Iran-Contra: The Cover-Up Begins to Crack

Until last week the Iran-contra scandal seemed ready to fade from the courts, the news and the mind. After costing more than four years and $25.5 million, the investigation headed by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh was limping to a close. A federal appeals court had overturned Lieut. Colonel Oliver North's felony conviction, and a retrial seemed unlikely. The same outcome seemed possible for former National Security Adviser John Poindexter's conviction.

Then the scandal roared back to life with a series of stunning developments. They suggested that:

-- Top intelligence officials had engaged in covering up the Reagan Administration's attempts to evade a congressional ban on aid to the Nicaraguan rebels by siphoning off profits from secret arms shipments to Iran.

-- The Iran-contra affair may be only part of a broader and previously undisclosed pattern of illegal activities by intelligence agencies during the tenure of Ronald Reagan and his CIA chief William Casey. Sources close to the unfolding investigation of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International told TIME that U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, maintained secret accounts with the globe-girdling financial empire, which has been accused of laundering billions of dollars in drug money, financing illegal arms deals and engaging in other crimes.

The discovery of the CIA's dealings with B.C.C.I. raises a deeply disturbing question: Did the agency hijack the foreign policy of the U.S. and in the process involve itself in one of the most audacious criminal enterprises in history? Items:

-- Alan Fiers, head of the CIA's Central America task force from 1984 to 1986, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of lying to Congress about when high- ranking intelligence officials first learned of the illegal diversion of funds to the contras. Fiers said he became aware of the diversions and informed Clair George, then the CIA's deputy director for operations, in the summer of 1986. But, Fiers said, George ordered him to deny any knowledge of the transfers when he testified before the House intelligence committee that October. In exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to two misdemeanors instead of more serious felonies, Fiers is now assisting Walsh's investigation. With his help, Walsh will probably seek a perjury indictment of George and perhaps other present and former government officials.

-- Three days after Fiers entered his plea, the New York Times disclosed that Walsh possesses tapes and transcripts of hundreds of telephone conversations between CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and agents in Central America. The talks occurred during the period when North, former Air Force General Richard Secord and his business partner Albert Hakim were operating their secret arms pipeline. The tapes -- which have been in Walsh's hands for three years -- were recorded on a system that George installed at the agency's operations center in the early to mid-1980s.

In recent months Walsh has used the tapes to prod the memory of North and other reluctant witnesses before the grand jury that is still gamely looking into the scandal. The tapes are expected to furnish evidence that could lead to further indictments. Some transcripts of the recordings have been examined by staff investigators for the congressional Iran-contra committees. But curiously, until last Friday, no member of the Senate intelligence committee was aware of the recordings.

-- Investigators probing B.C.C.I. have told TIME that the Iran-contra affair is linked to the burgeoning bank scandal. Former government officials and other sources confirm that the CIA stashed money in a number of B.C.C.I. accounts that were used to finance covert operations; some of these funds went to the contras. Investigators also say an intelligence unit of the U.S. defense establishment has used the bank to maintain a secret slush fund, possibly for financing unauthorized covert operations. More startling yet, even before North set up his network for making illegal payments to the contras, the National Security Council was using B.C.C.I. to channel money to them. The funds were first sent to Saudi Arabia to disguise their White House origins; then they were deposited into a B.C.C.I. account maintained by contra leader Adolfo Calero.

The Iran-contra affair has been characterized by U.S. officials as a rogue operation managed by overzealous members of the National Security Council. But if Fiers is correct, top-ranking CIA officials not only knew about the operation and did nothing to stop it; they also participated in an illegal cover-up.

One of the first casualties of the disclosures could be the nomination of Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gates to head the CIA. Though Fiers did not implicate Gates in the deception, some Senators find it hard to believe Gates' claim that he knew next to nothing about the Iran-contra scheme when he served as Casey's principal deputy. Four years ago, that suspicion forced Gates to withdraw after Reagan picked him to succeed Casey, who was dying from brain cancer.

Those misgivings appeared to have faded when George Bush chose Gates to replace William Webster. But the mounting questions about the scandal could put his nomination on hold. The Senate intelligence committee, which had expected to begin its hearings on Gates this week, decided to hold off. Members may want to question Fiers, George and perhaps others about what Gates may have known. If the committee's uncertainty drags on, it could run into the August congressional recess, which would delay hearings until September.

Sensing the threat to Gates' confirmation, Bush rushed to defend his nominee. He implored the Senate not to leave Gates "twisting in the wind" through the summer. "Get the men up there who are making these allegations," Bush demanded. "Isn't that the American system of justice -- innocent until proven guilty?"

But Gates is just one more figure twisting in a resurgent storm. Suddenly a number of unanswered questions assume a new urgency. Just what did Ronald Reagan -- and George Bush -- know? And when did they know it?

Beyond that, the discovery of the secret intelligence-agency accounts in the renegade B.C.C.I. raises a whole new set of unsettling possibilities. The most serious is that U.S. spymasters may have been undertaking unauthorized covert operations and all the while furthering the ends of B.C.C.I. By providing clandestine services for intelligence agencies in numerous countries, B.C.C.I. was able to cloak its activities in an aura of national security and thereby stave off investigations from banking officials in the U.S. and abroad.

In 1988 Gates is reported to have told a colleague that B.C.C.I. was "the bank of crooks and criminals." Yet when customs agents investigated the bank in 1988, they found "numerous CIA accounts in B.C.C.I.," says former U.S. Commissioner of Customs William von Raab. Those, he says, were being used to pay agents and "apparently to support covert activities."

Senate investigators, who have known of the agency's links to the bank, have demanded an explanation from the CIA -- so far, without getting a satisfactory response. One question they might ask is whether the CIA link to B.C.C.I. explains the Justice Department's slowness in pursuing its case against the bank. Last year the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Florida state comptroller not to lift B.C.C.I.'s license to operate in that state.

Armed with Fiers' testimony and the treasure trove of CIA phone tapes, Walsh is likely to seek more indictments. In addition to George and perhaps other CIA officials, there are two potential targets outside the agency: former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and Donald Gregg, now U.S. ambassador to South Korea. In his plea Fiers says he lied to Congress at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Nov. 25, 1986. On the same day, Abrams testified that no one at the State Department knew of the diversion of funds. A few days later, when Abrams made a second appearance before the lawmakers, Democratic Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri angrily accused him of having lied earlier. "You've heard my testimony," Abrams said during their exchange. "I've heard it," Eagleton replied, "and I want to puke."

Fiers may also implicate Gregg, a onetime CIA officer who served as a foreign policy adviser to then Vice President Bush. Gregg was a close friend of Felix Rodriguez, another former agent, who became a crucial link in the North pipeline to the contras. But Gregg has repeatedly denied before Congress that the office of the Vice President recruited Rodriguez. One tantalizing entry in North's diary indicates that on Jan. 9, 1986, North and Fiers had a phone conversation about Rodriguez. It reads, "Felix talking too much about V.P. connection." Was the reference to Gregg or to Bush?

