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ANC Daily News Briefing Monday 4 Jan 1999

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Jan 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/5/99

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

MONDAY 4 JANUARY 1999

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 It is for reading and information only, and strictly not for
publication or broadcast.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
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@ AUSTRALIA-ANGOLA

CANBERRA, Australia Jan 1 Sapa-AP

AUSTRALIAN CRASH VICTIM FAMILY APPEALS FOR U.S. HELP

The anguished family of an Australian man missing after a U.N.
plane crashed in war-torn Angola appealed Friday to the United
States to help find survivors with its satellite technology.

Patrick Luckman, 56, a Melbourne lawyer, was one o 14 people
on a C-130 Hercules transport plane that may have been shot down
last Saturday soon after take-off from the central Angolan rebel
stronghold of Huambo.

The passengers on the downed plane also included three
Angolans, one Cameroonian, one Egyptian, one Namibian, two
Russians, and one Zambian - all of whom were serving with the U.N.
mission. The plane's captain was South African John Wilkinson, and
its crew included an Angolan, a Bolivian and a Filipino.

Rescuers have been unable to obtain safe passage to the plane,
which has been located by air in a combat area where Angolan
government and rebel troops recently renewed hostilities.

Luckman's family expressed frustration at the lack of action
being taken to force the warring factions to allow access for a
U.N. rescue mission.

His son, Anantha Luckman, warned the U.N. would have its
"hands stained with blood" if something was not done quickly to
determine the fate of those on the plane.

Anantha proposed that the U.N. and the Australian government
ask the U.S. to use its satellite navigation system-related
technology to determine whether there were survivors on the plane,
which was reportedly still intact.

"I was told you can use it to see the time on a person's
wristwatch standing in Moscow," Luckman said.

"Why can't they look at the plane to see if there are people
moving around? The technology is there, it is up to the people who
have it to use it."

Luckman said time was running out for his father and the other
passengers, who were in Angola on a U.N. observer mission
overseeing the 1994 peace accord.

The U.N. Security Council has threatened to take action against
Angola if it fails to comply with requests for a rescue team to
reach the plane.

The government has responded, but there has been no word from
the rebel group UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola, which the U.N. blames for
breaking the 1994 peace pact.

@ FUEL-ADJUSTMENTS

JOHANNESBURG Sapa Jan 1 Sapa

FUEL PRICE ADJUSTMENTS FOR JAN 6

Fuel prices would be adjusted with effect from Wednesday next
week, the Minerals and Energy department said on Friday.

"Price changes will be adjusted in such a manner that the over
or under recovery during the previous month will be corrected in
the following month," the department said in a statement.

The retail price of all grades of petrol would drop four cents,
the wholesale price of diesel would decrease four cents while the
wholesale price of illuminating paraffin would decrease five cents,
it said.

Over-recoveries for the period from November 26 to December 25
had been effected by a big decrease in the average international
price of fuel and a weakening of the rand against the dollar, the
department said.

Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna had
approved an increase of one cent in the wholesale margin of petrol,
diesel and illuminating paraffin, also with effect from January 6.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA, Jan 1, Sapa-AFP

ANGOLAN TROOPS IN OFFENSIVE TO RECAPTURE REBEL-HELD TOWNS

Angola's government army on Friday pursued an offensive aimed
at recapturing districts seized by diehard military rebels, an
official source said, citing the overnight fall of a provincial
town.

The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) took control late Thursday of
the small locality of Chipeta, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from
the beleaguered Bie province capital Kuito, in east-central Angola,
the source said.

Kuito, which had been surrounded by Jonas Savimbi's UNITA
rebels earlier this month, itself came under shellfire during the
night, after artillery exchanges on Thursday which killed several
adults and children.

Hospitals had no blood supplies to treat 90 seriously injured
people, according to several sources, who said bombardments had so
far taken about 200 lives and left almost 500 people injured in
Kuito medical institutions.

A health service official, Bento Samuel, said 22 serious cases
had been admitted to one hospital.

Several shells fell on Kuito, which is about 700 miles (435
miles) from the capital Luanda, during the day on Thursday, killing
an unspecified number of civilians and wounding others, the private
radio stations LAC and Ecclesia reported from the town.

An official in the provincial governor's office said that the
upsurge in fighting for Kuito had prevented the UN World Food
Programme (WFP) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from
delivering much needed relief supplies.

A Roman Catholic cleric said that Huambo, the chief town of the
neighbouring province of the same name, had calmed down after rebel
attacks in Wednesday killed eight people and injured about 20.

The southern African country has plunged back into civil war
between the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola
(MPLA) and Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola (UNITA) in the past nine months.

Many of the UNITA rebel troops failed to demobilise and disarm
in line with a peace pact signed in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1994.

The government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos estimates
that Savimbi still has some 35,000 men at arms.

This is despite the fact that UNITA was declared a political
party and the main opposition last March. It has since seen serious
splits among Savimbi's former top aides, several of whom have
disavowed him as a warmonger and formed a "renewal" movement of
their own.

@ NEWYEAR-DAMAGE

JOHANNESBURG Jan 1 Sapa

FILTHY DEBRIS ALL OVER HILLBROW STREETS

Hillbrow residents fired on police in armoured vehicles and
threw furniture and bottles out of windows on Thursday night in
what had become a traditional way of celebrating New Year's eve in
the inner city, police said.

The results of the revellers' acton was filth all over streets
in the area, and this prompted the Johannesburg Metro Council to
decide to put additional workers in Hillbrow to clean up the
debris-strewn streets over the weekend.

Council spokesman Keith Peacock told Sapa it was too dangerous
to begin the clean-up on Friday as people were still partying and
were likely to drop objects from flat windows onto council staff.

"We understand that Hillbrow always celebrates the New Year in
rather unusual ways and the level of debris which remains after the
"party" is always substantial," Peacock said.

"Unfortunately Hillbrow is still partying but we believe that
over the weekend we will bring it back to normal and remove the
significant amounts of furniture, bedding and quantities of empty
bottles in the streets."

Police spokesman Mark Reynolds said police - who used only
armoured police vehicles in Hillbrow after 10pm - were shot at,
but no one was injured.

Meanwhile, traffic spokesman Conel Mackay said twelve people
were injured in four accidents in the city overnight. They were all
in Johannesburg hospital.

On the other, Johannesburg police said they received an average
of 175 emergency telephone calls per hour on New Year's eve.

Reynolds said the police service's 10111 emergency number
received 3571 calls between 6pm on December 31 and 6am on Friday.

Police vehicles were dispatched to more than 700 complaints.

@ ANGOLA-UN

LUANDA, Jan 1, Sapa-AFP

LUANDA ALLOWS ACCESS TO DOWNED UN PLANE IN CENTRAL ANGOLA

The Angolan government has given security guarantees to allow a
UN team to travel to a combat zone where a UN-chartered plane
crashed last weekend, officials said Friday.

The Hercules C-130, with four crew members and 10 passengers
working for the UN peacekeeping mission in Angola (MONUA) on board,
crashed last Saturday shortly after takeoff from the central city
of Huambo for Saurimo, in eastern Angola.

MONUA received several radio signals from the plane and said
there may be survivors.

The government go-ahead was granted to MONUA by Defense
Minister Pedro Sebastio, the officials said, while a UN source said
that MONUA was still seeking guarantees from the rebel National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

UN officials have been stymied by the lack of security
guarantees for access to the crash site near Tchicala-Tcholohango,
a town formerly known as Vila Nova, 45 kilometers (30 miles) from
Huambo.

The government said the plane, chartered by MONUA from the
company Transafrique, went down at a rebel-held camp in Boas-Aguas,
less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from Tchicala-Tcholohango, for
which government and UNITA forces are fighting for control.

UNITA said during the week that it had not been contacted by
MONUA concerning the plane.

UN special envoy Issa Diallo on Friday had reiterated a demand
for cooperation by both the government and UNITA.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Thursday calling
on UNITA and Luanda to cooperate in the rescue effort. UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan has ordered a deputy, Benon Sevan, to Luanda as
soon as possible.

Air travel has become extremely hazardous in Angola amid an
upsurge in fighting.

A week ago, rebels shot down a private plane over the central
city of Kuito, which is surrounded by rebels.

A private helicopter was hit by artillery fire on Wednesday in
the southern coastal province of Benguela, according to its owner.

On Sunday, an Antonov-12 that left Luanda with 10 people on
board went missing 10 minutes after takeoff.

@ HEALTH-FF

JOHANNESBURG Jan 1 Sapa

YOUNG DOCTORS NOT EXCITED ABOUT COMMUNITY SERVICE; FF

The Freedom Front on Friday rejected a statement by the acting
director-general for health that young doctors were excited about
doing community service.

The service is compulsory as from this year.

Many young doctors would only do the community service because
they were legally compelled to do so, FF spokesman Ben van der Walt
said in a statement.

He said the doctors, especially those who had to go to rural
hospitals in out-lying areas, said the circumstances in which they
performed the community service would determine what they would do
afterwards.

"This could mean that many of these young doctors would leave
the country to settle overseas."

The FF would strongly support young doctors in their struggle
to have the legislation annulled, Van der Walt said.

@ BLAST-WATERFRONT

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa-AP

EXPLOSION AT CAPE TOWN TOURIST ATTRACTION

An explosion rocked a parking area Friday at the Victoria and
Alfred Waterfront and police were investigating the possibility it
was a bomb. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The explosion Friday evening comes four months after the
bombing of a Planet Hollywood restaurant at the waterfront, which
claimed two lives.

There have been no arrests in that attack. A caller to a radio
station had claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of a
Muslim group but the group later disavowed any part in it.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beeer said it was believed
that the bomb was placed in or under a car at a parking area near
the Waterfront and that one man suffered injuries in the explosion.

Details were sketchy at this stage.

The Waterfront, Cape Town's premier tourist attraction, was the
scene of a bomb blast earlier this year.

Two people and more than 20 were injured in a pipe bomb
explosion at the Planet Hollywood restaurant.

No members of either the South African or the West Indian
cricket teams, who are currently in Cape Town, were near the scene
of the blast.

The South Africans were attending a team meeting on Friday,
while the West Indians had an indoor net session at the University
of Cape Town before having a team meeting as well.

@ BLAST-2ND-LD-WATERFRONT By Francois Krige

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa

GAUTENG MAN SLIGHTLY INJURED IN WATERFRONT CAR BOMB

A visitor from Gauteng was slightly injured and a man and a
woman had to be treated for shock when a car bomb exploded in a
parking area in front of the Victoria Wharf at Cape Town's
Waterfront on Friday night.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said a bomb went off
in a Toyota Corolla shortly after 7pm. Three other cars were
damaged while the Toyota was completely destroyed.

She said a woman who was taking video footage of the Wharf at
the time has made a video recording of the explosion and police
were hopeful that that would aid them in their investigation.

Alan Tyles, 25, of Akasia, near Pretoria, was treated at the
scene for light cuts to his hands and neck. Police said he would
not need hospitalisation as all his wounds were superficial. He was
in Cape Town on holiday.

A Pick'n Pay worker and a female visitor who were in the
vicinity of the cars when the explosion occurred were treated for
shock.

"There were no serious injuries and police and bomb experts
will comb the scene for any clues," De Beer said.

Traffic in and around the Waterfront was still heavily
congested more than two hours after the blast as traffic officials
battled to get the visitors out of the area.

