EMPLOYMENT BILL FINALLY PASSED The Basic Conditions of Employment Bill finally passed through the National Council of Provinces on Wednesday, despite National Party attempts to block it with 20 last-minute amendments. Debates on the amdendments delayed the bill by just 24 hours. The defeated amendments aimed to limit the labour minister’s powers and slow a move towards a 40-hour working week.
FIVAZ TO PROBE RAPE CHARGES POLICE chief George Fivaz has ordered a probe into the behaviour of policemen handling a Randburg, Gauteng rape case, who were castigated by a judge on Monday when he freed four accused. The judge criticised procedures at an identity parade and said Captain Petrus Booysen was a ‘blatantly dishonest witness’. The judgment has aroused fierce controversy, with the rape victim threatening on radio to take the law into her own hands, and Justice Minister Dullah Omar regretting the verdict and expressing sympathy with the victim.
ABACHA SCEPTICISM NIGERIAN Opposition groups express reservations about General Sani Abacha’s promised amnesty for political prisoners. The Nigerian head of state’s promise on Monday was described as “empty” and “vague” by an official from the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) who said the gesture would be “meaningless” if Chief Moshood Abiola, widely believed to be the winner of the 1993 annulled elections, and Beko Ransome-Kuti, a prominent human rights leader were not released.
OFFICERS OUT The defence force says that nearly 10% of the 10 776 voluntary severance packages it approved up to the end of September this year went to officers holding ranks from major to lieutenant-general.
QUESTIONS FOR WINNIE National Police Commissioner George Fivaz has told police investigating the R17-million Bronkhorstspruit heist in July to question Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who said in an interview with The Star on Monday that she had information on the crime.
The Star reported her saying: “I tell Sydney (Mufamadi, the police minister) that you know that I know the boys who committed that crime of the R17-million highway robbery and I know where you can find them. But I also know that if you were given that information, you would not arrest them … ”
In the crime in question, two security guards were killed when an armed gang, possibly former MK guerrillas, ambushed security vehicles near Bronkhorstspruit, outside Pretoria.
NEW ID CARD The National Council of Provinces approved legislation on Tuesday providing for a new, uniform identity card which, said Deputy Home Affairs Minister Lindiwe Sisulu-Guma, will be phased in over five to eight years. The NCoP also approved a Bill codifying what has become a noticeable trend, especially among women in government and in Parliament: the hyphenated surname. The Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill allows a married or divorced woman to add to her surname any other name she might have had previously. Both Bills have already been approved by the National Assembly.
RADIO ISLAM HEARING ON Radio Islam’s attempt to prevent a scheduled hearing into its alleged refusal to allow women presenters on the air was dismissed on Monday with costs in the Johannesburg High Court. The community station is due to appear before the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s monitoring and complaints committee to respond to complaints about its men-only policy.
SWAPO DEMOS GO HOME THE 200 former Swapo guerrillas who have camped out in the gardens of parliament for a fortnight in protest over the goverment’s failure to provide jobs for them, trickled away over the weekend after President Sam Nujoma urged them on national television to “go home”
Nujoma said the repeated demonstrations were “counter-productive” and that the government had got the message and was making an effort to find work for the ex-soldiers.