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ANC Daily News Briefing Thurs 31 Dec 1998

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A N C D A I L Y N E W S B R I E F I N G

THURSDAY 31 DECEMBER 1998

PLEASE NOTE: This News Briefing is a compilation of items from South
African press agencies and as such does not reflect the views of the
ANC. It is for reading and information only, and strictly not for
publication or broadcast.

To unsubscribe from the ANC Daily News Briefing mailing list send a
message to 'list...@wn.apc.org'. In the body of your message put
'unsubscribe ancnews'.

@ ANGOLA-PLANECRASH

PRETORIA Dec 30 Sapa

UN STILL CANNOT ENTER AIRPLANE CRASH AREA

United Nations officials were by Wednesday morning still
awaiting permission from the Angolan government and the rebel Unita
movement to launch a search and rescue operation for a UN chartered
aircraft that crashed near Huambo on Saturday.

UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said from Luanda there may be
survivors on board. "This is a matter of life and death. It is very
urgent that we be allowed to go in."

Toure said the UN was in constant contact with the two parties
to the conflict.

"We are putting pressure on them through the security council
and all other channels available. We are very worried, time is
running against us. But this is Angolan air space - what can we
do?"

Toure said the wreck was spotted on Tuesday and was fairly
intact.

SOS signals received from the aircraft on Monday indicated that
there could be survivors on board.

Heavy fighting was recently reported in the area where the
aircraft had crashed. A spokesman for the South African embassy in
Luanda said on Tuesday the area was reportedly quiet, "but anything
can change in a minute".

A Hercules C130 transport plane apparently went down in flames
east of Vila Nova, about 45km from Huambo, on Saturday.

It was transporting South African pilot John Wilkinson and
three crew members - a Bolivian, an Angolan and a Filipino.

The passengers, mostly members of the UN mission in Angola,
included three from Angolan, one from Egypt, one from Cameroon, one
from Zambia, one from Namibia, one from Australia and two from
Russia.

@ LABOUR-AMPLATS By Andrew Davidson

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

TALKS RESUME ON ENDING AMPLATS STRIKE

Both Anglo American Platinum Corporation and the National Union
of Mineworkers were on Wednesday optimistic of an early settlement
to the pay dispute which has affected production at platinum
operations in the Northern and North-West Provinces for more than a
week.

Amplats, following independent mediation, late on Monday made
to NUM what it described as a significantly improved offer.

But some of the 8000 strikers rejected the proposal -
understood to be either a six percent wage increase back-dated to
July 1 or an eight percent rise from January 1 - when it was
relayed to them by union representatives on Tuesday.

Shortly before he was due to meet Amplats management on
Wednesday morning NUM deputy general secretary Archie Palane told
Sapa: "The offer was rejected only in respect of the implementation
date. Some of our members believe they should receive an eight
percent increase from July 1. However, we have now revised our
mandate although we are not going to communicate our position via
the media."

Palane added: "We are approaching the meeting with management
with an open mind. I do hope there is a speedy resolution which
will enable us to break the record for a non-violent, disciplined,
protected strike."

Asked what record he was referring to, Palane would only state
that the Amplats dispute had been "a peaceful strike with no focus
on violence".

There had been concern, due to past rivalry, that NUM could
have clashed with the rival Mouthpeace Workers' Union, which did
not join the protest action.

Palane, who said that 8000 of the 10,000 NUM members were on
strike, told Sapa that several Mouthpeace members had joined in the
industrial action at the Amandelbult mine and Waterval smelter at
Rustenburg. Amplats denied this.

Amplats spokesman Steve Calladine said on Wednesday: "I heard
that our proposal had been rejected, which was not only
disappointing but surprising."

He was still hopeful the dispute, which began last Wednesday,
could be resolved when the two sides met later in the day.

Amplats is the world's largest platinum producer and made a
R1,64-billion profit in the year to end June.

@ NEW YEAR'S STATEMENT BY REVD NJONGONKULU NDUNGANE

Issued by: Quo Vadis Communications

NEW YEAR'S STATEMENT BY THE ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN, THE
MOST REVD NJONGONKULU NDUNGANE, DECEMBER 30, 1998

As we come to the end of the year and look forward to the coming
year, it is with distress and a deep sense of tragedy that we have
to recognise that conditions in Africa have deteriorated. I do not
say this lightly.

My first official engagement in January this year was a visit to
Uganda. Despite the regional conflicts in the area, it was with a
sense of optimism and pride that I could return to South Africa with
a message of hope. Almost a year later, as we prepare to enter the
last year of the 1990s, I am alarmed at developments in the
continent.

War and internecine violence, corruption and criminal acts of
aggression, with no apparent concern for the wellbeing of the
populace, have dominated the pages of our print media and the
screens of television when Africa has been the subject. In this
month alone there have been, among others, reports of renewed
conflict in Sierra Leone, ongoing strife in the Congo, and a
continuation of the bloody conflict in Angola - not to mention, on
a domestic front, the gruesome murders that have occurred in KwaZulu
Natal over Christmas. Closer to home we have seen armed intervention
by the SADC in Lesotho, while we have also observed strained
relations between a number of governments on the continent.

The conflicts in Africa pose a serious threat to the future
progress of the continent and its people. Despite peace agreements
that are signed, fighting continues to rage. This is because such
agreements are aimed at short-term solutions, and do not take a
longer view of the wellbeing of the countries concerned on the one
hand, and Africa on the other.

The UN, the Organisation of African Unity and the SADC must be
commended for their commitment to diplomacy in the face of the
litany of turbulence that has characterised the Africa of 1998. But
it is not enough to compliment these organisations. The time has
come for a major diplomatic initiative by Africa's leaders if the
much touted (and laudable) objective of an African renaissance is to
become a reality.

This involves issues that are both complex and challenging. It
is my conviction that there needs to be a recognition and acceptance
that the national borders that demarcate sovereign African states
are, for the most part, the product of European colonialists of a
bygone era. One of the reasons for the continuing wars and
internecine violence that occurs in Africa is the result of such
borders. Another reason is to be found in the exclusive nature of
constitutions that result in the monopolisation of political power
by one group or the other, often resulting in terrible inequalities.

The challenge facing Africa is to reduce group inequalities.
This calls for an inclusivity that is all too often absent in
structures of government. Such inclusivity must occur socially,
politically and economically. Any skewed advantage enjoyed by one
group within a country should be corrected for the greater good of
all people.

Africa is a continent rich in natural and human resources. Yet
its people fail to take optimal advantage of this, often permitting
foreigners to intrude and exploit such resources. A prime example is
that of the continent's mineral wealth. For a continent that
possesses the major deposits of some of the world's most precious
minerals, such as platinum and palladium, Africa reflects a sorry
state of poverty-stricken people in the midst of deposits of wealth.
It is this type of inequality that also has to be addressed.

If there is indeed to be a genuine renaissance and Africa, as
the cradle of humanity, is to play its rightful international role,
then the time has come for a convention of African states to talk
through the issues. This presupposes a readiness on the part of all
leaders concerned to act in the interests of the people they
represent.

It will not be easy. It is likely to be a long, drawn-out and
cumbersome process. But it has the potential to deflect flashpoints
for violence in the future, as well as providing opportunities for
new initiatives to make the best and most productive use of the
continent's resources. Such a convention would also offer an
opportunity to examine the optimal arrangement for regional economic
units, leading perhaps to some form of African economic union.

As an institution committed to peace, goodwill and
reconciliation, and with relationships that straddle national and
regional boundaries, the religious community could play a seminal
role in such an initiative. These suggestions and views will be
conveyed to the Secretary General of the UN, the President of the
OAU and other international and regional political, economic and
ecclesiastical bodies.

Peace and goodwill have always, in the end, been the overriding
influences on humankind, no matter how violent or cruel the past. It
is in the spirit of peace and goodwill that millions of people all
over the world celebrate Christmas. It is our responsibility for the
future of our children and our children's children to create the
conditions for a future of stability and peace.

I wish everyone a peaceful New Year.

Note to editors: The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town has oversight
of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, which comprises
Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, St Helena, South Africa and
Swaziland.

Issued on behalf of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
by Quo Vadis Communications.

Media contact: Theo Coggin
Tel: (011) 648 5461
Cell: 082 747 7827
e-mail: cog...@sn.apc.org

@ SAPS-RACISM

PRETORIA Dec 30 Sapa

BLAAUW ASKED TO FURNISH DETAILS OF RACISM CLAIMS

Acting national police commissioner John Manuel on Wednesday
asked Western Cape acting police head Adam Blaauw to furnish him
with details of claims of racism in the provincial police service.

He said once Blaauw's report had been received the matter would
be taken up with national commissioner George Fivaz on his return
from leave in the new year.

Blaauw accused white officers of being racist and unwilling to
serve under black officers and commanders.

He said black officers with potential, including himself, were
the targets of a white-led campaign to prevent their promotion.

