South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the burden of the funding for the African Union — including the Pan African Parliament — will fall on the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa. Asked about funding problems for the Pan African Parliament, she said there is "always a shortage of funds".
Parliament started to suspect that something was wrong with the travel-voucher system at the end of 2002 when its finance staff realised that one MP, whose home was in Vrede, was "supposedly" repeatedly travelling to Umtata, said Speaker Baleka Mbete on Tuesday during the debate on the so-called Travelgate scam.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121014">Scam probe ‘taking too long'</a>
Three municipal by-elections that will test the resilience of South Africa’s key opposition parties, are to be held on Wednesday. With the United Democratic Movement having recently lost control of the city of Umtata — as a result of the loss of municipal by-elections — General Bantu Holomisa’s party will be looking to poll well in a seat in Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, where it is standing for the first time.
In what is seen as a test case to break the racial mould of South African politics, the Democratic Alliance is putting up a black candidate in a safe municipal seat in the previously arch-conservative Gauteng town of Vanderbijlpark. The by-election in Vanderbijlpark will take place next Wednesday — in a ward won by the DA in the December 2000 general municipal poll with 92% of the vote.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma has condemned the carrying-out of a witchhunt against MPs allegedly involved in the Travelgate scam. The deputy president told MPs: ”I will never participate in the campaign against people when they are not found guilty … if there is no evidence conclusively that says, yes, they have erred.”
National health legislation, due to be signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki, will prohibit the manipulation of any human genetic material for the purpose of reproductive cloning. The minister of health said the legislation permits her to allow ”therapeutic cloning … under prescribed conditions”.
Part of the forensic audit carried out at the instruction of Parliament into ”Travelgate” — the parliamentary travel voucher scam — points to a potential legal nightmare for investigators to unravel. At first glance, MPs’ travel vouchers have been misused through the booking of flights and cancellation of tickets. But it remains unclear whether the MPs are guilty of anything other than a lack of attention to detail.
The travel scandal which has been dubbed "travelgate" by some politicians is turning out to be a complex web of intrigue with differing ticket names, different amounts claimed and a strong suggestion of cross-party bartering taking place. There are a number of instances where ANC MPs — or their agents — appear to have used the names of other ANC MPs in the scam.
A key provision in the current Immigration Act, which has led to much confusion over the recording of travel by South African citizens abroad, is to be dumped. Prior to the coming into force of the Act, the movement control system recorded the entry and exit of everyone who left or entered the country.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119707">Minister calls for immigration review</a>
The African National Congress won a by-election in Umtata on Wednesday — the fifth upset victory by the party in the past few weeks — over General Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement. In other by-elections on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance snatched a municipal ward in Somerset East from the ANC.