africa's first black president she believes ending a white minority rule would mean a better life for the poor black majority after decades of oppression since then she's been waiting for the government to provide her with a decent home and she hasn't managed to find work in years. and open up my cupboards and see i have nothing no food i have to go outside and house in order to eat something before going to bed so why should i take my id book and go out there to vote when i'm suffering. in soweto township we meet. he was a member of the football club founded in the one nine hundred eighty s. by nelson mandela's wife winnie a group that was politically active during apartheid twenty five years after the end of racial segregation he says he's angry and disappointed with the african national congress led government. jobs. we are hungary is because of those guys not the. only. thing for the

people to protest over poverty poor public services and unemployment happen almost daily there's a general election on may eighth and the a.n.c. is facing mounting public anger over its failure to improve the lives of millions of black people we have not looked at people even no real knowledge we have while the successes not just of challenges. and all over the road to accuse us. but everything must be done within the law the legacy of apartheid where black people were considered inferior to whites and not given the same opportunities is partly why africa remains one of the most equal societies in the world since one thousand nine hundred ninety four more people do have access to clean running water education and healthcare even though many say those services are poor these are some of the houses the bills by the government for the poor are provided for free others are subsidised millions i've been built since one thousand

nine hundred ninety four but there are still housing shortages claimed many on corruption and millions of south africans continue to live in abject poverty they won the right to vote twenty five years ago today the struggle is with economic freedom which many say still feels a long way off. john it's. time for a short break here al-jazeera when we come back. we'll look at one region in spain that's pinning its hopes for independence on the outcome of sunday's elections plus both follow but i've nothing to do and i feel bored feels the vacuum is a fantasy in libya which look a lot like real life outside more of that stay with us.

hello there for the southeastern parts of china there's been a lot of wet weather recently this latest system has brought some of us over one hundred millimeters of rain and there's plenty more still to come as this system tries to pull away that we more showers popping up behind it and then this one in the northern part of our map really begins to put itself together so we'll see some very heavy downpours gradually work their way south east winds as we head through into monday with the very very wet weather here that will gradually edge its way eastwards as we head through into choose day and then some particularly shop showers will develop just to the south of that first batch and towards the west and really the majority of the showers here are over sri lanka you see that huge area of cloud here and now within that area of cloud we have seen a tropical storm develop that's going to be running its way towards the northwest developing as it does so but at the moment it looks like the worst of the weather the eye of the storm will stay away from sri lanka for sri lanka then we will just see the outer fringes of that storm so it will be wet but not quite as bad as it might be otherwise further north staying hot for many of us here not poor right the

way up at a sticky forty four degrees and some of the west there's also a cloud over doha at the moment that's still with us for sunday it does clear though as we head into monday and then the temperatures will shoot up during the week. for drug users seeking to get clean one rehab option has been raising serious questions. based therapy. a so-called treatment. and any. fault lines investigates how people are reeling from drug. having exploitation to their. recovering from rehab on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick reminder the top stories here the south sudan's opposition is hopeful the reach can deal with the military on transferring power within the last few hours a delegation representing protestors has met with army leaders to demand a civilian led government. as president has banned two groups accused of being involved in the easter sunday bombings which killed more than two hundred fifty people and follows more raids and arrests across the aisle and a nationwide curfew will go into effect shortly. and mozambique's government is urging people to seek higher ground just days after kenneth battered the country forecasters are predicting days of heavy rain which could lead to flooding and mudslides. it's become one of the most popular video games play on and battle

grounds all pub g. as it's known is based on theme of the survival of the fittest and it's attracting many young libyans were comparing it to life in their own country where warlord only for have to ask forces continue an offensive against the u.n. that government mark would have to wire reports now from tripoli. in cafes streets workplaces and even cars here in the libyan capital you can usually find a pub game or like many other young libyans but he agree she spends several hours a day playing the game for him it's interesting and an escape. the devoted followers but i have nothing to do and i feel bored pudgy feels the vacuum i like it because it's full of excitement and competition it introduces me to people from different backgrounds and nationalities. but as a game is based on winning slowly eliminating opponents some are comparing it to