Walsh's biggest worry may be that the Senate intelligence committee will call Fiers and George as witnesses at Gates' confirmation hearing. Last July a federal appeals court set aside North's 1989 conviction on the ground that some witnesses who testified against him may have been influenced by his congressional testimony about Iran-contra. That testimony could not be used against North in court because Congress had granted him immunity. Concerned that future Senate testimony by Fiers or George might also be put beyond his reach by a grant of immunity, Walsh last week issued a pointed warning to the committee not to imperil his case. "Our investigation has reached a point of significant breakthrough," Walsh said. "To jeopardize this progress in a vain hope of getting quick facts as to an individual nomination would be regrettable."

In one respect, at least, Walsh is right: an individual nomination is no longer the central issue. The main questions now focus on whether the intelligence community covered up illegal acts and how high the conspiracy reached.

Source: Time

More surprises in lapa scandal

Several magistrates and private contractors who had allegedly been involved in the so-called R50 million lapa scandal can expect a second unpleasant surprise.

Heath special investigative unit senior legal adviser Advocate Gerhard Visagie on Tuesday confirmed that "many Justice department officials and private contractors" could expect subpoenas from the unit to appear before a special tribunal.

The report was compiled by the Investigating Directorate for Serious Economic Offences (IDSEO) following a probe of two years. Arrests can be expected soon.

Both the Heath Unit and IDSEO probes stem from the exposure in 1998 of the involvement of Magistrates' courts in fraudulent authorisation of private contractors to effect luxury renovations to Magistrates' Courts and official homes.

Source: News 24.com

Royal Bloodbath Suspect Is Nepal's King, for Now

The bizarre massacre of most of Nepal's royal family was followed on Saturday by the bizarre ascension to the throne of Crown Prince Dipendra, a love-struck young man who, by most accounts, murdered his parents and at least seven other relatives during the family's Friday night meal.

Dipendra's suitability to be sovereign is cast in doubt not only by the murderous acts attributed to him but also by the fact that he has fallen into a coma and is being kept breathing by life-support machines. He shot himself in the head, attempting suicide, soon after committing multiple homicide, authorities here say. ''The king is dead!'' the people of Nepal declared as they began to mourn. ''Long live the king!'' was a proclamation harder to summon. Confusion, more than anything else, now reigns in this rugged Himalayan country, a place with many of the world's highest mountains, 23 million of its poorest people and one if its most peculiar political setups.

Nepal is governed by a constitutional monarchy. The king, by legend, is a reincarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu. Parliament, by recent democratic elections, is controlled by Communists. Maoist insurgents, operating in near perfect guerrilla habitat, are creating bloody havoc in the countryside. On Saturday, Nepalese awoke to rumors of the great carnage that had occurred in the grand palace in the center of Katmandu, the capital. They had little more to go on than this hearsay. Foreign news broadcasts were announcing the death of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, 55, a monarch with an Eton and Harvard education and a walrus-like mustache. Queen Aiswarya, 51, was said to be dead as well. But local television and radio played only devotional music while withholding the grim bulletin. Finally, at 1 p.m., about 15 hours after the massacre, a short statement was read over government channels by Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, chairman of the State Council, an advisory body to the monarchy. In a tearful voice, he read a short text, announcing the king's death but saying little else. The council, coping with the aftermath of the slaughter at the royal dinner table, had spent the morning puzzling through the delicate matter of succession. It named Crown Prince Dipendra the new king -- but not really.

The actual power is to pass to the dead king's brother, Gyanendra, who as a little boy had briefly served as king and who now, as an adult, had the good fortune of not being in town during the Friday meal. ''The first son of his majesty, the king and heir to the throne, Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, has been proclaimed the king in accordance with the law, custom and usage relating to the succession to the throne,'' the chairman said, adding an important ''but.'' ''Since the new king is physically unable to exercise his duty and is undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the military hospital in Katmandu, his uncle, Prince Gyanendra, has been proclaimed as the regent.'' Nothing was officially reported about the palace slaughter, however, until 7 a.m. today, when Gyanendra issued a condolence to the nation on Radio Nepal. In the imperial style of the royal family, he confirmed the reports of a dinnertime bloodbath, while making no allegations against his comatose nephew. ''According to the information received by us, (members of the royal family) were seriously injured in an accidental firing from an automatic weapon,'' his statement read.

Other accounts belie any suggestion of an accident. What is known about the shooting comes from conflicting accounts that have been pieced together by local journalists who interviewed witnesses of the bloodshed and friends of the royal family. ''It was like a shooting in an American high school,'' wryly said Kunda Dixit, editor of The Nepali Times. By most accounts, the royal family had sat down for its traditional Friday dinner in a banquet hall in the huge palace. More than a dozen people were at the table, including the king and queen and their three adult children.

Crown Prince Dipendra, 29, had been upset by his parents' -- and particularly his mother's -- disapproval of his choice for a bride, though the young woman came from one of the nation's leading families. That evening, Dipendra had been drinking, according to several accounts, and he left the meal in a fit of anger only to return with at least one -- perhaps two -- semiautomatic weapons. ''Dipendra sprayed the room with bullets, and then he went out and got dressed in military fatigues before coming back to finish up,'' Mr. Dixit said. ''He was a gun lover, a hunter and a shooter. He was someone who even tested weapons for the Royal Nepali Army.'' According to other accounts, the prince had changed into the military garb -- becoming dressed to kill -- before he fired any shots. Either way, he had locked the doors to the dining hall, the accounts say. No guards or aides were inside at the time. In one account, the prince, upon returning to the hall, carried a handgun. He then moved among the wounded, firing single shots into their heads. Finally, guards entered the hall. In one version, Dipendra immediately attempted suicide, firing a single shot through his temple. In a second version, he briefly escaped to another room before trying to take his own life.

The precise death count is unknown. Dead, according to government sources, are the king and queen; their son Prince Nirajan, 22, and daughter Princess Shruti, 24; the king's sisters Princess Shanti Singh and Princess Sharada Shah; Princess Sharada's husband Kumar Khadga Bikram Shah; and Princess Jayanti Shah, a cousin of the late king. At least three other family members were reported wounded. The massacre brought a storybook life to an abrupt end.

The Shah lineage dates back to the mid-1700's. In 1951, with most of the family in exile, Gyenendra, then just an infant, was installed as a puppet king, a position he relinquished with the return of his father, Mahendra. With Mahendra's death in 1972, Birendra became king, though his coronation did not take place until 1975, awaiting a time considered more auspicious by the royal astrologers. On that memorable day, Birendra donned the elaborate crown that came with the title. The royal family rode on elegantly decorated elephants. During this ceremony, 3-year-old Crown Prince Dipendra, flanked by generals, bowed before his father and mother and smartly saluted them. This precocious touch by the young prince brought a burst of applause from the solemn crowd. Good things were expected from the young heir -- and he enjoyed a reputation free of any foreshadowing of mass murder.

