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ANC Daily News Briefing Tues 5 Jan 1999

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Jan 5, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/5/99

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

TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 1999

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 It is for reading and information only, and strictly not for
publication or broadcast.

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

@ BONDS-FOREIGNERS

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa-INet-Bridge

FOREIGNERS BOUGHT A NET R27.425M BONDS ON THURSDAY

Foreigners bought a net 27.425 million rand
worth of South African bonds on Thursday after being net sellers
of 441.081 million rand worth of bonds on Wednesday, Bond Exchange
of South Africa statistics show.

Friday was New Year's Day and a public holiday.
Nominal cumulative volume was 5.011 billion rand on Thursday
compared with 6.721 billion rand on Wednesday.

@ SWAZI-INCWALA

MBABANE Jan 4 Sapa

SWAZI MEN WHO FAIL TO ATTEND INCWALA TO BE PENALIZED

A Swazi chief of the Lavumisa area in southern Swaziland has
threatened to fine or jail all men in his chiefdom who fail to
participate in the country's annual Incwala (First Fruit) ceremony
to be staged on Monday and Tuesday.

The ceremony at King Mswati's Royal Kraal at Ludzidzini is the
Swazis' most sacred traditional ceremony and is held during the
period of the last full moon of the year.

Mswati, the central figure in the ceremony, undergoes ritual
cleansing and strengthening to prepare him to lead his people
through the new year ahead.

Lavumisa chief Tsekwane, a senior prince, warned he would not
hesitate to use the powers recently given to chiefs, enabling them
to establish their own courts and fine their subjects up to R300 or
jail them for unspecified periods.

@ NAMIBIA-ISLAND

NAMIBIA Jan 4 Sapa

INTERNATIONAL COURT TO HEAR NAMIB'S KASIKILI ISLAND DISPUTE

The International Court of Justice reaffirmed its earlier
decision to hear submissions on the Kasikili island dispute between
Namibia and Botswana from February 15 to March 5 this year, it was
reported on Monday.

The Hague court announced the first round of pleading would
take place from February 15 to February 18 for Namibia. Botswana
would take the floor from February 22 to February 25.

According to a report in The Namibian daily, the Kasikili
dispute was one of the most contentious cases being heard by the
ICJ.

Others include the dispute between the United States and Iran
over oil platforms, the border dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon
and a fisheries jurisdiction between Spain and Canada.

@ SWAZI-ASBESTOS

MBABANE Jan 4 Sapa

SWAZI ASBESTOS MINE GIVEN FIVE YEARS GRACE BEFORE CLOSURE

Swaziland's only asbestos mine, Bulembu Asbestos, has been
given five years' grace before it has to close.

Chairman of the Mining and Allied Workers Union' Frank Mcina
was quoted on Monday as telling about 1000 employees that the
European Union agreed to delay a ban on asbestos products based on
proven health hazards.

Mcina said his union would appeal to the government to invite
investors to establish alternative industries at Bulembu in the
interests of the local community of over 5000 people.

@ LABOUR-EARLYBIRD

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

EARLY BIRD WORKERS, MANAGEMENT TO MEET TO SOLVE WAGE DISPUTE

Workers and poultry company Early Bird will meet on Monday
afternoon over a wage strike by 600 workers at the Olifantsfontein
plant since early December.

The company hired 700 casual workers in December when Food and
Allied Workers Union members stopped working. The workers are
demanding a R40 increase per week - equivalent to nine percent.

"The company initially said it could afford a R35 increase per
week but later reduced this to R32 per week at our last meeting
with them on December 29," Fawu negotiator Sam Mashilwane told Sapa
on Monday.

Should Monday afternoon's talks fail to make any progress,
Mashilwane said 600 Fawu members at the company's Standerton plant
would start a sympathy strike on Tuesday.

Early Bird's three branches negotiate separately with
management for wage increases and would start negotiating jointly
only next year, Mashilwane said.

Company spokesman Arnold Prinsloo said the company's position
would not change at Monday's talks.

"Our offer still stands and we are not going to change it," he
said, and claimed there had been no stoppages as a result of the
strike.

Several attempts have been made to solve the labour dispute,
including mediation by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation
and Arbitration.

@ ANGOLA-FIGHTING

LUANDA, Jan 4, Sapa-AFP

GOVERNMENT FORCES KILL AT LEAST 731 REBELS IN ANGOLA: ARMY

At least 731 rebels were killed in a government offensive
against UNITA rebels in central Angola last month, armed forces
chief of staff General Joao Baptista de Matos said Monday.

"The war has only just begun," the general said in a press
statement, adding: "The combatants will continue to fight bravely
until (UNITA leader) Mr. Jonas Savimbi and his associates are
neutralized."

Another five members of the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA) were captured in the offensive
against Kuito and Huambo from December 7 to 31, the statement said.

The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) destroyed 16 BMP-2 cannons and
six assault vehicles, while capturing a large quantity of heavy and
light artillery, light arms, machine guns and military vehicles, De
Matos said.

Kuito, with a population of 300,000, has been surrounded by
rebels since December 9. The city some 700 kilometers (400 miles)
east of Luanda suffered 25 days of shelling by the rebels,
according to the local FAA commander, General Simione Mukume.

Late Sunday, the army announced the reopening of the Kuito
airport, which had been closed since the downing of a plane, blamed
on the rebels, in late November.

De Matos flew into Kuito aboard a military plane on Saturday.

The statement said the army recaptured Tchikala-Tchilohanga, a
key rebel rear base better known as Vila Nova some 45 kilometers
(30 miles) from the rebels' central stronghold of Huambo, as well
as Chilonda and Chipeta, near Kuito.

The statement said the rebels on Sunday attacked three
government-held towns including Kangandala, near Malanje, also in
central Angola, adding that the rebels were repulsed, without
elaborating.

Heavy fighting broke out in central Angola in mid-November
after the peace process, begun with accords signed in Lusaka,
Zambia, in November 1994, broke down.

@ BLAST-BOMB

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

WATERFRONT BLAST CAUSED BY PIPE-BOMB: POLICE

The explosion at Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront on
Friday was caused by a pipebomb, similar to others used in more
than 70 pipe-bomb explosions in the Western Cape last year, police
said on Monday.

Spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said forensic experts have
established that the explosion, in which five people were slightly
injured and three cars extensively damaged, was caused by a
pipebomb fitted with a timing device.

The pipebomb was left in the back or the boot of a Toyota
parked in front of the entrance to the Victoria Wharf.

The bomb was similar, but more powerful, than the one which
exploded at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at the Waterfront in
August. Two people died and 26 were injured in that blast.

@ ANGOLA-WILKINSON By Daisy Jones

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

FAMILY RECEIVE CONFIRMATION THAT HILTON WILKINSON WAS IN PLANE

It had ben confirmed that Hilton Wilkinson, son of South
African pilot John Wilkinson, was on the United Nations charter
flight plane that was shot down by a missile in Angola on Saturday,
a family member told Sapa on Monday.

