FOREIGN AFFAIRS STALWART QUITS
FOREIGN affairs director-general Rusty Evans will vacate his post by the end of the year after a 35-year career in the department, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday. “Since the elections, Rusty has played a key role in helping us to transform our department and trying to ensure that the department is able to cope with the new challenges confronting us,” Pahad said. Evans’s term of office was renewed by the government in 1994.
ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN
TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj on Friday announced the launch of the “Arrive Alive” summer road safety campaign, saying South African drivers need a culture change to combat the high accident rate. Maharaj said the biggest problem in combating road casualties is the casual attitude society has to the high accident statistics. The Arrive Alive campaign, to be launched in October, is a short-term project devised by the transport ministry and other road traffic stakeholders to combat the high road toll over the Christmas season. “The campaign will have teeth and we want it to be seen to have teeth, which means it will not only have to be rigorously enforced, but backed by a concerted effort to change the perception of road users,” Maharaj said. About 10_000 people are killed on South African roads every year and 50_000 are seriously injured. In 1996 road accidents cost the economy R11,9-billion.
REGIONAL GRAIN SHORTAGE
THE Southern African Development Community expects grain shortages in Tanzania, Angola, Zambia and Malawi after a sizeable decrease in Southern Africa’s maize harvest this year. This year’s overall maize harvest in the region decreased by 16% to 17,4-million tons, down from the 1995/96 output of 20,34-million tons, said Kaire Mbuende, executive secretary of the 14-nation SADC. He told a press conference at SADC headquarters in Gaborone that the decline is due mainly to excessive rains and floods. Only South Africa and Zimbabwe are likely to have an exportable maize surplus, he added.
SAUDI MINISTER VISITS
SAUDI Arabia’s Minister of Defence and Aviation, Prince Sultan Abdulaziz Al-Saudi, will visit South Africa from September 23 to 29, the department of foreign affairs said on Friday. Prince Abdulaziz will hold talks with President Nelson Mandela, his South African counterpart Joe Modise and several other government ministers. Saudi Arabia and South Africa are finalising a R7-billion deal for the sale of G6 motorised artillery pieces and anti-aircraft weapons. The controversial arms deal hit the headlines in July when Denel sought an interim court order to prohibit newspapers, including the M&G, from identifying Saudi Arabia as the client country.
TWO ARRESTED, URANIUM SEIZED
POLICE arrested two people and seized 10kg of uranium oxide valued at R300_000 when organised crime unit members raided a house in the Cape Peninsula on Tuesday, police reported on Friday. Spokesman Senior Superintendent John Sterrenberg declined to divulge any further details so as not to jeopardise further police investigations.
FLOOD WARNING
PEOPLE living in low-lying areas downstream of dams and rivers should be on the lookout for rising water levels following a week of heavy rains in many parts of the country, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Friday.