COSATU CONGRESS BEGINS
THE Congress of SA Trade Unions’ annual congress got under way shortly before 10am on Tuesday morning. More than 2 300 delegates arrived at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park near Johannesburg in buoyant mood. Before the conference the Cosatu executive committee met to discuss how to respond to the revised Basic Conditions of Employmemt Bill, unveiled by Labour Minister Tito Mboweni on Sunday. The conference was opened by President Nelson Mandela, who told delegates the government had not consulted its allies in drawing up its Growth, Employment and Redistribution macro-economic strategy, and is prepared to revise the policy if it is found to be inappropriate.
COMORAN TROOPS FREED
COMOTRAN separatists on the island of Anjouan said they will free 24 of the 83 federal troops captured in a failed attempt to end the secessionist uprising. A separatist spokesman told reporters the 23 soldiers will be released on Tuesday. Separatists on Monday threatened to execute captured soldiers if the government attempts another invasion.
REPORTERS BACK IN LESOTHO PARLIAMENT
JOURNALISTS were allowed back into Lesotho’s parliament on Tuesday, following the announcement by Speaker John Kolane that the ban imposed on them and the public last month has been lifted. Kolane on August 28 barred the press from all parliamentary sessions on the grounds that their reports might inflame tension between the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the opposition Basutholand Congress Party (BCP). The 33-member senate, which last week threatened not to resume their sittings as long as the government and the speaker continued to deploy riot police in and outside parliament, returned on Monday, but there was still uncertainty whether they will hold their next sitting on Wednesday because not all the riot police have been removed from parliament. The senate also objected to the banning of the press from parliamentary sessions.
FOR SALE: ZIM UNIVERSITY
PROPERTY belonging to the University of Zimbabwe, including the vice-chancellor’s house and Mercedes-Benz, will be auctioned to pay workers’ salaries, trade unionists said on Tuesday. The workers, who are non-academic staff, won a civil case against the university last month for the payment of Z$68-million in back pay, giving them the right to attach university assets. They allowed the university authorities two weeks to find the money, but the deadline passed last Thursday without any payment being made. Workers’ committee chairman Livingstone Chifuro said the workers will instruct their lawyers on Tuesday to institute formal procedures to auction university property.
FAMINE IN TANZANIA
THREE million Tanzanians face famine because drought affecting more than two thirds of the country has caused massive crop failure, the UN World Food Programme warned on Tuesday. Food stocks in warehouses — currently at just 17 000 tons — are expected to be exhausted by the end of this month and the next harvest is not until January. Tanzania faces a food gap of 916 000 tons and requires a tenth of that in emergency aid, the WFP said. ”Drought-induced food shortages have caused market prices for staple food such as maize, rice, sorghum and cassava to soar. Prices are already twice as high as this time last year,” the agency warned. This has put staples out of the reach of many cash-strapped Tanzanians.
PATIENT KILLED IN HOSPITAL FIRE
A FEMALE patient died and another was treated for smoke inhalation after a wing of a Port Elizabeth psychiatric hospital caught fire on Monday afternoon. Firemen fought for an hour to contain the blaze in the women’s acute therapy ward of the Elizabeth Donkin hospital. The fire is believed to have started in the roof of the ward at about 1pm. Twenty-two patients from the wing were evacuated to other wards. Hospital spokesman Dr Peter Vaczi said most of the patients were evacuated from the ward soon after the alarm was sounded. Only one patient could not be reached as the fire had spread too rapidly through the wing.