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Dec 14, 1998, 3:00:00 AM12/14/98

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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 14 DECEMBER 1998

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 It is for reading and information only, and strictly not for
publication or broadcast.

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

@ SANDF-OPERATIONS

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

SANDF ANNOUNCES ANTI-CRIME SUCCESSES FOR 1998

The SA National Defence Force arrested 35383 illegal immigrants
and 4658 crime suspects so far this year, a statement on Friday
said.

SANDF members also recovered 3161 illegal weapons and 773
stolen vehicles in anti-crime operations conducted in support of
the police since the beginning of January. More than 60000kg of
dagga, 17694 Mandrax tablets and 1409 heads of livestock were
confiscated.

The SA Air Force flew a total of 2840 hours in support of
anti-crime operations and 1909 hours for border control.

"The SAAF also successfully assisted the SA Police Service in
tracking, arresting and confiscating two civilian planes which were
involved in cigarette smuggling across the borders."

In humanitarian operations, the SAAF transported a total of 152
patients to hospitals around the country, and assisted in the
rescue of three American patients after the bomb blast at the
United States' embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier this year.

The statement said the SAAF assisted in fire fighting in 31
areas this year and dropped a total of 6,4 million litres of water
on fires.

The SAAF participated in 21 rescue operations, airlifting a
total of 62 people, including 35 rescued from a ship off the Port
St Johns coast in March.

The SANDF assisted Tanzania in rescuing a number of its
military instructors from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In January and February this year, the SAAF was dispatched to
Tanzania to assist in flood relief operations.

"We were also called upon to conduct the military intervention
into Lesotho in September this year, and assist in voter
registration," the SANDF said.

@ MALAWI-DONORS

LILONGWE, Malawi December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

MALAWI SEEKS 2.4 BILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT RELIEF

Impoverished Malawi was Friday set to put up a fierce fight
with donors here to seek a cancellation of 2.4 billion dollars of
debt by end of this year.

Malawi officials, taking a cue from President Bakili Muluzi who
on Thursday appealed to some 60 international donors gathered for
the annual Malawi Consultative group, said they would seek donor
support in debt servicing through grants.

On Thursday, Muluzi, appealed for debt relief and accused the
World Bank and the International Moneteray Fund (IMF), the main
funders of its austere economic reform programme - of dragging
their feet over debt cancellation.

"The argument that the situation in Malawi is not yet desperate
enough to warrant debt relief sounds like a doctor withholding
medication until the patient is gasping for breath, fighting for
his life," Muluzi said when he addressed some 60 international
donors.

Under the World bank's highly indebted poor countries
initiative, Malawi's debt is classified as sustainable.

The consultative group this year broke away from the tradition
of meeting in Paris and decided to get the real feel on the ground
to meet in oneof Africa's poorest nations.

"In relation to the size of the economy and capacity to
generate internal resources, Malawi has a debt problem which needs
donor support. Malawi cannot service her debt without having to
borrow even more," said finance minister Cassim Chilumpha.

Chilumpha asked donors to consider shifting financial
assistance from loans to grants, adding his country should be taken
as special case of low income but with a track record of servicing
her debts.

@ COMOROS-UNREST-OAU

MORONI, December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

OAU GENERALS STUDY POSSIBLE COMOROS INTERVENTION

Army generals acting under the aegis of the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) Friday visited the Comoros island of Moheli,
between Grande Comore and the troubled separatist isle of Anjouan.

Factional violence in Anjouan, which seceded from the Islamic
republic of the Comoros in August 1997, has prompted the OAU to
consider mounting the first military intervention in its history.

The evaluation mission, led by South African General Jan Lusse,
was due to return to Moroni, the federal capital of the Indian
Ocean archipelago, later Friday, according to OAU sources.

The delegation also includes generals from Kenya, Madagascar,
Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania.

They will present their findings at an OAU summit in
Ouagadougou on December 17-18, where it will be decided whether or
not to send an intervention force to Anjouan.

Fighting between rival leaders broke out Saturday, and have
left at least 24 people dead. The main Anjouan town of Mutsamudu
has been badly looted and smoke was still rising over it Thursday.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

@ TRC AMNESTY DECISIONS

Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission

FIVE people were this week refused amnesty and six others
granted. The 11 applicants had recently appeared before the amnesty
committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at hearings in
different parts of the country, applying for a variety of offences
ranging from bombings to murder.

The applicants whose applications for amnesty was turned down by
the committee are Phillip Faizel Malefane who is serving a life
prison term for his role in the armed robbery of a Fidelity Guard
van at the Stilfontein Mine in July 1991 where a guard was killed
and money stolen.

Malefane claimed to be a trained APLA member and that he
committed the crimes to raise funds for the PAC. Committee found
that he committed the robbery for personal gain and turned down his
application. He had appeared before the amnesty committee in Mayfair
Johannesburg on 2nd November 1998.

Two other applicants who were refused amnesty are Borowsky
Phumelele Masilela and George Sapele (40) who both claimed to be
APLA members when they appeared before the committee in Johannesburg
on 2nd November 1998.

They were applying for their role in the murder of a prison
warder during a jail-break at a Krugersdorp Prison on 25th March
1992. Committee failed to find political objective in the offence
and duly refused them amnesty.

Michael Kgiba Mofokeng (33) serving a 27-year prison term and
Nkosinathi Nkabinde (38) serving life in jail also claimed to be
APLA and that they were furthering the aims of the organisation when
they murdered Mr Diederick Jacobs during a robbery at his Parktown
North home in Johannesburg on 16th January 1994 and also for the
armed robbery of the Stanton family at their home in Parkview
Johannesburg two days later. The committee refused to grant them
amnesty for these offences.

Amnesty was granted in the following cases, Andile Shiceka (29),
Falibango Walter Thanda (38) and Gcinekhaya Makoma (22) self-defence
units members who were involving in bombing incident in Khayelitsha
station in December 1992 where Jan Bambo was killed and a number of
other people injured.

Thabelo Patrick Maseko was also granted amnesty for the murder
of Fransisco de Sousa and attempt on the life of Joao Jardin in
Westonaria in November 1990. Thulasizwe Philemon Moses Cele an ANC
member was granted amnesty for the murder of fellow ANC member
Shadrack Lindela Zulu in Ixopo in KwaZulu/Natal in July 1993. Maseko
told the committee that Zulu a fellow SDU member of the ANC had
defected to the IFP and at the time of his murder had formed part of
the group of IFP supporters killing ANC members in the area.

The other applicant who was granted amnesty is Sonkalana Moses
Mabhena (35) who applied for the attemped murder of Sergeant Jan
van Zyl in KwaThema near Springs in November 1992 and for unlawful
possession of a firearm and ammunition.

For more information contact TRC Media Director, MDU LEMBEDE
on 082 458 8464

@ RIGHTS-NDUNGANE

COPENHAGEN December 11 1998 Sapa

THE DEVELOPED WORLD SHOULD WORK WITH DEVELOPING NATIONS, SAYS
NDUNGANE

Developed countries should move away from indifference and work
with developing nations for the common good of humanity, the
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane,
said on Friday.

Addressing a human rights conference in Copenhagen, Ndungane
said the transfer of resources from poor countries to wealthy ones,
whether through debt repayments or the inequalities of global
trade, was the greatest scandal ever.

"Ethics should precede politics, economics, and the law,
because political action is concerned with values and choices.
Ethics must therefore inform and inspire our political leadership
to fulfil our obligations as human beings for the well-being of
others," he said.

A new brand of science and technology, economics and politics,
based on a sound moral foundation, was needed to sustain the world.

"One of our tasks is to mobilise political will across the
international community, so that the many virtuous resolutions and
declarations that have been passed by various world bodies are
recognised and enforced."

It was heartening to know that a total of 138 states had
ratified the United Nations International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, he said.

However, having signed it, the global village now needed the
political will to enforce it.

@ MILITARY

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa-IPS

PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES FACE CRISIS IN AFRICA

Having experienced a boom in the 1990s, private military
companies are facing a crisis in Africa and may have to change
tactics if they are to survive, military analysts have said.

"The shelf life of private military companies such as Executive
Outcomes and Sandline International is limited," Alex Vines,
researcher with the US-based Human Rights Watch, said.

"In the long term, the market for private military companies
may disappear and in this period of expanding global standards,
arguments that attempt to eliminate mercenaries will drive buyers
and sellers underground," Vines told a 'Privatisation of Security
in Africa Conference' in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Executive Outcomes, which is perhaps one of the most widely-
known private military companies in the world, had just announced
it is closing shop but it did not give reasons. The move comes
ahead of new anti-mercenary legislation to be passed in South
Africa next year.

Three types of private security outfits - classic mercenary
groups, private military companies and private security firms -
exist in Africa. There has been a significant growth in this sector
due to perceived inseurity, terrorism, kidnapping, random
violence, increasing crime and weakening states.

"One of the clearest indicators of the failure of public
security is the incidence of refugees, a criterion by which Africa
emerges as by far the worst governed continent," said Christopher
Clapham of the Department of International Relations at Britain's
Lancaster University.

"Numerous factors associated with that buzzword of the 1990s,
globalisation, have made it far harder for any state to maintain
the level of control over its population which state security
systems require," he said.

Internationally, the private security market had estimated
revenues of 56.6 billion US dollars in 1990 and is expected to
increase to 202 billion dollars by 2010.

In Africa, however, private military armies seem to be on their
way out largely because of their unaccountability, their perceived
ineffectiveness, the costs of employing them and their often
concealed links with small mineral companies.

If they continue functioning they will most probably be
restricted to states with valuable resources like oil, diamonds,
gold and uranium. Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone fall in
this category.

In Angola, oil company 'Gulf Oil' employs an American company
'Airscan' to protect its Cabinda oilfields.

"One of the most dramatic recent developments in Africa has
been the emergence of Executive Outcomes and other private armies
that either have a combat capability or can advise and equip
militaries to fight," said Jeff Herbst of Princeton University.

Herbst said the "fundamental reality of private security forces
is that doing business in the failed states of Africa is
exceptionally problematic." He said one of the reasons Executive
Outcomes could operate in Sierra Leone and Angola was that its
contracts were backed by diamonds.

Executive Outcomes began operations in 1989 providing training
to the South African Defence Force. It has worked for the
governments of Angola and Sierra Leone but is sensitive about being
classified as a mercenary outfit. It claims not to possess any
military equipment nor military infrastructure.

It says its total income over the past four years was 55
million US dollars and claims to have refused to work for the
regimes in Sudan, Nigeria and for the former Zairean dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko. Of late it has not received any large contracts
and has had unsuccessful stints in Uganda and Papua New Guinea.

Sandline International also has a history of involvement on the
continent - especially in Sierra Leone. It was invited to launch a
counter-coup by the ousted government of President Kabbah in June
of last year.

Another factor acting against private armies in Africa is that
they do not have a good image across the continent. "Because of
their potential for duplicity and the moral opprobrium attached to
contracting, effectively to kill in return for blood money,
mercenaries and mercenarism have been viewed with suspicion," said
Garth Abraham, law lecturer at South Africa's University of the
Witwatersrand.

He said the UN resolutions banning the recruitment, use and
training of mercenaries have not effectively imposed a total ban on
the mercenaries activities.

"What is clear is that the failure of international law to
address the problem, has much to do with the difficulty of having
to define the nature of mercenarism," said Abraham.

Until recently the world appeared willing to accept the
employment of French Foreign Legions in foreign countries yet
reluctant to grant the same status to other groups.

The 1972 Organisation of African Unity Convention for the
Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa does not preclude the use of
mercenaries but prohibits their use to overthrow or undermine
governments or liberation movements.

@ NORTHPROV-HOUSING

PIETERSBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

NORTHERN PROVINCE GOVT TO BUILD SUBSIDISED HOUSES IN TRIBAL
AREAS

The Northern Province housing department has decided to build
subsidised houses on existing stands in tribal areas rather than
creating entire new villages of low-cost houses.

Housing spokesman Danny Msiza on Friday said the department had
established new villages across the province to house the rural
poor, but felt this discriminated against those attached to their
land, African Eye News Service reported.

"The new approach will ensure that government-subsidised houses
are actually built where people currently reside," Msiza said.

The new system recognised the informal land tenure system and
would benefit those with sentimental or cultural attachment to
their land.

"Most of the R15000 government subsidy per dwelling will now be
spent on building the house, instead of on services like water and
sewerage, which are already there," Msiza said.

He added that the new approach would also minimise the
unwillingness of some traditional leaders to release land for
development.

The first project, the R20,5 million Moletjie housing project,
would be situated 25km north of Pietersburg and 1300 houses would
be built.

The project started about six months ago and 200 houses had
been completed.

Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele and provincial
housing MEC Edgar Mushwana will officially launch the project on
Sunday.

@ REGISTER-DATES

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

IEC ANNOUNCES DATES FOR SECOND ROUND OF VOTER REGISTRATION

The second round of voter registration will take place in all
nine provinces during the last weekend of January, the Independent
Electoral Commission announced on Friday.

Registration stations countrywide will open at 9am on Friday,
January 29, on Saturday the 30th and Sunday the 31st. Doors will
close at 9pm on Friday and Saturday and at 5pm on Sunday, it was
announced at a media briefing in Johannesburg.

The IEC also released its statistics from the first round of
voter registration.

Of the 8,4 million people who registered in November, the most
were in Gauteng - 1987047. Over 1 million more women than men
registered and most people who registered were in the age group 20
to 60 years.

"Bravo to the ladies. They are very strong in registering,"
said chief electoral officer Mandla Mchunu.

People between the ages of 50 and 80 had been the quickest off
the mark, with over 40 percent of South Africans in those age group
already registered.

"The older people who understand better what democracy is are
registering more," Mchunu said.

A much greater number of people registered in urban areas than
in rural areas.

Mchunu said the commission expected the number of registered
voters would increase slightly this weekend as he was still waiting
for information from some of the provinces.

The number of youths who had registered was still low. Mchunu
said he wanted to talk to the Youth Commission in the hope of
launching a long-term campaign to encourage potential voters
between the ages of 18 and 24 to vote.

The IEC also planned to concentrate on awareness in rural
areas.

The dates of a third round of voter registration would be
announced once the date of the general election was known. This
would enable people to re-register if they knew that at the
election dates they would not be in the area where they were
registered, Mchunu said.

The first round of voter registration had been successful, but
very stressful. He said the system had shown room for improvement,
but after January the IEC should be able to say : "This works."

@ ZIM-LAND

GWERU, Zimbabwe December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

MUGABE DEFIES 'COLONIAL' PRESSURE OVER ZIMBABWE LAND REFORMS

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said his government will
speed up land reforms to avert public outcry, warning that the
process would not be set back by "colonial" intimidation.

Mugabe who spoke Thursday said that government officials
involved in the process of acquiring 841 farms from whites and
redistributing them to blacks, should not give in to the racist
colonial mentality being displayed by both local and foreign whites
opposed to the reforms.

Speaking on the eve of the annual congress of his ruling
Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party
annual congress in this central city, Mugabe referred British media
which labelled him as a "traitor", "thief" and "tyrant" during his
visit to the former colonial power last week.

0He added that a "racist colonial mentality continues to
prevail ... even here".

"Our people have now grown impatient and have, in some cases
become defiant of our authority.

"To them we seem not in a hurry to distrubute land so they go
for the commercial farm closest to them ...and make it their own by
way of immediate occupation," he said.

Zimbabwean authorities last month expropriated 841 white-owned
farms for redistribution to landless black peasants, as part of a
programme to hand over five million hectares (12.3 million acres)
of prime land for hundreds of thousands of black families.

Months prior to that, scores of farms had been invaded by land
hungry blacks in a situation that threatened to turn anarchical.

The seizure of the farms last month was greeted with
consternation by international donor representatives, who felt that
the government had reneged on an agreement reached at a land
conference in September to expropriate only 118 farms over an
initial two-year phase, in which Britian and the European Union
would help in the compensation evaluation process.

Whites make up less than one percent of Zimbabwe's 12 million
inhabitants, but some 4,000 white farmers own 30 percent of the
prime farm land.

@ EIKENHOF-NGCUKA

CAPE TOWN December 11 1998 Sapa

OPPOSITION PARTIES LASH OUT AT NGCUKA

It was entirely unseemly and inappropriate for the top
prosecutor in South Africa to attack decisions of the Bench, New
National Party justice spokeswoman Sheila Camerer said on Friday.

Camerer was commenting on the row between National Director of
Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and Pretoria High Court Judge Piet van
der Walt about bail for the socalled Eikenhof three.

Camerer said in a statement Ngcuka's actions merely served to
further undermine the Bench and South Africa's criminal justice
system.

He should remember he was no longer an African National
Congress "party hack", she said.

On Thursday, Van der Walt refused bail to ANC cadres Siphiwe
Bholo, Sipho Gavin and Boy Titi Ndweni - who are appealing against
their 1994 conviction for a multiple murder in Eikenhof, south of
Johannesburg - despite Ngcuka ordering the withdrawal of the
State's opposition to bail.

He said Ngcuka's decision was "extremely unfortunate,
ill-considered and extremely unwise.

"He himself is an ANC member, appointed by an ANC government,
any person in his position should be extremely wary to take a
decision of this nature," Van der Walt said.

Ngcuka rejected Van der Walt's allegations that he was "unduly
influenced" in deciding to withdraw the State's opposition to the
bail application.

In a statement on Thursday, he said the judge had "absolutely
no factual basis" for the remarks he made.

Ngcuka said he had initially opposed bail for the Eikenhof
Three.

"But after extensive discussions with the Director of Public
Prosecutions in Pretoria, Silas Ramaite, and other members of my
staff who had worked on the case, it was agreed that it would not
be in the interest of justice to do so," Ngcuka said.

He said after representations from the defence it was clear
that new evidence that had considerable bearing on the case had
come to light.

"I was of the view that in the event that the court accepts the
evidence and the accused are acquitted as a result thereof, a
substantial injustice will have occurred if the accused remained in
custody."

Democratic Party justice spokesman Douglas Gibson said that
when Ngcuka was appointed, he was warned by many that he would have
to demonstrate his impartiality.

His previous high-profile political office, as deputy chairman
of the National Council of Provinces, was always going to create
the impression that he was more of a politician than an impartial
justice official.

"The stinging rebuke by Mr Justice van der Walt appears both
merited and timely," Gibson said in a statement.

Conservative Party spokeswoman Hendriline Hertzog said the
ANC's reaction to the case again proved that it attached no value
to the independence of the judiciary.

The message was clear. If the judiciary did not do as the ANC
wanted, the government had to intervene, she said.

@ COURT-NARCS

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

CASE AGAINST DRUG SQUAD MEMBERS TO DIRECTOR FOR PROSECUTIONS

Ten members of the SA Narcotics Bureau in Johannesburg appeared
in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Friday, facing rape, robbery
and assault charges.

The drug squad members - almost three-quarters of the whole
Johannesburg unit - were told the case against them would be
referred to the local Director of Public Prosecutions.

The charges against the 10 policemen relate to a drug raid at a
house in October where the crimes were allegedly committed.

During a previous appearance, a court order was issued
prohibiting publication of the policmen's names.

Bail of R3000 each, granted during an appearance in October,
was extended until their next appearance, scheduled for March 1.

@ TRUTH-AMNESTY

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

MIXED FORTUNES FOR AMNESTY APPLICANTS

Eleven amnesty applicants had mixed fortunes this week when the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty committee granted six
amnesties and turned down five applications.

The 11 applicants recently appeared before the amnesty
committee at separate hearings in different parts of the country -
applying for a variety of offences ranging from bombings to murder.

Phillip Malefane, who is serving a life term for his role in
the armed robbery of a Fidelity Guards vehicle at the Stilfontein
Mine in July 1991 had his application turned down.

A guard was killed and money stolen during the robbery.

Malefane, who claimed to be a trained Azanian People's
Liberation Army member, said he committed the crimes to raise funds
for the Pan Africanist Congress.

The committee found that he committed the robbery for personal
gain and turned down his application.

Malefane lodged his application before the committee in
Mayfair, Johannesburg, on November 2 this year.

Two other applicants denied amnesty, Borowsky Masilela and
George Sapele, both claimed to be APLA members when they appeared
before the committee in Johannesburg on the same date.

They applied for their role in the murder of a prison warder
during a jailbreak at Krugersdorp Prison on March 25, 1992.

"The committee failed to find political objectives in the
offence and duly refused them amnesty," a statement from the TRC
said.

Michael Mofokeng, 33, serving a 27-year term and Nkosinathi
Nkabinde, 38, serving life in jail also claimed to be APLA members.

Both told the commission they murdered Diederick Jacobs during
a robbery at his Parktown North home on January 16, 1994, and the
Stanton family at their home in Parkview two days later to raise
money for the PAC.

The committee refused to grant them amnesty.

But, Andile Shiceka, 29, Falibango Thanda, 38, and Gcinekhaya
Makoma, 22, all former self-defence units members were granted
amnesty.

The three were involved in a bombing incident in Khayelitsha
station in December 1992 when Jan Bambo was killed and a number of
people injured.

Thabelo Maseko was also granted amnesty for the murder of
Fransisco de Sousa and an attempt on the life of Joao Jardin in
Westonaria in November 1990.

Thulasizwe Philemon Moses Cele, an African National Congress
member, was granted amnesty for the murder of fellow ANC member
Shadrack Lindela Zulu in Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal in July 1993. He
told the committee that Zulu, a fellow self-defence unit member of
the ANC, had defected to the Inkatha Freedom Party and at the time
of his murder had formed part of a group of IFP supporters killing
ANC members in the area.

The TRC said Sonkalana Mabhena, 35, who applied for the
attempted murder of Sergeant Jan van Zyl in KwaThema near Springs
in November, 1992, and for the unlawful possession of a firearm and
ammunition, had also been pardoned.

@ ZIM-BANANA

HARARE December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

PARDON TALK EMERGES FOR BANANA OVER SODOMY CHARGES

The possibility of Zimbabwe's fugitive ex-president Canaan
Banana being considered for a pardon over sex crimes surfaced
Friday.

The state-run daily, The Herald, in a rare frontpage comment on
Friday headlined "Enough said about Banana", castigated critics of
the case at the same time hinting at pardoning the Methodist
clergyman.

The Zimbabwe Independent, meanwhile, reported that Banana, who
is being sought by Zimbabwean judiciary authorities for sentencing
over 11 sex crimes, was believed to be staying at President Nelson
Mandela's official residence in Cape Town.

Zimbabwe has issued a warrant of arrest for Banana who skipped
bail last month ahead of his conviction on sodomy and other sexual
assault charges, and is seeking his extradition from neighbouring
South Africa.

The Herald appealed to Zimbabweans to forgive Banana because
"he is one of us...is our former president, the first president for
independent Zimbabwe" and added that he was instrumental in
bringing about unity between the two main opposing political forces
in the country in the early 1980s.

"In spite of his sins, Rev Banana is a priest," the paper said
in its editorial.

"Yes the list of wrongs committed by Rev Banana is long. The
psychological scars inflicted on his victims cannot be erased. But
is this the time for us to engage in national orgy of
self-righteous breast-beating over Rev Banana's misfortunes," the
paper said in a second editorial in a week pleading for mercy for
the former international peace mediator.

The paper said those who want him punished should realise that
he has already been severely punished by the publicity surrounding
the case.

President Robert Mugabe who appointed Banana to the mainly
ceremonial position in 1980 till 1987, has urged Banana to
voluntarily return home and face the music.

When he addressed the ongoing World Council of Churches
assembly in Harare on Tuesday, Mugabe did not, as was widely
anticipated, make reference to homosexuality or Banana's case, but
instead quoted extensively from Banana's book, in his speech.

Banana's sentencing was Thursday postponed to next month to
allow for the extradition attempts.

But Zimbabwean home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa was
reported saying he understood the extradition efforts were being
hindered by political obstacles, but did not elaborate.

0 "Mugabe and South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, are
meantime due to meet this weekend to discuss Banana's extradition.

The leaders are expected to meet in Zimbabwe's resort town of
Victoria Falls to hold the first government-to-government talks on
Banana.

@ STATEMENT ON APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo is pleased to announce the
appointment of Mr Welile Augustine Nhlapo to the position of Deputy
Director-General at the Department of Foreign Affairs, with effect
from today.

Mr Nhlapo takes up this position after having served as South
Africa's Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the
Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa, since January 1995. During his term in Addis
Ababa, he also served as South Africa's Non-Resident Ambassador to
Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan. In 1997 he was appointed as South
Africa's Special Envoy on Burundi.

Mr Nhlapo, who was born in Alexandra, Johannesburg, on 14 May
1948, was active in the South African Students Organisation where,
together with the late Steve Biko and Tebogo Mafole, he co-authored
the publication "Black Review" on the activities of black
organisations at the time.

After a banning order was served on him in October 1973, Mr
Nhlapo went into exile to Botswana in 1974 where he joined the
African National Congress, which he served in various capacities.

>From 1978 to 1981, he was deputy editor of Sechaba, the official
mouthpiece of the ANC and later headed the Youth Section from 1982-
1987, whereafter he was appointed to the Regional Political
Committee of the ANC until 1990.

Mr Nhlapo also served as the ANC's Chief Representative in
Botswana from 1991 to 1993, before being appointed as Head of the
Political Section in the ANC's Secretary General's office in Shell
House. He later joined the ANC's International Affairs Department.
In 1994 he served on the Secretariat of the National Inauguration
Committee.

Before taking up his post in Addis Ababa, Mr Nhlapo was part of
the South African delegation to the 49th United Nations General
Assembly in New York, when South Africa was readmitted to the world
body.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
11 DECEMBER 1998

@ UGANDA-CONGO

KAMPALA, Uganda December 11 1998 Sapa-AP

MUSEVENI: WITHDRAWAL OF UGANDAN TROOPS DEPENDS ON BORDE

Uganda is prepared to withdraw its troops from neighboring
Congo as long as security is assured along its western frontier,
President Yoweri Museveni said Friday.

"Uganda may be ready to withdraw from the Congo any time, even
if it is tomorrow," the Ugandan leader told a news briefing. "But
let's have a guarantee against insecurity."

Uganda sent troops into Congo in August when a rebellion broke
out against President Laurent Kabila but claimed they were there
under a previous agreement with Kinshasa that allowed Uganda to
hunt down Ugandan rebels based in eastern Congo.

Only recently did Museveni acknowledge that Ugandan troops were
in eastern and northern Congo in support of the Congolese rebels.

"We are after a peaceful settlement of the Congolese
problem," Museveni said. "But these two conditions must be
fulfilled first: do not endanger the security of Rwanda and Uganda
and do not side with the people bent on genocide, even within the
Congo."

Rwanda and Uganda helped Kabila take power after their combined
forces toppled longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997 after an
eight-month rebellion.

Museveni said once in power, Kabila ignored Ugandan and Rwandan
security concerns and instead began arming members of the Hutu
militia who had carried out the government-orchestrated slaughter
of at least half a million minority Tutsis in 1994.

Museveni said Uganda had been pushing for a cease-fire in the
four-month Congolese rebellion, but he blamed recent attacks by
Zimbabwean fighter planes on rebel positions in eastern Congo for
thwarting peace efforts.

Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad have contributed troops and
equipment to bolster Kabila's forces against the Ugandan and
Rwandan-backed rebels.

@ SURVEY-RAPE

CAPE TOWN December 11 1998 Sapa

POLICE NEED TO ENHANCE SKILLS TO DEAL WITH RAPE VICTIMS: SURVEY

There was an urgent need to focus on appropriate training of
police officials to enhance their skills and change their attitudes
when dealing with victims of rape, a survey by the Western Cape
Department of Community Safety has found.

The survey, released on Friday, was undertaken in Khayelitsha
from March to May 1998 and focused on rape victims during the
period January 1995 to August 1997.

Khayelitsha police station was chosen because of the high
incidence of rape with 560 cases reported between January 1995 and
August 1997.

The survey comprised perusing all the police dockets, personal
interviews and handing victims questionnaires.

It revealed there was a need for police to liaise closely with
the community and victims in order to develop a sound relationship
with the community.

There was a need to restructure operations at station level to
facilitate the availability of policewomen to take statements and a
need to view crimes such as rape as a priority.

The head of the department, Melvyn Joshua, said the Khayelitsha
police station in particular and the police in general welcomed the
survey results. "They have already taken steps to implement the
recommendations."

Joshua said police were taking the contents of the survey
seriously and a copy of the report would be made available to all
investigating officers as a handbook on how the police should
assist victims.

An important trend that emerged from the survey was that 90
percent of rape victims were under 21, with 57 percent under 16.

Of concern, the report noted, was that only three cases, out of
a random 143 complaints, had been finalised.

"This low success rate has influenced the community's
perception of the criminal justice system at large, which has
resulted in self-help methods," the survey said.

Similar surveys would be undertaken at other police stations in
the Western Cape, Joshua said.

@ LESOTHO-MUFAMADI

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

SADC TO SCALE DOWN POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT IN LESOTHO

The Southern African Development Community would scale down its
political involvement in Lesotho as it had largely achieved its
objective of getting opposition parties in that country to
negotiate, Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on
Friday.

He told reporters in Pretoria that the Interim Political
Authority, comprising two representatives of each of the country's
12 political parties, was competent to deal with outstanding issues
in the run-up to the country's next election, scheduled to take
place within 18 months.

The IPA was sworn in on Wednesday.

"We are now at a stage where less mediation is needed and more
business needs to be done by the Basotho themselves," Mufamadi
said.

"We (the SADC) have taken it to where we wanted to take it."

The four SADC countries tasked with ensuring a peaceful
resolution of the conflict in Lesotho - South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique and Botswana - would remain on standby to provide
Lesotho with technical assistance.

SADC representatives met the IPA in Maseru on Thursday, shortly
after the authority's first meeting where it elected two chairmen.

They are Khauhelo Raditapole of the Basotholand Congress Party
- which forms part of the opposition alliance - and Lekhetho
Rakuoane, a representative of one of the eight parties which did
not contest the previous elections.

The next meeting is to be held on Monday, when the IPA has to
decide how it would conduct its business.

Mufamadi said Lesotho was definitely on track for elections
within 18 months.

On the withdrawal of SADC troops from that country, he said
this would depend on progress made by the IPA.

"Ideally, there should not be an election with a SADC presence
there, but it is not unheard of for an election to take place where
indigenous forces are helped by friendly forces."

Mufamadi identified the core problems in Lesotho as a lack of
mutual trust among key political roleplayers, the inability of the
electoral system to guarantee inclusivity, and a perception that
Lesotho Defence Force members were sympathetic to political
parties' interests.

These are all issues that the IPA would have to take up. The
authority would also be responsible for working out a code of
conduct to which all parties should adhere in the run-up to the
elections.

Mufamadi said one of the first questions the IPA would have to
consider was the Lesotho Defence Force, which he said had in itself
become a factor of instability.

The LDF should be turned into a professional organisation that
upheld the country's constitution and did not get dragged into
partisan political squabbles.

The IPA would have to discuss issues such as whether the size
of the LDF was proportionate to the task at hand and whether the
country faced a threat, and if so, from where.

"Sometimes if you have an army whose composition and size is
superfluous to the needs of the nation, you might end up with many
people in uniform, armed, who do not know what to do from day to
day, and this might give rise to some mischief."

Mufamadi said the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy, which
is also represented in the IPA, had an obligation to help build a
relationship of trust between parties.

"The other parties must be satisfied that if the IPA reaches
consensus and some of its decisions necessitate that the laws of
the country be amended, it can count on the majority party to go
and ensure that that happens in parliament."

The ruling party should also consult the opposition in matters
of governance, even when the obligation to consult was not obvious,
Mufamadi said. In turn, opposition parties should show respect
towards the government.

Other issues to be resolved included concerns by the opposition
alliance about detained defence force members, and claims that
civil servants who supported the uprising against the government
were being victimised by threats of dismissal.

For its part, the ruling party was concerned about a culture of
impunity in the country, Mufamadi said.

@ REGISTER-NP

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

NEW NP WELCOMES SECOND ROUND OF VOTER REGISTRATION

The New National Party on Friday welcomed the second round of
voter registration dates announced by the Independent Electoral
Commission on Friday, saying it hoped an effective campaign to
inform people about registration stations would be launched.

The IEC told a Johannesburg media conference those who did not
have the chance to register late last month would be able to do so
in the last weekend of January. Stations will open at 9am on Friday
January 29 till Sunday January 31 at 5pm, the IEC said.

The NNP in a statement said: "We trust that the IEC and its
agents on local government level would this time round ensure that
an effective public awareness and information campaign be launched
to timeously inform eligible voters where they should register."

Proper provision should be made for a continuous registration
period until at least the end of February 1999, the party said.

This would ensure that students at higher learning institutions
were granted adequate time to register where they will be residing
during the election time.

"The NNP trusts that all home affairs offices will remain open
to serve the public and process bar-coded ID documents during the
festive season."

This should be done to ensure that backlogs are eradicated and
more South Africans received the required identity document books
before the next registration phase.

@ MANDELA-DRCONGO

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

ZAMBIAN ENVOY BRIEFS MANDELA ON DRC ISSUE

An envoy of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba held talks here
Friday with South African President Nelson Mandela on the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) crisis, government officials
said.

Zambian Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba met Mandela
and Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo at the president's Johannesburg
home.

Silwamba is touring African states in a bid to advance the
peace process in the DRC. He is also due to travel to Angola,
Namibia, Kenya, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda.

Zambia is playing a mediatory role in the conflict plaguing its
neighbour the DRC, where President Laurent Kabila has been trying
to fight off a rebel uprising launched on August 2.

The conflict has drawn Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe and Chad on
the side of the Kabila government, and Uganda and Rwanda on the
side of the Tutsi-led rebels.

Kabila's government has refused to include the rebels in the
talks, an issue which South Africa is adamant is central to the
resolution of the crisis.

Nzo told AFP earlier Friday: "We fully support all efforts to
stabilisation and implementation of a ceasefire (in the DRC), but
the project must involve the rebels. If you keep them outside you
cannot have any progress in the negotiations.

"As long as Kabila's government refuses to meet the rebels, the
talks will lead nowhere. Every effort has been done to convince
them," he said.

Nzo said however that South Africa was not considering pulling
out of the talks if the rebels were not invited.

Southern African heads of state are due to meet in Lusaka next
week to discuss a peace agreement for the DRC, drafted at the
Franco-African summit in Paris last month.

The summit in Lusaka is to be followed the same week by yet
another meeting aimed at resolving the DRC war.

The meetings are to be held in Ouagadougou under the aegis of
the Organisation of African Unity.

@ FOREIGN-APPOINT

CAPE TOWN December 11 1998 Sapa

NHLAPO APPOINTED DEPUTY D-G OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

South Africa's ambassador to Ethiopia, Welile Augustine Nhlapo,
has been appointed foreign affairs deputy director-general with
immediate effect, Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo announced on
Friday.

Nhlapo takes up the position after having served as South
Africa's Ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the
Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa since January 1995, the department said in a
statement.

During his term in Addis Ababa, he also served as South
Africa's non-resident ambassador to Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan. In
1997 he was appointed as South Africa's special envoy on Burundi.

Born in Alexandra, Johannesburg, on May 14, 1948, Nhlapo was
active in the South African Students Organisation where, together
with the late Steve Biko and Tebogo Mafole, he co-authored the
publication "Black Review" on the activities of black organisations
at the time.

After a banning order was served on him in October 1973, Nhlapo
went into exile to Botswana in 1974, where he joined the African
National Congress, which he served in various capacities.

>From 1978 to 1981, he was deputy editor of Sechaba, the
official mouthpiece of the ANC, and later headed the youth section
from 1982 to 1987, whereafter he was appointed to the regional
political committee of the ANC until 1990.

Nhlapo also served as the ANC's chief representative in
Botswana from 1991 to 1993, before being appointed head of the
political section in the ANC secretary general's office in Shell
House.

He later joined the ANC's international affairs department. In
1994 he served on the secretariat of the National Inauguration
Committee.

Before taking up his post in Addis Ababa, Nhlapo was part of
the South African delegation to the 49th United Nations General
Assembly in New York, when South Africa was readmitted to the world
body.

@ DRCONGO-ZIM

HARARE December 11 1998 Sapa

MOST URBAN ZIMBABWEANS OPPOSED TO INVOLVEMENT IN DRC WAR: POLL

Urban Zimbabweans are overwhelmingly opposed to the
government's military involvement in the war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, according to survey results released by Gallup
Poll on Friday.

It was also found that most people believed the Zimbabwean
troops were in the DRC to protect President Robert Mugabe's
business interests.

The survey ws commissioned by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
the Legal Resources Foundation and Amani Trust. It was conducted in
the country's seven major urban centres.

The survey indicated that most Zimbabweans believed DRC
President Laurent Kabila was neither legitimate nor democratic.

"It's a strong message to the political leadership that they
have to bear in mind that this (war) does not have a popular
mandate," said a spokesman for one of the four organisations that
commissioned the survey.

The results of the survey were seen as an indisputable sign of
public antagonism to Mugabe's regime amid the country's worst
economic crisis.

Observers warned that anti-war sentiments had significant
potential for upheaval in Zimbabwe.

Economists said there was little doubt that the deployment was
a major drain on the government's stricken finances and had caused
a sudden worsening of the national economy.

According to theresults 98 percent of the respondents knew
that the army was in the Congo. Seventy percent were against
Zimbabwe's involvement, and only 23 percent were in favour.

Sixty percent were concerned about the cost of the war. The 70
percent of people opposed to the war cited the loss of human life
and the costs to the ailing economy.

They said that Zimbabwe should deal with its internal problems
first and that the DRC issue was not Zimbabwe's problem.

@ HEATH-NORTHCAPE

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

HEATH UNIT TO PROBE TWO NORTHERN CAPE LOCAL COUNCILS

The Heath special investigation unit is to probe alleged irregularities
at two Northern Cape local councils, unit spokesman Guy Rich said on
Friday.

He said this brought to more than 20 the number of local councils under
investigation in four of the country's nine provinces.

In a Presidential Proclamation in the Government Gazette published in
Pretoria, the unit was requested to investigate possible improper or
unlawful conduct by employees of the Loxton and Warrenton local councils.

In Loxton, the allegations related to the sale of council property, the
theft or loss of a receipt book, the theft or loss of council
money, and failure by the council to exercise proper control over its
financial records.

In Warrenton, the unit is to probe claims of the council entering into
unlawful, unauthorised or irregular diamond prospecting contracts with
private individuals, as well as the sale of motor vehicles and houses
belonging to the council or its employees.

If any money was found to have been lost, the unit would institute civil
proceedings for its recovery by means of a special tribunal, Rich said.

He said the amount of money allegedly involved had not yet been
determined.

About 20 local councils were under investigation in the Eastern Cape,
another four in the Northern Cape, and an unknown number in the Free State
and Gauteng, Rich said.

@ REGISTER-PEOPLE

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

FORMER ACDP MEMBER FORMS NEW POLITICAL PARTY

A splinter group led by Dr Thamsanqa Enoch Bam has broken away
from the African Christian Democratic Party to form the People's
Party.

Bam in a statement in Johannesburg on Friday said the move was
necessitated by the urgency of next year's election and the fact
that the ACDP had been tarnished irrepairably.

"As you are aware, I was elected president of the ACDP at a
special general conference in July 1996. Although all the court
judgments have been in my favour so far, Kenneth Meshoe and his
fellows have refused to vacate their seats.

"The Speaker (of Parliament) has also refused to ask them to
vacate because, as she stated in her letters, `there is a dispute
regarding my election,'" Bam said.

He said he decided to form a new political party on November 4
as he and his supporters believed none of the existing parties had
the same objectives as theirs.

"We want to serve the people in word, thought and deed," he
said.

Bam later told Sapa the People's Party had been formally
registered as a political party. However, it still had to register
for next year's election.

He said most of the 2000 members were people who had broken
away from the ACDP because of disillusionment.

@ LOW-LEVEL FLIGHTS BY ISRAEL OVER LEBANON

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

The Department of Foreign Affairs stated today that it had
learned with concern of the low-level flights staged by the Israeli
airforce over Beirut and the southern part of Lebanon on 9 and 10
December 1998.

The Department expressed its disquiet over these flights over
the Lebanese capital, which were not only another violation of
Lebanon's sovereignty by Israel but were clearly, deliberately aimed
at the citizens of Beirut and at disrupting their day-to-day lives.

The Department further pointed out that such actions merely
perpetuate the cycle of mistrust and fear in the Middle East and
serve only the interests of those parties who seek the destruction
of the Middle East Peace Process.

The Department of Foreign Affairs called upon the Government of
Israel to honour the spirit of peacemaking engendered by the Oslo
Peace Accords and strengthened by the signing of the Wye River
Memorandum at the end of October.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
11 DECEMBER 1998

@ STATEMENT ON EIKENHOFF THREE CASE

Issued by: Office of the Deputy President TM Mbeki

In response to media queries regarding remarks made by Justice
Van der Walt against the National Director of Prosecution Bulelani
Ngcuka, during an application for bail by the Eikenhoff Three, the
Office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki wishes to put the following
on record.

The Office recognises and respects the right of the court to
make decisions on matters placed before it. We therefore do not
challenge the court's authority in refusing bail to applicants,
including the Eikenhoff Three.

However, it is our view that courts should not be used a
platforms to make politically motivated comments by members of the
bench.

It is unfortunate that such remarks should come at a time when
there is a movement towards accepting the legitimacy of the
country's judicial system by the majority of South Africans.

The Judicial Services Commission, established in terms of the
constitution, is the appropriate structure to address this and other
relevant matters.

For more info contact Adv. Mojanku Gumbi.

Issued by the Office of the Deputy President TM Mbeki
Communications Division
P/Bag X955
Pretoria
0001

@ EASTCAPE-FATUSE

BISHO December 11 1998 Sapa

EASTCAPE LEGISLATURE FINANCE DIRECTOR'S CASE POSTPONED

The case of the Eastern Cape's director of finance, Bejile
Fatuse, who allegedly ran a money lending scheme in the
legislature, has been postponed indefinitely after two witnesses
testified at an inquiry on Friday.

The witnesses, former legislature secretary Connie de Beer and
internal auditor Zolile Gwavu, were called to give evidence in
connection with the charges Fatuse faces.

Fatuse has also been charged with allegedly converting air
tickets into cash or car-hire for some members of the provincial
legislature, running a money-lending scheme in the legislature
premises without authorisation, and failing to supply information
requested by the executive management.

Both Fatuse and de Beer were advised to take voluntary leave,
pending the legislature investigation into the allegations.

De Beer was supposed to face charges as accounting officer of
the legislature for failing to give guidance regarding legislature
policy on the financial administration issues, but resigned before
being charged.

Herlu Smith, for the legislature, said the hearing was
postponed indefinitely to give time for the consideration of
evidence given on Friday and a new date would be arranged soon.

@ MANDELA-WCC

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

MANDELA TO ADDRESS WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ASSEMBLY IN HARARE

President Nelson Mandela will visit Harare on Sunday to address
the eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches, presidential
spokesman Tony Trew said on Friday.

He will be changing places with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
who was scheduled to address the gathering on Sunday afternoon.

Mbeki's spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the two leaders had
agreed to trade places to allow Mandela an opportunity to say
farewell to the WCC before he retires next year.

Asked if Mandela would meet President Robert Mugabe during his
visit to Zimbabwe, Trew said no meeting was scheduled between the
two leaders.

"The president is going simply to speak to the World Council of
Churches. That is the sole purpose of his visit," Trew said.

@ EIKENHOF-MBEKI

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

COURT SHOULDN'T BE USED AS POLITICAL PLATFORM: MBEKI'S OFFICE

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki's office on Friday said courts
should not be used by members of the Bench as platforms to make
politically-motivated comments.

It was commenting on the row between National Director of
Public Prosecutions Bullani Ngcuka and Pretoria High Court Judge
Piet van der Walt about bail for the so-called Eikenhof three.

The office said it recognised and respected the court's right
to make decisions on matters placed before it, and did not
challenge the court's authority in refusing bail to any applicants,
including the so-called Eikenhof three.

On Thursday, Van der Walt refused bail to African National
Congress cadres Siphiwe Bholo, Sipho Gavin and Boy Titi Ndweni. The
three are appealing against their 1994 conviction for a multiple
murder in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg.

A Pan Africanist Congress member has claimed responsibility for
the attack and has applied to the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission for amnesty.

Ngcuka ordered the withdrawal of the State's opposition to
bail, a decision Van der Walt said was "extremely unfortunate,
ill-considered and unwise".

"He himself is an ANC member, appointed by an ANC government,
any person in his position should be extremely wary to take a
decision of this nature," Van der Walt said.

Ngcuka rejected Van der Walt's allegations that he was "unduly
influenced" in deciding to withdraw the State's opposition to the
bail application.

He said in a statement on Thursday that Van der Walt had
"absolutely no factual basis" for the remarks he made.

Ngcuka said he had initially opposed bail for the Eikenhof
three.

He said after representations from the defence it was clear
that new evidence that had considerable bearing on the case had
come to light.

Mbeki's office said it was unfortunate such remarks should come
at a time when there was a movement towards accepting the
legitimacy of the country's judicial system by the majority of
South Africans.

"The Judicial Services Commission, established in terms of the
constitution, is the appropriate structure to address this and
other relevant matters," said the office.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA December 11 1998 Sapa-AP

BATTLES BETWEEN ANGOLAN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS SPREAD

Heavy fighting between the government army and UNITA has spread
from the rebel group's central highland strongholds to other towns
in the area, the two sides said Friday.

A government statement said the UNITA rebels had launched "a
violent military offensive" across the central highland provinces
of Bie and Huambo, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of
Luanda, the capital.

Carlos Morgado, a UNITA representative contacted by telephone
in Lisbon, Portugal, confirmed the foes were engaged in "intense
combat" in various areas of the two provinces.

Morgado said battles also were taking place in the northern
province Uige, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) northeast of the
capital on the border with Congo.

The Radio Eclesia correspondent in Huambo reported that army
reinforcements flew into the city Friday from Congo, where they had
been supporting President Laurent Kabila against a rebel
insurgency.

@ COMORES-OAU

PRETORIA December 11 1998 Sapa

OAU FACT-FINDING MISSION TO COMORES RETURNS TO SA

An Organisation for African Unity fact-finding mission to the
strife-torn Comores returned to South Africa on Friday night,
Foreign Affairs spokesman Marco Boni told Sapa.

The delegation, headed by SA National Defence Force chief of
special operations planning Brigadier-General Jan Lusse, left for
the Comoran capital of Moroni on Wednesday.

The eight-man delegation comprised senior military and security
officials from Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania
and South Africa.

The delegation met Comoran interim president Tadjidine Ben Said
Massounde and Prime Minister Abbas Djoussouf.

It also met the OAU military observer mission on the island of
Grand Comores, the diplomatic corps as well as some
non-governmental organisations on Grand Comores. It also visited
the island of Moheli.

Boni said the delegation had prepared an assessment report
which had been conveyed to OAU secretary-general Salim Ahmed Salim
and the governments involved in the mission.

He declined to comment on the report, saying it had still to be
considered by the OAU and the heads of state.

Salim earlier this week said no decision had yet been made to
intervene militarily in the Comores, where a militia faction seized
control of the capital of the Anjouan island.

Salim said the type of action to be taken would be determined
by the feedback received from the mission. The use of force would
be the last possible consideration, he said.

@ DRCONGO-UN

UNITED NATIONS December 11 1998 Sapa-AFP

UN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR DRC CEASEFIRE AS SUMMIT COLLAPSES

The UN Security Council on Friday called for an immediate
ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the "orderly
withdrawal" of foreign forces.

The call was issued in a formal statement adopted by consensus
among all the 15 council members.

However, the statement was issued just after Zambian
authorities announced the indefinite postponement of a planned
summit that was to have discussed a preliminary ceasefire accord
reached November 28 in Paris.

The ceasefire accord was reached on the sidelines of the
Franco-African summit in Paris, following active involvement by UN
chief Kofi Annan.

Friday's council statement urged all parties concerned to
participate "at the highest level possible" at the Lusaka summit,
which had been scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday.

The DRC and allies with troops in the country - Angola,
Zimbabwe and Namibia - plus Rwanda and Uganda, whose forces are
backing the rebels, had been expected to send leaders to the
summit.

Botswana, Kenya, Gabon, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and
host Zambia were also to have attended.

@ SPORT-NOCSA

JOHANNESBURG December 11 1998 Sapa

NOCSA BOSS ATTACKS PROPOSED SPORTS RACE QUOTA

South African National Olympic Committee (Nocsa)
secretary-general Dan Moyo on Friday attacked proposed legislation
to increase the number of black players in national sports teams,
the Citizen reported on Saturday.

The chairman of the parliamentary sports portfolio committee,
Lulu Xingwana, said on Thursday the government planned to introduce
legislation next year giving the sports commissioner power to
promote black players.

"What they are doing does not go well with us," Moyo said.

"It will be detrimental to sport. The IOC (International
Olympic Committee) will also not tolerate the practising of racist
policies. We invite her to come and face us and discuss the issue."

Moyo, who is also head of Basketball South Africa, said the
government contribution towards the development of sport was
meagre.

"Maybe if they were pumping millions of rands into development
then they could come and question what is happening in
development."

@ ANGOLA-OIL

LUANDA December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

WORLD OIL PRICE COLLAPSE THREATENS ANGOLA

The collapse in the world oil price to
below ten dollars a barrel is a severe blow to Angola, involved both
in a reviving civil conflict and a war in neighbouring Democratic
Republic of Congo.

As the second largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa behind
Nigeria, Angola relies on oil for 81 percent of its income in
foreign currency and 87 percent of its tax revenues.

In July Luanda was already forced to slash its budget, based on
a projected rate of 14 dollars a barrel, from 3.8 billion to 2.8
billion dollars as oil prices fell.

The price of ten dollars a barrel, for an output of some 730,000
barrels a day (bpd) this year, is half what it was in 1996. Last
year it was 18.5 dollars.

The situation is now critical for a government which can
scarcely pay its own employees, let alone invest in vital sectors
like health, education and basic infrastructure.

It is facing a resumption of the 24-year war against the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) inside
the country, and its troops are fighting with those of Chad, Namibia
and Zimbabwe in support of DRC leader Laurent Kabila against a
serious rebellion.

Analysts here said the state oil company Sonangol had mortgaged
its output until 2001 and was unable to pay its share of investments
in joint ventures with foreign firms.

Sonangol is due some one billion dollars by the end of the year
as payment for licences taken out by international firms for deep
water offshore drilling, but will be unable to fund the many
projects for which it is being solicited.

Angola can only pray for a miracle next year of an oil price
rise to accompany its expected increased production of 850,000
barrels a day.

In 2000 the Girassol and Dalia fields being exploited by
France's Elf Aquitaine are due to come on line, producing 200,000
bpd. Others will follow, raising production to some 2.5 bpd by 2010,
experts say.

@ DRCONGO-REBELS

MOBA DR CONGO December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

REBELS SEIZE ALL OF SOUTHEASTERN TOWN, AIRPORT

The southeastern DR Congo town of Moba and its airport, near
Lake Tanganyika, are firmly under the control of rebels opposed to
President Laurent Kabila, an AFP correspondent reported Saturday.

Sources told AFP that Burundian government troops were backing
rebels in the Moba region.

Press reports in Namibia earlier this week said at least one
Namibian soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in
renewed offensives against the rebels in Moba.

The rebels have denied claims that 1,000 of their troops were
killed in the Moba assault, led by allied and DRC government
troops.

Namibia has been tightlipped about how many troops it has in
the DRC, but recent estimates say it has over 2,000 soldiers in the
country.

The reports came after the UN Security Council on Friday called
for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo and
the "orderly withdrawal" of foreign forces.

The call was issued in a formal statement adopted by consensus
among all the 15 council members.

Friday's council statement urged all parties concerned to
participate "at the highest level possible" at the summit, which
had been scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday in Lusaka.

The DRC and allies with troops in the country - Angola,
Zimbabwe and Namibia - plus Rwanda and Uganda, whose forces are
backing the rebels, had been expected to send leaders to the
summit.

Botswana, Kenya, Gabon, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and
host Zambia were also to have attended.

@ ZIM-AIDS

GWERU December 12 1998 Sapa

ZIM'S FIGHT AGAINST AIDS IS DISJOINTED: MINISTER

Disjointed approaches by groups campaigning against and
providing relief for HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe are preventing the
government from declaring the incurable disease a national
disaster, a Zimbabwean Health department spokesman said on
Saturday.

Health and Child Welfare Minister, Timothy Stamps told Ziana
news agency that there was a need for a centrally co-ordinated
policy among organisations fighting the disease.

"We have a disjointed approach. Some non-governmental
organisations have different attitudes towards the disease. Some
believe it is men who spread it and they should be punished in some
way.

"Others say we should abolish breastfeeding to curb the spread
of the disease to babies..." said Stamps.

They also faced the problem of traditional and modern health
practitioners who claimed to cure AIDS and others who denied the
existence of the disease, he added.

Stamps said the government itself did not seem serious in the
fight against the disease - judging from the meagre resources it
allocated to the Health ministry.

For the 1999 financial year, the ministry was allocated ZD3,5
billion instead of the ZD5,6 billion Stamps had requested.

Out of its allocation, the ministry channels 27 percent towards
AIDS programmes.

Although the figure represented a three percent increase from
the previous allocation, with inflation currently pegged at 45
percent, Stamps said the money was not enough.

"Sometimes I wonder whether we (government) are really serious
about curbing AIDS and improving health standards in the country."

Asked whether he had mentioned this to colleagues in government
he replied: "When I am not even in the cabinet's budget formulation
committee how can I be taken seriously?" he asked.

He said the shortage of funds was now affecting operations of
the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, major public
hospitals and most mission hospitals.

@ ZIM-DEVELOPMENT

GWERU, Zimbabwe December 12 1998 Sapa

ZIM GOVT TO RELEASE ZD454,8-MILLION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The Zimbabwean government has allocated ZD454,8-million for
community-initiated rural development next year, Rural Resources
and Water Development Minister, Joyce Mujuru said on Saturday.

She said the money would be released to the country's eight
rural provinces at ZD56,85-million each - a 13,7 percent increase
from last year's ZD50-million.

The concept of targeting community-initiated projects began
last year with government aiming to satisfy immediate needs of
rural people such as provision of clean water, schools, clinics and
roads.

She told Ziana news agency that the new allocations would only
be released to provinces once the old allocations were exhausted.

"Last year's money has not been used up yet because we got it
late and we were still educating people on how to propose projects.
We have since received more than 1000 proposals countrywide of
which about 400 have been approved and implementation has
started," she said.

The projects included drilling of boreholes, construction of
schools and roads.

Implementation of the projects would be led by chiefs, village
development committees and ward development committees formed in
1985.

@ EU-SA

VIENNA December 12 1998 Sapa-AP

EU SEEKS COMPROMISE ON TRADE TALKS WITH SOUTH AFRICA

On an appeal from President Nelson Mandela, European Union
leaders endorsed a compromise Saturday to resolve a dispute over
wine labels threatening to derail a sweeping trade deal with South
Africa.

Negotiations have dragged on for four years on a market-opening
agreement that would phase out duties on 90 percent of the dlrs 19
billion-a-year trade between South Africa and the 15-nation EU.

But efforts to finalize the deal are snagged on Spanish and
Portuguese insistence that South African vintners stop calling
their fortified wines sherry or port.

British officials at the EU's year-end summit said negotiators
had presented the South Africans with a compromise that would allow
the South Africans to continue using the names in their domestic
and regional markets for up to 20 years, pending a review.

South Africa has already agreed to phase out sherry and port
from the labels on wines exported outside Africa.

The deadlock has raised tensions among the EU leaders, who gave
Mandela a pledge in June to wrap up the trade deal by the end of
the year.

"I am really angry. It is ridiculous ... to see the trade
negotiations drag on and on for months," said Dutch Prime Minister
Wim Kok.

Mandela wrote to the EU leaders last week, appealing for
compromise.

However, European nations are fiercely protective of their
exclusive claims to ancient wine labels. The Iberians argue only
Spain can produce sherry and only wines from the Portuguese city of
Oporto can be labeled as port.

Their stance reflects French insistence this week that a Swiss
village called Champagne stop using its name on wine labels, before
the EU concluded a trade deal with Switzerland.

South Africa claims to have used port and sherry labels for
fortified wines for 300 years but has agreed to stop using the
terms for exports to Europe and phase them out over five-to-ten
years in most other foreign markets.

However, Pretoria insists it be allowed to continue marketing
fortified wines as port and sherry in its home market and
neighboring nations.

"For the ordinary population, the agreement cannot be
concluded by us surrendering the household names in southern Africa
of our own port and sherry," Mandela wrote in his letter, extracts
of which were shown to reporters last week at EU headquarters in
Brussels, Belgium.

South African wine produces say sales of their wine labeled
port or sherry are worth about 750 million rand (dlrs 123 million),
of which 13 percent comes from exports.

@ DRCONGO-2ND-LD-REBELS

KALEMIE, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec 12, Sapa-AFP

Heavy fighting was reported Saturday in the southeast of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), near the border with Zambia.

A DRC rebel commander said the fighting around the town of
Pweto, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of the rebel-held town
of Moba, pitted his Tutsi-dominated forces against Hutu rebels from
neighbouring Burundi.

DRC rebels, who rose up against President Laurent Kabila in
early August, were battling fighters from the Forces for the
Defence of Democracy (FDD), the armed wing of a Burundian
opposition group, according to Major Nura Songolo, speaking to AFP
in Kalemie, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Kinshasa.

