Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell
Jonas Savimbi’s stronghold has fallen, according to reports coming out of Angola. Government troops are thought to have entered Unita’s Bailundo headquarters on Wednesday and Unita are said to be retreating eastwards to their bases in the Cazomba region, Moxico province, next to the Zambian border, leaving the town relatively undefended.
However, Unita secretary general Paulo Lukamba Gato has told Reuters by telephone from Andulo, another Savimbi base 600km from Bailundo, that government ground forces were on the retreat after suffering heavy casualties and were being pursued by Unita forces toward the strategic town of Cuito.
The Mail & Guardian has not been able to independently verify these reports, but it has been able to disprove previous claims by Unita of supposed military successes. Although the rebel movement claimed it had recaptured the diamond mining town of Luzamba in the Cuango valley, phone calls to the town ascertained it was still in the government’s hands on Thursday morning and no fighting or Unita threat had materialised.
Reports last week from the region in fact indicated that security was better than it had been for months, and that Unita had been pushed north into Uige province. Unita also claimed to have captured the nearby town of Za-Mutembe, but this claim has also not been verified.
The United Nations is taking no chances after Unita’s reports, and has pulled its observers back into Luanda. They were airlifted out of Luzamba on Thursday morning.
Bailundo was reportedly taken this week after Angolan troops launched a major offensive – including air raids – on the Unita-controlled region of the central highlands.
The offensive is aimed at getting Unita out of its bases there. Since Unita began recapturing areas in May, it has taken 40% of the territory it had handed back.
The UN secretary general’s office confirmed Unita now had control of large areas, pointing out that these were outside the towns where most of the population is concentrated.
Reports coming out of the region are extremely difficult to verify. No journalists are allowed into the region and the UN has had no observers there since last Saturday.
The UN is concerned the government may be unleashing a major operation, which would effectively end the notional peace process. The UN Security Council was briefed on December 2 about the increased fighting.
A UN representative confirmed heavy fighting, concentrated in Bela Vista, Kuito and Kitemba, had been reported in recent days.
“We are seeing a return to a similar intensity of fighting that we saw in 1993/1994,” said Richard Cornwell of the Institute for Security Studies in Midrand.
The escalation of the Angolan conflict is matched by an escalation of the war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where Angolan troops are supporting President Laurent Kabila’s army against a rebel force.
There is now a well-established
pattern of Unita forces helping the Congolese rebels, Angolan forces helping Kabila, and Unita taking advantage of Angolan government troop deployments in the Congo to attack weakened government positions inside Angola.
A second major flashpoint is in the east central region of Congo. There, around the town of Kabalo in the southern Katanga province, Angolan and Zimbabwean troops backing Kabila have clashed directly with Ugandan and Rwandan troops helping the rebels.
Zimbabwean troops have launched repeated attacks against rebel-held Kabalo, but each has been beaten back.
“Each Zimbabwean attack was a carbon copy of the earlier one. So the rebels knew what they were up against,” said one source.
Optimism, after the Paris summit of African and French leaders, that peace was imminent in Congo has been exposed as ill- founded.
A meeting scheduled for Lusaka this week to take the process forward had to be cancelled, entailing also the cancellation of a meeting scheduled for December 11 in South Africa. Kabila is still refusing to meet with the rebels.
Angolan and Zimbabwean troops are reported to have been sent from eastern Congo to Lisala on the Congo River in the north to reinforce Chadian troops stationed there who have been badly mauled by a semi-autonomous rebel group led by Jean-Pierre Bembe, a former general in the late Mobutu Sese Seko’s former Zairean armed forces.
Zimbabwean troops are reported to be training Hutu former soldiers from the armed forces of Rwanda, many of them associated with the interahamwe, to help them raise the level of opposition to the mainly Tsutsi Rwandan government.
Regional security experts also say they have received reports of a serious lack of discipline among Kabila’s troops around Lubumbashi. About 30 mercenaries who were fighting for Kabila are reported to have left after not being paid. The sources take this as evidence of a gradual breakdown of morale and order among Kabila’s forces.
@ Soccer boss accused of fraud
Ann Eveleth
The Premier Soccer League’s new CEO, who will be responsible for about R90-million a year in sponsorships, is under investigation by the Office for Serious Economic Offenses (OSEO) for massive fiscal corruption in his previous job.
An OSEO representative, advocate James de Villiers, confirmed this week that his office is investigating fired Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela in connection with the transport parastatal’s worker benefit scheme.
Named the league’s CEO on Tuesday, Ndhlela is accused of being paid R750 000 in undisclosed commissions by a firm with which he arranged funeral benefits for Transnet workers.
Ndhlela is scheduled to take over from the soccer league’s outgoing CEO Trevor Phillips on January 1.
Transnet sacked Ndhlela last January after an internal disciplinary inquiry headed by retired judge John Trengove found him guilty of “gross misconduct”, breach of fiduciary duty and disloyalty to the parastatal.
Ndhlela is fighting his dismissal in the Labour Court after he and Transnet failed to resolve the matter at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
The Transnet inquiry found Ndhlela guilty of bugging the telephone of his personal assistant, making unauthorised payments to two recruitment firms for services not rendered or needed, and failing to disclose commissions worth R750 000 which he is accused of receiving from Credit Life Management Services for his role in implementing a funeral benefit scheme for Transnet workers.
The OSEO is now investigating the funeral benefit scheme. De Villiers said the OSEO investigation is probing allegations against the “XB group of companies”.
XB Brokers underwrote Transnet’s funeral benefit scheme until it went into liquidation amid charges that it had defrauded the workers.
The Transnet inquiry found that Ndhlela was “materially interested in the Transnet Funeral Benefit Scheme and was obliged to disclose this interest, but failed to do so”.
De Villiers said Credit Life Management Services was subsequently awarded a brokerage contract with Transnet. “What is being investigated are the payments that Ndhlela allegedly received [from Credit Life Management Services],” he said.
“The investigation centres on alleged corruption,” added De Villiers.
Ndhlela was chosen to lead the Premier Soccer League by a selection committee headed by Kaizer Chiefs MD Kaizer Motaung. The committee’s recommendation was unanimously approved by the Premier Soccer League’s board of governors, National Soccer League chair Leepile Taunyane announced on Tuesday.
Premier Soccer League treasurer and selection committee member Ronnie Schloss told the Mail & Guardian that the selection committee was aware of the OSEO’s investigation, but said this had not affected the committee’s decision as: “The man’s not guilty just because there is an investigation.”
