IN BRIEF PAGAD MAN’S KILLER ACQUITTED
EBRAHIM SATAARDIEN has been acquitted of murdering People Against Gangsterism and Drugs national secretary Sharief Khan. Khan was shot outside the York Road mosque in Lansdowne in July last year. Sataardien pleaded not guilty and said he had thought Khan was drawing his gun, after threatening to kill him. He could not remember firing. Outside the courthouse, Pagad supporters shouted for the death of Sataardien and the judge, who said Sataardien had clearly feared for his life during the incident.
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SUE NIGERIA
TWENTY-six human rights organisations on Tuesday filed two separate suits against the Nigerian government and police for the heavy-handed tactics employed to disrupt a pro-democracy rally in the capital, Lagos, last Tuesday. Grouped under the United Action for Democracy, the organisations have asked the Federal High Court to award the equivalent of R50-million compensation for the human rights abuses endured by all attending the rally, and the 37 people — including UAD co-ordinator Olisa Agbakoba — who were assaulted and arrested.
DOG’S EXECUTION TO BE PROBED
A HIGH-level inquiry is to be launched into a decision by a local magistrate in Tanzania to sentence a dog to death after he judged its name “disrespectful to a large and well-respected government institution”.
“Immigration,” a one-year-old mongrel, escaped the gallows when its sentence to hang was converted into death by firing squad after protests from animal-rights campaigners. The local Daily Mail newspaper said the case, which has received wide media coverage, is “a disgrace to the [Rukwa] region and to the nation.” The dog’s owner, John Gachela, was given a six-month suspended sentence for insulting immigration authorities.
MILLENIUM BUG CENTRE SET UP
THE South African government will establish a Year 2000 centre to monitor and co-ordinate private and public sector initiatives on the “Millenium bug” threatening to throw computers out of line in 2000, the Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Ministry said on Tuesday. Addressing a parliamentary joint committee, centre head Mohammed Madhi said the focal point of the centre will be a national operations room which will gauge “the state of readiness in the country”. The centre will also highlight key risk areas, establish a response centre to handle queries and house a test centre for testing systems and applications for small and medium-sized businesses, Madhi said.
EMERGENCY LANDING IN ZIMBABWE
A LEASED Air Botswana BAe 146 was forced into making an emergency landing on Tuesday night at Harare International Airport. The plane’s landing gear had been jammed by a tree branch collected when trying to land in strong winds at the Hwange national park. The landing was aborted, and the plane flew on to Harare, circled to burn up surplus fuel and landed on its back wheels in heavy rain. None of the 59 passengers was seriously injured.
AIR CRASH IN MOMBASA
AN Egyptian cargo Boeing 707 crashed in the Kenyan port of Mombasa a few minutes after taking off on Tuesday. All six crew on board were killed. The plane hit a light at the end of the runway after taking off and subsequently exploded into a fireball.
HUNDREDS OF HORSES POISONED
ABOUT 300 horses at a Bloemfontein show are suffering an infection apparently caused by the use of cattle dip sprayed onto wheat chaff bedding to kill ticks. The infection occupies the horses’ noses and mouths, leaving them unable to eat and listless. It is not certain why only 300 of the 800 horses entered in the show have been affected.
GOLDEN UNION AWASH
THE rice-laden cargo ship Golden Union is “in grave danger of sinking”, according to Pentow Marine. Pentow’s John Ross salvage tug has the ship under tow, but on Wednesday morning swells were washing over the aft end of the ship, which took on massive amounts of water off Transkei on Tuesday. Gail-force winds and high seas are expected. The John Ross will decide whether to tow the vessel to East London or Port Elizabeth, depending on the wind.
POLICE REPORT ON KENYAN KILLINGS
ETHNIC killings in Kenya’s rift valley in January and February have been blamed by police on incitement by politicians, cattle rustling and land disputes. The report, published on Wednesday, says police questioned MPs suspected to have incited violence but does not name them. Around 127 people from the opposition-supporting Kikuyu tribe and President Daniel Arap Moi’s Kalenjin tribe died in the clashes.
ZIM LAND TALKS IN LONDON
ZIMBABWEAN officials, white farmers and foreign donors meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the government’s planned seizure of 5-million hectares of white-owned land. Sparks are expected to fly at the conference, which hopes to clarify the government’s position on compensation for farmers’ loss of land. President Robert Mugabe recently confirmed his intention to press ahead with seizures with no compensation, while Agriculture Minister Kumbirai Kangai told a meeting of diplomats last week that the government will adopt a more moderate approach of seizing only derelict and underused land, and will compensate farmers for the cost of the land.
MPUMA HOUSING FRAUD
AT least R10-million worth of Mpumalanga housing grants have been used to build taverns, second homes and even buy vehicles for beneficiaries who bribed housing department officials to approve their applications, provincial housing spokesman Leon Mbangwa said on Wednesday. Mbangwa said the department has been aware of the abuses for at least a year and on Monday gave police the names of a number of junior officials suspected of involvement in the bribery syndicate, African Eye News Service reports. An internal task team started investigating the scam last year, and has detected 266 invalid subsidies and managed to reclaim R4-million from conveyancers’ trust accounts after the team accused conveyancers of not bothering to check that houses were actually being built.
RATS INVADE ZAMBIAN PARLIAMENT
RATS have infested the Zambian parliament, rendering the public address system in the house ineffective, Deputy Speaker Simon Mwila said on Tuesday. Mwila appealed to members to shout when debating “because rats have eaten the communication cables”. “If I can ask you members to speak at the topmost of your voices to be heard,” Mwila said. Debate proceeded without the public address system while technicians battled to rectify the fault.