"Serious fighting has been going on at Pweto for two days, on
the shore of lake Mweru," said Major Songolo, who alleged some
2,000 FDD fighters had joined Kabila's side in the DRC war, which
embroils at least seven African countries.

"We now have a company (150 men) and I will reinforce my troops
with a brigade. Otherwise, they might recapture Moba," he said of
the rebel-held town on the shore of Lake Tanganyika.

The DRC rebels patrolled the lake on Friday. "We think these
Burundian rebels are crossing the lake using ports in Zambia and
Tanzania, perhaps unknown to the authorities," said Songolo.

Officially, both Tanzania and Zambia have played a neutral role
in the DRC conflict, but Tanzania has nevertheless been accused of
allowing Burundian rebels through its territory in the past.

"Such a major involvement by Burundian rebels must draw a
reaction from Bujumbura. It is certain they will intervene," said
the rebel commander, without admitting that Burundian government
troops are reportedly deployed alongside DRC rebels in the Moba
district.

Bujumbura has, however, repeatedly denied any involvement in
the DRC conflict.

Burundi, the DRC, Tanzania and Zambia all have shores on lake
Tanganyika.

Tutsi Burundian rebels have long had bases in the eastern DRC.

@ CRIME-KRANSKOP

MIDLANDS, KwaZulu-Natal December 12 1998 Sapa

TWO SUSPECTED MURDERERS OF KRANSKOP FARMER ARRESTED

Two men suspected of murdering a Kranskop farmer, Friedel
Redinger, were arrested at Ntombeni near Kranskop on Saturday
morning, Midlands police said.

Superintendent Henry Budhram told Sapa the men were arrested at
2am after police were tipped off about their whereabouts.

A third suspect was still at large.

"Several exhibits including a firearm have been confiscated,"
he said.

Redinger, who was shot dead on Monday was buried in Greytown,
near Pietermaritzburg on Friday.

The suspects' names will be released after they have appeared
in court.

@ ANCYL NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESS CONFERENCE

Issued by: African National Congress Youth League

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS YOUTH LEAGUE
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY

ANC YOUTH LEAGUE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The ANC Youth League will be concluding its national executive
committee (NEC) meeting tomorrow Sunday 13th, and would like to
invite all news media to a press conference to be held as follows.

Date : Sunday 13th December 1998
Venue : Parktonian Hotel, De Korte Str, Braamfontein
Time : 10h30

The press conference will address the following issues:

1. The Youth voter registration turnout

2. The national education situation (matric results,
readmissions, financial crisis at universities during the beginning
of 1999)

3. Transformation of Sport

4. The cooperation with the IFP Youth Brigade

5. The situation in Mpumalanga as it relates to the resignation
of the Provincial Secretary, Cde James Nkambule

Further enquiries contact Blessing Manale at 082 745 1300 or Thabo
Masebe

@ CRIE-KRANSKOP

PIETERMARITZBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

TWO SUSPECTED MURDERERS OF KRANSKOP FARMER ARRESTED

Two men suspected of murdering a Kranskop farmer, Friedel
Redinger, were arrested at Ntombeni near Kranskop on Saturday
morning, KwaZulu/Natal police said.

Superintendent Henry Budhram told Sapa the men were arrested at
2am after police were tipped off about their whereabouts.

A third suspect was still at large.

"Several exhibits including a firearm have been confiscated,"
he said.

Redinger, who was shot dead on Monday was buried in Greytown,
near Pietermaritzburg on Friday.

The suspects' names will be released after they have appeared
in court.

@ MBEKI TO MEET MUGABE ON SUNDAY

Issued by: Office of the Deputy President T.M. Mbeki

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki's office announces that he will
meet Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Sunday.

The South African and Zimbabwean Finance and Trade and Industry
Ministers will also attend the meeting.

Details of the agenda will be released later today.

For more information, contact Ronnie Mamoepa on 082 990 4853.

@ CRIME-KRAAIFONTEIN

CAPE TOWN December 12 1998 Sapa

WOMAN STABBED TO DEATH IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENT

A 23-year-old woman from the Bloekombos informal settlement
near Kraaifontein in the Western Cape died after she was attacked
and stabbed several times in her hut on Saturday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said the door to
Phumla Bunguzana's hut was forced open and she was repeatedly
stabbed in her back.

Bunguzana stumbled to a neighbour's hut with the knife still
imbedded in her back, where she died.

The motive for the killing was not known.

In Belhar, on the Cape Flats, three men were seriously wounded
when a group of men entered a house and fired several shots late on
Friday night.

Gerswin Adams, 21, was hit in the neck, Moegamat Salie, 18, in
both arms and John Snyman, 23, in the right leg and back. They were
being treated at Tygerberg Hospital.

De Beer said the attack was possibly linked to the ongoing gang
conflict on the Cape Flats.

In Elsies River, on the Cape Flats, robbers took two firearms
and a wristwatch from a safe on the premises of Barker Shoes after
they held up two security guards. No one was injured.

The men sped off in a white VW Golf.

@ DRCONGO-SUMMIT

LUSAKA, Zambia December 12 1998 Sapa-AP

CONGO PEACE SUMMIT POSTPONED AGAIN

An end to the war in Congo appeared as remote as ever Saturday
after Zambia again postponed peace talks amid a refusal by Congo
President Laurent Kabila to meet with rebel leaders.

Kabila's refusal to meet with the rebels doomed a series of
earlier summits aimed at ending the four-month-old war that
involves troops from six other nations.

The summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday has been
rescheduled for Dec. 28, the Zambian foreign ministry said.
Officials hope the delay will give special Zambian envoy Eric
Silwamba time to persuade foes in the Congolese conflict to attend
the summit. The meeting had originally been scheduled for Dec. 8.

South Africa, meanwhile, will not attend if the rebels continue
to be excluded, the Saturday Star of Johannesburg reporterd. South
Africa has launched its own fruitless peace initiatives to end the
fighting in Congo, which threatens to destabilize much of
sub-Saharan Africa.

Zimbabwean, Angolan, Chadian and Namibian troops are fighting
alongside Kabila's forces against the rebels in the vast central
African country.

Rwanda and Uganda, which back the rebels, have admitted sending
troops onto Congolese soil. The two countries argue that a
tentative peace agreement recently forged in Paris does not fully
address their security concerns.

Kabila has insisted negotiating only with Rwanda and Uganda and
not the rebel coalition made up of ethnic Tutsis, disaffected
Congolese soldiers and opposition Congolese politicians.

@ MOZAMBIQUE-CHOLERA

MAPUTO December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

DIARRHOEAL DISEASES CONTINUE TO KILL IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE

A total of 365 people have died of cholera and other diarrhoeal
diseases in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula since the
first outbreak about four week ago, according to the provincial
health authorities.

More than 8,000 cases have been registered, mostly in the
coastal districts of Moma, Nacala-porto, Nacala-a-velha and Ilha de
Mocambique, an historic island off Nampula coast, authorities said.

Of the total dead, 210 cases were blamed on cholera while the
remaining were due to acute diarrhoea linked to the contamination
of fish in neighbouring Cabo Delgado province, where more than 200
people have lost their lives since late September.

The contamination of fish with pesticides led to a temporary
suspension of all fishing activities in the province.
Investigations into how the contamination occurred were under way.

@ DRCONGO-EU

VIENNA, Dec 12, Sapa-AFP

EU CALLS FOR END TO FIGHTING IN THE DRCONGO

European leaders Saturday called for an immediate end to
fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and for a
withdrawal of all foreign troops.

In a statement agreed on the final day of their summit, the EU
leaders noted "the aggravation and the internationalisation of the
armed conflict" in the DRC.

Along with the deployment of more military forces, this
constituted "a serious threat to the stability indispensable to the
development of the whole region," they said.

The EU called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities, a
withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC and for negotiations of
all the concerned parties, with a view to an urgent political
solution of the conflict."

The leaders also said it was essential for human rights and
humanitarian law to be respected in the DRC.

Zimbabwe, together with Angola, Chad and Namibia, back DR Congo
President Laurent Kabila against Congolese rebels who are backed by
Uganda and Rwanda.

The European Union on Wednesday threatened decreased aid to the
countries involved in the fighting unless a political solution was
found.

@ BLUETRAIN-MUGABE

BULAWAYO December 12 1998 Sapa

FIVE SOUTHERN AFRICAN LEADERS ARRIVE IN BULAWAYO ON BLUE TRAIN

The Blue Train II would bring benefits for Zimbabwe and other
South African Development Community countries, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe said on Saturday as the second new Blue Train arrived
in Bulawayo on Saturday.

South Africa's Deputy President Thabo Mbeki is hosting
Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, Botswana President Festus
Mogae, Swaziland Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini and Namibia's
Prime Minister Hage Geingob and prominent business people on the
train's two day inaugural trip from Johannesburg to the Victoria
Falls.

Ziana news agency reported that the party was welcomed at
Bulawayo railway station by Mugabe, senior government officials and
excited Bulawayans.

Mugabe said: "As the train will regularly travel through
Zimbabwe, this will positively benefit this country through the
association with Transnet, the owners of this spectacular
travelling masterpiece."

The railways, which had always played a historical role in the
development of the economies of SADC countries, were currently
experiencing a renewal, Mugabe said.

A 317km railway line was under construction between Bulawayo
and the South African border at Beitbridge.

"This line, which should be operational by July 1999, will
bring great possibilities for development, finally giving
Zimbabwe's second city (Bulawayo) a direct link with our second
largest trading partner - South Africa," Mugabe said.

The line would be part of the establishment of a seamless
railway network between all countries in the region.

He said the launch of the second new Blue Train co-incided with
a comeback in luxury rail travel and had great potential to further
develop the tourist industry in the region.

Speaking on behalf of the travelling leaders, Chissano said:
"It is possible to inter-connect all the African rails of the
region and even go as far as Cairo to facilitate the bringing of
more tourists (to) the continent."

The train, which travelled through Botswana on its way to
Bulawayo, left mid-morning for Victoria Falls without Chissano and
Mugabe, who had other engagements.

@ DRCONGO-SA

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 12, Sapa-AFP

POSTPONEMENT OF LUSAKA SUMMIT NOT END OF DRCONGO PEACE PROCESS:
SA

South African President Nelson Mandela and Foreign Minister
Alfred Nzo said Saturday the cancellation of the Lusaka summit on
the Democratic Republic of Congo did not spell an end to efforts to
bring peace to the war-torn country.

"We do not think the peace process is dead," Nzo told AFP.
"South Africa remains committed to the process of seeking a
solution to the crisis in the DRC."

Mandela's spokesman Parks Mankahlana said: "Our understanding
is that everything should be done to take efforts to resolve the
conflict in the DRC forward."

0"The South African government will continue to do all it can
to assist in this regard."

Foreign ministry spokesman Marco Boni said South Africa was
Saturday morning officially informed by Zambia that the summit,
planned for Tuesday, would not go ahead, but saw it as being
postponed not cancelled.

0"We would like to think the summit has been postponed because
we don't think the peace process has come to a end."

Zambia had not yet furnished South Africa with reasons for
calling of the regional summit, Boni said.

Neither he nor Mandela's office would confirm that South
Africa's insistence that the rebels, who have been trying to topple
Kabila since August, be present at the talks, had scuppered the
Lusaka summit.

Nzo Friday told AFP, before meeting with Zambian Presidential
Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba: "As long as Kabila's government
refuses to meet the rebels, the talks will lead nowhere. Every
effort has been done to convince them."

South African government sources however said Saturday that Nzo
remained unwilling to compromise on this point.

Government officials had maintained throughout the week that a
summit would be pointless without the necessary groundwork being in
place for the Congolese agressors to reach a peace agreement.

And Boni said Saturday South Africa still believed all
roleplayers have to agree to the proposals set out at a Southern
African Development Community summit in Pretoria in August - a
ceasefire, the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the DRC and a
negotiated end to the crisis - before any progress could be made.

0"If it requires more discussion then that is what we will do,"
he said

Mandela's office have left open the possibility of talks
between Mandela and Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe who is
backing the DRC government, when the South African president goes
to Harare Sunday to address a meeting of the World Council of
Churches.

"I guess if the opportunity arises they will have a chat,"
Mankahlana told AFP.

@ CRIME-SOUTHGATE

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

BOGUS SECURITY GUARDS ROB DION STORES OF R200000

Three armed men dressed in Dion Stores security uniforms robbed
the chainstore's Southgate branch of R200,000 in cash on Saturday,
Johannesburg police spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the bogus security guards entered the store's
cash office at 8.30am while employees were counting money.

One of them produced a firearm, another a knife, and they took
the cash. The staff were locked in the room and the suspects
escaped through a staff entrance.

No one was injured.

Meanwhile, five armed men robbed Adan Mattress Company in
Jeppestown of two vehicles, a cellular phone and R770 in cash on
Saturday morning.

Reynolds said one employee was hit with a gun in the face
during the robbery at 8am.

Two of the suspects, aged 17 and 23, were later arrested near
George Goch Hostel. The stolen goods were also recovered.

@ KENYA-INDEPENDENCE

NAIROBI, Kenya December 12 1998 Sapa-AP

MOI WARNS OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP, SAYS HE WILL INTERVENE IN DRC

Calling on Kenyans to buckle up for another year of tough
economics, President Daniel arap Moi said Saturday that a worldwide
slump, a foundering banking system and corruption were contributing
to Kenya's ailing economy.

Speaking to about 20,000 people at Nyayo Stadium in the capital
to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Kenya's Independence from
British colonial rule, Moi said regional conflicts also endangered
development.

In speeches in English and Kiswahili, that were read out at
government offices throughout Kenya, Moi urged warring countries in
the region to resolve their hostilities.

Moi said Kenya was concerned about the rebellion in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congolese President Laurent Kabila's forces are backed by
allies Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad. Kabila demands that
Rwanda and Uganda, who back the rebels, withdraw their troops
before a cease fire is implemented.

Moi said he supports the call for the withdrawal of foreign
troops.

"I am going to intervene to see that the people of Congo live
in peace," he said, without elaborating.

He said Ethiopia and Eritrea must bridge their differences over
a six-month border dispute, and called on the Sudanese government
and southern rebels "to make concessions" to end the 15-year
civil war in southern Sudan.

Moi said Kenya's economy was on in recovery, with interest
rates at the lowest level in three years and commercial bank
lending rates down, but bad times were still ahead.

Corruption in Kenya is rampant, leading the International
Monetary Fund to suspend a dlrs 220 million dollar loan and Kenya's
finance minister to say corrupt customs practices had destroyed
Kenya's economy.

Moi said transit cargo controls put in place will remain to
prevent untaxed transit goods from being dumped into local markets.

He also addressed a banking scandal exposed last month in which
dozens of prominent politicians, among them several ministers, and
businessmen were listed as owing millions of dollars to Kenyan
Banks, many of which have recently collapsed.

"There is a lot of theft in government," Moi said. "Those
doing it will pay for their misdeeds."

However, the president insisted that the government could not
be blamed for bad banking practices and called on debtors to honor
their obligations.

In addition, Moi warned that the deadly AIDS virus was posing a
threat Kenyans must begin to take seriously.

"You are getting finished by AIDS," Moi said. "One point two
million (Kenyans) are AIDS positive."

The annual Dec. 12 Jamhuri Day celebrations this year included
a military air show, cheered by the crowd, and traditional dancers
and choirs who sang Kenyan and Christmas songs.

@ COMORES-UNREST-TOLL

MAMOUDZOU December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

AT LEAST 60 KILLED IN ANJOUAN CLASHES

At least 60 people were killed over the last week in clashes on
the separatist island of Anjouan, in the Indian Ocean archipelago
of the Comoros, the prefecture on the French island of Mayotte said
Saturday.

@ EGYPT-DRCONGO

KABILA IN CAIRO FOR TALKS WITH MUBARAK

Embattled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent
Kabila arrived in Cairo on Saturday for three days of talks with
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, officials said.

The talks will centre on "the situation in the DRC and will be
an extension of discussions the two heads of state began in Paris"
at the Franco-African summit earlier in the month, Egyptian Foreign
Minister Amr Mussa said.

The two will examine "ways of strengthening bilateral relations
in all areas," Mussa said.

The trip marks Kabila's first visit to Egypt since the roughly
five years he spent there as a political refugee in the late 1960s
and early 70s.

Back home Kabila is facing an intense civil war, as his own
government troops - reinforced by soldiers from Angola, Chad,
Namibia and Zimbabwe - are combatting an uprising of rebel troops
backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

The European Union, at the close of its Vienna summit Saturday,
called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities, a withdrawal of
foreign troops from the DRC and for negotiations of all the
concerned parties, with a view to an urgent political solution of
the conflict."

@ MBEKI-MUGABE

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

MBEKI AND MUGABE FOR ECONOMIC TALKS ON SUNDAY

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe and the Finance and Trade and Industry Ministers of South
Africa and Zimbabwe would meet in Harare on Sunday morning, Mbeki's
spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said on Saturday.

Mamoepa said discussion on economic co-operation between the
two countries with a specific focus on trade agreement and cross
border co-operation was on the agenda.

Mbeki travelled to Zimbabwe on the inaugural journey of the new
Blue Train and will be met by Mugabe when the train ends its
journey at Victoria Falls station on Saturday night.

@ CRIME-MAYFAIR

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

MAYFAIR MAN SHOT IN HIS HOUSE

A 60-year-old man was shot by two suspects who were trying to
break into his Clifton Street, Mayfair home early Saturday,
Johannesburg police spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the victim's wife alerted him of the attempted
burglary around 3am. He took his firearm and while looking through
the bathroom window, one of the suspects shot him in the arm.

He returned fire and the two men fled.

Police are investigating an attempted murder case.

@ Y3K-LISTING

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

TECHNOLGY GROUP Y3K TO LIST ON STOCK EXCHANGE

Technology group Y3K was to list on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange's electronic sector on Tuesday, the group announced on
Saturday.

Y3K said it would list 74,5 million ordinary shares.

The group received strong institutional and private sector
support for its private placing of 17,5 million ordinary shares at
R1 each, which closed on Friday, it said in a statement.

Pro forma earnings were 4,2 cents per share for the 12 months
ending December 31, based on actual results for the six months to
June 30 and budgeted results for the rest of the year.

Forecasted earnings for 1999 were 9,5 cents per share,
excluding any income from interest on funds raised by share
placements and any contribution from the group's two emerging
operations, Cyber Knowledge and Enabling Technologies.

The group held the rights to several international products and
would, where appropriate, seek additional businesses or help set up
new ones.

@ ZIM-RHODES

GWERU December 12 1998 Sapa

ZIMBABWEAN GROUP LOBBIES TO REMOVE RHODES GRAVE

A Zimbabwean pressure group, led by self-declared Chief
Munhumutapa III, said on Saturday it would lobby a Zanu PF
conference for African unification and the removal of Cecil John
Rhodes' grave from the Matopo hills, near Bulawayo.

Ziana news agency Ziana reported that Sangano Munhumutapa, led
by Lawrence "Warlord" Chakaredza, wanted Rhodes' grave removed by
Christmas.

Chakaredza said the conference would also be used to draw
attention to his movement's mission to "reincarnate the Munhumutapa
empire which used to cover parts of South Africa, Zambia, Malawi,
Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique."

The group would campaign for the introduction of a single
currency, economic unity and the foundation of "a United States of
Africa".

@ CRIME-LWANDLE

CAPE TOWN December 12 1998 Sapa

FIVE-YEAR-OLD RAPED BY MAN WITH HIV

Police arrested an HIV positive man in connection with the rape
of a five-year-old girl in Lwandle, Strand near Cape Town on
Friday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer on Saturday said the
man enticed the girl to his shack with the promise of sweets and
raped her.

The girl reported the incident to an aunt, who contacted the
police.

@ CRIME-STRAND

CAPE TOWN December 12 1998 Sapa

MAN MURDERED IN W CAPE SQUATTER CAMP

The body of a man was found in the Wallacedene squatter camp
near Kraaifontein on Satuday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said Solomon Cetywayo,
27, had been stabbed in the neck. The motive for the killing was
not known.

In Goodwood, near Cape Town, an employee of a garage was robbed
of R10,000 and his watch while on his way to deposit cash.

De Beer said the man, Nicony Mging, 43, was threatened by three
men while parking his car.

@ ZIM-SUBSIDIES

GWERU, Zimbabwe December 12 1998 Sapa

FOOD SUBSIDIES LIKELY TO BE REINTRODUCED IN ZIMBABWE

Subsidies on basic foodstuffs were likely to be reintroduced to
help the poor in Zimbabwe who have been hit by spiralling commodity
prices, Zimbabwean Industry and Commerce Minister Nathan
Shamuyarira announced on Saturday.

"Subsidies are the only way we can ensure that everybody can
afford basic foodstuffs," Shamuyarira said.

Government subsidies were gradually phased out from 1990 in
line with rules set by the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank, which financed Zimbabwe's economic reform programme.

The announcement on Saturday followed attempts by Shamuyarira's
ministry to set a ceiling on the prices of most basic foodstuffs
such as maize-meal and cooking oil, the Ziana news agency reported.

Commodity prices rose after a 67 percent fuel hike, with
producers also blaming increases on the fall of the local currency
and increased operational costs due to inflation and high interest
rates.

@ SUMMIT-SAFRICA

VIENNA December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

EU DEADLINE FOR SOUTH AFRICA TRADE AGREEMENT SLIPS BACK TO
MARCH

The European Union's deadline for a free trade agreement with
South Africa was put back to March on Saturday, as a row over the
use of the terms port and sherry continued to hold up a deal the
two sides have been negotiating for over three years.

In a statement issued after their two-day summit here, EU
leaders "underlined the political importance" they attached to the
deal and called for the talks to be brought to a "successful
conclusion in time for the European Council in March.

"This will require efforts on both sides," they said.

At their last summit, in Cardiff in June, EU leaders promised
South African President Nelson Mandela they would do everything to
ensure a deal was wrapped up by the end of the year.

The two sides have already reached broad agreement on an accord
which would open EU markets to 95 percent of South African exports
over 10 years. Over the same period, South Africa would allow 86
percent of EU goods to freely enter its domestic market.

But the talks have hit deadlock over the use of the terms
"port" and "sherry" for fortified wines produced in South Africa.
The EU is insisting that South Africa set a date for eliminating
their use on the domestic market, as they have agreed to do for
exports.

"The South Africans have said they are not willing to negotiate
any further on this particular issue. But as far as we are
concerned the door remains open," said Philip Lowe, the European
Commission's director of development and chief negotiator.

Lowe said the commission was exploring a compromise under which
South Africa would agree to give up the use of the contested terms
after a long transitional period with a mid-term review.

This is designed to accomodate a possible international accord
on the status of semi-generic terms like port and sherry.

The free trade deal talks began in 1995 with the EU promising a
generous deal that would boost the development of post-apartheid
South Africa and help build a pole of stability and prosperity in
the region.

But the negotiations have been repeatedly dragged out because
of a series of disputes, particularly over the access of South
African farm products to the EU market.

@ MKEBI-LD-MUGABE

PRETORIA December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

ZIMBABWE'S MUGABE TO MEET S.AFRICAN VP IN HARARE ON SUNDAY

South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe will meet in Harare this weekend, Mbeki's
spokesman said Saturday.

Ronnie Mamoepa told AFP the two leaders would meet Sunday and
discuss economic co-operation between the two countries.

He said there were no official plans to talk about the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) peace process.

"It is not on the agenda," said Mamoepa.

The announcement came after Mugabe failed to join Mbeki aboard
the tourist Blue Train in Bulowayo and accompany him on the last
leg of its inaugural journey to Victoria Falls as planned.

Mugabe briefly welcomed the train at Bulowayo station before
leaving because of "other commitments", an AFP correspondent
reported.

The shared train ride had been mooted by South African
government officials as an opportunity for informal talks on the
war in the DRC, where Mugabe's troops are helping the Kinshasa
government fight a Tutsi-led rebel onslaught.

President Nelson Mandela and his foreign ministry said earlier
Saturday South Africa would continue its efforts to broker peace in
the DRC in the wake of the cancellation of a regional peace summit
in Lusaka.

"If it requires more discussion then that is wha we will do,"
foreign ministry spokesman Marco Boni told AFP.

Mandela will be in Harare on Sunday to address the World
Council of Churches and his office have not excluded the
possibility that he too could meet with Mugabe.

South Africa is calling for the withdrawal of all foreign
troops from the DRC but Mugabe has remained intransigent, saying
Zimbabwean troops would stay for as long as embattled DRC President
Laurent Kabila wants them to.

@ MOZAMBIQUE-ECONOMY

MAPUTO December 12 1998 Sapa-AFP

MOZAMBIQUE SCORES MAJOR SUCCESS IN WAR AGAINST INFLATION

The Mozambican government on Saturday claimed a major success
in bringing down inflation from 70 percent in 1994 to two percent
by the end of this year.

"The government is optimistic that a final inflation figure
will be only two percent (by year end)," said Mozambican Prime
Minister Pascoal Mocumbi.

0Original forecasts had put the year end figure at 10 percent
by end of 1998 in anticipation of a drought caused by the El Nino
weather phenomenon.

0 Mocumbi said inflation rate averaged 2.5 percent between
January and November this year compared to 4.1 percent the same
period last year.

Last year inflation dropped to a single figure for the first
time since the country embarked 11 years ago on economic reforms
backed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

>From a peak of 70 percent registered in 1994, the rate fell to
54 percent in 1995, to 16.3 perent in 1996 and to 5.8 percent last
year.

Gross domestic Product (GDP) is expected to rise from a 9.6
percent forecast to 11.2 percent.

However, in spite of the improvement in the economic
indicators, the social indicators do not match the change.

A recent survey indicated that 69 percent of the Mozambique's
estimated inhabitantts live in abject poverty.

@ ZIM-MUZENDA

GWERU December 12 1998 Sapa

MUZENDA DEFENDS AWARDING PAY-TV CONTRACT TO US FIRM

Zimbabwean Vice-President Simon Muzenda on Saturday defended
awarding a ZD1,3 billion pay-tv contract to a United States firm
because the initial winner of the tender was no longer able to
implement the project.

In an interview with Ziana, Muzenda said Commtel Electronics'
failure to supply the equipment for the pay channel prompted him to
award the tender to the second bidder, Pfluger Enterprises.

"The scheme was being delayed so I just decided that we should
go ahead, there is nothing wrong with awarding the second bidder,"
said Muzenda.

He said any further delay would have pushed up costs.

@ TRAFFIC-NASREC

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

37 INJURED IN THREE JO'BURG ACCIDENTS

Thirty seven people were seriously injured in three separate
accidents in southern Johannesburg, Traffic Services spokesman
Chief Superintendent Conel Mackay said on Saturday.

Mackay said 20 people were seriously injured when two mini-bus
taxis collided at the intersection of Ophir-Booysen and Koster
roads near the Soweto Highway at 6pm Saturday evening.

Mackay said the road was closed to traffic as a result of the
accident.

Meanwhile, five people were seriously injured when a bakkie
overturned on the N1 South between the Soweto off-ramp and Randshow
Road, Nasrec, on Saturday afternoon.

Mackay said the accident happened after the driver lost control
of the vehicle. The injured were taken to Chris Hani-Baragwanath
Hospital for treatment.

In Diepkloof, 12 people were seriously injured when two
vehicles collided at the corner of Immik and Dittenaar roads in
Zone 5 on Friday evening.

@ ACCIDENT-NASREC

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

37 INJURED IN THREE JO'BURG ACCIDENTS

Thirty seven people were seriously injured in three separate
accidents in southern Johannesburg, Traffic Services spokesman
Chief Superintendent Conel Mackay said on Saturday.

Mackay said 20 people were seriously injured when two mini-bus
taxis collided at the intersection of Ophir-Booysen and Koster
roads near the Soweto Highway at 6pm Saturday evening.

Mackay said the road was closed to traffic as a result of the
accident.

Meanwhile, five people were seriously injured when a bakkie
overturned on the N1 South between the Soweto off-ramp and Randshow
Road, Nasrec, on Saturday afternoon.

Mackay said the accident happened after the driver lost control
of the vehicle. The injured were taken to Chris Hani-Baragwanath
Hospital for treatment.

In Diepkloof, 12 people were seriously injured when two
vehicles collided at the corner of Immik and Dittenaar roads in
Zone 5 on Friday evening.

@ SUMMIT-LD-SAFRICA

VIENNA, Austria, December 12 1998 Sapa-AP

EU SEEKS WINE COMPROMISE IN TRADE TALKS WITH SOUTH AFRICA

In a dispute with South Africa over wine labels, European Union
leaders endorsed a compromise Saturday that would allow South
African vintners to keep using the names "sherry" and "port" in
their home market.

Four years of tortuous negotiations have brought the EU ad
South Africa close to a market-opening agreement that would phase
out duties on 90 percent of their dlrs 19 billion-a-year, two-way
trade.

But efforts to finalize the deal had snagged on Spanish and
Portuguese objections to South African vintners calling their
fortified wines sherry or port, names derived from Iberian cities.

Under the compromise, the Union would allow South Africa to
continue using the names in domestic and regional markets for at
least 13 years, pending a review, EU chief negotiator Philip Lowe
said.

The EU also offered to let in more South African wine imports.
In return, the EU wants a pledge that South Africa recognize in
principle that port and sherry are exclusively European terms.

South African officials could not immediately be reached for
comment on the proposal.

South African President Nelson Mandela had insisted in a letter
to EU leaders last week that vintners in his country be allowed to
use the names for the South African and neighboring markets.

"For the ordinary population, the agreement cannot be
concluded by us surrendering the household names in southern Africa
of our own port and sherry," Mandela wrote.

South African wine producers say sales of their wine labeled
port or sherry are worth about 750 million rand (dlrs 123 million),
of which 13 percent comes from exports.

South Africa claims to have used port and sherry labels for
fortified wines for 300 years but has agreed to stop using the
terms for exports to Europe and phase them out in most other
foreign markets.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said he hoped the
latest proposal could lead to a deal by the year's end.

"With good will all 'round we can reach an agreement," he
said.

The deadlock has raised tensions among the EU leaders, who gave
Mandela a pledge in June to wrap up the trade deal by the end of
the year.

"I am really angry. It is ridiculous ... to see the trade
negotiations drag on and on for months," Dutch Prime Minister Wim
Kok said.

European nations are fiercely protective of their exclusive
claims to ancient wine labels. The Iberians argue only Spain can
produce sherry and only wines from the Portuguese city of Oporto
can be labeled as port.

Their stance reflects French insistence this week that a Swiss
village called Champagne stop using its name on wine labels, before
the EU concluded a trade deal with Switzerland.

@ WCC-POLYGAMY

HARARE December 12 1998 Sapa-DPA

COMMOTION OVER REJECTION OF AFRICAN CHURCH WITH POLYGAMY LINKS

Controversy has broken out at the eighth assembly
of the World Council of Churches in Harare over loud applause from
delegates that followed the rejection of a bid for WCC membership by
an African church with polygamous clergy.

General Secretary Konrad Raiser had sharp words at the assembly
Saturday, on the 10th day of its 12-day meeting, over the incident
when delegates overwhelmingly rejected an application for membership
by the Celestial Church of Christ of Nigeria.

"Let me express my regret about this lack of sensitivity about
this church that has sought to be part of our witness," he said. A
statement from the church to the assembly on Thursday said that it
had admitted polygamous clergy until 1986 when its founder, the Rev.
S.B.J. Oshoffa died.

Monogamy was demanded of all new ministers, but it allowed
existing clergy who lived in polygamous marriages before 1986 to
continue to do so. The church did not condone divorce, but, said the
statement, the practice would end with the death or retirement of the
those with multiple wives.

Raiser said the vote against the Celestial Church had failed after
a constitutional challenge. A new vote would not be taken but the
admission would be discussed by the council's central committee.

Polygamy is widely practised in Africa, mostly in rural areas. Men
who have large numbers of wives are deeply respected as wealthy and
powerful.

"We don't want our Christian faith to be limited by the mindset of
Europe, by a theology too narrow to accommodate what God has done
with Africans long before the missionaries came and threw out our
ancient religous experiences," said Densen Mafinyani, general
secretary of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

@ ETV

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

E.TV PAYING TO USE LOGO

South Africa's free-to-air television station, e.tv, is paying
millions of rands to a United States company to use its logo, SABC
TV reported on Saturday.

SABC quoted a report to be published in City Press on Sunday
which revealed e.tv was paying pay up to R7 million to the US-based
company to keep itself on air.

The report said the US company threatened legal action on the
eve of e.tv's launch in Cape Town last month, because of the
similarity of the two stations' logos. Midi TV - e.tv owners -
then reportedly agreed to pay to use the logo.

@ CRIME-HONEYDEN

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

RANDPARK RIDGE SPAR ROBBED

Six armed men stole cash and cell phones in a hold-up at Spar
Supermarket's Randpark Ridge store on Saturday, policesaid.

Spokesman Sergeant Yolande Bouwer said the suspects entered the
shop at around 3pm and held up employees and customers.

They took money from the cash registers and robbed customers of
their cell phones and wallets before fleeing. Shots were fired, but
no one was injured.

Bouwer said all those robbed or who witnessed the robbery
should contact Captain Steyn or Inspector Stoney Steenkamp on 082
8091748 or 011-9511142 respectively.

@ MARCH-TEMBISA

JOHANNESBURG December 12 1998 Sapa

TEMBISA RESIDENT'S MARCH PREVENTED BY POLICE

A march by the Tembisa Residents' Association to handover a
memorandum to the Tembisa/Kempton Park Council calling for flat
rates on services was prevented from going ahead by police on
Saturday.

The association's spokesman Mandla Gumede said in a statement
the council, a sub-structure of the Khayalami Metropolitan Council,
refused to grant them permission for the march.

Gumede said the memorandum called on the council to implement
an earlier agreement on flat rates for rates and services in the
North Rand township. Gumede said the council had reneged on the
agreement.

He said people were prevented from boarding trains going to
Kempton Park by police and the council's public safety unit.

Police spokesman Eugene Opperman earlier said the march was
illegal.

No injuries were reported.

@ SA ACCEDES TO UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION

Issued by: The Department of Foreign Affairs

MEDIA STATEMENT SOUTH AFRICA ACCEDES TO THE 1988 UNITED NATIONS
CONVENTION AGAINST ILLICIT TRAFFIC IN NARCOTIC DRUGS AND
PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES

South Africa will deposit its instrument of accession to the
1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances at United Nations Headquarters in
New York on 14 December 1998.

In doing so South Africa will join 148 other Member States of
the United Nations and the European Union, which are already
signatories to the Convention, which was specifically formulated to
deal with the growing problem of international drug trafficking.

South Africa's internal legislation complies with the
requirements of the Convention. By implementing the Convention,
South Africa, which has become a transit route for illicit
drug-trafficking, will play a meaningful role, by not only
cooperating with the international community to combat illicit drug
trafficking, but will also ensure that the overflow of drugs
destined for consumption elsewhere do not enter the streets of South
Africa.

The Departments of Justice, Finance: Customs and Excise and the
South African Police Service will be responsible for the
implementation of this Convention.

The Convention requires that signatories interdict illicit
trafficking effectively, arrest drug traffickers and deprive them of
their ill-gotten goods. The Convention lists a set of offences and
requires Governments to exercise jurisdiction over these.
Governments are also required to introduce legislation to enable
them to confiscate proceeds derived from offences, to give effect to
extradition requests, to make provision for mutual legal assistance
and to make it possible to transfer, from one government to another,
proceedings for criminal prosecution.

South Africa's accession to the Convention will assist the
Government in pursuing its vision as reflected in its Draft National
Drug Master Plan to "build a drug-free society and to make a
contribution to the global problem of drug abuse".

Enquiries: Adv Frank Kahn, Chairperson of the SA Drug Advisory Board
Tel:021-4802653/4 or Snr Supt George Mason, Commander of the SA
Narcotics Bureau Tel: 012-3392238.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
13 DECEMBER 1998

@ MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT

Issued by: Sasani Communications

MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT
(Sunday, 13 December, 1998)

As factories and builders closed for the holidays, the Minister
of Transport Mac Maharaj sent out a special plea to the hundreds of
thousands of South Africans on the roads to please arrive safely at
their destinations.

"Before you leave to start your holidays please think carefully
about your journey along our roads. Do not speed as you will not get
there more quickly if you are caught breaking the law or if you have
a crash.

"Last year more than 1,171 people died between December and
January on our roads and more than 6,000 people were seriously
injured in almost 66,000 crashes.

"At the end of the day, these are just figures. The real story
is the sadness we all carry for the people whose lives were cut
short on our roads, or who will be in wheelchairs or lie comatose in
a hospital bed for the rest of their lives.

"This is a time of rejoicing and celebration. Please do not let
it become a time of sorrow and sadness for your family and friends.

"Traffic officers around the country will be out on the roads to
enforce the law against the two main killers on our roads: speeding
and drinking and driving.

"This year they will, for the first time, be equipped with the
evidentiary breathalyser, the results of which is now accepted as
evidence in court. The equipment is highly mobile, allowing the
traffic officers to set up roadblocks more easily and quickly.

"We will now be able to lock up drunken drivers on the spot and
get them off the road. If found guilty, they will get criminal
records.

"We have also equipped our officers with up-to-date radar and
laser devices to monitor speed. ARRIVE ALIVE says "Don't fool
yourself, speed kills" because we know from all the accident
statistics and reports we have collected and studied that the speed
of the vehicle determines to a large extent the outcome of the
crash.

"Please do not become a statistic on our roads this year. This
is the season of goodwill, please extend a hand of goodwill to all
your fellow road users so that we can all ARRIVE ALIVE in 1999.

On behalf of my department, the nine MECs of Transport, the Road
Accident Fund, which sponsors ARRIVE ALIVE and the road traffic
community, without whose efforts the campaign ARRIVE ALIVE would not
be possible, I would like to wish you peace over the festive season
and all best wishes for the New Year."

UP TO DATE STATISTICS OF ROAD FATALITIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE
ARRIVE ALIVE INFORMATION CENTRE (012) 309 3669, WHICH OPERATES FROM
8AM TO 5PM DAILY.

Issued by: Didi Moyle
PA and Media Liaison Officer to the Minister of
Transport

Contact number: 082 808 5108

@ TODAY IN HISTORY (Dec 18)

HIGHLIGHTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN HISTORY:

DEC 18:

1884 - British flag hoisted over St Lucia Bay.

1899 - Lord Roberts appointed commander-in-chief of British forces in
South Africa.

1965 - Rhodesia suspends oil supplies to Zambia.

1987 - A hand grenade thrown into the Nyanga police station injures 10
special constables and two civilians - the third
attack on the police in the Cape in less than two weeks.

1988 - A mob goes on the rampage at a pop concert in Bophuthatswana and
at least 27 people are injured.

1989 - A Mmabatho Supreme Court judge convicts 125 former
Bophuthatswana national security unit members of high treason
and sentences them to jail terms varying from three to 10 years. Seventeen
others are found guilty of terrorism and sentenced
to similar terms.

@ PAGEANT-MISSSA

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

KWA-ZULU NATAL WALKS OFF WITH MISS SA TITLE FOR SECOND YEAR

Sonia Raciti from KwaZulu-Natal is the new Miss South Africa,
the Sunday Times reported.

The 20-year-old trainee teacher from Escourt walked off with
the title at Sun City last night.

Second place went to Miss Gauteng, Heidi Van Zyl, and third
place to Keziah Jooste of the Western Cape.

Sonia was crowned by outgoing queen Kerishnie Naicker, who also
represented KwaZulu-Natal.

Sonia, who won the Miss Photogenic title, said she would love
to bring the Miss World crown home and she was going to work hard
towards that. As a beauty queen her contribution to education would
be to go to schools and encourage children to develop a love of
learning.

Jooste was voted Miss Personality.

At the banquet held after the crowing the three young women
were feted and pampered by the likes of Sun International boss,
Peter Bacon and his wife, former Miss World, Anneline Kriel, North
West premier Popo Molefe, Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa and
Governor of the Reserve bank-designate Tito Mboweni.

Missing from the show was a celebrity guest who was asked at
the last minute by SABC 1, at the request of Sun International, not
to attend.

Leigh Downing, former model boss, was invited by SABC 1 to
participate in the pageant with previous winners of the Best
dressed Woman Award, which include finalists like Edith Venter and
Gloria Arendz.

Downing believes the decision may be linked to the fact that
her husband, Ernie Joubert, a former marketing director of Sun
International left to join Global Resorts.

Global and Sun International are involved in a casino war on
the East Rand, where the two are launching huge casinos within 20km
of each other this month.

@ OLYMPICS-AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY Dec 13 Sapa-AFP

AUSTRALIAN FURORE OVER OLYMPIC BRIBERY CLAIMS

Australian Olympic organisers angrily denied Sunday charges by
a senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) official that IOC
members were bribed during Sydney's successful bid for the 2000
Games.

Reports here quoted Marc Hodler, a senior Swiss member of the
IOC's executive board, alleging that games organisers in Sydney and
at least three other host cities paid for the votes of IOC members
during the bidding process.

The charge sparked immediate outrage in Australian Olympic
circles, with Australian IOC member Phil Coles demanding an apology
from Hodler.

"It's an extraordinary outburst and I don't know what's got
into him," Coles told ABC radio, adding that there was absolutely
nothing untoward about Sydney's bid.

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who has led the Olympic
movement since 1980, also disassociated himself from Hodler's
allegations.

Samaranch said the only official spokesman for the IOC
executive bard was director general Francois Carrard, adding: "All
the other comments are personal comments. They are not official
comments."

Hodler's explosive allegations of corruption are not the first
levelled against the Olympic movement, but never before have such
claims been made by such a senior IOC official.

Former New South Wales state minister Bruce Baird revealed at
the weekend that he was asked to offer bribes to help Sydney's
subsequently successful bid to host the 2000 Games, but refused.

Baird, who was responsible for the bid in the run up to the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision in 1993, told the
Sydney Morning Herald he had been aproached in Acapulco by someone
claiming he could secure African votes.

Baird, now a Federal MP, said he had replied: "This is not what
the Sydney bid is all about."

0 He was then told: "You may well lose," but had replied: "I
would prefer Sydney lost than won on those grounds."

Baird was adamant that no bribes were paid by any member of
Sydney's bid committee and said he would be totally relaxed about
any IOC inquiry being extended to cover Sydney's bid.

Hodler, an 80-year-old Swiss lawyer, alleged malpractices in
the campaigns conducted by Atlanta for the 1996 Games, Nagano for
1998, Sydney for 2000 and in Salt Lake City's successful bid for
the 2002 winter Games.

He told reporters in Lausanne that agents had demanded up to
one million US dollars to deliver votes in the selection of host
cities, and that he believed five to seven percent of IOC members
had solicited bribes. There are currently 115 IOC members.

Hodler said a group of four agents, including one IOC member,
had been involved in promising votes for payment, although he
declined to identify them.

"The four agents try to make a living out of this," he said. "I
missed a chance to be a rich man. Some of the agents do the
following: they say, 'I can offer this or that number of votes.'

"The price would be between 500,000 US dollars and 1.0 million
US dollars for a number of votes, a bloc."

Hodler added that the agents then charged the city winning the
bid something like three million to five million US dollars.

He said there was one agent who boasted "that no city has ever
won the Olympic Games without his help".

0Asked whether Sydney's election for the 2000 games was clean,
Hodler said, "I would be surprised. I know what happened but I
don't want to disclose it."

He believed agents had been buying and selling votes for the
past 10 years and there was a "good chance" all Olympic votes were
tainted.

"I can't imagine that Sydney is different from the others," he
said. "Sydney pretends it is completely clean, clean, clean."

Speaking from Lausanne, Coles said Hodler's scattergun
allegations were outrageous and disappointing. "It's rather strange
behaviour."

He said the only agents used in the Sydney bid were Australian
ambassadors.

"He is totally off-track. We made no approaches to anyone other
than the normal, legitimate process. Our bid was run on very
legitimate grounds.

"I have demanded an apology for Sydney and Australia."

@ ZIM-CONSTITUTION

GWERU, Zimbabwe Dec 13 Sapa

MUGABE TO APPOINT COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTION

President Robert Mugabe is soon to appoint a committee under
the Commission of Inquiry Act to look into the drafting of a new
constitution of Zimbabwe, the Ziana news agency reported on Sunday.

Zanu (PF) national secretary for legal affairs Eddison Zvobgo
told the party's annual conference the committee would go around
the country getting views from people on what Zimbabweans of
different walks of life want to be incorporated into the
constitution.

Zvobgo said proposals for a new constitution followed a
resolution at another conference in Mutare last year that
government should review the constitution drafted at Lancaster
House and replaced by one that met the needs of Zimbabweans.

"After the Mutare conference the (Zanu PF) legal affairs
committee held eight meetings in connection with this issue. Each
time we briefed the party's politburo and central committee, and
only the day before yesterday the central committee said we should
now take the issue to this conference," said Zvobgo.

The legal affairs committee also comprises the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and
parliamentary Speaker Cyril Ndebele.

Terms of reference of the committee to be appointed by Mugabe
include looking into the Lancaster House constitution and amending
it. They also look into such issues as the executive, parliament
and the judiciary.

"On the Bill of Rights, we said they should look at what sort
of Bill of Rights Zimbabweans want. It was decided that gender
issues should be clarified. Women said their rights had been left
out of the present constitution."

Zvobgo said when the committee had consulted countrywide, held
public hearings and received oral and written evidence, it would
write a report for presentation to the president, who would then
appoint a team of legal experts, who would write the new
constitution.

"This process may take a long time, but you have to bear in
mind that a constitution is not just like a clay pot which, when
you break it, you can find another one...

"A constitution is done by the people, but the government has
to be involved."

@ FIRE-PAARL

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MAN DIES, 500 HOMELESS AFTER PAARL EAST FIRE

An unidentified man burnt to death and 500 people were left
homeless after two fires swept through the Fairyland squatter camp
at Paarl East in the early hours of Sunday.

Boland police spokesman Captain William Reid said the first
fire was reported after midnight. About 25 huts were destroyed,
leaving about 100 people homeless. No injuries were reported.

At 4.30am a second fire broke out about 100m from the first.
About 50 shacks were destroyed, leaving 400 homeless.

The body of an unidentified man was found in a shack.

Reid said a man, who was blamed for the fire, had to be
escorted from the area by police.

It has not yet been determined how the fires started.

@ CRIME-JOBURG

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

TWO WOMEN SHOT DEAD IN ALEXANDRA

A 26-year-old woman was shot dead in Alexandra, northern
Johannesburg on Saturday, police reported on Sunday.

Spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said Thabisile Hlongwane was
shot in the chest.

Another Alexandra woman, Portia Makhohlisa, 27, was shot dead
on Friday. She was shot in the head.

The motive for the murders was not known and no further details
were given.

Reynolds said a suspected robber was shot and wounded on
Saturday by a 37-year-old man who was allegedly robbed of R450 and
a wristwatch in Alexandra.

The man took a firearm and pursued three suspects after they
allegedly robbed him. He shot one in a foot. The wounded man was
arrested by police.

In another incident, police arrested two suspects after they
allegedly raped a 19-year-old woman in the township early on
Saturday morning.

@ CRIME-ATHLONE

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MAN WOUNDED IN ATTACK ON CAPE FLATS HOUSE

An Athlone man was shot in the head when shots were fired at
his Cape Flats house in the early hours on Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said Breston Palmer
was in a satisfactory condition in hospital.

Two cars stopped in front of his house at 1.10am and a group of
men opened fire on Palmer's house. The windows of a truck, car and
bakkie which was parked outside the house were smashed and the
bakkie was set alight.

Numerous spent 9mm bullet casings were found at the scene.

The motive for the attack has not been estabished.

@ CRIME-AIRPORT

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

CAPE TOWN MEAT WHOLESALER ROBBED OF R45000

A meat wholesaler in Airport Industria near Cape Town
International Airport was robbed of R45000 in cash on Saturday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said on Sunday two
armed men held up the manager and 15 employees and forced the
manager to hand over the cash.

The men were locked up in a room, but raised the alarm when the
robbers fled.

Security personnel at a nearby company saw the robbers run away
and fired at them. Shots were exchanged, but no-one was hit and the
men escaped with the money.

@ CRIME-DELFT

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MAN STABBED DEAD DURING VISIT TO FRIEND IN DELFT

A Bellville man who visited a friend in Delft was stabbed dead
in the early hours on Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said Nicolaas Simon,
42, visited a 30-year-old friend in Delft. They allegedly got
involved in an argument and Simon was stabbed in the chest. He died
at the scene.

A 30-year-old man has been arrested.

In an unrelated murder, also in Delft, Charles Adois, 30 was
stabbed in the chest during an argument on Saturday and died at the
scene.

Police arrested a 28-year-old man.

In an argument at a Bellville South shebeen on Saturday,
Quinton Torrens, 25, was shot dead.

Police arrested a 30-year-old Bellville man and seized a .38
revolver.

@ CRIME-FREESTATE

WELKOM Dec 13 Sapa

ARMED MEN STEAL GOLD COINS FROM WELKOM MAN'S HOME

Three men armed with a knife and a shard of glass stole gold
coins worth R10,000 from a Free State man after cutting his arm with
the glass and hitting him over the head with a cricket bat.

Clinton Campbell, 18, was met by the three men when he entered
his home in Welkom on Saturday, Free State police reported on
Sunday.

The men demanded to know where the safe was. Campbell was cut
on his left arm and assaulted with the cricket bat when he tried to
resist the men.

He pointed out the safe, and the men stole the gold. They
locked Campbell in a room before leaving.

No arrests have been made.

@ CRIME-JOBURG

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

TWO WOMEN SHOT DEAD IN ALEXANDRA

A 26-year-old woman was shot dead in Alexandra, northern
Johannesburg on Saturday, police reported on Sunday.

Spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said Thabisile Hlongwane was
shot in the chest.

Another Alexandra woman, Portia Makhohlisa, 27, was shot dead
on Friday. She was shot in the head.

The motive for the murders was not known and no further details
were given.

Reynolds said a suspected robber was shot and wounded on
Saturday by a 37-year-old man who was allegedly robbed of R450 and
a wristwatch in Alexandra.

The man took a firearm and pursued three suspects after they
allegedly robbed him. He shot one in a foot. The wounded man was
arrested by police.

In another incident, police arrested two suspects after they
allegedly raped a 19-year-old woman in the township early on
Saturday morning.

@ CRIME-ATHLONE

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MAN WOUNDED IN ATTACK ON CAPE FLATS HOUSE

An Athlone man was shot in the head when shots were fired at
his Cape Flats house in the early hours on Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said Breston Palmer
was in a satisfactory condition in hospital.

Numerous spent 9mm bullet casings were found at the scene.

The motive for the attack has not been estabished.

@ CRIME-AIRPORT

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

CAPE TOWN MEAT WHOLESALER ROBBED OF R45000

A meat wholesaler in Airport Industria near Cape Town
International Airport was robbed of R45000 in cash on Saturday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said on Sunday two
armed men held up the manager and 15 employees and forced the
manager to hand over the cash.

The men were locked up in a room, but raised the alarm when the
robbers fled.

Security personnel at a nearby company saw the robbers run away
and fired at them. Shots were exchanged, but no-one was hit and the
men escaped with the money.

@ CRIME-DELFT

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MAN STABBED DEAD DURING VISIT TO FRIEND IN DELFT

A Bellville man who visited a friend in Delft was stabbed dead
in the early hours on Sunday.

A 30-year-old man has been arrested.

In an unrelated murder, also in Delft, Charles Adonis, 30 was
stabbed in the chest during an argument on Saturday and died at the
scene.

Police arrested a 28-year-old man.

In an argument at a Bellville South shebeen on Saturday,
Quinton Torrens, 25, was shot dead.

Police arrested a 30-year-old Bellville man and seized a .38
revolver.

@ CRIME-FREESTATE

WELKOM Dec 13 Sapa

ARMED MEN STEAL GOLD COINS FROM WELKOM MAN'S HOME

Three men armed with a knife and a shard of glass stole gold
coins worth R10,000 from a Free State man after cutting his arm with
the glass and hitting him over the head with a cricket bat.

Clinton Campbell, 18, was met by the three men when he entered
his home in Welkom on Saturday, Free State police reported on
Sunday.

The men demanded to know where the safe was. Campbell was cut
on his left arm and assaulted with the cricket bat when he tried to
resist the men.

He pointed out the safe, and the men stole the gold. They
locked Campbell in a room before leaving.

No arrests have been made.

@ DRUGS-SA

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

SA TO SIGN UN ANTI-DRUGS AGREEMENT ON MONDAY

South Africa is to formally accede to the 1988 United Nations
Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances on Monday, the Department of Foreign
Affairs announced on Sunday.

In doing so, the country will join 148 other member states of
the UN and the European Union, which are already signatories to the
convention.

The convention was specifically formulated to deal with the
growing problem of international drug trafficking.

South Africa's internal legislation complied with the
convention's requirements, the department said in a statement.

The country has become a transit route for illicit
drug-trafficking. By implementing the convention, South Africa
would play a meaningful role by co-operating with the international
community to combat illicit drug trafficking, as well as ensuring
that the overflow of drugs destined for consumption elsewhere do
not enter its borders, the statement said.

The departments of Justice, Finance, and Customs and Excise,
and the SA Police Service would be responsible for implementing the
convention.

It requires that signatories act effectively against illicit
trafficking, arrest drug traffickers and deprive them of their
ill-gotten goods.

Governments are also required to introduce legislation to
enable them to confiscate proceeds derived from offences and to
give effect to extradition requests. They should provide for mutual
legal assistance to make it possible to transfer proceedings for
criminal prosecution from one government to another.

"South Africa's accession to the convention will assist the
government in pursuing its vision as reflected in its draft
National Drug Master Plan to build a drug-free society and to make
a contribution to the global problem of drug abuse," the department
said.

@ SA ACCEDES TO UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION

Issued by: The Department of Foreign Affairs

MEDIA STATEMENT SOUTH AFRICA ACCEDES TO THE 1988 UNITED NATIONS
CONVENTION AGAINST ILLICIT TRAFFIC IN NARCOTIC DRUGS AND
PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES

South Africa will deposit its instrument of accession to the
1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances t United Nations Headquarters in
New York on 14 December 1998.

The Departments of Justice, Finance: Customs and Excise and the
South African Police Service will be responsible for the
implementation of this Convention.

Enquiries: Adv Frank Kahn, Chairperson of the SA Drug Advisory Board
Tel:021-4802653/4 or Snr Supt George Mason, Commander of the SA
Narcotics Bureau Tel: 012-3392238.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA
13 DECEMBER 1998

@ TRAFFIC-MAHARAJ

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

MAHARAJ SENDS WARNING TO SPEEDING AND DRUNK DRIVERS

Traffic officers around the country will crack down on speeding
and drunken drivers over the holiday season, Transport Minister Mac
Maharaj warned on Sunday.

Maharaj said officers would - for the first time - be using
the highly mobile evidentiary breathalyser. The results from these
device can be used as evidence in court.

"We will now be able to lock up drunken drivers on the spot and
get them off the road. If found guilty, they will get criminal
records," he said.

Officers will also be equipped with up-to-date radar and laser
devices to monitor vehicle speeds.

Maharaj said more than 1171 people died on South African roads
between December and January last holiday season, and more than
6000 people were seriously injured in almost 6000 crashes.

Maharaj pleaded with the hundreds of thousands of South
Africans who would be travelling over the holiday period to take
care and arrive safely at their destinations.

@ MANDELA-MEETING

HARARE Dec 13 Sapa

MANDELA TO MEET MUGABE DURING VISIT TO HARARE ON SUNDAY

President Nelson Mandela left Waterkloof airforce base for
Harare at noon on Sunday, a presidential aide said.

Priscilla Naidoo said Mandela was to meet Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe soon after his arrival in Harare where he is to
address the eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches at the
University of Zimbabwe on Sunday afternoon.

Naidoo described the meeting as a courtesy call and could not
say whether the two leaders would discuss the fugitive former
Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana, who is wanted in Zimbabwe for
sentencing on sex crimes.

Mandela on Friday swopped places with Deputy President Thabo
Mbeki, who was scheduled to address the WCC gathering.

Mbeki's spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the two leaders had
agreed to trade places to allow Mandela an opportunity to say
farewell to the WCC before he retires next year.

@ COMOROS-UNREST By Bertrand Rosenthal

MUTSAMUDU, Comoros Dec 13 Sapa-AFP

TRUCE PREVAILS ON EMBATTLED COMOROS SEPARATIST ISLAND

An uneasy truce prevailed on Sunday in Mutsamudu, the chief
town of secessionist Anjouan in the Comoros, after a week's
fighting between rival militias claimed at least 60 lives.

Gunfire had broken out on Saturday night, killing at least one
person, whose body was found in the morning, witnesses said, while
an AFP correspondent in Mutsamudu heard occasional gunfire on
Sunday.

One resident of Mutsamudu, which has been abandoned by about a
third of its inhabitants, described Sunday's situation as a kind of
truce and noted that the radio station of Anjouan's self-proclaimed
president Abdallah Ibrahim was back on the air.

The abandoned part of the town created a no-man's-land between
Mutsamudu and the village of Mirotsy, which is a stronghold of
militia forces backing Abdallah's ex-prime minister, Said Omar
Chamasse.

Taking advantage of Sunday's calm, residents ventured back into
the empty part of town to collect mattresses and other belongings,
while activity was normal in the rest of Mutsamudu, close to its
port and mosque. Some shops were open and people chatted in the
streets.

Some of the "embargo" forces - the name given to adolescent
militiamen - were seen patrolling with rifles or machine-guns
slung over their shoulders.