Other officials – including Ndhlela – were not available for comment on Thursday morning as they were attending a funeral.
@ Judge blasts `ANC’ Super AG
Wonder Hlongwa and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi
The “Super Attorney General”, Bulelani Ngcuka, this week made an unprecedented intervention in the trial of the Eikenhof Three – the African National Congress cadres who have spent five years in jail for a crime allegedly pulled off by a Pan Africanist Congress hit squad – by persuading former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliviera not to block their bail application.
However, in an extraordinary judgment, Judge Piet van der Walt denied the accused bail, pointing out that Ncguka, the national director of public prosecutions, himself was “a card- carrying member of the ANC”.
Judge van der Walt, who was recently grilled by the Judicial Service Commission for being a member of the Broederbond while sitting on the Bench, said:”It is an unfortunate, ill- considered, unwise decision by the director of public prosecutions [to have intervened].”
Judge van der Walt hit the headlines last month when he resigned as deputy judge president of Pretoria after being passed over for the presidency of the division by the Judicial Service Commission in favour of a less experienced black judge, Bernard Ngoepe.
Judge van der Walt nevertheless said he hoped the Supreme Court of Appeal would expedite its hearing on the matter next year.
Ngcuka’s intervention – and Judge van der Walt’s resistance – are the latest political twists in a trial that could prove to be one of the most shocking indictments ever of South Africa’s criminal justice system.
Ngcuka’s persuaded D’Oliviera not to oppose bail after holding lengthy behind-the-scenes meetings with legal teams representing the state and the three accused.
Until Ngcuka took up the case, D’Oliviera’s representative, advocate Albie Leonard, had opposed bail.
Judge van der Walt heard argument from the Eikenhof Three’s senior counsel, David Soggot, that the case boiled down to an attempt on the part of the police to frame the ANC during its negotiations with the National Party government.
Soggot catalogued the holes in the state’s case, but each time was told by Judge van der Walt that he was not the trial judge in the case. Judge van der Walt countered several of Soggot’s points by repeating elements of the state’s case.
The judge also said that the new evidence from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)- that it was in fact the PAC’s armed wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), and not the ANC which had pulled off the attack – had yet to be tested in open court.
Judge van der Walt said his main problem with granting bail was overcoming the lynchpin of the state’s case: that two of the three ANC cadres had signed sworn confessions admitting to the massacre.
These confessions were obtained by some of South Africa’s most notorious policemen. Their disputed accuracy – and the claim that they were extracted under duress – are aspects in the state’s case which, according to the Eikenhof Three’s lawyers, suggest the ANC men were framed.
Two of the Eikenhof Three were sentenced to death by Judge David Curlewis in 1994, but their sentences were subsequently commuted to lengthy prison terms. Judge Curlewis refused them bail, but allowed the Eikenhof team to apply for another judge to hear a new bail application.
While the men were serving out their sentences at Pretoria Central, a commander from Apla, Phila Dolo, confessed to the truth commission that his organisation had pulled off the ambush on a Volkswagen car, killing Sandra Mitchley, her son and one of his friends.
This sensational development is one of the battery of arguments in the Eikenhof lawyers’ case that their clients are innocent and must, at least, be granted bail. The accused are appealing to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The other salient features of their case are:
l In 1995, police discovered a secret Apla report which chronicled the attack in detail. Neither the police nor D’Oliviera ever said anything about it. In their written heads of argument, the advocates representing the accused say: “The State has never been able to suggest any theory to explain why these Secret Reports were not wholly authentic. The secret reports present objective and circumstantial evidence wholly corroborated by Dolo which are definitively destructive of the State claim that Apla’s and Dolo’s acceptance of responsibility is not honest.”
l The ANC men’s fingerprints were never found at the scene of the crime.
l Despite the fact that they confessed to the crime, the guns they were supposed to have used were never found.
l The gun used in the Eikenhof massacre was the one used by Dolo in another attack for which Dolo was convicted- a fact confirmed by Dolo’s lawyer. “There is indisputable evidence that the AK-47 which was confiscated from my client at a road block is the same one which was used at Eikenhof. It was ballistically linked to the massacre when Dolo was arrested,” he said at the time of Dolo’s amnesty application to the TRC.
D’Oliviera has recently given the court two anonymous statements from prisoners with the Eikenhof Three who claim that the accused hatched an elaborate conspiracy to escape liability for the crime.
@ Shaw caught with hand in till again
Mungo Soggot
Emanuel Shaw II has been at it again. But this time it is not South Africa which is being treated to his financial skills, but Liberia, the impoverished West African state to which he decamped earlier this year.
Liberia’s top investigative newspaper, The Inquirer, this week reported that Shaw – who heads the financial reform commission – and two associates have been creaming off large portions of a rescue package aimed at reviving Liberia’s penniless central bank.
Under the headline “Banking committee expenditure questioned”, The Inquirer reported that the three men had been pocketing $40 000 from the $100 000 disbursed by Liberia’s finance ministry each month to resu- scitate the National Bank of Liberia.
The newspaper quoted a senior banker of the Liberia Business Association as saying: “The Shaw commission has failed the National Bank of Liberia miserably and we hope that government will institute a controlled mechanism so that funds coming from the finance ministry will be used for the intended purpose as well as to ensure transparency of the commission.”
The $40 000 package for Shaw and his associates is massive by Liberian standards. Cabinet ministers are paid $16 a month, and are implicitly encouraged to augment their salaries with commissions and bribes. Police get about $5 a month.
The newspaper said “the apparent disregard for the survival of the central bank” on the part of Shaw’s committee could prompt the finance ministry to freeze its monthly disbursement “until things are regularised”.
The Inquirer said Shaw was out of the country, but another executive from the commission confirmed they were receiving $40 000 a month and that “they will be commenting on the issue at the appropriate time”.
In September Shaw walked away from his R7-million defamation suit against the Mail & Guardian for its coverage of his South African sojourn at the Central Energy Fund.
Shaw has been in close contact with the Liberian central bank since returning home.
In August, he faxed a fake sick note to his attorneys in an attempt to secure a postponement for his libel trial. The sick note, which was purportedly signed by Liberia’s minister of health, was faxed from the office of the governor of the National Bank of Liberia.