life in their own areas and ways american his core players even play under the names of libyan militia. that some players name themselves in the game after prominent leaders of armed groups so that they can intimidate the ever series just because those leaders are well known for their power in society for some pub he has become an addiction and there are fears gamers might take their online frustration in the real world dr karim if she were says the game can have a powerful effect on players say college but. the state does not encourage young people to better use their time instead they try to fill the vacuum they have by spending too much time in such violent games this could also eventually lead them to committee antisocial behavior but these players say the game makes them as smart and active because they perform different tasks a multimedia sli some studies do show the game can improve decision making skills

and intelligence but there is a cost measured in the hours is spent looking into the mobile phone screen. tripoli. a prominent saudi women's rights activist is again calling for a change in the kingdom and. that a small protest outside the saudi embassy in washington she is in the united states to raise awareness about human rights abuses al-sharif made history in twenty eleven when she broke saudi nor by driving a car which was illegal for women at the time she now wants to shine a spotlight on strict guardianship laws. in the huge numbers of people have been forced from their homes because of the war against boko haram a quarter of a million live in refugee camps in the southeastern region of defer where some of being targeted again legs. reports. to ali is tired of running but she doesn't know what else to do. she fled nigeria with her husband and three

young daughters in may last year escaping attacks by the armed group boko her rom the family says old in a village in the near the border with neighboring nigeria but moved again because they still didn't feel safe. so. one day someone told my husband there were cows near our farm my husband went out and never came back three days later they found his head separated from his body. that was three weeks ago or two and a house wind was supposed to be celebrating a sixteenth wedding anniversary serving instead the family is haunted by his killing. him i am landing that i cried and grieved and brought my daughters to do all i want now is to be safe and to be able to support myself and my daughters. the family has joined nearly a quarter of a million people living around danger who were either refugees from nigeria or were displaced by fighting in the. most refugee settlements communities that are along

the border with nigeria. more precisely really for most people which is the epicenter of book or around pricing book or around the insurgency. beyond group and affiliated fighters have waged war against nigerian government forces for the past ten years and the conflict has spilled into neighboring cameroon and chad recently fighters have significantly increased attacks on civilians with suicide bombings kidnappings and sit in villages on fire the most vulnerable are targeted the displaced and refugees intensifying their suffering. and we fled from nigeria to find security and safety so far we haven't felt safe. the war against boko haram has for so many people from their land that food is scarce and millions need help to avert famine the young grow up quickly here.

they wait for peace seem to. al-jazeera. yellow vest protesters in france are staging nationwide rallies following the french president's announcement of reforms and a televised address on thursday money outlined his plans to cut taxes raise pensions and overhaul the civil service is being seen as macross final attempt to satisfy the demands of the yellow best movement now in its twenty four week. just one day to go before spain holds a general election and one of the issues is the independence movement for catalonia many in the region hope sunday's results will help their cause so independence leaders have been rallying supporters some of them from prison journal reports now from barcelona. the letters of support arrived from regularly after eighteen months in prison and on trial in a drip catalans haven't forgotten pro independence former interior minister drew hakim for him and his wife lara and their daughters know that you are came hasn't

forgotten them. doesn't it doesn't it was us. saying it because next year we don't celebrate together and he's with us on. the trial of twelve cattle and independence leaders on charges of rebellion sedition and misuse of public funds follows the region's referendum and unilateral declaration of independence which was met by police violence in two thousand and seventeen it's taken on heavy significance for a movement struggling to reassert itself last in search of a way to achieve its goal. i see very clearly that people don't feel like compromising in this ends up giving up of recognizing a mistake or renouncing it i don't see that it is possible that some people may think that we need more time that it doesn't have to be an immediate team but i