Hundreds of visitors to the Waterfront were forced to remain
behind the barricades that police erected at the scene and will
only be allowed to fetch their cars once the area has been declared
safe.

Police have since received two bomb threats at shops at the
Waterfront and sniffer dogs have been brought in.

@ BLAST-VICTIM By Francois Krige

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa

INJURED BODYGUARD DESCRIBES WATERFRONT BLAST

Alan Styles, bodyguard to a top Gauteng business woman, was the
only person injured in the car bomb explosion at the Victoria Wharf
at Cape Town's Waterfront on Friday.

Styles, 25, from Northcliff, Johannesburg, and his wife Lyn
told Sapa they were on a working holiday in Cape Town to protect a
Johannesburg businesswoman whom he refused to identify.

He said he was on his way to his holiday home at 7pm and had
just walked out of the main doors at the Victoria Wharf when an
explosion occurred about 100 metres down the road.

"There was a loud explosion and white smoke and I saw a badly
damaged car and a second one which was alight. A Toyota Corolla was
completely destroyed and a Golf was on fire. I ran back for a fire
extinguisher to put out the flames."

He was treated at the scene for superficial cuts to his hands
and arms, while his wife, who was about 10 metres behind him at the
time, was treated for shock.

"I was speaking on the phone when the explosion occurred and
suddenly saw Alan disappear in the white smoke. When the smoke
cleared I saw him pushing a car which was on fire away from the
scene. He shouted at me to get a fire extinguisher," Lyn Styles
said.

Her husband said that because of his training he knew what to
do and was just glad that he prevented a second explosion.

@ BLAST-PAC

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa

PAC CONDEMNS WATERFRONT BLAST

The Pan Africanist Congress on Friday condemned the car bomb
explosion at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town.

PAC MP Patricia de Lille said the blast was a continuation of
the bombing and killing of people in certain areas of the province.

"The continuous violence and killings in the Western Cape, on
the Cape Flats and also the Waterfront need to receive priority. Up
to now no one has been arrested or convicted for the killing of
gangsters, Pagad (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs) members and
the bomb blast at Planet Hollywood."

@ ANGOLA-UN

LUANDA Jan 1 Sapa-AP

U.N. AWAITS UNITA RESPONSE TO DEMANDS FOR ACCESS TO CRASH SITE

A United Nations envoy will arrive next week in Angola to make
arrangements for a team to search the site where a U.N. plane
crashed a week ago in disputed territory with 14 people on board, a
U.N. spokesman said Friday.

Hamadoun Toure said the United Nations would not consider
traveling to the site, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast
of the capital Luanda, before receiving a guarantee of safe passage
from UNITA rebels fighting government forces in that area.

"We're not here to send people to die," Toure said in Luanda.
"It's a dangerous area."

He said it was not clear if the envoy, who he said is due in
Angola early next week, would meet with UNITA officials.

Toure said the rebels had yet to resond to Thursday's demand
from the U.N. Security Council that UNITA immediately give a U.N.
team safe passage to search the site.

The Council condemned both the rebels and the government for
failing to help the United Nations determined the fate of the 14
people on the plane.

UNITA officials were not immediately available for comment
Friday. The rebels have said they received no appeal from the
United Nations.

The government on Thursday said it was willing to help the U.N.
reach the site to search for the 10 passengers and four crew
members and determine the cause of last Saturday's crash.

The United Nations brokered a 1994 peace accord to end a
two-decade civil war between the government and UNITA - a
Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola.

UNITA has refused to relinquish control of its central highland
strongholds and maintained a 30,000-strong army hidden in the bush.

The accord unraveled in December when government troops tried
to take the strongholds by force and were beaten back. Both sides
returned to a war footing and battles have focused around Huambo
and 130 kilometers (80 miles) away in Kuito.

There was no shelling in either city on Friday, according to
the private station Radio Eclesia.

The United Nations has evacuated its staff from Huambo, where a
rebel artillery barrage on Wednesday killed at least eight people.

@ BLAST-MORKEL By Francois Krige

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa

FORCE WITH HIDDEN AGENDA MAY BE BEHIND BOMBINGS: MORKEL

Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel on Friday said he was
starting to wonder whether a "force with a hidden agenda" could be
responsible for the spate of bombings in the province.

Morkel, who visited the scene of the car bomb blast at Cape
Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront on Friday night, said he was
very thankful that no people were maimed or killed.

"All we can say is thank God nobody was killed. Judging by the
damage caused to the cars it must have been a powerful bomb," he
said.

"At a time like this, when people are celebrating the festive
season, I question this cowardly act and I'm starting to wonder
whether what has happened here tonight was really done by the
people that police suspect or whether there is another force with a
hidden agenda."

According to Morkel the Western Cape province was politically
doing very well. He said it appeared as if there could be a force
with a hidden agenda who wanted to create a perception that there
was chaos and a lack of law and order in the Western Cape.

Morkel said forensic experts from Pretoria would fly to Cape
Town to try and establish whether the bomb used could be linked to
other bombings in the Western Cape.

@ ANGOLA-LD-UN

LUANDA Jan 1 Sapa-AFP

UNITA HOLDING ANGOLA UN PLANE CRASH SURVIVORS: ARMY

The 14 people on board a UN-chartered C-130 Hercules that
crashed in Angola last weekend are alive and being held hostage by
UNITA rebels, an Angola army general said Friday.

The survivors, including 10 UN personnel, "are in good
condition" after having been taken to the UNITA-held towns of
Andulo and Bailundo, said General Joo "Jota" Manuel on state radio.

Earlier Friday, officials said the Angolan government had given
security guarantees to allow a UN team to travel to the combat zone
where the cargo plane went down.

The Hercules crashed last Saturday shortly after takeoff from
the central city of Huambo, bound for Saurimo in the east of the
country.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Angola, known as MONUA, has
received several radio signals from the plane, and said there may
be survivors.

UN officials have been stymied by the lack of security
guarantees for access to the crash site near Tchicala-Tcholohango,
a town formerly known as Vila Nova, 45 kilometers (30 miles) from
Huambo.

The government said the plane, chartered by MONUA from the
company Transafrique, went down at a rebel-held camp in Boas-Aguas,
less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from Tchicala-Tcholohango,
where government and UNITA forces are fighting for control.

UNITA said during the week that it had not been contacted by
MONUA concerning the plane.

UN special envoy Issa Diallo on Friday had reiterated a demand
for cooperation by both the government and UNITA.

Air travel has become extremely hazardous in Angola amid an
upsurge in fighting.

A week ago, rebels shot down a private plane over the central
city of Kuito, which is surrounded by rebels.

A private helicopter was hit by artillery fire on Wednesday in
the southern coastal province of Benguela, according to its owner.

On Sunday, an Antonov-12 that left Luanda with 10 people on
board went missing 10 minutes after takeoff.

@ BLAST-N/L-WATERFRONT

CAPE TOWN Jan 1 Sapa

POLITICIANS CONDEMN WATERFRONT BOMB BLAST

Those responsible for the New Year's Day car bomb explosion at
Cape Town's Waterfront were cowards who should be condemned by all
peace-loving South Africans, Safety and Security Minister Sydney
Mufamadi said on Friday.

A Johannesburg man was slightly injured and three people had to
be treated for shock when a car bomb exploded in a parking area in
front of the Victoria Wharf on Friday night.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said a bomb went off
in a Toyota Corolla shortly after 7pm. Three other cars were
damaged while the Toyota was completely destroyed.

Mufamadi said he was shocked by the news of bombing, and
expressed his sympathy for the injured, while wishing them a speedy
recovery.

Acting police commissioner John Manuel would take the
appropriate steps to deal with the situation, he said.

Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel said he was starting to
wonder whether a "force with a hidden agenda" could be responsible
for the spate of bombings in the province.

Morkel, who visited the scene of the blast, said he was very
thankful that no people were maimed or killed.

The Pan Africanist Congress on Friday also condemned the blast.

PAC MP Patricia de Lille said the blast was a continuation of
the bombing and killing of people in certain areas of the province.

After the explosion, police received two bomb threats at shops
at the Waterfront and sniffer dogs were brought in.

De Beer said a woman who was taking video footage of the Wharf
at the time made a video recording of the explosion and police were
hopeful that that would aid them in their investigation.

Thousands of people were at the Waterfront's bars and
restaurants when the bomb went off.

"We have been very, very lucky that this was not more serious,"
said police spokesman Captain Jacques Wiese.

Alan Styles, 25, of Northcliff, Johannesburg, was treated at
the scene for light cuts to his hands and neck.

Styles and his wife Lyn told Sapa they were on a working
holiday in Cape Town to protect a Johannesburg businesswoman.

He said he was on his way to his holiday home at 7pm and had
just walked out of the main doors at the Victoria Wharf when an
explosion occurred about 100 metres down the road.

He was treated at the scene for superficial cuts to his hands
and arms, while his wife, who was about 10 metres behind him at the
time, was treated for shock.

Her husband said that because of his training he knew what to
do and was just glad that he prevented a second explosion.

A Pick'n Pay worker and a female visitor who were in the
vicinity of the cars when the explosion occurred were treated for
shock.

"There were no serious injuries and police and bomb experts
will comb the scene for any clues," De Beer said.

Smoke was still rising from the site an hour after the blast
and shards of debris were scattered on the pavement.

Traffic in and around the Waterfront was still heavily
congested more than two hours after the blast as traffic officials
battled to get the visitors out of the area.

Hundreds of visitors to the Waterfront were forced to remain
behind the barricades that police erected at the scene and would
only be allowed to fetch their cars once the area has been declared
safe.

The Waterfront, Cape Town's premier tourist attraction, was the
scene of a bomb blast four months ago.

Two people and more than 20 were injured in a pipe bomb
explosion at the Planet Hollywood restaurant.

There have been no arrests in that attack. A caller to a radio
station had claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of a
Muslim group but the group later disavowed any part in it.

Morkel said forensic experts from Pretoria would fly to Cape
Town to try and establish whether the bomb used could be linked to
other bombings in the Western Cape.

De Lille said: "The continuous violence and killings in the
Western Cape, on the Cape Flats and also the Waterfront need to
receive priority. Up to now no one has been arrested or convicted
for the killing of gangsters, Pagad (People Against Gangsterism and
Drugs) members and the bomb blast at Planet Hollywood."

Mufamadi called on anyone with information regarding the bomb
blast to report to the police as soon as possible.

@ ANGOLA-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Jan 1 Sapa-AFP

ANGOLAN TROOPS IN OFFENSIVE TO RECAPTURE REBEL-HELD TOWNS

Angola's government army on Friday pursued an offensive aimed
at recapturing districts seized by diehard military rebels, an
official source said, citing the overnight fall of a provincial
town.

They also reported Friday re-taking Chilonda in Bie province,
some 700 kilometres (400 miles) from the capital Luanda.

Hospitals had no blood supplies to treat 90 seriously injured
people, according to several sources, who said bombardments had so
far claimed some 200 lives and left almost 500 people injured in
Kuito hospitals.

A health service official, Bento Samuel, said 22 serious cases
had been admitted to one hospital.

Several shells fell on Kuito on Thursday, killing an
unspecified number of civilians and wounding others, the private
radio stations LAC and Ecclesia reported from the town.