This information apparently came from Transafrik, the company
that chartered the planes to the UN.

The family member was aware that the information contradicted a
UN report that said the passenger list did not include a South
African.

Hilton's 21-year-old sister declined to comment, saying
Transafrik requested the family not to speak to the media.

Hilton Wilkinson, 25, left South Africa on Wednesday last week
after hearing that his father's plane had crashed in Huambo on
December 26.

The Wilkinsons do not know if John or Hilton are alive.

Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Adri Cronje, who spoke to Hilton
before he left for Angola, on Monday said that according to the UN
list, the C-130 plane that was downed on Saturday was carrying
eight passengers - four Angolans, two Filipinos, one American and
one Namibian.

"These lists are normally quite accurate, in my experience,"
said Cronje.

She added that one would expect the UN to be particularly
careful identifying people in a war zone.

A Transafrik spokesman on Monday morning said the company did
not have any information about the planes, their passengers and
crew.

"Those flights were operated by the UN, not us," the spokesman
said.

He also refused to comment on who would pay for the damage to
the aircraft, whether or not any insurance would be valid in a war
zone, and whether or not Transafrik would continue loaning its
planes to the UN.

@ ANGOLA-UN

LUANDA Jan 4 Sapa-AFP

TOP UN SECURITY ENVOY ARRIVES IN ANGOLA

The UN coordinator for security matters, Benon Sevan, arrived
in the Angolan capital Luanda on Monday to help in eforts to reach
two UN aircraft apparently shot down in the Huambo region.

Sevan, who is a deputy to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is
expected to press on with an attempt to get experts out to save
possible survivors from two Hercules C-130s cargo planes, which
crashed on embattled territory after taking off from Huambo.

The Angolan Armed Forces blame UNITA rebels for shooting down
the planes respectively on December 26 and January 2, and have
identified 11 survivors from the first incident, thought to be
captives of the guerrillas.

The UN official went to the Luanda headquarters of the UN
Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), where he said he had messages
from Annan for the government and the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA) and hoped to send rescue teams as
soon as possible to Vila Nova, the strategic town where wreckage of
the first plane has been spotted.

On Sunday, UN special envoy to Angola Issa Diallo said MONUA
had no choice but to recall its monitors from battle zones in the
southern African country amid escalating fighting.

UN sources in Luanda said the first plane was carrying 10 UN
personnel and four crew, while the second had four UN staff and
four crew members aboard.

The Luanda government has given security guarantees for a UN
team to go to the Vila Nova region some 650 kilometres (400 miles)
from the coastal capital, but UNITA has not.

@ CRIME-CLAREMONT

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

SECURITY STEPPED UP AT WESTERN CAPE POLICE STATIONS

Security at police stations in the Western Cape have been
stepped up following Sunday's armed robbery of 23 firearms from the
Claremont station.

Acting area commissioner for the west metropole Director Johan
Kleyn said his management team met on Monday to discuss security at
police stations. Further meetings would be held with sector
co-ordinators on Tuesday to evaluate the immediate measures which
have been implemented.

He said for security reasons these measures and special
strategies would not be disclosed.

The west metropole was prepared to prevent similar incidents,
Kleyn said.

Five armed men disguised with scarves walked into the Claremont
police station at 3am on Sunday morning. They held the three duty
policemen at gunpoint and demanded the keys to the safe.

The policeman who had the keys was assaulted before he and his
colleagues were locked inside a holding cell.

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

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

Director Leonard Knipe, head of the serious violent crimes
unit, on Monday said he was convinced vigilantes were responsible
for the car-bomb explosion at the Waterfront on Friday and the
armed robbery at the police station.

He said a number of known vigilantes were held in the Claremont
police cells last year and their possible involvement in the
robbery and other acts of violence would be investigated.

@ EDUC-UNISA

PRETORIA Jan 4 Sapa

UNISA TO CREDIT FOR BUSINESS INSTITUTES QUALIFICATIONS

The University of South Africa's faculty of economic and
management sciences will in future give credits to students holding
qualifications from six of the country's business training
institutes.

In a statement on Monday the university said it had agreements
to this end with the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, the
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Institute of
Marketing Management, the Institute of People's Management, the
Institute of Bankers and the Institute for Administration and
Commerce.

Students registering for any one of Unisa's 16 undergraduate
business degrees would receive exemption from courses passed
through these institutions, the statement said.

@ BLAST-LETTER

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

POLICE EXAMINE LETTER CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY FOR WATERFRONT
BLAST

A letter in which a vigilante group has claimed responsibility
for Friday's bomb blast at the Waterfront was found in the
competitions bin of a Cape Town newspaper on Monday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer confirmed that such a
letter was found, but would not give details about the group or the
contents.

Hoax letters have been delivered to newspapers after previous
blasts.

@ ANGOLA-LD-UN

LUANDA Jan 4 Sapa-AP

U.N. ENVOY ARRIVES IN ANGOLA TO PROBE PLANE CRASHES

A United Nations special envoy arrived Monday to investigate
the downing of two U.N. planes in the central highlands where
Angolan government troops are engaged in fierce fighting with rebel
forces.

Meanwhile the U.N. mission that was overseeing implementation
of the country's shattered 1994 peace accord continued evacuating
its 1,000 staffers from war zones in the vast southwest African
nation.

U.N. envoy Sevan Belon said he had brought messages from U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan that he intended to hand personally to
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA rebel leader Jonas
Savimbi. He declined to reveal the content of the letters.

"My mission will last as long as is necessary," Belon told
reporters. He said he would also evaluate the security of U.N.
personnel in Angola.

Annan has appealed to both sides to facilitate deployment of a
search and rescue team to look for survivors of the crashed planes
which went down near Huambo, about 480 kilometers (300 miles)
southeast of Luanda.

A U.N.-chartered C-130 cargo plane with 14 people on board
crashed Dec. 26 in the central highlands near Huambo. A second
chartered C-130, with eight people on board, went down in the same
area on Saturday.

The United Nations on Sunday suspended all its flights in
Angola until further notice.

The government has offered the United Nations its full
cooperation in reaching the crash sites, but the rebels have not
yet responded to the appeal, U.N. officials said Monday.

The government says captured rebels reported that survivors of
the first crash were being held at UNITA bases, but rebel officials
have denied that.

The U.N. Security Council has blamed UNITA for the collapse of
the peace process, prompting an angry reaction from the rebels who
say they were first attacked by government forces.

U.N. officials say the planes apparently were shot down and
crashed in rebel-held areas. The government says the aircraft were
hit by rebel antiaircraft fire. However the United Nations, which
initially attributed the downings to UNITA, said later that the
crashes were being investigated and refused to attribute blame.

A U.N. spokesman in Luanda said Monday that U.N. staff were
being evacuated from war zones around the country.

