more up the top of the hour coming up next here on that day business off the coast with plans of of the day. we take football personally. with all the wonderful people in stories that make the game so special. for all true fans. the cuff more than football on line. the for her first day of school in the jungle. first listen to

the fan doris crane the moment arrives. join the ring attains on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. on the brain ten returns home on dot com contains. a mad rush to keep the lights on a south african government bails out state powell from s. called sooner rather than later. china defends its belgian road initiative officials say it's neither a geopolitical tool nor a death trap. and the russians on to get into south africa's marijuana market. i've been fizzling that steve is that the south african government has the. a three

hundred fifty five million dollars lifeline to struggling utility eskom was originally planned for august but the state firm is on the brink of bankruptcy it's grappling with cash flow problems and a mountain of debt the company employs forty eight thousand people bank says it could operate with just fifteen thousand. it needs double that but just ahead of elections no one is planning on axing any jobs at all. south african finance minister tito authorized the eskom payment early a month after he himself compared putting more money into the ailing leviathan with pouring water into a sieve he said the cash would disappear straight into a bloated company which is neither technically nor financially able to carry out its prime task that of supplying south africa with electricity energy is south africa's weak spot state owned eskom is responsible for supplying ninety five percent of the country's electricity however time and again especially in recent

months regions have been hit by extended power cuts a third of us comes power stations are defective or undergoing maintenance adding to the problems eskom is carrying thirty billion euros in debt and earnings aren't high enough to cover the interest payments and the electricity prices rocketed by four hundred percent over the last ten years eskom is planning a further hike of some seventeen percent. the mining industry rejects that idea a seventeen percent hike in the price of electricity would threaten a third of mining jobs and scums problems seem like you did pose a serious threat to south africa's economy for some time to come. beijing has set up a suggestion box for its delta road initiative it's under pressure on transparency from western capitals they say struggling economies are being sucked into the project and saddled with unsustainable debt china says it understands the concerns and has asked for feedback prior to a key international congress. with

a week to go until thousands of delegates gather in beijing for a summit to celebrate developed and road initiative china's singing songs of praise for the vast infrastructure projects. the message on chinese state t.v. is the new silk road is a glorious endeavor connecting china with asia europe and beyond state lenders say the new silk road includes eight hundred projects with loans of over a trillion dollars critics say the belgian road is the way to expand chinese influence they say countries could be taking on massive debts. china's leaders including president xi insist the project has brought real benefits for participating countries. i would like to stress that this partner relationship is not a geo political tool but a platform for cooperation we welcome all sides equal participation on engagement. over one hundred fifty countries will attend and thirty seven foreign leaders have

signed up china's allies like pakistan and russia will be there but also easily switzerland and austria the u.s. is sending on the low level representatives at a belgian road conference in the united arab emirates officials are bullish. as i mentioned. keen to be part of this we want the chinese companies to lose the facilities and infrastructure to reach to different markets from. some critics feel beijing is leading the world on a merry dance with some fans are clearly singing to the new silk road chuen. a lot of developing economies in africa have signed up to the project and they have been complaints cancellations and renegotiating joy dorry is covering this for us from nairobi joy what's the general feeling in africa about the belt road the general feeling about the belgian role and that a lot all critics in africa think that it's one way china is welshing its

economic imperialism legend across the african continent and the world as well because as we see these just about and hundred ninety two billion dollars that's coming to africa from china alone and that actually does people a bit of a fear that while china is backing most of africa's infrastructure projects these also this sense old manipulation or real manipulation that is being viewed by almost all the economists across the african continent to once china. if it's clear to you that it's a one way street how to kenya get itself into so much debt by signing up to the project in the first place. well ken just like most of the other african countries have infrastructure development as one of the biggest bottlenecks that we have at the moment and for a country like kenya that is viewed as the get wheat to east and africa developing

its infrastructure has always been key and the past few years we've seen a lot of investment coming in from china to kenya to develop roads the sound of gates really that we have in kenya at the mall and that is to be the biggest infrastructure project for kenya this funding has all come from china and so it is important for china to develop our infrastructure if she's going to benefit from the rest of the east african countries that is uganda rwanda burundi as well as the democratic republic of congo because there's a lot of goods that come through kenya going to these african countries and so cannot to develop our infrastructure even without the fans they look at china as the you know the way to develop this infrastructure and if they're going to get into the date of that that they're going to do that but still have this infrastructure data and at the end of the day and pay i have over twenty years