A Cape Town daily newspaper, The Argus, reported that Blaauw's
claims followed accusations against him of perjury in a firearms
case.

It said a top team of investigators headed by Willie Ngobeni
and Ivor Human were sent from police head office in Pretoria last
week to head the probe.

His allegations were the latest in a dispute between black and
white officers in the province, characterised by various units and
officers investigating one another.

The newspaper said during the past 18 months, several senior
officers had been charged, and some suspended from duty, as the
battle for leadership of the police and its top units in the
province comes to a head.

Subsequent developments include:

- Fraud and corruption charges against the head of the
presidential investigation task unit, Andre Lincoln.

- The closure of the special investigation unit headed by Arno
Lamoer and Faizel Kader due to lack of support or getting help from
the provincial police top brass.

The unit was established by Fivaz to probe allegations of
police corruption in the province.

Blaauw said white colleagues, especially those in the
investigation units, resorted to internal slandering and casting
suspicion on their colleagues.

He attributed this behaviour to possible ambition by some
officers for the position of provincial commissioner, which would
become available next year when Leon Wessels' contract expired.

"Some were using their friends to discredit other potential
candidates."

The Argus said the Police and Prison Civil Rights Union and the
Black Officers' Forum had also accused the provincial police
management of belonging to an exclusive and secretive police
organisation, Club 35, for Afrikaans officers.

A black officer said Club 35 was a group of some of the most
powerful officers in the province.

Manuel said the recently appointed independent commission on
racism in the police service was the best platform to address
Blaauw's allegations.

"I must also re-emphasise the SAPS's position on racism... that
it is unacceptable and will never be condoned by the management of
the service - in the best interest of both the SAPS and the
country of South Africa," he said.

@ ZAMBIA-VOTE

LUSAKA Dec 30 Sapa-AFP

ZAMBIANS VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS

Voting was slow early Wednesday as Zambians went to the polls
in local government elections expected to indicate the level of
support for President Frederick Chiluba's administration.

More than two million Zambians are registered to vote for
candidates from 16 parties vying for 1,286 seats, but polling
stations in the capital Lusaka reported just a trickle of voters
turning up early in the day.

Local government elections were last held in 1992, a year after
Chiluba came to power, when his Movement for Multiparty Democracy
(MMD) won an overwhelming victory.

Fresh elections should have been held in 1995, and opposition
politicians accuse the MMD of deliberately delaying the polls.

Several opposition parties have said they are suspicious that
the voters' register may have been rigged, and that they are
participating in the polls under protest.

Among the major opposition groups are former president Kenneth
Kaunda's United National Independence Party, the newly formed
United Party for National Development headed by outgoing
Anglo-American Corporation executive Anderson Mzoka, and the Zambia
Democratic Congress, whose president Dean Mungomba was released
last week after a year in jail on treason charges.

The MMD has already secured 119 seats unopposed.

Full results of the one-day vote are not expected until the
weekend.

Electoral commission chairman Bobby Bwalya told reporters that
voting would be postponed to a later date in some areas where roads
are impassable because of heavy rains.

@ NEWYEAR-FF

PRETORIA Dec 29 Sapa

VILJOEN CALLS ON SOUTH AFRICANS NOT TO WITHDRAW

Freedom Front leader Constand Viljoen on Wednesday called on
South Africans not to withdraw from the country's affairs out of
despondency, but instead to become more involved.

In his New Year's message, Viljoen said prospects for 1999 were
bleak, largely as a result of what he described as the African
National Congress' obsession with power and its inability to curb
crime and joblessness.

This resulted in many people losing interest in the country's
affairs.

"South Africans must realise that by withdrawing their
involvement, they will not help to change the negative prospects.
This will probably only aggravate existing problems," he said in a
statement in Pretoria.

Viljoen said South Africans should become involved in attempts
to limit the ANC's power. To this end, they should enroll as voters
and cast their ballot in next year's general election.

He said South Africans should also become involved in efforts
to curb crime by taking precautionary measures to protect
themselves.

Viljoen called on jobless South Africans to become
entrepreneurs, saying victims of affirmative action would have to
use their own initiative to survive.

"I am convinced that despite the ANC's failures, we will make a
success of 1999 by means of our own involvement and God's grace,"
he said.

@ NEWYEAR-NDUNGANE

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

AFRICA'S LIVING CONDITIONS DETERIORATING: NDUNGANE

Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane on
Wednesday said it was with distress and a deep sense of tragedy
that he noted conditions in Africa had deteriorated.

"I do not say this lightly. I am alarmed at developments on the
continent," Ndungane said in his New Year message.

War, violence, corruption and aggression were dominating the
news, he said.

There was renewed conflict in Sierra Leone and the Congo, and a
continuation of the bloody conflict in Angola and the murders in
KwaZulu-Natal over Christmas.

"The conflicts in Africa pose a serious threat to the future
progress of the continent and its people.

"The time has come for a major diplomatic initiative by
Africa's leaders if the much touted (and laudable) objective of an
African renaissance is to become a reality," Ngungane said.

He said besides conflict over national borders, problems were
also caused by the monopolisation of political power by one group,
often resulting in social inequalities.

"The challenge facing Africa is to reduce group inequalities.
This calls for an inclusivity that is all too often absent in
structures of government.

"Such inclusivity must occur socially, politically and
economically. Any skewed advantage enjoyed by one group within a
country should be corrected for the greater good of all people."

Africa was a continent rich in natural and human resources, but
reflected a sorry state of poverty-stricken people, he said.

If there was indeed to be a genuine renaissance and Africa, as
the cradle of humanity, was to play its rightful international
role, then the time had come for a convention of African states to
talk through the issues.

Acknowledging that this would not be an easy task, Ndungane
said it had a potential to deflect flashpoints for violence in the
future.

He also said that such a convention would offer an opportunity
to examine the optimal arrangement for regional economic units,
leading perhaps to some form of African economic union.

"It is our responsibility for the future of our children and
our children's children to create the conditions for a future of
stability and peace," said Ngungane.

@ HOUSING-MOFOKENG

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

MOFOKENG'S OFFICE ANGRY ABOUT KILIAN'S REMARKS

The Gauteng housing and land affairs department on Wednesday
reacted angrily to a claim by the New National Party that housing
MEC Dan Mofokeng had doctored an Auditor-General's report on
corruption and irregularities within the department.

The report was released on Monday by Mofokeng who said it
exonerated him and his department.

However, Gauteng NNP leader Johan Kilian on Tuesday claimed the
report included a number of damning findings by the AG, and that
these had been unscrupulously suppressed by Mofokeng's "amateur
spin-doctors".

Earlier on Tuesday Kilian claimed that Mofokeng had jumped the
gun on Monday by releasing the report, which, he said, was
embargoed until early next week.

The department on Wednesday demanded that Kilian immediately
withdraw his statements, saying failure to do so would compel
departmental officials to take appropriate action. The department
did not give details of the threatened action.

Mofokeng has already filed a lawsuit against Kilian and a
former head of his department, demanding R500,000 compensation from
each of them for defamatory remarks against him.

"The insinuation by Mr Kilian that the department doctored the
report is not only absurd, but it is also questions the integrity
of the Auditor-General, whose function is crucial to clean and
transparent government," the department said in a statement.

The department described Kilian's statement as cheap
politicking and a serious disservice to the public.

The department denied breaking the embargo on the release of
the report on Monday, saying the AG's office itself advised that it
be released that day.

The department has acknowledged weaknesses, and on Wednesday
Mofokeng's officials said these problems arose directly from a
fragmented and demoralised administration inherited from the old NP
government.

@ WESTERN CAPE TO HOST ANC 87TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

ANC WESTERN CAPE TO HOST PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI AT 87TH BIRTHDAY
CELEBRATION ON SATURDAY 9TH JANUARY 1999, AT ATHLONE STADIUM

This year's annual ANC birthday celebration, will take place at
the Athlone stadium on Saturday, 9th January 1999. The national
executive committee of the ANC decided to hold the event in the
Western Cape. The event will take the form of a cultural program
including bands such as TKZee, Ringo, Prophets of Da City and many
more local performers, Starting at 10am. a rally to be addressed by
ANC President Thabo Mbeki, will follow at 14h00.

Commenting on preparations for the event ANC Provincial
Secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha said:

"We are greatly honoured to be hosting this year's January 8th
celebrations and in particular to be hosting, ANC President Thabo
Mbeki in our Province. The NEC decision to hold the event in Cape
Town is a clear indication that the ANC National is very serious in
their commitment to assist us in winning the elections in 1999 and
bringing an end to national Party rule in the Western Cape.

"We have established a organising committee and today started
putting up posters throughout the Metro, we have already distributed
20 000 flyers at venues frequented by holiday makers such as
beaches, clubs and disco's. There is a great deal of enthusiasm on
the ground to hear Thabo Mbeki and also to enjoy the star-studded
cultural program.

