COLOMBIAN PRES DROPS IN COLOMBIAN president and chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement Ernesto Samper Pizano arrived at Johannesburg International Airport on Friday morning. Pizano was met at the airport by Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo, who later left for Pointe-Noire, Congo, to be with President Nelson Mandela to meet Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko. A scheduled meeting between Pizano and Mandela in Pretoria on Friday has been shifted to Saturday. The two leaders will discuss issues relating to the NAM, of which South Africa was earlier this month elected the next chair, before Pizano leaves on Saturday.
BETHLEHEM MURDERED LEADING economist Professor Ronnie Bethlehem, chief economist of JCI until his retirement in 1995, was shot dead by hijackers as he reversed his car into his Bramley, Johannesburg garage. The hijackers fled with the car. This was Bethlehem’s third hijacking.
TEAM HOLOMISA BANTU Holomisa has teamed up with fellow expelled ANC leader Sifiso Nkabinde (the latter expelled last month as an alleged police spy) to address a major rally in Richmond, KwaZulu Natal at the weekend. Also prominent at the rally will be nine ex-ANC councillors who resigned in support of Nkabinde. The rally has fulled speculation that the group will launch a joint party.
SASH STOPS CAPE ACT THE Black Sash has asked the Constitutional Court to postpone its approvial of the Western Cape provincial constitution on the grounds that the only draft available to the public differed to the final version on some key clauses. The ANC has also objected that the Cape constitution usurps various national powers. The Democratic Party says it approves of the constitution.
ENGLISH WINS OUT THE National Party leader in the Germiston, Gauteng local council has lost a court bid to re-instate Afrikaans as one of the council’s official languages. Last year the ANC-dominated council voted to conduct meetings in English only. The judge found that councils are not obliged to run their affairs in all 11 official reasons and may choose to use one language for reasons of efficiency.