CRIMINALS USING POLICE NETWORKS SAFETY and security minister Sydney Mufamadi says that international crime syndicates have penetrated South Africa, relying on the underground contacts built up by former police and intelligence agents. A Bulgarian syndicate that arrived in this country had complete South African papers including vehicle registation documents, which could only have been supplied by insiders. Mufamadi said legislation was being considered to “silence” former agents and prevent them selling off their secrets.
‘MERCENARIES NOT OURS’ MERCENARY outfit Executive Outcomes on Wednesday denied reports that two of its employees had been arrested in Sierra Leone. Executive Outcomes’ chief executive officer, Nic van der Bergh, said the company withdrew from providing training in Sierra Leone in January. The foreign affairs ministry in Pretoria said no one has yet contacted the department in connection with the arrests.
HUGE KRUGER PARK ARMS CACHE MPUMALANGA police have reported finding a huge weapons cache in the Kruger National Park on Tuesday. The cache was found about five kilometres from the park’s border with Mozambique. It contained 105 AK-47 assault rifles, 17 000 rounds of Tokorev 7.62mm ammunition and two RPG7 projectiles, Mpumalanga police spokesman Captain Izak van Zyl said on Wednesday. The find was made after a tip-off by an informer. No arrests were made.
ANC DISCIPLINE THE African National Congress on Wednesday released a discussion document to facilitate debate on issues of dissent and discipline within the party, acting secretary-general Cheryl Carolus said. She said the document is the result of criticisms over the years that the ANC had become a top-down, elitist movement which lacked the climate for free, open and critical debate. “Although this perspective comes mostly from people outside the ANC, increasingly cadres and structures of the movement are expressing similar views,” she said.
BUSINESS REBUILDS JUSTICE SYSTEM BUSINESS Against Crime wILL providE money and resources to upgrade the courts and the South African justice system, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday after a meeting with BAC representatives. Assistance from BAC wILL come in the form of “whatever is needed, be it money or resources or the secondment of people”, said BAC representative Margaret Roper. Representatives from the Justice Department, BAC, the attorneys-general and the magistracy will form a task team to conduct a thorough needs assessment throughout the department and the various provinces.
ONE YEAR FOR MEDICAL GRADUATES HEALTH MINISTER Nkosazana Zuma has shelved the two-year vocational training programme for medical students, and replaced it with one year of service at a public hospital, starting in January. Medical students have been quick to react, saying it is unfair to target only medical students, and complaining that they have not been consulted.
UNITA COMMANDER DEPORTED THE Namibian government has deported some 350 Angolans who fled illegally across the border from their war-torn country, among them Lieutenant-Colonel Americo Satuika, commander of Unita’s southern region. Quizzed by Namibian journalists on reports that over a thousand Angolans have disappeared from the border areas, he said he knew nothing about the issue.
ALL MY OWN WORK, SAYS KABILA DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila has denied a report in the Washington Post last week in which Rwanda’s vice president Paul Kagame said the Rwandan government had planned and played a prominent part in the war to oust dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila said Kagame had been “misquoted”.
SUDAN TOWNS FALL SUDAN’S rebel People’s Liberation Army says it has captured two key towns, Tindilo and Ayod, the last two obstacles in the path of capturing Juba, the major city in the South.
EMERGENCY AREAS DECLARED SEVENTEEN areas of the North Western Province have been declared “emergency areas” following renewed taxi wars. The emergency regulations compel taxi owners to register with the provincial administration and agree to stick to their assigned routes. Those who fail to comply will have their vehicles impounded.
UGANDA ANTI-PORN OFFENSIVE UGANDA’S information minister has threatened a clampdown on “offensive magazines” publishing sensational and pornographic materials. The minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, joined church leaders in a meeting with the publishers of the magazines Chic, Secrets, Spice and Bella, calling on them to exercise “self-censorship, taking into acount societal moral standards”.
PIPELINE STUDY CHIEF NAMED WINDHOEK engineer Steve Crerar, an expert on hydrology with 15 years experience of the Okavango River system, has been appointed to head an environmental assessment study for the Okavango River Basin. The study was agreed to by the Namibian Government after plans to draw up to 20-million cubic meters of water a year from the river through a pipeline alarmed environmental groups and caused tensions with neighbouring Botswana.