/ 9 December 1997

Voters shun Nigerian elections

LARGE PRINT ZULU BIBLE

THE Bible Society of South Africa has launched the first large-print Bible to be published in Zulu, the society said in Cape Town on Tuesday. The Bibles were specially produced for Zulu-language speakers with weak eyesight. The society said there is a desperate shortage of large-print literature in the indigenous languages of South Africa. Zulu constitutes the largest language group of the population; some 6,5-million speakers.

NO AMNESTY FOR AWB KILLER

A FORMER acting commandant of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging has been refused amnesty for killing a black man in 1991 in an effort to enforce a white-by-night policy in Belfast, Mpumalanga. Hendrik Slippers, at present serving an effective 10-year jail sentence for the murder, was, however, granted amnesty for abducting the man, George Ngomane, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.

MUGABE STONED

A ZIMBABWEAN man, reportedly mentally deranged, hurled a brick at President Robert Mugabe’s Mercedes-Benz limousine on Sunday Ziana news agency reports. Mugabe and his Zambian counterpart, Fredrick Chiluba, were on their way to Harare International Airport at the time. The missile damaged one of the headlamps, and members of the presidential escort pounced on the attacker, Gift Mukata, 33. Mukata appeared in the Rotten Row Magistrate’s Court on Monday, facing charges under the Law and Order Maintainance Act. He was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to December 23 pending an examination by psychatrists to determine his mental state.

TEENAGERS JUMP JAIL NINE teenagers managed to spring out of jail on Monday through the bars of their police cells in Randburg, Gauteng. They sawed through the prison bars, squeezed out of the windows, and climbed down a drainpipe to freedom. The youths, aged between 13 and 16, were being held on charges of breaking and entering and suspected burglary.

ANC ‘ATROCITIES’ REPORT ROW CONTINUES

The row sparked by an article in the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport continued on Tuesday. The article leaked details of what it claimed to be an African National Congress internal investigation into atrocities in its own guerrilla camps in Angola during the 1980s. The 1993 report by advocate Lewis Skweyiya describes firing squads and brutal beatings by camp officials, and says the “cleansing” campaign was approved at senior level by ANC leaders such as Thabo Mbeki, Joe Modise, Jacob Zuma and Alfred Nzo. The Democratic Party has called for a truth commission probe, but the commission says its brief does not cover human rights violations beyond the country’s borders. On Tuesday the ANC responded by saying the party had submitted Skweyiya’s report to the TRC in 1996. “These reports are available on the ANC internet site, TRC office in Cape Town and ANC headquarters in Johannesburg,” a party spokesman said. The party also criticised Rapport for its reportage.

MENINGITIS VACCINE FOR AFRICA

SEVEN million doses of vaccines and sterile syringes are on standby to try to prevent meningitis taking hold in Africa, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. Meningococcal meningitis is normally at its most virulent from December to April. In the 1996 season there were 150 000 cases in sub-Saharan Africa. So far 70 000 cases have been reported for the 1997 season, which ended in April, although not all governments have sent in their statistics. Meningitis is an inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord that can be caused by viruses or bacteria.p> CHOLERA IN MALAWI

AT least 10 people have died of suspected cholera and 50 have been admitted to a lakeshore clinic in Nkhata Bay, northern Malawi, a health official said on Tuesday. “The situation is serious and worrisome,” George Ganiza said, adding there are more, unreported, cases in surrounding villages. It is suspected the outbreak is due to villagers drinking untreated and polluted waters from Lake Malawi.

SIERRA LEONE DISARMAMENT DEAL

The disarmament committee set up in Sierra Leone under the October Conakry accord has produced a 14-point agreement on the mechanics of a national disarmament operation. The Conakry accord was aimed at ending the rule of the military junta of Major Johnny Paul Koroma and securing the return of elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, ousted by Koroma in a May coup.

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