MBULI DUCKS AND DIVES ‘People’s Poet’ Mzwakhe Mbuli evaded questions about his finances at a bail application in Pretoria on Thursday, saying that he handled his finances himself and was not sure how much money he had. The court was heavily guarded to prevent a repeat of the fracas at last week’s court appearance where cheering spectators caused the magistrate to walk out. Police urged that he be refused bail because he was unable to confirm that he could pay bail, and because he knew many people abroad and was likely to attempt to flee. Mbuli has been accused of robbing a Pretoria bank.
EXAM ARRESTS TWENTY students and an invigilator at an adult learning centre in Durban ahve been arrested for exam fraud. The students are alleged to have paid the invigilator bribes for the right to bring their books into matric exams.
ROBBERS HOLD HOSTAGES GUNMEN took over the African bank in Ga-Rankua, north of Pretoria for four hours on Thursday, and held nine people hostage. Police sealed off all entrances to the bank, and persauded the robbers to surrender. The men were discovered to have stuffed banknotes into their shoes in the hope of escaping detection. The hostages have been treated for shock.
RIGHTWING AUTOBIOGRAPHY Notorious right-winger, Barend Strydom, has announced his autobiography, due for release in Cape Town next week. Strydom, who claims to be former leader of the mysterious ‘Wit Wolwe’, said the autobiography corrects ‘terrible distortions’ by the media and includes a detailed account of how he gunned down seven black people in Pretoria’s Strijdom Square in 1988. Strydom was released from death row as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners during negotiation between the National Party government and ANC.
NO SMOKE IN PARLIAMENT The first steps were taken on Wednesday towards making the public areas of parliament a smoke-free zone. Parliamentary joint rules committee approved a decision to ban smoking in the corridors and dining rooms without objection, but the full National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces still need to ratify the rule before it can be implemented. However the move does not tackle the issue of MP’s smoking in their private offices, though smoky air could be circulated into non-smokers’ rooms through the centralised airconditioning.
BANDA RECOVERS Former president of Malawi, Hastings Banda, (91) was removed from intensive care on Thursday, after being treated for a severe bout of pneumonia at Johannesburg’s Garden City Clinic. Banda was rushed to the South African clinic for emergency treatment on Monday after he lost consciousness, and has since been on a ventilator. Doctors at the hospital say Banda’s condition is improving steadily, and that he has recovered consciousness.
SIX KILLED IN PLANE CRASH South African investigators have flown to Mozambique to investigate a light plane crash in which six people died instantaneously. The light aircraft crashed into the sea off the Mozambican coast on Wednesday during a sudden thunderstorm. The Cessna aeroplane was carrying four South Africans and three Irish citizens, one of whom survived the crash.
ANC LEADERSHIP ATTACK WINNIE THE African National Congress launched a searing attack on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on Wednesday, calling her a “politically wayward charlatan” and an “armchair politician”. The attack, signed by Sport and Recreation Minister Steve Tshwete, responds to an interview Madikizela-Mandela gave Johannesburg-based newspaper, The Star, earlier this week, in which she accused the ANC of reneging on pre-election promises and abandoning its mass-based constituency. The criticism comes just as the race for the deputy-presidency of the ANC hots up, with Madikizela-Mandela one of the candidates.
RADIOACTIVE SHIPS ARE OKAY THE Cabinet has received a report on the shipment of plutonium and radioactive wastes through South African waters, and announced on Wednesday that: “The South African Government fully recognises the right, in terms of international law, of the innocent passage through territorial waters of ships carrying irradiated nuclear fuel cargoes.”
NAMIBIAN ELECTIONS POSTPONED NAMIBIA’S local authority elections have been postponed to next February, after several Swapo party politicians were disqualified from the race in the town of Rundu because of late registration. The disqualification hiccups led President Sam Nujoma – himself a Swapo member – to proclaim an extension to the registration deadline, and to change the election date from December 2 to an unspecified date in February. He justified the extension by saying the previous deadline impinges on the integrity of the election process and on the right of every citizen to vote.
ABACHA SCEPTICISM NIGERIAN Opposition groups express reservations about General Sani Abacha’s promised amnesty for political prisoners. The Nigerian head of state’s promise on Monday was described as “empty” and “vague” by an official from the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) who said the gesture would be “meaningless” if Chief Moshood Abiola, widely believed to be the winner of the 1993 annulled elections, and Beko Ransome-Kuti, a prominent human rights leader were not released.
OFFICERS OUT The defence force says that nearly 10% of the 10 776 voluntary severance packages it approved up to the end of September this year went to officers holding ranks from major to lieutenant-general.