‘VICTIMISED’ BY TRC IN a last-minute effort to delay the inevitable, the Junior Doctors’ Association of South Africa (Judasa) was planning to urge Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma on Thursday to hold off implementing compulsory community service until 1999.
Judasa, which has opposed the scheme of community service for newly-qualified doctors, also hopes to discuss the negotiation process on terms and conditions of service, location of service and supervision.
VETERAN PAC MAN DIES Leading Pan Africanist Congress politician, Barney Desai, died in Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on Wednesday aged 65, from internal bleeding caused by stomach ulcers. Desai, once the top constitutional negotiator for the PAC, was president of the Coloured People’s Congress in the fifties, and the first coloured person to be elected onto the Cape Town city council. He went into exile in the early 1960s and returned to South Africa in 1991.
BASSON – ‘I HAD NO FOREIGN ASSETS’ CHEMICAL and biological warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson denied in court on Wednesday he had any private money or interests abroad. Basson, who was arrested last week on charges of fraud of R30-million which had been paid into various bank accounts in Europe, said during cross-examination in his bail application: “To my knowledge I have no assets abroad and I have never had.”
ROBBEN ISLAND RUSH Robben Island could see a lot more traffic soon — the island administrator said on Wednesday the number of tourists allowed on the island each day will be gradually increased from 300 to 1 300 people. The increase will be done over time, following the recommendation of a recent environment impact assessment. The island formerly accommodated 800 prisoners and about 250 prison staff.
SIAMESE TWINS ‘DOING WELL’ THE Mokoena Siamese twins, Nomonde and Monde, are progressing well towards full health, a representative from the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital said on Tuesday. The smaller of the twins, Monde, is still on antibiotics, but is being weaned from the ventilator.
RICHARDSON IN KENYA
US envoy Bill Richardson has called for an international conference to improve dialogue among strife-torn countries in the Great Lakes region.
Richardson, speaking on Tuesday in Nairobi, said the conference could involve the United Nations, governments, the Organisation of African Unity and “various other parties that deal with some of the various refugee and humanitarian problems in the region.”
In Kenya, the fourth stop on a six-nation tour, he said he had urged his “old friend” President Daniel arap Moi to ensure upcoming elections are free and fair.
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