THE government plans to appoint a black chief of police within months, reports Business Day, naming the front runners as former national intelligence co-ordinator Moe Shaikh and controversial ex-Truth Commission investigator Dumisa Ntsebeza.
Both of the current police chiefs, Commissioner George Fivaz and CEO Meyer Khan, have contracts that end in July, and neither is expected to renew his position. Fivaz has three black deputies who all served in pre-1994 police services, but none of them is favoured in government circles for the top job, says Business Day.
Meanwhile in the Western Cape, a controversy has blown up over racism in the force, with the acting head of the provincial police, Adam Blaauw, accusing white officers of racism, and saying that racism lies behind a perjury investigation against him.
PEDALLING FOR AIDS ORPHANS
TWO young South Africans will kick off the new year by setting out on a round-the-world cycle trip in which they aim to raise R1-million for Aids orphans. In a statement on Thursday, McCord Hospital said Stephen Bonaconsa (28) Travis Gale (17) will leave the Bedfordview Methodist Church in Johannesburg on Friday on a cycle tour aimed at circumnavigating the globe. Hospital secretary David Agates said the money raised will benefit abandoned HIV-positive children at the Lily of the Valley Children’s Home in rural KwaZulu-Natal and the hospital’s HIV/Aids care centre. The world tour is expected to take a year, and the pair of cyclists is expected to return to Durban on December 31 next year, in time to take part in the Millenium celebrations. Anyone wishing to contribute may deposit money directly: “Cycle the World”, Standard Bank, Musgrave Road Durban, branch number: 042626, account number: 051254379.
NIGERIANS PREFER 1979 CONSTITUTION
NIGERIANS want the 1979 constitution to be adopted for an incoming civilian administration following an end to military rule scheduled for 1999, according to Justice Niki Tobi, chairman of of the Constitution Debate Coordinating Committee (CDCC), who was quoted by local press saying that Nigerians prefer the 1979 constitution with a number of small amendments arising from a 1995 draft constitution. “In the light of the memoranda and the oral presentations on the 1995 draft constitution, it is clear that Nigerians basically opt for the 1979 constitution with relevant amendments,” Tobi said, while presenting the committee’s report to military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The 1979 constitution provided for a presidential system of government with a clear-cut separation of powers among the executive, legislature and judiciary. Abubakar has promised to return the oil-rich west African country to civilian rule on May 29 next year.
3000 FLEE DRC FIGHTING
NEARLY 3 000 people have fled into Uganda from fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN High Commission for Refugees officials said in Kampala on Thursday. UNHCR spokesperson Tomoko Niino said 2970 refugees have so far registered at the Uganda-DRC border town of Kisoro, after fleeing insecurity in the Rushuru and Goma areas of eastern DRC due to alleged harrassment by soldiers in areas controlled by Rwandan and Ugandan troops and their allied Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebels.
BODIES ROT IN BRAZZAVILLE
DEAD bodies are being left to rot in Brazzaville because of a strike in the war-ravaged south of the Congolese capital by municipal workers demanding outstanding back pay. No bodies have been buried by the city’s grave diggers since Wednesday as part of a strike by 2000 town hall staff demanding immediate payment of wages for the last seven months before returning to work. Witnesses said many human bodies are rotting in the southern districts of Bacongo and Makelekele after a fresh upsurge of heavy fighting in recent days between the government army of General Denis Sassou Nguesso and the militia forces of former premier and city mayor Bernard Kolelas.