Africa Briefs

SA unions threaten govt about wagesSouth African trade unions said on Tuesday that they would lodge a formal dispute if the government doesn't honour a three-year public-sector wage deal, a step that could lead to months of arbitration and culminate in a strike.Unions are in a militant mood after government officials said last week that they couldn't afford to pay public servants wage increases due in April and asked to renegotiate the deal struck in 2018.Finance minister Tito Mboweni said in his annual budget speech that he wanted to make R160 billion of cuts to the public-sector wage bill over the next three years."On April 1, if there is no implementation we will file a dispute and enforce the agreement," NEHAWU spokesman Khaya Xaba said.Trade union federation FEDUSA echoed that view. "We are going to be declaring a dispute ... we don't want to open any discussions on a matter that was settled in June 2018 already," general secretary Riefdah Ajam said. – Nampa/ReutersEthiopia chides US over Nile talksThe United States has been "undiplomatic" in its role facilitating talks between three countries on the Nile River over a giant dam, Ethiopia said on Tuesday, but promised to continue negotiations.The US has been enabling talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa.The US$4 billion project has set Addis Ababa and Egypt at loggerheads since Ethiopia broke ground in 2011 - Cairo worried that filling a huge reservoir too quickly could staunch the Nile's flow lower down.The US treasury department stepped in last year after Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi put in a request to his ally US president Donald Trump.Last week, the department said an agreement had been reached and urged Ethiopia to sign "at the earliest possible time" and Egypt said it had signed the "fair and balanced" deal.But Ethiopia, which skipped the most recent round of talks, denied any deal had been agreed."The recent statement by the US we believe is undiplomatic and does not reflect a great nation like this," Ethiopian foreign minister Gedu Andargachew told a press conference on Tuesday.Togo court confirms Gnassingbe's victoryTogo's president Faure Gnassingbe has won re-election with 71% of the vote, final results from the constitutional court showed on Tuesday, extending his 15-year-old rule and a family dynasty that began when his father took power in a 1967 coup.Despite widespread disaffection and protests calling for him to step down, a fractured opposition struggled to launch a concerted campaign to unseat Gnassingbe in the small West African country of 8 million people.His closest rival, former prime minister Gabriel Messan Agbeyome Kodjo, won 19% of the vote in the contest last month, and longtime opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre got 5%, the latest results showed."This proclamation is final and closes the debate on the presidential election of Feb. 22," the head of the court, Aboudou Assouma, said at a press conference.The result gives Gnassingbe five more years in power, a blow for opposition protesters who have taken to the streets in recent years, calling for him to step down. – Nampa/ReutersLast Congo Ebola patient dischargedThe last patient being treated for Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo was discharged on Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, bringing the 19-month-old outbreak closer than ever to an end.The patient's release from hospital in the eastern city of Beni, feted by hospital staff who sang, danced and drummed on trash cans, marks the first time there have been no active cases since the outbreak was declared in August 2018.In that period, the virus has killed 2 264 people and infected nearly 1 200 more, making it the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history. Only the 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa was deadlier, killing more than 11 000.Congo has now gone 14 days without any new confirmed cases. The outbreak can be declared over once 42 days have passed without a new case - equivalent to two cycles of 21 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus. – Nampa/Reuters

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