King Birendra remained a traditional king until 1990, when a democratic uprising forced the change toward a constitutional monarchy. At the time, there were allegations of royal pocket-stuffing. But Birendra, over time, regained his nation's affection. He was popular, and some would say beloved. And he was not feckless. He retained the loyalty of the army. Earlier this year, the royal astrologers again seemed to be playing a central role in palace affairs. According to press reports, unchallenged by the royal family, it was determined by the stars that the Crown Prince should not marry until age 35. If he did, mortal risks were predicted. This prophecy will inevitably play a role in later reconstruction of the deadly events.

On Saturday, as the news finally sunk in, people seemed too stunned to be outwardly grieving, as if they had just emerged from their homes after the tremors of an earthquake. ''The tragedy is beyond words,'' said Ramesh Chandra Adhikary, a professor of political science here in Katmandu. ''We Hindus believe that the king is an incarnation of God. The sorrow we feel is unimaginable.''

Late Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of mourners began lining the streets to await the eight-mile procession that would bring the murdered king and queen from the hospital to the funeral ghat. ''Journalists are telling us a lot of things about what happened, but we really don't know,'' said Nirendra Sharma, a young man with a shirt that said Nike Air. ''Probably, the murders took place within the royal family. But it's hard to say much more. Nothing like this has happened before in history.''

The king's body, held aloft by bare-chested Brahmin priests, was covered to the neck with a saffron cloth. Behind him came the queen -- dressed in her bridal sari and carried inside an ornate, covered palanquin. And following them was Prince Narajin, Princess Shruti and Princess Jayanti Shah. The corpses were taken to a specially erected canopy near the cremation site on the banks of the holy Bagmati River, near the temple of Lord Pashupatinath. Mourners laid flowers on the bodies. ''The king who saw this country through trying and difficult times is no more,'' said a commentator on state television.

Priests muttered the final prayers as the bodies were lain on pyres of sandalwood. A little known member of the royal family, with a torch in hand, ceremonially circled the king's body three times. Then he set the flame to Birendra's head, starting the fire that would render the royal family to ashes.

Source: New York Times

Birenda: Ruler of Nepal's Hindu Kingdom: Murdered

King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who was shot to death on Friday in a massacre of Nepal's royal family, was a proud but isolated monarch whose reign began in absolutism and ended in uneasy partnership with democracy. But it was a uniquely Nepalese democracy, with a fractious political spectrum from extreme left to right, further muddied by age-old palace intrigue and violence in a royal family, the Shah dynasty, descended from Rajput warriors of India that had been in and out of power since the 1770's, when it employed the indomitable Gurkha fighters to conquer large areas of the country and establish the capital in Katmandu.

King Birendra, 55, had survived a fierce wave of street revolts in 1990 only by the force of tradition; the Nepalese considered him a reincarnation of Vishnu, and there was never a mass movement to depose him. But he was later sidelined into the role of constitutional monarch.

Nepal was first opened to the world four decades ago under King Tribhuvan and later King Mahendra, Birendra's father, and it became the Himalayan region's most popular tourist attraction and the major earner of foreign currency under King Birendra. Mountain-climbing in the regions around Everest and Annapurna made the country famous. Tourism, however, led to the mushrooming of Katmandu, a city with scant public services that soon became inundated with backpackers and hippies, drawing criticism of uncontrolled tourist growth. The reliance on tourism, nurtured by Nepal's kings, has not been tempered by the current political leadership. Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, was never colonized by the West but has been acutely aware of its vulnerability as a landlocked nation wedged between India and China, the world's most populous countries.

King Birendra was born on Dec. 28, 1945, and acceded to the throne in January 1972, after the death of King Mahendra. Birendra's grandfather, King Tribhuvan, had been restored to the throne with the help of India in 1951 after a century of rule by a hereditary clan of political dictators, the Ranas. Tribhuvan died in 1955. Birendra inherited from his father a system of partyless rule through rubber-stamp local and regional councils known as panchayats. The system afforded only the barest facade of democracy and was a constant irritant to the people of Nepal, who saw in it not only unbridled royal privilege but also the source of corruption and the abuse of political power by royal favorites who had no interest in the development of this mountainous country, still one of the poorest in the world. The king's attempts to cling to this system -- and his arrests of prominent leaders of the Congress Party, the leading political organization -- led him into direct confrontation with the Nepalese electorate by the late 1980's. The panchayat system was finally abolished by law in 1993. King Birenda was a man of medium height who wore glasses and invariably dressed in public in the Nepalese national costume: a tunic over tight, jodphur-style trousers, a Western-style jacket and the coloful asymetrical cap called a topi. As a young man, he enjoyed the outdoors and hiked the length and breadth of Nepal to get to know it. Although he was a Hindu king, he made a point of attending major festivals and visiting the holy sites of the country's large Buddhist minority. He continued the practice of softening lines between the two religions, and this made him popular across sectarian lines. Politically, the king had gained stature and approval in his final years because he did not call in the military to stop the democracy movement or take charge when the political coalitions that have marked the last decade cracked and sometimes crumbled, leaving a dangerous vacuum. He was the first king of Nepal to be educated abroad. He was sent first to St. Joseph's School in Darjeeling, in India's hill country. He then finished his secondary education at Eton, the elite British school, before attending Tokyo University and later Harvard, where he took courses in economics and government and studied American politics. A traveler in his youth, he visited Canada, Latin America and Africa, as well as many Asian countries. He became an art collector and supported Nepalese crafts people and artists. He could fly helicopters and enjoyed horseback riding. Many Nepalese critical of the royal family have focused their ire on Queen Aiswarya Rajya Laxni Devi Rana, whom he married in 1970. She was also killed on Friday.

The royal family lived a relatively reclusive life, especially in recent years, in a huge, ominous-looking palace that looms over central Katmandu, the capital. They had two sons, Crown Prince Dipendra, who is accused of the killings, and Prince Nirajan, who was reported to have died today of his wounds, as well as a daughter, Princess Shruti, who was killed. Shruti's two children survive, along with Birendra's brother Gyanendra, who was away from Katmandu.

Source: New York Times

Moseneke resigns from top posts

Nail CEO and acting chairman Dikgang Moseneke has resigned from all his positions at Nail, Metropolitan and Telkom to take up a position in the judiciary.

Media statements from the three companies announced on Friday evening that Advocate Moseneke will take up his new acting position in the judiciary at the end of July. No details about his new job were released.

Moseneke has been acting chairman and CEO of Nail, the chairman of the board of Metropolitan and chairman of Telkom. "I am also looking forward to the completion of the convergence of Metropolitan and New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), which will be a specific area of focus during the remainder of my time with both groups," Moseneke said.

The companies have not yet announced replacements for Moseneke.