"I want to invite all Cape Townians and people of the Western
Cape to, join us in celebration our 87th birthday, I can assure the
public that there will be very tight security both in and outside
the ground. It will be a gun-free occasion. We also offer an
opportunity to traders and business people to contact us should they
wish to set up a stall for the day, at what is likely to be a
festive occasion attended by the people of the Western Cape." Added
Mr Skwatsha.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape. for further details contact Mcebisi
Skwatsha on 238-333 page ANC 4 or Cameron Dugmore on 082-894-7553.

@ LAND-CLAIMS

PRETORIA Dec 29 Sapa

FLOODS OF SAFRICANS LODGING LAND CLAIMS PRIOR TO CUT-OFF DATE

South Africans wishing to regain land unjustly taken from them
by former governments were flooding the offices of the Commission
on Restitution of Land Rights prior to the December 31 cut-off date
for restitution claims.

The commission in a statement in Pretoria on Tuesday said some
of its regional offices were receiving more than 1000 telephone
calls a day.

Spokeswoman Evelyn Bramdeow said 33265 restitution claims had
been received by December 17.

"By now, we can safely say that we have very nearly reached
40000, if not more."

The commission advised the public to make use of its toll-free
telephone number 0800-11-10-21, which would be open from 8am to
4.30pm on working days, and until 9pm on Thursday - the closing
date for applications.

The commission said people wishing to lodge restitution claims
could submit their application forms after hours by means of
collection boxes at all its offices.

Collection boxes had also been placed at municipal offices,
police stations, and offices of the Department of Land Affairs.

Of the 33265 restitution claims received by December 17, about
4000 had been accepted and were being investigated, the commission
said.

So far, 27 claims involving 247597 hectares of land and
benefiting 13928 households, had been resolved.

The commission said the next five years would be spent
researching and processing the claims lodged.

"Each restitution claim... presents its own unique difficulties
which must be dealt with from the lodgement stage through to the
stages of validation, research, negotiation, and finally
settlement," it said.

"It is an understandably complex process and claimants are
therefore encouraged to be patient and tolerant."

Acting chief land claims commissioner Wallace Mgoqi said the
number of households which had regained their land so far was
heartening.

"This imbues us with optimism that 1999 will be a year of
delivery."

The system of processing claims would change from next year,
becoming more administrative and less of a "heavily judicial
process".

Presently, all claims have to go through the Land Claims Court,
but in future more decision-making powers would be vested in the
commission. This was expected to speed up the resolution of land
claims.

The commission said 1999 "will be a year of rolling action on
delivery of land claims".

@ NEW DOCTORS PREPARE TO FOR COMPULSORY SERVICE

Issued by: East Cape News (Ecn)

New doctors prepare to for compulsory service in rural EC
]Patrick Burnett

GRAHAMSTOWN (ECN) - An army of newly-graduated doctors will
begin to arrive at Eastern Cape hospitals in the New Year to shore
up the failing health system.

The much-needed 116 doctors will join 397 foreign doctors
already practicing in the province.

They will be allocated in all regions, but predominantly in
district hospitals, which have experienced a severe shortage.

The doctors are part of the government's compulsory community
service for new medical graduates which will see graduates spending
a year doing community service before being allowed to register to
practice.

Coordinator for community service doctors in the northern region
Dr John BN (subs: "BN" because there is another John B Shaw in the
Queenstown area) Shaw told ECN said the northern Region would
receive 10 new doctors.

He said: "I think it will make quite a difference and we feel
really excited.

"It's a real help to us and the patients."

He said the 10 doctors would arrive on Monday, with five being
dispatched to district hospitals and five staying at Frontier
Hospital in Queenstown.

After six months the doctors would swop posts.

Shaw said the "young and fresh" doctors would be capable of
"handling a whole range of problems" in the health care system.

He said the doctors he had contacted telephonically were
"excited but perhaps a bit unsure about what to expect".

Department of Health PRO Nomsa Matshingane said the Western
Region of the Eastern Cape would receive 19 doctors, the Northern
region 12, the Central Region 42, the Eastern region 30, and the
East Griqualand-Kei region 13.

She said the department had attempted to achieve a balance
between the need to improve services in peripheral district
hospitals and to ensure that doctors working in isolated hospitals
would have the appropriate skills.

She said most regions had arranged for the graduates to spend
time at both the larger and smaller hospitals and this would improve
communication.

She said: "District hospitals will see the largest percentage of
staff allocations because of the smaller number at these hospitals."
Matshingana said allocation had been coordinated through a national
process whereby candidates gave preferences for hospitals in which
they would like to work.

She said 49 percent of applicants received their first choices,
18 percent their second choices and 33 percent their third to fifth
choice.

She said the allocation took into account the provincial
priorities to staff district hospitals and especially to bring about
some equity in the percentage of vacant posts between regions.

Matshingana dispelled fears that the community service programme
could result in foreign doctors loosing their jobs in the province.
She said the community service doctors would not be a replacement
for the 397 foreign doctors already practicing in the province. She
said: "Foreign doctors cannot be phased out in this province because
we are still far too dependent on having them to staff our
hospitals."

She said there were still not enough qualified South African
qualified to fill posts.

"Even after we have employed the community doctors we still need
the foreign doctors."

Shaw, who is from America and has been working in the Eastern
Cape for four years, said there were only two South African doctors
operating in the Northern Region, which has 14 hospitals.

Questioned about the threat to foreign doctors, he said: "I
think my goal is to be a support for the health system and this is a
way for it to grow." - ECN Wed 30/12/98

@ ZIM-YEARENDER

HARARE Dec 30 Sapa

ZIMBABWEANS REGARD 1998 AS MOST DIFFICULT, EXPECT WORSE TO COME

Most zimbabweans think 1998 was one of the most difficult years
but predict that the worst is still to come, the Ziana news agency
reported on Wednesday.

A survey carried out by Ziana in Harare on Wednesday showed
that many people did not hope to live better lives in the near
future because of a host of socio-economic problems which
government was yet to address.

While some expected their salaries to be raised at the
beginning of the new year, others wanted the prices of basic
commodities like mealie-meal and cooking oil as well as essential
services reduced to make them affordable.

"There is no guarantee that the coming year will be better than
what we have seen in the past. It is time the government takes
seriously the problems gripping the country especially on economy
and find remedial solutions," said Sam Barura, a capital city
resident.

Of note among the major hardships in 1998 were food and fuel
price rises, the sharp fall of the Zimbabwe dollar, galloping
inflation and consequent high interest rates.

This led to food riots in January and massive job stayaways.

Feminist Joyce Gapa said the country had failed to address
bread and butter issues which were at the heart of both rural and
urban Zimbabweans.

She said unless stern measures were taken by government to
address the current socio-economic problems, the majority of
Zimbabweans would continue to suffer while only government
officials lived better lives.

Pius kanongovere said there was no immediate solution to the
country's problems. The only solution for the country to prosper as
the nation entered the next millenium was to have policies which
benefitted everybody, not a handful of people, he added.

President Robert Mugabe, during his traditional state of the
nation address, admitted that 1998 was one of the difficult years
Zimbabwe had ever experienced.

However, the new year might not be much different from 1998 as
prices of basic commodities were again set to rise.

Transport and energy minister Enos Chikowore has already
indicated that fuel prices would be hiked in february, a move which
has a ripple effect on the prices of basic commodities and
services.

@ NEWYEAR-DP

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

TIME TO TAKE STOCK: DP

Next year should be a time for all South Africans to take stock
of the period since the last election, and reflect on the failures
and successes of the country over the past few years, the
Democratic Party said on Wednesday.

They should strengthen available democratic institutions to
ensure that the country did better in the next five years, the DP
said in its New Year message.

Acting party leader Douglas Gibson called on all South Africans
to rally to the cause of democracy, adding this would be "to inform
themselves and to insist that this election is fought over the
issues of today and not over the emotions and ills of the past".

He said 1999 would for a large part be defined by the upcoming
election and its outcome.

Gibson encouraged South African voters to go out in large
numbers and peacefully cast their votes after having considered the
policies and track records of the various political parties.

"If, on the other hand, the election campaign is marked by
voter apathy and racial politicking, we shall all be the poorer for
it."

@ ZIM-POLLUTION

HARARE Dec 30 Sapa

GOVERNMENT TAKING HARARE COUNCIL BACK TO COURT OVER POLLUTION

The Zimbabwe Ministry of Rural Resources and Water Development
is taking the Harare city council back to court for defying a high
court order seeking to stop the flow of effluent from Morton
Jaffray Water Works into Manyame River, Ziana news agency reported
on Wednesday.

"We are applying for a contempt of court order. Everything is
ready and we will hand it over to the courts early next year,"
Sibhekile Mtetwa, principal water pollution control officer in the
ministry's department of water development, said.

The state took the council to court in October 1996 for
discharging sludge from the water works, which purifies water for
Harare, into the river.

The council was found guilty and the court ordered it to put in
place mechanisms that would stop the pollution of the river.

The court gave the council 1997 to complete the process.

