BRITISH Airways Travel Clinics in South Africa has launched an Internet-based malaria study, claimed to be a world first. As many as 2,7-million people die from the mosquito-borne disease in Africa every year, but there is a dearth of information on the human and social impact of the disease. “Surprisingly little detailed information is available on where and how travellers contract malaria. We strongly suspect that many are the victims of poor pre-travel advice,” says Dr Andrew Jamieson of BA Travel Clinics. “The new website gives malaria victims, or those familiar with them, the opportunity to report the circumstances of how they contracted their illness. This will help others to avoid the disease.”
PLANE ROBBED ON RUNWAY
A GANG of thieves who held up and robbed a Kenya Airways Boeing 737 as it came in to land at Lagos’s international airport has blown a hole in Nigerian officials’ claims they had tightened up security.The gang stopped the Kenya Airways flight KQ 432 on the runway with stones and logs across the taxi-way.They then placed obstacles behind the plane, leaving it immobilised while they opened one of the forward cargo bays and began to remove passengers’ bags.The incident is believed to be at least the third in under a year.The United States is most concerned about security at the airport, and in 1996 stopped direct flights between the two countries citing security fears, and concerns about the ease of drug trafficking through Nigeria.
SA SATELLITE LAUNCH DELAYED
THE launch of South Africa’s first space satellite has been postponed. The satellite, designed and built by Stellenbosch University engineering students in the Western Cape, was to have been launched by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration in California on Friday, but has now been postponed to January 14. The university said the postponement followed a United States Air Force review of the readiness of its satellite ground control system, which will support the launch and subsequent operations.
MUGABE HITS OUT AT ‘LITTLE ENGLANDS’
ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe has hit back at Britain after receiving a cold reception during a recent visit to London, where newspapers suggested he should be arrested for human rights abuses. The Zimbabwean Herald newspaper reported that Mugabe hit out at criticism of his controversial land reform programme. “Those British lords who have their ‘Little Englands’ and are absentee landlords will lose their ‘Little Englands’,” Mugabe said.
NO SPACE IN KENYAN SCHOOLS
NEARLY a quarter of a million Kenyan children will be unable to attend secondary schools this year because too few places are available, the education minister said on Tuesday. Fewer than half the children who passed their final primary examinations will be able to go on to secondary schools — 198263, against 248276 who will be excluded — Kalonzo Musyoka told principals on Monday, according to the Daily Nation newspaper.
CHILUBA RETIRES ARMY CHIEF
ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba has retired his army commander Lieutenant General Solomon Mumbi and appointed his deputy to the post, daily papers reported on Tuesday. Chiluba has since promoted the former deputy, Major General Goejago Musengele, to the post. The retired Mumbi was appointed in 1997, shortly after government forces crushed a coup bid by some junior army officers trying to topple Chiluba. The independent Post newspaper suggested Mumbi was dropped because he blamed the present government for delays in paying retired soldiers.
DEATH IN THE JUNTA
A TOP member of Sierra Leone’s ousted junta was killed in fighting near the capital, Freetown, Rome-based Catholic news agency Misna reported this week. The report came on Monday, in the wake of persistent rumours that Solomon Anthony James Musa died following a battle between troops of the Nigerian-led Ecomog intervention force and rebels allied to the toppled military regime. Musa was the de facto prime minister of a junta which seized power in 1997 from the civilian elected government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and which Ecomog chased from power in February 1998. For the past two weeks, local papers and eyewitnesses in Freetown have said that Musa died from a head wound in the town of Benguema, about 30km south-west of the capital.
CAPE HEIST CAR FOUND
POLICE found on Monday evening the burned out remains of the vehicle used in an armed robbery of 23 firearms at the Claremont police station in Cape Town on Sunday. A police patrol spotted the Mercedes Benz near Strandfontein, about 35km from the city. The vehicle was fitted with false registration plates and experts are still in the process of determining its origin.
