/ 21 April 1999

WARRANT OUT ON MEC

MPUMALANGA’S safety and security MEC Jacques Modipane has finally coughed up a portion of the R3000 he owes for ten months of outstanding child maintenance. The payment for his two-year-old illegitimate child came too late, however, to prevent the Mbibane magistrate’s court from issuing a second warrant for his arrest on contempt of court charges on Monday. The first warrant was issued on March 1 but had to be withdrawn due to technical hitches at the Nelspruit’s sheriff’s office. Modipane apparently stopped paying the maintenance in May last year, just before he was plunged into controversy for signing three illegal promissory notes that pledged 31 of the region’s game reserves as collateral for a series of massive offshore loans.