@ Holding back the troops
Preconditions for South Africa’s involvement in peace missions in other countries are being drawn up, writes Howard Barrell
South African policymakers have drawn up an approach to peace missions in other countries which would make it difficult for the government to repeat its hair-trigger military intervention in Lesotho earlier this year.
Parliament will have to give its approval before any South African military forces can be sent on a peace mission to another country which is likely to involve military enforcement, according to the latest government thinking reflected in a draft White Paper approved by the Cabinet on October 17.
If Parliament is not sitting at the time that such a decision needs to be taken, then the government will have to get the approval of one or more of the parliamentary committees concerned with peace missions – those on foreign affairs, defence, intelligence and finance.
The draft policy also insists that South Africa must have an appropriate international mandate or green light from the United Nations for any peace mission in which it involves itself, particularly where South African military forces are to be involved.
Authorisation for the use of force in safeguarding international peace and security can be given only by the UN Security Council, according to the UN Charter.
Recent pronouncements by the council have reaffirmed this principle. The South African Constitution also obliges the government to abide by international law.
These two proposed procedural requirements for peace missions would have delayed, at least, the South African military intervention in Lesotho earlier this year which occurred nominally under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community.
Security sources say these requirements would not, however, cut across the president’s powers to deploy South African forces in a national emergency or in the event of the country coming under attack.
Instead, these preconditions would apply only to South African military involvement in international peace missions involving potential military enforcement. Such operations “generally have long organisational lead-in times which make this kind of consultation possible”, said one.
The government is expected to publish the White Paper early next year. Parliament will then discuss it.
The new draft policy is the product of meetings over the past 18 months of officials from the departments of foreign affairs and defence, together with the intelligence services, selected MPs and other interested organisations. The discussions were stimulated by requests that South Africa participate in peace missions in Burundi, Rwanda and Zaire shortly after it rejoined the international community of nations in 1994.
“At the time we knew nothing about peace missions. We have now tried to correct that,” one source said.
Mark Malan, head of the Peace Missions Programme of the Midrand-based Institute of Security Studies, said MPs had now to produce legislation on peace missions “as a matter of urgency”.
“There will be growing demands on South Africa for us to participate in missions of this kind. And we need a legislative framework in place sooner rather than later,” he said.
The draft White Paper suggests several other tough criteria for South African involvement. They say involvement would be justified only if there were a clear threat to international peace and security, a disaster of major humanitarian proportions, or endemic causes of conflict which, unless addressed, would probably cause long- term instability.
It adds that the mission would need to be adequately resourced. South Africa would need to be convinced that third- party political or military involvement would facilitate resolution of the conflict. And South Africa’s commitment to a peace mission could not be open- ended.
Instead, there would have to be clear criteria for the withdrawal, within a reasonable period of time, of South African military forces.
The draft policy suggests that any units of the military and police likely to be sent on peace missions abroad be staffed only by people happy to serve abroad.
It also proposes the South African
National Defence Force and the South African Police Services set up selection boards to identify officers suited to serve as UN observers and in other international capacities.
While public interest is likely to focus on the military aspect of the evolving policy, most discussion in the policymaking process has centred on diplomatic and civilian contributions to peace missions – used as a catchall term to describe preventive diplomacy, humanitarian assistance and a variety of peace support operations.
The draft White Paper stresses that the lead agency overseeing any South African involvement in international peace missions should be the Department of Foreign Affairs – although the Department of Defence will have a significant measure of operational control when there is a military component. Foreign Affairs is understood to be in the process of setting up a desk to oversee future involvement in peace missions.
The foreign affairs department is expected to keep a data base of individuals and organisations with skills or resources – ranging from election organisation to food distribution – on whom it can call to help in particular peace missions.
@ Truth commission officials land top jobs
Ann Eveleth
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has “done wonders” for the careers of many of its top officials, truth commission representative Mdu Lembede said this week.
The controversial appointment last week of Mokotedi “Cocky” Mpshe as KwaZulu- Natal’s new director of public prosecutions – ahead of a Pretoria Bar Council misconduct hearing – was the latest in a string of high-profile appointments from the TRC’s labour pool as the commission winds up its three years of work.
At least five senior TRC officials have landed jobs in the justice system in recent weeks. Other leading TRC personalities are headed – or being sought – for top jobs in tertiary education and other sectors.
“A lot of people’s [from the TRC] talents have been noticed during the TRC process, and they are getting a lot of offers,” said Lembede.
Four of the top justice jobs fall under the office of national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.
Ngcuka’s representative, Sipho Ngwema, said the new appointees were selected for several reasons: “They were available, with the TRC coming to an end. They are good lawyers. And they are the most credible black lawyers in the system after their work in the TRC. They gained a lot of experience in the TRC, and very soon we will have to look at a number of cases emanating from the TRC, and their experience in that regard will come in handy.”
Mpshe will join the TRC’s former witness protection unit director, Chris MacAdam, in the KwaZulu-Natal prosecutor’s office. MacAdam was recently appointed the province’s deputy director of public prosecutions, with responsibility for a special unit probing political crimes in the province.
MacAdam said this week his unit would re-evaluate all political cases in the province that were dealt with by KwaZulu-Natal’s controversial erstwhile attorney general, Tim McNally, who resigned last month rather than accept a new assignment in Pretoria.
Last month, TRC amnesty committee member Judge Bernard Ngoepe was appointed Transvaal judge president by the Judicial Service Commission. The controversial appointment elevated Ngoepe over more senior white judges.
Ngwema confirmed this week that acting amnesty committee judges Denzil Potgieter and Sisi Khampepe would soon be appointed national deputy directors of public prosecutions. Khampepe will be responsible for legal services and complaints in national prosecutor Ngcuka’s office. Potgieter will be in charge of national crimes and extraditions.
The two are expected to take up their posts when they finish their work with the TRC.
Former TRC amnesty committee member Jakes Moloi is now a state attorney in Pretoria.
Lembede confirmed reports that TRC chief executive office, Dr Biki Minyuku, had been approached to take up the tertiary education hot-seat as vice-chancellor of the University of the North, but would not say whether he intended to accept the offer.
The approach to Minyuku follows the recent appointment of TRC commissioner Mampule Ramashele as rector of the University of Durban-Westville.
Former TRC human rights violations committee executive secretary, Dr Robin Richards, has taken a senior post at Technikon SA.
Former TRC executive secretary Paul Van Zyl has been offered a post with “a big New York law firm”.
