May 4, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

South Africa hopes to restore energy ties with Iran.

Amnesty International say Egypt is using courts and jail to intimidate journalists.

Andy, Eskom carries out weekend maintenance on 2 608 megawatts of plant capacity.

South Africa hopes to restore energy ties with Iran, its energy minister said on Sunday. This comes three years after international sanctions halted oil trade between the two countries.

Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said South Africa was aiming for a framework of cooperation with Iran regarding crude oil, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, gas and petrochemicals.

South Africa bought around 68 000 barrels per day of crude from Iran in May 2012. Last September, Africa's second-largest crude consumer expressed interest in resuming imports.

Iran's exports of crude have fallen to around 1.1-million barrels a day, from a high of 2.5-million barrels a day in 2012, as Western sanctions have made it difficult to find buyers.

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a report that Egyptian authorities are using the courts to stifle journalism. The organisation has listed 18 reporters and media workers jailed and dozens more facing criminal investigations. 

The New York-based rights group said several reporters have been detained for long periods without charge or trial, including an Egyptian photographer known as Shawkan who has been held for more than 600 days.

Rights groups say a crackdown launched by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after the overthrow of Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 has muzzled freedom of expression.

The Egyptian foreign ministry denied this and said the journalists were arrested based on a warrant from the public prosecutor and afforded full due process.

A week after a so-called ‘maintenance festival’ during which technicians carried out planned maintenance on 2 303 megawatts of generating plants and returned 1 453 MW of power to the national grid, energy utility Eskom said it had performed additional maintenance over the long weekend, returning 2 304 MW of generation capacity to the grid.

Eskom had since returned the Duvha Unit 2, Majuba Unit 6, Kriel Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 to service.

Eskom acting CEO Brian Molefe said going forward, the utility plans to continue with its maintenance drive in an effort to close in on the backlog that has accumulated over the years owing to the ‘keeping the lights on’ commitment.

However, Molefe appealed to electricity users to continue using electricity sparingly to allow it enough room to continue with the requisite maintenance so that, in the long run, the power stations could perform more efficiently.

Also making headlines:

Private airline Comair’s legal action against government bailouts for South African Airways is set down for three days in the Pretoria High Court starting on Tuesday.

The Democratic Alliance Student Organisation has won the Student Representative Council of Fort Hare University, in the Eastern Cape.

Boko Haram fighters killed older boys and men in front of their families before taking women and children into the forest where many died of hunger and disease.

And, Burundi protest organisers called a two-day pause in demonstrations against the president's move to seek a third term, which they say violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended civil war in 2005.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.