HIGH MATRIC PASS RATE
WESTERN Cape matriculants achieved a pass rate of 79,2% in 1998, up 2,9% from 1997, the provincial education department announced on Tuesday. The Western Cape leads provinces that have announced their results so far with the highest pass rate. The Western Cape is expected to maintain the highest pass rate after the remaining provinces release their results. Kwazulu-Natal will release its figures on Wednesday.
MOZ LIFTS FISHING BAN
MOZAMBICAN health authorities on Tuesday lifted a ban imposed on all fishing off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado after the deaths of scores of people from eating contaminated fish. The ministry said a total of 890 people out of about 16000 cases died of either poisoning or cholera also affecting the province since August. The similarities between the early symptoms of the poisoning and cholera are apparently behind the government’s failure to establish the exact number of people who died in the epidemic. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi has demanded a complete investigation into the nature of the pesticide that contaminated fish products in the province’s waters.
DAMAGES FOR ZAMBIA TWO
JUDGE Japhet Banda has ordered the Zambian state to pay damages for unlawful detention on treason charges to defendants Princess Nakatindi Wina and opposition Zambia Democratic Congress president Dean Mung’omba. After dismissing the treason charges on December 21 1998, Banda considered the defendants’ application for costs, finding that there was no evidence against the accused when the initial submissions were made. He said that the state made no effort of finding evidence and he had no choice but to dismiss the charges. The judge said the state was free to appeal the ruling if they were not satisfied, while defence lawyer Edward Shamwana brought to the court’s attention that there are threats that Wina and Mung’ombo might be re-arrested. Local newspaper The Post reported on Monday that the two might be facing fresh charges of misprision of treason, which is a failure to report treason.
SEVEN MORE ESCAPEES SURRENDER
A FURTHER seven awaiting trial prisoners on Monday handed themselves in to police after escaping on Monday morning when a police truck transporting them to Soweto’s Protea Magistrate’s Court was attacked by gunmen. Two police officers were killed in the attack. This brings to 11 the number of prisoners who have surrendered. Captain Richard Luvhengo said ten of the 21 who escaped were still at large. Luvhengo warned the ten fugitives to hand themselves in or implicate themselves as accessories to murder.
MALAWIAN MINISTER FACES ARREST
A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of sacked Malawian cabinet minister Abdul Pillane, allegedly embroiled in a corruption scandal, the opposition Daily Times reported on Tuesday. Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau outlined Pillane’s corrupt practices in a charge sheet handed to the country’s director of public prosecution. Pillane, who was fired on Saturday by President Bakili Muluzi to pave the way for investigations into his conduct, allegedly received kick-backs while awarding government contracts.
RECORD NUMBERS FLOCK TO MOZ
ALMOST a quarter of a million people crossed the Lebombo border post at Komatipoort into Mozambique last month, according to Mpumalanga home affairs regional director Thabo Khunyeli. He said a record number 249936 people crossed the border in December, an increase of 53936 people compared to the same time in December 1997. He said many African tourists are attracted by Mozambique’s beaches, but that a large number of the border crossers are illegal Mozambican immigrants returning home for the holidays. Meanwhile, 54618 visitors crossed the Jeppes Reef border post into Swaziland in December. This is 10061 fewer visitors than the 64679 in December 1997. Northern Province border officials said that 180287 travellers crossed into Zimbabwe at the Beit Bridge border post.
TEENAGER SHOT DEAD
A TEENAGER was shot dead and three wounded in two suspected gang-related shooting incidents on the Cape Flats late on Monday night. Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Anine de Beer said on Tuesday that Dalton Jansen (19) was shot in the chest near his home in Ravensmead just after 10pm. Police found nine spent 9mm cartridges at the scene. Less than an hour later Ashley Martin (17), Donovan Rank (19) and Roashida Barends (18) were injured in a gunfight between two groups in Rocklands.
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