Former TRC chief legal officer Hanif Vally is headed for the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as deputy director of constitutional and general legal affairs.
Lembede said that TRC chair Desmond Tutu is now a visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Former media director John Allen accompanied Tutu as his personal assistant.
@ Heath called in over R100m
schools fraud
Charlene Smith
The Free State Department of Education has called in the Heath commission to investigate fraud and corruption involving about R100-million.
Luki Nkonka, acting head of the department for the past 15 months, said the Heath special investigation unit has been asked to probe “issues of fraud, financial losses in the department and misconduct”.
One of the primary issues relates to Nkonka’s predecessor, Benjamin Khoali. He was sacked after a commission of inquiry found him and Frank Rumboll, director of the Education Institute, guilty of gross mismanagement. The commission found that Khoali and Rumball awarded a single R21-million book and stationery tender three times, costing the province R68,5-million.
The tender was awarded to Qwa Qwa printers for R21 507 700, Freedom printers for R20 417 938, and a further R26 603 492 to 33 small and medium enterprises, none of which had the capacity to fulfil the entire tender.
The commission noted that some names of tenderers were discovered to be fictitious.
Essentially, all the printers were paid, except Qwa Qwa, which has received only R7-million. Qwa Qwa is suing the education department for the full payment.
The commission also found:
l At the end of this venture, books were delivered late or not at all.
l A tender for the computerisation of examinations was given to the highest bidder, Umbono, at R1,1-million – ignoring lower bidder, Q Data Consultants, who quoted R644 800. Rumbold and Khoali knew the Umbono consultants personally.
l SS Bakeries was paid R600 000 for acting as intermediaries in the provision of food at four schools during exam markings. The schools failed to get a promised R17 000 each for the utilisation of their facilities.
l The department ordered school furniture valued at R10-million that it did not need.
@ Skullduggery around fossil finder
Mungo Soggot and David Shapshak
Ron Clarke, the scientist responsible for what was described this week as “probably the most momentous palaeoanthropological find in Africa”, has been quietly axed by the University of the Witwatersrand.
Clarke, who has discovered the oldest intact skeleton ever found in South Africa, was informed earlier this year that his renewable contract would be scrapped at the end of 1998. Wits insiders say he was keen to stay on at the university, but has since tied up another post in Germany.
The extraordinary decision to oust Clarke was taken by the head of the Wits Palaeoanthropology Research Group, Dr Lee Berger, a flamboyant 32-year-old American regarded as an able fundraiser and publicist for the cash-strapped discipline.
Berger dropped the bombshell on Clarke in February – months after Clarke found the 3,5-million-year-old skeleton’s tibia, the vital clue that convinced him that the Sterkfontein cave near Krugersdorp could house a complete Australopithecine (ape man) figure. Clarke found the skeleton’s skull in September.
Berger attended Clarke’s high-profile press conference at Wits this week, and, in an interview afterwards, accorded his colleague effusive praise. “It gives us a fossil comparable to no other,” he said of Clarke’s find and enthused about the scientist’s “dogged determination”.
But in May this year, four months before Clarke found the skull and remaining pieces of his Sterkfontein skeleton, Berger was considerably less laudatory when asked by the editor of the South African Journal of Science, Graham Baker, to explain Clarke’s departure.
“Clarke has no great record – nor are his skills so special,” he told Baker. “The methods at Sterkfontein are 30 years old and expensive. Besides, all sites need a rest now and then, and there’s a volume of material just waiting to be described.
“It’s not that Clarke is being fired – just that his contract is not being renewed. I’ve discussed his position with colleagues on the steering committee, but I make the decisions.”
This week Berger brushed off suggestions that he had ousted Clarke, claiming the main motivation for the decision to oust the man who will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the top scientists of 1998 was that there was not enough money to keep him on. “We’re under funding stresses. He chose to leave. I wish he was staying.”
Berger also played down the significance of Clarke’s departure, informing the Mail & Guardian that Clarke would “hold an honorary position at this university. He’s not really leaving. He’ll spend the first three months of next year here.”
Unfortunately for Berger, he does not have a permit to excavate at Sterkfontein. The national excavation permit for the site was given to Clarke and the doyen of South African palaeoanthropology, Phillip Tobias.
It is understood that negotiations are currently under way between Clarke and Wits to reach an agreement over who will now steer work at the Sterkfontein site. Clarke’s new employer, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, has agreed to let Clarke to continue his work at Sterkfontein. It appears Berger is anxious that the Sterkfontein site remains associated with Wits.
Clarke confirmed this week that he had been informed in March that his contract would not be renewed and that he had secured a permanent post in Frankfurt. But he declined to comment further.
Tobias described Clarke in glowing terms at the press conference this week. “Clarke is a man of remarkable skills and attainments,” said Tobias. “He’s been working in Africa for 30 years. What his skilled eyes, skilled fingers and remarkable anatomical knowledge have brought to light is the oldest, virtually complete skeleton of a hominid. Nobody has sweated and laboured longer and harder than Ron Clarke.”
Tobias said Clarke’s Sterkfontein
discovery of the adult hominid was “one of the many missing links” between humans and apes. Previous ape-man fossils have been incomplete pieces of skulls or skeletons. Clarke found the vital clue to his skeleton – its tibia – in the caves in July last year.
Tobias, who declined to comment on Clarke’s departure, supervised the doctorates of both Berger and Clarke, and backed Berger to take over the Wits unit upon his retirement. Berger has concentrated on other sites in the dolomite hills where the Sterkfontein cave is situated. These sites have yielded more modest findings.
Clarke is one of several top academics to have been lost recently by Wits. He joins the likes of Charles van Onselen, the eminent historian, and professor of law June Sinclair, both of whom have been snapped up by the University of Pretoria. The former dean of the faculty of science, Robin Crewe, has also decamped for Pretoria, where he is now dean of biological and agricultural science.
Clarke was born in England in 1944. He worked for six years with the world- renowned palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey in Kenya. He returned to Britain in 1969 where he graduated from the University of London with a BSc honours degree in anthropology.
He was awarded a doctorate in 1978 by Wits University, where he has studied and taught for several years. He has held a string of other posts at top South African institutions.
@ Is this the cave where it all began?
Nashen Moodley
While the world from New Delhi to Johannesburg reels at what is heralded as the most important palaeontological discovery since the Taung skull, the site of the discovery, Sterkfontein caves, remains calm, almost rustic.
