TALK IS CHEAPER TELKOM announced cuts in rates of between 20% and 12% off international telephone calls to 29 destinations from July 1. The countries that it will be cheaper to call in future include United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Kenya and Taiwan.
IRANIAN OIL SCHEME STALLED PLANS to import Iranian oil to Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape for storage in tanks belonging to the Strategic Fuel Fund have come to a standstill. The Fund’s acting general manager, Howard Roberts, said on Thursday: “Prospects for an agreement [between SFF and the Iranians] remain poor as the parties find it difficult to come to mutually acceptable commercial terms.”
PW WON’T SAY SORRY FORMER president PW Botha says he will not seek amnesty, “not now, not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow. I will not ask for forgiveness for being an Afrikaner Boer.” He added that he had never ordered that anyone be killed: “Give me one example.”
MOBUTU RICHES PARLIAMENT’S intelligence comittee plans to probe allegations that South African intelligence agencies helped President Mobutu Sese Seko smuggle his riches out of Zaire.
MANDELA MEETS GENERALS PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela met with eighty defence force generals yesterday to urge them to remain with the military and to refute allegaions that affirmative action is a form of discrimination against minority groups. Mandela called the meeting after being told that ten generals plan to quit.
UN TO WATCH COUP THE United Nations has allocated $200 000 to establish a temporary office in Guinea to monitor the situation in neighbouring Sierra Leone, in a state of crisis for a month since soldiers ousted the elected president. All UN employees have been evacuated from Sierra Leone.
PRINCIPAL SUSPENDED The vice-chancellor of the University of Zambia, Professor Andrew Siwela, and six of his most senior associates, have been suspended after an auditor general’s report revealed massive financial irregularities.
PRISON COMMITTEES OK’D THE SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights has praised the Westville prison in KwaZulu-Natal for the “brave step” of allowing Sapohr committees among prisoners within the prison. “This move will surely bring about a more transparent Correctional Services and reduced human rights violations,” the organisation said.
SUDAN MURDER PLOT? ERITREA has accused the Sudanese government of plotting to kill President Issaias Afeworki on November 14 last year. It accused head of state General Omar al Bashir and three other senior government officials of ordering the assassination, to be carried out by an army captain. Khartoum has denied the allegation.
UGANDA SPORTS HERO DIES MOURNERS jammed Uganda’s parliament this week, where a special memorial service was held to pay tribute to athletics hero John Akii Bua, who won a gold medal for the country at the 1972 Olympic Games. Hundreds of mourners filed past as Bua’s body lay in state.
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