WINNIE MUST APPEAR
TRUTH commission spokesman John Allen said on Monday that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela will have to appear in person before the commission on Thursday, even if she wishes to apply for a postponement of her in camera hearing. Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyers said at the weekend they will apply for a postponement of the inquiry because they have not been given sufficient details of the investigation against her. She has been subpoenaed to appear before the closed hearing for questioning in connection with 18 serious crimes, including several murders.
BODY SPOTTED, NOT FOUND
A SEARCH aircraft spotted what appeared to be a second body from an apparent plane collision 10 days ago, but officials said on Tuesday that search ships were unable to find it. Only one body has been found in the cold waters off Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, where German and US military transport aircraft carrying 33 people apparently collided in mid-air last weekend in Namibia’s worst crash in 29 years. One of the eight German, US and South African planes still searching for survivors saw what appeared to be a body from the air on Sunday. Neither a French frigate nor a Namibian patrol vessel helping with the search were able to locate and retrieve the body.
NEW GAUTENG NP LEADER
THE National Party in Gauteng elected Johan Kilian as its new provincial leader on Tuesday. The position was vacated following Daryl Swanepoel’s transfer to the National Assembly. Swanepoel has been appointed the NP’s senior national media director. Kilian was previously the NP’s Gauteng chairman and caucus chairman.
LAND CLAIMS DEADLINE EXTENDED
The deadline for the submission of land restitution claims will be extended by eight months to the end of next year, chief land claims commissioner Joe Seremane said on Tuesday. The extension was prompted by changes last year to the Restitution Act which widened the scope for such claims, Seremane said in Pretoria. Previously, the Act stipulated that only those dispossessed of land rights since 1913 because of racially based measures qualified to claim restitution. “The amendment changed the wording to read ‘because of any racially based measure or practice’. The addition of racially based practices as grounds for a possible claim has widened the scope for restitution claims,” Seremane said. The commission has so far received 17 122 claims, about 14 000 in urban and the others in rural areas.
DE BEERS MEN SHOT IN ANGOLA
TWO British employees of the South African diamond mining firm De Beers were wounded, one seriously, when they were attacked in their car in northeast Angola on Friday. The two men were evacuated to South Africa from the town of Lukapa on the day of the attack, which took place around 100m from an Angolan border post, said the director of De Beers Angola, Dourado Ferreira. The assailants climbed into the car after wounding the Britons and drove to Lukapa where they abandoned the victims, who were later evacuated by a patrol of the UN Observation Mission in Angola. Lukapa, capital of the diamond rich Lunda-Norte, is regarded as one of the most dangerous cities in the country.
200 SLAUGHTERED IN ALGERIA
IN the bloodiest massacre in more than five years of civil war in Algeria, Islamic rebels on Monday night slaughtered 200 people in an Algiers suburb. Survivors, who described scenes of “unimaginable butchery”, put the death toll at between 180 and 200. An official statement put the toll at 85 dead, with at least 67 people wounded, of whom 31 are in a serious condition. Most of the victims were said to be women and children. Many had their throats slit or were burned alive.
Also on Tuesday, a bomb exploded in a cafe east of Algiers, killing at least two people and wounding several, witnesses said. Tuesday’s indepdendent press also reported that further killings had taken place. The El Watan newspaper reported seven people killed in a village on the Algerian border with Morocco, while Libert and El-Khabar reported that a bomb exploded on Monday near a home for elderly people in Tlemcen in the west of the country, slightly injuring three or four people.
NAT TRUCE WITH TRC
THE National Party has dropped its court action against the Truth Commission, following a public apology by deputy chairman Alex Boraine for criticising the National Party’s submissions. New party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who met with TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu yesterday, said the door had been reopened to future participation by the party.
DEPUTY AG WANTS OUT
The deputy auditor general, Professor Bertie Loots, has announced that he plans to quit when his contract ends in March “for personal reasons”. The auditor general’s office has been involved in repeated showdowns with cabinet ministers over alleged irregularities, and has received little support from key ANC figures.
MAGISTRATE ARRESTED
A MAGISTRATE from Randburg, near Johannesburg, appeared in court today on corruption charges. Primrose Songewu was released on R3000 bail, after being charged with submitting fraudulent expenses claims while attending a special magistrates’ course.
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