don't see any reason nation at all if not now then what is to happen in the interim at the national level spain's socialist government may pay a heavy price in this weekend's election for its attempts to negotiate over catalonia a surge in support for the far right nationalist vox party risks dragging the entire political landscape to the right making a compromise over cattle and separatist aspirations seem less likely than ever if there is a shift to the right and the radical right in spain everything is going to be more difficult because these parties in the right have the explicit proposal of imposing itself. again so it's not going to be only a matter off of the in the pens project but they're very. very core of their self government on the old don i mean that was recovered during their off of the market and so perhaps inevitably there's a quiet shift towards

a more pragmatic approach because it is this is hard to see the republicans unless the main political party of the roughly fifty percent of catalonia since support independence some of its leaders as you can see are in prison addressing the crowd here by live video link the message increasingly is that unilateral action didn't work the way forward now is through dialogue and political legitimacy. that means winning as many seats as possible in the national parliament and influencing change from within the dream of independence isn't getting any closer but it does remain very much alive al-jazeera barcelona. chinese president xi jinping says more than sixty four billion dollars worth of deals have been signed during a summit promoting his country's belton road initiative she's planned to build infrastructure and trade routes through asia africa and into europe was front and center in the two day conference russian president vladimir putin was there to show his support but want other countries against supporting trade wars. nobody

wants any restrictions nobody wants any trade wars except maybe only for those who start these processors an overwhelming majority almost one hundred percent are sure that all these are strictures the development of the world economy. is not going according to plan for around a thousand security force personnel who defected from venezuela they crossed the border into neighboring colombia two months ago and there remain awaiting the call to join the fight to overthrow the venezuelan president. reports in the border city of kuta. as they abandoned their posts and crossed into colombia they were greeted as heroes. more than one thousand members of the security forces defected two months ago they promised loyalty to. the leader of venezuela's opposition in self appointed the interim president they expected it would soon help president

nicolas maduro. we're doing the right thing in my message to military families is the time is now. that's not proving to be the case and i do it remains in our face in the defectors feel they've been abandoned left to worry about their fate in that of their families back home. william can seem is the only member of in this way less feared special forces known to have deserted me i want to have this hope that in a few days we were going to act and begin what they call operation freedom to topple the door on his criminal past instead it was his family members who felt they had to flee after reportedly receiving. death threats and it kills me having to stay here standing idly by knowing what's happening inside the country but this is the situation we're here with nothing to do with we can't work and can't send money back home i'm thankful for the food and shelter but we want to do what we came here to do. most of the venezuelan defectors are reluctant to speak to journalists some

are being sheltered by the united nations others financially supported by in this way less opposition the day we arrived fifty were at risk of ending on the streets since the opposition had not paid their bills. we don't understand how they are being so responsible after we answered their call leaving our country and our career the result is that we are increasingly divided and many have already left representatives of the venezuelan opposition tell us that they were so right by the number of military forces that defected back in february and they're trying to come up with a plan to deal with them in the long term especially if the political situation in venezuela change. however why those so-called ambassador to colombia refused to comment the colombian government says they're doing what they can to assist they clearly have large expectations which the colombian government is not responsible for we try to take care of them as we do with the other one point two million

venezuelan migrants in colombia within its way less political stalemate dragging on those who risk all to support change wait and wonder if their gamble will pay off at least in that i'm just you know. and you can find much more on our website so all the latest on the developments in sri lanka the address al jazeera dot com that's al-jazeera dot com. a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera opposition is hopeful of reaching a deal with the military on transferring power but in the last few hours a delegation representing protestors has met with ahmed leaders to demand a civilian led government. as president has banned two groups accused of being involved in the easter sunday bombings which killed more than two hundred fifty people it follows more raids and arrests across the island from syria joins us from

colombo. police conducted raids in a mostly muslim neighborhood and made several arrests including the deputy mayor and then in the eastern town of. arrested a man and found explosives as well as more than two hundred detonators in the east is also where police conducted house to house a great looking for suspected gunman a day off to a gunfight. and security forces mozambique's government is urging people to seek higher ground just days after. the country forecasters are predicting days of heavy rain which could lead to flooding and mudslides. chinese president xi jinping says more than sixty four billion dollars worth of deals have been signed during a summit promoting his country's belton road initiative she's planned to build infrastructure and trade routes through asia africa and into europe was front and