"This was supposed to have been completed by the end of 1997,
but up to now there is no power to control the equipment."

Mtetwa said sludge was being discharged straight into the
river.

"The whole of 1998 the council kept promising and the situation
is still the same as it was in 1996, and the environment is
suffering."

The polluted water made crops wilt and a lot of fish were
killed.

Wheat and maize farmers who used to draw water from the river
were now drawing water from Lake Chivero, said Mtetwa.

Harare mayor Solomon Tavengwa said the sludge treatment plant
undertaken by an Israeli company, Odis Filtering, was ready and
what remained were the electrical connections.

"The job left now requires more than ZD250000, so we have gone
to tender."

@ ANGOLA-UNITA

LUANDA Dec 30 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN PRESIDENT REJECTS PEACE TALKS WITH UNITA REBELS

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled out talks with the
rebel group UNITA on ending the country's renewed civil war, and
said rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was a liar for not complying with a
1994 peace pact.

Dos Santos said in a speech broadcast on state radio RNA late
Tuesday that the army had given "the correct response" to UNITA's
failure to heed the terms of the United Nations-brokered peace
accord.

Dos Santos indicated that he will not yield to international
pressure to call off the army offensive against rebel strongholds
in the central highlands which began Dec. 4.

The government "will never again accept the demands from
outside the country to give ... one more chance to the liars who
have demonstrated that they are unable to accept differences of
opinion within the framework of peace and democracy," he said.

The U.N. Security Council has blamed UNIA, a Portuguese
acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola, for the return to war.

The movement defied the 1994 pact by refusing to yield control
of its strongholds and maintaining a hidden army, according to the
United Nations.

The United Nations has spent dlrs 2 billion implementing the
peace agreement, stationing more than 7,000 peace verifiers in the
southwest African country after the deal was signed in the Zambian
capital Lusaka.

U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the United Nations still
regarded the 1994 accord as valid.

"We must go by the Lusaka protocol. What we want is a return
to dialogue," Toure said by phone.

The country has been ravaged by conflict since gaining
independence from Portugal in 1975. A 1991 peace deal collapsed the
following year when UNITA rejected its defeat in the country's
first democratic elections.

@ ZIM-CIVIL

BULAWAYO Dec 30 Sapa

ZIMBABWE CIVIL SERVANTS REJECT GOVERNMENT PAY INCREASE

The Zimbabwe Goverment Staff Association on Wednesday rejected
a 25 percent salary increase which the state awarded to civil
servants on Monday, Ziana news agency reported.

A spokesman for the association, Leonard Nkala, said there was
no way civil servants could accept the increase because a consensus
was not reached during the wage talks.

Wage talks between the government and civil service staff
associations broke down last Wednesday after a government
negotiator announced the state had no money to fund a higher
increase.

"There is no way we can accept the 25 percent because it was
not agreed upon, and there is a statutory instrument which states
that we should reach a common ground before recommendations are
made to the minister," said Nkala, who is also president of the
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association.

"As of now we expect government to meet our minimum demand of
30 percent, and we should also be given the 20 percent cost of
living adjustment that has already been given to the private
sector."

He said civil servants were not accepting government's excuse
that it had no funds because as far as they were concerned they
believed the government had the ability to pay them more.

"If our employer does not review our situation, then we would
have no choice but to take drastic action as a way of pursuing our
grievances, and that would be early next year."

Civil servants would not be deterred by the Presidential
Temporary Measures Act amending the Labour Relations Act to make
strikes illegal, said Nkala.

@ ANGOLA-LD-PLANECRASH

PRETORIA Dec 30 Sapa

KOFI ANNAN URGES ANGOLA, UNITA TO ALLOW RESCUE TEAM ACCESS TO
PLANE

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged
the Angolan government and the rebel UNITA movement to grant a
rescue team access to possible survivors of Saturday's plane crash
near Huambo.

UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in Luanda that Annan sent
letters to Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and to Unita
leader Jonas Savimbi earlier in the day.

No answer had been received by Wednesday afternoon.

Toure said there might be survivors on board the wreck of the
aircraft. "This is a matter of lie and death. It is very urgent
that we be allowed to go in - time is running against us."

A Hercules C130 transport plane apparently went down in flames
east of Vila Nova, about 45km from Huambo, on Saturday.

It was transporting South African pilot John Wilkinson and
three crew members - a Bolivian, an Angolan and a Filipino.

The passengers, mostly members of the UN mission in Angola,
included three Angolans, an Egyptian, a Camerounian, a Zambian, a
Namibian, an Australian and two Russians.

UN officials who saw the wreck reported that it was fairly
intact, and an SOS signal received from the aircraft on Monday
indicated there might be survivors on board.

A spokesman for the South African embassy in Luanda said he had
received reports that only the fuselage of the plane had been
damaged.

"It does not seem to have been a crash landing, but rather a
controlled emergency landing," he said.

Heavy fighting was recently reported in the area where the
aircraft was spotted.

@ MONETARY-SA

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa-INet-Bridge

MONEY MKT RATES CONTINUE TO DROP ON EXCESS DEMAND

South African money market rates continued to drop today as
investors tried to lock in high yields.

One dealer said: "There is an excess of demand over supply at
the moment which is why rates are moving lower, and we expect
this to continue into the new year.

The dealer added that there is demand in the market also
because NCD rates are better than call rates.

The average repo rate edged down to 19.328% today from
19.335% on Tuesday. At the beginning of December the repo rate
had been 19.697%.

The money market shortage has already started easing and this
should bode well for a cut in lending rates.

The commercial banks last announced a 50 basis point cut in
their prime rate to 23% on Dec 2, after the repo rate had dropped
to 19.488% from 19.697% on Dec 1.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) once again matched the
estimated daily money market liquidity of 7.2 billion rand today.
The estimated daily liquidity requirement peaked at 10.4 billion
rand on Dec 21.

Notes and coins had been expected to rise to about 28 billion
rand over the Christmas period. They peaked at 27.743 billion
rand on Dec 22 compared with last year's peak of 26.207 billion
rand on Dec 23.

The SARB indicated notes and coins in circulation 234 million
rand lower at 26.997 billion rand on Tuesday from 27.231 billion
rand on Monday.

The commercial banks quoted 3-month NCDs lower at
18.55/17.95% from 18.70/17.95%.

The spreads on the 6-month NCD rates dropped to 18.30/17.70%
from 18.35/17.80%.

The 9-month NCD rates fell to 18.20/17.60% from 18.30/17.65%
while the 12-month rates were also lower at 18.15/17.55% from
18.25/17.65%.

The 3-month Bankers' Acceptance rate were unchanged at
17.85/17.65%.

@ ARRIVE ALIVE, RETURN ALIVE

Issued by: Sasani Communications

Wednesday, 30 December, 1998

The Minister of Transport Mac Maharaj wished South Africa's
road-users well for the New Year and urged them not to become
statistics on our roads in 1999.

He called on all road-users to throw their weight behind the
ARRIVE ALIVE campaign, which has the objective of further reducing
road fatalities by 5% over the summer holidays.

"Last year the road fatalities came down by more than 9,3%,
which exceeded our target for the first phase of ARRIVE ALIVE and in
real terms saved 279 lives.

"We are optimistic that we will meet our objective of 5% for
this phase of ARRIVE ALIVE. Currently the death toll for December is
approximately 11% down on last year if you compare day-on-day
figures reported this year with the figure for the same day last
year. But these figures are not final and we expect them to go up
when all the crash reports are submitted. But I am cautiously
optimistic that we will exceed if not meet our target.

"Media reports that the death toll this December has exceeded
the 1997 one are based on incorrect information.

"It is important to remember that ARRIVE ALIVE isn't a numbers
game, but a campaign about stopping the carnage on our roads and
that resultant human tragedy that has touched the lives of most
South Africans.

"I would like to thank all the drivers who have contributed to
the success of ARRIVE ALIVE so far. But the fact that this month 660
people have died in 481 crashes (215 of them drivers, 227 passengers
and 218 pedestrians) means that we must continue our efforts to
change the culture of lawlessness on our roads.

"Both speed and alcohol - the offences targeted in the ARRIVE
ALIVE campaign - have been factors in more than 70% of fatal
crashes. I would like to urge all South Africans to become aware of
the carnage of our roads before it affects their family and
friends."

WARNING TO MOTORISTS: Traffic volumes expected to increase

Over this weekend, traffic volumes are expected to build up from
Saturday as thousands of holiday makers are expected to return home
over the weekend.

ARRIVE ALIVE expect traffic flows to increase on Saturday and
Sunday. For instance, on the N3 from durban to Gauteng, traffic
volumes will be 50% higher than normal on both days, peaking at
lunch time at Van Reenen's Pass.

With Monday, January 4, being the start of first working week of
1999, traffic bottlenecks could occur on sunday afternoon. Drivers
who return over the weekend are requested to remain patient if their
journey is delayed due to heavy traffic flows.