The suburbs just outside Sterkfontein provide a strong indicator of what is to come. There are no malls or large shopping centres; just rows of large trees in front of rows of almost identical houses. The only hint of life is the neighbourhood children who seem to have little to do but sit on the roadside waving at passers-by.
The actual site is even less lively. Sterkfontein, it seems, has been largely ignored by the public and local travel agencies, despite the media brouhaha over the discovery of the fossilised remains of a three-million- year-old hominid. Staff at the closest travel agency confessed to not knowing where Sterkfontein was.
The two Mail & Guardian journalists were the only visitors and went on an intimate tour of the extensive caves. The guide, Ambrose Thusi, had taken only 10 other tourists into the bowels of the earth on the day of the announcement.
The tour into the caves is as physically arduous as it is exhilarating; certain points along the tour route are 60m beneath the surface. A fascinating fusion of stalactites and stalagmites gives the appearance of an elephant side-on, eerily accentuated by the elephant-skin colour of eroded dolomite rock.
Our competent guide explained what made the Sterkfontein caves an ideal time capsule, perfectly preserving the many fossils found up until now. Approximately 3,5-million years ago the first opening of the cave began filling with debris from the surface. Lime dissolving out of the dolomite cemented with this debris to form a substance called breccia. Within these layers of breccia, the fossils have been preserved.
More than 600 hominid fossils have been discovered within the labyrinth. The theory goes that the caves served as shelter from the variety of dangers on the surface, attracting the vulnerable Australopithecus.
Also, three million years ago the caves were a lot warmer than they are now.
At that stage there were few natural openings to the cave and very little ventilation, maintaining a temperature estimated at 22C.
After the mine was discovered by Italian miner Guglielmo Martinaglia in 1896, several artificial openings have been made and the temperature in the caves has dropped to between 10C and 18C.
Perhaps another advantage in the past was that the opening to the cave was small and concealed – perfectly suited for unwary animals to fall into. This provided a risk-free meal for the hominids.
It was Robert Broom and John T Robinson’s discovery of an adult skull of Australopithecus africanus – nicknamed Mrs Ples – in 1947 that confirmed Sterkfontein’s status as a treasure trove for palaeoanthropologists.
The fossils are not the only relics of the past to be found at Sterkfontein. A tiny, anachronistic curio shop cum tea room offers tacky Sterkfontein bookmarks, keyrings, brooches, spoons and thimbles, as well as several long out-of-print books on evolution and prehistoric man.
The cave has clearly evaded, or been ignored by, the chic tourism machinery.
Yet Sterkfontein has not been ignored by the gambling industry. Despite the vehement objections of palaeontologists and physical anthropologists, who argue that the whole area is likely to be rich in fossils, plans are under way to construct a major casino and hotel complex just 2km from the closest fossil site.
Whether the latest hominid discovery is enough to stave off the roulette tables remains to be seen.
@ SAB: No more a home brew
The government had little choice in bidding farewell to another South African giant, writes Donna Block
In the days before South African Breweries (SAB) announced it was moving its primary listing to London, managing director Graham Mackay and top company officials presented their case to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and a select group of Cabinet ministers, including Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin.
According to government sources and SAB officials, while Mbeki and company gave a nod and a wink to SAB, support for the move among the politicians present was far from unanimous.
Although no one would say who specifically objected to the second Johannesburg giant moving offshore in as many months, it is understood that the muted hostility to the transfer stemmed from a perception in some African National Congress circles that the country’s big corporations want to abandon the post-Mandela South Africa.
Mackay, reflecting on the government’s decision to allow SAB to list in London would only say: “They’re being remarkably mature about it.” But the reality is that the government really had little choice in the matter.
SAB’s reasons were not only compelling but, from a market perspective, they were vital. Mackay said not only would the move result in money flowing back into South Africa over time but, even more importantly, it would not result in any job loses in South Africa – arguments which ultimately won the day.
Manuel has understood better than most the needs of local corporations with global aspirations and has supported the decisions by SAB and, earlier, Anglo American to relocate to London. Not everyone, though, shares his views.
“Although I think Trevor’s [Manuel] position was correct, there are a lot of people in the organisation who see an ulterior motive to these moves,” said one senior ANC member.
Mike Schussler, an economist at FBC Fidelity Bank, described the SAB move as a “morale breaker” for people who want the country’s best companies to remain in South Africa. He said despite the sound reasons behind the moves, they added to negative sentiment from local shareholders who feel they’re being abandoned.
Ultimately, however, most market analysts think the government did the right thing.
“I think it’s very positive that the government has agreed to let these types of companies do this,” said one New York trader, who specialises in South African securities.
“It has been an opportunity to tell the world that South Africa is not another Malaysia,” he said, referring to the Asian nation’s recent decision to close itself off from the global economy.
SAB is unlikely to be the last South African blue chip to undertake what some critics of the relocation trend are calling the “chicken run” from a falling rand and weak local share prices. Proclaiming their need to expand globally and to source cheaper capital, other heavyweights considering a move include Sasol, Dimension Data Holdings and Old Mutual.
But it remains to be seen if the government will support every application that comes its way. According to Joel Netshitenzhe, the chief government representative, an ANC government “should not open the door for everyone, but for some companies it is an unavoidable necessity”.
Manuel’s office maintains there is no blanket policy governing corporate migration, saying that each application to move abroad will be judged on merit. But he has already made it clear to many people that Old Mutual is going to find the door closed if it tries to move its listing.
The main difference between SAB, Anglo American and Old Mutual is that the government recognises SAB and Anglo have legitimate global aspirations and a need for capital that outstrips what is available to them here. But in the case of Old Mutual, whose business is primarily based in Southern Africa, the government is convinced the insurance giant wants to list in London to escape the rand.
SAB feels justified in moving to London because it has been unable to raise locally the kind of money it needs to compete with international rivals like Dutch brewer Heineken or Irish Guinness. Both brewers have been aggressively involved in trying to muscle SAB out of markets elsewhere in Africa and in eastern Europe. But unlike SAB, Heineken and Guinness are unfettered by currency controls or a weak currency.
By being listed in South Africa, SAB has failed to attract the big money it needs as many foreign investors are reluctant to pour dollars or pounds into a rand denominated stock. Foreign exchange controls and high local interest rates have also hampered SAB to a some extent.
By moving to London, SAB will be included in London’s premier stock index, the FTSE 100, and will be able to raise money in hard currency with few constraints.