Source: News 24

Heath's future is still uncertain

Judge Willem Heath is consulting his family and friends about his future after President Thabo Mbeki turned down a request by the controversial corruption-buster to resign from the judiciary.

On the advice of Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, Mbeki sent a letter to Judge Heath refusing his request to be discharged from active service as a judge. Judge Heath, who has been on long leave, is due to return at the end of this month but had hoped to leave the bench to become a private sector anti-corruption consultant.

The decision by Mbeki was made just weeks ahead of a planned request by Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille for a judicial review of Mbeki's decision to exclude the special investigating unit, formerly headed by Judge Heath, from the arms deal investigation.

Acting on a Constitutional Court ruling, the national assembly has approved legislation barring a special investigating unit being headed by a judge.

This means that even should Mbeki's decision to exclude the unit be overturned, Judge Heath could not be involved in the arms deal probe because he would continue to be a judge.

Source: Cape Times

Willie Hofmeyr promoted

President Thabo Mbeki has approved the promotion of Assets Forfeiture Unit (AFU) head Willie Hofmeyr to Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Monday. Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said Hofmeyr, 47, would no longer be involved in the day-to-day running of the AFU, but would guide policy formulation and would be involved in the strategic direction of the NPA as a whole. The move formed part of renewed efforts to boost the operations of the state prosecution service. "His expertise will, however, not be lost to the unit," Ngwema said. "He will still be helping out when necessary."

Ngwema said Hofmeyr would be replaced as Special Director of Public Prosecutions: Asset Forfeiture Unit by Advocate Juliana Galetlale Ouma Rabaji, 41.

Hofmeyr was the founding head of the AFU, an unit within the NPA. The AFU was created in May 1999 to confiscate the ill-gotten gains of criminals and give effect to the saying that "crime does not pay". Hofmeyr, an economist and lawyer by training, previously served as an African National Congress MP and Parliamentary Councillor to the President.

Rabaji was appointed a Deputy Director: Asset Forfeiture Unit in April last year. Between September last year and January she also acted as NPA chief executive officer. She was previously a regional manager at the Road Accident Fund and an advocate.

Source: News 24

Three Businessmen Accused of Plot to Oust South African President

After weeks of whispers about political jousting and maneuvering within the governing African National Congress, the minister of safety and security has accused three leading members of the party of plotting to oust President Thabo Mbeki. The announcement that the three, Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Matthews Phosa, all prominent businessmen, were under investigation was front-page news today and it left some government officials reeling. All three were fighters for liberation during the apartheid regime.

Mr. Ramaphosa and Mr. Sexwale have long been viewed as potential rivals to Mr. Mbeki although both men have left politics to pursue lucrative careers in business. Opposition politicians quickly condemned the investigation as an attempt by Mr. Mbeki to neutralize opponents who might be tempted to deny his hopes for a second term. A.N.C. officials denied that the probe was politically motivated.

The investigation became public on Tuesday night when Steve Tshwete, minister of safety and security, announced on national television that the three men were believed to be running a disinformation campaign against the president. Of particular concern, Mr. Tshwete said, were rumors charging Mr. Mbeki with orchestrating the assassination in 1993 of Chris Hani, the revered South African Communist Party leader. Two right-wing whites were convicted of killing Mr. Hani, who was one of Mr. Mbeki's rivals for the position of deputy president to Nelson R. Mandela.

Mr. Tshwete said rumors linking President Mbeki to the death of Mr. Hani might have led Mr. Hani's supporters to turn on the president. ''There are sworn affidavits of a plot and disinformation campaign and we have to investigate to see to what extent does it compromise the safety of the president so that we can take the necessary precautions,'' Andre Martin, a spokesman for Mr. Tshwete, said in an interview this afternoon. Officials refused to divulge further details of the reported plot today, but Mr. Tshwete said that the government was bolstering Mr. Mbeki's personal security.

The allegations are the most recent hint of factional fighting within the party. Mr. Mbeki, who succeeded Mr. Mandela in 1999, has been viewed as increasingly vulnerable in A.N.C. circles. Polls indicate that his popularity has slipped, and he has stumbled in his handling of the AIDS epidemic and some other issues. In a surprise public statement earlier this month, Deputy President Jacob Zuma unexpectedly denied rumors and ''unverified, so-called intelligence reports'' that he might stand for the position of A.N.C. president. Earlier this year, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, president of the African National Congress Women's League, denied that she was spreading malicious rumors about Mr. Mbeki. Mr. Sexwale and Mr. Phosa vehemently denied today that they were plotting against the president.

Mr. Ramaphosa, who was once the A.N.C.'s secretary general and is now chairman of a powerful media and telecommunications company, helped lead the negotiations that brought an end to all white rule and was Mr. Mandela's first choice as a successor. Mr. Sexwale, who was imprisoned by the apartheid government and later ran the provincial government that includes Johannesburg, ''is more than satisfied'' with running a black empowerment company with interests in diamond and platinum mines, his family said. ''Our country faces real and serious socio-economic problems, most of all poverty,'' the family said in its statement. ''It is an unwarranted, precious time-wasting exercise to be diverted by gossip and rumor-mongering based on cooked-up stories.''

Mr. Phosa, who served as an A.N.C. legal adviser under apartheid and led the province of Mpumalanga before moving into business, described the allegations as ''insulting the intelligence of ordinary South Africans.'' Leaders of the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, describing the investigation as an abuse of government powers. Mr. Mbeki declined to discuss the issue today, but in a TV interview on Tuesday, he urged the so-called conspirators to abandon their plotting and to declare their ambitions.

Source: New York Times

'Corruption governs SA': Heath

Corruption governs a South Africa led by people who are not serious about fighting it, and steps have to be taken to ensure the country does not "go the same way" as Third World Africa, Judge Willem Heath said on Tuesday.

Heath, the controversial head of the special investigating unit, said the government was not dedicated in the fight against corruption.

"I doubt that they are serious about corruption," he told members of the South Africa/Israel Chamber of Commerce and investigators of the private security firm, Stallion Security, at a function in Johannesburg.

There was a culture of dishonesty in South Africa, said Heath. Only a few members of government were guilty of ignoring corruption, but unfortunately only "a few people were running politics".

Source: News 24.com

Milosevic arrested

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević has been arrested and taken to prison, where he is due to face questioning later on Sunday. His arrest came in the early hours of the morning, after a heavily-armed standoff at his Belgrade villa, where the ex-leader had been surrounded by police for nearly 36 hours.

A convoy of five cars was seen speeding away from the scene. BK TV showed footage of the car carrying Mr Milosevic entering Belgrade's central prison and the security gates closing behind it. Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batić said Mr Milosevic had not yet been formally charged, but would face questioning by an investigating judge on charges of abuse of power and financial corruption.

Mr Milosevic is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but so far the Belgrade authorities have been unwilling to consider extraditing him. A number of people who tried to prevent Mr Milosevic's arrest have themselves now been detained, including several of his bodyguards. They are charged with illegally possessing and using arms during the first failed police attempt to detain Milosevic on Friday night.

