TWO Italian Roman Catholic missionaries who were abducted recently in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown have been freed, the missionary news agency Misna reported here on Wednesday.They have been taken to a site near Freetown’s airport on Wednesday.Maurizio Boa and Giuliano Pini, who belong to the Giuseppini del Murialdo order, were abducted on Sunday. A third missionary abducted in November remains in rebel hands. His captors released him temporarily on Tuesday to allow him to have a meal at his mission’s base in the capital. The two missionaries who were released said that Ecomog soldiers, initially mistaking them for European mercenaries, had beaten them after finding the pair on Monday.
PARTY MOVES
FOUR Democratic Party councillors in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday abandoned the DP for the New National Party, the NNP announced. Charles Shelembe, (DP federal councillor in the Midlands region), Nathie Mbense (Pietermaritzburg councillor), Dumisani Shelembe (acting chairman in the Midlands) and Sipho Mwelase (DP regional organiser and parliamentary candidate) joined the NNP. Meanwhile, the NNP’s own secretary for the East Rand regional and district council, Nelia Pluddemann, left them on Tuesday. She has announced plans to joiner former rugby supremo Louis Luyt’s Federal Alliance.