A DoT spokesman said holiday traffic volumes had been staggered
over the period leading up to Christmas, minimising peak flows.
However, daily volumes monitored by the South African National Roads
Agency Limited (NRA) were more or less the same as those for
December 1997. Based on historic data, the bulk of the holiday
makers are expected to return this weekend.

"Traffic authorities are obviously aware of this fact and will
be monitoring the situation closely. Again, traffic laws will be
enforced along major holiday routes so be alert and drive safely."

Issued on behalf of: National Department of Transport
For more information: Arrive Alive Information Centre
Telephone: (012) 309 3669 or A/H 082 801 0910 or
082 554 3154

Issued by: Sasani Communications
Contact: Desiree Pooe
Telephone: (011) 784 2598

@ MALAWI-LABOUR

BLANTYRE Dec 30 Sapa-AFP

MALAWI ACCUSES US OF FUNDING TRADE UNIONS

Malawi's information minister Sam Mpasu has accused the US
government of clandestinely funding the Malawi Congress of Trade
Unions (MCTU).

"We know how the CIA (Central Intelligency Agency) front
organisation, the African-American Labour Centre in Zimbabwe, is
funding you and using you for its political agenda," the Malawi
government chief spokesman said in a letter to the MCTU, published
by the Daily Times Wednesday.

Mpasu attacked the country's labour movement leadership saying
they were sick and needed medical examination.

"The current crop of MCTU leadership is a disgrace to the
principles of trade unionism," Mpasu was quoted a saying, accusing
the trade union of being an opposition front.

Union leader Ken Mhango, said the African-American labour
centre in Zimbabwe had nothing to do with CIA activities.

James Palmer, the US embassy spokesman in Malawi said "we have
no comment to make over the accusations.

The MCTU is the umbrella body of the country's workers' unions.

@ ANC'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

It is that time of the year when people all over the world sit
down to reflect on all the events of the year and ponder over the
future as the current year gives way for the new year.

1998 has been an eventful year, characterised by the
mobilisation of South Africans to participate in the process of
changing their lives for the better. Events such as the Job Summit,
the Moral Summit, the Anti-corruption Summit and the Rural Security
Summit have highlighted the preparedness of South Africans to work
together to seek solutions to challenges facing the country.

1998 has also seen South Africa making a significant
contribution to the objective of creating a better world. South
Africa hosted the Heads of State Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
and at the same time assumed leadership of the Movement.

South Africa's role in the promotion of peace, democracy and
development in the Southern Africa region has also been significant.

As we bid farewell to 1998, the ANC calls upon all South
Africans to take note of the challenges facing us and work together
to find solutions to them. We must accelerate the process of
changing our lives for the better by working together to restore the
value system informed by the concept of a good quality of life for
all our communities and all citizens, working together to fight
crime and corruption and working together to eradicate poverty.

One of the resolutions all South Africans should take is to
participate in the country's democratic process by voting in the
1999 election. To guarantee participation in the election all South
Africans are required to register their names on the voter's roll.

Issued by ANC Department of Information and Publicity

For further information contact Thabo Masebe at 082 551 4945 or 082
575 3978

30 December 1998

@ MATRIC

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

IMPROVED MATRIC RESULTS: WE'VE ARRESTED THE DECLINE - METCALFE

The 1998 matric results revealed a pass rate of 55.6 percent,
an improvement of over four percent on last year, Gauteng education
MEC Mary Metcalfe said on Wednesday.

Metcalfe told a Johannesburg media conference that 1.9 percent
of the overall 4.1 percent increase was accounted for by marks that
were adjusted for pupils writing examinations not written in their
mother-tongue.

Metcalfe said the education department had addressed the
systematic problems of the past which caused a general decline in
the Senior Certificate over the past four years.

"We have arrested the decline in matric results in Gauteng. We
have turned an important corner."

The percentage of pupils achieving matric exemption dropped
from 17 percent to 16.3 percent. But there was an increase in the
total percentage who registered for the exemption and this
explained the drop, Metcalfe said.

She said the rise in pass rates was due to the department's
focus on improved management of school's timetables and management
development programmes offered to school principals.

The department had also taken steps to ensure an improvement in
school attendance and had introduced common examinations.

There was a five percent increase in the subject medians in all
nine African languages. The results of non-language subjects on
average improved by between five and ten percent.

Nine private schools and 11 public schools achieved a total
pass rate of less than ten percent.

Metcalfe said the department would work out a rigorous
implementation plan to improve the functioning of these schools and
the quality of their education.

Greenside High School pupil Glenda Wright achieved the top
aggregate mark with 2238 and seven distinctions. Hoerskool
Transvalia scholar Reinhardt Messerschmidt achieved a record 11
distinctions, with an aggregate of 2230.

Metcalfe said more than 24 schools improved their average
matric results by over 20 percent. Two schools, Leshata in Orange
Farm and Mafori Mphahlele in Soweto, improved by more than 50
percent.

@ NEWYEAR-ANC

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

TACKLE CHALLENGES FACING SA TOGETHER: ANC

All South Africans should take note of the challenges facing
them and work together to find solutions, the African National
Congress said on Wednesday.

ANC spokesman Thabo Masebe said in the party's New Year's
message that one of the resolutions all South Africans needed to
take in the new year was to participate in the country's democratic
process by voting in the 1999 election.

"To guarantee participation in the election all South Africans
are required to register their names on the voter's roll."

Masebe said 1998 had been an eventful year, characterised by
the mobilisation of South Africans to participate in the process of
changing their lives for the better.

Events such as the job summit, the moral summit, the
anti-corruption summit and the rural security summit had
highlighted the preparedness of South Africans to work together to
seek solutions to challenges facing the country.

The year also saw South Africa making a significant
contribution in creating a better world.

South Africa's role in the promotion of peace, democracy and
development in the Southern African region had also been
significant.

@ TRAFFIC-ALCOHOL

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

ALCOHOL MAIN CAUSE OF HOLIDAY ROAD DEATH TOLL

Alcohol has caused 60 percent of the 663 deaths on South
Africa's roads since the beginning of December, Arrive Alive said
on Wednesday.

These were not only drunk drivers but drunk pedestrians, Arrive
Alive spokesman Daniel Genge said.

Speeding contributed to 21 percent of the accidents.

@ SHOBASHOBANE-BUTHELEZI

BUTHELEZI PLEADS FOR PEACE IN IZINGOLWENI

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Wednesday
pleaded for peace among communities at Izingolweni near Port
Shepstone on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.

Buthelezi was addressing several hundred IFP supporters during
a celebratory rally to welcome home five IFP members acquitted for
their part in the 1995 Christmas day massacre in Shobashobane.

Eighteen African National Congress supporters in the ANC
Shobashobane enclave in Izingolweni were brutally hacked and shot
dead during an early morning attack by scores of IFP sympathisers.

The five men, including IFP Izingolweni leader, Sipho Ngcobo,
were released from jail last week after their appeal against
conviction and sentencing was successful in the Pietermaritzburg
High Court.

Ngcobo was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the
massacre.

On Wednesday Buthelezi said the men had suffered greatly during
their incarceration.

He expressed the hope that communities would work for peace in
Izingolweni.

@ MEDIA ADVISORY ON BLAIR VISIT

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

OFFICIAL VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA BY PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR

All media must submit names of journalists and photographers
(veideo and stills) for accreditation purposes by the government
Communications and Information System (GCIS). Media covering the
events in the programme below will need to obtain special
accreditation passes at the venues in order to gain access to
venues. Kindly submit BY FAX (Fax No. (012) 326 0317) the full
names, contact numbers (mobiles numbers if at all possible) and full
particulars about the media organisations they represent the GCIS by
Monday, 4 January no later than 11:30. Media will have to present
their press cards in order to receive the special accreditation
passes at the various venues. Media are kindly requested to arrive
at venues at least one hour before. For those media wishing to cover
the arrival of Prime Minister Blair at Cape Town Airport, copies of
identity document / passport and press card must be faxed to GCIS,
Fax No. (012) 326 0317. NB: Please provide vehicle registration
numbers for those attending the arrival at Waterkloof Airbase and
fax to (012) 326 0317 by 11:30 on Monday.

PROGRAMME:

PRETORIA / JOHANNESBURG

Wednesday, 6 January 1999

15:00 Arrival: Waterkloof Airforce Base,
Pretoria, Photo opportunity
19:00 Arrival at Oliver Tambo Huse, Pretoria,
Photo opportunity (Pool arrangement).