An official in the provincial governor's office said that the
upsurge in the fight for Kuito had prevented the UN World Food
Programme (WFP) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from
delivering much-needed relief supplies.

A Roman Catholic cleric said that Huambo, the chief town of the
neighbouring province of the same name, had calmed down after rebel
attacks on Wednesday killed eight people and injured around 20.

Many of the UNITA rebel troops failed to demobilise and disarm
in line with a peace pact signed in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1994.

The government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos estimates
that Savimbi still has some 35,000 men under arms.

@ MERCENARIES

JOHANNESBURG Jan 1 Sapa

SA MERCENARIES GIVEN PERMISSION TO OPERATE IN ANGOLA

A group of South African mercenaries last week said they were
given the go-ahead by top South African intelligence officials to
act as consultants to the MPLA government in Angola, the Saturday
Star reported.

The mercenaries, some of whom once worked for Executive
Outcomes, were granted permission by officials to operate in Angola
just over a month ago, the report said.

One of the mercenaries said the group approached the officials,
who were part of an intelligence committee called "something like
the National Conventional Arms Control Committee", because the law
prevents mercenaries from operating from South African soil.

A contract for their services which the mercenaries had
presented to the officials had been signed by the MPLA government,
the Saturday Star reported.

Executive Outcomes is the recently disbanded and controversial
mercenary agency which once operated widely throughout Africa,
using elite former South African soldiers.

"We are merely acting as consultants, based in Luanda, to give
the Angolan forces an appreciation of the situation," the source
told the paper.

@ AFRIKANERS

JOHANNESBURG Jan 1 Sapa

MORE MEETINGS WITH MBEKI TO FOLLOW, SAYS AFRIKANER GROUP

The Interim Afrikaner Council on Friday released a statement
saying its recent meeting with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki about
cultural self-determination for the Afrikaner had been open,
constructive, useful and the first to be followed by others.

The council, which represents 29 organisations, met with Mbeki
on December 15 and discussed Afrikaner identity within the context
of the Constitution, and the Afrikaner and education.

Rotating chairman Dr Callie Coetzee said that at follow-up
negotiations with Mbeki topics like amnesty, affirmative action,
and crime and corruption would be on the agenda.

According to Coetzee the council represents Afrikaners who
aspire to minority rights and corporate self-determination -
including those who aspire to territorial self-determination.

@ BLAST-NNP-DP

CAPE TOWN Jan 2 Sapa

NNP BLAMES 'POOR INTELLIGENCE SERVICES' FOR BLAST

The New National Party on Saturday said government's poor
intelligence capabilities were to blame for the bomb blast at the
Cape Town Waterfront and other terror attacks.

Reacting to Friday's blast at the tourist spot, New NP safety
and security spokesman Piet Matthee said the intelligence
capabilities of the police and the intelligence services had been
severely damaged by "the African National Congress's unbalanced
affirmative action, and the virtual transformation of the
intelligence services into employment bureaux for ANC cadres."

The fact that those responsible for a blast at the Waterfront
four months ago as well as many other bomb attacks had not been
arrested pointed to "inability, lack of political will and reckless
negligence on the part of the ANC government with regard to the
safety and security of all South Africa's people."

The Democratic Party on Saturday said it was appalled by the
bomb blast.

The party's acting leader, Douglas gibson, said, "We strongly
condemn any form of terrorism.

"The Constitution of South Africa eliminates any need to resort
to violence."

The DP hoped that the "evil perpetrators of this senseless and
inhumane deed will be apprehended without delay."

The party appealed to all members of the public who may be able
to assist the South African police to do so immediately.

"The curse of terrorism and violence has no place in South
Africa in this New Year.

"The Democratic Party is firmly on the side of law and order in
South Africa."

@ D/L-BLAST By Francois Krige

CAPE TOWN Jan 2 Sapa

POLICE STUDYING PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO FOOTAGE OF WATERFRONT
BLAST

Police have obtained photographs and video footage of Friday's
car-bomb blast at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in which five
people suffered light injuries and three cars were extensively
damaged.

Police spokeswoman captain Anine de Beer on Saturday said
tourists from Denmark made digital photos available to police,
while a British woman gave them a video she took immediately after
the explosion.

"The photos and video footage, as well as footage of the
Waterfront's own surveillance cameras, will be studied," De Beer
said.

She said bomb experts were still trying to establish what sort
of explosive device was used and forensic experts from Pretoria
would assist in the investigation.

"We believe the bomb was placed in the boot of the white Toyota
which was parked near the entrance to Victoria Wharf. We have
established that the car was stolen in Goodwood between 7pm and
midnight on December 30."

De Beer said no-one has accepted responsibility for the
explosion.

On Saturday the three badly damaged cars and about 40 others
were still parked outside the Victoria Wharf in an area cordoned
off by police.

"We are sorry if we have caused any inconvenience to visitors
to the Waterfront, but the whole area will be searched again before
the owners will be allowed to collect their vehicles."

Many of the vehicles have been scratched and dented by
shrapnel.

Alan Styles, 25, from Johannesburg and local Pick and Pay
employee Warren Williams were treated at the scene for superficial
cuts.

A man and two women were treated for shock, but no other
injuries were reported.

Safety and security minister Sydney Mufamadi said those
responsible for the explosion were cowards who should be condemned
by all peace-loving South Africans.

Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel on Friday said he was
starting to wonder whether a "force with a hidden agenda" could be
responsible for the spate of bombings in the province.

He said it appeared as if there could be a force with a hidden
agenda who wanted to create a perception that there was chaos and a
lack of law and order in the Western Cape.

The Waterfront, Cape Town's premier tourist attraction, was the
scene of a bomb blast four months ago.

Two people were killed and 26 injured in a pipe bomb explosion
at the Planet Hollywood restaurant.

Mufamadi called on anyone with information regarding the bomb
blast to report to the police as soon as possible.

@ BLAST-LD-DP

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

CAR BOMB ON CAPE WATERFRONT WAS COWARDLY: DP

Friday's car bomb blast at the Cape Town Waterfront was a
cowardly deed, designed to damage the country's tourism industry,
maim and instil fear in innocent people, the Democratic Party said
on Saturday.

"No community can allow such evil and faceless people to
intimidate it into impotency. This attack like others during the
past months, was not a case of normal crime, but of urban
terrorism," said DP Western Cape leader, Hennie Bester.

Bester, who is also the province's Business Promotion and
Tourism MEC urged the central government to begin implementing its
anti-terorrism policy to curb further attacks.

Three people were injured when a car bomb exploded in a parking
bay in front of the Victoria Wharf at Cape Town's Waterfront on
Friday night.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said a bomb went off
in a Toyota Corolla shortly after 7pm. Three other cars were
damaged.

Alan Tyles, 25, of Akasia, near Pretoria, was treated at the
scene for cuts to his hands and neck. Police said he would not need
hospitalisation as all his wounds were superficial. He was in Cape
Town on holiday.

A Pick 'n Pay worker and a female visitor who were in the
vicinity when the explosion occurred were treated for shock.

@ BLAST-CHURCH

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

UCCSA CONDEMNS CAPE WATERFRONT CAR BOMB EXPLOSION

The car bomb blast at the Cape Waterfront on Friday night was a
cowardly act and should be deplored in the strongest possible
terms, the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa said on
Saturday.

"Such mindless, random terror, which puts at risk the lives of
innocent bystanders, can only be deplored in the strongest possible
terms.

"It is cause for gratitude that no one was killed and only a
few were slightly injured," the church said in a statement.

A tourists from Akasia, near Pretoria was slightly injured and
two others received shock treatment when a bomb hidden in a Toyota
Corolla exploded at the Waterfront's parking bay shortly after 7pm.

Two other cars were also damaged.

"Coming shortly after our celebration of the birth of the
Prince of Peace, and on a day and in a place where people gather
for the celebration of a New Year, the act is doubly to be
condemned by all the right minded citizens of and visitors to Cape
Town," the church said.

@ PEOPLE OF W.CAPE SICK AND TIRED OF MORKEL'S EXCUSES

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY
WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE

2 January 1999.

ANC SAYS PEOPLE OF W.CAPE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF MORKEL'S EXCUSES

Commenting on Premier Gerald Morkel's attack on central
government in the wake of yesterday's Waterfront bombing, ANC
Western Cape leader Ebrahim Rasool said;

"Once again the Premier has chosen to blame central government.
The people of the Western Cape are sick and tired of Morkel's
excuses. It is time for Mr Morkel and the NP to take a rest and
allow those who have the political will to deal with crime and
terror in this province to take over.

"How can you expect police who are biding their time, waiting
for severance packages, to deal with the problem? Mr Morkel's NP
government have allowed this untenable situation to develop.

"It is the old guard, former security police- dominated police
management of the Western Cape, who are defended on a daily basis of
Morkel and Wiley, who are failing the people of the Western Cape. It
is this management and the politicians who support them, who must
explain why the Western Cape has the highest murder and serious
violent crime rate in South Africa.

"By referring to a sinister force Mr Morkel is running away from
a chaotic situation in the Western Cape police stemming from the
NP's failure to transform police management, to get rid of racism
and deploy resources where they are needed most.

"The car bomb follows a week of almost daily bombings on the
Cape Flats and the Thursday's day gunning down of another Athlone
businessman by masked killers. Mr Morkel's silence on these events
shows how out of touch he is with what is really happening.

"There are serious problems with the intelligence units of the
SAPS in the Western Cape and the failure by provincial management to
commit proper resources to the urban terror campaign is now catching
up with us.

"Unless we act with absolute firmness and get our house in
order, these killers will keep our province in a state of fear.

"We cannot allow an intolerant group of terrorists to destroy
tourism, peace and stability in Cape Town," added Mr Rasool.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape. Further details contact Cameron
Dugmore on 082 894 7553 or pager 4184616 code z7131.

@ HEATH-INVESTIGATION

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

HEATH ISSUES INTERIM INTERDICT AGAINST MPB OFFICIAL

Judge William Heath has issued an interim interdict on a
Mpumalanga Parks Board employee following the discovery of
irregularities in the management of the Nelspruit Development
Trust.

Jonathan Dutton of the Heath anti-corruption investigative unit
told Sapa similar interdicts were also served on a Durban based
broker and a merchant bank based in the same city.

The interdicts were issued on December 31 but Dutton declined
to name the people and companies affected saying they had not yet
responded to it.

He said the ivestigation was on request of Mpumalanga premier,
Mathews Phosa.

The Nelspruit Development Trust was set up by the MPB with the
board's chief executive officer, Alan Grey, as the sole trustee.

It is alleged the official, employed in the financial section
of the MPB, invested funds intended for the Nelspruit Development
Trust without authorisation from the board of directors as is
required by law.

He appointed an agent of his choice to exercise complete
control of a R1,8-million insurance payout - for the trust's
property which was burnt down in Emerlo in 1998 - without the
board's authority.

The urgent interim interdict, which was issued by Heath for 48
hours pending a ratification by the tribunal court, seeks to stop
the three parties from withdrawing, accessing, negotiating or
dealing with the funds.

Grey has since been suspended as CEO of the MPB by Phosa on
allegations of impropriety involving promissory notes worth
R340-million.

Dutton said preliminary enquiries by the unit revealed that
Grey was not consulted in the investments - which are likely to
prejudice the MPB.

