MPUMALANGA education department official and African National Congress leader, Ben Mthembu, has received telephonic death threats after drafting a report on the province’s matric exam scandal. Mthembu drafted a damning report on the role of an alleged cabal of nepotistic officials in the scandal for the ANC’s provincial working committee two weeks ago. Mthembu has written a letter to local journalists confirming the threats. Mthembu’s report alleges that a group of senior but irregularly appointed officials concocted the plot to fraudulently inflate the province’s matric pass rate by over 20%, from 52% to 72%, in an effort to promote their own careers. Around 7000 pupils who actually failed their exams were passed; another 2000 were wrongly granted university exemptions. White pupils also had their marks decreased, costing them bursaries and places in university.
BOTSWANA ACCEPTS MORE NAMIBIANS
BOTSWANA has granted political asylum to another 1101 Namibians who fled their homes in the northeastern Caprivi province last year claiming persecution, a spokesman for President Festus Mogae said Wednesday. ”We granted 1101 Namibians political asylum yesterday (Tuesday),” presidential spokesman Ross Samoto said. Botswana has now given asylum to 2232 Namibians fleeing Caprivi after Namibian security forces began cracking down on a separatist movement in the narrow province. Some 2_,400 Namibians have crossed into Botswana since late October; the bulk of them claim they have nothing to do with the separatist cause and were forced to leave after being persecuted in the crack-down. Samoto said the status of another 92 Namibians who have applied for asylum was uncertain as they faced charges of illegally entering the country and carrying weapons of war.