The "capital" of Anjouan, where secessionists formally declared
independence from the rest of the federal Islamic republic in the
Indian Ocean in August 1997, was almost totally isolated from the
rest of the world, with telecommunications and electricity cut, the
airport closed and boats the only means of contact.

A first tranche of emergency relief aid sent by France, which
retained control of Mayotte when the three other Comoro Islands
chose independence in 1975, had arrived in Anjouan on Sunday and
was due to be distributed among the two hospitals here.

Fifty Anjouanese, mainly young men, who were on Saturday
expelled from Mayotte as illegal residents, landed in Anjouan by
boat on Sunday.

Anjouan seceded from the central government on Grande Comore on
August 3 1997. It was followed a week later by Moheli, the third
island in the federation. Moheli returned this year to federal
rule.

The secessionists accused the central government of neglecting
the two smaller islands and awarding plum jobs to Grande Comore
residents.

Chamasse wanted Anjouan to return to French rule as did
Mayotte, which chose to remain under French tutelage when the other
islands became independent and has since been envied elsewhere for
its higher standard of living.

Abdallah also originally demanded re-attachment to France, but
settled for the autonomy of Anjouan in a Comoran community of
states after Paris made it clear it did not wish to resume
responsibility.

0 The most recent outbreak of fighting, in an archipelago which
has seen nearly a score of successful or foiled coup bids since
independence, also highlights historical antagonism between the
"nobles" of Mutsamudu and the less educated villagers.

@ MBEKI-POLICIES

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES MUST BE SPEEDED UP: MBEKI

The government's policies would essentially remain the same
after next year's general election but it would have to look at
speeding up their implementation, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said
on Sunday.

In an interview on SABC TV while travelling to Zimbabwe on the
Blue Train, Mbeki, who is set to succeed President Nelson Mandela
next year, said: "There are no strange policies being cooked in
secret."

The African National Congress's policies were based on South
Africa's realities, which would remain the same.

"So, I don't think there is a need for a radical review of
policy; we might have to do certain things to speed up
implementation."

Mbeki said the "absolute" numbers of civil servants needed to
be reduced, but the civil service's effectiveness needed to be
increased through training.

The emphasis had to be on quality rather than quantity.

"But I don't think you can overnight create such a civil
service."

One of the government's greatest challenges lay in the delivery
of services. The creation of adequate structures at local
government level, particularly, was important in this regard, Mbeki
said.

On crime, he said one of the biggest challenges was rebuilding
the capacity of the criminal justice system's structures.

The leadership and skills of the police service had to be
increased and corruption in its ranks combated.

Private citizens themselves should become the service's "eyes
and ears" in helping fight crime.

The courts also had to be expanded.

On corruption in general, Mbeki said it should be fought
vigorously but it should be noted that corruption was not just to
be found in the government sector, but also in the private sector.

Large numbers of people were, for instance, evading their tax
responsibility, which amounted to "theft of government funds by
private companies", he said.

He said he believed the government's economic strategy and
direction was correct but certain things needed to be speeded up.

"We need to move vigorously towards encouraging the small and
medium-sized business sectors, which provide jobs."

Development in these sectors would also help address the issue
of black empowerment, Mbeki said.

His Christmas message to South Africans was that they should
drive and arrive safely so they could be around to face next year's
challenges.

These included registering as voters and choosing their leaders
to govern the country.

@ CRIME-LANSDOWNE

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

SECURITY GUARD MURDERED IN LANSDOWNE

The body of a 33-year-old security guard with stab wounds to
the chest was found at the City Mission in Lansdowne early on
Sunday.

Police spokesman Captain Craig Shawe said the motive for the
attack was not known.

He said the victim's name would be released only after his
next-of-kin had been informed.

@ CRIME-STABBING

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

EIKENHOF MAN KILLED OVER R50 DEBT

An Eikenhof squatter camp resident was stabbed to death on
Saturday afternoon after failing to honour a R50 debt, police
spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said on Sunday.

The man, 24, was stabbed in the chest at about 2pm after an
argument over the debt.

The suspect fled the scene soon after the fatal incident.

In another incident, a 35-year-old man was stabbed to death
following a heated argument with a housemate at a house in Anderson
Street, Johannesburg at about 9.30pm.

The suspect allegedly stabbed the victim repeatedly and hit him
on the head with a brick before fleeing.

In yet another incident, a man died at a house in Royal Park
Drive, Mondeor on Saturday afternoon after being stabbed in the
back.

The victim was allegedly stabbed during an argument with
another man.

No arrests have been made in any of the incidents.

@ FARM-ATTACK

KIMBERLEY Dec 13 Sapa

WOMAN BRUTALLY MURDERED ON NORTHERN CAPE FARM; TWO ARRRESTED

A 36-year-old woman was brutally murdered on a farm outside
Kimberley on Friday afternoon, Northern Cape police reported on
Sunday.

The severely injured body of Mariekie Deaker of Riet farm was
discovered at Varkplaas farm near Kimberley, police spokesman
Sergeant Tony Modise said.

Two men were arrested at the scene.

Modise said it was suspected that Deaker was beaten to death
with a heavy object.

He said she was allegedly involved in an argument with her
attacker and was "possibly continuously attacked with a heavy
object until she died".

The incident occurred at about 3.20pm.

@ CRIME-CALVINIA

KIMBERLEY Dec 13 Sapa

WOMAN DIES AFTER SHOOTING INCIDENT ON CALVINIA FARM

Police in Calvinia are investigating the death of a 65-year-old
woman after a shooting incident on a farm in the Calvinia district
on Saturday.

The woman was allegedly shot in the head at her home on
Renosterkop farm, 70km from Calvinia, while her wheelchair-bound
husband, 70, was in the next room.

Police spokesman Sergeant Tony Modise said the woman's husband
found her lying on the floor after he heard the shot.

He called the neighbours and an ambulance, but his wife died in
the local hospital.

The police confiscated a .38 special revolver from the scene.

No foul play was suspected, Modise said.

@ CRIME-KHUTSONG

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

MAN BATTLING FOR HIS LIFE AFTER BEING SHOT IN THE STOMACH

A Khutsong man is battling for his life in the Carletonville
Hospital after being shot in the early hours of Sunday morning.

West Rand police spokeswoman Sergent Yolande Bouwer said the
man was shot in the stomach at 2.50am.

She said the circumstances surrounding the shooting were still
unclear.

In another attempted murder case, a Khutsong Extension 2 man
was shot in the hip at 3am on Sunday as he tried to escape from
four armed men.

The man, 39, kept on running despite the bullet wound and
sought refuge at his brother's house.

He was taken to Leratong Hospital where his condition is said
to be stable.

The motive for the attack was not known, Bouwer said.

@ OLYMPICS-AFRICA

BANGKOK Dec 13 Sapa-AFP

IOC MEMBER SLAMS CLAIMS THAT AFRICAN OLYMPIC VOTES FOR SALE

Claims that Afican votes were up for sale for any city wanting
to host the Olympics were bitterly denounced here Sunday by leading
African IOC member.

"The targets of these claims always seem to be Africans,"
complained Sam Ramsamy, South Africa's IOC member and a key member
of the when they fought to win the 2004 Olympics - losing out to
Athens.

"When Cape Town was bidding I made it very clear to everyone
not to offer anything that was beyond the IOC instructions," he
said. "If anything improper had gone on I would have been the first
to report it."

0 The IOC has launched an inquiry into comments by Marc Hodler,
a senior Swiss member of the IOC executive board, alleged that
millions of dollars in brides had been paid to IOC members to
secure votes.

Hodler, an 80-year-old lawyer, alleged malpractice in the
campaigns conducted by Atlanta for the 1996 Games, Nagano for 1998,
Sydney for 2000 and when Salt Lake City won the 2002 winter Games.

He told reporters in Lausanne that agents had demanded up to
one million dollars to deliver votes in the selection of host
cities, and that he believed five to seven percent of IOC members
had solicited bribes. There are currently 115 IOC members.

0Hodler said a group of four agents, including an African IOC
member, had been involved in promising votes for payment, although
he declined to identify them.

0 "The four agents try to make a living out of this," he said.
"I missed a chance to be a rich man. Some of the agents do the
following: they say, 'I can offer this or that number of votes.'

0 "The price would be between 500,000 US dollars and 1.0
million US dollars for a number of votes, a bloc."

Hodler added that the agents then charged the city winning the
bid something like three million to five million US dollars.

He said there was one agent who boasted "that no city has ever
won the Olympic Games without his help".

The IOC immediately set up an investigation to probe Hoddle's
claims.

"We are going to find out as quickly as possible what truth
there is behind these allegations," said IOC vice-president Dick
Pound, one of the leading candidates to replace president Juan
Antonio Samaranch who retires in 2002.

Pound added that the IOC knew of the existence of the four
agents but had no proof against them. But he said that the bidding
cities for the 2006 Winter Olympics had been ordered to stay away
from them.

@ CRIME-NORTHCAPE

KIMBERLEY Dec 13 Sapa

SIX MURDERS REPORTED IN NORTHERN CAPE AT WEEKEND

Six people were killed in the Northern Cape this weekend,
police reported on Sunday.

Most of the victims died of stab wounds to the chest, but one
of the victims - a 17-year-old youth - appears to have been
strangled.

The body of Heyns Bostaander, of Romero Street, Prieska, was
found with a string around his neck in an open veld by a passer-by
on Sunday.

Bostaander apparently left his parents' home at 8pm on
Saturday, Northern Cape police spokesman Sergeant Tony Modise said.

No arrests have been made in connection with his murder.

A 27-year-old Prieska woman was arrested for allegedly stabbing
Johannes Visagie, 28, of Old Hospital to death during an argument
at 2.30pm on Saturday.

Visagie died on the scene. The woman is due to appear in the
Prieska Magistrate's Court on a charge of murder.

Police discovered the body of Michael Etholi, 19, early on
Sunday in JR Motloung Street in Galeshewe, Kimberley after a
neighbour reported seeing him running and screaming on her
premises.

Etholi, who lived in JR Motloung Street, was found with two
stab wounds in his chest.

The motive for the attack was not known, Modise said.

Also in Galeshewe, police found the body of Julia Mayekiso in
her home in Rapula Street on Sunday evening.

Police believe she was assaulted before she died.

A 40-year-old man was arrested in conection with her death and
will appear in the Kimberley Magistrate's Court on Monday on a
charge of murder.

In another incident, Manfred van der Westhuizen, 21, of Brilpan
Street, Upington, was stabbed in the neck during an argument at
12.15am on Saturday.

The argument allegedly took place at Vegkop Street, Upington,
where Van der Westhuizen's body was later found.

Police arrested a 22-year-old man, who will appear in the
Upington Magistrate's Court on a murder charge.

Upington police have opened a murder docket after the body of
50-year-old Edward Booysen was discovered with a stab wound in the
chest.

A passer-by discovered the body and notified the police.

It is believed that Booysen was killed in Rondom Street,
Upington at 5.45am on Friday.

@ CRIME-MONDEOR

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

TWO YOUTHS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY HIJACKING MOTORIST

Two youths were arrested at the Eikenhof informal settlement on
Saturday night in connection with the hijacking of a Mondeor
motorist at an intersection on the Old Vereeniging Road earlier in
the day.

Police spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds said the youths, aged
16 and 19, hit the owner of a VW Jetta in the face with a firearm
after he had stopped at a traffic light. They forced him out of the
car and drove off.

A policeman spotted the car at a shebeen in the informal
settlement and arrested the youths.

Police also arrested a man in connection with the rape of a
24-year-old woman in Johannesburg's central business district at
8pm on Saturday.

The woman was allegedly raped at the corner of Rissik and De
Villiers streets.

@ ZIM-WCC

HARARE Dec 13 Sapa

WCC ISSUES DRAFT DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

The eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare
issued a draft declaration on human rights at the weekend and a
vote on the declaration will be taken on Monday, the last day of
the assembly.

The draft includes a call for violators of rights to be brought
to international justice and welcomed the agreement to set up the
international criminal court, the Ziana news agency reported.

"We affirm the right and duty of the international community to
hold all state and non-state actors accountable for violations of
human rights which occur in their jurisdiction or control, or for
whih they are directly responsible," said the draft declaration.

The draft declaration said efforts being made by the church and
human rights groups in their struggle to overcome impunity for past
crimes would not achieve much unless perpetrators of such crimes
were not given official protection from prosecution.

A section on women's rights in the draft document said violence
against women was increasing all over the world, including
discrimination, sexual harassment, genital mutilation and rape.

It called on churches to urge their governments to ratify a
proposed optional protocol to the United Nations convention on
eliminating discrimination against women.

The protocol would allow women's complaints on violation of
their rights to be received.

@ LOCAL-AGREEMENT

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

COSATU STRIKE AVERTED BY AGREEMENT ON MUNICIPAL RESTRUCTURING

After a threatened strike by Cosatu and three months of
negotiations between the government and the union on the
restructuring of municipal services, a breakthrough agreement was
concluded on Friday, the SA Local Government Assocaition said in a
statement on Sunday.

Salga spokesman Vusi Khoza said the municipal service
partnerships (MSP) concept could now be used as a model for all
government sector public-private partnerships.

He said the MSP was previously perceived by Cosatu to amount to
nothing more than the privatisation of municipal services.

The agreement states that municipalities are the preferred
providers of services, and the private sector will only become
involved if the municipality lacks the capacity to provide services
on its own.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Woodmead, Johannesburg,
Salga chairman Councillor Collin Matjila said: "The involvement of
private partners does not necessarily erode the responsibility of
municipalities to provide basic services to local citizens."

Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Minister
Valli Moosa said: "As a result of this agreement, South African
will receive better and more affordable services - whether
delivered by the private or public sectors".

@ CRIME-IRONBAR

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

POLICE REPORT FOUR MURDERS IN JOHANNESBURG

Four people were killed in Johannesburg on Saturday night and
Sunday morning, two of them with an iron bar, police spokesman
Inspector Mark Reynolds reported on Sunday.

A 29-year-old woman was allegedly beaten to death with a steel
bar in Alexandra on Sunday morning, Reynolds said.

Police have arrested a 32-year-old man. The motive for the
killing is not known.

Zhakharia Nkosi and his brother were in Nkosi's bedroom at his
home in New Doornfontein at 10pm when a man known to them arrived.

The visitor, whose identity is known to the police, allegedly
assaulted Nkosi with an iron rod.

The assault was reported at 6am on Sunday. When the police
arrived, Nkosi was dead.

The suspect has not yet been traced.

Mkhululi Ncube, 25, was stabbed in the throat and face at his
home in Alexandra at about 6am on Sunday.

The motive for the killing is not known.

In another incident, Bheki Innocent Nxumalo, 35, was fatally
shot in the chest in Alexandra at about 7.30am on Sunday.

Reynolds also reported the robbery of a 50-year-old Orlando
East man.

The victim was robbed in a squatter camp in Riverlea on
Saturday night. Cash, clothing and groceries to the value of R700
were taken.

Police have arrested a 22-year-old man.

@ NEHAWU-ELECTIONS

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

NEHAWU SETS ASIDE R392000 FOR ANC RE-ELECTION

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union has set
aside R392000 to help the African National Congress' re-election
bid, general secretary Fikile Majola said on Sunday.

In an interview with Sapa, Majola said R192000 of the total
amount was contributed to the ruling party's coffers through the
labour movement's umbrella body, the Confederation of SA Trade
Unions.

"We have budgeted R200,000 for all nine provinces to enable them
to mobilise support for the ANC. This amount will not be forwarded
to the ANC as is the case in Cosatu election levy, but will be used
by Nehawu for the ANC," Majola said.

Addressing a press conference at the end of the union's three-
day central executive committee meeting in Johannesburg, Nehawu
president Vusi Nhlapo said his 214000-member organisation would
undertake a massive membership drive with the aim of topping the
400000-mark in membership.

The membership drive, Nhlapo said, would take place alongside
the union's campaign for its members to vote for the ANC.

"Nehawu will be channelling some of its resources to help the
ANC to win a two-thirds majority during the coming general
election. We will deploy all our office-bearers at all levels to
defend the gains made by workers during the ANC's governance,"
Nhlapo said.

"This will include a door-to-door campaign in the Western Cape
and KwaZulu-Natal as workers in these provinces have not made any
significant gains at all."

@ DRCONGO-EGYPT

CAIRO Dec 13 Sapa-AP

EGYPT, DR CONGO PRESIDENTS DISCUSS WAYS OF ENDING CONGOLESE
CIVIL WAR

President Hosni Mubarak and his Congolese counterpart Laurent
Kabila discussed Sunday a possible role for Egypt in mediating an
end to the four-month civil war in Congo, government sources said.

The sources, speaking on customary condition of anonymity,
declined to give details. Kabila arrived here Saturday and is
scheduled to leave Egypt Monday.

Kabila refuses to negotiate peace directly with the Congolese
rebels, backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The rebels, a coalition of
disaffected Congolese soldiers and opposition politicians, accuse
Kabila of corruption and ethnic favoritism.

Kabila, who is back by Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad and Namibia,
alleges the rebels are merely pawns of neighboring Rwanda and
Uganda and insists on negotiating only with those two countries.

@ ACCIDENT-LADYSMITH

LADYSMITH Dec 13 Sapa

MAN ARRESTED AFTER TRAFFIC OFFICER RUN OVER BY TRUCK

A Pietermaritzburg man has been arrested by police in
connection with the death of a police officer on the N3 in
KwaZulu-Natal early on Saturday morning.

Ranjeni Munusamy, spokeswoman for KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC
S'Bu Ndebele, said the suspect was arrested in the Ladysmith area
on Sunday.

He would appear in court on Monday on a charge of culpable
homicide.

The KwaZulu-Natal traffic department on Saturday said an
articulated truck veered out of control and crashed into Ian
Jooste, 31, who had stopped the vehicle for speeding.

The driver of the truck allegedly fled from the scene after the
accident.

@ FARM-ARRESTS

DURBAN Dec 13 Sapa

POLICE ARREST TWO SUSPECTS IN KWAZULU-NATAL FARM KILLING

Kwazulu-Natal police have arrested two of the men they suspect
of robbing, shooting and killing Friedel Redingher at Dulumba Farm
last Monday.

In what Kwazulu-Natal midlands police spokesman Captain BJ
Gwala on Sunday described as a breakthrough, two men, aged 20 and
24, were arrested at Mthobeni area, Kranskop.

Murder and robbery unit detectives from Pietermaritzburg,
Greytown and Kranskop worked together to track the suspects down.

A cellular phone and other items that could be used as evidence
were found in the suspects' possession.

Redingher's vehicle was found abandoned at the Mthobeni area in
the evening on the day of the killing.

A third suspect is still at large, but Gwala said further
arrests were expected soon.

The two suspects are expected to appear in the Kranskop
Magistrate's Court on Monday.

@ LABOUR-NEHAWU

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

NEHAWU ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union on
Sunday issued an ultimatum to employers in tertiary education
institutions to put a moratorium on retrenchments or face a
national strike early next year.

Addressing a press conference shortly after the end of its
central executive committee meeting, Nehawu president Vusi Nhlapo
said a national solidarity strike would take place in March next
year if employers in the sector continued "negotiating in bad
faith".

Among other things, Nehawu is calling for a moratorium on
retrenchments, an appropriate skills audit model, establishment of
transformation forums - where they do not exist - and the
re-instatement of retrenched workers.

More than 3000 have been retrenched so far.

He said problems at institutions like the Vaal Technikon were a
result of the absence of transformation forums.

"Part of our plan will be the establishment of national
bargaining councils and a call for demands of minimum wage, paid
education and training leave, employment equity plans and health
and safety measures," Nhlapo said.

He said Nehawu would hold a public sector job summit in the
second half of 1999 aimed at stopping retrenchment and creating
jobs in the public sector.

"We are going to mount a propaganda campaign to keep the public
service public," Nhlapo said.

"We will protect our jobs and will continue to fight the
outsourcing of services by the government and local authorities."

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA Dec 13 Sapa-AP

ANGOLA ARMY CHIEF SURPRISED BY UNITA REBELS' MILITARY STRENGTH

Backed by superior firepower, the rebel group UNITA has gained
the upper hand in battles against the government's army in Angola's
central highlands, the government's chief-of-staff said Sunday.

Gen. Joao de Matos expressed surprise over UNITA's firepower,
which he said included tanks, assault vehicles, and long-range
artillery.

"We stand before a UNITA with a military potential far beyond
the one it had before," Gen. Matos said in an interview broadcast
Sunday on state radio RNA.

Government officials had not made any public comment on the
fighting since the army launched an attack on UNITA's central
highland strongholds Dec. 4, ending a 4-year-old peace pact between
the two sides.

Gen. Matos said UNITA had launched a "large scale"
counterattack near Huambo and Kuito, the strategic capitals of the
central, highland provinces of Huambo and Bie, some 500 kilometers
(300 miles) southeast of the capital Luanda.

"It's a critical and difficult situation," Matos said, adding
that the rebels were supported by mercenaries from Israel, South
Africa, Ukraine and Morrocco.

Neither side has acknowledged the collapse of the U.N.-brokered
1994 agreement which ended a two-decade civil war in which 500,000
people were killed and hundreds of thousands more were left maimed,
homeless and threatened by disease and hunger.

The pact called on UNITA to disarm its 70,000-strong army and
hand over control of almost half the country it occupied to the
government.

In the interview, Gen. Matos expressed dismay over UNITA's
military buildup, which had taken place "under the passive gaze of
the United Nations."

UNITA reportedly has rearmed in the past year and has a
well-equipped guerilla army of about 30,000. The government army
numbers 100,000, though only about 30,000 are believed to be
properly trained soldiers.

Civil war first erupted in Angola after the southwest African
nation's 1975 independence from Portugal. The fighting was halted
by a 1991 peace deal, but the agreement collapsed a year later
after UNITA rejected its defeat in the country's first elections.

@ CRIME-KWANATAL

MAPUMULO Dec 13 Sapa

ONE BYSTANDER KILLED, ANOTHER WOUNDED IN ATTACKS

A bystander was killed and another seriously injured in two
separate incidents in Mapumulo in the Mbitane area in KwaZulu-Natal
on Saturday afternoon, police reported on Sunday.

Police spokesman Captain BJ Gwala said Themba Cele, 50, was
stabbed in the chest when another person became aggressive and
started assaulting people in the deceased's homestead.

Gwala said some family members managed to escape, but Cele
himself was seriously injured. He died on the way to hospital.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the
incident.

Nkomozake Sangweni, 70, was shot in the right arm and the chest
when he passed two men who were having an argument.

During the altercation one of the men pulled out his gun and
started firing at his adversary. The bullets missed him and wounded
Sangweni, who was taken to hospital.

Sangweni's condition is not known.

No arrests have been made.

@ STATEMENT TO THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

Issued by: Office of the President

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA TO THE WORLD
COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ON THE OCCASION OF IT'S 50TH
ANNIVERSARY
HARARE, 13 DECEMBER 1998

The Moderator;
Presidents of the WCC;
The General Secretary;
Delegates and members of the WCC;
Distinguished Guests,

It is a great honour, as an African, to join this august
gathering, on African soil. I thank you most sincerely for your
invitation.

We have come to celebrate with you fifty years of achievement in
activating the conscience of the world for peace and on behalf of
the poor, the disadvantage and the dispossessed.

When the World Council of Churches was established, the smoke
was still lifting from a world shattered by decades of economic
crisis and armed conflict, by the pursuit of racist doctrine and the
violation of human rights.

As part of an international effort to ensure that never again
should such things happen, the WCC helped voice the international
community's insistence that human rights are the rights of all
people everywhere. In doing so you helped vindicate the struggles of
the oppressed for their freedom.

To us in South and outhern Africa, and indeed the entire
continent, the WCC has always been known as a champion of the
oppressed and the exploited.

On the other hand, the name of the WCC struck fear in the hearts
of those who ruled our country during the inhuman days of apartheid.
To mention your name was to incur the wrath of the authorities. To
indicate support for your views was to be labeled an enemy of the
state.

Precisely for that reason, the vast majority of our people heard
the name of the WCC with joy. It encouraged and inspired us.

When, thirty years ago, you initiated the Programme to Combat
Racism and the Special Fund to support liberation movements, you
showed that yours was not merely the charitable support of distant
benefactors, but a joint struggle for shared aspirations.

Above all, you respected the judgement of the oppressed as to
what were the most appropriate means for attaining their freedom.
Fir that true solidarity, the people of South and Southern Africa
will always remember the WCC with gratitude.

Your support exemplified in the most concrete way the
contribution that religion has made to our liberation, from the days
when religious bodies took responsibility for the education of the
oppressed because it was denied us by our rulers, to support for our
liberation struggle.

Whenever the noble ideals and values of religion have been
joined with practical action to realise them, it has strengthened us
and at the same time nurtured those ideals within the liberation
movement.

It is therefore a matter of pride to us that democratic South
Africa has a constitution that embodies those values and ideals in
whose name we enjoyed the support of the international community in
our striving for freedom and justice.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Those ideals and values must be our guide in the unfinished
journey we have traveled together.

The rights that have been gained, and that have been declared
universal, will remain hollow shells and our freedom incomplete if
they do not bring an end to the curse of hunger, disease, ignorance
and homelessness which blight the lives of millions, in our country,
in Africa and across the globe

Fifty years after the establishment of an international order
intended to avert the repetition of a human catastrophe, the spectre
of a new disaster on an unimagined scale requires of us the creation
of a new world order. In a changed international environment that
was not foreseen in the middle of the century, the gap between the
rich and the poor parts of the world is widening rather than
narrowing.

Central to the challenge we face as we enter the new millennium
is the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.

More /sss

84@ P2: STATEMENT TO THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

Issued by: Office of the President

The reshaping of the institutions of the existing order has
become a matter of urgency if peace and a life of dignity are to
become a reality for all. In using this Council meeting to assess
your own role and seek directions for the next century, the WCC is
answering to the needs of the times.

Within this context, my own continent of Africa dreams of an
African Renaissance in which, through reconstruction and
development, we will overcome the legacy of a devastating past and
ensure the peace, human rights, democracy, growth and development
are in living reality for all Africans.

We have, through our own efforts, taken important steps along
that road. We can, for example, speak of over 40 democratic
elections since 1990. Most of the countries in the continent are at
peace with themselves and their neighbours. Until the impact of the
current global economic turmoil was felt, Sub-Saharan Africa was
showing modest but steady economic growth at an average of 5 per
cent for almost a decade. Regional co-operation is a reality, and
strengthening by the day, whether here in Southern Africa or other
parts of the continent.

This is in no way to suggest that Africa has managed to pull
herself out of the quagmire of poverty, disease, conflict and
underdevelopment.

The conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, the
Sudan and elsewhere are a great concern. In a world as
interdependent as ours, they impact not only on those directly
involved but on their neighbours and whole regions, bringing
instability people and diverting resources away from social
services.

Such conflicts have the capacity to set back all our efforts to
meet the urgent needs of our people; to deal with the world's
highest incidence of HIV / AIDS; to advance and entrench democracy;
to root out corruption and greed; and to ensure respect for human
rights.

At the end of a century that has taught that peace is the
greatest weapon in development, we cannot afford to spare any effort
to bring about a peaceful resolution of such conflicts.

Nor can we allow anything to detract from the urgent need to
co-operate in order to ensure that our continent avoids the negative
consequences of globalisation and that it is able to exploit the
opportunities of this important global advancement.

That means working together to ensure that the legacy of
underdevelopment does not leave Africa on the margins of the world
economy.

It means together finding ways to increase the inward flow of
investment; to widen market access; and to remove the burden of
external debt which affects Africa more than any other region.

It means co-operating to re-orient the institutions that
regulate the international trade and investment system, so that
world economic growth translates into the benefits of development.

It means finding ways of ensuring that the efforts of countries
to put their economies on a sound basis in order to uplift their
people are not set back by huge flows of finance as they move across
the globe in search of quick profits.

Ladies and gentlemen;

The WCC forms part of the cadre of leaders who must accomplish
this formidable but achievable task. The fact that on your 50th
anniversary you have chosen Africa as the venue for your
deliberations on the challenges of the new millennium, bears witness
to your continuing solidarity with all who strive for peace and
dignity.

Thirty years ago you launched a programme that broke new ground
and set new directions for the future. You move beyond the
affirmation of the right to resist on the part of the oppressed, to
the risk of active engagement in struggle to end oppression. Today
the WCC is called upon to show that same engagement in the new and
more difficult struggle for development and the entrenchment of
democracy.

It is a great privilege for me, as my public life draws to a
close, to be allowed to share these thoughts and dreams for a better
world with you.

I do so filled with hope, knowing that I am amongst men and
women who have chosen to make the world the theatre of their
operations in pursuit of freedom and justice.

It is as a peaceful and equitable world take shape that I and
the legions across the globe who dedicated their lives in striving
for better life for all, will be able to retire in contentment and
at peace.

I thank you.

@ SKIING-WARMBATHS

WARMBATHS Dec 13 Sapa

TOP GERMANS TO DEMONSTRATE CABLE WATERSKIING SKILLS IN SA

World class wakeboard champions have been flown into South
Afric by the Aventura holiday resort chain to demonstrate their
skills at its Warmbaths cable waterski circuit this month.

Three Germans, Flo Mee, Flo Shes and Daniel Roth, currently
ranked 1st, 3rd and 5th respectively in Germany, would give
spectators a show second to none, according to an Aventura news
release on Sunday.

The Warmbaths resort's cable ski circuit had been selected as a
prefential venue, according to Max Reulein, former double European
cable slalom champion and former holder of two world records.

The combined European and African cable waterski championships,
held during September this year at Warmbaths, produced two world
jump records.

"The crowds will be entertained by classical skiing, slalom,
tricks and jumps by the three ace German skiers who use the circuit
to prepare for the European ski season," said Reulein.

The three experts would also be running wakeboard clinics for
South African ski enthusiasts.

The Warmbaths cable waterski circuit - the first on the
African continent - eliminates the high costs associated with
running boats, said the news release.

"Skiers are pulled around the dam by an overhead cable. The
system is designed to accommodate all types of skiers from novices
to advanced skiers."

The circuit was 1,2km in length with an average speed of 30km
per hour, suitable for most activities, including kneeboarding, and
a maximum of 60km per hour required for more advanced activities
such as barefoot skiing.

Two stretches of 300m each provided excellent conditions for
slalom, barefoot skiing, jumps and wakeboarding.

A ski school offered various courses ranging from "Kiddies
Hour" and Beginners at R35 per hour to Wakeboarding at R60 for 2
hours.

The fee included all equipment, instructions and advice by the
experts.

On Friday and Saturday nights there were "Happy Hour" sessions,
said the statement, while "night skiing" was offered on Wednesday
and Saturday nights.

In addition to skiing, the resort offered hydro treatments,
organised game drives, supertubes, a wave pool, horse-riding,
speedslides, outdoor chess, go-karts, mountain biking and organised
entertainment during the holidays.

More information may be obtained from Max Reulein at the ski
dam on (014) 736 2200 or fax (012) 736 4972. The resort's number is
(014) 736 2200.

@ REGISTER-SAYC

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

POOR YOUTH TURNOUT A RESULT OF IEC BAD TIMING: SAYC

The poor turnout by youths during the recent voter registration
exercise could be attributed to the Independent Electoral
Commission's bad timing rather than to apathy, the South African
Youth Council said on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg, the chairman of
the Gauteng region of the SAYC, Sipho Mbele said lack of adequate
information on how, why and where to register also played a
prominent part in the low turnout.

"The low turnout of the young people for voter registration was
because of bad timing by the IEC, particularly for students who
were writing their exams and some who were resident in
institutions," Mbele said.

"It was an oversight not to involve unemployed youths and those
involved in youth organisations to help with the registration
process," he added.

He said there was inadequate information on the registration
exercise to first time voters.

In the 16 to 18 years category - half of whom will be eligible
to vote in 1999 - only 2,3 percent registered in the first phase
of the registration exercise.

Ten percent of those in the 18 to 20 years category were put on
the voting list.

Mbele said his organisation was going to approach the Gauteng
provincial office of the IEC to share experiences.

@ COMOROS-UNREST-ANJOUAN By Bertrand Rosenthal

MUTSAMUDU, Comoros, Dec 13, Sapa-AFP

ANJOUAN SEPARATIST CHIEF ASKS FRANCE, OAU TO MEDIATE IN COMOROS

The self-proclaimed president of secessionist Anjouan on Sunday
urged France and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to mediate
a peace pact between his men and a rival leader.

Abdallah Ibrahim had already made a pressing "appeal to France
and the OAU to restore stability" to Anjouan, where his forces have
battled those of Said Omar Chamasse, on December 7, one of his
aides said.

More than a week of fighting between Abdallah's militias and
youths backing Chamasse, whom he had dismissed as prime minister,
has claimed at least 60 lives on Anjouan, according to officials on
nearby French-ruled Mayotte.

On Sunday, an undeclared truce prevailed between Abdallah's
militiamen in Mutsamudu, the main town on Anjouan, and groups, also
mainly teenagers with rifles and machine-guns, supporting Chamasse
in Mirontsy village on its outskirts.

Sources in Abdallah's politico-military executive said his last
appeal for help from former colonial power France and the OAU had
gone unheeded, but he still sought mediation.

The OAU has sent an international team of army generals to the
Comoro Islands. They on Friday wound up a mission to prepare
potential military intervention, with the ultimate aim of
reintegrating Anjouan into the Islamic federal republic.

However, one of Abdallah's top aides, Ahmed Charikane, on
Sunday said that Anjouan's unilaeral declaration of independence
from the archipelago on August 3, 1997, was "irreversible" and that
his side wanted mediation but no intervention.

An AFP correspondent heard a few sporadic shots on Sunday, but
activity was normal in the rest of Mutsamudu, close to its port and
mosque. Some shops were open and people chatted in the streets.

Gunfire overnight killed at least one person, whose body was
found in the morning, according to witnesses.

Part of the town on the Indian Ocean island has been deserted,
leaving a no-man's-land between Mutsamudu and Mirotsy, but its
residents on Sunday took advantage of the calm to fetch mattresses
and other belongings.

Some sources said that local notables from Ouani, north of
Mutsamudu, were seeking on Sunday to mediate a settlement between
the rival Anjouanese leaders, who fell out in part because Chamasse
wanted Anjouan to return to French rule like Mayotte.

The latter chose to remain under French tutelage when the three
other islands became independent in 1975 and has since been envied
elsewhere for its higher standard of living.

0 Abdallah also initially demanded re-attachment to France, but
settled for the autonomy of Anjouan in a Comoran community of
states after Paris made it clear it did not wish to resume
responsibility.

Anjouan and another island, Moheli, both seceded in 1997
because their people considered their interests largely ignored by
the central government on Grande Comore, but Moheli went back on
its move this year.

The "capital" of Anjouan was almost totally isolated from the
rest of the world, with telecommunications and electricity cut, the
airport closed and boats the only means of contact.

The Comoro Islands have seen almost a score of successful or
foiled coup bids since independence. The recent clashes highlight
historical antagonism between the "nobles" of Mutsamudu and the
less educated villagers.

While Mutsamudu's leaders on Sunday said they wanted a truce,
they stressed that they did not trust their rivals, blamed them for
violence and said they were out to destroy the city and had sought
to murder Abdallah.

"They loot and they torture," one Abdallah supporter,
Abdelhader Ahmed, said, adding that the body of the first victim of
the latest fighting, Radio Anjouan journalist Abdel Malik, had been
handed over mutilated.

@ MANDELA-LD-MEETING

HARARE Dec 13 Sapa

MANDELA HOPEFUL FOR A SOLUTION TO DRC CRISIS

President Nelson Mandela on Sunday in Harare said he was
hopeful a peaceful solution to the Democratic Republic of Congo
crisis would be found.

Mandela, who leaves office next year, said Africa had highly
competent and experienced leaders and there was no doubt that they
would find solutions to end conflicts in the DRC, Angola,
Sierra-Leone and Sudan.

He also said such conflicts set back efforts to meet the
necessary needs of African people.

Mandela, who addressed the World Council of Churches assembly
in Harare, said peace was the greatest weapon in achieving national
and regional development.

The Southern African Development Community forces, comprising
Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have been in the DRC for the past four
months to help fight ethnic Congolese Tutsi rebels who want to
topple president Laurent Kabila.

A regional summit set for Monday in Zambia to seek a truce in
the Congo conflict was postponed after South Africa said it opposed
talks which exclude rebels fighting Kabila.

The postponement of the meeting could also jeorpadise a special
session of selected heads of state of the Organisation of African
Unity planned for December 17 in Burkina Faso.

Kabila has accused Rwanda and Uganda of invading his country
and giving military support to the rebels.

Mandela also told the WCC delegates that incidents of
corruption, monetary greed, HIV/AIDS and international debt
remained a thorn in the neck for the African Continent.

He paid tribute to the WCC for the contribution it has made in
past years to bring together different nations.

The decision to have the assembly held in Africa, he said,
showed the WCC's commitment to making a contribution to finding
solutions to woes that have plagued the continent for centuries.

Mandela, who was escorted to the assembly by Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, dispelling foreign press reports that had
suggested the two leaders would not meet, said the gap between the
rich and the poor was widening.

He said as the 21st century approached, African countries
should focus on peace, respect for human rights, democracy and
development.

He said regional co-operation which has always been the dream
of many nations all over the world should be a reality in the next
millennium.

The WCC 8th Assembly, which began in Harare on December 3 ends
on December 14.

@ MBEKI-ANTHEM by Dirk van Zyl

CAPE TOWN Dec 13 Sapa

MASS CHOIR SINGS NEW ANTHEM FOR MBEKI

A 10000-strong male choir sang a proposed revised national
anthem for South Africa to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in Cape
Town's cavernous Good Hope Centre on Sunday.

Mbeki, who asked to hear the performance after a smaller choir
recently sang it for him, said afterwards the new proposed anthem
seemed to suggest that the country did not any more need to move on
parallel tracks "but that we need to move on one track as people,
as South Africans".

He noted that South Africa's current anthem consisted of two
parallel ones.

Mbeki, who is set to succeed President Nelson Mandela next
year, said there was "something in (the new anthem) which I think
points the way forward for ourselves as a country as to how we
should move forward".

He and his wife Zanele flew down to Cape Town specially for the
occasion from Harare, where he had been having talks with
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe earlier on Sunday.

Before that, Mbeki had hosted a number of Southern African
leaders on South Africa's revamped Blue Train on a journey from
Johannesburg through Botswana to Victoria Falls on the
Zimbabwean/Zambian border.

The new anthem, composed by Cape Town music teacher, Edmund
Bourne, is a blend of the two former offical anthems: Nkosi
Sikelel'iAfrika and Die Stem.

The text was written by Athlone resident John Hendricks.

It was sung on Sunday afternoon by 10,000 male choristers from
the New Apostolic Church, who had gathered to record a CD
containing the revised anthem and a number of Christian songs.

It is to be marketed internationally and locally from early
next year.

When Mbeki and his wife entered the hall, the mass choir,
immaculately dressed in white shirts with black ties and
accompanied by a brass band, struck up with "Mine Eyes Have Seen
the Glory of the Coming of the Lord".

After he had addressed them, they sang a number of songs for
him at his request.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was among other dignitaries
present.

@ KWANATAL-UDM

DURBAN Dec 13 Sapa

SIFISO NKABINDE RE-ELECTED KWAZULU-NATAL LEADER

Controversial politician Sifiso Nkabinde was on Sunday
re-elected as chairman of the United Democratic Movement in
KwaZulu-Natal.

The announcement was made about 10 days after rumours started
that the entire provincial UDM leadership had been disbanded
because of inefficiency.

Nkabinde was elected the leader of the UDM in the Richmond area
after his expulsion fron the African National Congress in 1997.

UDM spokesman Sifiso Bhengu said Nkabinde was re-elected as
chairman, with Bhengu as deputy chairman and Jabulani Zondi as
secretary.

Bhengu said a re-election was necessary because some office
bearers had not performed their jobs as required.

Among resolutions adopted at the weekend meeting, the UDM
called for non-interference in sport.

This was apparently with reference to a quota of black members
to be included in national sports teams.

Another concern was the government's handling of the Aids
epidemic in South Africa.

The UDM said the government was not doing enough to help Aids
victims.

The UDM, however, congratulated the government on its "Arrive
Alive" driving campaign across the country.

The UDM fully supported this campaign, Bhengu said.

@ ACCIDENTS-TRAIN

NEWCASTLE Dec 13 Sapa

MACHINIST DIES IN DERAILMENT

A train driver died and his co-driver was seriously injured when their
train derailed at Charlestown near Volksrust on Saturday afternoon.

The accident occurred when one train carrying coal left debris on the
train tracks and the second coal-transporting train hit the debris,
de-railing and over-turning, killing the driver - 24 year-old H Snyman -
instantly.

Regional police spokesman Superintendent Adriaan Botes said the two
trains were travelling in the same direction when the accident occurred.

"One of the units of the first train came off and was left on the rails,
and the second train hit this and came off itself."

Railways authorities were working round the clock on Sunday to clear the
tracks. The co-driver is in a serious condition in Newcastle hospital.

@ AVIATION-BARNARD

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

FAMILY KILLED IN AIRCRAFT CRASH IN KWAZULU-NATAL

A family's Christmas holiday ended in tragedy on Saturday
afternoon when their light aircraft crashed near Dundee in a
thunderstorm.

Dr Francois Alveyn Barnard, 36, his wife Amelia Barnard, 36 and
their two young sons - Petrus, 11, and Peter, 10, were killed in
the accident.

They were flying from Zeerust in the Free State to Umhlanga in
KwaZulu-Natal to start their Christmas holiday.

Their Saratoga Piper PA32R four-seater plane was caught in
heavy turbulence over Rorke's Drift, near Helpmekaar.

Eyewitness Jabulani Ximba said the plane broke up in mid-air
and dropped like a stone. He said he saw the whole incident when
the plane passed over his house.

"I was watching the thunder and lightning at around 4.15 pm
when I saw the small plane tossed about in the air. It flew over my
house then swooped low, low over it again as quick as lightning.
Pieces of the plane started to fall and I saw bodies falling out of
the plane."

Wreckage from the crash and the family's personal effects were
scattered over more than a kilometre of veld.

Ximba broke into tears when he tried to describe how he had
found the mangled bodies of the passengers.

"The pilot was lying in bushes and the mother and two young
kids were about a hundred metres away. Their bodies were in a
terrible condition - insides hanging out - I was so sick."

South African Civil Aviation officer Andre de Kock, who plotted
the course of the crash on Sunday afternoon, said the accident was
typical of an inflight break-up.

"We cannot tell just yet what the actual cause of the crash
was. We are assuming the bad weather was responsible but at the
moment we are trying to get all the pieces together."

Ximba said people in the area had tried to plunder the
belongings until he put a stop to them. "They were like vultures at
a corpse looking for clothing, bags anything. We called the police
and they came out immediately." He said he had personally retrieved
a wallet containing bank cards, R2 500 and an amount of Mozambiquan
money. Police area spokesperson Superintendent Adriaan Botes said
police would continue trying to find the cause of the accident,
once all the wreckage had been collected.

@ MANDELA-2ND-LD-MEETING

HARARE Dec 13 Sapa-AP

ZIMBABWE, SA RELATIONS THAW AFTER MANDELA'S VISIT

South African President Nelson Mandela said he made progress
Sunday in talks with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe over their
sharp differences on Zimbabwe's military intervention in support of
embattled Congolese leader Laurent Kabila.

Mandela, who has criticized the deployment of troops in the
Congo by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, met with Mugabe for the
first time since a regional summit in September.

"We are going to find a way forward to peace. That's the
spirit in which we have had discussions," Mandela said.

Mandela met with Mugabe after flying to Harare as guest speaker
at the eighth assembly of the World Council of Churches, a
convention of 330 churches representing 450 million non-Roman
Catholic Christians worldwide.

"We have in this region leaders who are competent and
experienced who understand the importance of peace. All of them
want peace," Mandela told reporters.

Mugabe was seen a key belligerent in the Congolese conflict
when he dispatched 8,000 Zimbabwean troops, backed by warplanes and
armor, to support Kabila after the rebellion erupted Aug. 2.

South Africa refused to join Zimbabwe and its African allies
fighting rebels led by ethnic Tutsis who vowed to overthrow Kabila.

Mandela has repeatedly called for a negotiated peace and the
inclusion of the rebels in peace talks.

Kabila's refusal to meet with the rebels has doomed a series of
peace initiatives seeking an end to the four-month Congolese war.

Kabila alleges the rebels are merely pawns of Rwanda and Uganda
and insists on negotiating only with those two countries.

Mugabe told reporters Kabila's allies had to abide by his
decision not to meet directly with the rebels, but that they were
in favor in indirect negotiations.

"The rebels will be talked to, but perhaps not in a manner
that they desire," he said.

Mandela's remarks in Harare were seen as a major thaw in icy
relations between Zimbabwe and neighboring South Africa over the
Congo.

"We are not fortune tellers, we are not prophets, we are not
saying there will be a breakthrough, but we are moving in that
direction," Mandela said.

Mandela said the talks also touched on his controversial
meeting earlier this month in South Africa with fugitive former
Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana, convicted on sodomy and
homosexual assault charges in the Harare High Court Nov. 26.

"This is a very sensitive matter...Zimbabwe and South Africa
are the greatest of friends and I would not like anything to happen
which will ruffle the feathers between our countries," Mandela
said.

He did not elaborate.

Zimbabwean officials say they are preparing a formal request
for the return of Banana, who faces a maximum prison term of 22
years, from South Africa.

Mandela said he did not know Banana's present whereabouts or
whether he was still in South Africa.

@ MODISE

UMTATA Dec 13 Sapa

OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT SAVES CABINET MINISTERS FROM ARREST

An out-of-court settlement has averted the arrest of Defence
Minister Joe Modise and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

The two, together with national director of pensions, Mayizole
Mkuzangwe, had faced arrest on a warrant which was issued by a high
court judge here after they "defied" a previous judicial order
againt them.

The arrest warrant was issued by Judge Stefaans Visser 10 days
ago.

The out-of-court settlement was, however, reached last Thursday
after they complied with an order by Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga in
April to pay out long outstanding pension benefits which were due
to a retired soldier, Thembekile Kumalo.

Kumalo's attorneys confirmed on Sunday that once they were
satisfied that the pension money had been paid into their client's
banking account, they agreed to the withdrawal of the arrest
warrant against the three.

The men were cited as respondents when Kumalo applied for a
judicial order compelling them to pay out his pension benefits.

Apart from withdrawing the arrest warrant, Acting Judge Poswa
also set aside previous judicial findings that the three
respondents had acted in contempt by defying Justice Madlanga's
original order.

The respondents were, however, ordered to pay the costs of the
application processed by Kumalo's lawyers - Gwele, Ndengezi, Tshiki
and Associates.

The law firm representative, Leslie Gwele, disclosed that in
another contempt-of-court application, Eastern Cape Health MEC
Trudy Thomas and her Director-General narrowly averted an arrest
warrant being issued against them.

He said the two, together with two other Bisho government
officials cited as respondents in another civil action, were
ordered by Madlanga in June to pay a retired health official,
Kholeka Lungisa Mdaka, her severance package benefits with
interest.

In November Judge Neville Locke issued a Rule Nisi in favour of
Mdada. This was followed by several postponements.

Gwele said they were on the point of obtaining an order
compelling the respondents to appear in the high court on an arrest
warrant for a contempt-of-court hearing.

The lawyers for the respondents, however, requested that the
matter stand down for the afternoon when proof was submitted that
the money claimed by Mdaka had indeed been paid into the
applicant's banking account.

The Rule Nisi was then discharged with an order of costs
against the respondents. Gwele said developments in the two cases
provided an interesting revelation of an anachronism of the
country's present constitutional order.

"While it is the fundamental right of everyone to enjoy
equality before the law as well as equal protection and benefit of
the law, the practical application of this is widely different from
its theoretical point of view.

"What seems to be happening is that while the ordinary citizens
do not have the degree of law benefit as would normally be
expected, government ministers - and presumably beaurocrats - are a
protected species who benefit better from the law. "This sorry
trend cannot be allowed to continue unchecked," Gwele said.

@ ETV

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

E.TV SATISFIED IT MAY USE TRADEMARK

e.tv was the legal owner of the trademark e.tv and there was no
comparison between the new broadcaster and E! Television of the US,
e.tv media spokesman San Reddy said on Sunday.

Responding to reports that a United States company was
demanding more than R7 million for the use of the e.tv logo, Reddy
said when e.tv applied for its broadcasting licence in South Africa
its lawyers assured the consortium it would not infringe on any
trademark registration.

He said E! Entertainment looked at behind the scenes activities
in the cinema industry.

"E! News Daily and E! Week in Review refer to entertainment
news and not to hard news," Reddy said.

Referring to the suspension of e.tv news director Rapitse
Montsho, who had reportedly questioned the use of US nationals as
e.tv consultants, Reddy said they were in South Africa "for a
limited period and not here to head the news department, but are
involved in skills transfer."

Their contract had been negotiated by Montsho, Reddy said.

e.tv lawyers were considering referring the use of information
from e.tv's offices in weekend news reports to the Office for
Serious Economic Offences.

@ CRIME-LD-JOBURG

JOHANNESBURG Dec 13 Sapa

13 REPORTED KILLED IN JOHANNESBURG OVER WEEKEND

Thirteen murder cases were reported in the Johannesburg
policing area since Friday, police spokesman Inspector Mark
Reynolds said on Sunday.

Five of the murders were committed in Alexandra, two in
Newclare and one each in Hillbrow, Eikenhof, central Johannesburg,
Mondeor, New Doornfontein and Brixton.

Reynolds said initial investigations were that, in six of the
cases, the perpetrators were known to the victims.

Nine of the murders were committed in or near the victims'
place of residence.

@ CONGO-ANGOLA

KIGALI, Rwanda Dec 13 Sapa-AP

ANGOLA WITHDRAWS TROOPS FROM WESTERN CONGO

Angolan forces, apparently responding to an upsurge in rebel
attacks at home, have withdrawn at least one battalion from western
Congo where they have deployed troops in support of embattled
President Laurent Kabila, Congolese rebel and Rwandan sources said
Sunday.

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, leader of the Congolese rebels fighting
to oust Kabila, said at least 1,000 Angolan troops and tanks had
left the air base at Kitona, about 250 miles (400 kilometers)
southwest of Kinshasa. Rwandan officials also reported the
withdrawal.

The claims could not be immediately confirmed.

A rebel coalition of ethnic Tutsis, former government soldiers
and opposition politicians launched an insurgency in the vast
Central African nation on Aug. 2, accusing Kabila of corruption,
failing to bring about democratic reforms and stirring up ethnic
hostilities.

With rapid advances early in the campaign, the rebels closed in
on the capital, Kinshasa, until several other African nations
intervened on Kabila's side.

Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Chad have thrown their support
behind the president, while Rwanda and Uganda support the rebels.

Angola, which sent troops, tanks and fighter jets into Congo,
has been involved in escalating clashes in its own country against
UNITA rebels. UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola, refuses to hand over
strongholds as required under a 1994 peace pact to end a two-decade
civil war.

"My understanding is it has something to with the situation
inside Angola," Wamba told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview from Kisangani, Congo's third largest city. "About one
battalion has been withdrawn from Kitona to reinforce units
battling the rebels in Angola."

Efforts to broker a cease-fire in Congo have failed over
Kabila's refusal to negotiate with the rebels, whom he accuses of
being the puppets of Rwanda and Uganda.

The next round of peace talks has been scheduled for Dec. 28 in
Lusaka, Zambia, to give parties time to consult about a cease-fire
proposal agreed in principle last month in Paris by leaders of
Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Congo.

But Wamba, who did not take part in Paris talks, remained
adamant that no agreement will be possible without the rebels.

"It is not going to take place without us," he said.

@ TODAY IN HISTORY (Dec 19)

HIGHLIGHTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN HISTORY:

DEC 19:

1912 - Gen Louis Botha resigns and is asked by the Governor-General to
form a government. He reconstitutes his Cabinet,
but excludes Gen J B M Hertzog.

1925 - Fire destroys Groot Constantia. (It was restored about two years
later).

1942 - Gen Dan Pienaar, who led the 1st SA Division with distinction in
the Western Desert in World War II, is killed in
an air crash on the shores of Lake Victoria.

1989 - Several trade union leaders meet Nelson Mandela for talks at
Victor Verster Prison, Paarl, and say that Mandela
wants to be released now, but is not prepared to beg for his freedom.

1989 - The leader of the 1988 abortive Bophuthatswana coup, W/O Phiri,
is sentenced in the Mmabatho Supreme Court to 18
years' imprisonment.

1994 - Transvaal Agricultural Union president Dries Bruwer sounds a
grim warning - South Africa is heading for the worst
famine in its history if the government does not give financial aid to
existing commercial and subsistence farmers.

@ VOLKSTAAT

TORONTO Dec 14 Sapa

A CANADIAN'S PERSPECTIVE ON VOLKSTAAT ORANIA

"Descendants of South Africa's architect of apartheid want to
build a new country, one village at a time," says the subhead of a
two-page spread in the weekend feature supplement of Canada's
National Post newspaper.

The illustrated story is, of course, about the Volkstaat -
defined in a caption as "the apartheid-era experiment in reverse"
- envisaged by the 600 people who took up residence in Orania,
which Hendrik Verwoerd's grandson, Carel Boshoff IV, expects to
grow to 10,000 Afrikaners within 10 years.

This former ghost town in the Northern Cape is "a place of
paradoxes," writes Jonathan Ancer. It is "a Calvinist motherland,
steeped in a racist history, trying to carve out an acceptable
niche in a non-racist reality." There are no black servants in
Orania - "the poorer Boers" now have those jobs.

The Boshoffs are described as Orania's royal family, headed by
Freedom Front politician and former Broederbond chairman Professor
Carel Boshoff III. He will be president if - "Volkstaaters say
'when'" - a self-ruling Afrikaner homeland is established. The
community's founders told him of a Volkstaat that will one day
stretch from the Orange River, across the Northern Cape to the west
coast.

Instead of the "gun-lugging, ego-toting neo-Nazis" Ancer
expected to see in Orania, he found "hospitable tea drinkers who
start their sentence with 'I have nothing against black people...'
They recite well-rehearsed, sugar-coated speeches about living in a
tranquil, crime-free society where they're able to preserve their
cultural identity."

Whether they are saying these things for the benefit of a
journalist or to convince themselves, the Volkstaat concept, he
writes, is inherently racist, simply by its definition. "But then,
one could argue the same point about the wealthy suburbs of
Johannesburg, which have been cordoned-off, electric-fenced, and
are patrolled by rottweilers," his article concludes.

@ CRIME-HEIDEVELD

CAPE TOWN Dec 14 Sapa

MAN SHOT DEAD, THREE WOUNDED IN CAPE FLATS GANG VIOLENCE

A man was shot dead and three people wounded on Sunday when
shots were fired at a group of people standing outside a block of
flats in Heideveld, on the Cape Flats in an apparent gang-related
attack.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said a car pulled up
in front of the flats and several shots were fired by the
occupants.

Edward Smith, 27, was hit a number of times. He was taken to
the nearby G F Jooste Hospital where he died.

Arlene Jacobs, 17, was shot in the left shoulder; Justin White,
26, in an arm and head; and Nigel Prince, 40, in the left shoulder.
They were also taken to the G F Jooste Hospital where their
conditions were reported to be satisfactory.

Police recovered several spent 9mm cartridges.

De Beer said police were investigating the possibility the
attack was linked to the ongoing conflict between Cape Flats gangs.

@ CRIME-RICHWOOD

CAPE TOWN Dec 14 Sapa

WOMAN STABBED DEAD IN RICHWOOD NEAR CAPE TOWN

A 50-year-old woman died in the kitchen of her Richwood house
near Cape Town after being stabbed in the chest on Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer identified the victim
as Maureen Theron of Annandale Street.

Police want to question Peter Andrew Theron who may be able to
help in the investigation.

De Beer said Theron was travelling in a white Opel Kadett Cub,
registration number CY 55002.

In the Strand, Monezi Mazongolo, 27, died after being stabbed
in the chest during an argument on Sunday. A 37-year-old man later
surrendered to the police.

@ ACCIDENT-CALEDON

CAPE TOWN Dec 14 Sapa

TWO DIE IN MINIBUS ACCIDENT NEAR CALEDON

Two people died and two were injured when the vehicle they were
travelling in overturned near Caledon in the Boland on Sunday.

Police spokesman Captain William Reid said the victims were a
couple from Knysna, aged 59 and 55. The injured Aziza Brey, 46, and
Massiena Brey, eight, were taken to hospital. The driver escaped
unhurt.

Police were investigating a charge of culpable homicide.

@ BONDS-FOREIGNERS

JOHANNESBURG Dec 14 Sapa-INet Bridge

FOREIGNERS SOLD A NET R108.046M BONDS ON FRIDAY

Foreigners sold a net 108.046 million rand
worth of South African bonds on Friday after being net sellers of
a net 107.434 million rand worth of bonds on Thursday, Bond
Exchange of South Africa statistics show.

Nominal cumulative volume was 17.092 billion rand on Friday
compared with 15.461 billion rand on Thursday.

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

TUESDAY 15 DECEMBER 1998

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

@ DP-DEFECT

CAPE TOWN December 14 1998 Sapa

"NEW NAT" MPL HENDRY CUPIDO DEFECTS TO DP

A senior member of the New National Party in the Western Cape
provincial legislature, Hendry Cupido, defected to the Democratic
Party on Monday.

He told a media conference he was doing so because the DP
leadership showed vision and was purposeful.