"We're bringing them here first, then relocating them to safer
places," spokesman Hamadoun Toure said. He said the evacuation
began last month but did not specify when.

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

The accord unraveled in December when government troops tried
to take the strongholds by force and were beaten back. Recent
battles have focused on the central highlands.

The International Red Cross and World Food Program said they
flew food, blankets, medicine and soap into Huambo on Saturday. The
food would last for three-to-four weeks, WFP spokesman Cesar Arroio
said.

Some 80,000 displaced people have arrived in Huambo, the
country's second-largest city, in recent weeks, almost doubling its
population.

Arroio said the WFP was awaiting official confirmation of army
claims that the airport at Kuito, about 100 kilometers (60 miles)
to the east, was ready to reopen after rebel defeats in nearby
towns.

@ TRAFFIC-JHB

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

JHB TRAFFIC DEPT ARRESTS 103 MOTORISTS FOR OUTSTANDING CASES

The Johannesburg traffic department arrested 103 motorists for
outstanding cases during last Thursday and Sunday.

The department arrested 55 motorists for 94 outstanding cases
at a checkpoint in the Jeppestown area last Thursday and collected
R41700 for these arrests, spokesman Conel MacKay said. He said a
taxi operator with 15 cases against him paid a R6340 fine for two
outstanding cases.

At another checkpoint in Lenasia on Sunday, the department
arrested 48 motorists for 16 cases and collected R40360 in fines.

McKay said the campaign would continue throughout January.

Motorists with outstanding cases against them should contact
the department at (011) 490-1668 or 491-5279.

@ AGRIC-INFO

BLOEMFONTEIN Jan 4 Sapa

UFS HAS AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SERVICE PROGRAMME

A service called PRAIS (Programme for Agricultural Information
Service) has been established at the University of the Free State
to give the Southern African agricultural community access to
information on agricultural matters.

PRAIS can be telephoned at 051-4012743/2 or reached by e-mail
at ag...@hbib.uovs.ac.za.

@ TRAFFIC

PRETORIA Jan 4 Sapa

725 PEOPLE DIE ON SA ROADS, MORE THAN 100 OF THEM CHILDREN

A total of 725 people have died in road accidents since
December 1, more than 100 of them children of school-going age, the
Transport Department said on Monday.

It said in a statement in Pretoria 119 children aged between a
few months and 18 years were killed in what it described as the
year-end slaughter on South African roads.

Of these, 74 were younger than 12, and 27 were under 6.

The department said it was of the utmost importance that
children be buckled up.

"During a crash, young passengers are often flung into the
dashboard head first, resulting in brain injuries and often death.
If you buckle your children up, you significantly increase their
chances of surviving a crash."

The department said 27 children under 12 who died in road
accidents were passengers in cars and buses. These included four
children who died near Laingsburg when the side of the bus they
were travelling in was ripped open by a truck in a head-on
collision.

Another 42 were pedestrians knocked down by passing vehicles,
and five were cyclists.

The department said research indicated that children under 12
could not fully perceive, interpret and react to road traffic
situations. They had a short concentration span and were easily
distracted.

"They are unpredictable users of the road. When seeing children
play or walk near the road, drivers should slow down."

The statement said 45 of those killed were between 13 and 18
years old. Twenty-one were passengers, 11 pedestrians, 12 drivers
and one was a cyclist.

Two of the teenagers were unlicensed drivers, only 16 years
old. Of these, one was allegedly drunk and drove into a parked
vehicle, while the other died when the bakkie he was driving
overturned.

One 18-year-old died when he lost control of the car he was
driving - which was allegedly stolen - and three boys aged
between 16 and 18 were killed while allegedly driving tractors too
fast on dirt roads in rural areas.

The department said young drivers were often inexperienced and
reckless, and this had prompted insurance companies to load
insurance premiums for drivers younger than 25.

Young people were involved in, but survived, 12 crashes in
which 18 people were killed this holiday season.

"The worst among these crashes was one near Bainsvlei,
Bloemfontein, on December 10 when an 18-year-old woman driving a
bakkie allegedly lost control over the vehicle and crashed head-on
into an oncoming car. Three people in the car and a passenger in
the bakkie were killed."

A spokesman for the Arrive Alive campaign urged parents and
teachers to promote respect for road safety among school children,
especially those who had obtained their car of motorcycle licences.

"Obtaining a driver's licence is a privilege, not a right," he
said. "It is the start of a clean driver's record that will be
monitored, possibly from August onwards, through a points demerit
system. Don't let your licence be taken away because of reckless
driving, speeding and abuse of alcohol."

The spokesman warned young drivers that being held responsible
for another person's death could mean a jail sentence without the
option of a fine.

"Apart from anything else, carrying the guilt for the death of
a passenger or other road user is a terrible thing that can scar
one for the rest of one's life," he said.

The statement said pedestrians comprised 32 percent of the
total number of people killed on South African roads so far since
December 1. Another 240 were drivers and 255 were passengers.

Speeding remained a problem, and about 50 percent of all
drivers, except in KwaZulu-Natal, exceeded the legal limit.

About 20 percent exceeded speeds of 130km/h and 10 percent
exceeded 140km/h.

"At some stations in Gauteng, Northern Province and the Free
State, 15 percent of the traffic was noticed to exceed speeds of
140km/h," it said.

@ ZIM-ARMY

BULAWAYO Jan 4 Sapa

THOUSANDS TURN OUT FOR ZIM NATIONAL ARMY RECRUITING EXERCISE

More than 3000 school leavers on Monday thronged Imbizo
barracks, 25 kilometres east of Bulawayo, where the Zimbabwe
National Army is recruiting.

Warrant Officer Shelter Ndlovu said the huge turnout was
despite the fact that the recruitment exercise was never advertised
in the press, Ziana news agency reported.

She said the army was looking at recruiting 1000 school leavers
with at least five ordinary level passes to be trained as general
soldiers.

She said the recruitment had nothing to do with the war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo where Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and
Chad are fighting alongside DRC President Laurent Kabila's troops
against the forces of Uganda and Rwanda, who are backing Tutsi-led
rebels seeking to oust Kabila.

The recruitment will be completed next week.

@ LABOUR-LD-EARLYBIRD

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

EARLY BIRD, EMPLOYEES EDGING TOWARDS AGREEMENT IN WAGE TALKS

Poultry producers Early Bird on Monday afternoon offered its
striking employees a revised wage increase of 8,5 percent during
talks to end the dispute.

Food and Allied Workers' Union negotiator Sam Mashilwane said
the workers, who are demanding a nine percent wage increase, were
pushing for the remaining 0,5 percent.

"There is a strong possibility we might get a settlement today.
I have noted an element of flexibility (from) both the workers and
the management, and hope this will see us through the negotiation
process," Mashilwane said.

The company hired 700 casual employees on December 7 following
a decision by 600 employees from the union to stop work. The
workers were demanding a R40 increase per week - equivalent to a
nine percent increase.