“We need access to London capital markets for funds to pursue our internationalisation of our beer business and that is very difficult to do from South Africa,” Mackay said this week. “Our strategy is to be one of the top brewers in the world and to compete successfully and to do that we need the ability to raise capital.”
But there may also be another key reason why SAB was so keen to leave home in such a hurry: fear of a hostile takeover.
With the rand sliding again in value and Johannesburg Stock Exchange shareprices fluctuating unpredictably, SAB is at serious risk of becoming the target of an easy buyout by richer foreign companies. In comparison with other larger brewers like United States giant Anheiser Busch, SAB’s current market value is low. Mackay said he was unconcerned about a takeover, but with reports of foreign brewers nibbling at SAB’s heels, the possibility must have been taken into consideration when deciding on the move.
Going to London, however, is not going
to be easy and SAB may be in for a rude awakening. One US analyst noted that market conditions in London are so much more hostile and indifferent, that Mackay might one day wish that Mbeki had stopped him from moving in the first place.
One of the difficulties SAB is likely to encounter, say analysts, is that no matter how hard it tries to portray itself as an international brewer, it will be viewed as a backwater South African company. This might be a little tough for SAB to swallow. But its pride will have to be the first thing to go if the company hopes to make it in the big leagues.
“South African corporations have always been arrogant. All they need to do is have that kind of arrogance once with a European or American fund manager and that will be the last time they see them,” said one US broker. “Whereas before they were a big fish in a fairly small pond, now they are going to be a small fish in a huge global pot.”
At the end of the day SAB is going to have to prove itself in the market place. Analysts and fund managers will keep an eagle eye on SAB. It will have to submit to stringent reporting and disclosure requirements, the likes of which companies are unaccustomed to in South Africa. Fund managers will also look for SAB to produce and will want to see that growth not in rands, kwachas or rubles, but in pounds and pence.
Mackay remains undaunted. “I think South Africa should be proud of SAB. It’s going to be a world leader,” he insisted.
@ Krisjan Lemmer
On the rocks
The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Kader Asmal, is much sought after in social circles for the wit of his conversation and the conviviality of his company which usually make of him the soul of any party.
Imagine the bewilderment at the Mail & Guardian when we asked for details of his department’s Christmas party and received the following statement from his representative, Themba Khumalo: “The Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry has no time for partying. We are a delivery department and we believe that there is no joy when people do not have water. The only time we celebrate is when we do so with the recipients of our water.
“Within in a month or two we will be celebrating with the three millionth recipient of water. There is nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas parties, but we believe in celebrating in a different way – with our people that is.” Maybe he forgot to dilute his usual “wee dram”?
De rubbish
The following is an extract from an editorial in the latest edition of De Rebus, the professional mouthpiece of South Africa’s attorneys: “Whether or not such a cabal exists and, if it does, whether or not it influences Judicial Service Commission nominations in the way in which it is alleged to do are questions which will no doubt be debated in legal and political circles for a long time to come.
“The problem is that such speculation not only damages the public reputation of the Judicial Service Commission as a very important, impartial component in the constitutional dispensation, but it also may undermine the broad public confidence which is so essential for the judiciary as an independent pillar of the state. And the point is that such speculation is probably inevitable given the large number of politicians and political appointees who serve on the Judicial Service Commission.” Which all goes to show that lawyers are trained to say a lot of very little meaning.
Ja, boo …
Much interest among regulars at the Dorsbult Bar kindergarten (we’re a progressive bunch of drinkers in the Groot Marico) as to whether the barren expanses of FW de Klerk’s bald pate will be offset by the development of an extremely long nose. This follows publication of a letter in The New York Times in which De Klerk declares that the 17-member commission did not include “anyone who could speak on behalf of our white and mixed-race minorities”.
Quite apart from the suggestion familiar to our racist past – that pigmentation should disqualify citizens from a representative role – what about the likes of Yasmin Sooka, Mary Burton, Richard Lyster, Alex Boraine, Wendy Orr, Wynand Malan, Chris de Jager, Denzil Potgieter …
Lean and trim
In his pursuit of profits, Tony “Roly Poly Begorrah” O’Reilly has made the Independent group so “lean and slim”, it has no editorial staff left whatsoever. That, at least, was the conclusion to be drawn from the front page of The Star on Wednesday. It covered South Africa’s palaeoanthropological find of the decade – the skeleton of “Little Foot” at Sterkfontein – from London (The Times of Dirty Digger fame).
Hopefully Roly Poly will show the courage of his convictions by now applying his scorched earth policies to management to the point where he and his profits disappear in a little puff of smoke, leaving us to rebuild our once-proud newspaper industry.
@ Boesak’s broke, but not bust
The state’s `watertight’ case against Allan Boesak has sprung several damaging leaks, writes Chiara Carter
Two years after being charged with embezzling millions of rand in donor funds, anti-apartheid hero Allan Boesak has seen his defence counsel demolish key accusers. Boesak has petitioned the Cape High Court to dismiss what many assumed at the outset to be a watertight felony case.
The court is still to hear Boesak’s petition, then decide whether to allow Boesak to walk out a free man or to continue the trial.
However, this week Boesak bubbledwith optimism that a punitive cloud under which he has laboured since 1995 is about to lift.
The embezzlement charge cost him the South African ambassdorship to the United Nations, for which he had been designated by President Nelson Mandeda. Many old friends from the liberation struggle abandoned him. And he is broke financially.
Boesak has pleaded innocent to charges of fraud totalling about R9-million in donor funds that the state says were not used for the purposes donors intended. The state also accused Boesak of enriching himself by stealing R1- million of donor funds.
His trial was expected to be a legal mara-thon, with 166 potential witnesses. These included anti- apartheid luminaries such as Desmond Tutu, Beyers Naude and Chris Nissen. So far, fewer than 30 witnesses have taken the stand.
The state ended its prosecution this week, not with a flourish, but with a whimper. Prosecutors closed their case against Boesak after United States musician Paul Simon failed to come to South Africa to testify about money he donated for the Children’s Trust.
Simon’s no-show was the latest in a series of heavy blows dealt to the prosecution. Earlier in the trial, veteran defence counsel Mike Maritz forced a dramatic about-face from the state’s key witness, Freddie Steenkamp, former bookkeeper for the Foundation for Peace and Justice (FJP) headed by Boesak.