Source: BBC

Arms corruption scandal erupts in South Africa

A series of major corruption scandals have rocked the South African government in the past few months. High-ranking members of the ANC government are accused of taking "kick-backs" and of funnelling lucrative contracts to companies in which they or their families have a personal interest.

The allegations centre on a massive arms deal, announced in 1998, to re-equip the South African military forces. The first phase of the deal involved the purchase of patrol corvettes, light helicopters, submarines, Hawk jet trainers and light fighter aircraft, from manufacturers in France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Sweden. Within one year, the cost of the deal had skyrocketed from R29.9bn to R43bn (US5.5bn)— an increase of more than 42 percent.

The corruption allegations were first raised by PAC MP Patricia de Lille, using documents provided anonymously by ANC MPs. These alleged that bribes were paid to senior ANC members and contracts were awarded to their relatives.

Mbeki and the government, however, are completely opposed to any scrutiny of the arms deal. Behind the scenes, ANC officials made desperate attempts to stymie any investigation.

Source: World Socialist Web

Seized assets' money to go back to victims

Over 60 percent of the R210-million in assets seized by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions' Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) is to be paid back to those who lost the money through criminal activities. "Our major aim is to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains ... and associated with that is a strong view that, where there is a victim, that victim should be compensated," AFU chief Willie Hofmeyr said in an interview with Sapa on Sunday.

Because the AFU seizes assets belonging to, among others, drug dealers and people involved in other "victimless" crimes, money which does not have an identifiable recipient goes into a special fund - the Criminal Assets Recovery Account. Money from the fund has, by law, to be used to combat crime or for "victim empowerment", such as the establishment of drug rehabilitation centres. Hofmeyr said the AFU had already returned over R1.1 million to victims in two of its finalised cases. The unit does not claim its own costs from regained funds, but does pay external costs before returning the money.

Source: News 24

Destruction of Giant Buddhas Confirmed

The international community acknowledged Monday that it has failed to stop the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan from destroying the ancient Buddha statues at Bamiyan, with UNESCO branding their demolition "a crime against culture." It was the first time that the destruction of the statues had been independently confirmed, despite a concerted effort by Arab, Islamic and international players to spare them. "I was distressed to learn from my special envoy, Pierre Lafrance, that the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas has been confirmed," the UN cultural body's chief Koichiro Matsura said in a statement. "It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity," the statement said.

The Taliban had said the huge figures, carved into sandstone cliffs in Bamiyan city more than 1,500 years ago when Afghanistan was a seat of Buddhism, are "false idols" and must be destroyed in line with Islamic laws. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India, which has a large Buddhist population, on Monday branded the destruction "an act of barbarism" but stressed that his government had been helpless to intervene. "What is happening there has been condemned by the entire world. It is an act of barbarism, but there is a limit and the world cannot stop the destruction," said Vajpayee. Yet there were no shortage of efforts to try reversing the Taliban's edict, including from many Muslim countries and Pakistan, the closest ally of the Taliban and one of only three countries which recognizes its puritanical regime. After talks over the weekend between Pakistan Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider and Taliban officials failed, Haider played for time "suggesting that since this edict has repercussions for the entire Muslim world, it should be discussed with the ulema (Islamic religious leaders) from outside Afghanistan." But the high-level delegation of Islamic clerics that later visited Afghanistan returned empty-handed Monday.

The Taliban said the clerics had "failed to convince us that destroying the statues was un-Islamic." They were part of a delegation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) led by Qatar's foreign minister and included Egypt's top religious leader and two leading Sunni clerics, the same faith as the Taliban. "From a religious point of view it is clear, these statues are part of humanity's heritage and do no affect Islam at all," said the Egyptian cleric, speaking on his return to Cairo. A similar diplomatic mission from Japan also failed to overturn Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's decree, which he said was based on orders of God and the Koran, Islam's holy book, and was "irreversible."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tried his hand at convincing the Taliban not to carry out their "lamentable decision," meeting Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel while on a tour of South Asia. Annan stressed that many Islamic countries opposed the move, adding that destroying cultural masterpieces was not the way to mobilise the donor community to help Afghanistan overcome its humanitarian crisis. Jordan, another Muslim country, was quick to react to the news Monday that the statues were finished, saying it was disappointed at the "failure of Arab, Islamic and international efforts to stop the destruction." "Heritage that dates back to before Islam belongs to the entire world," the country's culture minister said.

With the Taliban set to move even further into isolation now, Matsuria concluded that "the loss is irreversible" but that "everything possible must be done to stop further destruction" of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic heritage. He also said he hoped that the destruction "will not provide fanatics elsewhere with an excuse for acts of destruction targeting Muslim cultural properties."

Source: Agence France-Presse

PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT 2 OF 2000

The purpose of the Promotion of Access to Information Act is to give effect to the constitutional right of access to any information held by the State and any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

RECOGNISING THAT –
* the system of government in South Africa before 27 April 1994, amongst others, resulted in a secretive and unresponsive culture in public and private bodies which often led to an abuse of power and human rights violations;
* section 8 of the Constitution provides for the horizontal application of the rights in the Bill of Rights to juristic persons to the extent required by the nature of the rights and the nature of those juristic persons;
* section 32 (1) (a) of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right of access to any information held by the State;
* section 32 (1) (b) of the Constitution provides for the horizontal application of the right of access to information held by another person to everyone when that information is required for the exercise or protection of any rights;
* and national legislation must be enacted to give effect to this right in section 32 of the Constitution;

AND BEARING IN MIND THAT –
* the State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil, at least, all the rights in the Bill of Rights which is the cornerstone of democracy in South Africa;
* the right of access to any information held by a public or private body may be limited to the extent that the limitations are reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom as contemplated in section 36 of the Constitution;
* reasonable legislative measures may, in terms of section 32 (2) of the Constitution, be provided to alleviate the administrative and financial burden on the State in giving effect to its obligation to promote and fulfil the right of access to information;

AND IN ORDER TO –
* foster a culture of transparency and accountability in public and private bodies by giving effect to the right of access to information;
* actively promote a society in which the people of South Africa have effective access to information to enable them to more fully exercise and protect all of their rights.