"The company initially said it could afford a R35 increase per
week but later reduced this to R32 per week at our last meeting
with them on December 29," Mashilwane said.

Should Monday afternoon's talks fail to make any progress,
Mashilwane said a further 600 Fawu members at the company's
Standerton plant would start a sympathy strike on Tuesday.

Employees of the Standerton plant are still to start wage
negotiations.

Early Bird's three branches negotiate separately with
management for wage increases and would start negotiating jointly
only from next year, Mashilwane said.

@ BLAST-VIGILANTE

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

VIGILANTE GROUPS A SCOURGE IN WESTERN CAPE: KNIPE

Vigilante groups have become a real scourge in the Western
Cape, the head of the police's serious violent crimes unit,
Director Leonard Knipe, said on Monday.

He said he was convinced vigilante groupings were responsible
for most of the bombings, unrest and violence which has plagued the
Western Cape the past few years.

"In the last three years this province has been bedevilled by
crime which emanates from vigilante groupings," he said.

He believed a vigilante grouping was also responsible for
Friday's car bomb explosion at Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred
Waterfront and the armed robbery at the Claremont police station.

He confirmed that the blast was caused by a pipebomb fitted
with a timing device.

The pipebomb was left in the back or the boot of a Toyota
parked in front of the entrance to the Victoria Wharf.

Police spokeswoman Captain Anine de Beer said pieces of a
battery, believed to be part of the bomb, was also found at the
scene of the blast.

The bomb was similar, but more powerful, than the one which
exploded at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at the Waterfront in
August. Two people died and 26 were injured in that blast while
five people were slightly injured on Friday.

Police forensic experts have linked the Planet Hollywood blast
to 14 other explosions in the Western Cape, including an explosion
in Bellville last year in which a street vendor was killed and a
woman seriously injured.

De Beer confirmed that a letter, in which a vigilante group
claimed responsibility for the latest blast, was found in the
competitions bin of a Cape Town newspaper.

She would not give details about the group or the contents.

Hoax letters have been delivered to newspapers after previous
blasts.

Knipe said a number of known vigilantes were held in the
Claremont police cells last year and they would have gained
intimate knowledge of the workings at the station. Their possible
involvement in the robbery, and other acts of violence, would be
investigated.

Security have been stepped up at all police stations in the
Western Cape.

@ MATRIC-MPUMALANGA

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

MPUMALANGA BOASTS 68 PERCENT MATRIC PASS RATE

Sixty-eight percent of the pupils who wrote matric in
Mpumalanga last year passed, up on the 47,6 percent pass rate of
1997, the provincial education department announced on Monday.

Of Mpumalanga's 43743 matric candidates, 42069 wrote the exams
and 30664 passed.

Nearly 18 percent of the candidates, or 7081 pupils, obtained
matric exemptions and there were 2144 distinctions.

Education MEC DD Mabuza attributed the good results to the hard
work done by the members of his department, and other parties
involved in the province's education system.

"The timeous supply of learning materials, stationery and
prescribed textbooks, despite minor hassels, also contributed to
the continuous improvement of the results," he said in an address
at the launch of the results.

Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa said the province would
develop a plan aimed at bringing matriculants into the business
sector.

@ POLIE IDENTIFY SUSPECT

Issued by: East Cape News (Ecn)

Police identify suspect in Wilmot slayings as father forgives
killers

By Nick Wilson

BISHO (ECN) - "We have forgiven the perpertrators who did this,"
was the response of popular Uitenhage church minister Laurie Wilmot
whose only two children were murdered execution style while
holidaying with their aunt in Maritzburg. Rev Wilmot, who was
speaking from Pietermaritzburg, yesterday (SUBS: Mon) told ECN that
he and his wife Isobel were "devastated" by the murders, but their
strong Christian faith was "carrying them" in their grief. The naked
bodies of Kate Wilmot, 18, and her 20-year-old brother, James, were
found in the grounds of Voortrekker High on Friday. They had been
shot in the head apparently after being attacked while walking home
from a New Year's Eve party. Maritzburg police spokesman
superintendent Henry Budhram told ECN yesterday (subs: Monday) that
police had identified a possible suspect.

"We are in the process of drawing up an identikit from the
information we have received. We will be circulating the identikit
to the media shortly." He said a post-mortum had been carried out
yesterday, (subs: Mon) but the results would only be available in
the next few days. He told ECN: "We have not established any
motives." Rev Wilmot, who is a minister at St Katharine's (subs:
Katharine) Church, told ECN: "We know that our children are with the
Lord Jesus and the prayers of so many thousands of Christians are
sustaining us." "Jesus is sustaining us because of our faith in
Him." He said he and his wife had "forgiven the perpetrators".

"Firstly as a priest I've always worked for reconciliation
between God and man and secondly between people themselves." Wilmot
said he has always been a pacifist and had worked towards a peaceful
and gun-free South Africa. He said of the murders: "This has
strengthened our determination to work for a peaceful and gun-free
South Africa." Wilmot said his children "were both wonderful
Christians. They were very gifted and both lovely children." Police
said the youths were walking home from the party at about 5am on
January 1. When they failed to arrive back, their aunt immediately
contacted everyone who might know their whereabouts. The police were
alerted and the two naked bodies were discovered lying next to each
other. Their clothing was found on Saturday, about 40 metres from
where the bodies were found.

@ BLAIR-HNP

PRETORIA Jan 4 Sapa

HNP INSISTS ON APOLOGY FROM BLAIR FOR ANGLO-BOER WAR

The Herstigte Nasionale Party on Monday insisted on an
unqualified apology from British Prime Minister Tony Blair on his
country's behalf for pain and suffering caused to Afrikaners during
the Anglo-Boer war of 1899 to 1902.

HNP leader Jaap Marais told Sapa Blair's reported expression of
sadness about the deaths caused by the war was not good enough.

"His statement does not address the essence of the matter -
that about 15 percent of our nation was wiped out by the British,
either on the battle field or in concentration camps."

Marais said the HNP would seek to meet Blair during his
forthcoming visit to South Africa to give him a leter demanding a
"straight, unqualified" apology.

A copy of the letter would also be presented to the British
High Commission in Pretoria.

Marais said Blair owed Afrikaners an apology in view of the
fact that his country had apologised to the Maori nation, which he
said had suffered a similar fate to Afrikaners at the hand of the
English.

In his letter to Blair, Marais rejects statements that rights
and wrongs were committed on both sides of the war.

"Firstly, there has never been, nor can there ever be, an
assertion that on the Boer side anything remotely comparable to
ethnic cleansing had been practiced," he says.

"Secondly, no leader on the Boer side has ever been, or can
ever be, identified as a war criminal."

The letter says about 27000 women and children died in British
concentration camps at the time of the war and about 30,000 farms
were laid to waste.