Thursday, 7 January 1999
12:15 Joint media conference, front garden,
Presidentail Guest House, Pretoria
15:40 Photo opportunity, Mahlamba Ndlopfu
Pretoria
16:45 Alexandra Clinic Johannesburg, (Pool)

CAPE TOWN

Friday, 8 January 1999

11:30 Cape Town International Airport.
Photo opportunity.
12:00 Nazareth House, Cape Town, Photo opp.
(Pool).
16:30 Cape town Castle. (Pool)

CONTACT NAMES IN PRETORIA/JOHANNESBURG:
FAIZAL DAWJEE: GCIS: 083 254 2923
PETRA WIESE: GCIS: 082 565 8062

CONTACT NAMES IN CAPETOWN
MIKE DOIG: BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION: 083 788 8155

Issued by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS)
30 December 1998

@ TRAFFIC-NEWYEAR

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

TRAFFIC VOLUMES TO INCREASE OVER WEEKEND

Traffic volumes on South African roads were expected to
increase over the weekend as holiday makers returned home, the
Arrive Alive campaign said on Wednesday.

A campaign spokesman said traffic flows would increase on
Saturday and Sunday.

Traffic volumes on the N3 from Durban to Gauteng would be 50
percent higher that usual on both days, peaking at lunch time at
Van Reenen's Pass.

With Monday, January 4, being the start of first working week
of 1999, traffic bottlenecks could occur on Sunday afternoon.

Drivers who return over the weekend were requested to remain
patient if their journey was delayed because of heavy traffic
flows.

Arrive Alive said holiday traffic volumes had been staggered
over the period leading up to Christmas, minimising peak flows.

However, daily volumes monitored by the South African National
Roads Agency Limited were more or less the same as those for
December 1997.

"Traffic authorities are obviously aware of this fact and will
be monitoring the situation closely. Again, traffic laws will be
enforced so be alert and drive safely."

@ AFRICA NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Telephone technicians ended a two-week
strike to await further negotiations on pay with the state phone
company, the government said Wednesday.

Information and Telecommunications Minister Chen Chimutengwende
said the technicians employed on fixed line telephone services were
demanding a 200 percent salary increase to match wages paid to
technicians employed by mobile phone companies.

Chimutengwende described the demands as "impossible" and said
the antiquated fixed phone system charged much cheaper rates for
calls and was far less profitable than three mobile companies, one
of them state-owned.

The Posts and Telecommunications Corp. is already indebted to
local banks by more than 300 million Zimbabwe dollars (dlrs 8
million) as it tries to upgrade its equipment.

The telephone service has been frequently criticized for its
inefficiency, with one High Court judge recently describing it as
breaching constitutional rights to freedom of speech through its
constant breakdowns.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Four Ugandan army officers have been removed
from their posts in eastern Congo and charged with wrongdoing,
three of them apparently because of involvement in mining ventures
in the mineral rich region, a newspaper said Wednesday.

The government-owned New Vision said Lt. Col. John Nyakaitana,
identified as the top strategist for Uganda's military operations
against Ugandan rebels operating in eastern Congo, was recalled
from the region along with three other officers in recent days.

Nyakaitana was charged with not carrying out certain duties,
while the three other officers were said to have been conducting
illegal business inside Congo, the newspaper cited an unidentified
Defense Ministry official as saying.

Uganda and Rwanda have acknowledged sending forces and military
equipment to assist Congolese rebels in eastern Congo trying to
oust Congolese President Laurent Kabila.

LUANDA, Angola - Rebel forces Wednesday launched an hour-long
artillery bombardment against Huambo, the country's second-largest
city and a base for United Nations and aid agency staff, according
to reports.

Some shells landed in downtown areas of the central highland
city which lies about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the
capital, Luanda, state radio RNA reported from Huambo.

The explosions caused panic in the government-held city, which
the army is using as a base to fly in reinforcements for fighting
in surrounding areas.

Before the civil war restarted Dec. 4 Huambo had a population
of about 300,000, but tens of thousands of refugees fleeing
fighting in the countryside have converged on the city in recent
weeks.

MAPUTO, Mozambique - Foreign investment in 1998 totaled dlrs
770 million, with most of the money going to the industrial,
agro-industrial and tourism sectors, state radio said Wednesday.

The Investment Promotion Centre received 300 project
applications, of which 190 have been implemented. South Africa and
Portugal lead foreign investment in Mozambique, Radio Mozambique
said.

@ TRAFFIC

PRETORIA Dec 30 Sapa

660 PEOPLE DIE ON SA ROADS - MOSTLY BECAUSE OF ALCOHOL

A total of 660 people have died on South African roads since
December 1, and alcohol abuse was a contributing factor in 60
percent of the accidents reported, the Arrive Alive campaign said
on Wednesday.

It said in a statement in Pretoria that 34 percent of accidents
were the result of pedestrians crossing roads without checking for
oncoming traffic.

Over the 24 hours ending noon on Wednesday, 11 pedestrians were
run over, of which at least two were drunk.

Speeding was a contributing factor in 21 percent of accidents
reported, Arrive Alive said.

KwaZulu-Natal still topped the list with 120 road deaths,
followed by the Western Cape with 105, Gauteng with 95, Eastern
Cape with 81, Free State with 68, Mpumalanga with 67, Northern
Province with 53, North West with 46, and Northern Cape with 25.

Sedan cars were involved in 44 percent of all the reported
accidents, light commercial vehicles in 20 percent, heavy
commercial vehicles in 11 percent, minibus-taxis in eight percent,
and minibuses in six percent.

Fifteen percent of the reported crashes involved head-on
collisions, Arrive Alive said.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA Dec 30 Sapa-AFP

GUNFIRE, CASUALTIES REPORTED FROM MAJOR CENTRAL ANGOLAN TOWN

Artillery and light arms fre were heard on Wednesday in the
major central Angolan town of Huambo, where large numbers of people
were also said to have been injured, state radio reported.

A local official radio correspondent reported without details
the casualties and the gunfire heard at around midday on Huambo's
outskirts, and no further information was available from military
or civilian authorities.

Huambo, capital of the province of the same name, is home to
some 250,000 people in the middle of Angola, which this year
plunged back into escalating civil war between government troops
and UNITA rebels.

The fighting between the army and troops of Jonas Savimbi's
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has
raised the spectre of serious food shortages for residents of
Huambo in the past month.

After a Hercules C-130 cargo plane chartered by the UN World
Food Programme (WFP) crashed and burst into flames with 14 people
aboard over embattled territory after taking off from Huambo on
Saturday, UN officials suspended relief flights.

In New York, UN spokesman Yasuhiro Ueki said Tuesday that the
Transafrica firm which owned the plane had located it southwest of
Tchicala-Tcholohango, formerly known as Vila Nova.

A communique from the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA)
said "there may be survivors in the wreck, according to signals
obtained through our codes," Ueki told AFP.

A reconnaissance plane located the crash site, but was unable
to determine the exact state of the aircraft, Ueki said.

UN chief Kofi Annan was attempting to send a personal appeal to
both Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and Savimbi to allow
a UN rescue team access to the site "without delay", Ueki added.

MONUA said UN special envoy to Angola Issa Diallo had also
asked both sides to allow rescue workers in by road "to try and
save the lives of blue helmets," referring to UN peacekeeping
troops.

But the Portugese news agency LUSA on Tuesday said UNITA
Secretary General Paulo Lukamba Gato denied being contacted by
MONUA.

"Communications have been cut," Gato told LUSA. "Since Diallo
arrived in Angola four months ago, we haven't gotten a single phone
call from him," he said.

UNITA retook Tchicala-Tcholohango on December 7, but says
communications with the town are difficult and that recent heavy
rains have washed out many roads.

Dos Santos got backing from a congress of the ruling People's
Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) early this month to
take a hard line and pursue a major military offensive to crush
Savimbi's rebels.

The leader of UNITA, which has fought the MPLA for most of the
years since independence from Portugal in 1975, has lost support
from defecting top aides and seen his movement subjected to UN
sanctions for failing to abide by a peace pact signed in Zambia in
November 1994.

The Luanda government contends that Savimbi still has 35,000
men in arms in breach of the pact.

@ TRAFFIC-MAHARAJ

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

DO NOT BECOME ROAD STATISTICS: MAHARAJ

Transport Minister Mac Maharaj on Wednesday wished South
Africa's road-users well for the New Year and urged them not to
become statistics in 1999.

In a statement, Maharaj called on all road-users to throw their
weight behind the Arrive Alive campaign, which had the objective of
further reducing road fatalities by five percent over the summer
holidays.

"We are optimistic that we will meet our objective of five
percent for this phase of Arrive Alive campaign," he said.

Currently the death toll for December was approximately 11
percent down than last year's if it was compared on day-to-day
figures.

Maharaj said last year's road fatalities came down by more than
9,3 percent, exceeding the target for the first phase of the Arrive
Alive campaign.

"But these figures are not final and we expect them to go up
when all the crash reports are submitted. But I am cautiously
optimistic that we will exceed if not meet our target.

"Media reports that the death toll this December has exceeded
the 1997 one are based on incorrect information," he said.

The campaign was not a numbers game, but a campaign about
stopping the carnage on the roads.

Six hundred and sixty people have died in 481 crashes since the
start of the festive season. Of these, 215 were drivers, 227
passengers and 218 were pedestrians.

Maharaj said that meant that people should continue their
efforts to change the culture of lawlessness on the roads.

