MPs, MPLs GET 13% RISE
ORDINARY members of Parliament and members of provincial legislatures are to get a 13% salary increase, backdated to January 1, in terms of new salary packages for public representatives approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday. The new packages are based on the findings of the Steyn Commission on the Remuneration of Public Representatives. Deputy Finance Minister Gill Marcus told a media briefing it should be remembered that MPs had not had rises for four years. The new increases will cost the state an extra R33-million, bringing the total salary bill for public representatives at national and provincial level to R264,86-million.
CORVETTES OKAYED
PARLIAMENT has approved the long-contested Defence Force proposals to strengthen the navy with the purchase of corvettes and submarines. Defence Minister Joe Modise said his department would begin shopping for suitable armaments immediately.
NEW ARTS DEPUTY D-G
ARTS, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Lionel Mtshali on Thursday announced the appointment of Zululand University music department head Dr Musa Xulu as deputy director-general of the department, with effect from October 1 1997.
NYERERE URGES SANCTIONS
FORMER Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, “grand old man” of African politics, has called on Congo-Kinshasa to join in the sanctions against Burundi.
Nyerere, on a visit to Kinshasa, described claims to democracy by the Burundian authorities as “sheer propaganda”. “As far as I know, both the parliament and political parties are banned in Burundi … It would be regrettable if Congolese authorities used the reconstruction of their country as a pretext to flout the sanctions.”