"And when at the start of the winter in 1902 the prisoners of
war came back and the women and children returned from the
concentration camps, they did not only find the ruins of their
former homes, but also the wrecks of their vehicles and farming
implements as well as the skeletons of their herds of cattle and
sheep which had been wantonly killed by British troops to denude
the country of all means of livelihood."

Marais claims the Anglo-Boer War constituted ethnic cleansing
of the Afrikaner people.

Blair reportedly told an Afrikaans daily newspaper that he was
sad about the loss of life incurred by the war, and paid tribute to
Afrikaners and Africans who died.

He is due to arrive in South Africa on Wednesday for a four-day
visit.

@ TSHWETE-FF

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

TSHWETE MUST RESIGN OVER STATEMENT ON WHITE CRICKET TEAM: FF

Sports Minister Steve Tshwete should resign immediately because
of his public statement that he could no longer support the South
African cricket team since it was too "white", the Freedom Front
said on Monday.

The FF found it unacceptable that the minister of sport did not
give his unqualified support to a national team, FF sport spokesman
Leon Louw said in a statement.

In a country where democracy was the magic word and sport teams
were still appointed on merit, South Africa's sportsmen and women
did not deserve such a minister, he said.

In another statement, Democratic Party spokesman Mike Ellis
said by publicly withdrawing his support from the team at the start
of the fourth test against the West Indies, Tshwete not only
behaved in an unpatriotic manner, but also signalled his clear
intention to take political control of sport in the year ahead.

It seemed that nothing short of direct interference in the
management and selection of sports teams would satisfy Tshwete,
Ellis said.

@ BRITAIN-KUWAIT

LONDON, Jan 4, Sapa-AFP

BRITISH PM WILL VISIT KUWAIT AFTER SOUTH AFRICA

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will make a brief visit to
Kuwait on Saturday on his way home from a trip to South Africa, a
British government spokesman said on Monday.

Blair will meet Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah and
visit British forces based there.

Royal Air Force fighter planes are using Kuwaiti air bases to
monitor a no-fly zone banning Iraqi planes from flying over
southern Iraq in an effort to protect the Shiite Moslem population
there.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said on Sunday that the no-fly
zone, and a similar one in northern Iraq, were a "violation of
Iraq's sovereignty and air space" and contravened United Nations
resolutions.

Twice last week, Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners fired on US and
British planes patrolling the no-fly zones, prompting the planes to
return fire.

@ POVERTY-STIGLITZ

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

CORRECTED:WORLD BANK CHIEF ECONOMIST TO SPEAK ON POVERTY

Joseph Stiglitz, the World Bank's chief economist, is among the
speakers billed to address a Johannesburg conference on poverty
next week hosted by the outspoken Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town,
Njongonkulu Ndungane.

The three-day conference, which gets under way on Tuesday at
Kempton Park east of Johannesburg, will examine ways in which
poverty eradication can be addressed on a global scale.

It is being organised by the World Bank, the MacArthur
Foundation, Cornell University and the World Faiths Development
Dialogue.

Stiglitz will present a paper on Tuesday and his colleague
Monica Das Gupta will speak the following day on social norms,
social exclusion and poverty measurement.

Ndungane, who has been spearheading an anti-poverty campaign,
on Monday said the gathering would provide a platform for different
interest groups to consider different approaches to eliminating
poverty worldwide.

Hundreds of millions of people live in abject poverty.

The causes of poverty also had to be identified and addressed,
and the influence of globalisation had to be studied if poverty
eradication was to be successfully tackled, Ndungane said in a
statement.

@ DRCONGO-ZAMBIA

LUSAKA Jan 4 Sapa-AP

CONGO PEACE SUMMIT RESCHEDULED FOR THE FOURTH TIME

A Congolese peace summit - the fourth attempt to end the Congo
war - is being scheduled for between Jan. 12 and Jan. 16 in Zambia,
with Congolese rebels traveling to Lusaka for the meeting,
President Frederick Chiluba said Monday.

Chiluba, the main mediator in regional peace efforts, told the
Associated Press he was still talking with regional presidents to
settle the final day for a summit he hopes will lead to the signing
of a cease-fire in the five-month Congo war.

He did not explain whether the rebels will meet face-to-face
with Congolese President Laurent Kabila and his southern African
allies or hold "proximity talks" with their foes through Zambian
and Organization of African Unity mediators.

He said Kabila and leaders of his southern African military
allies will attend along with Rwandan and Ugandan leaders, main
backers of the rebels, to work out a cease-fire..

"The rebels will also come for the talks. We would love in one
way that all parties would feel they are obliged to observe a cease
fire," he said.

He said he believed all warring sides realized an immediate
cease-fire was the only way to stop the escalation of hostilities.

Three previous summits of regional presidents, the last
scheduled in Lusaka on Dec. 28, have been postponed after Kabila
refused to meet with rebel leaders.

Kabila has insisted on negotiating only with Rwanda and Uganda.
He refuses to speak to the rebel coalition made up of ethnic
Tutsis, disaffected Congolese soldiers and opposition Congolese
politicians.

Regional leaders have failed to agree on the level of
participation of Congolese rebels, with rebel allies favoring
direct talks with rebel leaders.

Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe have sent troops and
munitions to support Kabila.

Rwanda and Uganda have admitted sending troops to Congo. Those
two countries argue that a tentative peace agreement forged in
Paris in November did not fully address their security concerns by
sanctioning them to move against Rwandan and Ugandan rebels based
in Congo.

@ CRIME-KWAMASHU

DURBAN Jan 4 Sapa

SECURITY FORCES QUELL CRIME IN KWAMASHU: COUNCIL

Joint security force operations in KwaMashu, north of Durban,
over the festive season succeeded in drastically reducing crime in
the township, north central local council mayor Lydia Johnson said
on Monday.

In a statement Johnson said joint operations had reduced the
murder and crime rate in the area, where at least 46 people had
been killed in December last year.

In a statement, Johnson congratulated the security forces on
their achievements.

"Since the start of the new year our people have been able to
enjoy a crime free period due to the efforts of the joint
operation," Johnson said.

She urged the community to come forward with any information
whih could lea to the arrest and conviction of criminals.

@ WORLD BANK OFFICIALS SPEAK ON POVERTY

Issued by: The Church Of The Province

MEDIA RELEASE BY THE ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN, THE MOST
REVD NJONGONKULU NDUNGANE, MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1998

WORLD BANK OFFICIALS TO SPEAK AT JOHANNESBURG CONFERENCE ON POVERTY

A three-day conference is to be held next week at Kempton Park
near Johannesburg to examine ways in which poverty can be addressed
on a global scale.

The conference is being organised by the World Bank, the
MacArthur Foundation, Cornell University and World Faiths
Development Dialogue, and is being hosted by the Anglican Archbishop
of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane. Archbishop
Ndungane is in the forefront of the campaign to eradicate poverty
worldwide.