Healthy planning was lacking in the current NNP leadership "as
a result of the lack of a vision for the future", Cupido said.

His wife, Pauline, is an NNP member of the National Assembly
and acting federal leader of the party's women structures.

Cupido said he and she had decided they could live with the
situation of belonging to different parties.

"It has never happened that we are angry at eah other."

Welcoming Cupido, DP Western Cape leader Hennie Bester said it
was clear his resignation was a "body blow for the National Party,
particularly in terms of its organisational capacity and ability to
mobilise its key market.

"By joining the Democratic Party, Mr Cupido has provided
another building block for the DP's strong growth in the Western
Cape."

Bester said a number of talks were underway with other
potential converts to the DP and announcements would be made at the
opportune times.

Cupido was chairman of the legislature's standing committee on
community safety and governmental authority.

The NNP said in a statement Cupido's resignation had come as no
surprise.

With the finalisation of the party's lists for the National
Assembly and the provincial legislature, he had been placed 30th
for the provincial parliament.

"Mr Cupido made known his dissatisfaction with his position on
this list and therefore his resignation was no surprise.

"We wish Mr Cupido everything of the best," the NNP said.

@ TANZANIA-DRUGS

NAIROBI, Kenya December 14 1998 Sapa-AP

ZANZIBAR ASKS CHINA FOR HELP IN COMBATTING DRUG ABUSE

Zanzibar has asked China for help in combating drug abuse
stemming from the islands' increasing importance as a drug transit
point, the weekly East African said Monday.

The independent newspaper said when Deputy Chief Minister
Abdulghani Msoma returned from China last week, he said a team of
Chinese experts would arrive in January to set up a drug
rehabilitation center outside Zanzibar town.

The Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, made up of Unguja,
Pemba and Mafia islands, is a semi-autonomous region within
Tanzania.

Police say Zanzibar's small airport has become a major transit
point for Southeast Asian heroin via India to South Africa and
Europe and that a growing number of local youths are now consuming
heroin.

@ CONSORTIUM BUYS TRANSNET'S FLEET MANAGEMENT OPERATION

Issued by: Ministry for Public Enterprises

The Ministry for Public Enterprises has announced the Viamax
(Pty) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transnet, will sell a 30
per cent stake of Viamax Fleet Solutions (PTY) Limited (VFS), one of
its subsidiary companies for R12 million. VFS is a fleet management
company, and will initially be tasked with the management of the
fleet of some of the business units of Transnet.

The stake has been sold to a newly-formed consortium called
Saram consisting of Super Group Limited, Rent-a-Bakkie Holdings
(Pty) Limited, and Amalgamated Union Transport and Automotive (Pty)
Limited (AUTA).

The Minister for Public Enterprises, Minister Stella Sigcau,
expressed satisfaction with the deal. "VFS is a relatively small
part of Transnet business but, large or small, the principle must be
right. I had to be sure that the deal made economic sense and I am
satisfied that this deal is financially viable and in the best
interests of the South African tax payer."

"I am also pleased to note that Transnet has adhered to
government policy in terms of black economic empowerment."

Mr Mafika Mkwanazi, Transnet's Deputy Managing Director, said
"the competing bidders were intensively evaluated and we are
satisfied that the winning consortium has the expertise to run and
grow the busienss".

"Importantly, its has undertaken to expand the business by
actively seeking out additional clients from the private sector
rather than concentrating solely on the 5000 vehicles in the
Transnet fleet", said Mr Mkwanazi.

Mr Mkwanazi said Saram has a strong component of black economic
empowerment which is in line with government policy on
privatisation. The black empowerment component comes through:

* SARHWU Investments Holdings (Pty) Limited, which owns
approximately 55% direct and indirect stake in Ren-a-Bakkie; and

* South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) and
Mineworkers Investment Company (Pty) Limited (MIC), which jointly
own a 55 per cent stake in AUTA.

We are happy that this deal is fair and in line with our mandate
from the government", said Mr Mkwanazi.

Mr Mkwanazi said that a portion of the remaining 70% stake in
VFS will also be sold, but Transnet will retain control in the short
to medium term. Each employee will be given an option to purchase
shares in VFS and a percentage, still to be determined, will go to
the National Empowerment Fund.

He also stressed that the Viamax deal if the first in the
restructuring of Transnet. Over the course of the next two years
Transnet will create ventures and will privatise support businesses.

Elias Mphande, Managing director of AUTA, one of the
shareholders in the consortium and its spokesperson said: "We are
very excited to be seleted. We view it as an endorsement of the
consortium's expertise in fleet management".

"We intend to actively expand the business by seeking other
similar contracts, all of which will be grown under the VFS
umbrella."

The deal is also personally satisfying to me in that it shows
that black economic empowerment in this country is becoming a
reality. In the broader South African context, this is essential if
we are to create a stable economic climate in which South African
businesses can flourish."

ENQUIRIES: ANDILE NKUHLU
(012) 342-7111
083 675 8277

@ MBEKI-MOTSHEKGA

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

SOUTH AFRICA TO TOWER UNDER MBEKI: MOTSHEKGA

Gauteng premier Mathole Motshekga on Monday said South Africa
would reach even greater heights under the presidency of Thabo
Mbeki.

Addressing the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Motshekga said there was no leader better prepared and more capable
than Mbeki to lead South Africa into the 21st century.

"President Nelson Mandela has laid a firm foundation for the
Mbeki era, which will be characterised by the African renaissance
and the entry of our country into the global village."

Motshekga said foreign investors had nothing to fear as long as
the African National Congress remained in power.

The premier returns to Johannesburg on Tuesday after a week
long investment drive in Asia.

@ FIVAZ-AGREEMENT

CAPE TOWN December 14 1998 Sapa

SAPS AND UN DRUG CONTROL SIGN AGREEMENT

More effective drug law enforcement in South Africa was
overdue, national police commissioner George Fivaz said on Monday.

Although South Africa was the leading country in Africa as far
as drug law enforcement was concerned, more needed to be done to
combat the issue, Fivaz said at a press conference in Cape Town.

Fivaz was speaking after he and Frank Albert of the United
Nations International Drug Control Programme signed a collaboration
agreement regarding the training of South African police officers
in drug interdiction.

Fivaz was flanked by Albert and Frank Selay, also of the US
drug eforcement programme. Also present was Antonella Uneddu from
the consul of Italy, whose government has funded the R2 million
programme through the United Nations.

Fivaz said the agreement was long overdue. "We need to do more
to get the drug problem under control. In some parts of the world
it is out of control and there are cases where governments have
been toppled."

He said 300 skilled law enforcement offices would initially be
trained, with more being trained later. Customs and excise staff
will be included in the training programme.

"We are going to engage with international experts, Interpol,
the United States and United Kingdom customs department. They will
assist with the training programme," Fivaz said.

The trainees will be exposed to practical training which should
take between four and six months.

The agreement would have an impact on the whole of Southern
Africa and would be assessed on an ongoing basis. The situation
would be reviewed annually to see what, if any, changes needed to
be implemented.

Asked how serious the problem was, Fivaz said: "We are aware of
the fact through interaction with Interpol, that the issue of
illegal drug trafficking is on the increase.

"Dealers were making use of northern countries to smuggle drugs
into South Africa.

"Drug control and law enforcement around the issue is a big
thing in the Western Cape. We will focus on flash points, not
forgetting metropoles like Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal and some
areas of the Eastern Cape.

Albert said he and Selay opened an office in South Africa in
July last year which covered 11 states in the Southern African
region.

"No police service in the world has the capacity to deal with
these things on its own," Albert said.

"The government of Italy has provided funding support through
the United Nations which proves governments are concerned about the
issue," he said, adding he was looking forward to working with
Fivaz."

@ LABOUR-COURT

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

PROSECUTORS ON WORK STOPPAGE AFTER NOT RECEIVING INCREASE

Court prosecutors around the country stopped work on Monday in
protest against not receiving a salary increase.

Magistrates at Johannesburg's regional and magistrate's court
in West Street remained in their offices while members of the
public thronged the passages.

Last Thursday the prosecutors received their salary slips in
advance and found they had not received an expected increase.

A ban on overtime pay saw prosecutors start court later than
usual on Thursday and Friday as they prepared their cases during
court time.

By Monday, Johannesburg's courts only had essential services.

In section one of the regional court, one court dealt with bail
applications, another with postponements and new cases, and a third
took the overflow.

Many of the prosecutors from sat on the steps at the court's
Bezuidenhout Street entrance, displaying placards bearing slogans
such as "Stop Tipping, Start Paying" and "Crime should be treated
with more conviction".

Similar action was seen in Durban, Pretoria, Kempton Park and
Soweto.

Neither the president of the National Union of Prosecutors of
South Africa, Eduard van der Spuy, nor a Justice Ministry spokesman
was immediately available for comment.

@ PAC-RIGHTS

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

AFRICA DESERVES PROTECTION, RESPECT AND RECOGNITION: PAC

Africa should refuse to enter the 21st century humiliated and
kowtowing to any unjust imperial order which treated it with
disrespect and perpetuated its powerlessness, the Pan Africanist
Congress said on Monday.

"Africans should not allow themselves to be treated as
sub-humans and third citizens of the world," PAC deputy president
Dr Motsoko Pheko said in a statement in Johannesburg.

"Africa's people deserve protection, respect and recognition."

He criticised a reported support by Britain and other European
countries for Germany to be granted membership of the United
Nations Security Council as "another glaring example that Africa is
still treated as an inferior continent".

"Europe already has three permanent seats in the Security
Council, occupied by Britain, Russia and France. They now want the
fourth seat for Germany before Africa has even one.

"This is not the way to build a just world order," Pheko said.

He said gross violations of human rights against Africans were
not paid the attention they deserved.

By contrast, he cited the arrest of 83-year-old former Chilean
president Augusto Pinochet in Britain, which was requested by the
Spanish government for his alleged human rights violations against
Spanish citizens in Chile.

"Slave traders, colonialists and perpetrators of apartheid who
committed similar or worse crimes in Africa have not been given the
same treatment in London as Pinochet," Pheko said.

"To this day Africans have not been paid any reparations for
atrocities committed against them. This shows a great deal of
hypocrisy and disparity in the upholding of human rights, even by
human rights lawyers."

In the light of the planned return of works of art stolen by
the Nazis to their original owners, he asked: "When will very
valuable artifacts looted from African countries by slave traders
and colonialists now decorating the mueum of Europe be returned
to Africa?"

@ JUSTICE-IRELAND

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

IRELAND DONATES ALMOST R2 MILLION FOR ADVICE DESKS IN COURTS

Ireland donated almost R2 million to the Justice Department on
Monday to set up citizen advice desks at magistrate's courts.

"The desks will be implemented with the aim of improving access
to the justice system in the country," Justice Minister Dullah Omar
said in Pretoria.

He said two desks would be set up at the Johannesburg
Magistrate's Court, two at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, and one
at the Durban Magistrate's Court.

Omar said the money would be donated over three years, and
would be used to cover staff and training costs, computers, and
office infrastructure.

"These advice desks will form part of a pilot project, and if
the project is successful, the desks will be implemented at all the
major courts in South Africa," he said.

"These desks will contribute to improving the access to the
justice system by acting as a first contact point for the public,
and providing information about the legal system," said Hugh Swift,
the Irish ambassador to South Africa.

Omar said the desks would begin to operate as soon as the
infrastructure was in place and staff were trained.

An agreement to regulate the way in which the money would be
donated was signed by Omar and Swift.

@ SAPS-FIVAZ

JOHANNESBUG December 14 1998 Sapa

FIVAZ ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO SAPS

National police commissioner George Fivaz on Monday announced
several changes to the service following consultation with his
chief executive officer, Meyer Kahn, and Safety and Security
Minister Sydney Mufamadi.

Fivaz in a statement said the restructuring was aimed at
enhancing the police service's capacity to address strategic and
transformational issues.

"To effect specific changes, the current functions and
responsibilities of divisional commissioners have been reviewed and
a division of functions, which will facilitate greater efficiency
and effectiveness, has been designed," he said.

The key areas of change were:

- the creation of a new division to be known as crime
intellegence. This would be achieved by separating the crime
intellegence function from the detective function;

- restructuring the human resource management division into
three divisions, namely career management, training and
development, and personnel services;

- the creation of an information management services
component; and

- the separation of the financial and logistical functions to
maximize operational support and to create a division between
procurement, inventory management and financial control.

Fivaz said the changes would result in the creation of five new
divisions and posts for divisional commissioners would be
advertised in January 1999.

The divisions are crime prevention, crime intellegence, career
management, training, personnel service and logistics.

Fivaz further announced that capacity in the provinces would be
expanded through the appointment of 38 deputy area commissioners to
enhance operational command and assist in the development of
personnel.

"It is important to note that this process of restructuring is
an attempt to create a fair and balanced distribution of
operational resources on all levels of policing in the best
interests of the country and its inhabitants," Fivaz said.

The Ministry of Safety and Security issued a statement
welcoming the changes.

"The ministry is gratified by the moves taken by the South
African Police Service management to restructure the SAPS divisions
at national level.

"This restructuring process allows those members of management
responsible for fighting crime and implementing transformation
policies to pay effective attention to their respective areas of
focus," the statement said.

@ ELECTION-MCHUNU

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES ARE BEING BENT FOR MINORITY: MCHUNU

The Independent Electoral Commission's chief electoral officer,
Mandla Mchunu, on Monday expressed concern that the country's
democratic processes "must always bend to accommodate the few".

In an interview with Sapa in Pretoria, he said talk about the
announcement of an election date, which would enable people to plan
where to register and vote, normally focused on the concerns of
"the minority".

"We talk about exceptions and we talk about the minority
because people who go on holiday abroad are white people - people
who have got houses in Plettenberg Bay.

"I am quite concerned about the fact that our democratic
processes must always bend to accommodate the few. Democracy is
about majority."

Asked about migrant workers, Mchunu said: "None of those guys
are raising any questions about our system, because for them it is
no a problem, they will go and register where they think they want
to vote".

He accused journalists of focusing on minority tendencies and
habits.

Mchunu said the election date had to ideally be announced by
the time the third round of voter registration started in February.

"That is what we are going to be fighting for now."

He said the election should be held as soon as possible so that
an impression could not be created that the current government was
clinging to power.

"As far as I am concerned, the sooner the better. But I am sure
there are political issues that are being considered."

Mchunu promised an efficient, smooth and relaxed election with
minimal queues, provided there was no political unrest.

"If all is well, I promise I am going to give you one of the
best elections yet."

This could, however, only be possible with the support of all
South Africans.

To this end, Mchunu called on the public to volunteer to help
with the election, to do their civic duties such as registering,
and not to instigate trouble.

He also called on politicians to "clean up their politics" by
not issuing manifestos with racial slurs or making racially
dividing speeches.

Mchunu said he had o doubt that one day would be sufficient
for the election, and expressed the hope that the day would be
declared a public holiday.

He said voting districts would have a maximum of 3500 voters
each, while some would have as few as 250, all to be processed
between 7am and 9pm on election day.

Mchunu described voter registration as a dress rehearsal for
the election, saying: "That first day was like walking into the
dark".

Not everyone agreed that the process should start in November
and he was described as over-ambitious and lunatic.

"But I said my spirit is that of a warrior. You can't sharpen
your spears forever, at a point you have to go and test those
spears. I wanted my organisation to cut its teeth - I wanted to
see wether we are strong or weak."

Mchunu said he would by Friday complete a review of last
month's registration, with a view to addressing problems.

Weaknesses identified included lack of communication between
head office and local registration areas, faulty electronic
systems, and a lack of food for staff.

The use of public servants made the system "even weaker,
because I got some reluctant people", Mchunu said.

"The army was a godsend, but the visual effect (of the
uniforms) is not good. It just doesn't feel nice."

Mchunu said public servants could be called upon to assist with
the election. The IEC may not have enough money to pay election
officials. It had asked for nearly R1 billion for its 1999/2000
budget, but was not sure how much it would receive.

Mchunu said he was delighted at last month's turnout for voter
registration. "We got close to 50 percent - that is wonderful, I
did not expect to get so much."

If current trends were anything to go by, about 80 percent of
the electorate should have enrolled by February, he predicted.

By Monday morning, the IEC's records reflected that about 33
percent of voters had enrolled so far.

@ ZIM-DRCONGO

HARARE December 14 1998 Sapa-AFP

ZIMBABWE ADMITS LOSSES IN DRCONGO FIGHTING

Zimbabwe on Monday admitted losing a helicopter gunship and
suffering casualties in heavy fighting in the east of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the weekend.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted a military
spokesman in the DRC capital Kinshasa as saying at least 80 rebels
were killed in a battle for the town of Kabalo.

The paper said Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, which have troops
in the DRC in support of President Laurent Kabila, had suffered
casualties in the battle but gave no figures.

"At present fighting still continues at Kabalo and the allied
forces are continually gaining ground. It is only a matter of time
before Kabalo falls," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.

Zimbabwe's admission that it has suffered losses in the DRC is
unusual. Since intervening in the conflict in August, it has
publicly admitted just seven deaths among its troops.

The Herald said "Zimbabwe lost a helicopter gunship in the
fight, but the condition of the crew was not immediately known."

It said the southern African forces supporting Kabila had
halted rebel advances towards the strategic towns of Mbuji-Mayi and
Lubumbashi. The latter is the main city in the mineral-rich
southeastern Katanga province.

@ MANDELA-HOLIDAY

JOHANNESBURG, December 14 1998 Sapa-AFP

MANDELA STARTS HIS HOLIDAYS

President Nelson Mandela began his Christmas holidays Monday,
and will divide a month's leave between his rural home village in
South Africa and the Mozambican capital Maputo, an aide said.

The 80-year-old president will spend Christmas Day and New
Year's Eve at his home in Qunu, the tiny village where he grew up
in Transkei, presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana told AFP.

He will then travel to Maputo, the home city of his new wife
Graca Machel, before returning to work on January 14.

Mankahlana could not confirm press reports on Monday which said
Mandela would interrupt his holiday to meet British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, due to visit South Africa between January 6 and 9.

Mandela is enering the home stretch of his four-year
presidency and will hand over to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki after
the general elections set for between May and July next year.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA December 14 1998 Sapa-AFP

UNITA SOLDIERS, GOVERNMENT IN CENTRAL ANGOLAN FIGHTING

UNITA rebels on Monday fired artillery around Kuito in Angola's
central Bie province and clashed with government troops in
neighbouring areas, private and official radio reports said.

At least 5,000 people had gathered at Kuito's airport in the
hope of getting out of the town, for fear of seeing it fall into
the hands of Jonas Savimbi's rebel forces, the private radio
Ecclesia reported.

National radio had said that government troops were on the
offensive against UNITA rebels at Chingwar some 50 kilometres (30
miles) southwest of Kuito, heightening fears of renewed all-out
civil war.

0 "The battle is fierce and some 90,000 displaced villagers
were counted on Monday in Kuito," the local state radio said. Young
women and children interviewed by radio Ecclesia said they could
hear artillery fire around Kuito airport.

The press said Chingwar remained in government hands after
fighting began on Saturday, but if it fell to the National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the way would be open
for a rebel assault on Kuito.

Relief workers confirmed that almost 100,000 people had arrived
in Kuito from the battleground. One local humanitarian
organisation, ANAKUITO, made an appeal for emergency aid for those
who have taken refuge on the city streets.

0 Rebel gunners loyal to UNITA's historic leader Savimbi - who
is considered an "outlaw" by the government and disavowed by his
former aides seeking to pursue a peace process - have deployed
their artillery in the Chitembo sector southwest of Kuito.

Angolan armed forces chief General Joao Baptista de Matos
admitted on Monday that UNITA troops had "heavy weapons and
well-equipped units" and was planning an assault on Kuito and the
nearby city of Huambo.

0 De Matos blamed the United Nations, which is overseeing peace
accords signed by UNITA and the Luanda regime in 1994, for the
failure of Savimbi's men to disarm.

Despite UN Security Council sanctions slapped on UNITA for
refusing to comply fully with the demobilisation pact, the
government estimates that Savimbi still has some 35,000 armed men
at his disposal.

0Kuito was surrounded and heavily pounded by UNITA forces
between early 1993 and late 1994 after the rebels went back to war
after contesting the outcome of elections won late in 1992 by the
ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

0 New peace protocols were signed by the rival sides under the
aegis of the United Nations in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 1994.

These provided for a military and political settlement, but
have not been fully enacted, with UNITA determined to hold on to
strongholds and Savimbi consistently refusing to join fellow
members of the movement in Luanda.

0 In some of the most violent fighting since the Angolan civil
war broke out on independence from Portugal in 1975, Kuito was
razed during the siege after the 1992 elections.

On Monday, "residents of the town are seeking shelter for fear
of another war like the one Kuito endured after the general
elections in 1992," the radio said.

0Huambo residents were "agitated" by an increase in military
activity, the radio added. Frequent clashes and ambushes around the
city have cut traffic on the road linking it to the big port towns
of Benguela and Lobito.

0Late in November, government troops, who were joined by some
top UNITA officers under the Lusaka accords, launched an offensive
to take control of some 200 districts supposed to have been handed
over to central administration by the rebels.

Closing its fourth ordinary congress, the MPLA last Thursday
backed the hardline stance taken against UNITA by President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos and endorsed measures to crush Savimbi and his
forces once and for all.

The government broke off talks with UNITA in September, six
months after it became the official opposition party on the basis
that it had disarmed. The rebel movement has split into Savimbi
loyalists and a dissenting faction led by top former aides who
accuse him of war-mongering.

@ MBEKI-ANTHEM

CAPE TOWN December 14 1998 Sapa

NO DECISION TO OPEN ANTHEM DEBATE, SAYS MBEKI

The government had not at this stage decided to open any debate
on a new national anthem for South Africa, Deputy President Thabo
Mbeki said on Monday.

Should the country and its people decide to open such a debate,
initiatives such as that of the New Apostolic Church and other
proposed versions of a new anthem, could be taken into
consideration, he said in a statement.

Mbeki was reacting to media inquiries following his attendance
of a performance in Cape Town on Sunday by a 10000-strong male
choir from the New Apostolic Church of a proposed revised anthem
written and composed by two of its members.

This rendition had to be seen as an initiative of the church to
enhance reconciliation among all South Africans and a humble
contribution to the debate on whether South Africa needed a new
version of its national anthem or not, he said.

"In this regard, should the country and its people decide to
open th debate on the matter, initiatives such as the New
Apostolic Church's and other versions of the national anthem may be
taken into consideration."

Mbeki congratulated the New Apostolic Church Male Choristers on
their initiative, but said: "At this stage, the government has
however not decided on opening such a debate."

It was his conviction that until such a decision was made by
the government and society in general, the current national anthem,
as proclaimed by the President, remained in force and effect.

@ COMOROS-UNREST

MUTSAMUDU, Comoros, December 14 1998 Sapa-AFP

VILLAGE ELDERS UNDERTAKE MEDIATION BID ON ANJOUAN

Elders from the tiny village of Ouani opened a mediation bid on
the embattled Comoran island of Anjouan on Monday as militiamen
backing rival secessionist leaders observed an undeclared truce,
apart from a few scattered gunshots.

Fighting which broke out on December 5 between supporters of
self-styled president Abdallah Ibrahim and partisans of his "prime
minister," Abdou Mohamed Mindhi, and Chamasse Said Omar, whom
Abdallah sacked as "prime minister" last July, has claimed at least
60 lives, reliable sources say, despite an official combined toll
by the two camps of just 12 dead.

The notables from Ouani, a village beside the airport,
travelled the few kilometres (miles) to the main town of Mutsamudu,
controlled by Abdallah's militia, for the parley, an AFP
correspondent on the scene reported.

Abdallah Mohamed, Abdallah's "foreign minister," said the
elders' mediation had two objectives: to obtain a formal ceasefire,
and to reconcile conflicting points of view on a permanent solution
to the crisis.

Mindhi said earlier in the southeastern town of Domoni, over
the mountains, that his forces were observing the truce. They and
the militia of Chamasse, who fled to the neighbouring French island
of Mayotte, battled Abdallah's gunmen in and around Mutsamudu,
where looters ransacked houses and shops and set fire to buildings.
Most of its inhabitants have fled.

On Monday morning, the front line between Mutsamudu and the
adjoining village of Mirontsy was calm, apart from a few rifle
shots.

"I believe the war is finished," declared Captain Salim Ahmed,
one of the commanders of the Mirontsy militia.

Anjouan declared its secession from the central government on
Grande Comore on August 3, 1997. It was followed a week later by

Moheli, the third island in the federation. Moheli returned this
year to federal rule.

The secessionists accused the central government of neglecting

the two smaller islands and awarding plum job to Grande Comore
residents.

Chamasse wants Anjouan to return to French rule along the lines
of Mayotte, the fourth island in the archipelago which chose to

remain under French tutelage when the other islands became

independent in 1975.

Abdallah also originally demanded re-attachment to France, but

settled for independence or the autonomy of Anjouan in a Comoran

community of states after Paris made it clear it did not wish to

resume responsibility. The idea of becoming French again is popular
in Anjouan's villages because of Mayotte's higher standard of
living.

Mindhi said he was adamant that "Abdallah Ibrahim must resign."

Mindhi's supporters accuse Abdallah of abusing his office and
engaging in cronyism.

They are proposing the formation of a ruling directorate in
which all regions of the island and Anjouanese abroad would be
represented.

Mindhi's partisans, who acknowledge having tried to kidnap
Abdallah on December 4 to force him to resign, blame him for
provoking he bloodshed by remaining in office.

The kidnap attempt ended in fiasco, with Mindhi's bodyguard
being killed.

Both Abdallah and Mindhi say that Anjouan's independence is
irreversible, but both say they are prepared to discuss a form of
association with the other Comoran islands.

Abdallah wants the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to
mediate, but Mindhi does not.

The OAU is due to meet in Ouagadougou on Thursday and Friday to
consider a feasibility report on a military intervention force
drawn up by a team of African generals who last week visited
Moroni, the capital on Grande Comore, after an appeal for help by
federal interim President Tadjidine ben Said Massounde.

@ CRIME-SAPU

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

TUESDAY MEMORIAL DAY FOR POLICE MEMBERS KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

Tuesday has been declared a memorial day for all police members
who died in the line of duty this year, the SA Police Union said on
Monday.

In a statement in Pretoria, SAPU extended its condolences to
the families of 269 union members who were killed between January
and November.

SAPU said its members would commemorate the day by holding
regional memorial services, the lighting of candles, and by wearing
black ribbons.

A letter of condolence would be presented to the office of
national police commissioner George Fivaz in Pretoria.

"The figures of police deaths are once again shocking this
year," the union said.

"SAPU will continue to campaign for positive interventions to
reduce police deaths."

@ KWANATAL-VIOLENCE

DURBAN December 14 1998 Sapa

ALMOST 4000 DIED IN KWAZULU-NATAL SINCE THE ELECTION: MONITOR

Almost 4000 people have died in violence with political
overtones in KwaZulu-Natal since the 1994 election, according to
the annual report by the Natal Monitor.

The report, released on Saturday, said more than 700 of the
reported deaths occurred in the first eleven months of 1998.

"Given the entrenched culture of violence in South Africa, the
continuing low intensity political conflict in KwaZulu-Natal - and
the ready availability of guns - violent crime in general remains
endemic," the report said.

It said the conflict in the Richmond area in the midlands this
year, which was characterised by massacres, allegations of security
force complicity and political mudslinging, had drawn national and
international attention to the continuing turmoil in the province.

The report said, however, that violence continued largely
unseen in all regions, especially rural areas around Nongoma,
Empangeni, Eshowe and Greytown, but little attention was paid to
this in the media.

The report said a number of those who died this year included
the Inkatha Freedom Party leadership on the south coast, African
National Congress and United Democratic Movement supporters in
Richmond and ANC office bearers in Gingindlovu, who all had clear
connections with political parties.

"Contrary to the utterances of leaders, tensions and killings
involving IFP and ANC (and intra-party struggles) continue in a
number of areas.

"The Natal Monitor has made the point on various occasions
that, compared with the pre-election period, the nature of the
violence has been changing in recent years; nevertheless, much of
it still appears aimed at destabilising large areas of the
province, including through criminal and taxi conflict," the report
said.

It called for the deployment of adequate security force
personnel in flashpoints in the run-up to and during the 1999
election.

"It has been possible to deploy hundreds of soldiers in
Lesotho." Additional security force personnel were sent to Richmond
as part of a strategy to halt the carnage.

"A similar policy should operate in all the violence-ravaged
areas of this province."

@ LABOUR-LD-COURT

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS APOLOGISES FOR DELAY

The National Directorate of Public Prosecutions on Monday
apologised to striking prosecutors for a delay in announcing an
expected salary increase and promised to make an announcement soon.

At courts around the country gavels lay idle and the public
thronged the court corridors as prosecutors protested at finding
that a promised increase was not reflected on their salary slips,
issued last Thursday.

Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the new Directorate headed by
Bulelani Ngcuka said: "We promised prosecutors that their new
salary increases would be announced by the end of November. Owing
to unforeseen problems, that has yet to happen.

"We sincerely apologise."

Ngwema attributed the delays to "red tape in the consultation
process".

The protest gathered momentum on Thursday and Friday when
prosecutors prepared for their cases during time usually spent in
court, following a recent ban on overtime pay.

Although Ngwema said the Directorate planned no action against
the protestors, Justice Minister Dullah Omar took a harder line.

He told Network Radio News that the strike was illegal and
premature. He said salary negotiations were almost complete and
protests would not be tolerated.

A Sapa court reporter said the prosecutors themselves were
calling their action a work stoppage, not a strike, as a strike in
essential services was illegal.

Ngwema urged the prosecutors to return to work to avoid a
backlog which could see some people spending Christmas behind bars
because of their work stoppage.

@ DRCONGO-REBELS

KIGALI, Rwanda December 14 1998 Sapa-AP

CONGOLESE REBELS SAY THEY SHOT DOWN TWO ZIMBABWEAN AIRCRAFTS

Congolese rebels on Monday said they had shot down a Zimbabwean
jet fighter and a helicopter gunship during a government
counteroffensive on a southeastern, rebel-held town.

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, leader of the rebels fighting to oust
President Laurent Kabila, said his forces had repulsed attacks by
government forces and allied Zimbabwean and Namibian soldiers at
Kabalo, some 1,500 kilometers (935 miles) southeast of the capital,
Kinshasa, and shot down a MiG-21 fighter jet and a helicopter
gunship.

In Zimbabwe, military authorities admitted to loosing one
helicopter gunship and an unspecified number of troops in
continuing fighting for Kabalo, the Congo River port and an
important railway junction in mineral-rich Katanga Province,
Kabila's home.

The state-own Daily Herald quoted the headquarters of the
Zimbabwean, Angolan and Namibian troops fighting in support of
Kabila as saying that 80 rebels had been killed and that fighting
was continuing.

Zimbabwe is using both war planes and helicopters - French-made
Pumas and Russian built Mi-24 transport helicopters - to attack
rebels and ferry soldiers behind rebel lines.

The rebels are a coalition of ethnic Tutsis, disaffected
Congolese soldiers and opposition politicians who took up arms Aug.
2 accusing Kabila of misrule, corruption and ethnic warmongering.
They are supported by troops and arms from neighboring Rwanda and
Uganda, who accuse Kabila of massacring ethnic Congolese Tutsis and
enlisting Ugandan and Rwandan rebels to attack them from bases in
eastern Congo.

So far, efforts to broker a cease-fire have failed over
Kabila's persistant refusal to negotiate directly with the rebels

whom he accuses of being the puppets of Rwanda and Uganda.

Wamba offered no other details. The rebels appear to have
repulsed attempts by the government and its allies to retake
Kabalo.

Last week, they claimed to have crossed the Nzofu Bridge, 14
kilometers (8 miles) from the town and to have pushed the enemy one
kilometer (mile) back on the opposite bank.

@ ZIM-LD-DRCONGO

HARARE December 14 1998 Sapa-AP

ZIMBABWE SAYS KABILA ALLIES HOLD STRATEGIC TOWN AFTER CLASH

The Defense Ministry said Zimbabwe troops and their allies
engaged in heavy fighting with rebels in eastern Congo and lost one
helicopter gun ship after it developed a technical fault, state
radio reported Monday.

The radio said allied casualties were "minimal" in fighting
during the weekend that stopped rebel advances toward the
mineral-rich southeastern centers of Mbuji-Mayi and Lubumbashi, a
key allied garrison town.

The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. said fighting
Sunday centered on the government held town of Kabalo, where rebel
casualties were heavy and rebel vehicles and artillery were
destroyed, halting a rebel attempt to capture the town.

The Defense Ministry gave no details of allied casualties but
admitted some casualties were reported by the allied forces
headquarters in the Congo.

It said, however, the helicopter gun ship, believed to have
been a French-built Alouette "command car" supporting ground
troops, crashed after a mechanical failure.

Officials gave no information of the fate of the crew. The
Alouette usually carried a crew of two and can be used to drop
four-man commando units on battle lines.

Repeated calls to the Defense Ministry in Harare for details of
allied casualties were unanswered Monday.

Earlier, the state-controlled Herald newspaper, quoting
unidentified sources, said at least 80 rebels were killed in
fighting for Kabalo and fighting was also reported around nearby
towns of Kalemie and Moba.

Angolan and Namibian troops are fighting alongside Zimbabweans
and Congolese forces of embattled President Laurent Kabila in the
dense jungles of eastern Congo.

Kabalo, about 250 kilometers (160 miles) west of the Congolese
border on Lake Tanganyika, is considered an important strategic
position that would provide the rebels with a "springboard" if
captured for attacks on Mbuji-Mayi and Lubumbashi, Kabila's home
stronghold and the Congo's second largest city, The Herald said.

Zimbabwe dispatched 8,000 troops, backed by warplanes and

armor, to support Kabila after the rebellion erupted Aug. 2.

Kabila's refusal to meet with the rebels has doomed a series of

peace initiatives seeking an end to the four-month Congolese war.

Kabila alleges the rebels are merely pawns of Rwanda and Uganda
and insists on negotiating only with those two countries.

@ DEPT OF FINANCE ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRACTICE

Issued by: Department of Finance

The Minister of Finance has approved new municipal accounting
statements that will be introduced through legislation as required
by Section 216(1) of the Constitution. These statements, which are
provisionally referred to as Generally Accepted Municipal Accounting
Practice (GAMAP), Have been developed in consultation with key
role-players in the Local Government arena and will apply to all
municipal bodies. The role-players include the South African
Government Association (SALGA), Institute of Municipal Finance
Officers (IMFO), Department of Finance (DoF), Department of
Constitutional Development (DCD), Development Bank of South Africa
(Dabsa) Department of State Expenditure (DSE), the South African
Institute of Chartered Accounts (SAICA) and the Auditor General's
Office (as observer).

GAMAP is being introduced to overcome shortcomings experienced
with existing municipal accounting practices. Current practices are
complex and are based on the different provincial ordinances. It does
not promote transparency and encouraged taxation in advances of
need and adversely effect the accurate costing of services. As a
result, the financial statements of municipalities tend not to
accurately portray their financial position thereby creating a
barrier to the accessing of external loans and other finance to fund
munch need development. Furthermore, the constitutional obligation
of national and provincial government to monitor the financial
position of municipalities is compromised.

GAMAP is primarily based on International Accounting Standards
as well as South African Generally Accepted Accounting Practices,
adjusted where necessary to take into account the attributes unique
to municipalities. The most significant change will relate to the
accounting treatment of fixed assets that are presently recorded in
the accounting records and financial statements at original purchase
price. In terms of GAMAP, fixed assets will now be depreciated and
disclosed in the financial statements at historical depreciated
values. Changes to the accounting treatment of the funding of fixed
assets have also been made to eliminate the necessity to disclose
internal transactions in the financial statements, prevent the
expensing of loan repayments and to reflect the true cost of service
provision.

The introduction of GAMAP will also ensure that there is
consistency in the accounting treatment of transaction and
classification of account balances in municipalities, facilitate
comparability between similar sized municipal bodies on a national
basis and enable users to financial statements to make more accurate
assessments of risks and returns.

The introduction of GAMAP will also have other positive
implications for local authorities. Other than more relevant and
detailed disclosures in financial statements to improve
accountability and transparency, municipalities will need to focus
specifically on cash flow budgeting to ensure that sufficient cash
will be generated to finance operating and capital expenditure.
Attention will also need to be given to the management of working
capital, as detailed disclosure will now be required in the
financial statements. Accounting practices are continually evolving
to reflect changing business practices and therefore there will be a
need to ensure that GAMAP is updated to keep abreast of these
changes. Legislation (i.e. the Treasury Control Bill) will shortly
be passed enabling a Public Sector Accounting Standards Board to be
established and will be responsible for introducing GAMAP statements
and updating these where necessary. It is envisaged that this Board
will operate on a similar basis to the Accounting Practices Board
that is tasked with updating South African Generally Accepted
Accounting Practices for the private sector.

Processes are presently being put in place to ensure that local
authorities will be in a position to introduce the changes emanating
form GAMAP. Training materials are being prepared and will be used
to capacitate councilors and finance officials on the significant
changes emanating from these accounting standards.

In conclusion, government is confident that GAMAP will benefit
all users of municipal financial statements. The introduction of
these changes demonstrates government's commitment to building an
accountable, transparent and financially viable local government
system.

Contact persons at the Department of Finance:

Roland White TV Pillay
Phone: (012) 315-5346 Phone: (012) 315-5154

@ REGISTER-NUMBERS

CAPE TOWN December 14 1998 Sapa

8,7 MILLION VOTERS REGISTERED SO FAR: IEC

The Independent Electoral Commission has processed the
registration of 8786636 voters by 3.30pm on Monday, a IEC statement
said.

Officials were still downloading information and details of
voters who took part in the first round of registration at the end
of November and the beginning of December, the IEC said.

The latest figures supplied by the IEC indicated that so far
1202754 voters had registered in the Eastern Cape, 682861 in the
Free State, 2008550 in Gauteng, 1543196 in KwaZulu-Natal, 648214 in
Mpumalanga, 210809 in the Northern Cape, 1065564 in the Northern
Province, 685996 in the North West and 728692 in the Western Cape.

Voters will have a further chance to register in January and
February.

@ TAX-NETHERLANDS

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

CHANGE IN LAW TO ENSURE DUTCH CITIZENS ARE NOT DOUBLE-TAXED

Dutch ambassador Hermann Froger and Deputy Finance Minister
Gill Marcus will on Tuesday sign a protocol in Pretoria preventing
Dutch citizens living in South Africa being taxed twice on their
properties overseas.

A statement from the SA Revenue Service on Monday said the
protocol was aimed at Dutch residents who owned mortgaged
properties in the Netherlands. Debt claims from these properties
would not be taxed in both countries.

The protocol would introduce amendments to the South African
Constitution similar to those made Dutch legislation. This meant
all income of Dutch citizens would be dealt with on the same basis.

@ DRCONGO-VILJOEN

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

VILJOEN CALLS ON MANDELA TO HELP SOLVE AFRICAN CONFLICTS

Freedom Front leader General Constand Viljoen on Monday called
on President Nelson Mandela and the government to do everything
possible to restore stability in Africa, and offered his assistance
in this regard.

Viljoen said in a statement that if a breakthrough with peace
talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo was not made soon, a long
and bitter struggle could be the result.

If reports were true that Angola was retracting its forces from
the DRC because rebel soldiers from Unita were achieving greater
successes against the Angolan government, then that was the start
of a great conflict, he warned.

Viljoen said the only solution to conflicts in Africa was a
political one.

@ ERITREA-OAU

ASMARA, Eritrea December 14 1998 Sapa-AP

ERITREA SETS NO TIME LIMIT ON FINDING PEACE WITH ETHIOPIA

Eritrea has set no time limit on finding a peaceful solution to
its border dispute with Ethiopia, a senior government official said
Monday.

Presidential adviser Yemane Gebremeskel said Eritrea has a
serious commitment to talks later this week in Burkina Faso aimed
at reaching a brokered solution to the seven-month conflict.

The two formerly close allies came to blows in May over
undemarcated colonial boundaries. Although no heavy fighting has
taken place since June, both sides continue to reinforce their
1,000-kilomeer (620-mile) common border.

The central organ of the Organization of African Unity is
scheduled to discuss the Ethio-Eritrean conflict on Thursday and
Friday in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou.

President Isaias Afwerki, Foreign Minister Haile Weldensae and
other senior Eritrean officials are expected to attend.

OAU Secretary General Salim A. Salim visited Asmara Saturday
for consultations and clarification of Eritrea's view on an OAU
peace plan put forward in November at the last meeting in
Ouagadougu.

Ethiopia has accepted the proposals, but Eritrea rejects the
points calling for withdrawal of Eritrean forces from territory
occupied after May and the return of an Ethiopian administration to
the contested Badime area.

U.S. special envoy Anthony Lake is also expected to return to
the region for the fourth time in an ongoing attempt to reach a
settlement agreeable to both sides. Gebremeskel said he didn't know
the date of Lake's next visit.

The OAU central organ is a 16-nation committee charged with
conflict prevention and resolution. Other issues on the agenda are
the four-month civil war in Congo, sanctions against Burundi and
political violence in the Comoros.

@ NER-APPOINT

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

MINERALS AND ENERGY OFFICIALS TO HELP WITH NER MANAGEMENT

The Department of Minerals and Energy on Monday appointed three
of its staff members to the National Electricity Regulator as an
emergency measure after the suspension of two senior management
members.

The general manager of corporate affairs Gail Mlokoti and
general manager for legal services Mvuyo Ndziba were suspended on
Friday.

The NER's chief executive officer Magate Sekonya and general
manager of finance Terrence Naidoo resigned in November. Both will
leave the regulator on December 31.

Minerals and Energy acting deputy director-general Smunda
Mokoena on Monday said the suspension of Mlokoti and Ndziba left
the NER with a limited management capacity.

In order to assist in the running of the NER a team led by the
the department's chief director for energy demand, Senti Thobejane,
was seconded to the regulator.

Thobejane will be acting as chief executive officer of the NER
from January 1.

The other two staff members who will start at the NER with
immediate effect are Dr Wolsey Barnard and Ria Govender.

Mokoena said these secondments would provide close monitoring,
guidance and management of the NER until a new management was
appointed.

The resignation of Sekonya and Naidoo on November 19 followed
reports of tension between the NER board and management and the
departure of most of the regulator's white management staff.

Mlokoti was suspended and charged with allegedly appointing
Ndziba as a senior financial analyst at a higher salary than other
analysts.

She was also charged with allegedly awarding staff members
higher salary increases than approved by the board.

Ndziba was suspended for allegedly bringing the NER into
disrepute and threatening on television to sue its board.

The NER was formed in 1995 to issue licences for the
generation, distribution and provision of electricity. It also
advises Minerals and Energy Minister Dr Penuell Maduna about
matters related to the industry.

@ TRAFFIC-NPROV

PIETERSBURGa December 14 1998 Sapa

600 TRAFFIC COPS TO BE DEPLOYED FOR FESTIVE SEASON IN NPROV

The Northern Province transport department would use more than
600 traffic officers on the roads for the festive period, said MEC
Aaron Motsoaledi at the opening of the Capricorn toll plaza on
Monday.

The department had allocated R2 million towards overtime pay,
ensuring that teams of officers kept motorists under 24-hour
surveillance, he said.

Apart from breathalyser tests, officers would pay particular
attention to speeding, using new equipment. Motsoaledi said people
seemed to ignore warnings despite a concerted publicity campaign,
and the time had come for drastic action.

The new plaza is on the N1 between Pietersburg and Louis
Trichardt.

@ LOCAL-ACCOUNTS

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

NEW ACCOUNTING STATEMENTS FOR MUNICIPALITIES APPROVED

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has approved the introduction of
new municipal accounting statements which would improve
accountability and transparency, it was announced on Monday.

These statements - provisionally referred to as Generally
Accepted Municipal Accounting Practice (GAMAP) - would be
introduced through legislation as required by Section 216(1) of the
Constitution, Finance Department spokesman Roland White said in a
statement.

The new system was developed in consultation with key
role-players in the local government arena and would apply to all
municipal bodies, White said.

The GAMAP was being introduced to overcome shortcomings
experienced with existing municipal accounting practices, which
were complex and based on the different provincial ordinances.

Financial statements of municipalities tended not to accurately
portray their financial position, thereby creating a barrier to the
accessing of external loans and other finance to fund much-needed
development.

Furthermore, the current system compromised the constitutional
obligation of national and provincial government to monitor the
financial position of municipalities, White said.

He said the introduction of the GAMAP would allow for more
relevant and detailed disclosures.

The most significant change would relate to the accounting
treatment of fixed assets, which are currently recorded in
accounting records and financial statements at their original
purchase price.

In terms of the GAMAP, fixed assets will now be depreciated in
financial statements.

The true cost of service provision will be reflected by
eliminating the need to disclose internal transactions in financial
statements and preventing the expensing of loan repayments.

White said the introduction of the GAMAP would also ensure that
there was consistency in the accounting treatment of transactions
and classification of account balances.

Municipalities will now need to focus specifically on cash flow
budgeting to ensure that sufficient cash will be generated to
finance operating and capital expenditure.

Attention will also need to be given to the management of
working capital, as detailed disclosure will now be required in the
financial statements.

White said the GAMAP would allow comparisons between
similar-sized municipal bodies on a national basis. It would also
enable users of financial statements to make more accurate
assessments of risks and returns.

The GAMAP is primarily based on International Accounting
Standards as well as South African Generally Accepted Accounting
Practices, adjusted where necessary to take into account the
attributes unique to municipalities.

@ JUSTICE-PHONETAPS

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

PHONE BUGGING ONLY FOR INVESTIGATING SERIOUS CRIMES: PROPOSAL

The SA Law Commission on Monday proposed that permission for
bugging private phones be given only to police officers
investigating serious offences and threats to state security.

A discussion document containing this and other proposals on
telecommunication services was presented to Justice Minister Dullah
Omar in Pretoria on Monday.

Omar said bugging of conversations would be allowed only to
investigate serious crimes. "I am against the monitoring and
interception of normal and legitimate political activities," he
said.

Commission researcher Pierre van Wyk said Omar considered the
proposed amendments to the Monitoring Prohibition Act to be urgent,
and wanted them to be passed before next year's election.

The law commission also recommended:

- Telephone service providers must ensure all communications
are interceptable;

- Judges must be designated to consider applications for the
monitoring of discussions;

- Private investigators should not be granted permission to
bug telephones, and

- People illegally intercepting conversations may be liable to
a fine of R20,000 or a jail term of two years.

Omar received four other documents by the commission dealing
with international commercial arbitration, customary marriages,
juvenile justice and proposed legislation enabling a group of
applicants to bring a single case before a court.

The commission proposed that South Africa's arbitration laws be
brought in line with international norms as existing legislation
did not provide for international arbitration.

On customary marriages, the commission said these should be
recognised under common law and customary marriages should also be
converted to civil status.

The document on juvenile justice proposed that minors accused
of less serious offences be allowed to pay their debts to society
without getting a criminal record.

"The proposed system does however provide for the criminal
prosecution of children who are accused of serious or violent
crimes, as well as those who repeatedly commit offences," the
report said.

The recommendations included changes to the legal
representation of children, and an extended range of sentencing
options available to a proposed specialised child justice court.

In the fourth report the commission said a group of individuals
with the same or similar claims or defences should be allowed to
present a single case to court.

@ RECONCILIATION-AFRIKANERS

PRETORIA December 14 1998 Sapa

FF AND CP CALL ON AFRIKANERS TO CELEBRATE THE DAY OF THE VOW

The Freedom Front and the Conservative Party on Monday called
on all Afrikaners to celebrate the Day of the Vow on Wednesday,
which is now known as the Day of Reconciliation.

In statements in Pretoria, the parties urged Afrikaners not to
forget their cultural and religious heritage.

FF leader Constand Viljoen said the day presented an
opportunity for Afrikaners, despite their political differences, to
commemorate their history.

CP spokesman Pieter Aucamp said the day should be spent
thanking God for intervening on the Boers' behalf in the battle of
Blood River.

@ COURT-BOESAK

CAPE TOWN December 14 1998 Sapa

NO EVIDENCE THAT BOESAK STOLE FROM FOUNDATION: COUNSEL

There was not a shred of evidence that Allan Boesak acted
fraudulently or stole money from the Foundation for Peace and
Justice, it was contended at his trial in the Cape High Court on
Monday.

Boesak's defence team launched an application for his discharge
on 32 counts of fraud and theft involving R9 million, of which he
is alleged to have taken R1,1 million for himself.

By the end of Monday's proceedings Mike Maritz, SC, leading the
defence, had dealt with 16 of the 32 counts.

He asked the court to dismiss the State's main witness, FPJ
bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp, as a dishonest, mendacious,
completely unreliable witness.

Maritz referred to Steenkamp's wife, Amanda, who also testified
at the trial, as equally mendacious.

Maritz told the court the test was whether there was any
evidence on which a reasonable person would convict Boesak.

Concerning the first three counts involving a Coca Cola
Foundation grant, Maritz said the missing R140,000 was stolen by
Steenkamp, not Boesak.

Maritz contended that Boesak was entitled to retain one third
of a grant by pop star Paul Simon for his travelling and other
expenses.

Counts six and seven concerned the alleged fraudulent transfer
of R447000 from the FPJ's children's trust, either by Steenkamp or
his predecessor, bookkeeper Lucille Fester, but there was no
evidence to incriminate Boesak, who was unaware of the transaction,
Maritz contended.

Counts eight and nine involved grants by the Swedish NGO Sida
for a pre-election audio-visual project to educate the
disadvantaged, which were instead used to set up a studio for
Boesak's wife Elna.

Maritz said the use of these funds for other purposes was
perhaps a breach of contract, but it could not be equated to fraud.

There was not a shred of evidence that any portion of this
money was misapproriated, he said.

Counts ten to 16 related to false year-end financial
statements, some of which Boesak signed.

The fact that Boesak was legally responsible for what he signed
did not mean he was aware that the contents of the statements were
false.

The hearing continues on Tuesday.

@ LESOTHO-IPA

MASERU December 14 1998 Sapa

LESOTHO'S INTERIM POLITICAL AUTHORITY HAS FIRST SITTING

Lesotho's Interim Political Authority, mandated to prepare for
fresh elections in that country, held its first meeting in Maseru
on Monday.

IPA co-chairwoman Kauhelo Raditapole said in an interview that
discussions were held in a "warm and friendly spirit".

She said the meeting agreed on procedures to be adopted in
running the affairs of the authority.

They meeting also discussed the appointment of staff for the
IPA.

Raditapole said since there were only four political parties
involved in the initial talks with the negotiating team of the
Southern African Development Community, the rest of the IPA's
members were briefed on its role and objectives.

The meeting adjourned until Tuesday.

@ COURT-NZO

DURBAN December 14 1998 Sapa

NZO DENIES ASSAULT OF MAN CLAIMING DAMAGES FROM ANC

Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo on Monday denied that while
secretary-general of the ANC in the 1980s he took part in an
assault on Muzi Lombo, and kicked him three times on the head.

"This whole incident is a figment of his imagination," he
told a Durban High Court judge who is considering a R2,3 million
claim by Lombo against the African National Congress and SA
Communist Party for pain and suffering he says he endured while
detained at various camps outside South Africa.

Lombo has testified that while detained at Quatro in Angola as
a suspected South African spy, Nzo, Chris Hani and Joe Modise
forced him to dig his own grave. Hani, former SACP general
secretary, was assassinated in 1993. Modise is Minister of Defence.

Lombo said Nzo kicked him three times on the head and told him
that he must tell the truth.

Nzo said: "I never visited Quatro... none of this happened at
all."

He said his duties as secretary-general of the organisation
were to co-ordinate the efforts of the ANC internationally.

He had nothing to do with the camps, and had seen Lombo for the
first time ever in court on Monday.

Under cross-examination by Lombo's counsel, Pat Jeffreys, he
initially denied that, as a member of the ANC national executive
committee at that time, he had heard reports or rumours of
continuing abuses at the camps.

Later he said he had been referring to reports of specific
cases of abuses.

He said the ANC had been "aware of these things, that's why we
set up the commissions (of inquiry)".

He said he was aware that sometimes there had been shortages of
food in the camps, but that there had never been a deliberate
attempt to starve prisoners.

He agreed with Judge Hurt's comment that what happened on the
ground was not in his knowledge and he might not have known if a
guard decided not to give a prisoner food for a week.

The hearing continues.

@ COURT-MTOBA

EAST LONDON December 14 1998 Sapa

EAST LONDON SAFETY DIRECTOR FIRED FOR DRUNKEN DRIVING

The new municipal director of public safety in East London was
arrested on charges of drunken driving after he was fired for being
in possession of a fake driver's licence.

Tsepo Mtoba, 40, was arrested for drunk driving on Sunday and
locked up for the night.

It was revealed on Monday that Mtoba was dismissed from his job
on Friday after being found with a fake driver's licence.

The University of Cape Town graduate took up his position in
charge of the municipal traffic, fire and police departments on
November 2, and was arrested the following weekend on the Qumza
highway, allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.

The following day he failed to appear in court and a summons
for his arrest was issued by Magistrate Elmarie Potgieter. He
appeared the day after and claimed he was not told that he had to
attend court, though a bail receipt given to him after his arrest
clearly said so.

A few days later it was revealed he had a fake driver's
licence, which was discovered when he applied for a R200000
municipal car subsidy. An internal inquiry was begun and Mtoba was
suspended on full pay.

On Monday town clerk Dave Ongley released a short statement
saying the inquiry found Mtoba guilty of the charges laid against
him. He was dismissed with immediate effect.

Police said Mtoba was arrested on the esplanade before dawn on
Sunday. He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol
and detained until Monday morning, when he appeared in court.

He was released on R500 bail and ordered to appear again on
February 12. Attempts to contact Mtoba for comment were
unsuccessful.

@ ANGOLA-AMNESTY

LONDON December 14 1998 Sapa-DPA

AMNESTY CAUTIONS ANGOLAN FORCES AS FIGHTING FLARES

Amnesty International on Monday warned government
and rebel forces in Angola to spare the civilian population in the
renewed flareup of fighting in the southern-western African country.

Amid an escalation of fighting in several parts of the country
Amnesty called on the government and UNITA forces to "forbid
deliberate and arbitrary killings of unarmed people".

The London-based human rights organisation cited reports that
UNITA had surrounded the city of Kuito and was attacking the airport
with heavy weapons, putting in danger the lives of unarmed civilians,
inluding many children, who had thronged the airport awaiting
evacuation.

The latest fighting had created new waves of internally displaced
people with some 90,000 people from near the village of Chinguar
reportedly fleeing to besieged Kuito.

Noting that human rights abuses have been routine in Angola in
past situations of tension or armed attacks, Amnesty also warned that
the torture and killing of prisoners are war crimes under the Geneva
Conventions.

@ ANC TO ASK MOOSA TO TEST PROVINCIAL PROCLAMATION

Issued by: African National Congress

Monday 14 January 1998

The ANC Western Cape has called on Minister Valli Moosa to apply
for a declaratory order in regard to the provincial proclamation
which validates all decisions taken by the illegally constituted
District Councils since 1 July 1997.

ANC leader Ebrahim Rasool has expressed his displeasure that
Patrick McKenzie has reneged on his public commitment on television
at a joint press conference with the ANC that all decisions taken
would be placed before the new councils. He has also broken his
promise that he would ensure concurrence with Valli Moosa.

Background

The MEC for Local Government Mr Patrick Mckenzie was ordered by
the Appeal Court on 28 October 1998 to restructure the seven
district councils in the Western Cape.

The Western Cpe was the only province which had refused to
follow national legislation which provided that all district
Councils in South Africa should be restructured according to
proportional representation based on the size of the council from 1
July 1997.

The Western Cape model gave excessive representation to farmers
and undermined the bigger rural towns which are known ANC
strongholds.

This intransigence compelled Minister Moosa to approach the
High Court. The High Court ruled in favour of Minister Moosa on 1
July 1998. The NP appealed. The application for leave to appeal was
dismissed with costs, Minister McKenzie then petitioned Chief
Justice Mohammed.

This petition was also dismissed with costs.

An amount in excess of R1 million of provincial taxpayers money
has been wasted by the NP's futile attempt to block transformation
of rural local government in the Western Cape. They have wasted R1
million to pursue party political interests aimed at undermining ANC
representation on the DC's.

Proclamation 52 seeks to validate illegal decisions and
allowances

The proclamation (52 of 11 December 1998) which was published
today provides that all DC's must be restructured by 31 January 1999
as per the court order.

However, it also seeks to validate all decisions taken by the
illegally constitute councils and also condone allowances paid to
councillors who attended the meetings of the illegal councils. It is
clear that Minister Moosa did not concur with these provisions and
the lack of concurrence places the validity of the entire
proclamation into question.

Commenting on the issues Mr Ebrahim Rasool said:

"Minister McKenzie's duplicity is astounding. We agreed in front
of the TV camera's that all decisions would be placed before the new
councils and that a political process be put in place to isolate
problematic decisions.

"He also agreed that he needed the concurrence of Minister
Moosa. Now we see gerrymandering of the worst kind. His actions once
against add to instability in rural local government. Instead of
simply abiding by the court order, he has once again succumbed to
pressure from a small clique of farmers.

"While we welcome the provisions of the proclamation which will
ensure more democratic district councils by 31 January 1999, we will
not allow NP gerrymandering to go unchallenged.

"The ANC is ready for restructuring and will assist the process.
We salute Minister Valli Moosa for his efforts which have managed to
thwart NP attempts to block the transformation of rural local
government.

