ELECTRICITY CUT-OFF BEGINS THE Gauteng government on Tuesday began cutting off electricity supplies to households that refuse to pay for municipal services. The cut-off began in KwaThema near Springs, where local government MEC Sicelo Shiceka said there is no justification for residents not to pay for services, because the apartheid government they were protesting against was toppled in 1994. Shiceka said cutting services is not a punishment but rather a signal to defaulters that the authorities are serious in their effort to collect monies owed in order to enhance services provided by local councils.
‘DON’T DELAY’ MALAWI’s Electoral Commission on Tuesday urged President Bakili Muluzi to reconsider a government decision to postpone long-awaited local elections. The government, despite pressure from donors and local human rights organisations to hold the elections this year, announced last month they would be postponed until 1999. The local polls were originally due to have been held in 1995, the year after Malawi’s first democratic general elections which saw Muluzi oust former dictator Kamuzu Banda.