Steenkamp admitted he lied when he accused Boesak of theft and authorising the transfer of certain funds. Steenkamp, who pleaded guilty last year to six counts of fraud and theft totaling R3,7-million, previously placed much of the blame for his criminal behavior on Boesak.
His reversal strengthened the defence’s case that responsibility for money stolen or irregularly transferred lay with Steenkamp and possibly other FPJ staff members.
Maritz hasalso followed an anti- apartheid struggle accounting thread of explanation: that Boesak had not revealed spending on political work, including travel expenses, because of security reasons, and that one FPJ account in particular, the Discretionary Urban Fund Account, was intended to fund Boesak’s activities.
A world-recognised religious leader, Boesak played a key role – along with Tutu – during the 1980s in opposing apartheid while the African National Congress was banned, and Mandela and other political opposition leaders were in jail.
Maritz’s cross-examination drew crucial admissions, not only from Steenkamp but also several other key witnesses.
Boesak’s former secretary, Lucille Fester, admitted her evidence differed from what she told the Office for Serious Economic Offences (OSEO), and that she had taken large loans from the FPJ.
Sacked FPJ employee Thelma Sacco conceded that money she said was used for a trip to Disneyland in the US was repaid by Boesak, and that she too had made conflicting statements to the OSEO. Forensic auditor Dawn King admitted much of the reconstructed cashbooks were based on information supplied by Steenkamp.
But she told the court about a potentially damaging complex network of inter-account transfers and unrecorded expenditure at the FPJ. Her testimony included:
l Money contributed by Swedish donors and kept in a Western Cape Leadership Project fund paid for Boesak’s luxury car and security at his home.
l Boesak’s private requirements and a house in Vredehoek, Cape Town, were paid from the Lavender Hill Urban Foundation account.
l Only 27% of about R330 000 from Norway reached impoverished rural communities.
l The FPJ’s Urban Discretionary Fund was used to channel disbursements, travelling expenses of R402 000 incurred by the FPJ in 1991, included R177 000 spent on Boesak alone and a further R50 000 spent on his wife and family.
l The discretionary fund paid R10 482 to a Stellenbosh restaurant for Boesak’s wedding celebrations in February 1991, and for Boesak’s Constantia home.
Maritz disputed much of King’s testimony and tried to discredit her as a witness against Boesak. Under cross- examination, King admitted several errors in her report.
The court heard from FPJ funders Danchurch Aid that rumours about mismanagement first surfaced in gossip about who was paying for the Constantia luxury home that Boesak bought after he married former SABC producer Elna Botha in 1991.
Maritz argued that Boesak was entitled to a R7 500 monthly housing allowance, and this had been listed in divorce papers involving his first wife.
The court also heard that several rural projects never received full funding. The US Coca-Cola Foundation donated about R250 000 for a project in the Karoo town of Carnarvon that also received support from Danchurch Aid – the funders that first began an investigation into the FPJ’s affairs.
Steenkamp accused Boesak of soliciting funds from the Coca-Cola Foundation under false pretences – not mentioning the money was intended for setting up commercial ventures and not going directly to the rural poor. However, Steenkmap admitted he did not have first-hand knowledge of the projects, and that he had transferred R50 000 of R250 000 donated by Coca-Cola into the discretionary account to cover for money he previously stole.
Representatives from Danchurch conceded that political expenses might have been concealed in FPJ reports but said the money was supposed to go to other designated recipients.
The state wanted Simon to give evidence about his donation to the Children’s Trust. But Simon sent a message to the court saying he was unable to testify at any time in South Africa. Judge John Foxcroft ruled against hearing Simon’s testimony abroad.
Foxcroft said the court had not even been given an affidavit outlining the kind of testimony Simon intended to lead. Steenkamp previously accused Boesak of authorising the transfer of about R480 000 from the Children’s Trust into the FPJ overdrawn account – an illegal transaction for which Steenkamp is serving a prison sentence.
The court heard that the Swedish donors gave the Eleutheria Trust R780 000 for 12 videos on democracy prior to the elections, that Elna Boesak’s video production company, Camelot, produced only one video, and that she created conflict in the trust after she proposed that the money be spent on a more long-term project – a film studio in town. Former FPJ trustees Charles Villa Vicencio and Lionel Louw testified they resigned from the FPJ board after unease that it was a “one- man show” run by Boesak alone.
@ Dukuduku forest saved … for now
Niki Barker
Destruction of the Dukuduku state forest in KwaZulu-Natal’s Greater St Lucia Wetland Park came to an abrupt end this week, after Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Kader Asmal made the national government’s position quite clear: there is no negotiation on land invasions.
The people of Dukuduku were occupying the forest illegally, he said, and they had no option but to move.
After meeting a committee appointed by the forest dwellers on Sunday, Asmal issued a statement called the Dukuduku Declaration. It decrees people will be resettled on alternative land that will be acquired for them, and the South African National Defence Force and police will be deployed to assist if necessary.
Although forcible removal is not an option, it is made clear the settlers will have a miserable time if they try to defy the government again.
For the conservationists who watched with alarm as the illegal invasion of the Dukuduku forest accelerated, it was a rare and decisive victory. But for the residents of the forest, who have been given promises of ownership by leaders who had no legal right to parcel out the land, it was a crushing blow.
Traditional leaders had been encouraging them to stay in the forest, and had been making assurances that their future was secure.
Under this benign patronage, the inhabitants had swelled from 2 000 to about 30 000. Now this mass of people have to find somewhere else to stay.
The KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service representatives expressed mixed feelings. Although they had hoped for the preservation of the forest, a challenge lies ahead not to get the people out of the forest, but to keep them out.
The Department of Land Affairs must identify and purchase alternative land for settlement. A census needs to be taken of the people who are living there, how many of them have a legitimate land claim.
Meanwhile, a committee that represents the interests of the forest dwellers has ambitious plans for a lodge, walking trails, ecotourism excursions, agriculture and other schemes which tap into the enormous potential of the international tourist trade at Lake St Lucia.
If they are successful, it will provide a case study for ecotourism development. If they are unsuccessful, the forest will be re-invaded.
@ Big money flocks to Durban
Swapna Prabhakaran
Come December and every local in Durban plays the well-known game of spot the tourist.
It’s easy: he’s wearing strops and the inevitable floral shirt, she’s in a newly bought sarong and a swimsuit. They’ve probably both eating ice cream and talking on cellphones. And chances are they’re both black.
