MONDAY, 2.00PM:
Bantu Holomisa, co-leader of the United Democratic Movement, claims there is an African National Congress conspiracy to discredit him and, perhaps, to kill him.
In a five-page letter to President Nelson Mandela, he asks that his safety be assured. He says he was briefed by ANC members on Sunday that the party is going to mount a smear campaign linking him to political violence.
“Is this perhaps a precursor to a full-scale strategy of fomenting political violence in the Eastern Cape, as was the case with the Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng?” the letter asks. He claims the strategy was discussed at a weekend ANC national policy conference at Midrand.
Holomisa says he has conference documents indicating that 10 ANC leaders have been deployed to launch propaganda against the UDM in the Eastern Cape and prepare an attack for the ANC’s December conference.