, were convicted with two other colleagues at a special court hearing for economic crimes.

All four have already spent more than eight years in custody.

They were charged with conspiracy, defrauding the public and practising illegal banking and micro-finance, reports AFP news agency.

BBC World Service

Six people have been killed by a gas explosion in an abandoned coal mine in South Africa.

About 20 others remain trapped at the mine in Middelburg, east of the capital, Pretoria.

A police spokesman said some people had gone into the mine to steal copper wires when a gas pipe exploded.

Local media said rescue efforts were being hampered by dangerously high levels of toxic gas.

The mine was closed after its owners, the Gupta brothers, found it difficult to continue doing business in South Africa following corruption allegations against them.

The former president, Jacob Zuma, has become embroiled in the allegations.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, AFP

The European Union says its observers will continue to work across Nigeria ahead of next week’s fiercely contested elections.

The statement follows Kaduna state governor Nasir el-Rufai's controversial comment that foreigners who intervened in the polls would be put in "body bags".

There has been widespread condemnation of Mr Rufai’s statement, which was made on a local TV station.

The comments were part of a discussion on the recent suspension of the country’s top judge, a move some have said was politically motivated.

The US, EU and UK all expressed concern over the suspension.

During a TV discussion on the subject on Tuesday, Mr Rufai, a key ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, said that Nigeria would not accept foreign interference in its internal affairs.

He added: “They will go back in body bags because nobody will come to Nigeria and tell us how to run our country.”

Mr Rufai later clarified he was only insisting that Nigeria’s sovereignty be respected.

Mr Buhari is running for a second term. His main challenger is former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe’s army says that it has concluded an operation to restore peace and order in the country.

This follows last month's violent protests against an increase in fuel prices.

Up to 17 people are believed to have died, and over 1,000 others, including minors, were arrested.

Soldiers have patrolled major cities since the protests broke out.

Zimbabwe defence forces inspector general, Douglas Nyikayaramba, says the army is ready to return to the barracks, but only if the police ask them to.

He also promised to investigate rights abuses allegations levelled against the army.

The Zimbabwean NGO Human Rights Forum says it has verified 17 killings, and more than a dozen rapes.

Members of the international community have called on Zimbabwe to remove soldiers from the streets.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change alliance had made this one of the pre-conditions to any talks to resolve the worsening social and economic crisis.

Read: Despair, anger and anxiety in Zimbabwe

Louise Dewast
Dakar

Image source, AFP

French warplanes have carried out fresh attacks in Chad on what the military says is a heavily armed convoy that arrived from Libya and could be attempting to topple the government.

The French military, acting at the request of the Chadian army, says it is trying to prevent the destabilisation the country but civil society denounce these strikes as illegitimate.

France says its fighter jets have destroyed 20 out of 50 pickup trucks.

French planes also struck a convey in Chad over the weekend.

France has provided military support before to President Idriss Déby who has faced several rebellions since seizing power in a coup in 1990.

But this is believed to be the first time they are conducting strikes.

A rebel Chadian coalition called the Union of Forces of Resistance says it is behind the incursion.

They are one of several Chadian rebel groups based in southern Libya that have vowed to overthrow President Idriss Déby.

BBC World Service

Image source, Red Dragons

The US says it will cut millions of dollars in military aid to Cameroon over allegations of gross human rights violations by the security forces.

The US says the Cameroonian government must investigate credible abuse allegations and hold the perpetrators accountable.

Last May, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, accused the security forces of targeted killings, unlawful detentions and burning and looting villages.

The governor of a state in northern Nigeria has caused a row after he said that any foreigner who comes to intervene in the country's 16 February presidential election will "go back in body bags".

Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai was responding to criticism by some Western powers that last month's suspension of the chief justice could affect the independence of the judiciary ahead of the vote.

Towards the end of a nine-minute answer on a show on the state-funded NTA television channel, Mr Rufai said:

Mr Rufai belongs to the All Progressives Congress party of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is running for a second term.

The main opposition People's Democratic Party responded by saying that Western powers should impose a travel ban on the governor for "this inciting comment against peaceful elections", party spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan is quoted in the Nigerian Guardian newspaper as saying.

Defending his statement, Mr Rufai later said in a statement sent to Premium Times, external that he was not calling for violence:

Most of his answer talked about how important it was to keep the peace and the comment about body bags immediately followed remarks about military intervention.

Mr Rufai's spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said the row was manufactured and typical of the "silly season" in the run up to an election, the Guardian reports, external.

You can read the full text of Mr Rufai's comments here, external.

Today's African proverb:

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Farouk Chothia

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. 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 and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with an Instagram post of Ethiopian artists Fantu Mandoye and Tadele Bekele (R) singing at cultural centre in Addis Ababa:

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Somalia's upper house of parliament has accused the petroleum ministry of attempting to illegally auction off the country's oil blocks.

The petroleum minister, Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, is due to attend an event in London on Thursday where he says the results of seismic surveys will be presented.

He denies that any bidding will take place.

However, the director-general of the same ministry, Karar Shukri Doomey, had earlier told the media that the Somali government was inviting bids for offshore oil blocks at the London event.

The parliament's National Resource Committee says the laws have not yet been passed to allow for the sale of any oil blocks.

Opposition parties say Somalia risks an imminent resource curse if licenses are given out.