center during the two day conference. nobody wants any restrictions nobody wants any trade wars except maybe only for those who start the process there's an overwhelming majority almost one hundred percent are sure that all these are strictures the development of the world economy. protesters in france are holding nationwide rallies for the twenty fourth week in a row that follows a televised address on thursday by the president emanuel. outlined plans to cut taxes and raise pensions it's seen as his final attempt to satisfy the demands of the yellow best movement. and south africa is marking twenty five years since the end of apartheid known as freedom day on this day in one thousand nine hundred four people of all races were allowed to vote protests broke out in the same town where the celebrations were taking place the demonstrators say they lack basic living standards and for them apartheid never ended. star whose were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera of the fault line statement on so much about the

. back and many days when days. as was nineteen when he tried heroin for the first time. and the dog care about one dog one dog in high tech thing i care about by the age of twenty three it almost ruined him. as broke. and i'm just tired of living a wound level. when he checked himself into this drug treatment center in texas ethan knew that getting clean would be hard work. but soon he'd be introduced to

a new concept. work based therapy to work alone and then they saw all of our work these men also ended up in rehab seeking treatment for addictions that had taken over their lives. but their treatment plans were soon dominated by long hours working for private corporations. as a wal-mart distribution center saw it with a low cargo containers. and give me a day off because i can't do this anymore they work these jobs without pay very demeaning it's hard to describe. for you to work every day. and at the end of the week you have nothing to show for. and they labored in dangerous conditions the whole life before when i thought i was doing it. a little. while i was over what i had to grow and they select the women clean up with this what they call work there what is work terribly is there such

a thing they say. you work to pay for. your tree. but it was a really a lot of tree. so often people go into these programs star exploited for their labor they're injured they're made to feel expendable this is been going on for a long time and no one's really paying attention when these two reporters began asking questions about workplace therapy they uncovered a national trend of all things called old work ok. in the midst of an american drug epidemic they found high demand for low cost rehab and a set of labor practices that might be illegal here people just didn't have enough time to get their required hours of counseling because work came first these are the stories of four men who were told that work would help them beat their addictions in this collaboration with the reveal from the center for investigative reporting faultlines finds out what happened to them instead of the place was. all

about manipulation and greed. for five decades a nonprofit called the center court foundation has made a promise to people seeking help with serious addiction. i was loss loss in my addiction. my life spinning out of control check into one of cent of course three long term rehab centers in texas and louisiana and work a job to pay for your treatment but there are also. treatments to tell it to me that truly worked with the counseling i need in singapore two years later you can walk away clean and sober cynic or can help you right. they make it out to be a sweet deal until you get there until you get your mind right after you get there

and you get little clean time you start at thanks for anything and i knew now. and then you start to think well you know this is kind of shady deal we got. when he entered the program in two thousand and thirteen ethan sent us agreed to work without a paycheck. remember signing this. president received no monetary compensation for assigned responsibilities in the facility all funds you see go directly back to the foundation to help offset the costs of treatment services saying isn't right here. soon his days were spent cutting wood at this sawmill outside of houston called. load for the day you know bunch of pals full of wood solid hurry up and get it all down and i'll be down about one o'clock and then bring on the set and go and start on the anybody is going to get tired of working for a year straight not get a dime of it you know cynical clients work unpaid jobs

a private companies for eighteen months if they graduate the program they can be hired on as paid employees but the problem is the majority of the people leave around a year they'll make it that long work for free that long and then get mad and tired and leave the power so tight they just they're constantly given a year work a year or ten months for the work from people and then i turn around in the last five years said of course partnership with more than three hundred private companies generated about thirty six million dollars making it one of the largest and most lucrative work based rehab programs in the country. in a written statement from the court told us that work has therapeutic value for clients and says his job left a little time for actual therapy sessions the whole time i was there i could probably count on both my hands how many times i want to group and in the light and love to work and focus more on like recovery

thank you. reporters amy julie harris and shawna walter have documented similar stories from about one hundred former senator clients now their investigation has turned to the accounts of former staff sha is the chandra. after nearly three years as a counselor to the corps but news facility andrea brooks left her job in two thousand and eighteen. to change i'm curious what role you think work plays and recovery and what that ratio should be to counseling just five. hours.