Among the speakers is the World Bank's Chief Economist, Joseph
Stiglitz, who will present a paper at the start of the conference on
Tuesday, January 12. His colleague, Monica Das Gupta will speak the
following day on "Social norms, social exclusion and poverty
measurement".

Archbishop Ndungane says that the conference will tax the minds
of delegates who come from many different backgrounds in many parts
of the world.

"We wish to eradicate poverty in its entirety. This conference
will provide an ideal platform for different interest groups to look
at ways of doing this, and also to understand the different points
of view.

"For example, the World Bank targets the 'abject poor' as its
primary target. Since there are more than 1,6-billion people who
could be described as living in abject poverty, it is unlikely that
the World Bank will shift its focus.

"Then we also have to consider poverty from the point of view of
economists. They want to be able to define the thresholds of poverty
so that there can be clarity on how to use resources."

The causes of poverty also had to be identified and addressed.
The influence of globalisation also had to be studied if poverty
eradication was to be successfully tackled.

Archbishop Ndungane said these were just two issues that needed
clarification in dealing with "the major complex problem of our age"

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

Media contact: Theo Coggin
Telephone: (011) 648 5461

Note to Editors: For accreditation to the conference, please
contact Susan Wynne on (011) 487 0026 or 648 5461 (fax:
011-487-1994, e-mail: cog...@sn.apc.org).

Tel: (011) 648-5461; (011) 487-0026
Fax: (011) 487-1994
Cell: 082-747-7827
e-mail: cog...@sn.apc.org

@ MALAWI-VOTE

BLANTYRE Jan 4 Sapa-AFP

MALAWI'S ELECTORAL BODY BROKE AHEAD OF POLLS

Malawi's Electoral Commission desperately needs pledged funds
less than a month before the start of voter registration ahead of
the second democratic general elections, an official said Monday.

Chief elections officer Stuart Winga expressed concern at the
delay by government and the aid donors in disbursing funding for
the exercise, which is to begin across the southern African country
on February 1.

"Funding is a problem and a headache," Winga told AFP.

The elections are to cost an estimated 12 million US dollars.
The European Union has promised to fund the voter registration and
civic education.

Winga said the commission desperately needed the money to
launch a voter education campaign for the estimated 5.5 million
people expected to go to the polls on May 18.

The registration exercise, to take place at some 7,000 centres
throughout the country, is expected to last two months.

Malawi held its first multiparty elections on May 17, 1994.
They removed from power the Malawi Congress Party government of
late dictator Kamuzu Banda.

@ SA-BLAIR

LONDON Jan 4 Sapa-AFP

BLAIR HOPES TO LAND 1.6 BLN USD IN MILITARY ORDERS IN SA

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hopes to secure military
orders worth one billion pounds (1.4 billion euros, 1.6 billion
dollars) during an upcoming visit to South Africa, his spokesman
said Monday.

Blair is due in South Africa on Wednesday for a four-day visit.

"We are confident about the outcome of those contracts that
have been under discussion for a time," the spokesman said.

Britain, South Africa's former colonial power and leading trade
partner, exported goods and services worth 2.4 billion pounds (3.36
billion euros, 3.8 billion dollars) to the country in 1997.

@ ANGOLA-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Jan 4 Sapa-AP

ANGOLAN ARMY PUSHES REBELS BACK FROM TWO CENTRAL HIGHLAND
CITIES

Government forces reportedly have driven advancing rebels back
from two central highland cities that have been the principal stage
of Angola's renewed civil war, raising hopes that aid can soon be
flown to thousands of displaced people.

"The government has retaken positions around Huambo ... and
widened its perimeter to 30 or 40 miles (48 or 64 kilometers)
around the city," a spokesman for the World Food Program in the
capital Luanda said Monday.

The government and rebels both reported heavy combat in the
counryside surrunding Huambo, which lies about 480 kilometers
(300 miles) southeast of Luanda.

The WFP has suspended its flights into the city until
Wednesday, following Saturday's crash of a United Nations-chartered
plane with eight people on board as it flew over the war zone, WFP
spokesman Cesar Arroio said.

The crash occurred a week after another U.N. plane went down in
the same area with 14 people on board. The government has accused
the rebels of shooting down the planes, but the rebels deny the
claim. A top U.N. envoy arrived Monday to investigate the two
crashes.

Kuito, another highland city some 130 kilometers (80 miles)
east of Huambo, has also been a focus of the fighting between the
rebel group UNITA and the government that resumed on Dec. 4,
undermining a 1994 U.N.-brokered peace accord.

Kuito "has been calm for the last four or five days," WFP's
Arroio said.

Both Huambo and Kuito lie on the strategic Benguela railroad
which crosses the country from west to east.

The government has claimed recent battlefield victories around
Kuito and announced that the city's airport is to be reopened.

Arroio said the WFP would send in an aid flight into Kuito
after receiving official confirmation that the airport is safe.

At least 200 people reportedly were killed and several hundred
wounded over the past month s rebels advanced on government-held
Kuito, launching artillery barrages.

State radio RNA reported that the city's hospital had exhausted
its stocks of blood and had requested 10,000 liters (21,000 pints)
of blood from hospitals in Luanda.

According to the government, some 300,000 people displaced by
the fighting have taken refuge in the city, tripling the usual
population of 100,000.

In neighboring Malange province, government forces supported by
the army, police and civil defense units on Sunday beat back
simultaneous rebel attacks on four towns - Kimbamba, Kamasoko,
Luchimbe and Cangandala, state radio said Monday.

In a weekend visit to Kuito, the government's Army Chief of
Staff Gen. Joao de Matos said his forces would "fight (UNITA
leader) Jonas Savimbi without respite until his final
annihilation."

The government has blamed Savimbi and his military hardliners
for the renewed war, saying the rebels failed to comply fully with
the 1994 pact which called on them to disarm and hand over the
territory they still held to the government.

UNITA - the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
- has accused President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of restarting the
war by attacking its central highland strongholds last month.

Angola's civil war began in 1975, immediately after the large
southwest African country gained independence from Portugal.

@ ESCAPE-NNP

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

NNP OUTRAGED AT SOWETO ESCAPES

The New National Party expressed outrage at the death of two
policemen and the escape of 21 prisoners during an attack on a
vehicle transporting the prisoners to the Protea Magistrate's Court
in Soweto on Monday morning.

Party spokesman Piet Matthee said the number of escapes from
police custody was unacceptably high, and law and order in South
Africa had all but broken down.

"The New National Party regrets that a good legal system has
been so weakened that South Africa has now become a paradise for
criminals and hardened felons who find it easier to get out of jail
than to get into jail," he said.

"Not only are these escapes demoralising for the SAPS, which
has to maintain law and order, but they also send negative signals
to potential investors."

Sergeants Christopher Sithebe, 56, and Matina Sinwamadi, 49,
were killed in the attack in Koma Street next to the Jabulani
flats.