Both speed and alcohol contributed more than 70 percent to
these fatalities.

"I would like to urge all South Africans to become aware of the
carnage of our roads before it affects their family and friends,"
Maharaj said.

@ MATRIC-HEADMASTER

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

HEADMASTER'S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: MOTIVATION AND DISCIPLINE

A headmaster whose township school achieved a matric pass rate
of over 96 percent, putting it in the top bracket of Gauteng school
performance, attributed the success to motivation, discipline and
extra lessons.

Aha-Thuto school principal Goli Hadebe, who started at the
school in 1993, told Sapa on Wednesday he was elated at the results
but had expected them to be excellent.

"I am a great enforcer of discipline and motivation", he said.

When he started at Aha-Thuto, four schools were housed in one
building and there were very few textbooks. These conditions
motivated the staff to begin extra morning and afternoon classes,
he said.

Pupils received 45 minutes of extra lessons in the morning and
more than an hour in the afternoon. On Saturdays pupils would
attend five hours of lessons.

"These classes created such an electrifying atmosphere at
school that we we continued with the extra curricular system. In
fact, the students made sure we did," Hadebe said.

Aha-Thuto was one of nine township schools that achieved matric
pass rates of over 70 percent.

Gauteng education MEC Mary Metcalfe told a Johannesburg press
conference on Wednesday that more than 24 Gauteng schools had
improved their matric results by over 20 percent, compared to last
year.

Two schools, Leshata in Orange Farm and Mafori Mphahlele in
Soweto, have improved by over 50 percent, she said.

@ MALAWI-PIONEERS

BLANTYRE, Dec 30, Sapa-AFP

LATE DICTATOR'S PIONEERS SUE MALAWI GOVERNMENT FOR DISMISSAL

More than 700 former paramilitary Malawi Young Pioneers are
suing the Malawi government for unlawful dismissal from public
service in 1994, their lawyer George Kaliwo said Wednesday.

Kaliwo said the 756 out of a one-time 10,000-strong and feared
movement loyal to the late dictator Kamuzu Banda, are seeking a
total one million US dollars in compensation after they were laid
off in 1994 when President Bakili Muluzi came to power and
immediately disbanded the unit.

Laywer Kaliwo claims the ex-pioneers's dismissal from
government service contravened the public service labour
regulations.

Banda created the Young Pioneers unit on independence from
Britain in 1964, to assist security operations.

They were trained in Israel, Taiwan and apartheid South Africa,
served as Banda's private army and at the same time spied on
civilians and cabinet ministers while tracking down dissidents.

@ LABOUR-LD-AMPLATS By Andrew Davidson

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

TALKS ON ENDING AMPLATS STRIKE ARE SUSPENDED

Talks between Anglo American Platinum Corporation and the
National Union of Mineworkers aimed at ending the strike which has
affected production at platinum operations in the Northern and
North-West Provinces for more than a week were again suspended late
on Wednesday.

Amplats spokesman Steve Calladine said on Wednesday evening
that despite further negotiations the pay dispute had still not
been resolved and the parties would return to independent mediation
on Monday, January 4.

Amplats, following independent mediation, made what it
described as a significantly improved offer to the NUM late on
Monday.

Palane said: "We are approaching the meeting with management
with an open mind. I do hope there is a speedy resolution which
will enable us to break the record for a non-violent, disciplined,
protected strike."

Asked what record he was referring to, Palane would only state
that the Amplats dispute had been "a peaceful strike with no focus
on violence".

There had been concern, due to past rivalry, that NUM could
have clashed with the rival Mouthpeace Workers' Union, which did
not join the protest.

Calladine said: "I heard that our proposal had been rejected,
which was not only disappointing but surprising."

He was still hopeful the dispute, which began last Wednesday,
could be resolved when the two sides met later in the day.

Amplats is the world's largest platinum producer and made a
R1,64-billion profit in the year to end June.

@ HEALTH-COMMUNITY

PRETORIA Dec 30 Sapa

1126 MEDICAL GRADUATES TO START COMMUNITY SERVICE ON FRIDAY

A total of 1126 medical graduates would start their year of
compulsory community service on Friday, the Health Department said
on Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Lulu Sebake said KwaZulu-Natal would receive the
largest number of young doctors with 234, followed by Gauteng with
169, Eastern Cape with 145, Northern Province with 143, Western
Cape with 118, Free State with 102, Mpumalanga with 80, North-West
with 79 and the Northern Cape with 19 doctors.

Thirty-seven of the graduates will do their community service
at the SA Military Health Service.

Sebake said 80 percent of the young doctors were placed at the
hospitals of their choice.

In terms of the Medical, Dental and Supplementary Health
Services Professional Act, which came into effect earlier this
year, all medical graduates have to do 12 months' community service
after finishing their studies, and a year internship.

After completing their community service, the doctors would be
allowed to enter private practice.

@ PROTEST-MADIKWE

MAFIKENG Dec 30 Sapa

NURSES AND COMMUNITY PROTEST AGAINST CLOSURE OF HOSPITAL

Nurses and the Madikwe community on Wednesday marched to the
office of North-West premier Popo Molefe in Mafikeng to protest
against the closure of the Derdepoort hospital in Madikwe.

National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers' Union
general secretary Success Mataitsane said the provincial health
department planned to close the hospital on Thursday because there
was no money to keep it open.

"The closure of the hospital is completely unacceptable because
it is the only one that serves this rural area," he said.

Mataitsane said the closest other hospital was in Zeerust,
about 160km away.

He said between 800 and 900 people participated in the march. A
memorandum outlining their grievances was presented to the
premier's office. Mataitsane said about 300 hospital staff would
lose their jobs if the hospital was closed. The North-West health
department could not be reached for comment.

@ ANGOLA-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Dec 30 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN REBELS BOMBARD SECOND-LARGEST CITY

Rebel forces Wednesday launched an hour-long artillery
bombardment against Huambo, the country's second-largest city and a
base for U.N. and aid agency staff, according to reports.

Some shells landed in downtown areas of the central highland
city which lies about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southest of the
capital, Luanda, state radio RNA reported from Huambo.

The explosions reportedly began at noon and caused panic among
local people in the government-held city which the army is using as
a base to fly in reinforcements for fighting in surrounding areas.

Before the civil war restarted Dec. 4 Huambo had a population
of about 300,000, but tens of thousands of refugees fleeing
fighting in the countryside have converged on the city in recent
weeks.

U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said from Luanda he had no
reports of injuries to U.N. staff in Huambo.

The World Food Program and International Red Cross also have
staff in the city, but officials at those groups were not
immediately available for comment.

A cargo plane chartered by the United Nations crashed near
Huambo on Saturday with 14 people on board. The cause of the crash,
as the plane passed over the war zone, was not known.

Artillery shells were also landing about every 15 minutes in
Kuito, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the east of Huambo, which has
been under a rebel siege for more than two weeks, according to RNA.

The rebels apparently were targeting the airport, RNA said.

The United Nations observer mission, which is monitoring a 1994
peace accord that halted a two-decade civil war between the rebels
and the government, has been unable to stop the renewed fighting
which so far been concentrated in the central highlands.

The U.N. Security Council has blamed UNITA, a Portuguese
acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola, for the return to war.

UNITA refused to yield control of areas under its control and
maintained a hidden army, according to the United Nations.

The country has been ravaged by conflict since gaining
independence from Portugal in 1975.

@ LD-MATRIC

JOHANNESBURG Dec 30 Sapa

GAUTENG'S TOP MATRIC PUPIL STILL IN SHOCK

Gauteng's top aggregate pupil, Canadian-born Glenda Wright, on
Wednesday said she was still in shock on hearing she was the
province's top pupil.

The 17-year-old Greenside High pupil achieved seven
distinctions and an aggregate of 2238. She told Sapa she would
start her studies at Wits University medical school in the new
year.

Wright started school in South Africa at the end of primary
school after immigrating from Canada with her family. Her father, a
geophysics professor, and her mother, a psychology student, are
both enrolled at Wits. Her sister, 16, is still at school.

Wright achieved distinctions in English, maths, science,
biology, french, computer studies and additional mathematics.

Another student, Reinhardt Messerschmidt from Hoerskool
Transvalia, achieved a record 11 distinctions and a 2230 aggregate.

Education MEC Mary Metcalfe told a Johannesburg news conference
on Wednesday that more than 341 distinctions were achieved among
the 50 top-scoring Gauteng matriculants. The top students were
drawn from 28 schools.

Greenside High and Pretoria Boys High both had six pupils
within the top scorers, five were from Crawford College in
Johannesburg, and four were at Northcliff High.

Metcalfe admitted the spread of the top pupils did not reflect
the province's demographics, with only six black pupils achieving
three distinctions each.

But she said the aggregate improvement did not reflect the
results of 24 township and farm schools that individually improved
their results by 20 percent or more. Two township schools, Leshata
in Orange Farm and Mafori Mphahlele in Soweto, improved their
results by over 50 percent.

