IN BRIEF 21 DIE IN SOMALI FIGHTING
AT least least 21 people were killed and 29 injured when heavy fighting broke out between clans in the southern Somali port town of Kismayo on Monday. The fighting is reported to have died down, but the town, 500km south of the capital Mogadishu, remains tense. The renewed fighting came as Somali factions were holding discussions in an attempt to arrange a new date for an oft-stalled national reconciliation conference, which was due to be held in the town of Baidoa on Tuesday, but is now sure to be postponed again.
SA MAN HELD FOR HEROIN
A 27-year-old South African man was remanded in custody in an Auckland court on Monday on charges of possessing and importing heroin into New Zealand. The man was arrested on Friday after staff at the International Mail Centre in Auckland intercepted a package containing 85g of high-grade heroin. The drug was hidden in an aerosol container in a parcel sent from Thailand.
RADIO THOHOYANDOU SILENCED
THE last of the former government-financed homeland radio stations, Radio Thohoyandou in the Northern Province, is to be shut down. The station will broadcast its last programme on Wednesday, said SABC representative Charlotte Mampane. She said only a handful of the station’s 64 staff members will be employed by the SABC. Others have accepted retrenchment packages. Mampane said rising costs have made it necessary to centralise Venda language broadcasts in Pietersburg, with other regional services.
MADIBA TO IRAN
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela announced Sunday that he intends to visit Iran, insisting on South Africa’s friendly relations with Teheran. “I will visit Iran shortly and I do not hide those things,” he told CNN television, hours after seeing off visiting US President Bill Clinton. On Friday, Mandela told Clinton he is proud of Pretoria’s close relations with Cuba, Iran and Libya — three countries Washington treats as pariah states. “Libya, Cuba and Iran are my friends,” Mandela told the US television channel, noting those countries’ support for the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
SHELL HOUSE MARCH QUIET
MORE than 8000 Zulus marched peacefully to Johannesburg city centre on Saturday, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the “Shell House killings”, in which 19 people were killed during an Inkatha Freedom Party march. Acting on concerns that the march would erupt into violence as it did last year, when three people were killed and buildings damaged, police lined the route along Commissioner and Market streets with armoured cars and policemen. There was a notable absence of Inkatha Freedom Party insignia, and some marchers said they were instructed by march organisers not to wear clothing identifying themselves with the party. The IFP reiterated that it did not organise the march.