Twenty-one of the 23 prisoners in the vehicle escaped, but by
Monday afternoon four escapees had handed themselves over to police
at the Jabulani police station.

@ SA-LD-BLAIR

CAPE TOWN Jan 4 Sapa

MUSLIM ORGANISATIONS TO PROTEST DURING BLAIR'S VISIT

British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be hounded everywhere
he went during his visit to Cape Town this week, two Muslim groups
warned on Monday.

Blair is scheduled to arrive in the city on Friday as part of
his first official visit to South Africa.

Muslims against Global Oppression (Mago) said it would hold a
mass demonstration, first at the US embassy and then at the British
consulate, on Thursday, to show their disapproval of Britain's
participating along with US forces in the recent air strikes on
Iraq.

"We don't agree with the bombing of Iraq and we are disgusted
at the killing of innocent women and children," Mago spokesman
Moaim Achmad said.

"We will follow Blair wherever he goes, we will have placard
demonstrations and our people in Gauteng and Durban will do the
same when he is there."

Abduragmaan Khan of Muslims Against Illegitimate Leaders (Mail)
said they would support Mago in the demonstration.

"We condemn any allies of America. We want to make it clear
that all British and Americans in our country are not welcome here,
they are unwanted," he said.

The British consulate said on Monday it was not aware of the
planned demonstrations and did not want to comment on security
planning for Blair's visit.

@ ECAPE-PROBE

EAST LONDON Jan 4 Sapa

ANC PROBES ECAPE COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS

Community groups in the Eastern Cape stand accused by the
provincial administration and the African National Congress of
disrupting the government and dividing the ruling party in the
province.

A top-level probe has been ordered into the organisations known
as the Concerned Citizens or Residential Front groups in Dordrecht,
Sterkstroom, Maclear, Whittlesea, Indwe, Cookhouse and Lusikisiki.

Since May last year the groups have called for the resignation
of their town councils which they say are corrupt and have failed
to deliver basic services.

Eastern Cape housing and local government MEC Sam Mazosiwe and
ANC provincial spokesman Mcebisi Bata said on Monday both the
provincial government and the ANC were taking the "destabilisation"
attempts seriously.

"Our assessment is that they are networking and it is a matter
of great concern to us," Bata said.

Residents of Butterworth and Bedford took to the streets
against alleged council corruption in last year, prompting probes
by the Heath Special Investigating Unit and provincial government
intervention.

Last Tuesday, police arrested 19 people in Dordrecht after
violent clashes there between rival council factions in which two
Pan Africanist Congress memebers were shot dead and 11 other people
were injured.

Concerned Citizens in the town have since October called on
Bisho to disband the council.

The provincial government has acted against local authorities
found guilty of irregularities during audits in Maclear, Indwe,
Dordrecht and Whittlesea. The action was aimed at stabilising local
government in these areas.

The audits were all preceded by council allegations of attempts
to overthrow the ANC. However the Concerned Citizens groups stated
they were apolitical and that non-delivery, not politics, was the
underlying root of unrest.

Mazosiwe said: "Transparency is the key and we have taken
strong measures to ensure that where money is owed it is paid back
to the TLC (transitional local council). In this way, we eliminate
grounds for discontent and, like has happened in Whittlesea, gain
community acceptance and thus a return to normality."

He said while numerous legitimate grievances had been raised,
most anti-council protests involved personal power struggles.

"We are also investigating destabilisation and have involved
the safety and security department," Mazosiwe said.

The ANC, at both regional and provincial leadership level, is
also worried about the community groups.

"Their main aim is to destabilise town councils and then
destabilise the ANC," Bata said, adding that some of these problems
amounted to power struggles emanating both from within and outside
the ANC.

"Some of these people are well known, including former ANC
chairpersons and others ousted in elections who want to be mayors
and deputy mayors.

"In Sterkstroom in late November, the group there claimed that
they were ANC members and concerned. But it is not acceptable to us
that concerns by ANC members are not addressed within the ANC where
there are structures to deal with them."

@ CRIME-LD-CLAREMONT

PRETORIA Jan 4 Sapa

FIVAZ PROMISES STRONGER POLICE RETALIATION AGAINST CRIMINALS

Criminals who showed blatant disregard for life and law would
in future be dealt with in the strongest possible manner, SA Police
Service national commissioner George Fivaz said on Monday.

"It has now become abundantly clear that we are dealing with
elements who lack moral sensitivity and the understanding of
democratic policing, and who deserve to be dealt with in the
harshest manner possible to protect the community and police
officers."

In a statment issued in the wake of an armed robbery of 23 guns
from the Claremont police station in Cape Town on Sunday, Fivaz
expressed outrage at the escalation in attacks against police
officers.

"Incidents such as the robbery of firearms at a police station
in Claremeont, as well as other horrendous incidents of freeing
suspects from lawful custody by ruthless gangsters, cannot be left
to continue unchallenged," he said.

Within the framework of the law, SAPS members would be expected
to meet fire with fire, Fivaz said.

He called on citizens to support the police with available
information on criminals.

Meanwhile, security at Western Cape police stations had been
stepped up after Sunday's robbery from the Claremont station.

Five armed and disguised men walked into the station at 3am on
Sunday morning, held up three duty policemen at gunpoint and
demanded the keys to the safe.

They locked all three of them in a cell after assaulting the
policeman who had the keys.

The robbers stole 15 pistols, four shotguns, four R5 rifles,
two radios, nine bulletproof vests, over 700 rounds of ammunition
and R3600 in bail money from the safe.

Director Leonard Knipe, head of the serious violent crimes unit
in the Western Cape, on Monday said he believed vigilantes were
responsible for the car-bomb explosion at the Waterfront on Friday
and the armed robbery at the police station.

A number of known vigilantes were held in the Claremont police
cells last year and their possible involvement in the robbery would
be investigated.

@ ANGOLA-2ND-LD-FIGHTING

LUANDA Jan 4 Sapa-AFP

ANGOLA SLIDES BACK INTO ALL-OUT CIVIL WAR

All-out civil war has once again taken hold in Angola,
seriously affecting the population and economy, some four tense
years after belligerents agreed to stop fighting.

In November, government troops launched offensives against
bases of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA), which was due to have demobilised fully under 1994
accords.

For two months, serious clashes have taken place in the centre
and south of the country, paralysing production in key industrial
and agricultural areas.

The fighting has also fuelled concern over the safety of Roman
Catholic priests and nuns in the northeastern area of Uije.

In his new year's address to the nation, President Jose Eduardo
dos Santos said Angola had been plunged into "recession and a
financial crisis aggravated by the collapse of internal
production."

The war against the rebels eats up more than 16 percent of the
budget.

Oil accounts for 90 percent of Angola's export revenue and in
1999 is expected to bring in some 4.5 billion dollars, or around 42
percent of gross domestic product.

Angola's official diamond production of 2.9 million carats in
1998 was worth 450 million dollars, according to mining ministry
figures released Monday.

