/ 18 February 1999

PHOSA DEFENDS MINORITIES COMMITTEE

THE committee established to investigate minority rights in Mpumalanga is not an ANC trick to pacify the political Right, Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa said on Wednesday. Created last week under the chairmanship of provincial Freedom Front leader Moolman Mentz, the committee will investigate the position of minorities but will also study the self-determination proposals of the ‘Volkstaatraad’. Praising Afrikaners’ contribution in South Africa’s transition to democracy, Phosa said a ‘Volkstaat’ should not create a state within a state but instead protect minority rights.