African press review 23 November 2016

South Africa's jobless figures hit all-time high of 27 percent of country's working population, while Nigeria welcomes dramatic increase in its oil production and a Kenyan fraudster spends six months working as a hospital doctor on a large salary before being unmasked.

We begin in South Africa where the papers lead with the Rainbow Nation's catastrophic unemployment figures. This, after Statistics South Africa published figures on Tuesday showing that the country's jobless rate has risen to more than 27 percent, the highest in over a decade.

Mail and Guardian says the figures represent 5.9 million South Africans out of work, 239 000 joining the jobless list in the last quarter alone in the country of 53 million inhabitants.

According to the newspaper, Bloomberg  expects the figures to remain unchanged over the second quarter.

Mail and Guardian reports that South Africa has struggled with unemployment since the 2009 recession. The paper says that GDP growth has stayed below 3.5 percent annually with the government expecting it to slow down further to 0.5 percent this year.

Meanwhile, The Sowetan takes up another study showing that almost two-thirds of South African children live below the poverty line.

But according to the newspaper, the report authored by the Children’s Institute in partnership with UNICEF South Africa showers praises on the country's Child Support system.

The facility, which paid out monthly grants of 24 euros per child every month to 12 million children, is credited for halving the proportion of children living below the food poverty line from 58% in 2003 to 30% in 2014.

In Nigeria, Vanguard says the country's crude oil output had risen to around 1.9 million barrels per day, citing Petroleum Resources Minister Ibe Kachikwu, as the source of the good news.

The paper says that Kachikwu also disclosed that the country would pay the $5.1 billion Joint Venture Cash call arrears owed International Oil Companies, within a five-year deadline.

According to Vanguard, due to the activities of vandals and militants in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s crude oil output had dropped to as low as around 900,000 barrels per day, a far cry from the 2.2 million barrels per day benchmark in the 2016 budget.

And in Kenya, Daily Nation, leads with the shocking story of an enraged suspect who on Tuesday repeatedly stabbed a magistrate, who sentenced him to three years in prison for assault.

According to the paper, the Nakuru Resident Magistrate, had just read out the sentence sending the man behind bars, when he pounced on her stabbing her six times with a screw driver on the neck and upper arm before fleeing from the courtroom.

Daily Nation says Police arrested him before he could leave the court premises adding that he is due to appear before the tribunal today to answer charges of attempted murder.

Standard Digital investigates claims that a reputed hospital paid a fake Kenyan doctor wages of up to 150,000 Shillings for several months before being unmasked.

According to the newspaper, Ronald Kiprotich Melly continued to work at the Kapsabet County Hospital for up to six months despite a formal complaint from medics and nurses about his expertise.

According to the newspaper, the conman actually managed to work in several services at the hospital and got promoted as Medical Superintendant at another before being uncovered.