"By seeking to validate all decisions taken since 1 July 1997,
the NP seeks to legitimize decisions which in many instances have
simply catered for the interests of certain farmers and ignored the
needs of the rural poor.

"We have seen appointments made which had no regard for
affirmative action.

"We have seen consultants appointed at exorbitant rates and we
have seen budget resources directed mainly to privileged farmers.
In fact the District Council's have essentially ignored the
transformation process for four years. The NP under Peter Marais and
Patrick McKenzie have done nothing to force these islands of
apartheid to change.

"There is not one Chief Executive officer of colour, not a
single Coloured or African official in payclass one or two in the
entire province, and only three coloured officials in pay classes
three and four. It is this shocking state of affairs that the NP
seeks to defend.

"By failing to concur with Valli Moosa the NP is creating the
potential for crisis and further legal challenges.

"We have thus called on Minister Valli Moosa to obtain a
declaratory order from the Cape High Court on the validity of the
proclamation.

"In the meantime we have called on all ANC councillors in the 95
transitional local councils and the 27 transitional representative
councils, to take part in the nomination of councillors to the new
district councils.

"It is clear that the ANC's representation will increase
dramatically in at least 6 of the councils allowing our reps to
champion the interests of the rural poor in general and farm workers
in particular. We know that some farmers will object but trust that
the majority will accept the need for change." added Mr Rasool.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape. Further details contact Cameron
Dugmore on 082 894 7553.

@ COURT-NP

JOHANNESBURG December 14 1998 Sapa

NP SUPPORTS PROSECUTORS' STRIKE

The protest action of prosecutors was understandable and fully
justified in light of their many grievances resulting from empty
promises and hollow reassurances, NP spokeswoman Sheila Camerer
said on Monday.

Justice Minister Omar was being cynical and "foolishly
off-hand" in his treatment of hard-pressed prosecutors, she said.

Prosecutors were promised a long-awaited 30 percent increase
before Christmas, but this had been just an empty gesture by Omar
and Bulelani Ngcuka, National Director of Prosecutors, she said.

"The New NP demands that Minister Omar should stop stringing
along the country's prosecutors to the detriment of the criminal
justice system," Camerer said.

For some time skilled and experienced prosecutors had been
leaving the department in droves, with the result that the average
experience of a prosecutor was now apparently only three months.
Many courts were not operational because they were short-staffed.

Camerer said this problem was recently compounded when
prosecutors started working to rule and doing their preparatory
work in court time because overtime pay had been cancelled by Omar.

"As a result courts are starting late and limping along with
backlogs growing to the extent that, in centres like Johannesburg,
a case cannot be set down now until April next year."

@ ANC COMMENTS ON LATEST NP DEFECTIONS

Issued by: African National Congress

Monday 14 January 1998

Commenting on the defection of NP MPL Henry Cupido to the DP,
ANC Chief Whip Roseberry Sonto said: "It is clear that there are
deep divisions within the NP caucus in the provincial legislature.

"It seems that Henry Cupido was punished for being part of the
Roelf Meyer-led team looking at the future of the NP. His position
on the NP list effectively ousted him from the NP.

"We have noticed deep divisions between the pro-Peter Marais and
the pro-Niel Barnard/Gerald Morkel factions. We have also seen open
rebellion between the NP's coloured caucus and the white broederbond
clique within the NP.

"Every day we witness open divisions in the NP caucus. when
individual NP members try and enlist the help of the ANC to fight
internal battles, you must appreciate the depth of the crisis.

"These divisions will now even affect the Cupido family.
Pauline Cupido is high up on the NP's national list while her
husband Henry has now left for the DP.

"The NP is a sinking ship with the sailors deserting one by one.

"We would not be surprised if women begin to leave the NP as
they have included only one woman in the first twelve on the
provincial list."

ANC leader Ebrahim Rasool added:

"The decision by Mr Cupido and others to join the DP raises
interesting questions about the size of the DP's bank balance.

"These defection mean that they lose their seats in parliament.
Either the DP has promised them places on the list or offered to
bank roll them. The DP should come clean and tell the public what
their going rate is.

"It is clear that they are desperate to show some colour in the
DP and are prepared to pay for it.

"The DP's rightward shift has firmly located them as the
champions of white privilege. The adding of some colour to the DP is
simply window dressing.

"We know that the majority of Coloured and African people see
the DP for what they are."

"Increasing numbers of white DP supporters from the PFP
tradition are also growing uncomfortable with the DP's alliance with
the NP in the Western Cape."

Issued by the ANC. Further details contact Cameron Dugmore on
082 894 7553.

@ ANGOLA-DIAMOND

LISBON December 14 1998 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN REBELS GAINED FROM LAX POLICING OF DIAMONDS: REPORT

Several countries and companies have failed to comply with U.N.
sanctions against Angolan rebels, allowing UNITA to use diamond
sales to finance a renewed civil war, according to a report being
released Tuesday.

The report, by Global Witness, a London-based human rights
organization, also faulted the United Nations for failing to ensure
that U.N. members bought only Angolan diamonds with a certificate
of origin issued by the Angolan government.

"The failure of the U.N. member states and the diamond
industry to fully implement the embargo has meant that UNITA has
been able to restock munitions and supplies, and this has fatally
undermined the peace process," the report said.

The U.N. Security Council approved the diamond ban in July in
an effort to cut the rebels' main source of revenue and pressure
the group into complying with a 1994 peace accord. UNITA's foreign
bank accounts were also frozen and members were banned from
traveling abroad.

UNITA earned an estimated dlrs 3.7 billion between 1992 and
1998, according to the report.

Belgium, a major world diamond center, had been particularly
lax in implementing the U.N. embargo, the report said.

Diamond giant De Beers was also called on to clarify how it
identifies the origin of diamonds handled by its Central Selling
Organization.

A De Beers spokesman denied the company had broken the ban on
trading in non-official Angolan diamonds.

"De Beers, since the U.N. mandate is in place, has not bought
diamonds exported from Angola without a government certificate of
origin," Andrew Lamont said by phone from London.

UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola - fought a two-decade civil war
against the government following the country's 1975 independence
from Portugal.

Several attempts at establishing a lasting peace between the
two sides had already failed before the 1994 U.N.-brokered pact
apparently collapsed Dec. 4, following a government offensive
against UNITA's central highland strongholds.

@ UN-ANGOLA

UNITED NATION December 14 1998 Sapa-AFP

UN REVIEW OF PRESENCE IN ANGOLA INEVITABLE: ANNAN

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Monday said he believed
the world body should rethink its presence in war-torn Angola.

"We are going to have to make a complete revision in our
operation in Angola," Annan told a press conference.

As to the renewal of fighting between government troops and
rebels loyal to Jonas Savimbi, Annan stressed that the "United
Nations cannot do anything major."

"We do not have many people on the ground, we must regroup our
peacekeeping force for its own security," Annan said, speaking in
French.

The United Nations, which has been supervising the enforcement
of the 1994 Lusaka peace accords, is no longer able to protect the
security of its thousand observers, most of whom have been recalled
to big towns and the capital, Luanda.

"Soon, the (Security) Council will have to decide if the UN has
a role to play or not, if we can keep contact with all the sides,"
Annan said.

The Angolan government has prevented all direct contact between
the United Nations and Savimbi, the head of the National Union for
Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and no longer recognizes the
group.

UNITA has refused for months to return its areas of control to
the government and to demobilize all its forces.

The government recently launched offensives to retake UNITA
strongholds in the center of the country.

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

THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER 1998

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message to 'list...@wn.apc.org'. In the body of your message put
'unsubscribe ancnews'.

@ SA'S PARTICIPATION AT OAU MEETING IN BURKINA FASO

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad will lead the South African
delegation to the Organisation of African Unity's (OAU) Ministerial
meeting of the extended Central Organ Mechanism for Conflict
Prevention, Management and Resolution in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
on 16 December 1998. This will be followed by a meeting of the Heads
of State on 17-18 December 1998, when Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
will lead the South African delegation. The crises in the DRC,
Comoros, Angola and the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia
will be on the agenda.

Before departing for the meeting today, Deputy Minister Pahad
said that South Africa was very concerned about the deterioration in
the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that it
remained committed to promoting a negotiated solution to the crisis.
He added that South Africa would assist the Central Organ to add
impetus to the Lusaka process to ensure the implementation of a
ceasefire without any further delay. The meeting will also discuss
ways of addressing the security problems on the Comoran island of
Anjouan, and to this end, will consider the proposals made by the
South African-lead OAU fact-finding mission to the archipelago last
week.

The deterioration in the situation in Angola, and especially the
renewed heavy fighting in Huambo and Bie provinces will also be
discussed. Deputy Minister Pahad reiterated the South African
Government's position that every effort should be made to convince
the parties that there could be no military solution to the
conflict. The only option remained a steadfast commitment to a
negotiated settlement. Deputy Minister Pahad again called on Unita
to implement fully the provisions of the Lusaka Protocol.

The four nation committee of, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and
Djibouti, which was mandated by the OAU to seek an resolution to the
Eritrean and Ethiopian border dispute, will table its latest
poposals for consideration by the OAU meeting.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA

15 DECEMBER 1998

@ SA'S PARTICIPATION AT OAU MEETING IN BURKINA FASO

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA

15 DECEMBER 1998

@ VICTIMS OF SDU VIOLENCE TO CONTACT TRC OFFICES

Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission

14 December 1998

The Amnesty Committee is appealing to family victims of SDU
violence in Thokoza and Katlehong to contact its TRC offices in
Johannesburg. The committee is specifically looking for victims at
Mandela Section, Thambo/Slovo (Phenduka) Section, Sisulu Section and
Mlangeni Section for acts committed between 1990 and 1994.

The committee is looking for those victims or family members of
victims for the following incidents:

Steven Radebe: killed near Mkhathizwe ground, December 1993. He
was in IFP member. Bheki Khanyile: killed between Maphanzela and
Mkhathizwe ground near Sabi Street. He was an IFP member. Pinpin
Ramaise Kopano: killed on Mdakane Street Thokoza in July 1993. He
was a student at Maphanzela School. Nokuthula Mbhele: killed at
Nhlapo Street in Thokoza. Glenn Thompson: killed at Dawn Park on
October 30, 1992. Jabu Ube: killed at Lusaka A Circle No. 3 near
Thaba Thaba Shop, no date given.

The committee is calling on victims of SDU violence in the
Phenduka section, Thokoza between 1993 and 1994.

It is also calling on victims, Ngobeni Mavuso and Tshabalala
whose shacks were burnt at Kubheka and Mdakane Street in 1992 to
come forward. It is also calling on the family of Cri Mangoso who
was killed at Mdakane Street in 1993 and the family of Mr. Ngubane
who was killed at 2190 Xaba Street in September 1993. Also of Moses,
no surname given, who was killed at 492 Extension 2.

The committee is also looking for a teacher who was victimised
at Mkhathizwe School on July 3, 1993.

Families of a member of a Kwazulu policeman known as Mr. Khumalo
who was killed between the month of June and September 1993 at a
house No. A33 Mazibuko Street or between Lekwane and Schoeman Road
should come forward.

Owners of former residents of shacks at A18 and A21 Lekwane
Street, Church Yard and Masende Street and A9 and A8 Mazibuko Street
on September 25, 1993 should come forward.

And lastly, families of Albert Mafulela should contact the TRC
office in Johannesburg regarding an amnesty application in relation
to the burning of his house at A4 Mazibuko Street on October 5,
1993.

Families should contact Sally Sealy or George Ndlozi at 011- 331
1471 or fax on 011 - 331 1109.

@ CHINA-SA

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

CHINA DONATES US10 MILLION TO SOUTH AFRICA FOR HOUSING

China on Tuesday donated US10 million to South Africa for the
construction of a low-cost housing project in the
Edenvale/Modderfontein area on the East Rand.

Finance Deputy Minister Gill Marcus said in Pretoria the
donation formed part of a US25 million grant from China.

"The other US15 million will be used for water supply
facilities in community water projects," she said.

Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Wang Xuexian, said the
agreement details for the water projects were still been discussed
with Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal.

"Hopefully an agreement on the water projects will be reached
no later than February next year," he said.

Marcus said the money would be used to alleviate poverty in the
poorer areas of South Africa.

"The grant is a token of friendship from China to South
Africa," Xuexian said.

He said two-way trade between China and South Africa amounted
to US1.6 billion last year, and hoped it would reach US1.8 billion
this year.

An agreement on the US10 million donation was signed by Marcus
and Xuexian.

@ OAU-SA

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

AFRICAN CRISES TO BE DISCUSSED AT OAU MEETING THIS WEEK

The crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Comores and
Angola will be discussed at a meeting of the Organisation of
African Unity's central organ for conflict resolution this week,
the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad will lead a
delegation to the OAU's ministerial meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso, on Wednesday, while Deputy President Thabo Mbeki will attend
the heads of state meeting over the following two days.

Before departing, Pahad expressed South Africa's concern over
the deteriorating situation in the DRC and said South Africa
remained committed to a negotiated settlement, the Department said
in a statement in Pretoria.

South Africa would assist the central organ to add impetus to
efforts to ensure a ceasefire in the DRC was achieved without
further delay, Pahad said.

Delegates to the meeting will also discuss ways to address the
security problems in the Comores island of Anjouan. To this end,
they will consider proposals made by the South African-led OAU
fact-finding mission to Anjouan last week.

The deteriorating situation in Angola, especially renewed heavy
fighting between government forces and the Unita movement in the
Huambo and Bie provinces, will also be on the agenda.

Pahad reiterated South Africa's stance that every effort should
be made to convince the parties to the conflict that there could be
no military solution.

"The only option remains a steadfast commitment to a negotiated
settlement," said Foreign Affairs. "Deputy Minister Pahad again
called on Unita to iplemet fuly the provisions of the Lusaka
protocol."

A four-nation committee comprising Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe,
Rwanda and Djibouti, mandated by the OAU to seek a solution to the
border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia, will table its latest
proposals.

The OAU's central organ on conflict resolution comprises 16
member countries, but other countries affected by the conflicts
have been invited to attend this week's meeting.

@ PARTNERSHIP AGAINST AIDS

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

PARTNERSHIP AGAINST AIDS

Contact: Mr Mtholephi Mthimkhulu
Phone: (012) 312-0151/2
Cell: 082-574-5081
Fax: (012) 326-2891

The Partnership Against AIDS campaign, launched by the Deputy
President in October 1998, is starting to bear fruit. Testimony to
this is the ground breaking participation of various sectors in the
partnership initiative and the large number of AIDS awareness events
held during the week commemorating World AIDS Day.

The participation of the President, the Deputy President,
Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers responsible for different
portfolios, significantly increased the visibility of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic.

The business sector is implementing various programmes to raise
awareness about HIV/AIDS amongst their employees. Eskom has been
awarded the first Global business Council on AIDS' award for
excellency in the area of workplace AIDS programmes.

Trade unions launched and HIV/AIDS programme on World AIDS Day.
More than 300 representatives from three federations - COSATU, NACTU
and FEDUSA - as well as the independent unions attended.

Participants at a recent trade union workshop for women in
Mpumalanga resolved to wear T-shirts with AIDS messages once a week
to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS at the work place and to
express their solidarity with colleagues who are infected.

In support of the "Partnership Against AIDS" campaign, to date
two thirds of all national government departments, have started
HIV/AIDS programmes for their employees. Departments also launched
the "Lift News" communications project. This is a special type of
newsletter displayed in lifts aimed at informing employees and
visitors to government departments about HIV/AIDS.

The Department of Education recently published, inn the
Government Gazette for public comment, South Africa's first draft
national policy on HIV/AIDS for pupils in public schools and
students and lecturers in higher education at training institutions.
The Department of Sport and Recreation together with various sports
codes, has developed a powerful position statement on HIV/AIDS
called "Play it Safe".

Celebrities from the arts and entertainment sector participated
in a number of high profile events to demonstrate their commitment
to be "Ambassadors Against AIDS".

At the first "World AIDS Day Partnership Festival" in Pretoria
involving government, the arts, media and labour, more than seven
thousand people took part in a unique programme of education and
entertainment despite strong rains.

The National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA)
has embarked on a "Disclosure and Acceptance Campaign". At a recent
meeting in Ladysmith more than one thousand people attended.

South Africa is gearing up to face the challenges presented by
the HIV/AIDS epidemic. There is much to celebrate, but the battle is
far from over.

@ AIDS

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

MOST OF 3,2 MILLION AIDS SUFFERERS OBLIVIOUS OF STATUS: DEPT

Many of the 3,2 million South Africans infected with HIV/Aids
were unaware they had the virus, and the biggest obstacle was to
raise awareness about the disease, Aids awareness campaigners said
on Tuesday.

Addressing a news conference in Johannesburg, Rose Smart of the
Department of Health said people had to accept that HIV virus/Aids
was an epidemic that would affect everyone and it had to be dealt
with effectively.

She said there had been an increase in the number of people who
disclosed their HIV virus/Aids status since the partnership against
Aids was launched by the government in October.

The "Disclosure and Acceptance Campaign" is steered by the
National Association of People living with HIV/Aids (Napwa).

Because of a lack of adequate services for counselling and
testing, many people were unaware they were HIV positive and were
unable to disclose their status.

Smart said there was no longer political denial from
politicians, who acknowledged that Aids was a reality - hence the
formation of an inter-ministerial committee by the Cabinet on Aids
and the launching of the partnership.

There was an increase in the number of calls from the Help-line of
callers seeking information on Aids and counselling services. There
was a 30 percent increase in calls in Gauteng; 30 percent increase
in the Free State; 50 percent increase in the Western Cape; and 50
percent increase in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mtholephi Mthimkulu, campaign manager on the government Aids
action plan, said the participation of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
and the Cabinet, as well as the involvement of the private sector,
had increased the visibility of the HIV/Aids epidemic.

Asked whether the partnership and the various programmes
against Aids were having an effect, Mthimkulu said although the
disease was deep-rooted, they were confident the campaign would
have a tremendous effect.

The news conference was also attended by Liz Thebe, of Eskom,
who announced Eskom was this year awarded the first London-based
Global Business Council on Aids' award for excellency in workplace
Aids programmes.

@ MINISTER TSHWETE SANBCC CONVENTION IN EAST LONDON

Issued by: The Ministry of Sport and Recreation

Minister Tshwete held a meeting with the Chairman of the SANBCC
to get a briefing on developments surrounding the recent Convention
held in East London, at the weekend.

The Minister wants to condemn in the strongest possible terms
the hooliganism that characterised the Convention and wishes to
appeal to licensees to address any concerns they might have in a
civilised manner. The Ministry will not and has never ignored
genuine concerns that licensees raise with its officials from time
to time, hence the appointment of the BTT. Such expressions of
frustration cannot be tolerated and will be treated with the
contempt it deserves in future.

The Ministry nevertheless does not intend to ignore the content
of the frustration expressed by licensees at the Convention.

In this regard, the minister presented a proposal that he
invited the Chairman of the SANBCC to discuss with his commissioners
by the 23 December 1998 whereafter a Ministry statement will be
released.

ISSUED BY:
DUMISANI ZULU
SPOKESPERSON FOR MINISTRY OF SPORT AND RECREATION.

CONTACT NO: 082-453-2244

@ ANGOLA-UN

LUANDA December 15 1998 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN GOVERNMENT BERATES UNITED NATIONS FOR RENEWED CIVIL WAR

A senior government official has condemned the United Nations
for failing to hold the rebel group UNITA to a U.N.-brokered 1994
peace deal that has now apparently collapsed amid renewed fighting.

Faustino Muteka, the Minister for Territorial Administration,
said late Monday that the U.N. observer mission in Angola, UNOMA,
had not acted on reports that UNITA was rearming in preparation for
the Dec. 4 resurgence of its conflict with the government.

"UNOMA is not doing anything here," Muteka told reporters.

The minister said he had sent "thousands of notes of protest"
to inform the mission that UNITA was not demobilizing its rebel
army as it had agreed to do in the 1994 deal.

"The (UNITA) men being demobilized were not soldiers, the
weapons handed over were obsolete, and UNITA was still training
troops and receiving new weaponry," Muteka said.

U.N. officials were not immediately available for comment.

The mission currently has fewer than 1,000 staff charged with
overseeing the remaining military provisions of the 1994 peace
agreement, as well as issues of policing, human rights,
humanitarian aid, public information and institutional development.

After the peace deal was signed, the United Nations deployed a
7,000-strong verification force in this vast southwest African
nation to monitor demobilization and disarmament.

But full implementation of the accord has been stymied by
lingering hostility between the foes who fought a two-decade civil
war after the country's 1975 independence from Portugal.

UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the

Total Independence of Angola - refused to hand over its central
highland strongholds to the government.

The army tried to take the towns by force earlier this month,
but met stronger resistance than expected from UNITA which has used
its revenue from illegal diamond mining to buy sophisticated new
weaponry, according to analysts.

The fighting has since spread through the central highlands.

@ COUNCIL-GORDHAN

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

FORMER TRANSPORT DIRECTOR-GENERAL APPOINTED AS JHB CITY MANAGER

Former Transport director-general Ketso Gordhan was on Tuesday
appointed as city manager by the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan
Council.

In a statement council spokesman Kenny Fihla said the decision
had the support of all political parties and was an important step
towards transformation and service delivery.

"The position requires an exceptional leader and there is a
general agreement that Ketso's skills are ideal to meet the
challenges of repositioning the Greater Johannesburg as a
financially sound and economically viable city," said Fihla.

He said the appointment would be linked to a performance
contract and would be initially for two years.

Gordhan was expected to take up the position early next year.

Fihla also announced that Northern Metropolitian Council of
Greater Johannesburg chief executive officer Pascal Moloi was
appointed as the transformation project manager.

@ DEFENCE-SANDU

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

SANDU LAUNCHES TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME FOR DEFENCE FORCE

The SA National Defence Union on Tuesday launched its own
transformation programme, saying the SA National Defence Force
management's restructuring process was purposeless and left
soldiers confused and demoralised.

"Management's aim is to reduce the number of soldiers by 20000
to 70000, but it has not yet told soldiers how it plans to do
this," Sandu general secretary Cor van Niekerk said in Pretoria.

"This lack of communication is slowing down the SANDF's
transformation and restructuring process because soldiers are
scared and uncertain and therefore resist it," he said.

Van Niekerk said the union had created its own transformation
drive in an attempt to ease soldiers' doubts about their future.

He said the programme was divided into three phases, with the
first phase, due to start in January, aimed at lifting the morale
of soldiers.

"There are going to be workshops addressing the resistance to
change, and morale building exercises specifically aimed to develop
a new patriotism around South Africa's role as a leading power in
Africa," Van Niekerk said.

Sandu would also set up labour relations structures to boost
communication between management and soldiers.

Van Niekerk said phase two would start only after an increase
in soldiers' morale had been achieved.

It would see the union negotiating with management on practical
issues such as retrenchment packages, and job evaluation for new
posts.

"Effective communication during this process is of the utmost
importance to ensure that the objectives of phase one are not
jeopardised," Van Niekerk said.

The third part of the programme would comprise a review of
successes achieved during the first two phases, and would be aimed
at preventing a slackening in discipline and morale.

Van Niekerk said Sandu would go ahead with its programme with
or without the support of SANDF management.

"We currently have 15000 members who have all approved the
programme. If management shows no support, this will slow down the
transformation process," he said.

SANDF spokesman Colonel John Rolt said it was the union's good
right to launch its own transformation programme, adding: "We take
note".

@ TRAFFIC

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

200 ARRESTED IN CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRINKING AND DRIVING AT
WEEKEND

Over 200 people were arrested at the weekend during the
Department of Transport's Arrive Alive campaign against drinking
and driving.

Department spokesman Perry Parirenyatwa in a statement in
Pretoria on Tuesday said drunken driving contributed towards about
60 percent of road fatalities.

He said the implementation of so-called booze buses were having
a noticeable effect on driving habits in KwaZulu-Natal and the
Western Cape, especially on major holiday routes.

The buses and 15 caravans were used in nine roadblocks in the
Western Cape during which 27 people were arrested for driving under
the infleunce of alcohol.

Nineteen people were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal, excluding
motorists nabbed in urban areas.

Apart from using the buses as bases at which to test blood
alcohol levels and as help centres, the high visibility of the
vehicles had a restraining effect on road users.

Nine booze buses were earlier introduced in KwaZulu-Natal and
one - supplemented by two smaller buses - in the Western Cape.

Countrywide, 155 evidentiary breatherlyser tests had been
provided.

Arrive Alive said it also focused on the abuse of alcohol by
pedestrians. Drunk pedestrians were probably the cause of 41
pedestrian fatalities last December.

In Pretoria, where 58 drivers were arrested over the weekend,
more than 100 pedestrians were arrested on the highways and in the
city for being under the influence of alcohol.

According to a study conducted in the Western Cape, 47 percent
of drivers killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration
higher than 0.08g/100ml of blood, while 73 percent of pedestrians
who died in crashes were over the legal alcohol limit.

A similar study conducted in Gauteng found about 70 percent of
all road crash victims admitted to hospital were under the
influence of alcohol.

Parirenyatwa said: "With the traffic volume having increased
from yesterday (Monday), we urge drivers not to drink and drive,
and to drive within the legal speed limit, considering the wet
weather conditions, or they will have to face the full might of the
law."

Motorists and pedestrians were warned of the following effects
that drinking had on traffic participation:

- Alcohol affects caution and concentration, making a drinker
over-confident and reckless;

- Alcohol affects sound judgment, making the drinker misjudge
speed and the distance of other vehicles;

- Alchol affects vision, leading to double vision, tunnel
vision, and night blindness, all of which make it impossible for a
driver to react to stimuli; and

- The effect of alcohol on a drinker's vision may not be
obvious to the driver or passengers, but can be quite staggering
even after a drink or two.

Parirenyatwa said a finding by the British Medical Research
Council indicated the score on a field of vision test fell 30
percent for a blood alcohol concentration of 0.55 percent.

@ INCIDENTS ON LESOTHO/SOUTH AFRICAN BORDER

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

The South African government is deeply concerned about cross
border incidents which led to the deaths of three people in the
Maluti district of the Eastern Cape Province on 12 December 1998.

In response to these incidents, the South African High
Commissioner to Lesotho, Japhet Ndlovu, this morning chaired a
meeting in Maseru which was attended by the acting Commissioner of
the Royal Lesotho Mounted Police, Brigadier J R Moiloa and the
Commander of the National Stock Theft Unit of the South African
Police Services, Superintendent Andries Oosthuizen.

Both sides expressed their concern at the continuation of cross
border incidents and undertook to form a joint operation to
investigate these latest killings.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA

15 DECEMBER 1998

@ TANZANIA-SAFRICA

DAR ES SALAAM, Dec 15, Sapa-AFP

SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE MINISTER ON VISIT TO TANZANIA

South African Trade Minister Alec Erwin has made a lightning
visit to Tanzania for talks on strengthening bilateral ties, the
trade ministry here said Tuesday.

Erwin held talks Monday with his Tanzanian counterpart Iddi
Simba and signed a memorandum of understanding on the promotion of
investments and trade, before flying home the same day, the
ministry said.

South Africa's investments in Tanzania have steadily increased
in the last few years in various sectors including agriculture,
mining, industry and finance.

Notable ventures are the Tanzania Breweries Ltd, whose shares
are worth about 236 million dollars, 50.5 percent owned by the
giant South African Breweries.

Other South African companies with interests in Tanzania are
the De Beers and Anglo-American mining conglomerates and Stanbic
Bank.

@ MANUEL-NGO

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

NGOS TO GET THEIR MONEY: MANUEL

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday said R50 million
which was allocated to non-government bodies in the 1998/99 budget
but which had been inaccessible for much of the yea, wuld be made
available as soon as possible.

The minister's spokesman, Logan Wort, said Manuel made the
undertaking during a meeting with representatives of the SA
Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition (Sangoco) in Pretoria
earlier in the day.

Wort said the money was due to be channelled to the National
Development Agency (NDA), whose appointment was approved by
Parliament earlier this year.

The new body, which would replace the Transitional National
Development Trust (TNDT), would only start its work early next
year.

"Minister Manuel told Sangoco today that the R50 million will
be given to the TNDT so that it can get to the NGOs," Wort said.
"This will be done as soon as the relevant legal documents have
been sorted out."

Manuel informed the coalition that applications had been
received for members of the board of the NDA, and that a selection
panel was being set up.

He also made an undertaking that the Katz Commission's report
on tax relating to NGOs would be released as soon as possible.

The report proposes tax exemption for all NGOs and for
businesses funding such organisations, Wort said.

Manuel told the Sangoco representatives that he would meet the
Archbishop of Cape Town and a delegation of the Anti-Poverty
Coalition on Thursday to discuss issues related to writing off of
South Africa's foreign and domestic debt.

A follow-up meeting of the Presidential Job Summit held in
October this year would be held on Thursday next week, where
discussions would be focus on the restructuring of the government's
pension fund, which was owed a large sum of money.

Wort said the former government borrowed money from the pension
fund, and this now formed part of the current government's domestic
debt obligations.

Also discussed on Tuesday was the possibility of NGOs
benefiting from South Africa's national lottery, he said.

@ MALAWI-ELECTION

BLANTYRE December 15 1998 Sapa-AFP

MALAWI GENERAL ELECTIONS SET FOR MAY 18

Malawi will hold general elections on May 18 subject to
presidential approval, an electoral official said Tuesday.

Electoral commissioner Arthur Nanthuru told AFP the date was
subject to approval by President Bakili Muluzi, who has yet to sign
legislation that was passed in parliament last month.

The law stipulates that elections will be held on the Tuesday
of the second week of May every five years.

"Legally elections are scheduled for May 18," Nanthuru said.

The vote will be the former British protectorate's second
multi-party elections since independence in 1963; the first were
held in May 1994.

The next polls are expected to cost 500 million kwacha (12
million dollars), partly funded by donors including the European
Union.

@ RECONCILIATION-NNP

CAPE TOWN Dec 16 Sapa

RECONCILIATION MAY BE AT RISK IN 1999 ELECTION DRIVE: NNP

The risk of 1999 was that reconciliation could disappear in the
heat of a confrontational election campaign, New National Party
leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Wednesday.

The task of political leaders would be to strike a balance
between healthy debate and the national interest, he said in a
statement.

He said 1998 was meant to be the year of great reconciliation,
with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as the major
instrument of reconciliation.

"Unfortunately, the TRC failed in bringing South Africans
closer together. As a matter of fact, South Africans are further
apart that before the start of the TRC's biased activities," Van
Schalkwyk said.

It was now necessary to ensure a proper process of
reconciliation. Basic elements for success included:

- the recognition that minorities needed to feel accommodated
as part of the process of unlocking their potential to the benefit
of all;

- a form of inclusive government making provision for the
country's broad range of interests; and

- changing the struggle culture of entitlement and
aggressiveness to one of empowerment and constructive
participation.

Hate speech by senior members of political parties did not
contribute to reconciliation.

"Reconciliation should not be a PR exercise reserved for one
day in a year - it must be a continuous process of which
responsible leaders of all parties are co-owners," Van Schalkwyk
said.

@ "NO TOLERANCE" IN ARRIVE ALIVE'S CAMPAIGN

TUESDAY, 15 DECEMBER, 1998

ARRIVE ALIVE' s campaign against drinking and driving campaign
is starting to hit road users with more than 200 people arrested
countrywide over the past weekend.

Alcohol, along with speed, is the major focus of the ARRIVE
ALIVE campaign as it is a contribution factor in approximately 60%
of all fatalities.

Booze buses, which are part of the national Department of
Transport's Arrive Alive campaign, are having a noticeable effect on
driving habits in KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape, especially
along the major holiday routes.

In the Western Cape, one big Booze Bus, two smaller ones and 15
caravans were used in nine roadblocks, during which they arrested 27
people in a single day for being under the influence.

According to KwaZulu Natal provincial traffic police spokesmen,
Booze Buses were instrumental in the arrest of 19 motorists for
driving under the influence of alcohol over the weekend. This does
not include the number of motorists arrested in urban centres, which
are reported separately.

A spokesman for the KwaZulu Natal Traffic Inspectorate says that
apart from their use for testing alcohol and help centres, the high
visibility of the Booze Buses have also been found to have a
restraining effect on road users.

"We have noticed a significant decline in the number of
detections and prosecutions of drunk drivers since the buses have
beenintroduced," the spokesperson said, even though we are testing
more people than ever before.

Nine Booze Buses have been introduced in KwaZulu Natal and one,
supplemented by two smaller ones, in the Western Cape. In addition,
the Department of Transport has provided 54 more caravans, which
operate as mobile offices to deal with perpetrators that have been
fined for offence at roadblocks, and 155 evidentiary breathalysers
nationwide.

KwaZulu Natal traffic police say the buses have been allocated
to the Durban metropolis, Southern natal, Northern Natal, the
Midlands and the Ulundi region.

The Arrive Alive campaign focuses on alcohol abuse by
pedestrians as well. Drunk pedestrians were probably the cause of
the 41 pedestrian fatalities during last December.

In Pretoria alone, where 58 drivers were arrested over the
weekend, police also arrested more than 100 pedestrians on the
highways and in the city for being under the influence of alcohol.

"For an inebriated pedestrian, the prognosis is poor. For the
unfortunate motorist, the consequences may be as grave. We intend to
continue with these arrests. Ons gaan hulle vasvat," a senior
traffic spokesman said.

A study conducted in the Western Cape showed that 47% of drivers
killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration higher than 0.08
gram per 100ml blood while 73% of pedestrians who died after crashes
were over the legal limit. A similar study conducted in Gauteng
found that about 70% of all road crash victims admitted to hospital
were under the influence of alcohol.

ARRIVE ALIVE sends a word of thanks to all those citizens who
have made it their duty to persuade their relatives and friends not
to drink and drive and from exceeding the speed limit.

"With the traffic volume having increased from yesterday, we
urge drivers not to drink ad drive and to drive within the legal
speed limit, considering the wet weather conditions, or they will
have to face the full might of the law", says Perry Parirenyatwa,
spokesperson for Arrive Alive.

"If a driver is breathalysed and found to be over the legal
limit, he or she can be taken off the road immediately. There is not
option of a fine, and he will be arrested on the spot, booked into a
police station and locked up until sober, and then be appropraitely
charged", says Parirenyatwa.

Motorists and pedestrians are warned of the following effects
that drinking has on traffic participation:

* Alcohol affects caution and concentration - it makes you
over-confident and reckless

* Alcohol affects sound judgement - it makes you misjudge speed
and the distance of other vehicles. Foolish decisions can lead to
diisastrous results.

* Alcohol affects vision - it leads to double vision, tunnel
vision, and night blindness, all of which makes it impossible for
you to react to stimuli

"The effect of alcohol on a person's vision may not be obvious
to the driver or passengers, but can be quite staggering, even after
a drink or two," Parirenyatwa said.

Research by the British Medical Research Council indicated that
the score on a field of vision test fell off 30% for a blood alcohol
concentration of 0.55%.

In fact as you drive faster, you reduce your visual field. At
50km/h, side vision is reduced by 25%. At 75km/h it is reduced by
50% and at 90km/h a driver is literally driving down a "vision
tunnel". Combine this with the effects of alcohol, and vision is
reduced even more.

Alcohol affects co-ordination, reaction and balance. Fatigue
combined with alcohol and/or drugs also aggravates the effect of
alcohol on vision.

REMEMBER: There is no way to sober up quickly, not even vast
quantities of black coffee, fresh air or cold showers will not do
the trick.

Up to date statistics of road fatalities are available from the
ARRIVE ALIVE Information Centre (012) 309 3669, which operates from
8am to 5pm daily or visit the ARRIVE ALIVE website on
www,transport,co.za

Issued on behalf of: National Department of Transport
Contact: Perry Parirenyatwa
Telephone: (012) 309 3810 or 082 809 0729

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

@ PAC-DYANI

CAPE TOWN December 15 1998 Sapa

PAC TO DECIDE IF HE RETURNS TO PARLIAMENT: DYANI

Pan Africanist Congress MP Malcolm Dyani on Tuesday flatly
rejected media speculation that he and fellow MP Gora Ebrahim were
on their way out of parliament and that the PAC leadership was
unhappy with their performance in parliament.

Dyani said the claims had been "cunningly contrived for the
media by some political scoundrel whose mischievous machinations
are hampered by the existence of Gora Ebrahim and myself in
parliament".

The PAC leadership had never appraised the performance of
individual MPs, and members of parliament had always been
collectively censured or praised, Dyani said.

"Any individual appraisal happens in gossip mongering. That
Gora Ebrahim and myself have caused our colleagues in the PAC to be
unhappy due to our performance is a malicious lie spawned by a
mouth of a dementedly jealous person."

It was entirely up to the PAC members' democratic will whether
he returned to parliament after next year's elections and he would
abide by the decision, Dyani said.

@ NAMIBIA-DROUGHT

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

WFP GIVES NAMIBIA DROUGHT RELIEF AID WORTH ABOUT US983000

An emergency drought relief operation worth an estimated
US983000 has been approved for Namibia by the World Food Programme,
the United Nations information unit announced in Johannesburg on
Tuesday.

WFP said the assistance would include prepared meals for 10000
children under the age of six at kindergartens and in primary
schools in drought-affected areas; school meals for a further 5000
primary school children; and food-for-work rations for 10,000 adults
and their dependents.

This was part of a joint UN poverty reduction programme in the
Onhangwena district bordering Angola.

"This emergency intervention aims to assist the government of
Namibia protect some of the most vulnerable members of the
population from hunger and malnutrition in rural areas affected by
drought," said WFP.

The drought was associated with the El Nino Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) climatic events.

The food aid would be distributed with the help of the
government.

WFP said both Namibia and southern Angola had been affected by
drought in the early months of 1998, which had wiped out crops and
left many rural households without means of subsistence.

Drought victims in southern Angola would receive aid under a
separate programme.

@ SAPS-TRAINEES

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

POLICE TRAINEES TO ALLEVIATE PERSONNEL SHORTAGE IN GAUTENG

The personnel shortage at Gauteng police stations would be
timeously alleviated by the first group of police students to
complete the initial six-month phase of training this week, Gauteng
MEC for safety and security, Paul Mashatile, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a reception for the constables in Johannesburg, he
told the new police members: "You are assuming a big responsibility
and challenge as custodians of our new democracy.

"We are in a new era in our country whereby everybody's rights
must be respected and protected, especially by the state.

On Thursday, the group will enter the second phase of field
training, and are to be deployed throughout Johannesburg and the
East Rand.

While police anti-crime strategies were intensified and some
violent crimes were on the decrease, efforts must be strengthened
until the fight against crime had been fully won, Mashatile said.

"Criminals are becoming more vicious, they are killing more
police officers and using more sophisticated ways of operating,"
said Mashatile.

But he said the SAPS' partnership with the private sector in
Johannesburg was starting to pay off. Closed-circuit TV cameras
would soon be installed in strategic parts of the central business
district as part of the joint venture in crime prevention.

The SAPS had also strengthened its co-ordination with the
criminal justice system, which was paying dividends.

"We believed that reducing the proliferation of illegal guns
will greatly reduce crime," Mashatile said.

Rape, child abuse and domestic violence statistics were
constantly increasing though.

"The government is now prioritising violence against women and
children, which was put on the agenda of the police for the first
time," Mashatile said.

He appealed to the new recruits to resist becoming corrupt,
saying that corruption in the SAPS undermined all attempts to
create a safe environment for all. The government was committed to
addressing, as a matter of urgency, the problems faced by SAPS
members, he said.

Gauteng police commissioner Sharma Maharaj called on the new
recruits to live up to the standards expected of them by the
public.

This group of 108 trainees was the first to complete their
initial training of 1200 recruited nationally out of over 600000
applicants, he said.

@ REGISTER-UPDATE

CAPE TOWN December 15 1998 Sapa

9,1 MILLION VOTERS REGISTERED SO FAR: IEC

The number of voter registrations processed by the Independent
Electoral Commission increased to 9120157 by 3.30pm on Tuesday, the
IEC said in a statement.

The corresponding figure on Monday was 8786636.

Officials are still collecting details of voters who took part

in the first round of registration at the end of November and the

beginning of December.

Latest figures supplied by the IEC indicate that so far 1307429
voters registered in the Eastern Cape, 705425 in the Free State,
2042290 in Gauteng, 1692777 in KwaZulu-Natal, 650022 in Mpumalanga,
210804 in the Northern Cape, 1068774 in the Northern Province,
693477 in the North-West Province, and 749159 in the Western Cape.

Voters will have a further chance to register in January and
February.

@ LAND-AIRPORT

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

JOHANNESBURG AIRPORT AMONG LAND CLAIMS

Among the expected 42000 land claims the Department of Land
Affairs expects to process after the December 31 cut-off date, are
claims for the land on which the Johannesburg International Airport
and the Reserve Bank in Pretoria were built, a departmental
spokesman said on Tuesday.

Speaking after a historic hearing which ordered the return of
part of the Kruger National Park to the Makuleke, Rajesh Jock said:
"There is a claim from people who say they were resettled to make
way for the airport."

"If the claim is for a built-up area people are usually happy
with alternative land and compensation. The outcome depends on
compensation received when they were resettled.

"A lot of people don't just want a piece of land, they want a
new start for their community."

Restitution of land rights was set in motion during the
multi-party negotations preceding the 1994 election. It aims to
compensate people who lost their land since the implementation of
the 1913 Land Act.

To qualify for a land claim, applicants have to prove they
lived on the land, either through documentation or through the
known history of a community.

Even people who were moved for the construction of a road are
entitled to apply, provided they can prove they were
under-compensated or not compensated at all.

Jock said the Makuleke claim was historic because it combined
restitution and tenure. The land was ordered to be returned to the
Makuleke but the community would remain at Ntlhaveni, where they
were resettled in 1969.

They would preserve the returned land for eco-tourism and the
profits would be used to develop Ntlhaveni.

@ NUCLEAR-HEALTH

PRETORIA December 15 1998 Sapa

HEALTH DEPARTMENT DENIES REPORT OF NUCLEAR DISASTER ALERT

The Health Department on Tuesday denied a newspaper report that
the world's second largest nuclear disaster could occur in South
Africa, saying it regretted that unnecessary panic had been
created.

"We do not have a situation comparable in the slightest degree
to Chernobyl or any other nuclear disaster elsewhere in the world,"
a departmental statement said.

The department confirmed that two power station workers from
Secunda in Mpumalanga were exposed to high doses of radiation and
were under medical supervision.

It denied, however, that more than 20 other people may have
been exposed, saying only three similar cases have been reported
since 1989, and legal action was instituted in all three cases.

The department said over-exposure to industrial radiography
sources could not be compared to accidents at nuclear
installations.

A Sunday newspaper reported that what could be the world's
second-largest nuclear disaster was quietly happening in South
Africa.

It quoted Professor John Sharpey-Schafer, director of the
National Accelerator Centre, a nuclear research facility in Faure
near Cape Town, as saying he had repeatedly urged the department to
investigate the mounting number of cases of people exposed to an
unacceptable level of radiation.

"We regard incidents such as these in the most serious light,"
the department said. "It is totally unacceptable that even a single
person is exposed to radiation levels that are higher than the
prescribed limits."

The department said its radiation control programme could be
compared to the best in the world.

All radiography activities were regulated, and the department
subscribed to dose limits recommended by the international
commission for radiological protection.

The department said all power station workers were issued with
personal dosage meters, and had to report on it every month. They
also carried meters of which the results had to be entered at the
end of each shift, and were obliged to carry "alarm dosimeters"
which alert the wearer when entering a high-radiation area.

"A comprehensive array of measures are in place to monitor,
amongst others, industrial radiography workers," the department
said.

"Despite all of this, one can never leave the human factor out
of the equations. Accidents and incidents can and will happen."

As part of its control programme, the department also inspected
institutions for compliance with the requirements.

In the case of an accident, prosecution is considered if there
was a reasonable chance to prove negligence.

The department said it was doing everything within its power to
improve the safety culture in the industrial radiography field. To
this end unannounced night inspections were planned.

"We are working together with various roleplayers to identify
persons who have been working in the industry for some time. Blood
samples of these workers will be taken and forwarded for biological
dosimetry determinations at the National Accelerator Centre."

The department said it agreed with Sharpey-Schafer that a wider
survey needed to be done.

@ OAU-SUMMIT

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia December 15 1998 Sapa-AP

AFRICAN SUMMIT TO DISCUSS CONFLICTS ON THE CONTINENT

African envoys will recommend sending a regional intervention
force to the island of Anjouan in the troubled Comoros archipelago
when African leaders meet later this week to discuss continental
conflicts, an OAU official said Tuesday.

The 16-nation Organization of African Unity central organ on
conflict prevention and resolution is to meet Thursday and Friday
in Ouagadougou, capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso.

An official at the Addis Ababa headquarters of the 53-nation
OAU, speaking on condition of anonymity, said civil conflicts in
the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of Congo and between
Ethiopia and Eritrea will top the agenda.

Renewed fighting Angola and Sierra Leone will also be
addressed.

During a stopover Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya on his way to the
summit, Comoros interim President Tadjidine ben Said Massounde said
he was confident the OAU would send a peacekeeping force to Anjouan
to save lives.

"I am certainly sure the OAU will take action to save lives in
Anjouan," he said.

The OAU official said a delegation sent last week to look into
clashes that erupted Dec. 6 on Anjouan was to submit its report to
the summit calling for the immediate dispatch of African
peacekeeping troops to the Indian Ocean island that broke away from
the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros last year.

There were reports that at least 40 people were killed in the
fighting between supporters of Anjouan's self-declared president,
Foundi Abdallah Ibrahim, and his former prime minister, Chamassi
Said Omar.

The summit is expected to call for a peaceful resolution of the
four-month rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has
drawn in troops from six African countries.

Rwanda and Uganda are backing rebels who have captured most
major towns in eastern Congo, while Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and
Chad have sent troops and equipment to bolster President Laurent
Kabila.

Kabila refuses to meet with the rebels, who he claims are
puppets of Rwanda and Uganda, indicating little likelihood that an
effective cease-fire will be signed in Ouagadougou.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have been locked in a border dispute since
May, when heavy fighting over disputed border regions left hundreds
dead. Although there has been no fighting reported since June, both
sides continue to mass troops along their common 1,000-kilometer
(620-mile) border.

Discussions of that conflict are expected to center on an
11-point OAU proposal accepted by Ethiopia; Eritrea rejects the
provision calling for the withdrawl of Eritrean troops from
disputed territory.

There were unconfirmed reports that U.S. special envoy Anthony
Lake, who has been shuttling between Addis Ababa and Asmara to
broker a settlement, would attend the summit.

@ DRCONGO-REBELS

KIGALI, December 15 1998 Sapa-AFP

REBELS CLAIM 47 ZIMBABWEANS KILLED AS MULTINATIONAL WAR RAGES
ON

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claimed
Tuesday to have killed 47 Zimbabwean soldiers in fierce battles in
the southeast pitting the insurgents and their allies against a
coalition of armed forces supporting President Laurent Kabila.

Rebel commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane, speaking to AFP by
satellite telephone from his eastern DRC stronghold of Goma, said
the Zimbabwean dead included two senior officers.

He put total losses on all sides in the battles at more than 85
dead in the past four days.

The Zimbabweans died in fighting around the rebel-held town of
Kabalo, in the north of mineral-rich Katanga province, he said.

"In Kabalo we have killed, according to initial estimates, 47
Zimbabwean soldiers, including two colonels. On our side, we had
one wounded," Ondekane said.

Around rebel-held Pweto, close to the Zambian border, the
insurgents killed 35 Rwandans and Burundians - Hutu militiamen
opposed to their Tutsi-dominated regimes and allied to the
government troops in the DRC - Ondekane said, adding that DRC
rebel casualties there included three dead and six lightly wounded.

The radio station of the Rwandan government, which has sent
troops to back the rebels, earlier named the Zimbabwean officers
reported killed as Colonel Alphonso Kufa and air force Lieutenant
Colonel Herbert Funi Fundhla.

It described Kufa as the overall Zimbabwean commander in the
DRC, but in Harare, a Zimbabwean officer told AFP that Kufa was a
contingent commander.

"His actual title is Teamof Operations Deputy," the officer
said, adding that the overall commander of the stimated 6,000
Zimbabwean troops in the DRC was Major General Amon Chimombe, based
in Kinshasa.

Zimbabwe admitted Monday that it had lost a combat helicopter
in heavy fighting to seize back control of Kabalo.

A Zimbabwean military spokesman in Kinshasa cited by the
pro-government daily The Herald in Harare on Monday said that
Zimbabwean, Angolan and Namibian contingents fighting on Kabila's
side had sustained casualties.

That spokesman did not give their numbers, and officers in
Harare questioned by AFP Tuesday said they had no details of any
casualties.

The spokesman in Kinshasa said more than 80 rebels had been
killed, but no independent confirmation was available of his
figures, or those given by Ondekane.

The fighting has drawn in government troops from Zimbabwe,
Angola, Namibia and Chad, fighting on Kabila's side, and from
Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi fighting alongside the rebels. Bujumbura
denies its troops are in the DRC.

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, head of the rebel Congolese Rally for
Democracy (RCD), told AFP on Monday that the rebel forces shot down
a Zimbabwean MiG fighter as well as the helicopter during the
weekend battles around Kabalo.

Ondekane declared that "the enemy are traumatised."

"The Zimbabweans don't want to fight any more," he said. "They
were sent here against their will, they're scared, and as a result
they no longer control anything.

But he said the DRC government troops were also demoralised,
"because Kabila has given orders to the Zimbabweans and Angolans to
shoot them when they withdraw."

Ondekane added that the rebels had wrested control from the
Zimbabweans of the village of Kitanda, 80 kilometres (50 miles)
southwest of Kabalo, on a road to the government-held diamond
centre of Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Kasai Oriental province.

Pweto is the rebels' closest position to Lubumbashi, the
capital of Katanga, Kabila's home province, and the DRC's second
biggest city.

In the north, Ondekane said, the "enemy" had abandoned the
Equateur province town of Lisala, on the Congo River, "but we don't
yet control it."

The insurgents were 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the east, at
Ebonda, he added.

Ondekane also said that around 1,000 Angolan troops had
returned with a lot of equipment to their own country, where the
Luanda government forces are facing renewed fighting by UNITA
rebels.

In Ouagadougou, meanwhile, Burkina Faso officials said Monday
that Kabila had agreed to attend a summit of the Organisation of
African Unity on Thursday and Friday which will discuss the crisis,
and that the rebels would also attend, but not take part in the
debates.

Ondekane said: "We are in a position of force on the ground, so
we have no fears about negotiating."

Kabila has consistently refused to negotiate with the rebels,
claiming they are merely backing the Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian
forces "invading" the DRC.

@ MCHUNU-NNP

JOHANNESBURG December 15 1998 Sapa

NNP SLAMS IEC CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER FOR "RACIST" COMMENTS

The New National Party on Tuesday called on the chief electoral
officer to retract what it termed "derogatory, racist statements"
made on Monday.

Chief electoral officer Mandla Mchunu on Monday said he was
concerned that the country's democratic processes "must always bend

to accommodate the few".

NNP media director Juli Kilian said in response: "These remarks
smack of racism and are completely unacceptable, particularly since
they were reportedly made by a person who is supposed to serve as
an impartial officer in a supposedly independent body."

In an interview with Sapa in Pretoria on Monday, Mchunu said

talk about the announcement of an election date, which would enable
people to plan where to register and vote, normally focused on the
concerns of the minority.

"We talk about exceptions and we talk about the minority
because people who go on holiday abroad are white people - people
who have got houses in Plettenberg Bay.

"I am quite concerned about the fact that our democratic
processes must always bend to accommodate the few. Democracy is
about majority."

Kilian said pronouncements like that could do irreparable harm
to the election process and could be regarded as an indictment of
its independent management.

Taxpayers were entitled to impartial and professional services
from independent institutions, such as the IEC.

She said South Africans of all races, denominations and income
groups had perfectly legitimate expectations from the IEC and other
state institutions to render a quality service.

"For both the registration process and the election to be a
success, a pragmatic and responsible approach by all stakeholders
- particularly high-ranking officials of the IEC - is therefore
necessary.

"Statements such as these are particularly unecessary on the
eve of Reconciliation Day," Kilian added.

@ COURT-BOESAK

CAPE TOWN December 15 1998 Sapa

BOESAK WOULD HAVE BEEN ACQUITTED IF CASE NOT SO POLITICISED

Public interest demanded Dr Allan Boesak's acquittal on theft
and fraud charges, it was contended in the Cape High Court on
Tuesday.

Arguing for the acquittal, defence advocate Mike Maritz SC
cited bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp's public apology to Boesak and
his withdrawal of all allegations of dishonesty against the former
clergyman.

Maritz told Judge John Foxcroft the prosecution would normally
have been stopped in similar circumstances where the case was not
as politicised and not of the same profile.

The court had to guard against the perception that the Boesak
trial was being treated differently from others, Maritz said.

Boesak has pleaded not guilty to 32 counts of theft and fraud
involving R9 million allegedly misappropriated from the Foundation
for Peace and Justice, of which he was the director.

Following Maritz's application for Boesak's discharge on all
counts on the grouns that he had no cse to meet, prosecutor JC
Gerber only conceded this regarding two fraud counts, one involving
a Coca-Cola Foundation grant.

Gerber opposed the application on the remaining counts.

He said Boesak had much to explain and that Boesak's own
affidavits in aborted divorce proceedings a few years ago was
strong evidence about loans he had to raise to support his wife
Elna's lifestyle.

He conceded there was no evidence of fraud concerning the
R149000 Coca-Cola Foundation grant.

Concerning this particular grant, Boesak had pleaded not guilty
to two counts - of fraud and of theft.

Gerber contended that as a trustee of the FPJ, Boesak had a
duty to ensure the grant was used for the FPJ's Caravan project.
His failure to do so rendered him technically guilty of theft of
this grant.

There was also sufficient evidence to convict Boesak of theft
on the basis that funds donated by the Olaf Palme Centre in Sweden
for a specific purpose were used for a different purpose.

Similarly the fat that Boesak had told two FPJ trustees that
international musician Paul Simon had donated R423000, when Simon
had in fact given R682000, rendered Boesak guilty of theft and
fraud, Gerber said.

Boesak was also guilty of theft relating to the unauthorised
transfer of R447000 from the children's fund to clear an unsecured
FPJ overdraft, Gerber said.

The hearing continues on Thursday.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA December 15 1998 Sapa-AP

BESIEGED ANGOLAN CITY REPORTED CALM; REBELS MAINTAIN PRESSURE

The Angolan city of Kuito was reportedly calm Tuesday, though
rebel forces maintained their control over most of the surrounding
area and access to the city was said to be severely restricted.

An International Red Cross spokesman in Luanda said IRC staff
in Kuito reported a lull in fighting between UNITA rebels and the
besieged government army.

"The situation was calm this morning," IRC spokesman Paulo
Delorca said.

Portuguese state radio RDP-Africa reported that just a few
explosions were heard throughout the day in the countryside near
Kuito.

Battles have focused on Bie province, whose capital is Kuito,
since fighting between the two sides restarted Dec. 4, ending a
four-year peace pact in the former Portuguese colony.

Delorca said the government and aid agencies had enough
supplies to feed civilians in the city, whose population of 100,000
has been swollen by thousands of displaced people fleeing fighting
in the surrounding area.

"For the moment, it is not an emergency (aid) situation,"
Delorca said.

A World Food Program spokeswoman said the organization had
1,000 metric tons of food aid in Kuito. The warehouse was under
guard because other food stores had been looted, spokeswoman Maria
Flynn said.

Normal food rations for December were distributed before the
fighting broke out, Flynn said.

Both the WFP and IRC said access to Kuito by road and air was
not safe because UNITA forces hold areas to the north, east and
west.

UNITA's tightening grip on Kuito, which lies about 500 kms (300
miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda, halted the government
evacuation of women and children to the capital after three
transport planes took off Monday.

UNITA shot down an Antonov transport plane shortly after it
took off from Kuito on Monday, and drove the army out of Chinguar,
a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the city.

The WFP said it was using planes to deliver food to Huambo,
another major city 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Kuito, and to
Luena in eastern Angola, 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Luanda.
Flynn said the group used planes when it was unsafe to travel by
road.

Neither side has acknowledged the collapse of the U.N.-brokered

1994 peace agreement, which was supposed to end a two-decade civil
war that broke out after the southwest African nation's 1975
independence from Portugal.

The fighting was halted by a 1991 peace deal, but the agreement
collapsed a year later after UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - rejected its

defeat in the country's first elections.

@ TORNADO-MANDELA

UMTATA December 15 1998 Sapa

MANDELA ARRIVES AT PHARMACY JUST IN TIME TO ESCAPE STORM

President Nelson Mandela arrived at a pharmacy in Umtata on
Tuesday afternoon just in time to escape the fury of a tornado
which hit the Eastern Cape town, killing at least 13 people and
injuring more than 150.

Bona magazine journalist Ponko Masiba told Sapa how the
president's bodyguards dived on top of the 80-year-old to protect
him as the tornado hit the Umtata Pharmacy in the town's York Road.

Masiba had just handed in films for development when Mandela
arrived to buy some soap.

"I was standing close to the president to shake his hand. We
just heard a rattle and the ceiling started vibrating."

"The President asked `What is going on?' but nobody seemed to
know. The nex momet the guards dived on the old man and pressed
him to the floor. The front windows of the pharmacy was smashed and
pieces of ceiling fell down. The damage was extensive."

Mandela was helped up and taken through a door into another
room.

"He was cool, but seemed quite shaken," Masiba said.