Source: SABINET

PROTECTED DISCLOSURES ACT 26 OF 2000

The purpose of the Protected Disclosures Act is to make provision for procedures in terms of which employees in both the private and the public sector may disclose information regarding unlawful or irregular conduct by their employers or other employees in the employ of their employers; to provide for the protection of employees who make a disclosure which is protected in terms of this Act; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

Recognising that-

- the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, enshrines the rights of all people in the Republic and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom;

- section 8 of the Bill of Rights provides for the horizontal application of the rights in the Bill of Rights, taking into account the nature of the right and the nature of any duty imposed by the right;

- criminal and other irregular conduct in organs of state and private bodies are detrimental to good, effective, accountable and transparent governance in organs of state and open and good corporate governance in private bodies and can endanger the economic stability of the Republic and have the potential to cause social damage;

And bearing in mind that-

- neither the South African common law nor statutory law makes provision for mechanisms or procedures in terms of which employees may, without fear of reprisals, disclose information relating to suspected or alleged criminal or other irregular conduct by their employers, whether in the private or the public sector;

- every employer and employee has a responsibility to disclose criminal and any other irregular conduct in the workplace;

- every employer has a responsibility to take all necessary steps to ensure that employees who disclose such information are protected from any reprisals as a result of such disclosure;

And in order to-

- create a culture which will facilitate the disclosure of information by employees relating to criminal and other irregular conduct in the workplace in a responsible manner by providing comprehensive statutory guidelines for the disclosure of such information and protection against any reprisals as a result of such disclosures;

- promote the eradication of criminal and other irregular conduct in organs of state and private bodies

Source: SABINET

Massacre was revenge for Nkabinde's murder

Gunmen attacking the Ndabazitha household in Richmond in January 1999 accused them of killing United Democratic Movement secretary-general Sifiso Nkabinde, according to evidence heard in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday.

Betty Ndabazitha and her relative Edith Ndabazitha gave this evidence against five men charged with 21 counts relating to the massacre in which 11 people were killed and seven injured. The accused are Vulindlela Blessing Nkabinde, 29, Mbongeni Mjwara, 25, Bongani Derik Nkabinde, 31, Sipho Edward Mtungwa, 30 and Emmanuel Simanga Mashumi Dlamini, 27. They are all from Magoda, the UDM stronghold in which Nkabinde lived. Vulindlela and Bongani Nkabinde are related to the politician. Betty Ndabazitha said relatives had been attending the funeral of her son when the shooting occurred, the same day that Sifiso Nkabinde was murdered.

Edith Ndabazitha was an assistant to the chairperson of the ANC Richmond branch, Siphiwe Ntinga, who was implicated by state witnesses in the trial against the killers of Sifiso Nkabinde in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last year.

She told the court that she heard something exploding outside.

"In my mind I thought maybe it was crackers, but at the time when people who were sitting on the veranda came in running. It was then that I realised that we were under attack," she said.

While Edith hid under the table, four gunmen came into the house. She said that as they were shooting they accused them of killing Nkabinde. She said one woman who tried to run out through the kitchen was shot by the attackers. A man tried to take out his firearm and shoot to protect himself, but "because he was already injured he was unable to shoot".

"They continued shooting and they were saying 'the dogs must die'. One of the attackers even pointed his foot at the people (who had already been killed) and counted them."

"Lindeni (Myeni) was pleading with an attacker, asking the attacker not to shoot her, saying she was not from the area. I heard an explosion from the firearm. I noticed Lindeni falling down. I did not notice whether she was dead or not," Edith testified.

Betty said that she was sitting in her bedroom with a child when she heard "the sound of a gunshot ringing from outside". She said that she lay on top of the child and "the shooting continued until it was inside the bedroom".

After she heard a firearm make a "clicking sound" one attacker called to another saying "bring a firearm, these dogs are not all dead". She said that a person replied from the dining room "let us stab them".

Betty said that after it became quiet she tried to lift her head to see what the attackers were doing. "I was unable to do so because there was another person lying on top of me. The person on top of me was dead," she said. She was not injured in the attack.

The case is continuing. - Sapa

Source: IoL

Top judge thrown off 'corrupt' arms deal inquiry

A top corruption buster was reported yesterday to have sought the backing of Nelson Mandela after South African President Thabo Mbeki blocked him from investigating alleged corruption in a 43 billion rand (£3.7bn) arms deal involving Britain.

The Sunday Independent, a South African sister paper of The Independent, and South Africa's Sunday Times newspapers said Judge Willem Heath, head of a successful anti-corruption unit, had telephoned Mr Mandela for backing after Mr Mbeki blocked him from investigating alleged corruption in the foreign arms deal.

The contract, signed in December 1999, involving arms firms in Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, France and South Africa, is supposed to generate investments worth 104 billion rand (£9bn) and create 65,000 much-needed jobs. But allegations of bribery have surrounded the deal, and a preliminary study by the auditor-general last year called for a more detailed audit after finding serious flaws in procedure.

Source: The Independent

Top judge thrown off 'corrupt' arms deal inquiry

A top corruption buster was reported yesterday to have sought the backing of Nelson Mandela after South African President Thabo Mbeki blocked him from investigating alleged corruption in a 43 billion rand (£3.7bn) arms deal involving Britain.

The Sunday Independent, a South African sister paper of The Independent, and South Africa's Sunday Times newspapers said Judge Willem Heath, head of a successful anti-corruption unit, had telephoned Mr Mandela for backing after Mr Mbeki blocked him from investigating alleged corruption in the foreign arms deal.

The contract, signed in December 1999, involving arms firms in Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, France and South Africa, is supposed to generate investments worth 104 billion rand (£9bn) and create 65,000 much-needed jobs. But allegations of bribery have surrounded the deal, and a preliminary study by the auditor-general last year called for a more detailed audit after finding serious flaws in procedure.

Source: The Independent

Mbeki's decision sounds death knell for Heath unit

The decision by President Thabo Mbeki to exclude the Heath Special Investigation Unit from the controversial R43-billion arms deal probe signals the death knell of the unit, Judge Willem Heath said on Friday evening.

Quashing any hopes of the unit appealing the decision, Heath, who had not been officially informed of the exclusion by Mbeki said: "There is no next move because we have ceased to exist."

Heath said he was not surprised by the president's decision "because we have always anticipated the possibility".

"But of course I am disappointed. I know many other people in the country are disappointed. We were merely trying to protect the interests of the country as well as that of the government."

Source: News 24.com

A Nervous Congo Admits That Its President Is Dead

The Congo government finally announced today that President Laurent Kabila had died, two days after it was reported that he had been shot by a bodyguard. But it is not clear that the battle-worn and impoverished Congo is ready to accept his 31-year-old son as his successor. A Belgian businessman who lives in Kinshasa said the decision to name the son, Maj. Gen. Joseph Kabila, to lead the government seemed to increase tension here, a sentiment reflected on the streets. ''This is a government we have -- it's not a monarchy,'' said Moise Muamba, an 18-year-old student. ''They can't do what they did.''

The announcement on national television this evening that the president is dead gave no details of how he died. Most reports have said that he was shot by a bodyguard, apparently during an argument with some of his generals, and that he died while being flown to seek medical aid in Zimbabwe, which stood as his country's main ally, along with Angola. The government announcement said he had died today in a Zimbabwe hospital. In its announcement, the government also signaled its intention to continue the president's hard-line position toward a 29-month war against rebels that has thrown all of Central Africa into disorder.

