IN BRIEF 2 DIE IN BAFANA CELEBRATION
A TEENAGER and a woman died after they were accidentally shot during celebrations marking Bafana Bafana’s triumph over the Democratic Republic of Congo in an African Cup of Nations semifinal on Wednesday night. The 13-year-old boy was shot in the throat by a stray bullet let loose in a 500-strong street celebration in Moroka North, Soweto. Jeanet Mahlanghu, 49, was shot in Tembisa when a friend fired shots into the air. A bullet ricocheted, hitting Mahlanghu, who was watching the match on television at the time, police spokeswoman Inspector Marcia Havemann said.
NAMIBIAN TEACHERS’ ULTIMATUM
NAMIBIAN teachers have threatened unspecified action against the government unless various demands — wage reform, reinstatement of retrenched teachers and the 13th cheque, housing and car benefits and an end to education cuts — are met within two weeks. Teachers took to the streets in their thousands on Wednesday. Petitions were handed to officials in various regions, including Basic Education Minister John Mutorwa in Windhoek. Mutorwa said his department will respond urgently and sympathetically.
NIGERIA, CAMEROON TO WORLD COURT
NIGERIA will appear at the International Court of Justice at The Hague next week to oppose a suit by Cameroon claiming ownership of the mineral-rich Bakassi peninsula, the Nigerian justice ministry said on Thursday. Experts in international law will present Nigeria’s case, Justice Minister Abdullahi Ibrahiman said. Cameroon filed a suit with the ICJ in March 1994, contesting Nigeria’s claim over the peninsula, located in the Gulf of Guinea. The dispute over the Bakassi peninsula, which is rich in oil and fish, has prompted some bloody clashes since the two countries stationed troops nearby in 1994.
17 ARRESTED IN SECURITY STRIKE
POLICE arrested 17 security guards for carrying firearms during a second gathering of strikers in Johannesburg’s Library Gardens on Wednesday. Talks between security union representatives and employer body the South African National Security Employers Association deadlocked on Wednesday when unions representatives refused to accept Sansea’s offer of a 10% salary increase. The unions are demanding 12%. Union representatives will square off in the Labour Court on Thursday, where the unions will oppose Sansea’s application for a court interdict to declare the strike illegal. Judgment will be delivered on Friday.
MUGABE WON’T RETIRE
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, 74, has made it clear he has no plans to resign, despite calls from opposition groups, the independent press and political commentators for him to stand down. Mugabe’s government weathered food riots last month and faces a general strike on Monday, should it fail to drop plans for a proposed new tax. “It is my contention that President Mugabe would be wise to step down now because what we have here may well be the calm before the storm,” said political commentator John Makumbe. Mugabe’s term of office only expires in 2002. There are no limits on how many terms a president may serve.
FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS THREATENED
THE oldest known footprints made by a modern human being, located at Langebaan Lagoon 100km north of Cape Town, have been damaged by visitors and the site despoiled by graffiti. It is almost certain that the prints, 117 000 years old, probably made by a young woman, will have to be cut from the earth and moved to the South African Museum. Though older footprints made by less evolved humans have been found, these are the earliest known footprints made by anatomically modern human beings.
DRC EDITOR DETAINED
MODESTE MUTINGA, the editor of Potentiel, a major pro-opposition newspaper in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was detained on Wednesday. After being called for questioning at the National Security Council, based within the grounds of President Laurent Kabila’s presidential palace, and later detained in a cell. It is thought that he may have been detained over an article published by Potentiel on the arrest of veteran Kinshasa politician Etienne Tshisekedi.
COUP PLOTTERS IN COURT
THE alleged leaders of October’s Zambian coup attempt finally appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with treason. The detained leader of the opposition Zambia Democratic Congress, Dean Mung’omba, appeared along with 72 soldiers to hear charges read by a magistrate and the case postponed for referral to a high court. Mung’omba and several of the army officers claim to have been beaten and tortured during their three months in detention.
ELECTION PRESSURE ON RENAMO
WESTERN diplomats have met leaders of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo to persuade its leaders to contest municipal elections in May. Renamo’s threatened boycott could reduce the elections, on May 29, to a farce. Diplomats from Britain, the United States and several European countries met Renamo leaders on Wednesday, but neither side would comment afterwards.
GERMANS OPPOSE KRUGER PIPE
A GERMAN environmental group representing 107 organisations on Wednesday announced its support for a South African effort to prevent a slurry pipeline being laid across the Kruger National Park. African Eye News Service reports that Deutscher Naturschutzring, in a letter to the newly formed National Parks Support Group, pledged its support for the group’s bid to “preserve the integrity” of national parks in South Africa. South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation is proposing that a pipeline transporting of waterborne magnetite from Phalaborwa to an iron production plant in Maputo pass through the Kruger National Park.
CONVICTS LOSE PRIVATE MEDICAL TREATMENT
FROM July, prisoners will be treated only in state hospitals, the Correctional Services Department has announced. The move is a response to public concern that prisoners are treated too well, and to the additional cost of private health care. Last month in Gauteng, 213 prisoners were admitted to private hospitals, while only 46 went into provincial hospitals. The department said, however, that where cost-effective, contracted private specialist services will be continued.
SA CLOSES TORONTO CONSULATE
THE South African consulate-general in Toronto is to be closed as part of a Foreign Affairs Department rationalisation exercise. Functions will be transferred to the high commission in Ottawa, and some staff will go to Kingston, Jamaica. Though the decision to end SA representation in Canada’s economic capital has surprised foreign affairs pundits, there is a possibility the Montreal mission is being maintained in anticipation of Quebec’s possible coming independence.
PLAN TO DESTROY STOLEN CASH
HARD-HIT cash-in-transit company SBV Services on Wednesday announced plans to install devices to destroy the cash in the event of robberies. SBV managing director Collin Gregor said that of the R100-million stolen in heists over the past year, only a fraction of the money had been recovered. By destoying the cash, the loss of money would not be prevented, but the incentive to rob the vans would be removed. “If there is no incentive to rob the cash vans, we will have gone a long way towards reducing the armed robberies,” Gregor said.