so in staff meetings we would raise the question they're working too much and he said they did not work that much now we heard that from the client so we wanted to know for a fact thank you bilodeau also worked at the baton rouge facility as a clinical director of. the year at sun a core she became concerned that work was getting in the way of her clients recovering and did other counselors there have the same concerns as you every one of them to you. every time the issue was brought up they would deny and say no they're not working this amount of hours we would say it again they will deny deny and then we just made up a spreadsheet to show the truth at a staff meeting peggy presented center court monitors with a document that revealed that some clients were working twelve hour days seven days a week it was gratifying to slide the spreadsheet across with the data or data that you had kind of proof of what you were saying yeah i was disappointed that we saw

the facts the. for delivery the facts were not acted on and that's what i was disappointed about and so i was hope that we had could have made a difference where we could given a more solid foundation to move forward on but it was not it was not it was just kind of fell on deaf ears. outside the baton rouge facility the long work days continue. it's just after dawn and these white vans are shuttling senekal clients to jobs. many will end up inside the oil and gas industry some of the most dangerous work places in america. in two thousand and fourteen i was to williams was working at a chemical plant called for most of plastics. the job building scaffolds put him seventy feet in the air. you're right there's this crime right there

it was cut from here to here on a rainy day alister slipped and fell shattering his knee when you care was nearly on the side of my leg i'm in a really strong shade and i mean i'm crying and carson and. you know please give me to the hospital pay for the jobs you had no training to do. have been a job for a very dangerous you know people went on jobs where they had no experience at all. you know is right walking are going into the real world and just looking around and just be like you don't know which direction to go. after surgery i was to had months of recovery from the phone so i had to learn how to walk on. that's once in a core officials called into a meeting they gave me an automated. you know either get a job. and get to step. twenty two that's what i was i was faced with. get

a job. i get scared. just. for ethan nevers the choices were even more stark. he could work long hours for a subcontractor at this wal-mart warehouse or face prison time. or you ever worried about him saying you need a break or complaining about the type of work you could get kicked out of the program you know we've been told that several times if you refuse to go to work you're refusing to pay for your program and therefore you can leave the program. about half of clients are sent to rehab by a judge that's what happened to evers after he failed a drug test violating his felony probation i could go back to the judge and see if he won since since it's me or what he wants to do and more likely was innocence me and so we're talking about three felonies. go away for

a while. or you say some of course. across the us some defendants are being given the option of drug treatment instead of prison. you may be. inside the dallas criminal courts judge ernest white says incarceration won't help people on his docket beat their addiction. we did lose one of our clients about a year and a half two years ago to her when. we tried to stay on top of the folks particularly after her. judge white special court program requires people to seek treatment make regular visits to court and stay clean test positive for. come back positive. i'm not buying your story about how. this is your chance to get it all right. if this man continues to fail drug

tests judge white has options he can lock him up or he can send them to a treatment facility like. if you can stay clean it's going to be back to jail and it's going to be inpatient. in a decade judge white a sense many people to live inside cynical facilities. but there's more to the story of this court reform the unpaid work programs that clients are sent to labor and might be illegal they're facing the prospect of jail they're addicted they need treatment they're desperate and i would say they're being preyed upon because of that desperation because of the position they find themselves and i think that the government broadly has an obligation to try to protect those people during two decades at the department of labor michael hancock oversaw investigations of companies that had failed to pay their workers so does this mean that clients have signed their rights away we showed them the wavered.