Using the same language employed during Laurent Kabila's rule, the communications minister, Dominique Sakombi Inongo, said on state television that Mr. Kabila had left a testament to the army to ''flush the aggressors out of the national territory.'' The government has consistently described the war as an invasion from outside Congo and has refused to negotiate with the Congolese rebels, who are backed by Rwanda and Uganda. As the official announcement was being made, Congo rebels said their positions in the north were being bombed by government troops. The head of Congo Liberation Front, Jean-Pierre Bemba, reported the strikes to the news agency Agence France-Presse.

In the capital tonight, the streets were quiet, with a curfew still in place. People milling outside just before the start of the curfew reacted calmly to the death of Mr. Kabila, who marched into Kinshasa four years ago as the heroic victor over one of Africa's great dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko, but whose own dictatorial style had made him increasingly unpopular. ''There haven't been any positive things, so why should he be mourned?'' said Papy Masundi, 22, a trader who was sitting on a sidewalk and sharing a bottle of beer with four friends. One of his friends, Francis Basayi, 27, an apprentice taxi driver, said Mr. Kabila's death might now bring peace in Congo. ''If he wanted peace,'' Mr. Basayi said, ''peace would have come two years ago. He said he'd come to liberate us. But after all this time, we didn't see any change. The price of gasoline keeps climbing, and so does the price of food. Before I was doing a little well, but look at me now.''

Kinshasa was deserted Wednesday, a day after the shooting in the presidential palace, as people stayed home out of fear. But today taxis and buses started running again, and people returned to work all across Kinshasa, a sprawling city of five million that is like a carcass of houses, roads and sewers built by Belgian colonialists and abandoned by Congo's rulers. Ferry service on the great Congo River between here and Brazzaville, in the Congo Republic, remained closed. The government reopened the main airport, but most carriers stayed away because of insecurity. On one of the few planes that flew in and out of Kinshasa, many European and Lebanese women and children could be seen leaving the capital. Lebanese men, who fearlessly sustain businesses in the most unstable of African cities, typically send their wives and children away during crises -- and the men depart only when things fall apart completely.

After announcing the president's death tonight, state television showed images that tried to portray his son as having already taken control. It showed General Kabila receiving the ambassadors from Belgium, France, Britain, China and Russia, and an American Embassy representative, Barry Walkley. General Kabila, who has no political experience but who will be supported by his father's small inner circle, made no announcement of his own today. Little is known of him, other than that he received his military training in China after his father took over in 1997. Called back to this country after the outbreak of the current war in August 1998, Joseph Kabila was quickly given the rank of general. He is said to have been born in eastern Congo, near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. His father was a small-time guerrilla fighter for three decades, most of them spent in the eastern region, before the Rwandans and Ugandans plucked him out of obscurity in 1997 to head a rebellion against Mr. Mobutu.

In Kinshasa, people were said to be unhappy about the son's ascension, not only because of its monarchical tinge, but for a far darker reason: His mother, people in Kinshasa say, is a Tutsi. The Tutsi ethnic group, which controls the governments in Burundi and Rwanda, are hated in this part of the country. It was Rwandan Tutsi -- the main victims of the 1994 massacre led by Hutu extremists -- who backed Laurent Kabila against Mr. Mobutu. But once Mr. Kabila arrived here in Kinshasa, he quickly turned against his former Tutsi patrons. Though he had helped the Tutsi exact revenge on Hutu extremists, Mr. Kabila did an about-face to side with these same Hutu. Many of the Congolese rebels who are backed by Rwanda are ethnic Tutsi. Called the Banyamulenge, they have lived in Congolese territory for generations but have never been accepted by other Congolese. After the outbreak of war in August 1998, Mr. Kabila often seized on Congolese hatred of Tutsi to rally his forces.

In Kinshasa, Mr. Kabila never brooked much freedom, and that legacy survived his death. Even as his government denied for two days that Mr. Kabila had been killed, the residents of Kinshasa heard the news on shortwave radio from France, Britain and the United States. People interviewed this evening, before the official announcement was made, were wary of speaking of his death. Most seemed afraid even of mentioning his name. ''It's difficult -- no one knows what's happening,'' said Christian Unshemvula, 29, who speaks English with an American accent and said he had studied at San Jose State University. ''I just want things to improve in this country, on the economic and political levels.'' Asked what effects Mr. Kabila's death might have on Congo's future, Mr. Unshemvula said: ''I'm not a politician. I don't know.''

The Kabila regime clamped down severely on its critics, and many of those interviewed today took the government line, which often seemed surreal. ''Since he's come into power, we've had peace,'' Alain Tshimwanga, 26, said of Laurent Kabila. ''Since he's been here, we've had no disruption.''

State television gave no details of Mr. Kabila's funeral. But the government of Belgium, the former colonial ruler, which was the first to announce Mr. Kabila's death on Tuesday night, said his body would be flown first to Lubumbashi, his hometown, and then here to Kinshasa. His funeral is expected to take place on Tuesday.

Source: New York Times

Killing Casts a Shadow Over Meeting

Opening a summit meeting that the Congolese leader Laurent Kabila was to have attended, heads of state from across Africa spent a moment today mourning Mr. Kabila -- even as his aides back in Congo were continuing to insist that he was not dead. ''I invite you to observe a minute of silence in memory of our dear brother, Laurent Kabila,'' President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, the presiding official, told delegates assembled for a two-day summit meeting of mostly French-speaking African countries.

Like most of the world, the leaders gathered here in this West African capital appeared to assume that Mr. Kabila had indeed been fatally shot hours before he would have left for the meeting. Yet as they began the proceedings, what little was being said was guarded, as participants awaited Congolese confirmation that what Le Messager, the Cameroon newspaper, had on Wednesday as its headline -- ''Kabila Assassine'' -- was indeed the truth. ''Our happiness,'' Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations said in a speech, ''is tempered by the uncertainty of the fate of President Laurent Desire Kabila.'' Only later today, nearly two days after the palace shooting reportedly happened, did the Congolese government announce that Mr. Kabila was in fact dead, and even then it said that he had died only today after clinging to life for nearly 36 hours in a Zimbabwe hospital.

Uncertainty over Mr. Kabila's situation, however, provided a surreal start to the summit meeting. Wednesday night one arriving leader after another left his plane and marched nearly underneath a visage of the slain president, whose portrait was hanging with those of other leaders across a balcony overlooking the tarmac. But this morning, as the leaders began arriving at the conference center, Mr. Kabila was missing from a similar row of portraits inside the entrance. His absence, Mr. Annan said, would be felt as the meeting's participants took up globalization, this year's theme. Although the war-retarded economy of Congo is a long way from being integrated into the world's economy, its troubles are hurting the wider region. Conflict, as an obstacle to globalization, was to be a central issue in this meeting in which Congo and its president were to have had starring roles.

Whether this meeting could have helped resolve the civil war in Congo is another question. Few of the key figures in the conflict, which has involved six countries along with several rebel movements, were expected to attend. Indeed, aside from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who stopped in briefly today before the formal opening of the meeting, only Namibia's president, Sam Nujoma, was here.