@ BLAST-FF

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

WATERFRONT TOP TERRORIST TARGET IN SA: FF

The Freedom Front on Saturday said the second bombing at the
Cape Waterfront in four months confirmed its warning that the
Waterfront was now one of the top terrorist targets in the country.

FF safety and security spokesman Joseph Chiole on Saturday
reacted to Friday night's bombing at the Waterfront in which five
people were injured when a car bomb exploded.

The bomb was placed in the boot of a stolen white Toyota which
was parked near the entrance to Victoria Wharf.

Alan Styles, 25, from Johannesburg and local Pick and Pay
employee Warren Williams were treated at the scene for superficial
cuts.

A man and two women were treated for shock, but no other
injuries were reported.

Four months ago a pipe bomb exploded in the Planet Hollywood
restaurant leaving one person dead and 26 injured.

"The second explosion confirms our warning four months ago that
the Cape Waterfront has become one of the top terrorist targets in
the country."

Chiole said before the explosion at Planet Hollywood in August,
gunmen also shot and killed a number of civilians in a shoutout
near the Waterfront.

"The ANC government is fully to blame for the collapse of the
security situation in South Africa," Chiole said.

He said there was concern over whether the ANC really had the
will to restore law and order.

Chiole added that the latest bombing would harm tourism to the
area and it would also increase the perception that South Africa
was one of the most violent countries in the world.

@ TRAFFIC

DURBAN Jan 2 Sapa

KZN ROAD DEATH TOLL UP TO 139, NATIONAL TOLL AT 696

KwaZulu-Natal still has the highest number of road deaths for
the festive season with the latest figure standing at 139,
KwaZulu-Natal Traffic Inspectorate spokesman Logan Maistry reported
on Saturday.

He said the province was extremely busy on Saturday, with 3000
vehicles per hour passing through KwaZulu-Natal on the way to
Gauteng.

In the latest report of a fatal car crash in KwaZulu-Natal, one
person was killed and 25 were injured on Friday night when the
driver of an overloaded, open-top Isuzu bakkie lost control of the
vehicle near the Effingham Bridge on the N2 near Durban.

Paramedics stabilised the injured before taking them to
hospital.

The Road Traffic Inspectorate's special operations group also
arrested ten drunk drivers in and around the Durban metropolitan
area on New Year's Day between 2am and noon.

One driver produced an alcohol level reading of 0,215: almost
three times the legal limit of 0,08.

Arrive Alive spokesman Johann Kilian on Saturday said the
latest national road death toll was 696.

The Western Cape have the second highest number of deaths this
festive season, with 109, and Gauteng is in third place with 96.

Kilian said the N1 in the Western Cape was expected to reach
five times its normal carrying capacity by Saturday afternoon.

The number of cars on the road would pick up considerably by
lunchtime on Sunday countrywide and the situation would be similar
next weekend with schools starting again in mid-January, he added.

However, the worst had passed and Arrive Alive did not expect
traffic to reach the same peaks in January as it did on the 15th
and 24th of December, Kilian said.

@ ANGOLA-2ND-LD-UN

LUANDA, Angola Jan 2 Sapa-AP

U.N INVESTIGATES CLAIMS THAT REBELS ARE HOLDING CRASH SURVIVORS

The United Nations mission in Angola is trying to contact the
leaders of the UNITA rebel group to check government claims that
their organization is holding survivors from a U.N.-chartered plane
that crashed last week, a spokesman said Saturday.

"This is excellent news if it's true," U.N. spokesman
Hamadoun Toure said of the government claim. "We're trying to
contact the UNITA leadership to confirm it."

There were eight U.N. peacekeepers and six other people on
board the C-130 that crashed Dec. 26 over a war zone near Huambo,
about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda.

Toure said a rescue team was on standby in Huambo, the
country's second-largest city where the United Nations still has
more than 100 staff. They were sent there to verify the
implementation of Angola's now shattered 1994 peace accord.

Army spokesman Brig. Manuel Jota said on Friday that captured
rebels had told the army they shot down the plane, and that an
unknown number of survivors were being held at rebel bases in
highlands near Huambo.

He did not say how many of the 14 people on board had survived,
and the report could not be independently confirmed.

UNITA officials were not immediately available for comment, but
the rebels have denied any involvement in the crash and said they
have no information about possible survivors.

The Angolan government has often used the radio to broadcast
claims against UNITA that are difficult to verify because of the
remoteness of many regions in Angola.

A U.N. special envoy was expected to arrive early next week in
Angola to make arangements for a team to search the site where the
plane crashed.

Toure said the United Nations would not consider traveling to
the site before receiving a guarantee of safe passage from UNITA
rebels fighting government forces in the area.

The governmen has aid it will cooperate fully in U.N. efforts
to reach the plane.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the rebels for failing
to help the United Nations determine the fate of the people on the
plane.

Toure said the rebels had yet to respond to Thursday's demand
from the Security Council that UNITA immediately give a U.N. team
safe passage to search the site.

The United Nations brokered the 1994 peace accord to end a
two-decade civil war between the government and UNITA - a
Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola.

But UNITA refused to relinquish control of its central highland
strongholds and maintained a 30,000-strong army hidden in the bush.

@ HILLBROW-CLEANUP

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

"A-TEAM" CLEANS UP HILLBROW AFTER NEW YEAR'S BASH

Halfway through the second day of a special clean-up operation
in Hillbrow following New Year's Eve partying, Johannesburg council
cleaning department spokeswoman Isabel Esbach said the blitz was
going very well.

Hillbrow residents threw furniture and bottles out of windows
and fired on police in armoured vehicles on Thursday night in what
police say has become a traditional way of celebrating New Year's
eve in the inner city.

Revellers left filth and debris all over the streets of
Hillbrow, prompting the Johannesburg metro council to send in
additional cleaners.

A special "A-Team", including workers from Johannesburg,
Eastern and Southern municipal structures, started work in Hillbrow
on New Years Day and were expected to finish on Sunday evening.

The southern and eastern workers also brought with them extra
vehicles, said Esbach.

Initially, the council thought it would be too dangerous to
start cleaning on New Year's day as it was feared those still in a
party mood would drop objects from flat windows onto cleaners.

Esbach said there had been no incidents of violence against
council staff, adding that working in teams helped prevent attacks.

The clean-up started on Friday when the A-Team cleared large
pieces of debri - like bed bases - off the streets.

"It was a very tough day," said Esbach.

Phase Two involved "gang sweeping" in which two teams of three
street sweepers moved along either side of the road while being
supervised.

@ ANGOLA-SA

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

SA NOT REQUESTED TO SEND TROOPS TO ANGOLA: MBEKI

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday said South Africa's
has not been requested to send troops to war-torn Angola and
remains committed to the United Nations diplomatic initiatives in
that country.

Mbeki's spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa told Sapa rumours that SA was
going to send troops to help quell the renewed civil war were
untrue.

"Currently the UN has deployed a force in Angola and there has
been no request for further deployment of troops in Angola,"
Mamoepa said.

He said SA unequivocally threw its weight behind statements
made by the president of the UN Security Council calling for the
observation and implementation of the Lusaka protocol, the
demobilisation of warring parties and an end to hostilities.

"We remain convinced that the ultimate solution remains a
peaceful negotiated settlement, Mamoepa said."

The southern African country was plunged back into civil war
between the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola
(MPLA) and Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola (UNITA) in the past nine months.

Many of the UNITA rebel troops failed to demobilise and disarm
in line with a peace pact signed in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1994.

The government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos estimates
that Savimbi still has some 35000 men under arms.

The whereabouts of eight UN peacekeepers and six other people
on board a C-130 Hercules plane which was shot down on December 26
- allegedly by Unita - over a war zone near Huambo, about 500
kilometers southeast of the capital, Luanda, were also still
unknown.

UN detectives are investigating claims by a Unita general that
the people in the plane were being held hostage by Unita rebels.

Heavy fighting, claiming more than 1000 victims, was reported
this week in Huambo and the strategic town of Kuito, also in
central Angola.

The impasse fuelled speculation that SA would enter the fray
either in a peace-keeping role or to prop up dos Santos'
government.

@ ANGOLA-NL-UN

LUANDA, Angola Jan 2 Sapa-AP

U.N INVESTIGATES CLAIMS THAT REBELS ARE HOLDING CRASH SURVIVORS

The United Nations mission in Angola wants to ask UNITA rebel
leaders about governent claims that the movement is holding
survivors from a U.N.-chartered plane that crashed last week, a
spokesman said Saturday.

"This is excellent news if it's true," U.N. spokesman
Hamadoun Toure said of the government claim. "We're trying to
contact the UNITA leadership to confirm it."

But a UNITA official told The Associated Press he was unaware
of any crash survivors.

"It went down in flames. I can't believe there are any
survivors," UNITA Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba Gato said by
satellite telephone.

Gato said he had not been contacted by the United Nations, and
he called government claims of survivors a ploy.

"They know (the passengers) died, but they want to get some
political advantage out of making UNITA look bad," he claimed.

There were eight U.N. peacekeepers and six other people on
board the C-130 that crashed Dec. 26 over a war zone near Huambo,
about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the rebels for failing
to help the United Nations determine the fate of the crash victims
and has signaled it may take unspecified action against UNITA.

Gato dismissed U.N. penalties, saying they "would have no
effect."

Toure said a rescue team was on standby in Huambo, the
country's second-largest city, where the United Nations has more
than 100 workers. They were sent there to verify the implementation
of Angola's 1994 peace accord, which ended a two-decade civil war.

Army spokesman Brig. Manuel Jota said Friday that captured
rebels had told the army that they shot down the plane and that an
unknown number of survivors were being held at rebel bases in
highlands near Huambo.

He did not say how many of the 14 people on board had survived,
and the report could not be independently confirmed.

The Angolan government has often made claims against UNITA that
are difficult to verify because of the remoteness of many regions
in Angola.

UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola - stymied implementation of the 1994
peace pact by refusing to relinquish control of its central
highland strongholds and by keeping a 30,000-strong army hidden in
the bush.

The accord unraveled in December when government troops tried
to take the strongholds by force and were beaten back. Both sides
returned to a war footing, and battles have focused around Huambo -
the town near the crash site - and Kuito, 130 kilometers (80 miles)
away.

A U.N. special envoy was expected to arrive early next week in
Angola to make arrangements for a team to search the crash site.

Toure said the United Nations would not go to the site without
a guarantee of safe passage from UNITA rebels fighting government
forces in the area. The rebels had not responded to a Security
Council request made Thursday for safe passage, Toure said.

Gato claimed he had not been contacted by the U.N. mission.

The government has said it will cooperate fully in U.N. efforts
to reach the plane.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA, Angola Jan 2 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN ARMY CLAIMS BATTLEFIELD VICTORIES, ALLEGES REBEL
ATTROCITIES

Angola's army said Saturday it had driven rebel forces out of
three towns around the besieged government-held city of Kuito, and
alleged that the rebels were committing atrocities against
civilians in the area.

State radio RNA, quoting unidentified government sources, said
displaced people arriving in Kuito reported that the UNITA rebels
were killing state employees in the region.

The rebels had lined up government workers on the ground and
driven over them with a tank, according to the report.

There was no independent verification of the claim.

A UNITA spokesman denied the report.

"It's a lie," UNITA Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba Gato said
by satellite telephone.

The Angolan government has often used the radio to broadcast
claims against UNITA that are difficult to verify because of the
remoteness of many regions in the vast southwest African country.