The president was not injured and taken to a car waiting
outside.

"If he arrived five minutes later a terrible thing could have
happened. I'm glad he's OK," Masiba said.

@ ZIM-WARCOST

HARARE December 15 1998 Sapa-AFP

COST OF DR CONGO WAR TO ZIMBABWE WITHIN BUDGET: MINISTER

A Zimbabwean cabinet minister Tuesday said the cost of the
Zimbabwe's controversial military intervention in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) was within existing budgetted means.

Finance minister Herbert Murerwa, told a news conference that
the cost, which he could not put a figure to, was within the
budgetted means.

"We have been able to meet with the provisions of the budget"
said Murerwa.

Media reports here estimate that Zimbabwe's military support of
DRC President Laurent Kabila is costing the country about a million
US dollars a day to maintain some 6,000 troops and heavy military
equipment there.

The Interanational Monetary Fund has delayed releasing payments
due to Zimbabwe, partly because of the impact of its involvement in
the DRC.

"We have ...indicated to them so far that the cost has been
within the existing budget," Murerwa said, adding the cost was
being shared by other allies of DRC President Laurent Kabila.

Some 70 percent of Zimbabweans are against the intervention,
according to a recent poll.

@ ZIM-CURRENCY

HARARE December 15 1998 Sapa-AFP

ZIMBABWE ANNOUNCES MEASURES TO SALVAGE COLLAPSED CURRENCY

The Zimbabwe government Tuesday announced several measures
aimed at strengthening the country's currency, which has lost
almost 70 percent of its value this year.

Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa told a news conference that
among the measures to be introduced would be the strict supervision
and monitoring of financial institutions dealing with foreign
currency.

Corporate foreign currency accounts, which were abolished more
than a year ago, would be re-introduced but regulated as soon as
the balance of payment position improved.

"The successful outcome of the measures will be the
stabilisation of the Zimbabwe dollar. We think right now our
currency is undervalued by 50 percent," Murerwa said.

Zimbabwe will by the end of this year have a balance of payment
deficit of more than 13 billion US dollars.

The decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to delay
the release of its support to the tune of 55 million US dollars was
expected to continue to exert pressure on the currency and jolt the
economy.

Murerwa said the government had held "fruitful" discussions
with the IMF and the World Bank which have raised concerns about
Zimbabwe's involvememt in the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, a high wage bill and price controls.

@ TORNADO

UMTATA December 15 1998 Sapa

UMTATA TORNADO KILLS 13, MANDELA TRAPPED IN PHARMACY

Thirteen people were killed, more than 150 were injured, and
President Nelson Mandela was trapped in a collapsing pharmacy when
a freak tornado struck the Eastern Cape town of Umtata on Tuesday
afternoon.

In a bizarre sideshow, two people injured in the storm were
wounded while being ferried to nearby Ngangelizwe clinic when
gunmen opened fire on an ambulance with 9mm pistols, police
spokesman Captain Mzukisi Fatyela said. The two patients were taken
to the clinic, near Umtata, because Umtata General hospital was
full. Their bullet wounds were said to be not serious.

Of the 13 killed, eight died when the wall of a supermarket
collapsed. The victims included three childen, the youngest aged
three.

According to Fatyela five more people, including a 16-year-old
boy, were killed by lightning.

More than 150 people were injured when the storm, which lasted
about 20 minutes, struck the town shortly after 3pm, causing
extensive damage to shops, houses and other buildings.

Umtata General Hospital, which had to deal with a flood of
injured people, was not spared. The roof was blown off, causing
damage to the intensive care unit, the maternity ward,
physiotherapy, X-ray, casualty, and the doctors' boarding caravans.

Most of the wards were flooded and ailing patients writhed on
bloodied stretchers in the drizzle that followed the tornado.

Matron Alicia Sipambo said the hospital was expecting more
patients because ambulances were sent to rural areas, where the
storm also caused considerable damage.

She said the hospital had to call in off-duty staff as the task
at hand became more and more difficult.

Apart from manpower problems, the hospital was short of
stationery, and patients' names had to be written on scraps of used
paper.

By late on Tuesday afternoon the hospital was full, with 105
injured, some in a serious condition, having been admitted.

Patients were sent to nearby police stations that were trying
to find accommodation for them at hospitals in Tsolo and Lebode.

President Nelson Mandela, 80, who is on leave at his Qunu home
near Umtata, visited Umtata Pharmacy in York Road on Tuesday
afternoon to buy his favourite soap when the tornado struck.

When the roof started rattling Mandela's bodyguards forced him
the ground and covered him with their bodies - just as part of the
pharmacy's roof collapsed and the windows were shattered.

The president was later whisked away to Umtata Central police
station, where he was kept until the storm calmed down 30 minutes
later.

Neither the president nor his bodyguards were injured in the
incident, presidential spokeswoman Priscilla Naidoo said.

Journalist Ponko Masiba told Sapa: "I was standing close to the
president to shake his hand. We heard a rattle and the ceiling
started vibrating."

"The president asked `What is going on?' but nobody seemed to
know."

Mandela was later helped up and taken through a door into
another room.

"He was cool, but seemed quite shaken," Masiba said.

After the storm police and private security company personnel
were deployed in the town centre against people looting damaged
shops.

Police Director Chris Louw said four youths were arrested for
looting. By late on Tuesday he gave the order for police to send in
dogs to chase looters away.

Louw said trees in the main street were unearthed, shop walls
were damaged or completely collapsed, roofs were blown off,
telephone poles were flattened, and hundreds of cars were damaged.
"There are millions of rands' damage here," he said.

He said as far as could be established the tornado continued
its path of destruction to the east of Umtata, where extensive
damage was caused to rural areas including Tsolo, Lebode and most
of the other townships in the area.

The roofs of township homes as well as the roof of a school at
Libode were blown off.

North of Umtata, Mandela Park and Slovo Park informal
settlements were also hard hit, Louw said.

Hundreds of rescue workers were deployed, including all the
emergency services, officials from the provincial and the municipal
traffic departments, members of the SAPS and the municipal police.

Two witnesses to the tornado told Sapa of panic on the streets
and damage to the town after the devastating storm.

William Songqwiqi said he was in a meeting when he saw stones
being pelted against the window.

He looked down onto the street and saw people running for their
lives.

"They were desperate, looking for shelter and looking for
help," he said.

Lucky Shongwe, an employee of the Holiday Inn on the outskirts
of Umtata, was on duty when the tornado hit only minutes short of
3pm.

"It started to thunder; after that a big wind came up, with
hail in a dark cloud... and then it passed," he said.

He said the roofs of hundreds of brick houses near the N2
highway had been blown off.

In the town, the damage was extensive. Damage of millions of
rands was caused to the stock of shops and wholesalers, including
large chain stores.

Many of the buildings were seriously damaged. The top structure
of the large First National building in Umtata was blown clean off,
Songqwiqi said.

@ ANGOLA-RIGHTS

HARARE December 15 1998 Sapa-AFP

AMNESTY WARNS AGAINST ABUSE IN ANGOLA FIGHTING

British-based human rights group Amnesty
International has warned the warring parties in Angola to desist
from indiscriminate and arbitrary killing of unarmed civilians in
the renewed fighting in the southwestern African state.

The organisation said while few details have emerged from the
conflict zones on the state of civilians, there had been several
unconfirmed reports of human rights violations.

"All combatants must be made aware that killing and torture of
prisoners are war crimes (for) which they should be held
responsible.

"International humanitarian and human rights law requires all
combatants to protect the lives and and safety of all
non-combatants," Amnesty International said in a statement faxed to
AFP Tuesday.

@ TORNADO-MEETING

UMTATA December 16 1998 Sapa

EMERGENCY MEETING IN UMTATA; DEATH TOLL RISES TO 17

An emergency meeting will be held in Umtata in the Eastern Cape
on Wednesday to discuss the implementation of a disaster relief
plan following Tuesday's devastating tornado, Umtata police said on
Wednesday.

Captain Mzukisi Fatyela said death toll had risen to 17 because
more bodies were discovered in the outlying areas of the town.

Four people, including a four-month-old baby and a
four-year-old child were killed by lightning during the storm, he
said.

Fatyela said the tornado - which struck at 3.20pm - had
caused an estimated R1 billion damage to buildings, including
Umtata's hospital. The intensive care unit, materity ward,
physiotherapy unit, X-ray unit and the casualty ward were all badly
damaged.

The number of injured people rose overnight to 162, he said.

Umtata police director Inspector John Fobian told Sapa his
officials were still trying to assess the damage caused by
Tuesday's devastating tornado.

Fobian said Umtata town planners as well as police and defence
force officials would meet at the Umtata town hall at 10am on
Wednesday.

"We're still trying to get all the various roleplayers on
board, but we hope to have everyone on board soon."

Fobian said it would take weeks, perhaps months, to clear up
the debris and rubble.

"Security officials are still guarding the town's central
business district to prevent people from looting," he said.

According to the SABC the tornado weakened overnight and moved
further up the Eastern Cape Coast, where emergency services workers
were on standby.

@ CRIME-POPCRU

CAPE TOWN December 16 1998 Sapa

POPCRU CRIME PREVENTION CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED IN WESTERN CAPE

Members of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union in the
Western Cape have volunteered to work overtime - without pay -
over the festive season.

Popcru provincial secretary Chris Carolissen said at a press
conference in Pinelands on Wednesday the decision to assist the
police was taken at a central executive meeting.

"We believe we must help the community," he said.

Provincial police commissioner Leon Wessels said it was
encouraging to see a union taking the initiative to promote safety
and security in the Western Cape.

"The initiative is applauded and is indicative of their
commitment towards service delivery to the community and the
combating of crime in the province," Wessels said.

He encouraged all members, irrespective of union affiliation,
to follow the example set by Popcru.

"We will analyse flash points in conjunction with Popcru and
plan where we need extra resources."

He said the main problems in the Western Cape were on the Cape
Flats. "We will set up a joint structure between the union and
police management and plan on a daily basis."

Wessels said the operation would begin on Wednesday and
continue till the end of the year, possibly extending to the first
weeks of January.

He said there was a 28 percent shortage of policemen but with
Popcru members assisting, more visible policing would be possible.

A major crime prevention operation would be held on December
23, be said.

Western Cape safety and security MEC Mark Wiley extended his
thanks to Popcru.

"At this time of the year when we normally experience an influx
of people into the province and heightened crime levels, this
gesture, combined with all the projects of the Festive Season Stamp
Out Crime Programme, will have a positive impact on crime," Wiley
said.

The Popcru initiative was launched nationally on Wednesday when
the union appealed to all its members to volunteer their services.

The initiative aimed to improve both the fight against crime
and the relationship between management and the "shop floor",
Wessels said.

@ RECONCILIATION-ACDP

CAPE TOWN December 16 1998 Sapa

STOP DIGGING IN THE PAST - ACDP

If reconciliation was to take place in the country, South
Africans would have to stop dwelling on the problems of the past
and focus on developing solutions, the provincial chairmn of the
African Christian Democratic Party Kevin Southgate said on
Wednesday.

Addressing an ACDP public meeting in Cape Town to mark
Reconciliation Day, he asked whether a constructive plan of action
for a positive South African future would be found if people
continued to focus on the past.

"The government must ensure that its decisions are not simply
geared towards rectifying the past. The past is passed," Southgate
said.

"Sound decisions, laws, policies, must be set in place to make
a positive impact on South Africa today to impact tomorrow, and for
generations to come."

@ ZIMABWE-BANANA

HARARE December 16 1998 Sapa

BANANA RETURNS, PUT UNDER HOUSE ARREST

Former Zimbabwean state president, Canaan Sodindo Banana was
put under house arrest on Wednesday shortly after returning from
about month on the run from convictions of homosexual assault.

Scarcely 12 hours after crossing from South Africa into
Zimbabwe at the Beitbridge border post, Banana, 62, was brought to
the Harare High Court in a Mercedes Benz limousine escorted by a
Land Rover full of armed paramilitary police.

Inside the court, he was ordered by Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku
to be placed under house arrest in his lavish state-subsidised
mansion in the affluent suburb of Mount Pleasant until Wednesday
next week where he will have to face sentence on ll counts of
sexual abuse, as well as charges of jumping bail and of leaving the
country illegally.

Defence lawyer Erik Morris denied that Banana had fled the
country last month to defeat the course of justice or to escape
punishment.

He said he had left for a "political agenda."

"I left the country becase I was in possession of dangerous
information, so I had to share it with my real friends," Banana
told journalists as he arrived at the court.

"All I can say is that my political assassins have been more
brutal than Brutus."

@ COMOROS-UNREST

MUTSAMUDU, Comoros, December 16 1998 Sapa-AFP

WARY RETURN TO NORMALCY AFTER ANJOUAN CEASEFIRE SIGNED

Inhabitants of the secessionist Comoran island of Anjouan were
taking wary steps to return to normal life Wednesday as rival
militias observed a 48-hour cease-fire signed the previous night.

The militias were cooperating to allow cars to cross the
"no-man's-land" between the battered "capital" of Mutsamudu, fief
of self-styled "president" Abdallah Ibrahim, and the adjoining
working class village of Mirontsy, held by his adversaries, an AFP

correspondent on the scene reported.

People were out on the streets in Mutsamudu, and members of a
politico-military directorate now running the island on Abdallah's
behalf were due to meet in the southern village of Sima with
partisans of Chamasse Omar Said and Abdou Mohammed Mindhi, two
former "prime ministers" calling for his resignation.

A ship docked at Mutsamudu's port for the first time since the
fighting flared on December 5, leaving later in the day, and the
airport, closed since the start of the fighting, was also due to
reopen, with one of the first planes in scheduled to carry members
of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Humanitarian aid from France, including baby foods, arrived
Tuesday.

Administrative officials in Mayotte, the only one of four
islands in the Indian Ocean archipelago to opt to remain under
French tutelage when the others became independent in 1975, said
the death toll from the fighting on Anjouan was at least 60.

However, both sides in Anjouan have minimised casualty figures,
with Mutsamudu acknowledging 10 deaths and Mirontsy two. Mutsamudu
hospital staff said they admitted 24 people wounded by bullets or
shrapnel, of whom two had died, while medical sources in another
town, Domoni, reported 40 deaths, which could not be confirmed.

Looters ransacked Mutsamudu and set fire to many buildings
after the fighting broke out.

Anjouan declared independence from the central government on
Grande Comore in August 1997 as did the third island, Moheli.
Moheli reversed its move this year, and Anjouanese leaders differ
in their views on the future.

The secessionists accused the central government of neglecting

their islands and reserving plum jobs for Grande Comorans.

The ceasefire document, signed by the militia leaders
supporting Abdallah and the former "premiers," declared that the
truce "is a first step toward a durable peace and direct
negotiations between the belligerants which must start within 48
hours."

It followed mediation by island elders and France, and came
after a de facto truce which had been in effect for three days.

Frenchmen Jean-Luc Machuron and Jacques Amblard, who
accompanied the first French humanitarian aid to Anjouan, confirmed
they had played a mediating role.

@ RECONCILIATION-FF

PRETORIA December 16 1998 Sapa

RACIST GOVERNMENT POLICIES PREVENT RECONCILIATION: VILJOEN

South Africans do not have much to celebrate in terms of
reconciliation because of the African National Congress'
race-driven policies, Freedom Front leader Gen Constand Viljoen
said on Wednesday.

In a statement to mark the Day of Reconciliation public
holiday, Viljoen said the ANC's policies were causing increasing
polarisation.

"The Day of Reconciliation won't bear much fruit if it is seen
as a day on which the majority can foist its will on minorities."

December 16 was previously named Day of the Vow -
commemorating the 1838 Voortrekker victory over a Zulu army. In the
new South Africa the day has been renamed Day of Reconciliation.

Addressing a "Day of the Vow" rally near Warmbaths, Freedom
Front chairman Dr Pieter Mulder said Afrikaners should not allow
their spirit to be broken by a stream of negative publicity about
Afrikaners.

"This would permanently paralyse Afrikaners and prevent them
from playing a constructive future role in South Africa," Mulder
said.

Mulder cited a passage from Voortrekker leader Piet Retief's
1837 manifesto which said the main reason for the Great Trek was
"the disorderly and dishonest actions of layabouts..."

At Pretoria, several hundred - mostly white - people entered
the Voortrekker Monument just before noon on Wednesday to witness a
beam of sunlight illuminate a slab inscribed with the words "Ons
vir jou Suid Africa (We for you, South Africa)."

The Afrikaner shrine, shaped like a vast jelly-mould pop-up
toaster, was designed for this solar event to be the climax to an
annual "Day of the Vow" commemoration service.

The event has lost much of its nationalist connotations and on
Wednesday casually-dressed visitors approached it as just another
family outing.

The Voortrekker youth movement provided recorded, spiritual
music.

@ TORNADO-MANDELA

UMTATA December 16 1998 Sapa

MANDELA VISITS SCENE OF UMTATA TORNADO DEVASTATION

President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday morning paid a visit to
the areas worst affected by Tuesday's tornado in Umtata, which left
17 dead and 162 injured, police spokesman Director Christo Louw
said.

Mandela visited the badly damaged Fortgale area, the Umtata
hospital, the taxi rank where seven people were killed and the
pharmacy in which he sheltered when the storm hit on Tuesday
afternoon.

Mandela narrowly escaped injury when the tornado hit the
pharmacy shortly after 3pm while he was inside on a shopping trip,
presidential spokesman Priscilla Naidoo said on Tuesday.

The door and windows of the pharmacy were shattered by the
force of the storm and part of the roof caved in.

The president's bodyguards pushed him to the ground and covered
his body to protect him from the flying debris.

@ BLOODRIVER-MANGOSUTHU

NCOME December 16 1998 Sapa

BUTHELEZI CALLS FOR NEW COVENANT OF HARMONY IN DIVERSITY

South Africans must draw from the courage and determination of
those who fought on the Blood River battlefield 160 years ago to
build a country in which all could be equal, Home Affairs Minister
Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at a ceremony in Ncome, KwaZulu-Natal, to
unveil a monument commemorating December 16 as a day of
reconciliation.

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki also attended the ceremony.

"Today let us begin erecting this monument to our past,
committing ourselves to accepting the sacrifices, the discipline
and resolve necessary to build a new country," Buthelezi said.

He thanked the government for its recognition of December 16,
which had for generations before 1994 been focused on racial
conflict, as a national day of reconciliation .

"When our blood merged on this soil our peoples merged in a an
inextricably joint destiny on this land and together begun a long
conflict-ridden journey to reach today's new beginning," he said.

But today it was possible for former foes to work together for
mutual goals, he added.

"We have come here because, as the blood of our nations once
merged into the waters of this river, today we can announce that
the dreams which once stood in armed conflict on this battlefield
can now finally merge in the creation of a new nation under a new
covenant of harmony in diversity."

"Let us consider this the day of a new covenant which binds us
to the shared commitment of building a new country through a shared
struggle against poverty, inequality, corruption, crime and lack of
discipline at all levels," he said.

Buthelezi also paid tribute to the Zulu kings of the past,
calling for fulfilment of the government's promise that the Zulu
kingdom and its monarch be recognized and accomodated in the unity
of South Africa.

"The king of the Zulu nation is an essential covenant which on
this day we must broaden to mark a new begining. His presence
amongst us signifies the continuity of the past into the present
and the future, " he said.

@ HOUSING-MOFOKENG

JOHANNESBURG December 16 1998 Sapa

5000 MORE HOUSES TO BE BUILT IN BOPHELONG: MOFOKENG

Gauteng housing and land affairs MEC Dan Mofokeng on Wednesday
announced that 4000 title deeds would be transferred to the
esidents of Bophelong and that R86m had been allocated to build
another 5000 houses in the area.

Addressing a rally at Bophelong stadium, near Vanderbijlpark,
Mofokeng said the township was established in 1948, the year in
which the Nationalists came to power and introduced brutal
apartheid policies.

However, the African National Congress' coming to power in 1994
marked a new era of hope, Mofokeng said.

He said the government had prioritised the Bophelong area for
development.

"We are not only delivering, we are actually accelerating
delivery.

"We have just completed 5000 houses to the value of R78,6m
within eight months.

"It took the National Party almost 50 years to build only 4000
houses."

The housing project would not have been successful without the
community's active involvement in its own development.

"I would therefore like to congratulate all of you and urge the
entire community of Bophelong to continue with this spirit of
communal involvement," Mofokeng said.

@ MOZAMBIQUE-WAGES

MAPUTO December 16 1998 Sapa-AFP

MOZAMBIQUE'S PARLIAMENTARIANS DEMAND A WAGE HIKE

Deputies in Mozambique - where the minimum wage is the
equivalent of 30 US dollars - are demanding pay hikes which will
see their basic monthly salaries rise to almost 1,000 dollars a
month.

Parliamentarians from the ruling Front for the Liberation of
Mozambique (FRELIMO), the opposition Mozambique National Resistance
(RENAMO) and the Democratic Union coalition (UD) this week proposed
a 15 percent pay hike for themselves, a move widely viewed as greed
in the impoverished nation.

The deputies are proposing a wage increase of about 15 per
cent, which will leave the basic wage of a deputy rise from 10
million meticais (about 850 US dollars) to 11.5 million meticais
(about 978 dollars).

The parliamentarians' attempt to increase their salaries comes
only a few months after a proposed bill awarding themselves a
generous pensions package was rejected by President Joaquim
Chissano as unfair and hard to comply with.

@ CRIME-RICHMOND

RICHMOND December 16 1998 Sapa

THREE INJURED IN CLASHES BETWEEN ANC AND UDM SUPPORTERS

A shoot-out on Wednesday between African National Congress and
United Democratic Movement supporters rallying after a fun-run in
Richmond, Kwazulu-Natal, left two men and a three-month-old baby
injured, said police.

The confrontation between the two groups occurred after a fun
run which started in UDM supporting Magoda and ended at the Ndaleni
junction, an area of ANC support, where the prize-giving was
scheduled to take place.

Tension broke out between the two groups when an ANC supporter
grabbed a flag from a UDM supporter, and soldiers had to escort the
respective groups back to their areas.

A short while later one of the groups heading back to Magoda
stoned a mini-bus taxi, injuring the baby who was inside. The baby
was hit on the forehead. The taxi driver then produced a gun and
shot at the group, hitting one man in the leg.

The injured man was not seriously injured and was treated by SA
National Defence Force Medics at the scene.

Chief Phoshwa, a councillor in the area, later reported he had
been wounded during the confrontation.

Medics who examined Phoshwa could not establish how his
injuries had occurred.

@ RECONCILIATION-FIVAZ

JOHANNESBURG December 16 1998 Sapa

SAPS WILL NEVER AGAIN ALLOW HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Police officers in the country will uphold and protect the
fundamental rights of every citizen and would never allow human
rights abuses to take place, Police Commissioner George Fivaz said
on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the unveiling of the new SA Police Service
flag at the FNB Stadium shortly before South Africa took on Egypt
in the Nelson Mandela Challenge soccer international.

Fivaz said police officers were committed to promoting human
rights as enshrined in the country's constitution and to delivery
effective service to all citizens without fear or favour.

He said the police force remained mindful of its previous
improper role
- in denying vulnerable communities their civil liberties - and
would
strive hard to improve its image.

"Today I stand before our nation on behalf of every member of
our service in order to reconcile our relationship with all our
communities, pay penance for our past and re-dedicate ourselves to
uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country."

Fivaz said the new flag was the symbol of the qualities of the
police service.

"A total re-dedication to protect everyone's rights and to be
impartial, respectful, open and accountable to the broader South
African community," Fivaz said.

He said the new flag represented an agreed set of values which
would in due course bind police officials into a family to enable
them to fight a common enemy - crime.

The new SAPS flag is a combination of the South African blue,
green, black, white, yellow and red flag and the yellow SAPS logo.

@ TORNADO-PARTIES

EAST LONDON December 16 1998 Sapa

PARTIES CALL TO DECLARE UMTATA DISASTER AREA

The National Party and the United Democratic Movement on
Wednesday called on the government to declare Umtata and
surrounding towns - which were hit by a freak tornado on Tuesday
- disaster areas.

"Financial assistance should be made available to assist in the
reconstruction of the area and in support of the victims," UDM
deputy national secretary, Annelize van Wyk said.

The National Party said the government should implement a
disaster relief plan to help affected people recover from the
tragedy.

Pan Africanist Congress of Azania deputy president Motsoko
Pheko, said party representatives were still making an assessment
of the damage.

"The PAC hopes that insurance companies will be quick to
compensate for damaged homes which are insured. Many people in
Umtata and Libode are without shelter, water and electricity,"
Pheko said.

The parties all sent condolences to families of victims who
died.

@ ZIM-ECONOMY

HARARE December 16 1998 Sapa

TRIPARTITE BODY TO HOLD TALKS ON THURSDAY

A second attempt at discussing Zimbabwe's deteriorating
economic performance will be made on Thursday when the tripartite
body comprising government, business and labour meets in Harare.

An earlier meeting - held on Wednesday last week - yielded no
results as disagreements over what should be discussed bogged the
talks down.

The meeting was rescheduled for Thursday, the Ziana news agency
reports.

Zimbabwe is faced with an unstable macro-economic environment
characterised y a depreciating currency, high inflation, high
commodity prices and soaring interest rates.

The government's social partners last week demanded that
information be given on the measures being taken to save the
tumbling dollar.

New measures were announced by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa
earlier this week, which include tightening controls and
supervision of all foreign currency transactions, especially the
operations of the bureaux de change.

Business and labour also sought to know the budgetary
implications of Zimbabwe's involvement in the Democratic Republic
of Congo war.

The meeting is held at a time when government has banned
collective job action, mainly stayaways by workers.

Business feels that government is not doing enough to stabilise
the economy, while government is blaming business for the price
hikes, saying it was economic sabotage.

@ BURKINA-OAU

OUAGADOUGOU December 16 1998 Sapa-AFP

OAU SUMMIT IN BURKINA WILL FOCUS ON REACHING CEASEFIRE IN DRC

African leaders convening in Ouagadougou for a two-day summit
aimed at ending the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo
will focus on reaching a ceasefire between the warring parties.

The summit, which begins Thursday, will bring together the main
players from seven African nations embroiled in the conflict.

The meeting, which is being held under the aegis of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU), comes amid heavy losses
incurred by Zimbabwe troops, who are supporting President Laurent
Desire Kabila against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

Kabila's other main ally, Angola, whose troops managed to
prevent rebels from overtaking Kinshasa last August when the war
broke out, has also had a military setback this week following a
upsurge in rebel attacks from UNITA forces in central Angola.

Faced with a weakened military alliance, Kabila, who arrived in
the capital Wednesday evening, may be persuaded to accept a
ceasefire, albeit temporary.

On Tuesday, the DRC's ambassador in Nairobi said President
Kabila was in favour of a ceasefire if parties agreed to a planned
pull-out of foreign troops, from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Despite their attendance at the summit, the rebels themselves
will not participate in any official discussions. Kabila has
refused any direct contact with them, insisting his real foes are
Rwanda and Uganda.

Bizima Karaha, one of the rebellion leaders and a former ally
of Kabila's, is expected here.

Karaha assisted Kabila in a nine-month military campaign that
ended in May 1997 when Zaire's political dinosaur Mobutu Sese Seko
was unseated from power.

The tight connections that Karaha, his former minister of
foreign affairs, has established with South Africa since the
rebellion erupted has led Kabila to called Pretoria a "puppet of
the agressors."

South Africa's Vice-President Thabo Mbeki is also expected in
Ouagadougou, along with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Zambian President Frederik Chiluba arrived on Wednesday.

Members of the Zambian delegation have held two days of
discussions with Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore, acting chairman of
the OAU, on reaching a ceasefire in the DRC.

Foreign ministers were expected to hold late night preparatory
meeetings at the capital's Ouaga 2000 conference centre, ahead of
the summit's official opening Thursday morning.

Heads of state from Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Congo and Burundi
arrived Wednesday afternoon. In all, twenty-five African leaders
are to attend.

Also on the agenda will be discussions on solving the sporadic
border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Both countries are
expected to respond to an OUA peace plan which calls for the
retreat of Eritrean forces from the disputed region of Badme, and
the deployment of a neutral peace-keeping force along the 1,000
kilometre border.

Factional clashes on the secessionist Comoran island of Anjouan
will also be broached in summit meetings.

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

FRIDAY 18 DECEMBER 1998

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message to 'list...@wn.apc.org'. In the body of your message put
'unsubscribe ancnews'.

@ MORALPARTY

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa

NEW PARTY ADHORS `HOMOSEXUAL DECADENCE'

A new political party, the Africa Moral Party, on Thursday used
a news release on its formation to launch an attack on
homosexuality, lesbianism and "other forms of decadent, imported,
promiscuous behaviour."

The statement said such forms of sexual behaviour was anathema
to South Africans "and we will not allow a handful of neo-liberals
to destroy our society".

The party held its first public meeting in Pretoria on December
11 and is headed by Salim Ncube.

The statement said Ncube was a seasoned political activist who
had lived in exile in Zambia and Zimbabwe. He holds a BA economics
degree.

Ncube's vision is that a "moral South Africa" should enjoy
safety, security and peace.

"There is no need for any South African to go hungry,
considering the resources of the country."

Ncube called for an equitable distribution of the country's
resources.

@ MEDIA STATEMENT ON AIRSTRIKES AGAINST IRAQ

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo expressed his deep concern about the
surprise airstrikes against Iraq during a meeting with the Deputy
Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States of America, in
Pretoria today.

Minister Nzo said that South Africa was fully supportive of all
United Nations Security Council resolutions on the need for Iraq to
comply. However, South Africa did not believe that the use of force
would resolve the outstanding issues relating to the activities of
the United Nations Special Commission and the International Atomic
Energy Agency in that country.

The lack of unanimity by the members the United Nations Security
Council, on the decision to strike, was of concern to the South
African Government. Furthermore, Minister Nzo said that these
actions would inevitably lead to greater human suffering for the
people of Iraq. Minister Nzo again called on all sides to seek a
negotiated settlement and to avoid any further actions which would
aggravate tensions in the region.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA

17 DECEMBER 1998

@ DRCONGO-ANGOLA

LUANDA December 17 1998 Sapa-AFP

KABILA'S ALLIES MEET IN ANGOLA AHEAD OF THE OAU SUMMIT

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has held talks in Angola
with his two other southern African counterparts backing President
Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) war.

The head of state made a brief stopover in Luanda on Wednesday
on his way to Ouagadougou for an Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) summit on the conflict and others on the continent, the
Zimbabwe Inter Africa News Agency (ZIANA) reported Thursday.

According to a dispatch from a ZIANA news agency reporter
travelling with Mugabe, he met behind closed doors with presidents
Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Sam Nujoma of Namibia.

Southern African allies have deployed thousands of troops and
heavy military equipment and aircraft to assist Kabila fight the
rebels.

Also present at the talks was Mozambican President Joaquim
Chissano, who has remained neutral in the ongoing conflict between
President Kabila and the Tutsi-led rebels, backed by Rwanda and
Uganda.

Details of the talks were not made available.

@ OAU-SUMMIT

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec 17, Sapa-AFP

A SCORE OF AFRICAN LEADERS GATHER FOR OAU SUMMIT

About a score of African leaders have gathered for a summit of
the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Burkina Faso on Thursday
and Friday focussing on conflicts, notably the DRC war.

President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) was among almost 20 leaders, mainly heads of state, already
in Ouagadougou by midnight (0,000 GMT) on Wednesday for the talks.

Airport sources said that of other protagonists drawn into the
war that begun with a Tutsi-led rebellion in the eastern DRC in
August, presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Sam Nujoma of Namibia
and Idriss Deby of Chad had also arrived.

Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad have all sent troops to back
Kabila's regime against what the Kinshasa government blames mainly
on an invasion by Rwandan and Ugandan troops, playing down the
rebel role.

A rebel delegation was due to come to Burkina Faso, whose
President Blaise Compaore currently chairs the OAU, but for talks
only on the fringes of the summit, since Kabila has persistently
refused to negotiate with them directly.

The summit of the OAU's central mechanism for conflict
prevention, management and settlement was due to open at the end of
the morning on Thursday, attended by some 25 African leaders and
OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim.

Ahead of the meeting, troops and police were out in strength on
Ouagadougou streets, following mass and sometimes violent
demonstrations in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday sparked by the
road accident death in mysterious circumstances of a highly popular
journalist, Norbert Zongo, renowned as a strong critic of the
Compaore government.

One of the other items on the agenda will be the border dispute
that erupted last May into a shooting war between Ethiopia and
Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, where troops of the two countries
are currently deployed in strength on the ill-defined frontier.

@ IRAQ-AFRICA

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa-AP

UNITED STATES ORDERS AFRICAN EMBASSIES CLOSED AS PRECAUTION

The United States on Thursday closed all its African embassies,
except for the missions in Nigeria and South Africa, as a
precaution because of the US air strikes on Iraq.

Offices of the Peace Corps, US Information Service and US Aid
and consulates also were ordered closed, said Bruce Wharton, an
embassy spokesman here.

After the deadly US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania last
August, "I'm sure people just didn't want to take chances in
Africa", he said.

The offices will stay closed on Friday and reopen on Monday.

Americans travelling Thursday through Sunday who needed to pick
up passports would be allowed in to the consulate in Johannesburg,
which is being run by a skeleton staff, he said.

The embassy blasts killed 224 people, including 12 Americans,
and wounded thousands of others.

@ NNP-SABC

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

NEW NP TO RAISE ALLEGED BIAS WITH SABC

The New National Party on Thursday said it would approach the
SA Broadcasting Corporation management in due course about the
broadcaster's "partisan slant" in favour of the African National
Congress.

NNP media director Juli Kilian said in a statement the party
was extremely perturbed about the SABC's "escalating
politicisation" in the run-up to next year's election.

Kilian said government ministers and spokesmen were given every
opportunity to promote the ANC and put down opposition leaders and
minority communities.

"Both (President Nelson) Mandela and (Deputy President Thabo)
Mbeki, speaking in their official capacity as heads of state, have
recently used the public broadcaster for outright attacks on the
opposition in television interviews.

"This creates the distinct impression that the national
broadcaster has become an inherent component of the ANC's election
campaign and that television interviews are used as a guise to
promote the ANC alliance and put down the opposition."

If ANC leaders were given free time to promote the ANC, similar
provision should be made for the leader of the official opposition
and the NNP, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, she said.

"The New NP will in due course appoint a delegation of its
senior leadership to take up the matter with the SABC management in
an attempt to reverse the trend that has developed."

Kilian said Mandela had been relatively successful in promoting
national reconciliation during the country's transition to
democracy.

However, he had failed dismally as head of state responsible
for the day to day running of the country and the performance of
his government.

"Under his leadership, the standards of service delivery in the
country deteriorated markedly, state corruption increased and
institutional collapse set in."

@ TRANSPORT

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MUST PROVIDE COMMUTER TRANSPORT - CHAMBER

It was essential that commuter transport be supported and
provided by central government, Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and
Industry senior deputy director Albert Schuitmaker said on
Thursday.

He was responding to Metrorail's recent announcement that it
would curtail its services in the evenings and at weekends.

"The workforce relies on rail transport. Many companies work
double or triple shifts and its workers rely on rail transport,"
Schuitmaker said in a statement.

He said the chamber believed Metrorail's decision should be
reversed and that an increase in the state subsidy should be
considered to support the service.

The chamber has appealed to Transport Minister Mac Maharaj to
intervene and have the service restored.

@ ENERGY-NORWAY

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa

NORWAY DONATES R8 MILLION FOR MINERAL AND ENERGY PROJECT

Norway donated R8 million to South Africa's Mineral and Energy
Affairs Department to fund a three-and-a-half-year petroleum and
gas project, the department and Norwegian embassy said on Thursday.

They said in a joint statement in Pretoria the money would be
used to put into effect the White Paper on Energy Policy released
earlier in the day.

It would also go towards oil and gas exploration and
development, as well as oil refining, distribution and retailing,
the statement said.

An agreement to this end was signed between the department and
the Norwegian embassy on Monday.

@ CONGO-FIGHTING

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo December 17 1998 Sapa-AP

REPUBLIC OF CONGO BATTLES MILITIA SOUTH OF CAPITAL

Sporadic heavy weapons fire boomed through the suburbs south of
Brazzaville early Thursday morning as the army battled an outlawed
militia group.

"We're taking control of the situation," said Lt. Jaques
Otalet of the Republic of Congo army. "We have asked the civilian
population to leave the area to permit authorities to proceed with
the mopping-up operations."

The shooting began Wednesday night and continued, off and on,
into early Thursday when the outlawed "Ninja" militia of former
Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, who had launched scattered
ambushes, were pushed back, he said.

There were no details on casualties and Otelet's version of
events could not be independently confirmed.

The government has been battling the Ninjas in the Pool region
south of Brazzaville for the past few months, though the intensity
of the fighting has picked up in recent weeks. Pool is Kolelas'
home region.

Thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring Congo because of
the fighting, according to aid workers there. The Kinshasa
newspaper Palmares estimated that 10,000 refugees have crossed the
river border from Republic of Congo to Congo - the former Zaire.

Kolelas and his sometime-ally, ousted president Pascal
Lissouba, fled Republic of Congo after President Denis
Sassou-Nguesso and his "Cobra" militia - with the help of Angolan
government troops - defeated Lissouba in a five-month civil war
last year. Since then, the Ninjas have resisted disarmament and are
waging a campaign against Sassou-Nguesso's government.

Since his takeover, Sassou-Nguesso has outlawed all militia
groups including the Cobras.

Angola turned the tide in Republic of Congo's civil war, coming
in to help Sassou-Nguesso and helping him defeat Lissouba. Many
Angolan soldiers stayed in Republic of Congo after the war ended.

Angola entered last year's civil war because Lissouba was
believed to be sending aid to the rebel group UNITA a Portuguese

acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola

which has been fighting the Republic of Congo government has said
that UNITA is now supporting the Ninjas.

@ LESOTHO-THABANE

MASERU December 17 1998 Sapa

LESOTHO FOREIGN MINISTER VALIDLY ELECTED, JUDGES RULE

A petition by a member of the opposition Basutholand Congress
Party (BCP) to invalidate the election of Lesotho's minister of
foreign affairs Tom Thabane, was dismissed with costs by three
judges of the high court in Maseru on Thursday.

Ben Pekeche petitioned the high court for an order to declare
that Thabane was not validly elected in the May 23 general
elections and that fresh elections be held on the grounds that the
minister held a public office when he was nominated as a candidate.

A judgment handed down by Judge Michael Ramodipedi said in
terms of the Lesotho constitution the power to appoint persons to
hold or act in offices in the public service, and the power to
remove such persons from office, was vested in the public service
commission.

The court found that Thabane was not appointed by the public
service commission in terms of the constitution and he was
therefore not a public officer.

Ramodipedi said furthermore that in terms of the constitution
the office of prime minister was not a public office and that it
would be "absurd if not illogical" for the office of adviser to the
prime minister, which was held by Thabane before the elections, to
be a public office.

He said it was common cause that this office did not even
appear in the establishment list and it was not recognised as a
public office in any statute of Lesotho.

The judge said it was not disputed that Thabane tendered his
resignation in writing on April 17 this year as special adviser to
the prime minister and that his resignation was approved by the
then prime minister.

He said the submission by counsel for Thabane that a
resignation was a unilateral act and that no person may be forced
to remain in employment against his will "is sound in law," having
regard to the provisions of the constitution that no person shall
be required to perform "forced labour."

He declared that Thabane had been validly elected as a member
of the national assembly.

Judges Mahapela Lehohla and Gabriel Mofolo concurred.

@ IFP-DEFECT

DURBAN December 17 1998 Sapa

MLABA ANNOUNCES HIS RETURN TO IFP

An Inkatha Freedom Party leader in Mpumalanga township in the
KwaZulu-Natal midlands, Sipho Mlaba, on Thursday announced his
return to the party after he defected to the United Democratic
Party in November.

Mlaba told reporters at a press conference in Durban that he
was frustrated and angered by a conflict between him and the local
IFP leadership and decided to resign from the party.

He said he made an announcement to the IFP supporters, but they
never accepted it. Mlaba said he approached the UDM and requested
to join them.

However, he failed to turn up at a news conference organised by
the UDM on November 30 where he was expected to declare his
membership of the party.

"I realised that I made a mistake after I was persuaded by the
local IFP supporters. I am an IFP member and I will never join any
party," Mlaba said.

He denied reports that he went into hiding after he received
death threats. "I stay with my family in Mpumalanga and I own a
business in the area and I will never hide."

He promised to work for peace and development in the area and
said the community still regarded him as their leader.

Mlaba and his African National Congress counterpart in
Mpumalanga, Meshack Radebe, both received international recognition
for their role in restoring peace to the township after violence
between the IFP and the former United Democratic Front in the early
1990s.

IFP national chairman Ben Ngubane said the party was happy that
Mlaba changed his decision.

"There is no doubt that Mlaba has a good record of working for
the community and we regard him as a faithful member," Ngubane
said.

Provincial UDM chairman Sifiso Nkabinde told Sapa that the
party was not aware of the announcement. He said the UDM would
respect Mlaba's decision and recognised him as a good leader.

@ MINISTER MOOSA CALLS MEETING OF INTER MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON
DISASTER MANAGEMENT TO DISCUSS RELIEF

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa, the Minister responsible for
Disaster Management, has called an urgent meeting of the Inter
Ministerial Committee on Disaster Management (IMC) to discuss the
tornado which killed many people in Umtata, as the floods that
caused deaths in Mpumalanga and injury and destruction in the
Western Cape.

The IMC meeting of which Minister Moosa is the chair, will now
meet in Pretoria at 10:30 on Friday, 18 December 1998.

A media conference will be held at

12:30 in (Please note the new time for the media conference)
Room 159, East Wing/
Union Buildings immediately after the IMC meeting.

Issued by the Ministry for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional
Development on 16 December 1998.

Contact: Mr, Peet Stopforth on: 082 808 9878
or Fred Barron 082 4567 545

@ PAC-ELECTION

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

PAC SETS MINIMUM TARGET OF 35 PERCENT FOR ELECTION

The Pan Africanist Congress has set itself a minimum target of
35 percent of votes cast in next year's general election.

PAC secretary-general Mike Muendane on Thursday in Johannesburg
said the party expected to get at least 140 seats in the 1999 poll,
which would translate to 35 percent of votes.

He said the PAC was poised to form a powerful opposition to the
ruling African National Congress and scoffed at the ANC's plan to
achieve a two-thirds majority.

"The PAC is going to give a surprise to this country," Muendane
said.

A powerful opposition was crucial for a healthy political
climate in the country, given the disparity of interests in South
Africa, he said.

Muendane said the PAC had transformed itself since the last
election and had restructured itself as a party run on strict
business principles.

He critised the ANC for having made promises to the electorate
in the 1994 election which it had been incapable of delivering on.

The PAC would not make empty promises about delivery, but would
be a loyal partner for those who were sincere about transforming
South Africa, he said.

The campaign slogan for the PAC was "PAC - Your partner in
change".

Muendane said South Africans could expect a highly visible
campaign which would be launched next week following the PAC's
national conference, which kicks off in Soshanguve on Friday.

He said the party had formed itself into a powerful election
machine, having consolidated its party building phase.

The national conference would see a gathering of all the
candidates who had been selected by the branches and provinces.

Muendane said the PAC would submit its final list of candidates
to the Independent Electoral Commission in February and potential
candidates would have until then prove themselves.

Muendane identified five themes on which the party would
campaign: unity, morality, economic sharing, Africanism and land.

The philosophy of Africanism was one around which all South
Africans could unite as, regardless of race, they shared a common
identity as Africans, he said.

He said the issue of landlessness in South Africa was a
timebomb which had to be addressed urgently.

The PAC was meeting stakeholders on the issue of land
redistribution in the face of government's "laughable" land
restitution process.

"We want to sit down with all stakeholders and achieve a
solution that is mutually acceptable to all," Muendane said.

He said the PAC's policy was not to get white farmers off their
land.

"Everyone is here to stay - farmers are not settlers," he
said.

"We must share so our children can look each other in the eye
and know they are the same."

@ COURT-BOESAK

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

PROSECUTION EXPECTED TO WIND UP CLOSING ARGUMENT IN BOESAK
TRIAL

The prosecution in the trial of Allan Boesak on Thursday
completed its argument in the Cape High Court for his conviction on
10 counts of fraud and 20 of theft.

Boesak has pleaded not guilty to 20 counts of theft and 12 of
fraud, and prosecutor JC Gerber has conceded that Boesak has no
case to meet on two of the 12 fraud counts.

Gerber told Judge John Foxcroft that no word had yet come from
the "mouth of the accused", and questions put to witnesses by
Boesak's advocate could not be considered as evidence in his
favour.

In order for the court to take cognisance of the answers from
the witnesses, Boesak would have to testify.

Gerber said the defence had contended consistently that Boesak
used his own money to fuel his high lifestyle.

But, Gerber said, the strongest evidence against Boesak was his
own affidavit in an aborted divorce proceeding in which he said his
lifestyle was not supported by his own money.

Gerber told the court: "Boesak states that he was dependent on
loans and assistance given to him, and his wife's debts were paid
by money raised by himself.

"He also states that the only fixed income he had was the
salary he received from the defunct Foundation for Peace and
Justice.

"The accused still owes this court an explanation why this
affidavit should not be accepted as reflecting the true situation."

Gerber said a second significant document which called for an
explanation was a letter by Boesak saying that the honoraria he
received was for the work he did and was not for personal gain.

Gerber said there was a strong possibility that the State's
case would be strengthened if Boesak testified, and this was a very
important factor.

The trial continues on Thursday afternoon.

@ PAC-EIKENHOF

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

PAC CALLS ON MANDELA TO RELEASE EIKENHOF THREE

The Pan Africanist Congress on Thursday called on President
Nelson Mandela to use the powers available to him to secure the
release of the "Eikenhof Three".

PAC secretary general Mike Muendane said it was unacceptable
that the three African National Congress cadres remained in jail,
despite the PAC having publicly claimed responsiblity for the crime
the ANC men were jailed for.

Phila Dolo, a member of the PAC's armed wing Apla, has applied
to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty for the
murder of a woman and two children in a 1991 attack in Eikenhof,
south of Johannesburg.

The Eikenhof Three - Siphiwe Bholo, Sipho Gavin and Boy Titi
Ndweni - are appealing against their 1994 conviction.

Last week, in a High Court decision which sparked a political
storm, the three were ordered to remain in jail while their appeal
is heard.

Muendane said the case illustrated the corrupt nature of the
legal system under which the three were convicted.

"Those boys should be home with their families for Christmas,"
Muendane said.

Muendane said Stanley Magoba, the president of the PAC, would
make an offer to President Mandela on Friday in his opening speech
to the PAC's national conference in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria.

Muendane did not give details on the offer but said it would
test the government's commitment to the gains of the liberation
struggle.

"The Eikenhof Three are in jail for a crime that was not
commited by them."

Muendane said the issue raised the question of how many other
people had been sent to jail for crimes they had not committed.

@ AFRICA-FOOD

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa-AP

FOOD OUTLOOK IN AFRICA IMPROVED, UN AGENCY SAYS

The food outlook for sub-Saharan Africa has improved with
recent bumper crops, but 13 countries face emergencies, the U.N.
food agency said Thursday.

In Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Angola, war and civil unrest
continue to disrupt food supplies, the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization said.

The agency singled out Somalia, where a major food crisis is
developing for 700,000 people following five reduced harvests
caused by drought, civil strife, floods and pests.

Somalia has lacked a central government since the ouster of
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Rival clan-based militia have
since divided the country into armed fiefdoms.

"In Angola, despite an improvement in production, the food
supply situation is expected to tighten in the coming months ...
reflecting the volatile security situation," the statement said.

The rebel UNITA army has stepped up attacks on Angolan
government areas.

Throughout Africa, food production has improved with above-
average harvests, particularly in western Africa, the agency said.

But in Congo, the former Zaire, civil war that now involves at
least five other countries and large-scale population movements
have hampered farming activities.

Military activity during the growing season also disrupted food
production in Sudan, the agency said.

Nine other countries facing exceptional food shortages are
Zambia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania,
Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

The agency will release a full report on the situation on
Monday.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA, Angola December 17 1998 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN REBELS VOW TO KEEP FIGHTING

Angola's UNITA rebels said Thursday they would maintain their
offensive in the province of Bie and will bring up more firepower
to try to crack the government's hold on the provincial capital of
Kuito.

"The military pressure on Kuito-Bie will continue," the UNITA
leadership said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.

The rebel forces "will improve their organization and increase
their firepower" for new attacks on the besieged city, the
statement said.

Battles have focused on Bie, in the central highlands, since
fighting restarted on Dec. 4, ending a four-year peace pact in the
southwestern African country.

Kuito was reportedly quiet Thursday. Local radio station
Eclesia reported that the army was strengthening its defensive
positions and was preparing to receive supplies dropped by
parachute.

Planes cannot land because of anti-aircraft fire from rebels
surrounding the city.

The army said it had captured seven rebel tanks during battles
for Kuito and had killed white mercenaries and Congolese rebels
fighting on the rebel side.

Neither side has acknowledged the collapse of the United
Nations-brokered 1994 peace agreement designed to end a two-decade
civil war that broke out after independence in 1975.

The fighting was halted by a 1991 peace deal, but the agreement
collapsed a year later after UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the

National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - refused to
accept its defeat in the country's first elections.

Brig. Simione Mucume said in a interview published Thursday in
the state-controlled daily Jornal de Angola that there were 200
rebel casualties Wednesday in a 12-hour battle outside Kuito, which
lies 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of the capital, Luanda.

Unconfirmed reports said UNITA earlier this year bought up to
50 Ukrainian tanks via Uganda, a longtime UNITA ally. Angola's
rebels, along with Uganda, are reportedly aiding the insurgency in
neighboring Congo, where the Angolan army is fighting on the side
of President Laurent Kabila.

Also, the government of the Republic of Congo, north of Angola,
has said that UNITA is supporting outlawed militia groups in
fighting there. The Angolan army has about 400 troops in the
Republic of Congo to support President Denis Sassou-Nguesso.

Western diplomats said UNITA was apparently seeking to spur
rebel military activity in those two countries as a way to prevent
the return of Angolan army troops stationed there.

The Angolan government has accused UNITA of employing
mercenaries from Ukraine, Serbia, Israel and South Africa to help
operate the tanks and sophisticated weaponry the rebels have bought
over the past year with revenue from their illegal diamond
operations in Angola.

The UNITA statement said that due to "an error of
coordination," rebel forces strayed into a minefield Wednesday in
Bie.

Ten rebel soldiers, including Lt. Col. Joao Chiwisi, were
killed and 25 were wounded by mines which also destroyed three
rebel military vehicles and artillery.

The statement also claimed that between Dec. 5 and Dec. 16,
rebel forces shot down five government jet fighters and knocked out
five tanks and 20 assault vehicles.

@ Nine people were killed and nine critically injured on Thursday
afternoon in a head-on collison between a taxi and a heavy-duty
vehicle 12km north of Naboomspruit.

Police spokesman Captain Blackie Swart said the 18 were all
occupants of the taxi. Several of the dead were decapitated.

They were five men, three women and a young girl.

The driver of the truck injured a leg.

The accident happened on the R101 (the old N1 highway) between
Naboomspruit and Potgietersrus at about 1.15pm.

Swart said the taxi was on its way from Pretoria to Pietersburg
when its right-rear tyre apparently burst, sending it crashing into
the truck.

The injured have been taken to the Voortrekker Hospital in
Potgietersrus.

@ ENERGY-WHITEPAPER

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa

GOVERNMENT WILL NO LONGER SET PRICE OF PETROL AND DIESEL

Government will in future no longer set the price of petrol and
diesel, according to the White Paper on Energy Policy released in
Pretoria on Thursday.

Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna told
reporters no timeframe had been set for the deregulation of the
liquid fuels industry, which would see prices determined by market
trends.

Deregulation would start only once the industry had become
representative of the country's population composition.

In terms of the White Paper, 25 percent of control of the
industry had to be vested in the hands of formerly disadvantaged
South Africans before the second phase - deregulation - could
start.

The first phase would also see legislation put in place to
reduce any possible negative impact of restructuring on job
opportunities.

Maduna said many of the objectives contained in the White Paper
ought to be achieved within the next 10 years.

Steps to ensure representivity in the liquid fuels industry
were already underway, and contracts for fuel exploration off South
African shores made provision for compulsory black participation.

"There haven't been takers as yet, but we are planning a
seminar to which we will invite those who want to participate in
the industry so that we can explain to them how they could come
in," Maduna said.

Black groups have also become involved in the marketing of oil
products, and some oil refining contracts allowed for black
economic empowerment bodies to source their own crude oil and use
the country's existing refining capacity.

Maduna said government wanted to "get out of the old system" of
regulating the liquid fuels industry.

"We are already looking into legislation that would enable us
to phase the state's involvement in the way it regulates the
industry. We want to play a totally different role in relation to
the industry."

Maduna also announced that the Central Energy Fund, which is
wholly owned by the state, would be restructured.

One of the consequences would be a partial privatisation of the
CEF's assets, while its exploration and production activities would
be commercialised.

On electricity supply, Maduna said the distribution sector
would be broken down into a small number of regional distributors.

Eskom would be restructured into separate generation and
transmission companies.

The government would set up a national electrification fund to
subsidise the industry, and poor households unable to afford
cost-based tariffs would receive "moderate" subsidies to be
determined in a transparent manner.

A national electricity tariff system would also be introduced
to ensure that tariffs charged by different distributors were
fairly similar.

The White Paper says the government would support electricity
distributors in determining strategies to deal with non-payment.

"The vision is to create an electricity supply system that is
financially viable, technically healthy and well managed," Maduna
said.

Turning to nuclear energy, he said this could not be excluded
as an option for the future, depending on its political and public
acceptability.

Government would ensure that decisions to construct new nuclear
power stations were taken in consultation with all stakeholders.

It would also investigate the management of radioactive waste
in South Africa, and monitor the industry to ensure general safety.

The economic and technical performance of the Koeberg nuclear
power station outside Cape Town would be probed, and proposals for
the restructuring of the Atomic Energy Corporation would be
considered, Maduna said.

He said the government was committed to promoting the use of
natural gas, and a gas regulatory authority would be set up to
oversee the development of a competitive piped gas industry.

The development of renewable energy resources such as solar,
wind, and hydro energy, would also be assessed.

Maduna said the White Paper marked an end to energy policies
governed by excessive secrecy.

Its overriding objectives include increasing access to
affordable energy services, particularly for the poor, improving
energy governance, stimulating economic development by providing
low-cost and high quality energy to the industrial and mining
sectors, and effectively managing energy-related environmental
impacts.

It also provides for barriers to energy trade and co-operation
in the southern African region to be reduced.

The document says the government may consider the use of levies
to fund regulatory agencies, and tax differentials may be
implemented to support the government's policy of promoting more
efficient and environmentally sound transport modes such as
diesel-driven vehicles.

Maduna said the White Paper should be translated into
legislation as soon as possible.

@ CENSUS

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

SA'S POPULATION UP 1,75 MILLION IN MID-1998 FROM OCT 1996

South Africa's population was estimated to have grown by 1,75
million by mid-1998 from 40,58 million in October 1996, Statictics
SA head Dr Mark Orkin said in a statement on Thursday.

This estimate was reached using the 1996 census figures as the
base population and applying the assumptions made in the estimation
of fertility and mortality.

The differences in methodology used in the 1991 census compared
to the 1996 census accounted for the variations in any results.

Thus, the estimates between the population polls for 1991 to
1995 published by Stats SA in June 1995 had been revised
independently of the 1991 figures, the statement said.

Previously, the mid-year estimates emphasised the breakdowns of
the four population groups, which was facilitated by available data
broken down according to these categories.

But from 1991, data was not collected by population group.

The requisite information for population projections and
mid-year estimates then had to found through indirect demographic
methods.

But these methods performed poorly when the numbers involved
were small. As population groups, aside from blacks, were mostly
concentrated in a few provinces the problem of small numbers would
crop up in analyses by province and population group.

For these reasons it was not feasible to give breakdowns by
population groups at provincial and national level, the statement
said.

@ POLICE-BMW

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

GAUTENG HIGHWAY PATROL GETS 50 NEW 328i BMWs

Sirens began wailing and Gauteng premier Mathole Motshekga gave
a salute when members of the highway patrol unit drove their new
BMW pursuit vehicles at the Kyalami race track in Johannesburg on
Thursday.

Fifty E36 328i BMWs - bought by the Gauteng Legislature from
BMW SA for R7,5 million - were officially handed over to the
police at a function at the race track.

Addressing journalists, BMW SA director of finance Peter Nelson
said the company was proud to be at the forefront of an initiative
to combat crime.

"We realise our responsibility towards our community, our
customers and associates. We chose to associate ourselves with an
initiative that will help our government and the South African
Police Service in combating crime."

He said the company was also doing this for its workers who
deserved their support.

"Everyday they go out and compete against the world in terms of
quality, reliability and productivity.

"Therefore, they deserve a safe environment for themselves and
their families. And only when this is achieved will we realise our
full potential as a company," Nelson said.

Nelson paid tribute to the police and wished them success in
the fight against crime, which he said was ravaging the country and
its economy.

BMW SA's recent R1 billion investment in a new plant facility
and the parent company's acceptance that it would produce new
vehicles for the world market showed that it was committed to South
Africa and its future.

He hoped that this would continue to provide an increased
number of South Africans with jobs, income and skills, and the
country with much needed foreign exchange and revenue.

Gauteng police commissioner Sharma Maharaj said a need for the
expansion of the highway patrol unit was evident.

