This week's African Media Watch uncovers a beer fit for a king in Uganda, discovers why Ghanaian students have been chanting Long Live Mobrowa! and why South Africans farmers are being welcomed in Mozambique. It also unearths what Onitsha in Nigeria has to do with a 17th Century French mathematician. But first to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where journalists are in revolt.

It must be every TV journalist's worst nightmare. Just as you are about to go on air you lose your script, and have to hastily ad lib, praying that somehow a complete disaster will be averted.

Well, in DR Congo this week they lost not only the programmes but also the equipment, because state media employees decided to vent their anger over low pay by literally pulling the plug.

"In view of a large-scale work stoppage at the National Radio and Television Corporation, we are unable to bring you our regular programmes," the announcer on DR Congo state TV told viewers.

The TV ended up showing a report on a government meeting held the previous day.

Congolese state TV programmes are not known for their independence

An official statement broadcast on the TV later said "evil-minded" state media employees "claiming to exercise their right to strike" had gone on a rampage, "barbarically cutting off power to all the strategic services of national radio and television" .

"Worse still, the same people cut and took away connection cables and various video and audio production materials," the statement said, warning that "an exemplary punishment will be meted out to them".

According to Radio France Internationale, the state TV and radio employees went on strike on 3 August in protest at their low pay - a strike it described as "a first in the country's history" .

"It is hard to blame them for the strike, considering that the managing-editor earns the equivalent of 10 dollars," the radio commented.

Some sections of the Congolese civil service were also hit by strikes over low pay.

Beer fit for a king

Most people like to crack open the champagne bottles when they get married, but for the Kabaka of Buganda, beer is better than bubbly.

In few places is a humble beer a crowning achievement

The Ugandan newspaper The New Vision reported that hundreds of people turned up to celebrate the sixth coronation anniversary of Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II and "the launching of a new brand of beer, Crown Lager".

The king of the traditional Buganda kingdom in central Uganda is due to marry Sylvia Nagginda Luswata later this year.

Nile Breweries chairman Jack Luyombya said 14.2m shillings ($9,800 ) had been raised for the Kabaka's wedding fund through sales of Crown Lager, and he hoped to boost that figure to more than 100m shillings ($69,000).

"An occasion of this historic significance demanded the creation of a very special beer, a beer fit for a king and Crown Lager is that beer," he said.

Student disobedience

Ghanaian students this week launched a civil disobedience campaign called "Mobrowa (the Distressed) Struggle" in protest at big hikes in student fees.

Ghana's students do not want to be underestimated

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) urged students not to report to university for the start of the 1999-2000 academic year until their demands were met, Ghana's GBC radio reported.

Nii Narko Dowuona, head of the University of Ghana's Student Representative Council, warned the government and universities "not to underestimate what students are capable of doing".

"Long live Mobrowa! Short live increase in fees!" he cried.

Ghana's Daily Graphic newspaper said fees for the new academic year would now range from 491,500 to 751,500 cedis ($190 to $290), compared with 186,500 to 416,500 cedis last year.

Pioneers

A joint pioneering spirit appears to have replaced the bitterness and conflict which poisoned relations between South Africa and Mozambique in the apartheid era.

South African farmers are venturing into Mozambique's fertile northern Niassa province to settle, South Africa's SAPA news agency reports. They are following in the footsteps of a group of 15 who moved to Niassa in 1996.

"The pilot project has proved to be a great success," commented Dries Bruwer, chairman of the South African Chamber for Agricultural Development in Africa (Sacada).

The first South African farmers, along with 10 from Mozambique, settled in the province with starting capital from the Mosagrius Development Corporation - a joint venture between Sacada and Mozambique.

Mr Bruwer said the South African farmers had boosted the local economy, providing food and job opportunities.

Eureka

It has baffled great mathematicians for more than 300 years, but finally a Nigerian professor has shouted "eureka!"

Fermat's Last Theorem wasn't such a hard nut to crack for Professor Chike Obi, whose home in Onitsha houses not only his scientific institute but also his wife's maternity clinic, Nigeria's The Guardian reports.

Professor Obi was not the first to crack the 17th Century mathematician's puzzle. That honour belongs to Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor, who announced the first proof in 1994.

But Professor Obi says he has found an elementary mathematical method to prove the theorem.

And he aims to further reduce the steps required to solve the world's most famous mathematic problem.