NP THREATENS DEFECTORS THE National Party has threatened legal action against the eight Pretoria city councillors who recently defected to Roelf Meyer’s New Movement Process if they do not vacate their council seats. Each of the councillors will receive a written ultimatum to this end in the next few days, NP Pretoria regional chairman Fanus Schoeman said. The NP claims the eight took an oath on taking office that they would vacate their seats if they quit the party. They have responded by saying that the deal was conditional on the NP remaining in the Government of National Unity.
SPORTS QUOTA SYSTEM THE National Sport Council voted at the weekend for an affirmative action quota of 40% in all sports teams of associated sports. NSC chairman Mluleki George said the quota was simply a “guideline” for further discussion with individual sporting bodies. Some representatives at the meeting called for penalties against sports bodies which do not follow the guidelines. Some smaller sporting groups said they do not enjoy enough black support to be able to comply. The National Party attacked the quota as “a new form of apartheid”.
Following the outcry over the quota, NSC CEO Mvuso Mbebe said on Monday that sporting federations will not be forced to implement the quota. He said the 40% figure is the NSC’s ultimate target, and that actual targets will be negotiated with each federation.
TIMOR LEADER SNUBS MANDELA NOBEL PRIZE winner Carlos Ximenes Belo, an East Timorese bishop, has rejected an invitation to meet President Nelson Mandela, saying that he has “too much work to do”. He said it would be more useful for Mandela to meet the Indonesian generals. On Friday, Mandela held talks with a rival East Timorese leader, Jose Ramos Horta, who shared the Nobel prize with Belo. It emerged at the weekend that Mandela’s new interest in East Timor was prompted by UN chief Kofi Annan.
EX-MINISTER TO SOOTHE VETS ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, admitting for the first time that his War Victims’ Compensation Fund has been “terribly abused”, at the weekend appointed former sports and culture minister Witness Mangwende to deal with protesting war veterans. Mangwende lost his cabinet post in last week’s redhuffle. Liberation war veterans have been protesting government’s management of the victims’ compensation fund. Payments from the fund were suspended in March after it was revealed that Mugabe’s cabinet cronies had bled it dry.
MOBUTU MEN EXPELLED MOROCCAN authorities have ordered 30 members of the entourage of ousted Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to leave the country. The 30, bodyguards and former security officials who arrived in the country with Mobutu in May, have been given 10 days to leave.
SHRINKING OUTWARDS MALAWI’s President Bakili Muluzi has sworn in a new cabinet with 38 members: 25 ministers and 13 deputies. Muluzi, who was criticised for the bloated size of his previous cabinet, has added three more faces. But, following the advice of a local consultant, he has cut the number of ministries from 27 to 23.
MINI BOOM IN LIBERIA LIBERIA’S two local currencies, the “liberty”, used in the capital, and the “JJ”, used in territory under the control of former warlord Charles Taylor, have both boomed since Taylor’s election victory last week. The weaker Liberty has gained 33% against the US dollar and is now on a par with the “JJ”. Taylor has said he will scrap both currencies in favour the US dollar as the local currency.
Liberia after elections
MINE DEATHS AT 18 The last bodies of miners trapped in the Hartebeesfontein rock burst a week ago have been brought to the surface, bringing the death toll to 18.
JEERS FOR JESSIE Gauteng Safety and Security MEC and her local government counterpart Sicelo Shiceka were jeered off a platform in Tsakane township at the weekend by residents refusing to pay electricity bills. The two were hoping to send a strong message to communities to stop the violent attacks on local councillors after electricity supplies to defaulters were cut off.
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