forty years who knows how long while so over the past weeks and months we've heard a lot of criticism some countries in asia and europe as well renegotiating deals trying to get a better. a better agreement basically from both sides will african leaders be pushing for better conditions at next week's summit. well the hope is that they do push for better conditions because what we are seeing at the moment is that we have so many chinese companies coming into africa as well to do this infrastructure work so it's not really a fifty fifty kind of thing it's just china you know laying out the terms and saying this is how much we're going to give you but in addition to that we're going to have chinese companies come and do the work for you and so ninety percent of the workforce even with this infrastructure development is coming from china and you know way africa is losing out in this because the human capital here is one of the

good years as a as opposed to if this was actually a well laid out plan and well negotiated agreements between african countries and china as well because if the money is coming in from there it doesn't necessarily mean that all the manpower should also come from china so we hope that some of these african leaders who are going to attend this summit next week will be able to negotiate for more top be put into these projects that china ease having going to use the roads you know the railways as well as the ports that are being expanded and constructed across africa so africa needs to make sure it doesn't lose out you heard it from a joint doring they were there for us in nairobi thank you very much. now for twenty is code for cannabis and pot smokers in the us celebrate their love of the plant tomorrow april twenty corporate america is also getting in on the act brands that associate themselves with marijuana considered cool that some companies the

need to appeal to a wider audience may stay away but the industry's worth billions colorado and washington are the first states to legalize recreational use more followed including california medical marijuana is legal in two thirds of the states. africa is also granting commercial licenses for cannabis cultivation after the sort all end zimbabwe south africa could be next investors say it's high time but smaller landholders fear of big business will steal the spoils. in twenty nineteen there is hardly any other crop that excites the south african farming community more than cannabis after finance minister tito maurine indicated that commercial licenses to grow and trade marijuana will be granted this year experts in businesses are ecstatic when dealing an agricultural economist who follows the global markets closely believes that cannabis has

a huge potential in south africa. benefits most of africa obviously if you look in terms of video state of california alone for example there's been over the industry's value over five billion u.s. dollars now in south africa given favorable weather conditions in the eastern part of the country as well as some underutilized land which their production could actually happen and that's where they hope to nationalize about to see if we can bring those areas into full production and begin to produce some of these crop how much video can we actually extract as a country. but not everybody shares the excitement here on the outskirts of johannesburg fireman has a small plot where he grows marijuana. as for thousands of smallholder farmers across south africa the plant helps him to sustain his family he believes that legalisation will only benefit big business and threatens to monopolize the cultivation of cannabis for those who can afford the hefty license fees.

writes wonderful comes in in its place and those who can afford to purchase. it if it's what happens to them and as a. mother when a community. support small local. for them to benefit. and there's good reason for doubt in neighboring lists to licenses were only granted to wealthy international businesses local farmers couldn't afford to pay the yearly fees of about thirty thousand euros. believes that cannabis cultivation could trigger a message of economic gains for rural communities if lessons are learned from. now as a country we need to begin to do some research in all of this so it will be linked

to the pattern and from the patterns that are happening in this to learning from what happening globally and archy objectively is again an improving those rural economies if we were are to be in a position where this would actually be tested and obviously encourage me to be to say there must be involvement of the local smallholder farmers. after a hard day's work fireman and his colleague enjoy the fruits of their labor and they dream of a future where the cannabis trade provides an economic boost for impoverished rural communities. i started business with the.

law. to go africa. get some camera. and hopes to save the countries in mind. the coastal far as being used for so production they're also being damaged by cattle herds. yes some camera some plant. sixty minutes.

and on demand. video. this is news africa coming up in the next fifteen minutes the fight for tripoli shelling continues in the libyan capital. well as the warlord moves to take the city from the u.n. back to government at least two hundred people have been killed since the strongman gone she's offensive two weeks ago will know why foreign policy confines common ground on how. and we capture the story of the hassle in the city. where young people are not meeting the state's famous old defect.