The unit had been successful. It had recovered 1776 hijacked
vehicles, recovered 6800 stolen vehicles and had arrested thousands
of suspects.

He said the unit was used as a response unit in bank and
general robberies.

Quoting from a former Los Angeles police chief, Edwin Davis,
Maharaj said the ability of the police to perform their duties
depended on the public's approval of their existance, actions and
behaviour.

It also depended on their ability to secure and maintain public
respect.

Addressing the function, Motshekga said: "If we trawl a net of
security over our highveld landscape, we can round up criminals and
force them into their lairs, where we shall smoke them out with the
help of the community, which has to see that these devils are
delivered into the hands of the law".

He said criminals had to be hunted down until they had no where
to run, and one way to do that was by tackling crime in its own
backyard.

He said community safety could only be achieved once all
elements in society came together to form devoted partnerships.

"To achieve this harmony... the success of the partnership is
based on the assumption that both partners have something concrete
to gain by working in unison".

He said the partnership that was established between the
Gauteng Legislature and BMW SA was an excellent example of such an
united undertaking.

Gauteng safety and security MEC Paul Mashatile said the need to
improve the capacity of the police could not be over-emphasised.

"Crime is enemy number one and is threatening our new
democratic dispensation," he said.

Mashatile said the 50 BMWs alone would not bring down crime.
Their proper use and management was critical.

Johannesburg is to get 14 of the new vehicles, Pretoria nine,
the East Rand eight, the West Rand five, Soweto four, Vaal Rand
four and the North Rand six.

This was the second time that BMW has provided the Gauteng
police with vehicles. In January 1996, they presented police with
100 new vehicles.

@ TRADE-NOVEMBER

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa-INet-Bridge

NOVEMBER TRADE SURPLUS DUE TO MACHINERY IMPORT DECLINE

The 1.0592 billion rand swing in South Africa's foreign trade
balance from a 511.5 million rand deficit in October to a 547.7
million rand surplus in November was largely due to a 731.4 million
rand decline in machinery imports.

Imports declined by 1.3424 billion rand or 9.9% from October to
12.2097 billion rand in November, while exports slipped by 283.2
million rand or just 2.2% to 12.7574 billion rand in November. The
consensus forecast for the November trade data had been a surplus
of 200 million rand with a range from a surplus of 500 million rand
to a deficit of 500 million rand. The rand gained on the data to a
best level of 5.87 rand per dollar after starting the day at 5.9950
rand per dollar.

Machinery imports have been boosted this year by the
telecommunication equipment needs of Telkom as well as the
completion of the Saldanha Bay steel plant. Despite the decline in
November from October, machinery imports were still 18.2% higher
than November last year. The cumulative increase for the first 11
months is a massive 31.4%, the largest cumulative increase for any
import category. So far machinery imports account for 36.1% of
total imports this year.

Only 1 import category - paper and pulp - of the 22
categories registered an increase in November on October, as import
demand declines towards the end of the year. Total imports were
nonetheless 12.6% higher than November last year.

There were further declines of 138.8 million rand and 107.3
million rand in the agricultural export categories of vegetable -
largely maize - and prepared foodstuffs - largely sugar -
respectively. In November the respective totals were 210 million
rand and 569.5 million rand, which reflected the ending of their
harvests. The peak in vegetable exports was 707.6 million rand in
September, and for prepared foodstuffs it was 986.2 million rand in
the same month.

So far in the fourth quarter, the foreign trade data reflect a
surplus of 36.2 million rand compared with a deficit of 3.064
billion rand in the third quarter.

The December data traditionally reflected a surplus, but that
included the exports of the other Southern African Customs Union
members. This year for the first time they have been excluded.

@ LABOUR-SEREMANE

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa

SEREMANE TO TAKE HANEKOM TO THE LABOUR COURT

Sacked land claims commissioner Joe Seremane is to sue
Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom in the Labour
Court for an apology and compensation for loss of income,
Seremane's lawyer said on Thursday.

Lukas Coetsee said this followed the failure earlier in the day
of the two parties to reach settlement before the Commission for
Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

"We were left with two options - arbitration or the Labour
Court - and we opted for the latter," he said. The court documents
would be served within days.

Agriculture and Land Affairs director-general Geoff Budlender,
who represented Hanekom atThursay's CCMA hearing, said it was up
to the commission to decide whether the matter would be referred
for arbitration or to the Labour Court.

"We will oppose the case either way."

Coetsee claimed Seremane was unfairly dismissed because no
hearing was held to supply the reason for his axing.

"He was only told to supply reasons why he should not be
dismissed. No evidence against him was presented to a formal
hearing."

Seremane would apply to the Labour Court to have his dismissal
declared unfair, for an apology for the way in which he was
treated, and for compensation for his loss of income since he was
fired in November.

Budlender said he was completely satisfied that Seremane's
dismissal had been fair and lawful.

"I was not persuaded by the arguments put forward by Mr
Seremane's legal team today why they consider the dismissal to have
been unfair and unlawful."

Hanekom dismissed Seremane last month citing divisions between
Seremane and his fellow commissioners.

Seremane claimed he was sacked because of criticism he had
levelled against the minister and the land restitution process.

@ ENERGY-NNP

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

NNP WELCOMES DEREGULATION OF LIQUID FUELS INDUSTRY

The New National Party on Thursday welcomed the deregulation of
the liquid fuel industry, but warned that it should not be limited
to the abolition of price control.

All aspects of the industry should be deregulated, NNP minerals
and energy spokesman Adriaan Blaas said in a statement.

"If price control alone is to be abolished, then the smaller
operators will not be able to exist, and it will lead to job
losses," he said.

"Cognisance should also be taken regarding aspects such as
transport costs, import policies, purchasing of fuel-related
products, and export prices of synthetic fuel products."

Blaas said it was heartening to note that Minerals and Energy
Minister Penuell Maduna was dealing with deregulation in a
responsible manner by allowing for a phased approach.

Maduna earlier in the day released the White Paper on Energy
Policy in Pretoia.

He said no timeframe had been set for the deregulation of the
liquid fuel industry, which would only start once the industry had
become representative of the country's population composition.

In terms of the White Paper, 25 percent of control of the
industry had to be vested in the hands of formerly disadvantaged
South Africans before the second phase, deregulation, could start.

@ ANGLO-DEBEERS

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

ANGLO TO ACQUIRE VARIOUS DE BEERS' ASSETS

Anglo American Corporation (AAC) announced in Johannesburg
Thursday it had reached agreement with De Beers whereby AAC would
acquire various listed and unlisted assets from the SA-based
diamond group.

It follows the AAC and Minorco annoucement of October 15 that
they had agreed, in principle, to combine their businesses to
establish Anglo American plc in London and that certain actions
would be taken to simplify their corporate structures and pursue
increased shareholder value.

Subject to shareholders' approval and that of the exchange
control department of South African Reserve Bank, AAC will from
January 1 acquire a portolio from De Beers including interests in
Anglo American Platinum Corporation (Amplats), Mondi, Namakwa Sands
and Samancor.

The consideration for the portfolio will be the issue to De
Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) of a letter of entitlement to
15993515 AAC ordinary shares and the issue to De Beers Centenary AG
(DBCAG) of a letter of entitlement 1855218 AAC ordinary shares.

@ DOROTHY NYEMBE - A TITAN OF STRUGGLE IS NO MORE!

Issued by: African National Congress

A heart of a lioness has ceased to beat. The lioness roars no
more. Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe is no more. The ANC in KwaZulu Natal
announces with great sadness the untimely passing away of the South
African stalwart, Comrade Dorothy Nyembe, "Mam D" as she was
popularly known in the ranks of the ANC. She passed away this
morning as she was preparing to meet with other veterans of struggle
on the occasion of the 37th Anniversary of our erstwhile people's
army, Umkhonto we Sizwe. She decided to leave us only a day after
observing the celebrations in honour of South African heroes who
died with their boots on at Ncome in 1838.

"Mam D" was born on the 31st of December 1931 at Thalane,
northern KwaZulu Natal near Dundee. She leaves behind a daughter,
six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Yet she leaves
behind millions of South Africans and the Young Lions she mothered
during her long service in the struggle. She leaves a deep void
which will be difficult to feel.

As an African woman who grew up under apartheid colonialism in a
rural environment, she was a victim from his first birthday. Dorothy
Nyembe, like all African women, did not simply lament about her
condions. She sought to change the world around her and that of all
black South Africans. That naturally led her to the ranks of the ANC
in 1952.

1952 was the year of Defiance Campaign against all the
discriminatory laws of successive racist regimes. "Mam D" found
herself occupying the forward trenches of that campaign. She filed
through the ranks until she became the Deputy Chairperson of the ANC
Women's League in Natal. She worked closely with stalwarts like
Chief Albert Lutuli, M.B. Yengwa, Moses Mabhida, M.P. Naicker,
Nelson Mandela, Lilian Ngoyi, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.

In 1956 she was one of the leaders of the struggle especially in
rural areas and was one of the leading lights of the defiant women's
movement in South Africa. She was notorious' for leading beer hall
boycotts which were aimed at destroying the only viable economic
activity by Africans in the black ghetos, the brewing of traditional
beer.

When the time came to South Africa and there were only two
choices - submit or fight - Dorothy Nyembe had no choice but to
fight. From the very beginning when the ANC was banned in 1960, she
joined its underground structures and when Umkhonto we Sizwe was
formed on December 16 1961, she was part of it.

In 1963 she was sentenced to three years for serving a banned
organisation, the ANC. When she came out of prison in 1966, she was
banned with the most stringent restrictions. Like all serious
revolutionaries, she found space to organise for the ANC and
Umkhonto we Sizwe under the very nose of fascism. In 1968 the
apartheid spy- web finally caught up with her. She was heavily
tortured and finally sentenced to a long-term imprisonment of
fifteen years which she fully served at the then notorious Barberton
Prison.

When the apartheid capitalist system encacerated "Mam D" in its
fascist dungeons, the Soviet Union awarded her one of its greatest
decorations, the USSR People's Friedship Award. When she emerged
from prison she was as strong as she ever was. She had no time to
enjoy life in a bigger prison, the apartheid South Africa. She again
became a leader of the ANC underground and part of the structures of
Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Her wisdom and experience taught many generations of struggle.
The path she traversed was long and a thorny one. It was precisely
because of this recognition and appreciation that the ANC in
Southern Natal awarded Dorothy Nyembe the Chief Albert Lutuli Award
in 1992 for her absolute commitment and dedication to the national
liberation struggle.

In 1994 after the first democratic elections, she was one of the
pioneer Members of the National Assembly and one of the founding
mothers and fathers of the South African democratic constitution.
Dorothy Nyembe may rest in peace now. She will rest in peace for she
died a day after our heroes whose remains lie strewn along the
sacred Ncome River were finally recognised and honoured. She will
rest in peace for she knows that the struggle continues and must
continue for her colleagues - Florence Mkhize, Tryphina "Mamboxela"
Njokweni, Gladys Manzi and Alzina Zondi remain at the helm of the
struggle.

Dorothy Nyembe was no criminal as those who want to rewrite the
history of struggle and misrepresent it would want us to believe.
She was a freedom fighter! We who are the offsprings of Dorothy "Mam
D" Nyembe will continue to drink from her deep well of wisdom and
honour her spirit of no surrender. May her spirit propel us forward!
Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe lives!

>From the ANC KwaZulu Natal Provincial Executive Committee.
Date: 17 December 1998.
N.B. Funeral arrangements will be announced later
For further contact Dumisani Makhaye at 082 5519192.

@ REGISTER-UPDATE

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

15 PARTIES ALREADY REGISTERED WITH IEC

A total of 15 political parties had so far registered with the
Independent Electoral Commission, the commission announced on
Thursday.

They are: Keep It Straight and Simple (KISS), Dabalorivhuwa
Patriotic Front (DPF), Unied Democratic Movement (UDM), Inkatha
Freedom Party (IFP), New Earth Party (NEP), United Christian
Democratic Party (UCDP), Christian Democratic Party (CDP), Freedom
Front (FF), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Conservative Party (CP),
African National Congress (ANC), Mass United Movement (MUM),
Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo), National Coloured Party
(NCP) and God's Peoples Party (GPP).

Seven more political parties had lodged applications for
registration as political parties, the IEC said in a statement. The
applications were being processed by Chief Electoral Officer Mandla
Mchunu.

The parties are the Socialist Party of Azania (Sopa), the
People's Progressive Party (PPP), South African Freedom Alliance
(SAFA), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Democratic Party
(DP), Vukuzenzele Sekusile Party (VSP) and the Insindiso Salvation
Christian Voice Organisation.

Several individuals had also made inquiries about the procedure
to be followed when registering a party. This indicated there were
more applications that would be lodged with the IEC after the
Christmas and New Year holidays.

Registration of a party by the IEC did not necessarily mean
that the party had registered for the elections next year.

"It is only after the submission of the list of party
candidates and the payment of a deposit that a political party will
be confirmed as part of the election process," the IEC said.

The number of voter registrations processed by the IEC had
increased to 9376247 by 3.30pm on Thursday, the statement said.

Officials were still collating information and details of
voters who took part in the first round of registrations at the end

of November and the beginning of December.

Latest figures supplied by the IEC indicated that so far
1328577 voters registered in the Eastern Cape, 706983 in the Free
State, 2072979 in Gauteng, 1856532 in KwaZulu-Natal, 661451 in
Mpumalanga, 212562 in the Northern Cape, 1069168 in the Northern
Province, 698680 in the North West Province, and 769315 in the
Western Cape.

Voters will have a further chance to register in January and
February.

@ PUBLIC-RETRENCH

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

PUBLIC SERVICE MUCH REDUCED ALREADY: DEPARTMENT

The number of public service employees had already been reduced
from 1285558 to 1146810 in April this year, the Department of
Public Service said on Thursday.

Reacting to media reports that the government was reneging on
its retrenchment plan, departmental spokesman Collen Msibi said the
government had already done a lot to rightsize the public service
by abolishing funded vacancies, thus saving millions of rand.

The current approach was to focus on restructuring for service
delivery and efficiency.

"With that approach, the progress so far is that an agreement
was signed between the state and public service unions that the
Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) will have
to introduce and oversee a skills audit in the public service with
a view to match service delivery with personnel and skills
requirements."

To do this, the PSCBC would appoint a committee to identify
departments and provincial administrations that should be
prioritized for an audit.

It would also oversee the implementation of the audit and
report regularly on its progress to the PSCBC, Msibi said.

The audit would determine the number of employees within the
registered scope of the PSCBC, skills needed for service delivery
and mechanisms to redeploy employees in redundant positions to jobs
needed to improve service delivery.

@ VIRODENE

PRETORIA December 17 1998 Sapa

MCC REJECTS APPLICATION FOR VIRODENE CLINICAL TRIALS

The Medicines Control Council has rejected an application for
clinical trials to be conducted with the purported anti-Aids drug
Virodene, saying its decision was based on science and questions of
public safety.

In a statement in Pretoria on Thursday, the MCC said the
Virodene researchers could provide no evidence of the drug's
efficacy during the 22 months their application was under review.

Their research also had a number of fundamental scientific
shortcomings.

"The unanimous decision that has now been reached has involved
some of the best scientific and clinical minds in the country," the
council said.

"As Virodene is unregistered, with no proven benefit for the
treatment of HIV/Aids, the use of the product is unlawful."

MCC registrar Precious Matsoso said this was the first official
rejection of the researchers' request to conduct clinical trials.
It did not preclude the scientists from making another application.

The council said it recognised the need to develop safe,
effective and affordable treatments for HIV/Aids, and had committed
itself to provde all the appropriate support to researchers
applying for clinical trials.

Since the Virodene researchers made their application in
January last year, numerous meetings had taken place between them
and MCC scientists.

"In the course of these meetings the council members attempted
to advise the Virodene researchers on the problems encountered in
their application," the statement said.

"The clinical data that was presented to council to support the
investigators' argument for efficacy contained duplications,
incorrect figures and omissions."

At a meeting on Thursday last week, the council took a
unanimous decision to reject the application, based on hours of
deliberation and a recommendation from its clinical trials
committee.

The council said it could not convey detailed reasons for its
rejection, as this was prohibited by law.

@ MANDELA-AGED

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

MANDELA ACKNOWLEDGES ROLE OF OLDER PEOPLE

President Nelson Mandela on Thursday acknowledged the role
older people played in laying the foundations for democracy in
South Africa.

A message from the president was read by Welfare and Population
Development Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi at the launch of the
South African leg of next year's International Year of Older
Persons.

"A society that does not value its older people denies its
roots and endangers its future," Mandela said. "As we celebrate
with the world, we must redouble our efforts to address the
problems older people face in our society."

Mandela said older people had wisdom, knowledge, talents, and
skills that could be used in the country's development.

Speaking at the Soweto Home for the Aged, Fraser-Moleketi said
next year would present an opportunity for South Africans to
highlight the value, dgnity and rights of older persons.

@ OBIT-NYEMBE

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

ANC STALWART DOROTHY "MAM D" NYEMBE DIES

Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe, one of the pioneer members of South
Africa's National Assembly and a fellow founder of the
Constitution, on Thursday morning died at her Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal
home.

Nyembe - popularly known as "Mam D" - was 66.

She died while getting ready to attend the 37th anniversary
celebrations of the African National Congress' former military
wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), ANC spokesman Dumisani Makhaye said.

Nyembe joined the anti-apartheid struggle in 1952, the year of
the Defiance Campaign, and went underground with MK after the ANC
was banned in 1960.

She worked closely with other stalwarts of the struggle,
including Chief Albert Lutuli, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and
Nelson Mandela.

In 1963 she was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.
"When she came out in 1966 she was banned under the most stringent
restrictions," Makhaye said.

She was arrested in 1968 and sentenced to 15 years in jail at
the notorious Barberton prison, said Makhaye. During that time the
former Soviet Union awarded her the USSR People's Friendship Award.

After her release she rejoined MK ranks and in 1992 was given
the Albert Lutuli Award.

"We who are the offspring of Dorothy "Mam D" Nyembe will
continue to drink from her deep well of wisdom, and honour her
spirit of no surrender. May her spirit propel us forward," Makhaye
said.

@ ZIM-ECONOMY

HARARE, Dec 17, Sapa-AFP

BROAD-BASED TALKS RESUME IN ZIMBABWE ON ECONOMIC CRISIS

Government, business and labour leaders in Zimbabwe on Thursday
resumed talks aimed at ending the country's economic crisis and
agreed to continue negotiations in the new year.

"Dialogue has started and it is a process of negotiations, it's
not a one-day event," said Gibson Sibanda, president of the
powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which forced the
government into the crisis talks through mass national strikes.

Labour and Social Welfare Minister Florence Chitauro said all
issues on the agenda had been discussed, including the economic
impact of Zimbabwe's military intervention in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.

The talks, attended by several cabinet ministers, also touched
on macroeconomic issues such as the diving value of the Zimbabwean
dollar.

While no concrete decisions were made Thursday, the ZCTU
appeared more optimistic about the talks' potential than it did
after similar meetings flopped last week, when the unions felt the
goverment was evading the real issues.

"We were not coming up with concrete decisions today because we
are still in a process of information, suggestions and so on. And I
want to believe that most of the suggestions given are being
considered positively (by government)," said Chitauro at a news
conference given jointly by labour and business representatives.

Sibanda, whose movement has in recent weeks brought the entire
country to a standstill through mass protests, said strike calls
would be put on hold pending further negotiations.

@ MPUMALANGA-TAXIS

NELSPRUIT December 17 1998 Sapa

TAXI DRIVERS IGNORE REGISTRATION DRIVE IN MPUMALANGA

Only 200 taxis were registered with Mpumalanga's transport
department by Thursday, despite a warning that unregistered taxis
would be barred from using major ranks.

The drive to register taxis is an attempt to stem the number of
dead in taxi conflicts: about 70 in recent months, African Eye News
reported.

Transport MEC Jackson Mthembu said large segments of the taxi
industry seemed to have ignored attempts to regulate it.

The province extended an initial deadline last week to get more
taxis to register. Only 19 taxis did so after the extension.

Mthembu said police and traffic officers had been ordered to
prevent taxis not displaying registration from using Nelspruit's
largest taxi rank.

The rank was closed five weeks ago after running street battles
between drivers belonging to the South African Long Distance Taxi
Association and the Federated Long Distance Taxi Association.

@ MANUEL-NDUNGANE

CAPE TOWN December 17 1998 Sapa

MANUEL, NDUNGANE, MEET ON PUBLIC SERVICE PENSION DEBT

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Thursday met Cape Town's
Anglican Archbishop, Njongonkulu Ndungane, to discuss restructuring
the government's debt to the public service pension fund.

Manuel and members of his staff, including finance
director-general Maria Ramos, met Ndungane at his official
residence, Bishopscourt, to talk about South Africa's debt burden
and ways in which resources could be made available for the
upliftment of the country's poor.

In a statement released after the meeting, Ndungane said
general agreement was reached, and restructuring would be done
after an actuarial report was submitted to the minister in March
next year.

"The feeling of some groupings within our country is that there
could be a rescheduling of... civil service pensions - without
necessarily raiding the pension fund - in order to make money
available for the much-needed social services and upliftment of
people," Ndungane told journalists after his meeting with Manuel.

The archbishop later said it needed to be emphasised that he
was not suggesting a cancellation of the debt. He did not want
anyone to be prejudiced.

"Our enire objective is to ensure a stable and smooth
transition within the financial arrangements, as they affect all
the people of our land," he said.

"It is our hope and intention to have further discussions..."

Manuel said South Africa's debt, which made up the
second-largest item in the fiscus, could be divided into three
segments. These were:

- foreign debt;

- debt owed to the private sector, and

- debt associated with public service pensions.

He said the way in which debt was dealt with was important.

"Whether there's room to restructure the pension fund is
something that the task team set up by the job summit will give
attention to."

It was also important not just to focus on debt in the pension
fund in particular, but also to look at interest payments. This was
the biggest problem facing South Africa.

"I think we agree that at a debt to GDP ratio of around 55
percent, South Africa is not highly indebted," he said.

Ndungane said apartheid debt affected not only South Africa,
but the whole region. It was an odious debt which needed to be
cancelled.

The people who loaned money to the previous regime had done so
in the full knowledge that apartheid was a crime against humanity,
he said.

The Jubilee 2000 campaign to eradicate debt in developing
countries was also canvassed during the meeting.

Earlier this month the Archbishop wrote to Manuel, expressng
concern that South Africa's foreign debt had increased dramatically
according to figures researched by German and Swiss economists.
This was a matter being pursued by Jubilee 2000.

"I was able to inform the minister that there is now a broad
alliance of organisations in South Africa addressing the debt
issue, and that countless millions of people are anxiously waiting
to see what the government's reaction will be," Ndungane said in
his statement.

He went on to say of Manuel: "His willingness to become
involved in such discussions reaffirms the commitment to
transparency of this government - in the past, as leaders of our
particular churches, we did not enjoy that ready access."

@ ANGOLA-UN

NEW YORK December 17 1998 Sapa-DPA

MAJOR FIGHTING IN CENTRAL ANGOLA, U.N. SAYS

"Major fighting" has taken place in the central part of Angola
despite international appeals on Angolan parties to return to the
peace process, the United Nations said Thursday.

"The current hostilities represent a further setback to the
efforts of the international community to reactivate the peace
process and have resulted in a rapidly spreading humanitarian
crisis," U.N. chief Kofi Annan said in a statement.

The statement provided no details of the fighting. But it
expressed Annan's "dismay" at accusations made by the Luanda
government that the United Nations was to blame for the new
fighting.

It said Angolan parties missed an historic opportunity to restore
peace under the Lusaka peace agreements.

It said the "precarious security situation" in Angola has
seriously curtailed U.N. mediation and verification efforts. The
more than 1,000 peacekeepers have been regrouped to major cities in the
country.

"The United Nations will soon have to decide whether it can still
play a useful peacekeeping role in the present rapidly diminishing
security and political space," the statement said.

@ MBEKI ATTENDANCE OF THE OAU SUMMIT IN OUAGADOUGOU

Issued by: Office of Deputy President

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki attended the Opening Session of the
Summit of the Central Organ of the OAU in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
which began on Thursday 17 December. The Deputy President who is
accompanied by among others Deputy Minister and Deputy Director of
Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad and Wehile Nhlapo respectively arrived
in Burkina Faso in the early hours of Thursday 17 December ahead of
the Summit.

The Opening Session of the Summit was addressed by OAU
Chairperson Blaise Compaore, president of Burkina Faso. The Summit
is convened in an attempt to find an amicable resolution to and give
impetus to regional efforts aimed at ending the current conflict
situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea Bissau,
Ethiopia/Eritrea, Angola and The Comores.

The Summit is scheduled to end its business by Friday 18
December whereupon the Deputy President will return to South Africa.

Fore more info contact Ronnie Mamoepa at 09-871-761-864-728

Issued by the Office of Deputy President T.M Mbeki
17 December 1998
Ouagadougou

@ OAU-LD-WAR

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso December 17 1998 Sapa-AP

IN SEARCH OF PEACE IN WARRING AFRICA

Insurgents, dignitaries, presidents and prime ministers
gathered in Burkina Faso's capital Thursday in search of peace on a
continent scarred by war.

Delegates from the Organization of African Unity concluded
their first closed-door session without comment. The session
focused on conflicts from the Congo to Angola to the Horn of
Africa, where Ethiopia and Eritrea continue to grapple over a land
dispute.

Congolese President Laurent Kabila criticized the OAU for
failing to take a stand on the civil war in his country, which he
says is an act of aggression by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

"This is an aggression by two members countries of the
Organization of African Unity, yet the OAU has no official position
in the face of this aggression," Kabila told delegates.

There were no major breakthroughs during the first session, a
Burkina Faso government official said on condition of anonymity. A
second session was scheduled for Thursday night.

Urging member states of the OAU to search for peace, Burkina
Faso's President Blaise Compaore said African nations must take
responsibility for their future to ensure security for development.

"As we near the end of the 20th century, with certain regions
of our continent facing crisis and complexity we must ask the
question of ourselves: `What have we done to reach this
objective?"' Compaore said during the summit's opening ceremony.

The theme of the gathering - peace and conflict resolution -
appeared lost, however, on summit security agents and Chadian
presidential bodyguards who brawled on the front steps of the
conference center.

The fight began when the Chadians were told they could not
accompany their president into the conference center.

The incident delayed the start of the opening ceremonies.

Of central focus during the talks is Congo, where at least five
countries are embroiled in bitter fighting.

Kabila, among other warring leaders involved in the Congo
conflict who were at the summit, said he would consider signing a
cease-fire agreement if it included a timeline for the withdrawal
of foreign forces in Congo.

"If we sign a cease-fire pact with the aggressors, it must be
linked to a calender," he said. "We cannot sign any agreement if
we don't know when the aggressors are going to leave our country."

A rebel uprising earlier this year threatened to topple
Kabila's regime until troops and warplanes from Angola and Zimbabwe
intervened on his behalf.

Rwandan and Ugandan backing has helped prop up the rebel
movement, which continues to control portions of eastern Congo.

Speaking from the eastern Congolese city of Goma, rebel leader
Arthur Zahidi Ngoma said his movement would be willing toagree to
the withdrawal of foreign armies from Congo once a pact was signed
with Kabila.

"Once we achieve an agreement with Kabila, there will be no
need for foreign powers to stay in Congo," he said.

Heads of state or delegates representing all sides, including a
team from the rebels, are in Ouagadougou for the two-day meeting.

Congo is not the only scene of fighting on the continent.
Ethiopia and Eritrea continue to search for a resolution to their
territorial dispute; rebels and government troops in Guinea-Bissau
are struggling to create a new government; and Angola's
longstanding rebel war is lurching back into gear.

And there are more, including growing hostilities in the
Republic of Congo, where government forces are battling an outlawed
militia force called the Ninjas.

@ US-AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG December 17 1998 Sapa

AMERICAN CONSULATES STAY CLOSED AS SECURITY PRECAUTION

American consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban which
were closed on Thursday because of the possibility of violent
reaction to the American strikes against Iraq will stay closed
Friday.

The US State Department on Thursday ordered that about 40 US
embassies in sub-Saharan Africa close for two days in response to
possible security threats linked to the Iraqi military campaign.

Bruce Warton, the media officer for the US embassy in Pretoria,
told Sapa no reports of threats to Americans or American interests
had been reported.

He said people had not be able to apply for American visas on
Thursday - neither would they be able to apply on Friday.

People in Johannesburg who were due to collect passports at the
end of this week had the option of fetching them from the embassy
in Pretoria, which remained open. People in Durban and Cape Town
would have to wait until Monday to pick up their travel documents.

"As far as I know, things will resume as normalon Monday,"
said Warton.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Marco Boni said he had not been
informed of the decision to close the consulates for two days.

"It is a decision the Americans took for themselves. Why should
they inform us?" he said.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin announced on Thursday
that the only African embassies which would remain open were
Pretoria, Lagos, and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

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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 21 DECEMBER 1998

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

@ CHRISTMAS-DIPICO

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

DIPICO WISHES SOUTH AFRICANS PEACEFUL FESTIVE SEASON

Northern Cape premier Manne Dipico on Friday wished South
Africans a peaceful festive season and urged all to begin the new
year by assisting law enforcement agencies in the fight against
crime.

The festive season was the time for goodwill and fellowship,
and those on the roads should drive carefully, he said.

"May the glow of the festive season fill your heart with joy
and peace this festive season and in the year ahead.

"On behalf of the members of the executive committee, members
of the provincial legislature, the entire provincial administration
and the people of the province, may I take this opportunity to wish
each and every one of you a merry Christmas and a blessed Chanukah
and a happy New Year," he said.

@ ACCIDENT-POLICE

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

POLICE BMW ACCIDENT TO BE PROBED

Johannesburg police are to launch an investigation into events
that led to six new BMW pursuit vehicles donated to the highway
patrol unit crashing on the M1 South on Thursday.

Spokesman Director Azwindini Nengovhela on Friday said one car
leading a convoy of 50 vehicles reacted to what was happening on
the road and braked.

The other cars crashed into each other, but no-one was injured.

"Whatever happened, it is going to be subject to an
investigation," said Nengovhela.

>From what he gathered, it looked like only the bodies of the
cars were damaged.

Hours before the accident, the vehicles bought by the Gauteng
legislature from BMW SA for R7,5 million, were officially handed to
the police at a function at Kyalami race track.

The New National Party on Friday said it would demand an
inquiry into the incident.

The NNP's provincial leader Johan Kilian said the 50 cars were
bought at the expense of the taxpayer and were damaged within hours
after they were handed over to the police.

He said the "former elite flying squad" had a long and proud
history of success.

"Unfortunately the silly and very costly highway pile-up that
occurred only hours after the handing over ceremony is clearly the
result of poor discipline and juvenile showmanship," Kilian said in
a statement.

This indicated the levels of training and discipline were now
below acceptable standards.

The premier should note that effective police management,
discipline and training should become an absolute priority, Kilian
said.

@ REGISTER-EASTCAPE

BISHO December 18 1998 Sapa

VOLUNTEERS ENSURED PUBLIC SERVICE TRANSFORMATION: DG

The contribution of the volunteer civil servants during voter
registration indicated transformation was taking place in the
public service, acting Eastern Cape director-general Ian Weir said
on Friday.

He said in a statement in Bisho the contribution was also an
entrenchment of the concept of putting people first. The government
was impressed by the level of discipline displayed by the civil
servants in performing their duties and their patriotism.

@ IRAQ-CP

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

NZO'S CRITICISM OF US, UK TYPICAL OF ANC DOUBLE STANDARDS: CP

Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo's criticism of air strikes
against Iraq by the United States and Britain was typical of the
African National Congress' double standards, the Conservative Party
said on Friday.

"The government's stance is surprising considering South
Africa's recent military intervention into Lesotho, an independent
state whose internal affairs are none of South Africa's concern,"
CP foreign affairs spokesman Pieter Aucamp said in a statement in
Pretoria.

Nzo on Thursday said South Africa did not believe that the use
of force would resolve the dispute over Iraq's non-compliance with
United Nations resolutions.

Aucamp said the ANC had proved in the past that it was not
opposed to the use of violence, even if civilian casualties were
the result.

@ IRAQ-MAGO

CAPE TOWN December 18 1998 Sapa

MUSLIMS CONDEMN US ATTACK ON IRAQ

A group calling itself Muslims Against Global Oppression on
Friday condemned the American and British air attacks on Iraq.

"It has once again become painfully evident that the United
States and its allies have an utter disregard for the sanctity of
life and the preservation of peace and justice," MAGO said in a
statement.

The American government would do everything in its power to
divert attention from the issues confronting it, said MAGO.

The group said it was not too long ago that the world witnessed
the bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan "in the light of President
Bill Clinton's confession that he had engaged in an extra-marital
affair with Monica Lewinsky.

"On the eve of a debate and vote that may have led to the
president's impeachment as a result of this affair, the order is
given to bomb Iraq.

"The order was not merely coincidental sice it ultimately
results in the postponement of the impeachment proceedings and will
furthermore affect the outcome of the vote," the group said.

MAGO said it would continue to promote awareness about the
hypocritical and self-serving foreign policies of the United States
and its allies.

"We will continue to monitor the actions of the US and Britain
and inform the public of the truth behind the falsehood."

@ CRIME-POPCRU

DURBAN December 18 1998 Sapa

POPCRU CLAIMS SUCCESS IN CRIME PREVENTION CAMPAIGN

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union on Friday said it
had, together with the police from Umlazi, south of Durban,
arrested about 30 suspects and seized three loads of dagga during
its crime prevention campaign in the area.

The campaign, funded by the union,. was launched on Wednesday
and about 200 policemen from Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape joined
local police to conduct foot patrols, roadblocks and searches.

The members would not be paid for rendering the service as they
were working in their free time.

The union's deputy president, Boas Motjetsi, told Sapa the
campaign was successful.

"We are receiving great support from the community and people
are very happy about the campaign," Motjetsi said.

He said the suspects were arrested in connection with traffic
offences.

"We are not able at this stage to determine whether crime has
decreased in the area or not, but I am pleased with our members'
performance," he said.

Provincial police spokesman Director Bala Naidoo said he
received a report about two loads of dagga which were seized by
police.

However, he said the report had not been confirmed.

Commenting on provincial safety and security MEC Nyanga
Ngubane's disapproval of the campaign, Motjetsi said the operation
would continue.

"We are serving the victims of crime and no-one can stop us
from fighting crime in our communities," Motjetsi said.

He said earlier the union wrote letters to Ngubane and
KwaZulu-Natal premier Ben Ngubane inviting them to a meeting to
discuss the matter, but they were not available for the meeting.

The MEC was on Friday morning quoted by SABC radio news as
saying the province did not appreciate the presence of policemen
from Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

He said he never made any request of police assistance either
to Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi or national police
commissioner George Fivaz.

The MEC could not be reached for comment by Sapa on Friday
morning.

The campaign will continue until the end of the month, but the
policemen from Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape are expected to
return to their provinces on Friday evening.

@ HOLOMISA-SUITCASE

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

HOLOMISA LOSES SUITCASE AT JHB AIRPORT, FEARS POISONING

After losing his suitcase at Johannesburg International Airport
two days ago, United Democratic Party leader Bantu Holomisa on
Friday expressed fear that it could have been stolen by state
intelligence operatives bent on poisoning his clothing.

"I have told South African Airways that if they ever find it,
they should do laboratory tests on it and its contents before they
hand it over to me," said Holomisa from Mzimkhulu in Transkei on
Friday.

Holomisa booked an 8.50am flight to East London on Wednesday,
but arrived late. Johannesburg airport staff told him to leave his
suitcase behind, saying it would follow on an 11am flight.

When he arrived in East London he was told by staff that his
suitcase would follow. "The fact that she confirmed it made me
comfortable," said Holomisa.

He sent his driver to East London, but the suitcase with
reference number EL SSA 16113 and tag XTSA 207784 could not be
found.

"They claim to have weighed it in and they suspect that it got
lost between the weigh-in and the plane. There was no evidence that
it was loaded into the plane.

"I suspect three things. Either it has been stolen or there is
a mischief by members of the state intelligence service who might
have thought that there is something else in it.

"Thirdly, it might happen that someone took it by mistake,"
said Holomisa. If this was the case, Holomisa appealed to anyone
who might have the suitcase to contact him at 0825524156.

He said there was nothing secret in the suitcase. It contained
his clothes and UDM policy documents on how to compile a
parliamentary list for next year.

"I do not want to jump to conclusion at the moment but I'm
panicking that it might have been taken to be doctored".

SAA spokesman Nick Bull was not immediately available for
comment.

@ JUSTICE-FINLAND

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

FINLAND DONATES R3,5 MILLION TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

The government of Finland on Friday donated R3,5 million to
South Africa's Justice Department for a new management system of
magistrate's courts in the country.

Justice Minister Dullah Omar said in Pretoria that there were
500 magistrate's courts in South Africa, and the new management
system had decentralised them into 14 clusters.

"The money is going to be used over the next two years to train
staff in the clusters so that courts can be better organised and
therefore the quality of justice will improve," he said.

Finland's ambassador to South Africa, Brotherus Tapani, said
the donation would also be used to improve the administration of
magistrate's courts.

"This donation is a very important step between the
co-operation of Finland and the Justice Department," he said.

An agreement on the donation was signed by Omar and Tapani.

@ CORRUPTION-SITHOLE

CAPE TOWN December 18 1998 Sapa

SITHOLE REJECTS CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS

Correctional Services national commissioner Khulekani Sithole
on Friday rejected "with contempt" media allegations of his
involvement in corruption within the department.

The Mail and Guardian newspaper on Friday claimed, among other
things, that Sithole was running a private soccer team out of his
department, using its resources to finance the team.

In a lead article, the newspaper said the accusation was one of
several allegations of corruption contained in a memorandum given
to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki by senior staff in Sithole's
department, asking Mbeki to launch an investigation.

Rejecting the allegations, Sithole said the source (of the
memorandum) was very well known to the department, and was in fact
herself being investigated for financial irregularities within the
department.

Some of the allegations contained in the report had already
been investigated by the auditor-general, and those remaining would
be handed over for proper investigation, Sithole said.

A spokesman for Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana said
the minister had taken cognisance of the contents of the article,
and would be seeking a meeting with Mbeki as soon as possible to
discuss the memorandum.

@ ZIM-CONGO

HARARE December 18 1998 Sapa-AP

ZIMBABWE OFFICERS DISCIPLINED, TROOP MORALE DOWN IN CONGO

Five senior army officers have been court marshaled for
indiscipline and inciting mutiny among Zimbabwean troops fighting
in the Congo, a newspaper reported Friday.

One of the officers, a battalion commander, allegedly refused
to obey orders during active service, the Zimbabwe Independent
reported.

There was no immediate response from the Defense Ministry in
Harare and calls to the army's chief spokesman in Harare were not
returned.

The Independent said another of the five, identified as a Maj.
Tuhwe, was cashiered from the service for inciting disaffection,
fear, alarm and despondency among troops serving in the Congo.

It said military intelligence bugged his home telephone and
heard him say in a call from the front that "people are dying,
corpses are in plastic bags full of worms and soldiers are dying en
masse."

Last month, the same newspaper reported reinforcements of
military police were sent to Congo after morale among Zimbabwe's
8,000 troops plummeted.

The military in Harare denied that report but has done little
to counter other reports that Zimbabwean forces were bogged down in
the eastern Congo during heavy tropical rains.

The Defense Ministry has said its casualties in fighting since
Saturday for the strategic rebel-held town of Kabalo, 1,200
kilometers (740 miles) east of Kinshasa consisted of the deaths of
two officers aboard a helicopter gunship that crashed Sunday.

Zimbabwe said the gunship crashed with a mechanical failure but
Congolese rebels claimed they shot it down, along with a Zimbabwean
jet fighter, and killed 47 Zimbabwean soldiers.

Zimbabwe and an alliance of forces from Angola, Namibia and
Chad are supporting embattled Congolese President Laurent Kabila in
the rebellion that began Aug. 2.

Zimbabwe has acknowledged nine combat deaths and 17 Zimbabweans
captured in the Congo.

@ TRAFFIC-BULLIES

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

REPORT ROAD BULLIES, SAYS TRAFFIC OFFICIAL

Motorists who are bullied by drivers of high powered, luxury
cars flashing lights at them and forcing them into the emergency
lane should take the offenders' registration numbers and report
them to the police, a traffic spokesman said on Friday.

KwaZulu-Natal's Vijen Murugan said some drivers were forcing
obedient drivers off the road and overtaking unsafely.

Murugan said: "Take the registration number and the number of
the little blue route markers on the side of the road, report it
and the traffic department will send a patrol vehicle to the
vicinity and try and catch that person."

"Drivers are not compelled by law to move over to the emergency
lane. It is a matter of courtesy and should only be done if there
is at least 150m visibility ahead."

"That car should then be allowed back into the traffic if he
can't stay in the emergency lane."

Murugan warned that unmarked cars carrying moving violations
recorders would be used to catch offenders.

"We have in-car video recorders and we will stop and charge
them, and will use the recording as evidence in court."

Marleen Ronold, spokeswoman for the Arrive Alive campaign, said
many of the culprits flashed their headlights and became impatient,
overtaking dangerously on a solid white line.

"Trucking companies are even telling their drivers not to move
over because they don't get a gap to move back into the traffic and
could crash into a broken down vehicle."

"Keep a safe following distance," Ronold said.

@ CONGO

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo December 18 1998 Sapa-AP

THOUSANDS FLEE FIGHTING, POLICE FIRE ON BRAZZAVILLE LOOTERS

Automatic weapons fire rattled through a neighborhood of
Brazzaville for a second day Friday morning while refugees fled
fighting between the army and a rogue militia group.

Police fired on looters taking advantage of the disorder in the
south Brazzaville subur of BaKongo, and civilians were fleeing the
area, witnesses said.

The capital was without electricity and telephone services were
limited to the center of the city. Many people in other parts of
the city were taking refuge in their homes.

Casualties were reported by civilians fleeing the area,
although the numbers were unclear.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' refugee agency counted 8,500
emigres who had escaped the turmoil in Republic of Congo in recent
weeks to border villages near the town of Luozi in neighboring
Congo, the former Zaire, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said in
Geneva.

Other aid groups have estimated that 10,000 refugees have
crossed the river border to Congo.

"The group has adequate food at present but is in urgent need
of medical assistance," Janowski said. Several children reportedly
died from lack of care after crossing into Congo. UNHCR began
distributing medical kits to health posts in the vicinity and soap
to area villages. Food and basic necessities will be given to the
most vulnerable members of the group.

The shooting began Wednesday night and continued, off and on,
into early Thursday when the outlawed "Ninja" militia of former
Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, who had launched scattered

ambushes, were pushed back from the suburbs south of Brazzaville, a
military officer said Thursday.

Hundreds of people panicked in downtown Brazzaville, believing
the Ninjas had launched an all-out attack.

Since his takeover, Sassou-Nguesso has outlawed all militia

groups including the Cobras. Many of his former militia fighters,
though, have joined the army.

Angol turned the tide in Republic of Congo's civil war,
sending troops to help Sassou-Nguesso defeat Lissouba. Many Angolan

soldiers stayed in Republic of Congo after the war ended.

Angola joined the civil war because Lissouba was believed to be
sending aid to the rebel group UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the

National Union for the Total Independence of Angola which has been

fighting the Angolan government for two decades.

The Republic of Congo government has said that UNITA is now
supporting the Ninjas.

@ TORNADO-DISASTER

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

UMTATA DECLARED A DISASTER AREA

Umtata and its surroundings were on Friday declared a disaster
area after a tornado swept through the Eastern Cape town on
Tuesday, killing 18 people and injuring 162.

Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Minister Vali
Moosa told reporters in Pretoria the decision was taken earlier in
the day by the Interministerial Committee on Disaster Management.

He said repairs that had taken place on roads and buildings in
the area would be speeded up.

Moosa said the Weather Bureau told the committee that the
abnormal weather conditions being experienced in South Africa were
caused by the La Nina phenomenon which was expected to continue
until March next year.

He said the committee decided that the Environmental Affairs
and Tourism Department along with the Weather Bureau would begin an
education campaign on weather phenomenons, especially tornadoes.

"If South Africans know and accept that we are a tornado prone
country, we would not have had the kind of disaster we had in
Umtata," Moosa said.

"During the tornado a number of people sought refuge in a
building next to a taxi rank and the building then collapsed on top
of them. That is how most of the people died here - because of
lack of knowledge of what a tornado is and its effects."

Moosa said the government did not yet know the monetary value
of damage caused in Umtata and therefore had not prepared a budget
to manage the disaster area.

"I don't think that we can say that people mustn't do anything
until the budget is there because if people are injured you must
get out and help them," Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma said.

Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal said: "The
decision the departments have taken is that if there is an
emergency we will perform our functions and spend the money needed
... even if the central government does nor reimburse us."

Zuma said her department had already started repairing the
hospital in Umtata, and would take precautions that epidemics did
not break out among people left homeless by the tornado and heavy
rains.

Public Works Minister Jeff Radebe said the government cared
about the plight of the people and would leave no stone unturned to
ensure that the living conditions of the people affected by the
adverse weather would have improved by Christmas.

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Pallo Jordan said
some of the Weather Bureau's radar systems had not been functioning
for a while because of lack of funds to replace parts.

He said money would have to be found to repair the radar
systems so that they would be able to pick up strange weather
phenomena.

Moosa called on the private sector to contribute to local
disaster funds and said insurance companies should process disaster
claims quickly.

"The government pleads with insurance companies to process
claims in a speedy manner ... this is an extraordinary situation we
have and the bureaucratic processes must be cut through," he said.

@ MALAWI-HUNGER

BLANTYRE December 18 1998 Sapa-AFP

HALF-MILLION MALAWIANS TO RECEIVE WFP FOOD AID

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday announced the launch
of a 10 million dollar food aid programme to help half a million
hungry Malawians.

WFP official Arega Abate said the programme would assist
households in 17 of the country's 26 districts, where families have
run out of food months ahead of the next harvest.

About 90 percent of Malawi's 12 million people live in rural
areas, and many use up their home-grown food supplies by August,
barely three months after the annual harvest.

@ BOTSWANA-NAMIBIA

GABORONE December 18 1998 Sapa

NAMIBIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS STILL FLEEING INTO BOTSWANA

There are now 1441 Namibians in Botswana who claim they have
fled persecution by the Namibian government, the Botswana
government said on Friday.

"The inflow has slowed, but they are still coming," said
presidential office spokesman Andrew Sesinyi. "They are all asking
for asylum."

The Namibian government alleges they are members of a group
seeking the secession of the Caprivi Strip from Namibia.

The leaders of the alleged secessionist group were among the
first to cross the border, on October 30.

The United Nations High Commission for refugees is advising the
Botswana government in determining the status of the Namibians.

In mid-November, the UNHCR found it was plausible they would
face persecution if they went back, but Botswana is hoping some
will eventually opt for voluntary repatriation.

"Once whatever situation they were fleeing from has been
resolved, we hope they will reflect on their situation and decide
to go back," Sesinyi said.

The final decision to grant asylum or not will depend largely
on the recommendations of the Botswana Refugee Advisory Committe,
which is interviewing the Namibians individually.

The committee is comprised of representatives of the UNHCR and
the Botswana Government.

Botswana is sticking to the UNHCR convention on asylum seekers,
to which both it and Namibia are signatories.

"The onus to decide to return is on the asylum seeker, they are
given the benefit of the doubt, we cannot force any of them to
return to Namibia," Sesinyi said.

A November meeting in Gaborone between Namibian prime minister
Hage Geingob and Botswana vice president Seretse Khama Ian Khama,
agreed that the secessionists would only be returned to Namibia
voluntarily.

Sesinyi said the two governments and the UNHCR were working
closely together and appear to be in accord in almost every
respect.

"The Namibians are closely involved, we have regular briefings.
We keep talking to ensure we are on the same wavelength," he said.

On the advice of the UNHCR, the leaders of the group and their
followers, which include women and children, have been separated.

"Those with political aims and military backgrounds are living
separately from the rest," Sesinyi said.

"This is to prevent further politicisation."

Some, who have been charged with bringing arms into Botswana,
are on bail.

The leaders are in Gaborone, in civilian accommodation at
government expense, the rest in a reopened apartheid-era refugee
camp.

"They are free to move, there are no restrictions except that
they must not make political statements, nor demonstrate," Sesinyi
said.

The preliminary UNHCR report concluded the Namibians did not
plan to use Botswana as a base from which to pursue an armed
struggle for the independence of Caprivi.

The leaders of the group include former Namibian opposition
leader Meshake Muyongo, regional governor of the Caprivi area,
Johnnie Mabuku, member of the Namibian House of Review and a
national councillor Francis Sizimbo, traditional leader from the
Caprivi area Chief Boniface Mamila, an officer of the Namibian
Defence Force Captain Francis Mushadikwa and a councillor from the
Namibian Opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance Moses Mukelabia
Walubita.

@ OMBUDSMAN-NNP

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

PRESS OMBUDSMAN APPEAL BOARD DISMISSES NNP APPEAL ON M&G STORY

The press ombudsman's appeal panel on Friday dismissed the New
National Party's appeal against a ruling in favour of a Mail &
Guardian article headed "NP leader in bizarre sex probe".

The decision against the NNP appeal was unanimously taken by
all four members of the panel, ombudsman Ed Linington said on
Friday.

The NNP appeal contested the findings of the ombudsman in
October that a high-level police probe into sexual charges against
party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk justified publication of the
article in the M&G in September on the grounds of public interest.

After the hearing two months ago, Linington ruled against the
NNP complaint that thenewspaper had contravened the press code of
conduct clause on accuracy by publishing allegations it knew to be
inaccurate.

The article dealt with a high-level police investigation of
charges laid against Van Schalkwyk by a prisoner, Johan Hermanus,
alleging that the politician had paid for sex with Hermanus.

The crux of the NNP's initial complaint had been that the M&G
had published allegations which, it conceded, it did not believe
were true.

But the M&G said the focus of the story was that police were
taking the allegations seriously in that a high-level probe against
the party leader had been launched.

The focus of the article was not on the veracity of the
allegations but on the spending of public money on what was
obviously a smear campaign, M&G editor Philip van Niekerk said at
the hearing.

The M&G had no choice but to publish the story as Van Schalkwyk
was a public figure and the police operated on public money, he
said.

The newspaper also said that once the charge had been laid, the
allegations were already in the public domain, which warranted a
newspaper report.

The NNP disputed this definition of public domain, saying the
matter was placed in a new dimension after a report was published
in a newspaper.

Responding to the M&G's contention that people, including
parliamentarians, prisoners and members of the press, knew about
the rumour, the NNP manintained this was a private domain as the
rumour had not been stated publicly.

Also, it said allegations of Van Schalkwyk's homosexuality
would negatively affect perceptions of him in the community just
prior to an election.

The party argued that his right to preserve his dignity should
receive priority over freedom of speech and the right to
information.

Dismissing the appeal on Friday, board member Claudia Braude
said: "I uphold the ombudsman's decison dismissing the appellant's
complaint in all respects, except regarding the unfairness of the
respondent's omission of reference to Mr Morkel's involvement if
unfair in anyway implies deliberate omision.

Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel had ordered the police
probe, a fact the M&G did not uncover until a week after the
publication of the offending article.

This detail was published in a follow-up story the next week,
but Linington found that the newspaper's investigation should have
led to his involvement being discovered before the first article
was published.

Braude said: "I am uncertain that failure to get to the whole
picture in the early stages of an unfolding story can be construed
as unfair.

"There was no suggestion that the respondent engaged in a
deliberately sloppy investigation that was designed to result in
the overlooking of an obvious and crucial angle of the story."

@ 200 ANGRY PENSIONERS OCCUPY SARS PE OFFICES

GRAHAMSTOWN (ECN) - More than 200 hungry and angry pensioners
staged a sit-in demonstration at the South African Revenue Service's
Port Elizabeth offices on Thursday.

PE Receiver of Revenue Director Leon Strauss said the crowd
arrived at 10am and left at about 6pm.

He said: "At some stages they (the crowd) were angry and there
was heated debate."

Strauss said he had to close the offices at 3pm because he was
"scared for the lives of his staff in case the crowd got violent".

However, he said the crowd had dispersed peacefully after police
had spoken to them.

POPS spokesperson Inspector Peter Bester, who negotiated with
the protesters and got them to disperse, said: "Some of them (the
protesters) have not received a grant for four years and were facing
Christmas with empty stomachs."

He said a legitimate protest march had been organised for
Tuesday, in which the pensioners and disabled people would march
down Govan Mbeki Avenue to Market Square where they would hand over
a petition. Strauss said his office had been unable to assist the
pensioners: "The Receiver of Revenue is a collection agent for the
government and has no power to pay out money."

He said the pensioners had arrived at his offices in the
mistaken belief they would be paid after they failed to receive help
at a pensions payout office in Govan Mbeki Avenue. The Welfare
Department was unavailable for comment. - ECN Fri 18/12/98

@ OAU-SUMMIT

OUAGADOUGOU December 18 1998 Sapa-AFP

OAU SUMMIT ENDS WITH DATE FOR MORE DR CONGO TALKS

A summit aimed at resolving regional conflicts in Africa ended
here prematurely Friday with leaders agreeing to hold more talks on
the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The next meeting, set for December 28 in Lusaka, will attempt
to "finalise a ceasefire agreement" to end the five-month-old
conflict, said the chairman of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.

This summit, which had been slated to last two days but ended
after 12 hours, was held under the aegis of the OAU's central organ
for conflict prevention, resolution and management.

The meeting drew together more than 20 African leaders along
with top members of a rebellion trying to unseat DRC President
Laurent Kabila.

At least seven countries in central and southern Africa have
become embroiled in the DRC conflict, which erupted barely a year
after Kabila toppled longtime dictator, the late Mobutu Sese Seko.

The rebels are backed by Uganda and Rwanda; Kabila by Angola,
Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, a leader of the rebels' political wing,
the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), said on the sidelines of
the summit that the rebels would accept a "ceasefire provided they
are included in the negotiations."

Wamba dia Wamba was accompanied by Bizima Karaha, Kabila's
former foreign minister, now a leading figure in the rebellion.

"We've had a lot of informal contact here. Things are
advancing," said members of the rebel delegation, who were excluded
from closed-door official talks.

Kabila has so far eschewed direct talks with rebel leaders,
insisting he sit down only with Rwanda and Uganda, whom he sees as
his real foes and the masterminds of the rebel insurgency.

He has also insisted these "invaders" withdraw their troops
from the DRC before direct talks are held.

As it turned out, Rwanda and Uganda failed to show up in
Ouagadougou. It was not clear if they intended to take part in the
Lusaka summit in 1O days.

Talks there will focus on establishing a timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC, according to sources
close to the negotiations.

A proposed peace plan for the DRC also recommends setting up a
United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country.

Compaore said he would meet the rebel representatives in
Ougadougou "to see how to better implicate them" in future accords.

The OAU chairman said that following a cessation of hostilities
by warring parties, a ceasefire monitoring committee should be set
up, and groundwork should be laid out for political dialogue.

Little progress was made at the Ouagadougou summmit in
discussions aimed at brokering peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Since May, the two countries have engaged in a sporadic war along
their 1,000 kilometre border.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was reported to have had
"heated discussions" with his counterpart, Eritrean President
Issaias Afeworki.

Ethiopia has already agreed to a previous OAU peace plan which
calls for Eritrean troops to withdraw from the disputed region of
Badme, and for the deployment of a neutral peace-keeping force
along the border.

Eritrea has rejected the proposal.

@ ZIM-PARTY

HARARE December 18 1998 Sapa-AFP

NEW POLITICAL PARTY FORMED IN ZIMBABWE

A new political party headed by outspoken independent
legislator Margaret Dongo will be launched in Zimbabwe at the
weekend, party officials announced Friday.

The party, to be called the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD),
will challenge President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in elections due in 2000.

ZUD, set to be launched on Saturday, says it will focus its
campaign on good governance, democracy, respect for the rule of law
and the equitable distribution of resources.

The organising secretary is well-known University of Zimbabwe
law lecturer Kempton Makumure, while other high-profile opposition
activists are also involved.

There are 13 registered political parties in Zimbabwe, but many
exist in name only, and none has been able to mount an effective
challenge to Mugabe's party since it came to power at independence
in 1980.

Dongo, however, has won an enthusiastic following as a fearless
critic of Mugabe since taking her seat as the only independent
member of parliament after elections in 1995.

The 150-seat parliament has only two other opposition
legislators, both from the small, regionally based ZANU-Ndonga
party of the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole.

@ COURT-BOESAK

CAPE TOWN December 18 1998 Sapa

APPLICATION FOR BOESAK'S DISCHARGE DENIED

Family and well-wishers of Allan Boesak packed into the Cape
High Court on Friday expecting to hear him pronounced innocent on
32 counts of theft and fraud, but were dismayed when the court only
cleared him on five charges.

There was a tense hush as Judge John Foxcroft placed Boesak on
his defence on 17 counts of theft and 10 of fraud, and postponed
the hearing to February 8.

Although Boesak has run out of his second round of private
funding, his defence team - Mike Maritz SC assisted by Jaap
Celliers - indicated they would be present at the resumed hearing
on legal aid tariffs, but not indefinitely.

Maritz demands R6000 a day and Celliers half that amount.

The judge on Friday ruled on a defence application that had
lasted three days for Boesak's complete discharge on all 32 counts.

Such an application is brought after the closure of the
prosecution's case, if the defence believes the accused has no case
to meet.