This served as a great message of hope to teachers, learners
and parents, she said.

The overall matric pass rate was 55,6 percent, which was a 4,1
percent improvement over 1997.

Mark adjustments for pupils who wrote exams not written in
their home languages accounted for 1,9 percent of the improvement,
said Metcalfe.

@ ANGOLA-2ND-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Dec 30 Sapa-AFP

REBELS TIGHTEN NET ROUND ANGOLAN TOWN

Heavy fighting spread Wednesday between government troops and
diehard UNITA rebels in Angola, where the armed forces general
command admitted its foes threatened several sectors in the north,
centre and south.

An Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) commander reported that rebels
had surrounded Kuito in the centre of the country.

Angola was earlier this year plunged back into escalating civil
war between government troops and rebels of the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA.)

The official newspaper Jornal de Angola also reported Wednesday
that UNITA forces of Jonas Savimbi were besieging Kuito, 700
kilometres (400 miles) from the capital Luanda.

Small rebel assault units supported by artillery had been
pressing Kuito since Tuesday afternoon trying to surround and cut
it off, including the airport which has been closed to both
military and civilian aircraft, FAA General Simione Mukume said on
national radio.

By Tuesday, the artillery barrage had brought to at least 488
the number of wounded admitted to Kuito hospital since December 9,
hospital sources said.

The FAA says it has destroyed the rebels' principal rear base
at Ceilunga, 15 kilometres (10 miles) northeast of Kuito.

Other fighting took place Wednesday at Kukema, south-west of
Kuito, local media reported. During one clash north of Kuito, the
FAA claimed to have captured two enemy tanks, 10 artillery pieces,
four missiles and four rocket-propelled grenades, and killed 20
rebels.

Artillery and light arms fire were also heard on Wednesday in
the major central town of Huambo, where large numbers of people
were also said to have been injured, state radio reported.

Huambo, capital of the province of the same name, is home to
some 250,000 people in the middle of Angola.

The fighting between the army and Savimbi's men has raised the
spectre of serious food shortages for residents of Huambo in the
past month.

In New York, UN spokesman Yasuhiro Ueki said Tuesday that the
Transafrica firm which owned the plane had located it southwest of
Tchicala-Tcholohango, formerly known as Vila Nova.

A communique from the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA)
said "ther may be survivors in the wreck, according to signals
obtained through our codes," Ueki told AFP.

A reconnaissance plane located the crash site, but was unable
to determine the exact state of the aircraft, Ueki said.

UN chief Kofi Annan was attempting to send a personal appeal to
both Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and Savimbi to allow
a UN rescue team access to the site "without delay", Ueki added.

MONUA said UN special envoy to Angola Issa Diallo had also
asked both sides to allow rescue workers in by road "to try and
save the lives of blue helmets," referring to UN peacekeeping
troops.

But the Portugese news agency LUSA on Tuesday said UNITA
Secretary General Paulo Lukamba Gato denied being contacted by
MONUA.

"Communications have been cut," Gato told LUSA. "Since Diallo
arrived in Angola four months ago, we haven't gotten a single phone
call from him," he said.

UNITA retook Tchicala-Tcholohango on December 7, but says
communications with the town are difficult nd that recent heavy
rains have washed out many roads.

The Luanda government contends that Savimbi still has 35,000
men in arms in breach of the pact.

@ ANGOLA-ANNAN

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30, Sapa-AFP

KOFI ANNAN DISMAYED BY ANGOLA, UNITA

UN secretary general Kofi Annan is disappointed by Angola's and
UNITA rebels' refusal to allow a rescue team to search for
survivors of a UN plane crash in central Angola, a spokesman said
Wednesday.

Annan "is deeply dismayed (and) reiterates his appeal" to both
sides in the Angolan war to allow a rescue team in, said Manoel
Almeida e Silva.

The C-130 Hercules transport plane with four crewmembers and 10
passengers working for the UN peacekeeping mission in Angola on
board, crased Saturday shortly after takeoff in central Angola.

According to the UN mission in Angola, there could be survivors
in the wreck.

"There can be no justification for not facilitating full and
immediate access to the crash site," Almeida e Silva said.

"United Nations staff has long risked - and sacrificed -
their lives in their efforts to bring peace to Angola," said
Almeida e Silva.

He added Annan hoped that both Luanda and the Union for the
Total Independence for Angola rebels would respond by "guaranteeing
the safety and security of all United Nations staff."

@ ANGOLA-UN-PULLOUT

UNITED NATIONS Dec 30 Sapa-AP

UN FACING QUESTION OF PULLOUT IN ANGOLA, BUT STAKES ARE HIGH

With full-scale war returning to Angola and the downing of a
U.N.-chartered plane there, the United Nations must soon decide
whether it's safe to keep obsrvers in he forme Portuguese
colony.

A U.N. pullout - which is near complete in another revived
African war zone, Sierra Leone - could signal to Angola that the
United Nations has at least temporarily given up on implementing
the 1994 peace accord it brokered to end Angola's 20-year civil
war.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has until Jan. 15 to decide on
options, and U.N. diplomats say he may recommend the Security
Council consider withdrawing the 1,016 troops of the U.N. Observer
Mission in Angola, known as MONUA.

U.N. officials and the council frequently have to make such
decisions, weighing the benefits of staying in war zones to help
civilians when they most need it against the potential risks to
U.N. personnel.

For the past four months, there has been no U.N. international
presence in Afghanistan because of security concerns.

But in Angola, where the United Nations has invested a decade
of peacekeeping and millions of dollars to end a onetime Cold War
conflict, the stakes of a pullout are especially high.

"Our conviction is after all these years, MONUA cannot
withdraw completely and leave the Angolans to themselves,"
Portugal's U.N. ambassador Antonio Monteiro said in an interview.
"I think MONUA shall be there and trying in every occasion to help
and to show the Angolans that war leads nowhere."

Security concerns, however, are increasing daily: in addition
to Saturday's crash of the U.N.-chartered cargo plane with 14
people on board, rebels launched an hour-long artillery bombardment
Wednesday against Huambo, the country's second-largest city and a
base for U.N. and aid agency staff.

Already, the International Committee of the Red Cross - usually
among the last to leave - has relocated most of its international
staff to the capital Luanda.

"You can only have peacekeeping when you have peace to keep,"
noted U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida E Silva, echoing a phrase
familiar in U.N. halls.

The United Nations first sent peacekeepers to Angola in 1989 to
monitor the withdrawal of Cuban soldiers backing the government in
the civil war that erupted soon after Angola gained its
independence from Portugal in 1975.

A 34-nation U.N. observer team replaced the peacekeepers in
July 1997 to implement of the 1994 U.N.-mediated peace accord that
ended the war. Security Council members Portugal, the United States
and Russia were designated to oversee the progress.

Over the past few months, however, the accord has disintegrated
as fighting resumed. The opposition UNITA movement has violated
U.N. demands by refusing to disarm and hand over land it controls.
The government, meanwhile, has severed all contact with UNITA
leader Jonas Savimbi and threatened to expel U.N. personnel if they
meet with him.

Annan first threatened a withdrawal in September, warning in a
report to the Security Council that the U.N. mission might have to
close down by February if both sides didn't make progress on the
peace process.

The current mandate of the force expires Feb. 26, and already
the government has indicated it doesn't want observers in Angola
beyond then, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

Some diplomats say the government wants the United Nations to
leave because it thinks it can finally crush UNITA militarily and
has no need for U.N. mediation to form a joint government with
Savimbi.

With that in mind, many would argue that now is precisely the
time to remain engaged in Angola to halt the spread of fighting and
care for its victims.

"We are willing. The question is are we able," said the Red
Cross' Walter Fullemann.

@ ANGOLA-3RD-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Dec 30 Sapa-AFP

UNITA REBELS ON THE OFFENSIVE IN ANGOLA

Heavy fighting spread Wednesday between government troops and
diehard UNITA rebels in Angola, leaving at least eight dead and the
armed forces general command acknowledging that his foes threatened
several sectors.

Artillery and light arms fire were also heard on Wednesday in
the major central town of Huambo, state radio reported.

Eight people were killed during bombardments by UNITA rebels
there, local media reported.

A further 18 people were taken to hospital, where eight were in
serious condition.

The UNITA artillery fire reached residential areas of the town,
according to the independent LAC radio.

Government sources said aid workers had begun pulling out of
Huambo following the attack.

Huambo, capital of the province of the same name, is home to
some 250,000 people in the middle of Angola, which this year
plunged back into civil war between government troops and UNITA
rebels.

An Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) commander reported that rebels
had also surrounded Kuito in the centre of the country.

Angola was earlier this year plunged back into escalating civil
war between government troops and rebels of the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA.)

The official newspaper Jornal de Angola reported Wednesday that
UNITA forces of Jonas Savimbi were besieging Kuito, 700 kilometres
(400 miles) from the capital Luanda.