A government counteroffensive in the central highlands around
Kuito had retaken three small towns in recent days, private station
Radio Eclesia reported, citing unnamed government sources.

The army seized control of Cantao, Catama, and Chilonda from
where the rebels were bombarding Kuito with long-range artillery,
according to the report.

Government troops were said to have inflicted 38 casualties and
captured two rebel tanks in the battles, about 500 kilometers (300
miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda.

Gato did not deny the report but said the towns were "small,
irrelevant places," and added that the rebels would maintain their
pressure on Kuito.

He said rebel forces shot down a government MiG-23 jet fighter
in fighting Friday.

Rebels encircled Kuito after fighting restarted Dec. 4,
shattering the U.N.-brokered 1994 peace deal that halted a
two-decade civil war.

State radio said there was a high risk of epidemics breaking
out in Kuito where about 30,000 displaced people have joined the
local population of some 100,000.

@ ANGOLA-LD-SA

PRETORIA Jan 2 Sapa

NO REQUESTS TO HELP WARRING PARTIES IN ANGOLA: DFA

There had been no application from any South African
organisations or individuals, or from foreign organisations or
individuals based in this country, to render military assistance to
warring parties in Angola, the Department of Foreign Affairs said
on Saturday

Responding to claims of South African mercenaries were
operating in Angola, the DFA said there had been no such request
since the Foreign Military Act became effective in September.

A departmental statement said the government would welcome any
proof that substantiated the allegations referred to in the
Saturday Star.

It said any transgression to the act would be thoroughly
investigated, and if proven correct, culprits would be prosecuted.

The newspaper reported that South African mercenaries had been
allowed to operate in Angola.

It said the group of mercenaries, with who had worked in Sierra
Leone and Angola, had approached an intelligence committee to
"avoid" breaking the law that prevented mercenaries from operating
from South African soil.

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki earlier Saturday said South
Africa's had not been requested to send troops to war-torn Angola
and remained committed to the United Nations diplomatic initiatives
in that country.

Mbeki's spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa told Sapa rumours that SA was
going to send troops to help quell the renewed civil war were
untrue.

"Currently the UN has deployed a force in Angola and there has
been no request for further deployment of troops in Angola,"
Mamoepa said.

"We remain convinced that the ultimate solution remains a
peaceful negotiated settlement, Mamoepa said."

@ ANGOLA-PLANE

LUANDA, Jan 2, Sapa-AFP

SECOND UN PLANE SHOT DOWN NEAR HUAMBO, ANGOLAN RADIO SAYS

A C-130 cargo plane carrying seven passengers, including United
Nations personnel, on Saturday was shot down by rebels near the
central Angolan town of Huambo, the local state-run radio said.

The plane, which had taken off for Luanda, was hit by fire from
Alto-Chyumbu, seven kilometers (four miles) from the airport,
before crashing 20 kilometers (13 miles) away, the radio added.

A week ago, another C-130 carrying UN personnel crashed after
taking off from the same airport, which is in a battle zone between
Angolan government forces and rebels from the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

The 14 people on board that plane, which was chartered by the
UN World Food Programme (WFP), were alive and held hostage by UNITA
forces, Angolan army general Joo "Jota" Manuel told state radio
Friday.

The UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) also said it received
radio signals indicating that there may have been survivors from
the crash

Although the Luanda government has agreed to ensure the safety
of UN search and rescue teams, UNITA has declined to do the same,
saying it had not been contacted by MONUA concerning the plane.

Meanwhile, UNITA said Saturday it had on Friday shot down a
MiG-23 fighter jet from the Angola air force in the same area.

The plane was hit "in the theater of operations," and "crashed
near the capital's (Huambo) airport," a UNITA communique sent to
the agency LUSA in Lisbon said.

The communique, issued by the movement's information office in
Bailundo, central Angola, accused the Angolan government of "using
its air force for massive bombardments of cities, tons, and even
croplands."

@ ANGOLA-MISSIONARIES

ROME, Jan 2, Sapa-AFP

EIGHT "MISSING" MISSIONARIES ARE SAFE IN ANGOLA

Eight Roman Catholic missionaries, who live in the northern
Angolan province of Uige but had not been heard from for several
months, are well, the missionary agency Misna said here Saturday.

Four priests, Emidio Demeneghi and his brother Mariano
Demeneghi who live in Cangola, and Marino Gallinaro and Rino Vezzu
who live in Sanza Pombo, are fine and continue their work, Misna
was told by Father Michele Bottacin.

The priests live in an area controlled by the rebel National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Bottacin, a director of missions for the Capuchin friars in
Angola, also said four nuns living in Sanza Pombo, two Italians and
two Angolans, had finally been located and were in good health.

On the other hand, nothing has been heard from Father Graziano
De Angeli or from two other nuns who work in Damba, also in Uige
province.

@ ANGOLA-LD-PLANE

LUANDA, Angola Jan 2 Sapa-AP

U.N. PLANE SHOT DOWN IN ANGOLA

Rebel forces Saturday shot down a C-130 cargo plane chartered
by the United Nations that was carrying eight people, the United
Nations mission here said.

It was the second U.N. plane to crash in the central highland
war zone in eight days.

The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire 20 minutes after it
took off from the city of Huambo in the central highlands, about
500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda, U.N.
spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.

It was carrying four Angolans, two Filipinos, one American, and
a Namibian, according to Toure. Four of those on board were crew
members, three were United Nations staff and another was working
for the World Food Program, Toure said. He declined to give their
names.

Rebel officials were unavailable for comment late Saturday.

The plane, which was chartered from the TransAfric company and
was en route to the capital, Luanda, tried to return to Huambo
airport after it was hit but it crashed 80 kilometers (50 miles)
from the city in an area held by the rebel group UNITA, Toure said.

Toure did not know if there were any survivors. The U.N.
mission was attempting to contact UNITA to find out more about the
crash, he said.

Another U.N.-chartered plane with 14 people on board crashed in
the same area Dec. 26 when it was flying over an area of fighting
between the government army and rebels.

The United Nations mission in Angola wants to ask UNITA rebel
leaders about government claims that the movement is holding
survivors from that crash, Toure said.

"This is excellent news if it's true," U.N. spokesman
Hamadoun Toure said of the government claim. "We're trying to
contact the UNITA leadership to confirm it."

But a UNITA official told The Associated Press he was unaware
of any crash survivors.

"It went down in flames. I can't believe there are any
survivors," UNITA Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba Gato said by
satellite telephone.

Gato said he had not been contacted by the United Nations, and
he called government claims of survivors a ploy.

"They know (the passengers) died, but they want to get some
political advantage out of making UNITA look bad," he claimed.

There were eight U.N. peacekeepers and six other people on
board the plane.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the rebels for failing
to help the United Nations determine the fate of the crash victims
and has signaled it may take unspecified action against UNITA.

Gato dismissed U.N. penalties, saying they "would have no
effect."

He did not say how many of the 14 people on board had survived,
and the report could not be independently confirmed.

The Angolan government has often made claims against UNITA that
are difficult to verify because of the remoteness of many regions
in Angola.

A U.N. special envoy was expected to arrive early next week in
Angola to make arrangements for a team to search the crash site.

Gato claimed he had not been contacted by the U.N. mission.

The government has said it will cooperate fully in U.N. efforts
to reach the plane.

@ BLAST-WARNING

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

WESTERN CAPE VIOLENCE WILL ESCALATE, WARNS TOP POLICEMAN

The Western Cape is "out of control" and will soon be more
violent than Kwazulu-Natal, a senior policeman seconded to the
Safety and Security Secretariat has told the Sunday Times
newspaper.

Reacting to the New Year's Day car bomb which slightly injured
two people at Cape Town's crowded Waterfront development, Assistant
Director Base Basson said: "With the election, this whole thing is
going to escalate.

"It is going to be far worse than Kwazulu-Natal."

Basson, who has been assigned by the secretariat to investigate
gang violence in the province, said the Waterfront had become an
effective arena for those wanting to make a high-profile impact.

He said gang violence, bombings and attacks by fundamentalist
groups had escalated to such an extent that the province was
descending into "an orgy of violence.

"I am very concerned - there seems to be no end in sight.

"It's just very difficult to predict where the next bomb will
go off."

There were 70 pipe-bomb attacks in the province last year.

@ BLAST-CAMERAS

JOHANNESBURG Jan 2 Sapa

WATERFRONT CAMERAS WERE ANGLED AWAY: REPORT

In what it described as a disastrous blow for the police
investigation into the car bomb explosion at Cape Town's Waterfront
development on New Year's day, the Sunday Independent newspaper
reported that security cameras had once again failed to capture
images of the perpetrators of the crime.

The closed-circuit camera located directly above the area where
the car containing the bomb was parked was angled away, the
newspaper said.

Anine de Beer of the Cape Town police said explosives experts
from Pretoria were assisting in the investigation into the bombing.

"It's disappointing that the cameras did not capture the driver
of the car or the explosion," she said.

Four months ago police investigations into the Planet Hollywood
restaurant bombing, which claimed the lives of two people and
injured 26, ground to a halt after it was found that the closed
circuit cameras there had not been switched on.

@ TODAY IN HISTORY (Jan 8)

Highlights in Southern African history:

JAN 8:

1806 - Battle of Blaauwberg, followed by second British occupation of
the Cape.

1914 - Railway strike declared in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

1973 - Two South African policemen are killed and five
policemen (two South African and three Rhodesian) injured in an
explosion near the Zambezi River in north-western Rhodesia.

1987 - ANC president Oliver Tambo, in a speech in Lusaka to
mark 75th anniversary of founding of the ANC, declares 1987 to
be "the year of advance to people's power".

1989 - The ANC announces that it will be moving its guerrilla
camps from Angola. It says it plans to dismantle the camps in
support of the regional peace accord.

1990 - The ANC calls on all South Africans who value freedom,
justice and peace to unite and finally put an end to apartheid
and transform South Africa into a united, democratic, and
non-racial country.

1990 - Nelson Mandela requests that his wife Winnie visit him
at Victor Verster Prison, Paarl, to discuss arrangements for
his release after more than a quarter of a century in jail.

@ ANGOLA-UN-PLANE

LUANDA, Angola Jan 3 Sapa-AP

Second U.N. PLANE IN TWO WEEKS SHOT DOWN IN ANGOLA

U.N. officials Sunday pleaded for information and access to a
U.N.-chartered cargo plane shot down by rebel forces, the second
United Nations plane attacked in Angola in eight days.

The C-130 aircraft, with eight people aboard, was hit by
anti-aircraft fire 20 minutes after it took off from the city of
Huambo Saturday, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) southeast of the
capital, Luanda, U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.

The plane was carrying four Angolans, two Filipinos, an
American and a Namibian, Toure said. Four of those aboard were crew
members, three were from the United Nations and another was working
for the World Food Program. Toure refused to give their names or
further information about them, and said it wasn't known if there
were any survivors.

The plane, chartered from the TransAfric company, was headed to
Luanda. After it was hit, the aircraft tried to return to Huambo
airport, but crashed about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside the
city in an area held by the rebel group UNITA, Toure said.

UNITA rebel officials were not available for comment.

Another U.N.-chartered C-130 with 14 people aboard - including
eight U.N. peacekeepers - crashed in the same area Dec. 26 while
flying over an area of fighting between the government army and
rebels.