KwaZulu-Natal has become the destination of choice for well over a million South Africans every year-end, and it’s becoming very big business for the province. Whether they flock into Durban in their own cars or in a minibus taxi, the province’s tourism board says they welcome them all with open arms.
A huge marketing campaign has been launched in Gauteng and other major cities, tempting urban families to come to KwaZulu-Natal. The campaign has been done in several languages over the radio and in newspapers, targeting thirtysomething professionals, encouraging them to bring their whole families.
“Naturally, we want to get the big spenders into the city, to fill up the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts and spend a lot of money here,” says James Seymour, market research and product development manager for KwaZulu-Natal Tourism. “We’ve put our primary effort into getting that type of tourist into the city, someone who can be considered LSM [living standards measure] 7 or 8.”
Nearly two-thirds of all the city’s tourists fall into that category, but a growing percentage of the tourists are not high-income earners. They are visiting on a tight budget, and may stay with family, or live in timeshare or at a self-catering lodge.
“We do not disregard these lower-income families. They are secondary targets in our media campaign,” Seymour says. “We are not looking at what race or colour the tourists are … we are now looking at them rather in terms of their spending power.”
It is estimated that a family of South African tourists spends an average of R100 per person a day in Durban. These domestic tourists are usually from up- country – Gauteng, Mpumalanga or the Free State – and they drive down over the holiday season, drawn by KwaZulu- Natal’s 300km stretch of sunshine coast from Port Edward to Richards Bay.
Once they’ve found their ideal spot by the sea, these tourists are likely to stay put for the entire holiday, rarely moving more than 20km around the province. “They are not the big spenders; the big spenders usually head for the Cape,” says tourism representative Robbie Naidoo.
Durban’s real big spenders are the foreign tourists, who are likely to spend about R700 per person per day. The city is expecting between 40 000 and 50 000 international tourists this holiday season. “We find they mostly come from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands or else the United States,” says Seymour.
Despite a perception that tourism to KwaZulu-Natal has been declining over the years, Naidoo says, “The province still holds the bulk of domestic tourists. Our recent research shows that we have about 50% of the domestic market all year round.”
Now KwaZulu-Natal Tourism is trying to tempt the sun-seeking visitors to discover the less-visited attractions inland. An alternative to a beach holiday is a visit to the Natal Midlands or the Drakensberg.
Dotted with arts and crafts stops, and at least one old hotel on every corner, the Midlands meander is already a favourite with tourists. More remote areas of KwaZulu-Natal include Maputoland and Zululand, both rich in game parks and conservation areas.
@ Thefts threaten SA’s white gold industry
Tangeni Amupadhi
An upsurge in crime syndicates dealing in “white gold,” one of the world’s most expensive metals, has reached a level of sophistication that could threaten South Africa’s world-leading platinum industry.
The South African Police Service’s detectives said illicit deals in platinum – sometimes called white gold – have increased 12 times in the past three years.
“What we can lay our hands on is the tip of an iceberg,” said Superintendent Piet Otto of the diamond and gold unit. “There is a huge market. There are syndicates operating in Johannesburg, but the final product is sold abroad. If we can’t minimise the theft, it could affect the industry and may lead to retrenchments.”
One of four major companies producing platinum has recorded losses of more than R7-million this year.
South Africa produces about 70% of the world’s platinum requirements, with Russia producing most of the rest. Platinum sells at about $340 an ounce compared to $300 for gold. The platinum industry employs about 80 000 workers in South Africa.
The extremely precious metal has more uses than gold, but one of the companies’ representatives said platinum has always been difficult to steal because it is not as easily malleable as gold, and it is more expensive to mine.
Jewellery is the primary use for platinum. But its ability to clean pollution in motor exhaust systems (it is an important component in catalytic converters), glass-making, refining oil and a horde of other industrial uses make it the most sought-after metal.
Captain GJ Vosloo, who works for the diamond and gold unit in Rustenburg in the North-West province, said the platinum underworld has acquired “backyard smelters” that it uses to refine the metal before exporting it. “The theft of these metals has become so sophisticated that high-grade metals are taken from the most inaccessible places,” says Vosloo. Most of those arrested are platinum mine workers who supply the syndicate.
Most of the stolen platinum is sold in Europe and the United States. Otto said the police’s work is made more difficult because outside South Africa possession of the metal is not illegal.
In one of South Africa’s biggest platinum cases, five men from Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, appeared in court two weeks ago, charged with possession of and dealing in 350kg of platinum estimated to be worth R3- million. The “platinum powder” found at a warehouse that police said was controlled by Vijandrakumar Naidoo, a well-known resident of Lenasia, and his friends, was reportedly sealed in plastic bags, packed in cartons and “ready for shipment”.
The 36-year-old Naidoo, his co-accused, Rajan Naidoo (33) and Kevin Naidoo (22), are free on R50 000 bail each. Two other suspects, Chetty Yegamurum (48) and Sunmugum Pillay (54), were released on R20 000 bail.
In November 1995, Vijandrakumar Naidoo was robbed of R2-million when three policemen posing as diamond and gold unit detectives from Durban raided his house on the pretext of searching for diamonds. They found no diamonds but took R2-million in cash from his safe.
@ Eastern Cape chiefs block voter registration
Peter Dickson
Transkei chiefs are openly opposing voter registration and the Xhosa royal house has declined to encourage Eastern Cape voters to register.
Royal house representative advocate Mda Mda said from Butterworth this week that people in the region were disappointed with the government. “There are high expectations that have not been realised, especially with regard to employment,” he said.
The Transkei chiefs, he said, many of whom were cut out of the voter registration process to the extent that they have not been allowed to verify the identities of their people to registration officials, felt there was “inefficiency on the part of the government both nationally and provincially”.
Asked if the royal house and chiefs and headmen, some of whom chased Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)registration volunteers away from their areas last week, would encourage registration to avert low polls, Mda said emphatically, “No. That is a government job.”
Meanwhile, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has launched a blistering attack on Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and the African National Congress and was stinging in his criticism of the IEC and the government over the registration process. He says the fact that only 10,25% of 18- to 20- year-olds have registered showed massive first-time voter disillusionment with job creation.
Holomisa said: “Unfortunately, the IEC management style is a shambles – that’s a fact and there is no hope of the situation being improved because Mbeki, without consultation with the Cabinet, refused to grant money to employ people for registration.
“The process is dependent on volunteers; there is no transport and it takes time. The incid