Boesak faced 32 counts of theft and fraud relating to the
funding of the defunct Foundation for Peace and Justice, of which
Boesak had been the director and a member of the board of trustees.

The judge said the question was whether there was sufficient
evidence on which a reasonable man, acting carefully, would convict
Boesak.

If not, the Criminal Procedure Act, gave the court a discretion
to declare Boesak not guilty, rather than unnecessarily placing on
his defence, in regard to unsubstantiated charges.

The judge said the prosecutor, J C Gerber, had properly
conceded that Boesak had no case to meet on one count involving a
fraudulent representation to the Coca-Cola Foundation and a second
fraud count relating to the FPJ's Children's Trust.

The judge added that the same applied to three other counts
relating to the theft of funds donated for four FPJ community
projects.

Concerning the remaining 27 counts (17 of theft and 10 of
fraud), the judge said: "There is sufficient evidence for
convictions on these counts."

@ ELECTION-SURVEY

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

54 PERCENT TO VOTE FOR ANC, SURVEY REVEALS

Fifty-four percent of the electorate intends to vote for the
African National Congress next year, according to the results of an
October/November survey released in Pretoria on Friday.

Bob Mattes, the Institute for Democracy in SA's public opinion
services manager, told reporters this figure was three percent up
from September, but significantly lower than ANC support levels
measured since 1994 to mid-997. In September/October 1994, 61
percent of the electorate said they supported the ANC, dropping to
the lowest level ever (51 percent) in September this year.

"The increase in ANC support in October and November is
accompanied by a marked improvement since September in public
opinion about the overall direction of the country, the state of
the economy and government performance," Mattes said

The survey, conducted by Idasa and Markinor in collaboration
with the SA Broadcasting Corporation, revealed that support for the
National Party had dropped from 10 percent to nine percent since
September, while the percentage of voters intending to back the
Democratic Party in the election dropped from seven to five
percent.

Inkatha Freedom Party support increased by one point to five
percent, and that of the United Democratic Movement from two to
three percent.

Pan Africanist Congress backing dropped from two to one
percent, and support for the Freedom Front remained constant at one
percent.

The Azanian People's Organisation and the Conservative Party
could each count on less than one percent of the vote.

The survey, dubbed Opinion '99, was conducted among 3500 adults
between October 5 and November 11 this year, and claims to
represent "a mirror image of the South Africa population".

The margin of error of the survey was put at about 1,65
percent.

Mattes said nearly a fifth of the electorate did not know who
they wanted to vote for, adding: "Voter identification with
political parties is at the lowest level that we have seen in the
new South Africa."

He said there had been a steady increase in the percentage of
undecided voters, and a constant drop in ANC backing, while
opposition party support had remained exactly the same over the
last four years.

"This means that people dissatisfied with the ANC don't move to
the opposition, but to the `don't know' column."

Of the 19 percent undecided voters, 59 percent were black, 24
percent white, 13 percent coloured and four percent Indian.

The survey also measured trends in "party identification",
which indicates a voter's longstanding allegiance to a political
party, but differs from actual voting choice.

It found that slightly over one-third of voters identified with
the ANC, but less than one in ten with any opposition party.

Forty-three percent of the electorate identified with a
specific party, compared to 88 percent in September/October 1994.

"Increasingly large proportions of South Africans seem to
evidence an anti-party sentiment," a research document says.

Fifty percent of blacks did not identify with any political
party, compared to 80 percent of whites, 75 percent of coloureds
and 89 percent of Indians.

"People are moving away from political parties and not moving
between them," Mattes said.

Voter identification with the ANC stood at 34 percent, the
lowest level yet since 1994.

"This suggests that the ANC vote is not an automatic one based
on a large bloc of easily mobilisable, committed voters," the
researchers said.

"Yet, it is still light years ahead of all its competitors
combined. Only an additional nine percent identify with any
opposition party."

The survey found that voter identification with the ANC had
dropped from 58 percent in September/October 1994 to 34 percent in
November this year, the NP from 15 percent to three percent, the
IFP from five to two percent, the FF from two to less than one
percent, while identification with all other parties remained more
or less constant at one percent.

The ANC had experienced a sharp drop in black allegiance -
from 75 percent in 1994 to 45 percent last month, while white
support for the NP dropped from 48 percent to seven percent.

Coloured and Indian support for the NP and ANC had decreased
dramatically.

Mattes said the increase in the number of voters who did not
identify with a particular party meant that more people would be
open to persuasion based on party performance and campaigns.

However, this group would also be harder to convince to
register and vote.

@ CRIME-LD-POPCRU

DURBAN December 18 1998 Sapa

IFP OPPOSES DEPLOYMENT OF POPCRU MEMBERS IN UMLAZI

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mzameni Mthiyane in Umlazi, south
of Durban, on Friday told Sapa the local party members were opposed
to the deployment of Police and Prisons Civil Right Union members
in the area.

About 200 Popcru members from Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape
were deployed in the area on Wednesday to carry out the union's
crime prevention campaign.

Mthiyane said he had received calls from IFP members in Umlazi,
questioning him about the presence of Popcru members in the area.

He said the success that had been claimed by Popcru would have
been achieved by the local policemen without the assistance of the
union members.

"There will always be roadblocks and recoveries. This is not
new," Mthiyane said.

On Friday Popcru claimed it had, together with the police from
Umlazi, arrested 30 people in connection with traffic offences and
seized three loads of dagga during its campaign in the area.

"I believe this is political, the whole country has one problem
of crime, but Popcru felt KwaZulu-Natal must be guarded by its
members," he said.

Popcru deputy president Boas Motjetsi told Sapa early on Friday
that the union would continue with its campaign.

He was responding to provincial safety and security MEC Nyanga
Ngubane's claim that the presence of policemen from Mpumalanga and
the Eastern cape in Umlazi was not acceptable.

The members were expected to return to their provinces on
Friday evening.

@ LABOUR-TRANSNET

DURBAN December 18 1998 Sapa

TWO RACIALLY DIVIDED TRANSNET UNIONS MERGE IN DURBAN

Two racially divided unions representing Transnet workers
merged in Durban on Friday.

The SA Footplate Staff Association (Safsa), dominated by white
members, and the Democratic Labour Union of SA (Delutasa), with
mainly black members, signed the merger document at a ceremony
attended by members.

The secretary-general of the merged union, which will be known
as Safsa, Chris de Vos, said the merger came about after both
unions realised the need to change.

"This will help our members, particularly blacks, to get strong
representation. I must also emphasise that this is a vital step
towards real democracy in our country," De Vos said.

Delatusa founder Mzameni Mthiyane said: "Everyone has a right
to work, therefore, this move will ensure that everyone's job is
secured."

He said black workers would benefit from the knowledge and
resources that Safsa had and racial division would be buried.

Union memmbers honoured Mthiyane at the ceremony for his role
in the formation of Delatusa in 1993 and his contribution towards
the merger.

De Vos said the new union had over 10,000 members countrywide,
with two offices in KwaZulu-Natal.

@ MEDIA STATEMENT ON SITUATION IN IRAQ

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

The Movement of Non-aligned Countries deplores the ongoing
military actions against Iraq by individual countries without any
authorization from the Security Council in flagrant disregard of the
United Nations Charter.

The Movement emphasises that the full implementation of all
relevant Security Council resolutions by all Parties constitute the
only means of establishing a durable peace, security and stability
in the region.

The Movement urgently calls for a peaceful solution to the
crisis that the region currently faces, which it believes will
contribute positively to the promotion and preservation of peace and
security, within the principles and purposes of the United Nations.

In this regard the Movement calls on all sides to continue
efforts aimed at a peaceful settlement under the auspices of the
Security Council, including an active role for the Secretary-General
of the United Nations.

The Movement further calls for the immediate cessation of all
military strikes and the avoidance of any actions that might further
aggravate tension in the region.

ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON BEHALF OF THE
NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT
PRETORIA
18 DECEMBER 1998

@ CRIME-CORRECTIONAL

DURBAN December 18 1998 Sapa

NP WELCOMES ARREST OF 'MARITZBURG PRISON HEAD

The New National Party on Friday described the arrest of
Pietermaritzburg prison head, Russel Ngubo, as a welcome but
disturbing development.

Ngubo was arrested at the prison on Thursday morning on two
attempted murder charges. He was previously arrested on four murder
charges which were withdrawn when state witnesses refused to
testify in the trial.

Ngubo was also acquitted on a previous charge of possession of
an unlicesed firear.

In a statement the NNP said the latest development was
disturbing because Ngubo's appointment as prison head took place
against a backdrop of allegations of his involvement in violence.

"The implications of the allegations against Ngubo alone should
have disqualified him from an appointment to this position."

The NNP claimed that if Ngubo had been appointed on merit the
situation would have been avoided. It said if Ngubo's appointment
was a political one those responsible should resign.

"The arrest of a prison head places a question mark over
several other senior appointments which create suspicion rather
than promoting trust and reconciliation."

African National Congress safety and security spokesman Bheki
Cele said it was important for justice to take its course,
irrespective of the position occupied by any suspect.

The latest charges against Ngubo relate to an incident in
Stoffelton near Bulwer in October this year when Thembinkosi
Ngwenya and Goodenoug Shange were wounded in a drive-by shooting.
Ngwenya and Shange were driving from the store of Earnest Nzimande
when they were shot at by the occupants of a vehicle driving in the
opposite direction.

Nzimande, who was murdered in September this year, was an
Inkatha Freedom Party leader in Stoffelton. Ngubo is an ANC
councillor in Stoffelton.

Ngubo was supposed to appear in court on Friday but was
admitted to a Pietermaritzburg clinic on Thursday night after
complaining of chest pains.

Investigating officer Captain Johnny Haggard said if he was
still unable to attend court on Monday, he would be charged in
absentia in the Pietermaritzburg regional court.

@ STOFILE SAID HE HAS "NO APPETITE" FOR THIEVES

GRAHAMSTOWN (ECN) - The 35-year sentences metered out on
Thursday to seven men convicted of the R1.58m pension heist in
Peddie in 1996 has been welcomed by Eastern Cape premier Makhenkesi
Stofile. He said: "We need to convict more and more of these
criminals and fraudsters until it gets through to their minds that
we have no appetite for the likes of them in society."

He said increasing breakthroughs through the arrest, convictions
and serious sentencing of fraudsters, thieves and corrupt officials
should serve as a stern warning to culprits that the government had
zero tolerance for crime and corruption.

The seven men, including three policeman and a farmer were
arrested in 1996 for an armed pension heist which left two people
dead and thousands of pensioners and beneficiaries of government
grants in Peddie without a lifeline.

Stofile said the criminals deserved no parole for their
"inhumane act of duping a lifeline to many people in impoverished
areas in the province".

He urged civil servants, organisations of civil society and
communities in general to "blow the whistle" on suspected
corruption, embezzlement or abuse of public funds.

He said it was only through collective vigilance against these
social ills that a better future could be built. - ECN Fri 18/12/98

@ REGISTER-POLL

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

UP TO 4,8-M VOTERS DID NOT HAVE BAR-CODED ID'S BY LAST MONTH

At the start of last month, up to 4,8 million eligible voters
did not yet have the green, bar-coded identity document required to
register for next year's election, according to the results of a
survey released on Friday.

The poll, conducted by the Institute for Democracy in SA
(Idasa) and Markinor in collaboration with the SABC, found that 18
percent of voters did not have the correct ID book when the
research was done between October 5 and November 11.

This translated into 4,6 million people, or between 4,3 and 4,8
million, if one takes into account a 1,65 percent margin of error.

The findings are similar to earlier surveys putting the figure
at between 18 and 22 percent. This was challenged by the Home
Affairs Department, which claimed only about 2,5 million voters
still had to be issued with the bar-coded ID book.

Bob Mattes, Idasa's public opinion services manager, told
reporters in Pretoria the researchers did not ask people wether
they were in possession of a temporary registration certificate
(TLC), issued upon application for the bar-coded ID book.

The TLCs only became available on November 9, two days before
the survey came to an end.

"The results do mean, however, that the Home Affairs Department
would have had to issue more than four million TLCs in the three or
four weeks prior to registration."

A statement issued to reporters said the survey found that
between 72 and 87 percent of the electorate would turn out for the
elections.

"But the potential impact of the large number of people who do
not possess the correct identity documents cannot be
underestimated," it said.

"At this point, 17 percent of those people who say they are
likely to register are without the correct documents, as are 17
percent of those who say they are likely to vote."

Mattes said the fact that many people still had to obtain the
correct ID book was one of the reasons why recent voter
registration figures were relatively low.

He said the electorate was not apathetic. Seventy-seven percent
of respondents to the survey, dubbed Opinion '99, indicated they
were likely to register, and 79 percent said they were likely to
vote.

"This suggests that we do not face a situation where we have a
hostile electorate, but rather an uninformed one," Mattes said.

The research revealed that 85 percent of black people had the
correct ID document, 71 percent of whites, and 69 percent of
coloureds and Indians.

Of African National Congress and United Democratic Movement
supporters, 86 percent had the bar-coded ID book, compared to 73
percent of National Party backers, 76 percent of the Democratic
Party, 82 percent of the Inkatha Freedom Party, 81 percent of the
Pan Africanist Congress and 74 percent of the Freedom Front.

Figures on political party supporters indicating they were
likely to register ranged from 70 percent among IFP backers, to 88
percent for the ANC.

However, only about 63 percent of respondents to Opinion '99
knew that they had to register to be able to vote.

Only 55 percent of blacks were aware of this fact, compared to
88 percent of whites, 78 percent of coloureds and 77 percent of
Indians.

Young people and those living in rural areas were also less
aware that they had to register.

Of DP supporters, 90 percent knew that they had to register,
compared to 84 percent of the FF, 68 percent o the PAC,71 percent
of the UDM, 45 percent of the IFP, 77 percent of the NP and 62
percent of the ANC.

The survey found that 48 percent of blacks were likely to vote,
44 percent of whites, 35 percent of coloureds and 28 percent of
Indians.

Most PAC supporters (61 percent) indicated they were highly
likely to vote, compared to 56 percent of ANC backers, 41 percent
of the NP, 53 percent of the DP, 32 percent of the IFP, 39 percent
of the UDM and 50 percent of the FF.

@ PRINTING PRESSES START ROLLING NEXT YEARS TEXTBOOKS

GRAHAMSTOWN (ECN) - Publishers will begin printing schol text
books for the new school year after receiving their orders from the
Eastern Cape Education Department yesterday.

Orders with publishers were delayed by over two weeks, sparking
fears that school children would not receive textbooks by the
beginning of the new school term.

Education spokesperson Phamphama Mfenyana praised publishers for
their understanding.

He said: "We appreciate the co-operation we have been given and
we understand the pressure they are under."

He said the overall objective was still to ensure that all
learners received their textbooks by the new school year.

But Publishing Association of South Africa (Pasa) executive
Japie Pienaar said orders for some regions had yet to be received.

He said publishers had expected to receive orders for Grade one,
two and 12, but had only received orders for Grade one and two.

And although the printing presses will now be rolling, one
industry source said publishers were not happy with the orders.

He said although the orders had been issued, "everything was in
a mess" and that publishers felt "degraded and robbed".

The prominent company source said the department was spending
less on textbooks than they had told publishers they would spend.

This meant that not all students would get the materials they
needed.

He said: "The department lied to us by telling us they had more
money to spend than they did."

He said publishers were also angry about the inaccuracies of the
orders and feared these would result in too many or too few
textbooks being printed than were needed.

Some areas would also receive far less materials than were
needed, with the source citing the former Transkei region as having
sent in orders for books totalling R32m, but Bisho said only seven
million was available for the region.

Mfenyana said each of the six provincial regions received seven
million each.

He said: "The need out there is huge, but we only have a certain
amount of money."

He said thedepartment was confident that the books would arrive
at school on time for the new school year.

Pienaar said a key issue was how the department would approach
delivery at the beginning of the school term.

He said as a result of the delay it would be difficult to
deliver the books by the beginning of the new school term.

Mfenyane was unable to say how much money the department had
spent on the textbooks because the amounts from all regions were
still being totalled.

Pienaar said he hoped the department had spent the R37m which
they had budgeted for because "this is what is required to get books
to all learners". - ECN Fri 18/12/98

@ IRAQ-NAM

CAPE TOWN December 18 1998 Sapa

NAM DEPLORES ACTION AGAINST IRAQ

The Non-Aligned Movement on Friday called for the immediate
cessation of all military strikes against Iraq and the avoidance of
any actions that might further aggravate tension in the region.

The NAM believed a peaceful solution to the crisis would
contribute positively to promoting and preserving peace and
security within the principles and purposes of the United Nations,
the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on the
movement's behalf.

The NAM deplored the ongoing military actions against Iraq by
individual countries "without any authorization from the UN
Security Council in flagrant disregard of the UN Charter".

However, it emphasised that the full implementation of all
relevant Security Council resolutions by all parties constituted
the only means of establishing durable peace, security and
stability in the region.

"In this regard the movement calls on all sides to continue
efforts aimed at a peaceful settlement under the auspices of the
Security Council, including an active role for the
Secretary-General of the United Nations," the statement said.

@ KWANATAL-FARMERS

DURBAN December 18 1998 Sapa

INDABA'S ON RURAL SAFETY ON THE CARDS IN KWAZULU-NATAL

A series of meetings to address safety and security in rural
areas in KwaZulu-Natal have been planned for the new year,
agriculture MEC Narend Singh announced on Friday.

In a statement in Durban, Singh said in response to concerns
raised by farmers in the Lions' River district that he had decided
to convene a number of meetings throughout the province to address
safety and security.

The first series of meetings would be held in the midlands,
which had been particularly hard hit by violent attacks on farmers
and rural communities.

Kranskop farmer Friedel Redinger was the latest victim of farm
attacks in the midlands after he was shot dead on December 7.

Following Redinger's murder, Singh called on security forces to
immediately implement adequate measures to ensure the safety and
security of all rural communities in the province.

Singh said the meetings would attempt to devise appropriate
strategies to deal with security in rural areas. Issues expected to
be discussed included rural policing, the role of the army and the
role of farm watches and private security companies.

Labour relations, racial tension, intimidation and the
emergence of a culture of violence in rural areas would also come
under discussion.

Roleplayers expected to attend the meetings included the
police, the army, the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union, tribal
authorities, representatives from provincial government, and
several community and religious organisations.

Parties interested in participating in the meetings can contact
Singh's office at (0331) 355-9100 or 082-570-1991.

@ ELECTION-DATE

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

MOST SOUTH AFRICANS WANT TO VOTE ON A WEEKDAY

Most South Africans would prefer next year's general elections
to be held on a weekday which should be declared a public holiday,
according to the results of a survey released in Pretoria on
Friday.

Opinion '99, conducted by the Institute for Democracy in SA and
Markinor in collaboration with the SA Broadcasting Corporation,
found that three-fifths of respondents believed voting should be
done on a weekday.

Less than one-fifth said election day should fall on a weekend,
and the rest did not have any preference.

Nearly three-quarters believed it should be declared a public
holiday.

"One senses a bit of opportunism in this, as only one out of
ten respondents said holding the elections on a normal working day
would make them less likely to vote," Idasa's public opinion
services manager Bob Mattes told reporters.

He said nearly two-thirds of those questioned said they would
wish to vote before noon on election day.

"There seems to be no great imperative to hold the elections on
a weekend," Mattes said. "What is important is that the Independent
Electoral Commission concentrate its maximum resources early in the
day so as to enable it to process the bulk of the electorate."

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA December 18 1998 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN REBELS BROADEN CENTRAL HIGHLAND OFFENSIVE

Rebel forces shelled a second provincial city Friday in an
apparent attempt to prevent the army from sending reinforcements to
a neighboring province where fighting has been focused over the
past two weeks.

The attack on Malange, about 350 kilometers (200 miles) east of
the capital Luanda, took place during the night and into the
morning, private radio station Radio Eclesia reported.

Shells landed less than one kilometer (half a mile) from the
provincial governor's palace in the center of the city. Several
wounded people, apparently civilians, were arriving at the city
hospital, the radio said.

The attack came as government forces in Malange reportedly were
preparing to move 300 kilometers (186 miles) south to Bie province
to try to break a rebel siege of the government-held city of Kuito.

Battles have focused on Bie's capital Kuito since fighting
between
the government and UNITA rebels restarted two weeks ago, ending a
four-year peace agreement in the southwest African country.

There was sporadic shelling early Friday in Cunji, about seven
kilometers (four miles) outside Kuito, which lies 500 kilometers
(300 miles) southeast of the capital Luanda, Radio Eclesia said.

Rebels reportedly shelled the airport, located in Kuito's
suburbs. The rebels have kept the airport under siege to choke the
government's air supply line.

Meanwhile, reports of several attacks in other parts of the
country apparently were an attempt by UNITA to disrupt army
strategy.

UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the

Total Independence of Angola - has a well-equipped army of some
30,000 men experienced in guerrilla warfare. The government has
about 100,000 troops.

In Benguela province, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of
Luanda, unidentified gunmen ambushed a bus, killing 11 people and
wounding 10 others, state-controlled daily Jornal de Angola
reported Friday.

Other areas, including Luena in the east and Uige in the
northwest, also were said to be tense.

Kris Janowski, a Geneva spokesman for the United Nations' High
Commissioner for Refugees, said their staff had reported "recent
attacks or military activity" in those cities.

An estimated 100,000 people have been displaced by the fighting
in the past two weeks, according to the UNHCR, making up a total of
500,000 displaced this year.

The U.N. World Food Program on Thursday flew 34 tons of food
into Luena, where there were some 30,000 displaced, adding to a
population of an estimated 100,000.

"The security perimeter around the town is shrinking," WFP
spokeswoman Maria Flynn said in Luanda.

Both sides fought a two-decade civil war following the

country's 1975 independence from Portugal.

Several attempts at establishing a longlasting peace repeatedly
have failed, although neither side as yet acknowledged the
collapse of the latest one - the 1994 U.N.-brokered Lusaka
protocol.

@ IRAQ-PARCELS

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

PEOPLE IN CAPE TOWN WARNED TO LOOK OUT FOR SUSPICIOUS PARCELS

Police warned people in Cape Town to be on the lookout for
unattended parcels after a bomb attack on a synagogue in the suburb
of Wynberg on Friday morning, Network Radio News reported.

The city is bracing itself for the possibility of more bomb
attacks on targets associated with the United States after that
country launched missile attacks on Iraq.

Police are investigating the link between Friday morning's
bombing and the offensive on Baghdad after threats from a local
Muslim group.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine De Beer said people should be
alert and inform the police of suspicious parcels.

De Beer said restaurants and bars with American links could be
considered under threat.

@ HORSES-HANEKOM

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

HANEKOM MAKES AMENDMENTS ON THE BAN OF FROZEN STALLION SEMEN

Agriculture Minister Derek Hanekom on Friday announced
amendments to the ban on the use of fresh, chilled and frozen
stallion semen in South Africa.

The semen was banned to assist in the control of Equine Viral
Arteritis (EVA), a horse disease which is characterised by
respiratory disease, swelling and abortions, he said in a
statement.

Hanekom said in October the first horse in the country tested
positive with EVA, and since then 110 out 2000 horses tested proved
to have EVA antibodies.

"All positive horses have been directly associated with the use
of legally imported frozen stallion semen. There is no evidence to
suggest that the virus is currently active in South Africa,"
Hanekom said.

He said the ban on the frozen semen would still exist, but
individuals could now apply to the director of animal health for
permission to use such semen.

@ ELECTION-REAX

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

NNP, FF EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT SURVEY'S ID BOOK FINDINGS

The New National Party and the Freedom Front on Friday
expressed concern at a survey showing 18 percent of the electorate
did not have the bar-coded identity document required to vote in
next year's election.

In a statement in Pretoria the NNP said this underlined the
importance of its court case on the election, which was aimed at
enabling people to register and vote with any official ID book.

It said 30 percent of voters in the Western Cape, an NP
stronghold, were disenfranchised as a result of the bar-code
technicality.

The FF said the finding that 85 percent of blacks and 71
percent of whites were in possession of the bar-coded ID book meant
that the African National Congress was in a good position to obtain
a two-thirds majority in the election.

It called on its supporters to ensure that they applied for the
correct document before voter registration in January and February.

The NNP said the survey proved it was the only party able to
stop the ANC from obtaining a two-thirds majority.

"The poll confirms that there are only two mainstream political
parties in South Africa, namely the New NP and the ANC."

It undertook to convert undecided voters into NNP supporters.

The NNP added that Opinion '99 data not yet released indicated
that it was the most representative of all the political parties.

Its power base comprised 17 percent blacks, 38 percent whites,
34 percent coloureds and 11 percent Indians.

"This contrasts directly with parties such as the ANC whose
support base is 95 percent black, the Democratic Party whose
support base is 87 percent white, and the Inkatha Freedom Party
whose support base is 92 percent black," it said.

The FF disputed a finding by the survey, dubbed Opinion '99,
that its support base remained steady at one percent of the
electorate.

Other opinion polls indicated up to 10 percent growth in FF
support, a finding supported by a number of victories in recent
by-elections, the FF claimed.

The Pan Africanist Congress said it agreed with the poll that
the political climate in the country was fluid.

"A large portion of voters is understandably still trying to
make up their minds," said PAC MP Patricia de Lille. "Now that the
political situation is more clearly distilled, we are ready as the
PAC to become the official opposition in 1999."

De Lille said the PAC was heartened by the fact that many South
Africans had not lost confidence in the country's political
processes and had been willing to register and ote.

@ IRAQ-SAMUSLIMS

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

SA MUSLIM BODY DEMANDS RETRACTION FROM DP

Media Review Network, a South African Muslim organisation, on
Friday demanded that the Democratic Party unconditionally withdrew
its statements that air strikes on Iraq by the United States and
Britain appeared to be justified.

"This support for murder cannot go unchallenged," the body,
which studies media reports for anti-Muslim bias, said in a
statement.

The organisation described the air strikes as a carnage of
terror, saying it was an attack on Muslims worldwide.

"We call on Muslim countries ... to take appropriate steps in
defending their territorial integrity and the lives and properties
of their populations."

Media Review Network said it shared cynicism expressed by some
political commentators that US president Bill Clinton had launched
the attack on Iraq to delay his impeachment.

It called on the South African government to rebuke the US and
Britain and to initiate a campaign for the dismissal of United
Nations weapons inspector Richard Butler, who said Iraq had failed
to keep a promise to resume full co-operation with the UN
commission in charge of the country's disarmament.

@ ELECTION-HOMEAFFAIRS

PRETORIA December 18 1998 Sapa

HOME AFFAIRS DISPUTES SURVEY FINDINGS ON ID BOOKS

The Home Affairs Department on Friday disputed a survey finding
that up to 4,8 million eligible voters did not yet have the green,
bar-coded identity document required to register for next year's
election.

To date the department had issued identity documents to more
than 24,2 million of an estimated voter population of 24,6 million,
a statement said.

The statement did not say whether these people had all been
issued with the bar-coded version.

The department said the latest census put the country's
population at 40,6 million, with children younger than 19 numbering
just over 18 million.

"If it is argued that two million of those children are in the
age group 18 and 19 years, it follows that a number of 16 million
may be deducted from the 40,6 million, which leaves an eligible
voter population of 24,6 million.

"The department has, according to our population register,
already issued identity documents to more than 24,2 million persons
over the age of 18 years."

The results of a survey, dubbed Opinion '99, released in
Pretoria earlier in the day said 18 percent of the eligible voter
population did not have the bar-coded ID book by the beginning of
last month.

This translated into between 4,3 and 4,8 million people, if one
takes into account a 1,65 percent margin of error.

The findings are similar to earlier surveys putting the figure
at between 18 and 22 percent, all of which have been challenged by
the Home Affairs Department.

The department said that on top of the 24,2 million ID books
issued to eligible voters, 500,000 were issued to youngsters aged
between 16 and 18.

"The number of first time applicants is continually low. This
might in itself be an indication that there are very few persons
under the age of 18 without identity documents."

@ MANDELA-TORNADO

UMTATA December 18 1998 Sapa

MANDELA ATTENDS MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR TORNADO VICTIMS

President Nelson Mandela on Friday attended a memorial service
in Umtata for those who died in Tuesday's tornado in the Eastern
Cape town.

Mandela conveyed messages of condolence to the families,
friends and relatives of the victims at the Umtata city hall,

presidential spokeswoman Priscilla Naidoo said.

"It is important for people to have a comforter - God. Tragic
events like tornado disasters do not indicate the end of the world,
let's go on," he said.

It was important for those who had lost relatives and loved
ones to have people there to share their grief, Mandela said.

"An invisible wound is deeper than a visible one."

Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Minister
Valli Moosa would soon formulate a plan on how the government could
assist the affected families, he said.

Mandela asked people who had lost property to be patient
because the government had to follow certain procedures in order to
assist them.

After the memorial service, the President attended the
centenary celebrations of the Presbyterian Church of Africa at St
John's college in Umtata.

There he stressed the important role of the church during the
liberation struggle.

The President is currently on holiday at his private residence
in Qunu.

@ REGISTER-UPDATE

JOHANNESBURG December 18 1998 Sapa

VOTER REGISTRATION COUNT NEARS 10 MILLION MARK

South Africa's voter registration neared the 10 million mark by
Friday afternoon, the Independent Electoral Commission said.

It said by 3.30pm 9409657 registrations had been processed.

Officials were still collating information and details on

voters who took part in the first round of registrations at the end
of November and the beginning of December.

Latest figures supplied by the IEC indicated that so far

1333918 voters registered in the Eastern Cape, 707067 in the Free
State, 2085095 in Gauteng, 1868043 in KwaZulu-Natal, 664238 in
Mpumalanga, 212561 in the Northern Cape, 1069690 in the Northern
Province, 698829 in the North West Province, and 770216 in the
Western Cape.

Voters will have a further chance to register in January and
February.

@ ETHIOPIA-ERITREA

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 18, Sapa-AFP

OAU URGES RESTRAINT IN ETHIOPIA-ERITREA BORDER DISPUTE

The conflict resolution body of the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) on Friday called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to "exercise
restraint" in their border conflict.

The panel said in a communique after meeting in the Burkina
Faso capital Ouagadougou that it had decided to pursue mediation
led by presidents Blaise Compaore, Robert Mugabe and Hassan Gouled
Aptidon of Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Djibouti.

Compaore is the current OAU chairman.

A month ago, Djibouti broke off diplomatic relations with
Eritrea, which accused it of siding with Ethiopia in the conflict,
which broke out in May.

The OAU panel called on both sides "to continue to cooperate
with the OAU high-level delegation with a view to creating the
necessary conditions for a speedy implementation of the Framework
Agreement," the communique said.

Last month the OAU proposed a peace plan that called for
Eritrea to withdraw troops from disputed territory and the
deployment of a peacekeeping and observation force for six months.

"Heated discussions" took place between Ethiopian Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki at a
two-day Ouagadougou summit that ended Friday, a participant told
AFP.

@ HOTSPOTS

WASHINGTON December 18 1998 Sapa-AP

IRAQ, CENTRAL AFRICA AND COLOMBIA AMONG NEXT YEAR'S TOP HOT
SPOTS

Iraq, Central Africa and Colombia are expected to be among the
10 most serious areas of conflict and political instability the
world will face in 1999, a humantiarian organization said Friday.

World Vision also cited Angola, Sudan, North Korea, Indonesia,
the Balkans, Ethiopia/Eritrea and India/Pakistan in its listing of
10 "global hot spot." None of the nations or regions was ranked.

"Regrettably, we tend to view the future as projections of the
past," said Dayton Maxwell, a senior policy advisor for World
Vision, a relief and development organization serving 60 million
people in nearly 100 countries.

Humanitarian organizations are carefully evaluating the impact
of the air and missile strikes against Iraq, said Maxwell. The
possibility of a post Saddam Hussein Iraq poses significant
challenges for international relief and development agencies, he
added.

Maxwell also noted that more "interstate conflicts" are
emerging. In Central Africa, for example, internal stability in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo is compounded by the involvement
of surrounding nations, such as Angola, Rwanda and Uganda.

World Vision also noted:

- In Colombia, there is civil strife that resembles civil war,
the economy is faltering and nearly 800,000 people are unemployed.

- The conflicts between India and Pakistan and between Eritrea
and Ethiopia continue. In Angola, the civil war between the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola and the
government has started again. In Sudan, the current cease-fire
between the government and Christian and animist rebels is
scheduled to end Jan. 15.

- North Korea's relations with the international community are
strained because of fears about possible resumption of its nuclear
program and missile deployment. In Indonesia political divisions
are increasing and in the Balkans, fears remain that worse fighting
in Kosovo may break out in spring.

@ ZIM-ACCIDENTS

HARARE December 19 1998 Sapa

OVER 3000 ACCIDENTS REPORTED ON HARARE'S ROADS

Police in Harare have reported a total of 3106 accidents since
the start of the rainy season, the Ziana news agency reported on
Saturday.

Harare traffic spokesman Superintendent Innocent Bhebhe said 53
of the accidents claimed lives.

He warned motorists to avoid speeding, especially at this time
when the rain made it difficult for drivers to apply brakes on
slippery roads.

Bhebhe also warned motorists not to pass through amber traffic
lights, adding police had launched a blitz on traffic offenders.

He said: "We have started a traffic blitz and we will give
tickets to those who speed and go through a red robot."

Police would not demand spot fines, but would give offenders an
option to pay a fine later or appear in court.

The courts set aside each Wednesday to hear traffic-related
offences and absconding offenders would be imprisoned.

@ IRAQ-ZIM

HARARE December 19 1998 Sapa

ZIMBABWEAN PRESSURE GROUP CONDEMNS AIR STRIKES ON IRAQ

Zimbabwean pressure group, Sangano Munhumutapa, on Saturday
called on the international community to condemn the joint United
States and British bombardment of Iraq, Ziana news agency reported.

It said in a statement the air strikes were targeting public
food facilities.

Sangano said: "The killing of innocent civilians and the
destruction of public facilities like rice and grain stores must be
condemned in the strongest terms."

It said the strikes were a ploy by US President Bill Clinton to
delay a vote on his impeachment.

"It is unfortunate that Iraq has become the victim of US
political bungling as Bill Clinton, faced with a pending
impeachment vote, has found a comfortable detraction."

The air strikes, dubbed Operation Desert Fox, began on
Wednesday, following what US and British governments described as
failure by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to co-operate with United
Nations weapons inspectors.

Many countries, among them Yemen, Syria, Algeria, Italy and
Russia, have condemned the strikes, saying the two countries acted
unilaterally and without the consent of the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, the Students Executive Council has condemned the
attack, saying it was uncalled for.

SEC president Fortune Mguni said on Friday the strikes were a
plan by Clinton to divert attention from his impeachement
proceedings.

The students' body reaffirmed the legitimate stance taken by
France, Russia and China to question the legitimacy of the attack.

"We want to extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the
people of Iraq over this tragic and unjustified occurrence," said
Mguni.

"It is our belief that the military action was taken under the
banner of the UN and no express legal sanctioning by the security
council."

Mguni expressed concern over the safety of student leaders
attending an international student and youth conference in Baghdad,
at which Zimbabwe was represented.

The US and Britain launched an offensive on Iraq on Wednesday,
alleging that Hussein's government failed to comply with UN
directives regarding the inspection of its weapons, which the world
body claimed were a threat to world security.

@ DRCONGO-UNREST

BRAZZAVILLE, December 19 1998 Sapa-AFP

CONGO GOVT IN CONTROL OF TWO BRAZZAVILLE DISTRICTS: SPOKESMAN

The Congolese army Saturday was in control of two southern
Brazzaville districts after fighting with militiamen, and were
conducting "mopping up operations" against looters, according to
government spokesman Francois Ibovi.

"The government force controls the southern districts of
Bacongo and Makelekele where public order was disturbed," Ibovi
told AFP, adding that the army was carrying out "mopping-up
operations in these districts against looters, taking care to
protect the civilian population."

The operation "should be completed in 24 hours," the spokesman
said.

"There is no witchhunt, no hunt against people on the basis of
their ethnic or political affiliation," he said.

Asked whether the looters were Ninjas, the militiamen of former
prime minister Bernard Kolelas, Ibovi replied only that "if they
are Ninjas, then the Ninjas are an association of looters."

Ibovi had said Friday that "armed elements" took advantage of a
power outage overnight to "infiltrate" into southern parts of
Brazzaville, "where they are sowing terror and looting."

Sources said the unrest could involve fighters known as Cobras
- the militia that helped Denis Sassou Nguesso seize power in
October 1997 - who have defected from the government army.

Heavy weapons fire was heard again in the area early Saturday
before subsiding in mid-morning.

Sassou Nguesso's troops have in the past few days deployed in
strength in the region following fighting between units of the army
and Ninja militiamen.

The Ninjas fell back into the deep forests of the region after
Sassou Nguesso and Angolan allies won last year's five-month civil
war in the oil-rich central African country, ousting president
Pascal Lissouba.

@ WELFARE-SCHOOL

PRETORIA December 19 1998 Sapa

FRASER-MOLEKETI CLOSES REFORM SCHOOL IN ESHOWE

The Minister of Welfare and Population Development, Geraldine
Fraser-Moleketi, on Saturday recommended the closure of the Vuma
Reform School in Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal following reports of gross
irregularities.

Fraser-Moleketi said in a statement released in Pretoria the
decision followed a meeting on Friday between her and KwaZulu-Natal
Welfare MEC Prince Gideon Zulu.

She said the irregularities included the mismanagement of the
facility, the placig of the hildren at risk, sexual abuse of the
children by other children and by staff, as well as non-compliance
with certain statutory obligations by the social workers at the
school.

Fraser-Moleketi and Zulu decidedthe following:

- the permanent closure of the facility;

- that criminal charges be laid against the staff members
allegedly involved in the sexual abuse of children, and that the
suspect be immediately suspended;

- that disciplinary action be taken against officials,
including officials from the provincial department for failing to
comply with the Child Care Act, and for failing to fulfil their
statutory obligations;

- that a forensic audit be conducted into the financial
management of the facility; and

- that after being assessed, those staff members not
implicated should be transferred to other sections of the
department.

Fraser-Moleketi said: "As regards other residential care
facilities for children, we are implementing a developmental
quality assurance programme, which will involve the assessment and
programme development of every single facility, including the
non-governmental sector."

@ KWV

PAARL December 19 1998 Sapa

WINE INDUSTRUST ESTABLISHED FOR DISADVANTAGED

An agreement to establish a trust to promote the South African
wine industry and support wine farmers from previously
disadvantaged communities, has been finalised by KWV and the Land
Affairs and Agriculture Minister Derek Hanekom.

This followed more than a year's negotiations, KWV said in a
statement on Saturday.

The trust will be the directive and controlling authority of
two Article 21 companies.

One, a business support company, will spend more than half of
its allocated funds for the generic promotion of South African wine
in export markets and will in addition be responsible for financing
research and technology transfer.

The other company, a wine industry development company, will
focus on the establishment of farmers from previously disadvantaged
communities and the training and social upliftment of farm worker
communities.

The companies will contract these functions to established
organisations and specialists in the wine industry.

An amount of about R400 million will be made available over a
period of ten years by KWV for this purpose. Provision was also
made for an investment fund of at least R120 million to continue
the work of the trust after the ten year period.

@ ZAMBIA-COPPERMINES

LUSAKA, Zambia December 19 1998 Sapa-AP

BREAKTHROUGH ON DELAYED SALE OF STATE COPPER MINES

South African investors signed a long-awaited deal to buy
Zambia's state-owned copper mines, Finance Minister Edith Nawakwi
said.

The Anglo-American Corp. of South Africa will take over
Nchanga, Nkana and Konkola mines, the remaining major assets of
Zambia's sole mining conglomerate, the Zambia Consolidated Copper
Mines, Nawakwi announced.

The new owners are expected operate the bulk of copper mining
operations in the central Copperbelt province by March 31 after
months of bickering over the price.

Final legal touches to the deal will be completed by then,
Nawakwi said in an announcement late Friday.

She said it was also agreed with Anglo-American that government
would retain a 20 percent share holding and would also establish a
team to monitor operations by the private investors.

The South African investors have pledged to pump in dlrs 300
million in three years into Nkana, Nchanga and Konkola mines and
buy the nearby Konkola Deep mine a year later with a pledged
investment of dlrs 800 million.

Konkola Deep is said be the key to the future viability of
copper mining in Zambia at at time of low copper prices on world
commodity markets.

Nawakwi said the agreed initial purchase price was enhanced by
those long term benefits, including another dlrs 10 million in
royalties payable over 10 years and dividends on the government's
20 percent stake.

Additionally, the state agreed with the World Bank and other
financial institutions for the financing of social programs to
cushion fired miners and keep schools, health services and water
supplies running that were provided under state control of the
mines.

It was not immediately clear how many miners will be laid off.
Layoff packages were being worked out, Nawakwi said.

Opponents of privatization have estimated that as many as
15,000 jobs are at risk from the sale of the copper mines. Tens of
thousands more jobs have been lost under the economic
liberalization and privatizations program adopted in 1991.

The government has been under intense donor pressure to sell
off the inefficient and overmanned mines, the last of its large
state-owned enterprises.

The mines were estimated to be losing up to dlrs 1 million a
day in lost revenues in recent weeks, contributing a slide in the
value of the Zambian currency against the U.S. dollar.

Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines accounts for 10 percent of the
economy and earn 90 percent of the nation's foreign currency
earnings.

@ CITY

JOHANNESBURG December 19 1998 Sapa

JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE MAY BE PERSUADED TO STAY IN CBD

Gauteng's premier, Mathole Motshekga, is currently negotiating
with managers of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to persuade them
not to leave the CBD, Obed Bapela, the ANC's provincial secretary
said on Saturday.

The premier's spokesman Makhosini Nkosi also told Sapa
Motshekga was confident that the JSE would reverse its decision to
desert Diagonal Street once plans had been put in place to improve
the CBD.

The negotiations with the JSE forms part of an initiative to
stop the decentralisation of the CDB.

The JSE announced in October that it planned leaving the CBD
after conducting its business there for 110 years.

Bapela and Nkosi on Saturday revealed details of some of the
proposals for the rejuvenation of the city centre, which are to be
made to cabinet early next year.

One of the proposals agreed to by local and regional government
departments and the private sector during a series of workshops in
November was to disallow business development in suburban areas,
the Saturday Star reported.

Other plans for making the city liveable for business include
the building of enclosed, multi-level taxi ranks; the development
of market squares for hawkers, and the refurbishment of delapidated
buildings.

In terms of private sector commitment to regeneration, a
foreign company was interested in buying the Carlton Centre and
Carlton Hotel. Shops may then stay open all night - in which case
transport into the city will be improved.

The premier and Sicelo Shiceka, MEC for development planning
and local government will present their concrete, workable
proposals to tackle crime and decay before cabinet early next year.

According to Bapela crime and degeneration were the main
reasons businesses and other concerns were moving out of the CBD.

He said Khetso Gordon, who was appointed as city manager, would
ensure that programmes would be enforced to the full as soon as
they were agreed upon.

One proposal to improve the flow of movement and make policing
easier in the CBD involved the centralisation of taxis in enclosed
areas built on or near existing taxi ranks.

Bapela said the first place this would happen would be at Noord
Street. It was proposed that a multi-level building, much like a
parking garage, be built on Joubert Park to clear the streets in
that area.

Similar schemes were planned for Bree Street and Faraday taxi
ranks.

"Then the only time you see taxis in the city is when they are
driving in and out," he said.

By-laws related to trading on the streets and the maintenance
of buildings also needed to be enforced.

It was proposed that hawkers be moved into trading squares and
buildings owned by absentee landlords or companies be either bought
and refurbished by the government, or done-up by the owners.

Moving hawkers off the streets would address the recent
complaints of policemen working in the city who said their
effectiveness and visibility suffered because of cluttered
pavements.

Bapela said hawkers were not a problem in themselves - the
government recognised that they did not commit crimes like selling
drugs.

But, studies conducted by the Johannesburg legislature showed
that it would be desirable to centralise trading in market squares,
he said.

The Carlton Centre and the shell of the Carlton Hotel might be
bought by a foreign company for commercial purposes, Bapela said.
Negotiations are currently underway.

It was also possible that hotels like the Johannesburg Sun
would reopen, depending on the progress of the city rejuvenation
scheme.

The concept of a 24-hour-city was one that local and provincial
government favoured.

Bapela said the idea was introduced to Johannesburg officials
by a group of Americans who cited New York as an example of a city
which did not waste its resources by closing at 5pm, but remained
open for shopping throughout the night.

Levels of crime would determine whether or not shop-owners were
prepared to stay open after hours, he said.

If the concept became a reality, transport in and out of the
city would have to be improved.

Bapela said the city was already divided by the police into 17
sectors.

These were demarcated according to activity. For instance,
there were residential, commercial, financial and trading sectors.

It was envisaged that businesses and concerns in each sector
would work with the police and local and provincial government to
address concerns such as security and decay.

@ TRAFFIC

JOHANNESBURG December 19 1998 Sapa

SA'S ROADS CLAIM 320 VICTIMS BY SATURDAY

South Africa's roads have claimed 320 victims by Saturday
afternoon with traffic volumes tapering off after peaking on Friday
afternoon.

Arrive Alive spokesman Ntau Letebele said KwaZulu-Natal - a
province which follows a zero tolerance attitude on offenders -
had the highest number of deaths with 78.

It was followed by Gauteng with 59 and the Eastern Cape with
47.

The death toll comes from 224 fatal accidents.

On Saturday morning, the N1 a few kilometres north of
Bloemfontein was closed after an accident involving a truck,
Letebele said.

He said it was not known whether there were any casualties. The
road was later reopened and traffic flow normalised.

Letebele again cautioned drivers in areas where rains hampered
visibility, especially on the N3 at Pietermaritzburg in
KwaZulu-Natal.

In the Northern Cape, a man died and two others were in
critical condition when their cars crashed head-on on the N1
highway between Richmond and Hanover at about 8.30am on Saturday.

Police identified the man as Jacobus Frederick Henn, 52, of
West Court, Parow. His 16-year-old son, Heinrich, was seriously
injured and his wife Magdalena were slightly injured.

In the other car, 21-year-old Christelle van Greunen of
Roodepoort was critically injured. Her 16-year-old brother Pieter
sustained minor injuries

She and Heinrich Henn were flown to Cape Town by helicopter.

Letebele said Arrive Alive expected traffic volumes to pick up
next week in the days before Christmas.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA December 19 1998 Sapa-AFP

FIGHTING RAGES IN CENTRAL ANGOLA

Fighting between government forces and rebels of the National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) continued
Saturday in central Angola, Angolan radio said.

The fighting took place in Katchyungu, Vila Nova and Alto Hama,
all in Huambo province, the radio said, adding that the army had
recruited young men in Huambo to fight the rebels.

In nearby Bie province, the situation in the main city Kuito
was calm on Saturday, said the radio, which had reported clashes
near Kunje, which is some seven kilometers (four miles) north of
Kuito.

The city of Malanje, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the
capital, was also calm after shelling overnight Thursday, residents
told AFP by telephone.

Several shells exploded about a kilometer (half a mile) from
the governor's palace in Malanje, wounding several people, the
Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported.

Humanitarian organizations are unable to reachKuito, which the
UN World Food Programme said was suffering from a food shortage.
Several food stores belonging to aid agencies whose workers have
left the city have been looted.

The Luanda government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has
reaffirmed that it will pursue a military offensive aimed at the
"internal isolation and neutralisation" of UNITA leader Jonas
Savimbi and his armed forces.

Dos Santos broke off dialogue with Savimbi in September on the
grounds that he had paralysed the peace process that had restarted
with accords signed in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 1994.

@ PAC

JOHANNESBURG December 19 1998 Sapa-AFP

APLA DISSOLVES

South Africa's left-wing Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) will
officially dissolve its military wing APLA, a one-time
anti-apartheid force, SABC public television reported Saturday.

The party decided at a pre-election congress that the Azanian
People's Liberation Army (APLA) - which suspended its armed
struggle in 1994 - will be formally dissolved next year. It will
hold its final parade in March.

The party claims APLA has about 20,000 members, television news
reported.

The army started integrating into the new South African
National Defence Force in 1994, after the first all-race elections
won by the African National Congress (ANC). The PAC took 1.2
percent of the votes in the elections.

The ANC's miitary wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and five other
military forces also integrated into the new army.

The PAC, which splintered from the ANC in 1959, formed APLA in
1961.

The army received training and assistance from China and
several African countries, including Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe,
and initially targeted whites, policemen and suspected
collaborators.

It shot to prominence in 1990, after the ANC's MK abandoned the
armed struggle, after increasing attacks on policemen and white
civilians.

The ANC's MK was formally dissolved in December 1994. A smaller
liberation army, the Azanian National Liberation Army, merged with
the Azanian People's Organisation in 1994.

@ CHIKANE-PREMIERSHIP

JOHANNESBURG December 20 1998 Sapa

CHIKANE NOT AVAILABLE FOR PREMIERSHIP POSITIONS

The Office of the Deputy President on Sunday dismissed as
contemptuous rumours that Director-General Frank Chikane was in
line for the post of either Gauteng or Free State premier.

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, told
Sapa the rumours were "scurrilous attempts" by sections of the
media to reinforce suggestions that Mbeki was centralising power by
redeploying his political allies.

"Reverend Chikane is neither available for the Gauteg nor Free
State premiership but remains available for election to the
National Assembly," Mamoepa said.

Chikane is not on the African National Congress provincial
legislature nomination list. He is, however, on the ANC's
nomination list for the National Assembly.

Media reports early in the week linked Chikane to the
premiership of the Gauteng province - a position he lost to
encumbent Mathole Motshekga at the beginning of the year.

Weekend reports have also linked him to the Free State hot seat
currently being held by Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

As from next year, premiers in ANC-held provinces will be
appointed by the organisation's national executive committee
through its deployment committee.

@ LESOTHO-INSURANCE

MASERU December 20 1998 Sapa

LESS THAN 2% OF LESOTHO BUSINESSES TO GET INSURANCE PAYOUT

Lesotho businesses devastated in September's political upheaval
in the mountain kingdom had claimed about R300 million from the
Lesotho National Insurance group, the vice-chairman of the Lesotho
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Thabang Nyewoe, said on Sunday.

Nyewoe said very few businesses affected, less than 2 percent,
would benefit. This represented big companies covered for
politically motivated damage, for which about R40 million had been
claimed.

Most of the businesses destroyed, which had claimed about R240
million from the LNIG, were covered by standard policies related to
damage from fire or theft, and insurers would not pay them out for
the damage incurred in September's riots.

Nyewoe said the LNIG would consider paying businesses which had
political riot insurance cover.

The shareholders of the LNIG, representing British and German
insurance groups and the Lesotho government, met in Maseru last
week to consider what action to take, and their final decision on
the matter would be announced on January 4.

The Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry would consider
helping businesses without political cover if a war compensation
fund was established, perhaps with the help of the World Bank.

Referring to security problems, Nyewoe said there was "a hit
list" of traders who were targeted to be killed.

After the crisis in the wake of the May general election, the
spate of killings of traders had become serious and would adversely
affect investment, he said.

Speakers expressed concern over the lack of security in the
operation of their businesses and criticised the "slovenly" manner
in which the police dealt with crime reported by the business
community.

Major Kizito Mhlakaza of the community service department of
the Royal Lesotho Mounted Police said the police were not aware of
the existence of the so-called hit list, adding that some of the
reported murders were connected with robbery while others were
"pure murder".

He said the police alone could not deal adequately with the
escalating crime rate in Lesotho.

"The only way forward was for the police to work in partnership
with the community," he said.

Mhlakaza said cases of reported crime over the past three years
were 26758 in 1995, 31858 in 1996, and 33607 last year.

@ ZIM-DRCONGO

HARARE December 20 1998 Sapa-AFP

PAY HIKE ORDERED TO BOOST MORAL OF ZIMBABWEAN TROOPS IN DRC

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has authorised his defence
ministry to award huge pay hikes of up to 100 percent to the
country's 35,000 troops, an independent paper reported Sunday.

"President Mugabe, in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of
the defence forces, has given the ministry of defence the
greenlight to award salary increases of up to 100 percent for
members of the Zimbabwe National Army," the Sunday Standard
reported.

The paper said the move was taken to boost the morale of the
estimated 10,000 Zimbabwean troops deployed in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) to prop up President Laurent Kabila who has
faced a Tutsi-led rebellion, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, since
August 2.

No official confirmation could be immediately obtained from
government, but the paper says the hikes are to be effected next
January.

The government last week denied independent media reports of
mutiny by Zimbabwean soldiers amid high casualties in the war
against the Tutsi-rebels as well as shortages of food among the
troops.

It has however, admitted to 26 Zimbabwean casualties, a figure
considered still low by independent estimates taking into
consideration the level of fighting in recent weeks.

Zimbabwe, along with Angola, Namibia and Chad, has sent
thousands of troops with heavy military equipment to the four-month
old civil confict in the vast central African state.

In addition to the acknowledged dead, five Zimbabwean soldiers
went missing in action, 33 had been wounded and 17 were captured.

@ HEALTH-ZUMA

DURBAN December 20 1998 Sapa

KWANATAL HOSPITALS INVESTIGATED AFTER ZUMA COMPLAINED

KwaZulu-Natal health superintendent-general Ronald
Green-Thompson on Sunday said all major hospitals in the province
would be investigated to ensure service was delivered properly.

Green-Thompson was speaking at a press conference in Durban
following Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma's complaint about the
delay of treatment of patients at Addington Hospital in Durban.

Zuma discovered the discrepancy when her younger brother Malusi
Dlamini was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago, suffering from
an epileptic fit.

Zuma claimed there were many patients at the casualty section
on the evening when her brother was admitted and there was only one
doctor to attend to them.

"There was only one doctor on that night and I want to know why
a major hospital in Durban has one doctor at the casualty section
at a weekend," Zuma said.

She alleged that some patients told her there had waited for
long hours to get treatment.

She added that a meeting with Green-Thompson and hospital
management was held to discuss the matter and an investigation was
launched.

Green-Thompson said investigations would be conducted in all
major hospitals in the province.

He said the investigations would assist in identifying problems
in the hospitals and if there was a delay of treatment as a result
of shortage of doctors alternatives would be made.

"I wish to thank the minister for letting us know about the
problems that are encountered by our patients in some hospitals,"
Green-Thompson said.

Zuma denied weekend reports that she abused her position by
demanding preferential treatment for her brother.

"As a minister I have a right to ask if our people are not
receiving proper treatment. I want to make it clear that I did not
abuse my position and I did not demand preferential treatment for
my brother," she said.

Zuma said she would take legal action against the newspapers
and people who alleged that she had abused her position.

The reports were also criticised by the provincial transport
MEC S'bu Ndebele, who is also acting as health MEC.

He said the reports were untrue and misleading.

@ NNP-RESIGN

JOHANNESBURG December 20 1998 Sapa

VAN SCHALKWYK'S MEDIA MANAGER RESIGNS TO JOIN LUYT

Jan Bosman, media and programme manager for New National Party
leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, on Sunday announced that he had
resigned and joined Louis Luyt's Federal Alliance.

In a statement, Bosman said one of the reasons for his
departure was the party's refusal to drop all references to the
name National Party when deciding on a new name.

"This would have given the National Party the opportunity to
break once and for all with the past. Even the New National Party
will always carry with it the taint and baggage of apartheid," he
said.

The party was recently relaunched and gazetted as the New
National Party.

He said he felt the NNP had lost focus, become stuck in the
past and was obsessed with staying one step ahead of the Democratic
Party.

In keeping with his commitment to opposition politics, he moved
to former rugby boss Luyt's party.

"In discussions with Dr Luyt I became convinced of the ability
of the Federal Alliance to be a political home for all South
Africans regardless of race or religion."

Susan Kruger, personal assistant to Luyt, said: "We are
delighted."

Daryl Swanepoel, spokesman for the NNP, confirmed Bosman's
resignation.

"We are not a one man show. We will proceed as normal," he
said.

"Although we are somewhat surprised at his move to the Federal
Alliance, we wish him success in his new administrative capacity."

Kruger said the Federal Alliance would register on Monday to
contest the 1999 election.

@ PENSIONERS-MOLEKETI

PRETORIA December 20 1998 Sapa

MOLEKETI TELLS SA COMMUNITIES TO HONOUR THE AGED, VETERANS

Communities across South Africa must mobilise and organise to
honour their older people and veterans, Welfare and Population
Development Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Saturday.

Communities must pay homage to their veterans for the role they
have played in bulding South Africa. Their contribution must be
acknowledged during the celebrations of the International Year of
the Older Persons next year.

Fraser-Moleketi was addressing pensioners at a Christmas party
in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria. About 500 pensioners braved the
heat to attend the party, an annual event organised jointly by the
Hush Puppies Youth Group and Steven Mabotja, manager of the
National African Federated Chamber of Commerce in the township.

South Africa would be joining the international community in
the 1999 celebrations, Fraser-Moleketi said. She praised the
efforts of the Soshanguve community in honouring the pensioners and
ensuring they were not forgotten during the festive season.

The government had passed legislation to look after the rights
of the aged. The Aged Persons Amendment Act targeted the
integration of old age homes.

She said old age homes which refused to integrate all racial
groups would in future not receive state funding.

The new dispensation for the aged meant the model the
government would be following was to provide services for the
elderly in their own communities - rather than in expensive
institutions catering for a few. The aim was to bring services for
the aged in their homes.

Fraser-Moleketi added the government was committed to a
periodic increase in the grants paid to the aged. It also planned
to re-engineer the country's social security system, with a view to
enabling pensioners to receive their money at any time of the
month.

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