The plane that crashed Saturday was carrying U.N. equipment out
of Huambo. Last week, the United Nations evacuated dozens of staff
members from the city after it was briefly shelled by the advancing
rebels. More than 100 U.N. staff remain in Huambo.

Toure said the United Nations has suspended all flights in the
country through Monday and was waiting for more information from
UNITA before sending a rescue team to the area.

The U.N. mission in Angola already wants to ask UNITA rebel
leaders about government claims that the movement is holding
survivors from the earlier crash. A rebel leader told The
Associated Press earlier Saturday that government claims of
survivors were a ploy.

"It went down in flames. I can't believe there are any
survivors," UNITA Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba Gato said by
telephone. "They know (the passengers) died, but they want to get
some political advantage out of making UNITA look bad."

On Friday, army spokesman Brig. Manuel Jota said captured
rebels had told the government they shot down the plane in the
first crash and that an unknown number of survivors were being held
at rebel bases near Huambo.

Jota did not say how many of those aboard had survived, and the
report could not be independently confirmed.

The Angolan government has often used the radio to broadcast
claims against UNITA that are difficult to verify because of the
remoteness of many regions of the country.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the rebels for failing
to help the United Nations determine the fate of the crash victims
and has signaled it may take unspecified action against UNITA.

On Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterated the
plea for the government and rebels to assist in rescue efforts.

"All threats to U.N. personnel - in the air and on the ground
- must cease immediately," Annan said in a statement, urging both
sides to observe an immediate cease-fire.

Washington also insisted Saturday that UNITA and the government
cooperate with efforts to reach the crash sites.

"The United States is shocked and saddened by the loss of a
second United Nations Observer Mission in Angola plane," acting
State Department spokesman Lee McClenny said in a statement.

The accord unraveled in December when government troops tried
to take the strongholds by force and were beaten back. Recent
battles have focused around Huambo - the town near the crash site -
and Kuito, 80 miles (130 kilometers) away.

@ LOCKERBIE-BRITAIN-SA

LONDON Jan 3 Sapa-AFP

BLAIR TO APPEAL FOR MANDELA'S HELP IN LOCKERBIE IMPASSE

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to launch a fresh appeal
to South African President Nelson Mandela to broker a deal with the
Libyan government over the Lockerbie trial, he said on Sunday.

Blair, who embarks on a four-day visit to South Africa on
Wednesday, told the British weekly Sunday Business that Mandela has
played a "unique and important role" in trying to resolve the
controversy.

And he said he will be asking the South African leader to
intervene again to get the two suspects released from Libya for
trial.

He said: "I will explain that we have now done all we
reasonably can to resolve the impasse over the trial.

"The UK-US initiative for a trial in the Netherlands has been
on the table for four months. I will appeal to President Mandela to
convince the Libyan government that a third-country trial should
now proceed."

Britain and the United States agreed in August that the two
Libyans, Abdel Basset Ali el-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah,
could be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law by Scottish
judges, dropping demands that they be tried by a US or British
court.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi agreed to the arrangement in
principle, prompting the UN Security Council to vote unanimously
for lifting the sanctions once the two were extradited for trial.

But he has since demanded a number of guarantees about the fate
of the two men, particularly that they be imprisoned in the
Netherlands, and not shipped to Britain or the United States, if
found guilty.

The two are suspected of carrying out the December 21, 1988
bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, which left 270
people dead.

US President Bill Clinton ruled out any negotiations with
Tripoli on the matter, during a ceremony marking the 10th
anniversary of the bombing in December.

@ TODAY IN HISTORY (Jan 7)

Today is Thursday, Jan. 7, the 7th day of 1999. There are 358 days left
in the year.

Highlights in SA history on this date:

1824 - First issue appears of the South African Commercial Advertiser,
edited by Pringle and Fairbairn at 1 Long Market Street, Cape Town

1846 - Violent north-westerly gale in Table Bay wrecks the Frances
Spaight with the loss of 20 lives.

1848 - Xhosa Chief Sandili pledges allegiance to the British Government
in the presence of Governor Sir Harry Smith in King William's Town.

1903 - Boer generals report in Pretoria on their European tour where
they collected funds for Boer relief.

1908 - Miss Cecilia Makiwane is admitted to the "register for
general nurses of the Colonial Medical Council" and becomes the
first black woman to be registered as a professional nurse in
South Africa. Miss Makiwane is registered as a general nurse at
Lovedale Hospital in the Eastern Cape, having qualified the
previous month at Butterworth Hospital.

@ ANGOLA-PLANE-AUSTRALIA

CANBERRA Jan 3 Sapa-AFP

AUSTRALIA CONCERNED AT BLOCKING OF UN PLANE RESCUE EFFORTS IN
ANGOLA

Australia is deeply concerned by the blocking of attempts to
send a rescue mission to the site where a UN plane crashed in
Angola, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Sunday.

An Australian lawyer, Patrick Luckman, was one of 14 people on
the plane when it crashed in a remote area of Angola a week ago.

But conflicting reports about the fate of those on board and
the crash site's location in a battle zone between Angolan
government forces and UNITA rebels have hindered UN rescue
attempts.

"These (conflicting) reports are placing an intolerable burden
on the families of those who were on board the aircraft," Downer
said in a statement Sunday.

"United Nations officials in Angola are still having difficulty
getting to the truth of the matter and the Australian government
would be extremely concerned if the crash develops into some kind
of propaganda game between UNITA forces and the Angolan
government."

Downer said he had asked Australia's ambassador to the UN,
Penny Wensley, to express the country's concern over the frustrated
efforts to reach the crash site to United Nations Secretary General
Kofi Annan.

Annan has called on the Angolan government and UNITA rebels to
observe an immediate ceasefire to permit search-and-rescue
missions.

UNITA rebels over the weekend shot down a second UN C-130
plane, carrying seven people including UN personnel.

Australia also had sent High Commissioner to Harare Denise
Fischer to Angola to speak with government officials and, if
possible, representatives of UNITA in the hope of gaining access to
the crash site for UN officials.

"There are compelling humanitarian reasons to allow access
because of the continuing great distress to the families of those
on board," Downer said.

Angolan army general Joo "Jota" Manuel told state radio Friday
that the 14 people aboard the first plane were alive and held
hostage by UNITA forces.

Although the Luanda government has agreed to ensure the safety
of UN search and rescue teams, UNITA has declined to do the same,
saying it had not been contacted by United Nations Observer Mission
in Angola (MONUA) concerning the planes.

@ CRIME-CLAREMONT

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

WCAPE POLICE STATION ROBBED BY FIVE ARMED MEN

The Claremont police station in the Western Cape was robbed by
five armed men at 3am on Sunday morning.

Police spokesman Captain Jaques Wiese said the suspects walked
into the police station disguised with scarves.

They held the three duty policemen at gunpoint and demanded the
keys to the safe.

The policeman in possession of the keys was assaulted before he
and his colleagues were locked inside a holding cell, Wiese said.

The robbers stole 15 pistols, four shotguns, four R5 rifles,
two radios, nine bulletprof vets, over 700 rounds of ammunition
and R3600 in bail money from the safe before they escaped in a
black Mercedes Benz.

Two patrolling police officers returned to the police station
at 4.30am and discovered their colleagues locked in a cell.

Wiese said a team of detectives had been assigned to the case.

He was not prepared to comment on the possibility of a link
between the Claremont robbery and a similar robbery at a Port
Elizabeth police station two weeks ago.

"We're investigating all possibilities," he said, adding that
police officials would also be examining the possibility of
increased security measures at police stations.

@ SA-BLAIR

PRETORIA Jan 3 Sapa

MBEKI INVITES TONY BLAIR TO SA; BOTH TO CO-CHAIR UK/SA FORUM

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit South Africa from
January 6 to 9 at the invitation of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki,
the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

Blair would be accompanied by his wife, Cherie, and a number of
policy advisers, the department said in a statement in Pretoria.

As part of the visit, Blair and Mbeki would co-chair the second
meeting of the United Kingdom/South Africa Bilateral Forum in
Pretoria on January 7.

The department said the first meeting of the UK/South Africa
Bilateral Forum took place when Mbeki visited London in November
1997.

At this meeting the United Kingdom and South Africa reaffirmed
their close and wide-ranging links, and agreed to meet annually to
discuss matters of mutual interest.

During the upcoming meeting Blair, who would be visiting both
Gauteng and the Western Cape, would also meet President Nelson
Mandela.

"This visit will further broaden the partnership between South
Africa and the United Kingdom," said the department. "The United
Kingdom remains South Africa's strongest trade and investment
partner."

Total trade between the two countries during 1997 amounted to
R31,8 billion. For the first 10 months of 1998 the figure amounted
to R21,4 billion. United Kingdom companies had invested nearly R10
billion in South Africa since the 1994 general election.

@ D/L-BLAST by Francois Krige

CAPE TOWN Jan 3 Sapa

POLICE BAFFLED BY WATERFRONT BOMB

Police were on Sunday still baffled about the composition of
the bomb used in Friday's car-bomb explosion at Cape Town's
Victoria and Alfred Waterfront which injured five people.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said forensic experts
from Pretoria were assisting with the investigation, but that they
had not yet established which type of bomb was used.

Police have offered a reward of R50,000 for information leading
to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Three people, Alan Styles from Johannesburg, Jan Owies of
Kraaifontein and Rooken Dorsany of Pietermaritzburg were treated
for light lacerations at the scene, while a man and a woman, who
have not been identified, were treated for shock.

In most of the 70 explosions which occurred in the Western Cape
last year, pipe-bombs were used.

The pipe-bombs became more sophisticated as timer and remote
control devises were used while nails were usually attached to the
bombs to create extra shrapnel. It could not be established whether
these tell-tale clues were found at the scene.

After the bomb explosion at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at
the Waterfront on August 25 when two people died and 26 were
injured, police confirmed that a pipe bomb was used and that it
could be linked to at least 14 other Western Cape explosions.

De Beer said police were still studying photographs and video
footage of the latest scene.

"Unfortunately the revolving security camera near the blast was
turned away when the explosion occurred, but it did record the
scene prior to, and after the explosion, and could contain valuable
clues," De Beer said.

She said police believed the bomb was placed in the boot of a
white Toyota which was parked near the entrance to Victoria Wharf.

"We have established that the car was stolen in Goodwood
between 7pm and midnight on December 30."

De Beer said no-one has accepted responsibility for the
explosion.

She confirmed that police were aware that the recently released
film "The Siege" was showing at the Waterfront in which Islam and
Muslims were portrayed as terrorists, and said police would look
into all possibilities.

Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel on Friday said he was
starting to wonder whether a "force with a hidden agenda" could be
responsible for the spate of bombings in the province.

He said it appeared as if there could be a force with a hidden
agenda who wanted to create a perception that there was chaos and a
lack of law and order in the Western Cape.

@ FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON BLAIR VISIT TO SA

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE OFFICIAL VISIT BY THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER,
MR TONY BLAIR TO SOUTH AFRICA - 6 TO 9 JANUARY 1999

The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, accompanied by Mrs
Cherie Blair and a number of policy advisers, will be visiting South
Africa at the invitation of the Deputy President, Mr Mbeki from 6 to
9 January 1999.

One of the focal points of the visit will be to co-chair with
Deputy President Mbeki the second meeting of the United
Kingdom/South Africa Bilateral Forum on 7 January 1999 in Pretoria.