The sector generated 13 million dollars in fiscal revenue,
according to the same source, which stressed that much trading was
illicit.

Jonas Savimbi's UNITA controls several diamond-rich areas and
earns at least half a million dollars a year through diamond sales,
according to the most conservative estimates.

Angola is saddled with a 600-million-dollar trade deficit, and
a foreign debt of more than six billion dollars.

In October, the government hiked fuel prices almost twofold and
the labour ministry announced plans to fire 250,000 civil servants
because it could not afford to pay their salaries, which amount to
less than 30 dollars a month.

Luanda also admitted it had no food reserves to feed many
thousands of homeless people and refugees, numbers of whom had fled
fighting in Angola or in one of the two Congos.

Luanda broke off dialogue with UNITA in early August and now
only recognises dissident members who have renounced their loyalty
to UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, whom Dos Santos regards as a "war
criminal."

Despite UN measures freezing overseas UNITA funds and
prohibiting travel outside Angola of its members, the rebels
launced an offensive in March and have retaken more than 300 areas
which they had returned to the government.

UNITA has nevertheless managed to rearm, thanks to the diamonds
it mines in the eastern Lunda region.

Savimbi himself, who has been based in his central strongholds
of Andulo and Bailundo, has said nothing publicly and his exact
whereabouts remained unknown on Monday.

UN Special Envoy to Angola Issa Diallo this weekend ventured to
express remaining optimism for an end to conflict and said he was
putting pressure on both sides for a resumption of dialogue.

The UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) has ordered around
1,000 observers to pull out of combat zones where they have been
deployed under the Lusaka accords.

The decision followed the downing, allegedly by UNITA artillery
fire, of two UN-chartered Hercules C-130 transport planes near
Huambo on December 26 and last Saturday.

MONUA says the first chartered plane was carrying 10 UN staff
and four crew and the second had four UN personnel and four crew
aboard.

Luanda has named 11 people, including foreign UN personnel,
whom it said survived in the first downed plane and are being held
by UNITA. The Angolan authorities have given permission and
guarantees for a UN search mission, but UNITA has not.

The United Nations is also studying the possibility of allowing
UN troops to open fire on attackers to protect humanitarian
convoys, Diallo said in an interview with AFP at the weekend.

Several Roman Catholic priests and nuns have been trapped for
months in conflict zones in Angola, the bishop of Vije, some 340
kilometers (210 miles) northeast of Luanda said Monday.

"I have lost contact with more than half the members of the
diocese," said Francisco da Matta Mourisca, speaking on state
radio.

The bishop added that contact had been lost both in areas held
by government forces and those occupied by UNITA.

"We do not really know who holds which zones ... I hope nothing
has happened to them," he said of the missionaries, without
specifying how many might be missing.

Mourisca said the Catholic mission in Bungo, in east Vije, was
the "favourite target" of clashes there a month ago which caused
considerable damage, and led to the repatriation of a traumatised
Mexican priest.

The renewed clashes have also halted a programme to fight
sleeping sickness supervised by Catholic missionaries in
Dange-Quietexe, in southern Vije, the bishop said.

@ ZAMBIA-DETENTION

LUSAKA Jan 4 Sapa

ZAMBIAN DETAINEES AWARDED LEGAL COSTS

The Lusaka High Court on Monday awarded legal costs to Movement
for Multiparty Democracy chair for women's affairs, Nakatindi Wina,
and Zambia Democratic Congress president Dean Mung'omba for their
12 months in detention following the botched coup in October 1997.

Mung'omba and Wina were charged with treason together with 77
soldiers for their alleged complicity in the failed October 28,
1997 coup d'etat.

Judge Japhet Banda ruled that the prosecution had failed to
provide any evidence against them since the trial started last May.

Banda also granted bail to the two prominent politicians,
asserting that the State had failed to show cause for their
continued detention.

Banda ordered the defence lawyers to furnish him with legal
costs within one week to enable him to determine the award to
Mung'omba and Wina.

The two were released from detention on December 21 last year.

Lawyers for the two claimed in court that Director of Public
Prosecution Mukelabai Mukelabai and Attorney-General Bonaventure
Mutale abused the legal system by detaining their clients, and
threatened to report the two senior legal officers to the Law
Association of Zambia.

@ LABOUR-AMPLATS

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

AMPLATS AND NUM REACH AGREEMENT, DETAILS KEPT UNDER WRAP

Anglo American Platinum Corporation and the National Union of
Mineworkers on Monday night announced they had resolved a wage
dispute which saw 8000 union members on strike for more than 10
days.

"The parties believe that the agreement is one which meets
their respective needs and interests and which will ensure
industrial peace and productivity," private mediator John Brand
said in a statement after talks between management and the union.

He said the contents of the agreement were confidential until
NUM completed its feedback to its members on Tuesday.

The dispute, which forced the parties to return to the
negotiations table on Monday, centered around the implementation
date for an eight percentage increase management had offered the
workers.

Management wanted the implementation date to be January 1 this
year while NUM demanded it be from July 1, 1998.

@ CRIME-2ND-N/L-ESCAPE

JOHANNESBURG Jan 4 Sapa

SEVEN MORE HAND THEMSELVES IN AFTER SOWETO ESCAPE

A further seven prisoners have handed themselves in after
escaping on Monday morning when a police truck transporting
prisoners to Soweto's Protea Magistrate's Court was attacked by
gunmen who killed two police escorts.

Captain Richard Luvhengo said ten of the 21 who escaped were
still at large.

Luvhengo warned the ten to hand themselves in or implicate
themselves as accessories to the murder of the two policemen killed
in the attack.

"We are appealing to those prisoners who escaped without
intending to escape to hand themselves in, otherwise they will be
treated as people who were part of the plot to kill the police
officers," he said.

He said those linked to the attack would face murder charges.

Sergeants Christopher Sithebe, 56, and Matina Sinwamadi, 49,
died as a result of gunshot wounds sustained during the attack
which took place at about 7.15am when the vehicle stopped at a
traffic light.

Sinwamadi died at the scene after being shot several times.
Sithebe, who was celebrating his birthday on Monday, was critically
injured. He died hours later in the Chris Hani-Baragwanath
hospital.

Both policeman, who were stationed at the Moroka police
station, were married, Luvhengo said.

Luvhengo said by Tuesday afternoon, depending on who had handed
themselves in, police would have a clearer idea which prisoners
were involved in the escape plan.

"We're not saying all ten who are still at large were involved
in the plot."

Luvhengo said the seven prisoners handed themselves in at the
Jabulani police station. Earlier on Monday four others handed
themselves in at the same police station.

The ten still at large are facing charges including rape,
housebreaking, car theft, assault and firearm offences.

All were awaiting trial prisoners.

Luvhengo said police still had no leads on the gunmen who
carried out the attack.

@ Captain Richard Luvhengo said ten of the 21 who escaped were
still at large.