The first meeting of the UK/SA Bilateral Forum took place when
Deputy President Mbeki visited London in November 1997. At this
meeting the United Kingdom and South Africa reaffirmed their close
and wide-ranging links and agreed to meet annually to discuss
matters of mutual interest. During the visit Mr Blair who will be
visiting both the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces, will also meet
with President Mandela. This visit will further broaden the
partnership between South Africa and the United Kingdom. The United
Kingdom remains South Africa's strongest trade and investment
partner. Total trade between the two countries during 1997 amount to
R31,8 billion. For the first 10 months of 1998 the figure amounts to
R21,4 billion. United Kingdom companies have invested nearly R10
billion in South Africa since the 1994 elections.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
3 JANUARY 1999

@ INTERNET-MALARIA

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

NEW INTERNET-BASED MALARIA STUDY LAUNCHED

British Airways Travel Clinics in South Africa on Sunday
announced the launch of a unique internet-based malaria study.

Spokesman Dr Andrew Jamieson said the new website would give
malaria victims the opportunity to report the circumstances of how
they contracted their illness.

"Surprisingly little detailed information is available on where
and how travellers contract malaria. We strongly suspect that many
are the victims of poor pre-travel advice," Jamieson said.

The website would not only help other travellers to avoid the
disease, but would also encourage people to share information on
malaria medication.

"To ensure patient confidentiality all information will be
secured and accessed only by the medical staff of British Airways
Travel Clinics," Jamieson said.

The address of the site is http://www.malaria.co.za

@ TRAFFIC by Gillian Farquar

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

HOLIDAY ROAD DEATH TOLL AT 707 AS PEOPLE HEAD HOME

The Arrive Alive campaign on Sunday said that traffic volumes
on the country's highways were expected to be between five and
seven times higher than usual as people headed back home after the
holidays.

Arrive Alive spokesman Daniel Genge said that up to midday on
Sunday 707 people had died on South African roads since December 1.

Of these deaths, 96 had occurred in Gauteng; 141 in
KwaZulu-Natal; 110 in the Western Cape; 27 in the Northern Cape; 86
in the Eastern Cape; 47 in the North West; 58 in the Northern
Province; 68 in Mpumalanga and 74 in the Free State.

There had been 521 fatal crashes involving the deaths of 234
drivers, 246 passengers and 227 pedestrians. Genge said the cause
of most of these accidents was high speed and drunk driving.

The traffic volume on the N3 from Pietermaritzburg to
Johannesburg on Sunday was 3000 vehicles per hour up to midday, and
this was expected to rise in the afternoon.

On the N1 from Cape Town to Johannesburg, the traffic volume
was 2000 vehicles per hour, while on the N1 from Pietersburg to
Pretoria and Johannesburg, it was 3000 vehicles per hour up to
midday.

On the N4 from Nelspruit to Johannesburg, traffic flow was
recorded at 1300 vehicles per hour.

Over 100 road blocks had been set up on Sunday throughout the
country, Genges said.

@ ANGOLA-UN-LD-PLANE

LUANDA Jan 3 Sapa-AFP

UN SUSPENDS HUAMBO FLIGHTS AFTER SECOND PLANE DOWNED IN ANGOLA

The UN mission in Angola on Sunday suspended all flights in the
Huambo region of embattled central Angola after a transport plane
was apparently shot down, a week after a similar incident.

Official sources in Luanda said that air operations to and from
Huambo city on the central high plateau some 600 kilometres (370
miles) from the coastal capital had been suspended.

The UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) stated that a
Hercules C-130 cargo aircraft chartered to the United Nations and
which crashed on Saturday was carrying eight people: four UN
personnel and four crew members.

Local state radio earlier reported that the plane, which had
taken off from Huambo for Luanda, was carrying seven people when it
was hit by fire from Alto-Chyumbu, seven kilometers (four miles)
from the airport, before coming down 20 kilometers (13 miles) away.

Sunday's statement from a MONUA spokesman said that its
information on the plane, chartered from the Transafrik company,
was based only on "news provided by the government on the accident"
on Saturday.

However, on Saturday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that
he was "outraged by reports of a second United Nations aircraft
apparently shot down in Angola within the past week."

Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) General Joo Manuel lask week said
that the 14 people on board that plane were alive and held hostage
by UNITA forces.

MONUA had also said it received radio signals indicating that
there may have been survivors from the crash.

Although the Luanda government has agreed to ensure the safety
of UN search and rescue teams, UNITA has declined to do the same,
saying it had not been contacted by MONUA concerning the plane.

@ CRIME-LD-CLAREMONT

CAPE TOWN Jan 3 Sapa

POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN POLICE STATION ROBBERY AND ATHLONE MURDER

Police are investigating a possible link between the murder of
an Athlone businessman on Thursday and the theft of 23 firearms
from the Claremont police station in the early hours on Sunday.

Police spokesman captain Jacques Wiese said the Mercedes Benz
stolen from Safodien Zanodien, 51, after he was murdered, could
have been used in Sunday's robbery.

Five armed men disguised with scarves walked into the police
station at 3am on Sunday morning

They held the three duty policemen at gunpoint and demanded the
keys to the safe.

The policeman in possession of the keys was assaulted before he
and his colleagues were locked inside a holding cell, Wiese said.

The robbers stole 15 pistols, four shotguns, four R5 rifles,
two radios, nine bulletproof vests, over 700 rounds of ammunition
and R3600 in bail money from the safe before they escaped in a dark
coloured Mercedes Benz.

Two patrolling police officers returned to the police station
at 4.30am and discovered their colleagues locked in a cell.

On Thursday masked men entered Zanodien's office at the Battery
and Tyre centre in Athlone. They forced two employees to tie him up
and then loaded tyres, batteries, radios, a fiream and a computer
in the company's panel van.

They accused Zanodien of being a drug merchant, they told the
two employees to look away and fired three shots into the back of
his head.

They fled in the panelvan, Zanodien's green Mercedes Benz with
registration CA825-280 and a white Peugeot.

Wiese said police were investigating the possibility that the
Mercedes was used in Sunday's robbery.

"Witnesses saw a dark coloured Mercedes drive from the scene.
It has been established that it had false number plates."

The same car was damaged in May when a pipebomb exploded on the
driveway of Zanodien's Rylands home. It has not yet been
established who was responsible for the attack

Acting Claremont Area Commissioner Johan Kleyn expressed his
outrage at the attack on the police and the robbery.

"We are dedicated to service delivery and have made our police
stations more client-friendly opposed to the fortresses we had in
the past," he said.

"Ironically, this action does not only effect the police as
such, but it also directly affects the members of the community who
are law abiding and peace loving.

"The SAPS will leave no stone unturned in an effort to locate
the culprits and bringing them to justice," Kleyn said.

Western Cape Democratic Party leader Hennie Bester said the
robbery of the police station by masked gunmen was a brazen
challenge to the authority of the State.

"With this shocking act, the line between authority and anarchy
has been crossed.

"The standing police force is the government's law enforcement
arm. If a police station is not secure, nothing is secure.

"Every law-abiding citizen will be watching the national
government which controls police resources. Are they going to
protect us or are they going to continue fiddling," Bester asked.

@ NNP-NEWYEAR

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

SOUTH AFRICANS NEED NEW APPROACH TO POLITICS: NP

The desperate needs of South Africans demanded a new approach
to politics, New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said
on Sunday.

In a statement released in Pretoria, Van Schalkwyk said as the
country entered 1999, people needed to decide on the route of
democracy.

"The NNP has taken the African National Congress to task for
its poor management of our country and its resources... through a
constructive approach consensus must be found with regard to
ridding our nation from the stranglehold of crime," van Schalkwyk
said.

He said a job-delivering economy as well as quality education
had to be encouraged, so that the country's youth could be skilled
for the future.

"There is much hope for making us a winning nation, should we
rise above matters that polarise and divide."

To best serve development, the country needed to move towards
an inclusive approach to joint solutions for the future, van
Schalkwyk said.

@ MALAWI-MINISTER

BLANTYRE, Jan 3, Sapa-AFP

MULUZI SACKS MINISTER TO PAVE WAY FOR CORRUPTION PROBE

Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi sacked Works and Supplies
Minister Abdul Pillane in a move designed to clear the way for a
corruption probe, a top government official said Sunday.

Muluzi announced on state radio that member of parliament Peter
Chupa would replace Pillane, but gave no reason for the change.

A senior official who requested anonymity told AFP, however,
that Pillane was dropped from the 32-man cabinet to allow the
Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate allegations of corruption
against him.

"Pillane will be investigated as an ordinary person," the
official said.

Pillane is the first minister to come under the scrutiny of the
Anti-Corruption Bureau, set up by Muluzi in 1994.

@ ANGOLA-UN-DIALLO

LUANDA, Jan 3, Sapa-AFP

UN WITHDRAWING STAFF FROM ANGOLAN BATTLE ZONES

UN special envoy to Angola Issa Diallo told AFP on Sunday that
the organisation had no choice but to pull its 1,000 observers out
of combat zones in the strife-torn country.

The UN headquarters in New York had ordered its Observer
Mission in Angola (MONUA) to begin withdrawing personnel from
battle zones between government forces and rebels of the National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Diallo said.

The observers were deployed in Angola to oversee the
implementation of peace protocols signed by the rival sides in
November 1994.

The UN decision comes amid renewed fighting and follows the
apparent shooting down of two UN-chartered planes within the past
week.

"For the moment the withdrawal concerns only the danger zones.
We will redeploy our personnel and their families in Luanda. We
have no other choice," Diallo said.

However, the envoy said a complete UN pull-out from Angola had
not been ruled out. "If these people have nothing to do in Luanda,
why should we keep them here?" he said.

The UN mission on Sunday suspended all flights to and from
Huambo in embattled central Angola after a second UN-chartered
transport plane was apparently shot down.

MONUA said the Hercules C-130, which crashed Saturday, was
carrying four UN personnel and four crew. A local radio station
said the plane, which had taken off from Huambo for Luanda, was hit
by anti-aircraft fire.

On December 26, a C-130 carrying UN personnel crashed after
taking off from Huambo.

The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) last week said the 14 aboard
that plane were alive and being held hostage by UNITA forces loyal
to Jonas Savimbi, whose rebels have been at war with the Luanda
government for most of te time sice independence from Portugal in
1975.

Although the Luanda government has agreed to ensure the safety
of UN search and rescue teams, UNITA has failed to reply to a
request from Diallo, saying it had not been contacted by MONUA
concerning the downed plane.

@ MATRIC-NNP

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

IMPROVED MATRIC PASS RATE DISGUISES MALAISE IN TOWNSHIS: NNP

The 2,2 percent improvement on the 1998 Gauteng matric pass
rate should not be allowed to obscure the serious malaise in the
education system, the New National Party said on Sunday.

The drop in the percentage of candidates who had obtained
university entrance was of further concern, NP spokesman Juli
Kilian said.

"Without a drastic intervention by the GDE (Gauteng education
department) to improve education outcomes in township schools, the
gap between centres of excellence on the one hand and public and
private schools serving predominantly black communities on the
other, will continue to grow at an escalating rate," Kilian said.

The 55,6 percent pass rate for all Gauteng schools did not
reflect that former model C schools (with an average pass rate
close to 95 percent) accounted for about 30 percent of the public
schools in Gauteng.

"It is therefore clear that the majority of township schools
have certainly not turned the important corner," Kilian said.

She noted that the 55,6 percent pass rate still meant that
almost half of all pupils would have to repeat matric to get a
senior certificate.

"This needless expense has far-reaching implications for the
provincial education budget and for families who have made
sacrifices to keep pupils at school."

The NNP called on the Gauteng education department to
reconsider its teacher rationalisation and redeployment programme,
which it said was negatively affecting teacher morale.

Kilian said the NNP also believed that dedicated educators in
township schools should be rewarded and encouraged by allowing
their achievements to be used as benchmarks to measure future
teacher performance.

@ ANC-CLAREMONT

JOHANNESBURG Dec 3 Sapa

SECURITY IN THE WESTERN CAPE OUT OF CONTROL: RASOOL

The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Sunday
warned that the security situation in the province was getting out
of control.

Referring to Sunday's armed robbery at a Claremont police
station, ANC provincial chairman Ebrahim Rasool in a statement sent
to Johannesburg said the robbery indicated the level of the crisis
in the Western Cape.

"When seen alongside the almost daily bombings of the last 10
days, Friday's Waterfront bombing and the brazen gunning down of an
Athlone businessman, it is clear that what is happening goes beyond
criminal activity. These terrorists are acting with impunity,"
Rasool said.

He said people in the province needed to acknowledge the depth
of the crisis and seek urgent solutions.

"Special measures are required to secure police stations in our
province... I cannot understand how those on duty failed to alert
fellow members when the attack started.

"I appeal to the public to come forward with any information
which may help to arrest those responsible for the crime and terror
in our province," said Rasool.

Five armed men disguised with scarves walked into the police
station at 3am on Sunday.

They held the three duty policemen at gunpoint and demanded the
keys to the safe.

The policeman in possession of the keys was assaulted before he
and his colleagues were locked in a holding cell.

The vehicle was believed to have been stolen from Athlone
businessman Safodien Zanodien, 51, after he was murdered on
Thursday.

@ DRCONGO-SA

JOHANNESBURG Jan 3 Sapa

SA DENIES CLAIMS OF STALLING PEACE IN THE DRCONGO

The South African government on Sunday denied claims made in
the Zimbabwean Press that it was stalling efforts to end fighting
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in a statement said the
government would not do anything that would encourage the forces in
conflict which might have any effect of undermining the peace
process in the DRC.

"In so doing the government has been acutely aware that any
delay in bringing about a negotiated solution to the conflict could
have disastrous consequences, not only for the economic
reconstruction and development of the DRC, but for the well-being
of all the inhabitants of our continent," said the statement.

It said the rebel forces were an important element which could
not be exclded fom th ceasefire if an end to the hostilities was
to be ensured.

"This, however, does not amount to elevating rebels to heads of
state, according them VIP treatment, or undermining the sovereignty
of the DRC government as alleged in the Zimbwabean ress".

The South African government remained committed in assisting
all international efforts aimed at bringing lasting peace in the
DRC at the earliest possible moment.

"Only all-inclusive negotiations involving all parties to the
conflict can ensure lasting peace in the DRC," the statement said.

@ ARCHBISHOP NDUNGANE ON UNITED CRICKET BOARD

Issued by: Church of the Province of SA

Media release by the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd
Njongonkulu Ndungane, on the announcement of the United Cricket Board's
Charter, Cape Town, Sunday 3 January 1999

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu
Ndungane, has welcomed the announcement by the United Cricket Board
that it has developed a strategy to bring about a culture of
non-racialism in cricket in South Africa.

Speaking at Newlands where he heard the United Cricket Board
(UCB) publicly announce details of its transformation charter,
Archbishop Ndungane said that South African sport had in the past
been the vehicle for much hurt for people from previously
disadvantaged communities. It was now necessary to build on the
positive steps that had been taken by cricketing administrators
since the late 1980s.

"To effect reconciliation and ensure meaningful development of
our sports men and women and the proper representation of all our
people in national sporting teams, it is important for new
partnerships of trust and hope to be built," he said.

He said there should be measurable and attainable objectives
clearly set out in the strategy and regular public report backs.
This would keep all interested parties in the country informed of
progress being made and would ensure that the administration of
sport remained the purview of sports men and women.

"It will be important for all South Africans to see the public
commitment by the UCB translated into action." he said.

He added that the role of the monitoring committee in the
process was critical.

"To this end, I believe the process would be strengthened if its
members were drawn not just from the cricketing world, but also from
other organs of civil society. This would ensure transparency, and
that trust and credibility would be built at a faster pace. There
could also be no doubt in anyone's mind as to whether progress is
achieved or not."

Media contact: Theo Coggin 011-487-0026 / 082-747-7827

e-mail: cog...@sn.apc.org

@ ANGOLA-LD-UN

LUANDA Dec 3 Sapa-AFP

UN TO PULL ITS PERSONNEL OUT OF ANGOLAN COMBAT ZONES: DIALLO

UN special envoy to Angola Issa Diallo on Sunday said the
United Nations had no choice but to pull its staff out of war
zones, a day after the apparent shooting down of a second UN
aircraft.

Diallo told AFP the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) had
instructions from the UN headquarters in New York to gradually
evacuate all observers and other personnel from combat areas.

On Saturday, a Hercules C-130 transport plane chartered by
MONUA crashed after taking off from the central city of Huambo with
four UN personnel and four crew. Local radio said it had been shot
down by UNITA rebels fighting the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA).

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russia and Australia have all
expressed outrage about the apparent targetting of MONUA aircraft,
following the crash on December 26 of another Hercules over
embattled central plateau territory soon after it took off from
Huambo.

That aircraft was carrying 10 UN personnel and four crew. The
FAA has named 11 survivors, mainly foreigners, who it claims are
being held by the rebel National Union for the Total Independence
of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi.

Heavy fighting broke out in central Angola in mid-November.

On Sunday, the army said it had reopened the airport at Kuito,
chief town of Bie province bordering on Huambo province. The war
zone lies some 650 kilometres (400 miles) from Luanda. Kuito was
surrounded and shelled by UNITA late last month.

FAA chief of staff, General Joao Baptista de Matos, who flew to
Kuito on a military plane on Saturday, said that the army had
"surprises" in store for Angolans as part of its counter-offensive.

His soldiers on Saturday recaptured Tchikala-Tchilohanga,
better known as Vila Nova, which was one of UNITA's key rear bases,
about 45 kilometres (30 miles) from Huambo. Military analysts in
Luanda said such a move was progress for the government since Vila
Nova was decisive for the protection of Savimbi's "bunker" in
Bailundo, where he fell back in 1992.

Diallo on Sunday said UN staff would, "for the moment", only be
pulled out of "dangerous zones. We will redeploy our staff and
their families in Luanda. We have no choice."

Diallo also questioned why MONUA aircraft were targetted, while
others safely used the same air corridors. "This doesn't seem
normal. That's why we want to know from the government and UNITA
what is really happening" on the ground, he added.

Luanda has given guarantees of safety for a UN search and
rescue mission concerning the December 26 plane incident, but UNITA
has failed to respond, saying that it has received no such request
from MONUA.

In mid-October, 15 UN observers were taken hostage at UNITA's
Bailundo and Andulo strongholds in central Angola. They were freed
only after more than a month and a half of negotiations.

On Sunday, Lisbon's junior minister for the Portuguese-speaking
community, Jose Mello, said four Portuguese families were evacuated
from Huambo to Luanda by a UN World Food Programme plane, which
took off some two hours before the Hercules.

In spite of escalating violence in Angola, where Huambo was a
UNITA stronghold until 1992 and Kuito was pounded to ruins before a
second UN mediation bid led to peace protocols signed in November
1994, Diallo said he still hoped for a return to dialogue.

"We can't say that because there is a war, we're leaving and
that's it. We can't abandon this population," he told AFP. "We have
to hold fast and push on with humanitarian work."

According to Diallo, the United Nations is currently studying
an option under which what he described as UN "combat units"
accompanying aid convoys would be ordered to fire on attackers, in
order to ensure that aid reaches the people.

Diallo blamed UNITA for the current crisis because it had
failed to disarm many of its fighters in line with the 1994 accords
signed in Lusaka, Zambia. He said counter-attacks arose from "the
frustration of the government".

In his view, the world should "avoid seeing two armies in
Angola: that of UNITA and that of the government. That's why we
think the Lusaka peace protocol is the only way out of the crisis."

@ HEALTH-KHAYELITSHA

CAPE TOWN Ja 3 Sapa

WESTERN CAPE PREGNANT WOMEN TO GET ANTI-AIDS DRUG

Pregnant women attending clinics in Khayelitsha near Cape Town
would from Monday be the first in the country to be offered the
anti-Aids drug AZT if they were found to be HIV-positive.

Hundreds of young lives would be saved by the treatment, which
cut the likelihood that a mother would pass the Aids virus to her
unborn child by at least 50 percent.

If the project was successful at Site B and Michael Mapongwana
hospitals, authorities hoped it would be phased in throughout the
province.

"The implementation is the culmination of a year of careful
planning. We are delighted that we can begin at last," head of the
provincial Aids programme, Sadiq Kariem, said on Sunday.

The project would run for at least 12 months and reach an
estimated 5000 women, saving the lives of over 200 babies.

It would cost R650000, but was expected to save the health
services over R2 million because these children would not need
treatement for Ais-related illnesses.

@ TODAY IN HISTORY (Jan 9)

Highlights in Southern African history:

JAN 9:

1729 - The Saxenburg, with 87 people of board and bound from
Batavia to the Cape, is wrecked off Agulhas with the loss of 81
lives.

1845 - Explorer and missionary David Livingstone, and Mary,
eldest daughter of the Rev Robert Moffat, are married at the
Kuruman Mission Station. (This announcement is carried at the
bottom of the front page of the South African Commercial
Advertiser of May 17, 1845).

1848 - Cape Agulhas lighthouse comes into operation.

1922 - About 22000 miners on the Rand gold mines go on strike.

1942 - Bardia is recaptured by South African and British forces
in North Africa in World War II.

1973 - Rhodesia closes its border with Zambia after an
explosion near the Zambezi River the previous day in which two
policemen were killed and five injured.

1988 - The ANC issues a statement in London expressing support
for gay rights and a commitment to the removal of all forms of
discrimination.

1989 - Two British firms, textile group Tootal, and
telecommunications multinational Cable and Wire, confirm they
will sell their South African holdings worth a combined market
value of R200 million.

1989 - Most African and Non-Aligned delegates to the 140-nation
Paris conference on chemical weapons walk out when South
African Foreign Affairs Minister Pik Botha addresses the
conference.

1990 - SATS strikers are attacked by armed vigilantes at the
Germiston railway station and six people are killed and 67
injurd, 12 critically.

1991 - The ANC proposes a major all-party conference on
constitutional negotiations in an attempt to break the
political logjam on this issue. The government welcomes the
proposal, saying it is encouraged that the ANC accepts that all
parties with a proven constituency should be part of
negotiations.

1996 - The National Crime Information Management Centre
releases figures confirming South Africa's designation as the
most violent country in the world outside a war zone.

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+------------------------------------------------------------+
| ANC Dept Information & Publicity Tel: (+27 21) 262740 |
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| Cape Town Internet: in...@anc.org.za |
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