With many of the leading actors absent, the United Nations secretary general took the opportunity to assure them and the world of the United Nations' commitment to Congo and to implore the warring parties to practice restraint. ''I want to reaffirm the world's determination to play a key role in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo,'' Mr. Annan said. ''I would like to call on all of the neighboring countries and all of the countries involved in that process not to complicate the situation, but instead to help the affected population of the Congo find peaceful solutions.''

Source: New York Times

Mbeki's mistakes - a UK view

The prospect of President Thabo Mbeki's acceptance of Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's advice to exclude Judge Willem Heath from a probe into an alleged arms deal scam, is being seen here in the same light as the South African government's "three other major blunders".

The newspaper The Guardian elaborates on "anger" experienced in South Africa over the government's disregard of a parliamentary committee for public accounts' insistence that Heath be included in the probe into a suspect government arms contract of R43 million with Britain and other foreign arms companies.

The newspaper finds the South African government guilty of other "serious political errors of judgement". The three black marks against Mbeki's name are for his blundering over HIV/Aids, the government's laxity regarding Zimbabwe, and the rumpus over Lesotho.

"Despite accusations raised by its opponents, there is no evidence of corruption by the South African government in the arms deal. However, it is guilty of other serious political errors of judgement."

The newspaper argues that even though Mbeki retracted on his denial of a connection between HIV and Aids, his prestige took a sharp knock in South Africa, the country with most HIV-infected people world-wide.

In addition, the government's lame stance over Robert Mugabe had been as ineffective as the furore created in Britain over the issue.

"Mbeki, however, has more to lose. Should Zimbabwe be crippled economically, an influx of its citizens could paralyse South Africa," the newspaper said.

The government's intervention in Lesotho in 1998 had also been a "military and political blunder". The nation had been outraged when a well-equipped, but poorly prepared South African force got bogged down against an ill-equipped opponent, leaving Maseru practically destroyed.

The article, reporting over Mbeki's acceptance of Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's recommendation that Heath be excluded from the three investigating teams into the arms deal, says that in South Africa the government is being accused of overriding democracy.

Extensive coverage is given to the fact that a request from the committee for public accounts was disregarded, and also to criticism from the PAC, the IFP and even from the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane.

Source: News 24.com

U.N. Confirms Liberia's Role In Smuggling Of Diamonds

A panel of international experts is expected to tell the Security Council in a report on Wednesday that Liberia and its president, Charles Taylor, have been playing the largest role in the smuggling of diamonds from Sierra Leone. The diamond sales have paid for a guerrilla war there.

The report, circulated today among diplomats, seems to confirm what other reports have said about Mr. Taylor's role. It recommends that the Council embargo all diamonds from Liberia until it can prove that it is not trafficking in gems from Sierra Leone or arming the insurgents there with the proceeds of illegal sales. The report further suggests that a travel ban similar to one imposed on senior Liberian officials by the United States should be applied by all nations. "President Charles Taylor is actively involved in fueling the violence in Sierra Leone, and many businessmen close to his inner circle operate on an international scale, sourcing their weaponry mainly in eastern Europe," the report said. Mr. Taylor has been the major supporter of the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel army in Sierra Leone that is known for amputating limbs to terrorize civilians.

The panel said there is "unequivocal and overwhelming evidence that Liberia has been actively supporting the R.U.F. at all levels, in providing training, weapons and related materiel, logistical support, a staging ground for attacks and a safe haven for retreat and recuperation, and for public relations activities."

In addition to Liberia, Burkino Faso was cited as being actively involved in the illegal diamonds-for-arms trade. Seven other countries were recommended for a watch list: Uganda, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Mali and Zambia. "Invoices from these countries need to be thoroughly checked," the report says.

Sierra Leone now has a diamond certification system approved by the United Nations, and the panel said it works for diamonds that "enter the formal system." But not all diamonds come from government-controlled areas and not all traders can be assumed to be dealing with legitimate stones, the panel found. The panel also found that several Liberian-registered planes that seemed to be outside the formal control of the Liberian government are being used by arms dealers. It recommended that planes bearing Liberian registration be grounded wherever they are found unless they can provide correct documentation and meet other requirements.

Arms dealers from Africa and the Middle East are using Liberian registration to ship illicit goods, the report says. Among dealers the panel cited are Sanjivan Ruprah of Kenya and Victor Bout, who is said to operate from Sharja in the United Arab Emirates. Another businessman described as close to Mr. Taylor is Talal el-Ndine, whom the panel describes as a wealthy Lebanese who acts as paymaster for the Revolutionary United Front.

The panel also looked at efforts by Foday Sankoh, the rebel group's leader, to get into the diamond business when he became part of the Sierra Leone government in 1999 after a peace agreement. Mr. Sankoh is now in jail after turning against the government and after his forces attacked United Nations peacekeepers last May. But he was chairman of the commission for the management of strategic mineral resources in a short-lived power-sharing agreement that was intended to rehabilitate the rebels.

In that capacity, he and Sierra Leone's president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, persuaded the United States to help pay for a conference in March of this year to which American diamond-mining investors were invited. Among those sending a representative was Lazare Kaplan International, whose chairman is Maurice Tempelsman, who had been involved in diamond mining in Sierra Leone decades ago but who had pulled out as the country sank into chaos. Officials at Lazare Kaplan International say they attended the meeting at the urging of the United States Agency for International Development, but came away seeing no future in returning to Sierra Leone. Shortly afterward, Mr. Sankoh was again in armed opposition and the plan to redevelop a legitimate diamond mining industry was scuttled.

The panel that wrote the study was led by Martin Chungong Ayafor of Cameroon. The members were Atabou Bodian of Senegal, an expert from the International Civil Aviation Organization; Johan Peleman, a Belgian arms and transportation expert; Harjit S. Sandhu an Indian agent from Interpol, and Ian Smillie, a diamond expert from Canada.

Source: New York Times

Signing of the "United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime"

Japan signed the "United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime" on December 12 (Tue) at a high-level conference held in Palermo, Italy. The signatory was Mr. Kiyohiro Araki, Senior State Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

The Convention was drafted by the Ad Hoc Committee established by UN resolution 53/111 of December 1998, and was adopted by the General Assembly at its Millennium meeting on November 15, 2000. The Convention obliges the State Parties to criminalize certain activities including conspiracy of a serious crime and laundering of proceeds of crime. It also provides for the confiscation of proceeds of crime, jurisdiction, extradition, and mutual legal assistance, etc. The Convention aims at establishing a global legal framework to prevent and promote the cooperation to fight against transnational organized crime.

The Heads of the G8 countries reaffirmed in G8 Communiqué during the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit in July 2000 that they would support for the adoption of the Convention by the end of this year. Japan has played a significant role in negotiations for the drafting of the Convention including its contribution in its capacity as a member of the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Committee.

The High Level Political Signing Conference is co-sponsored by the Government of Italy and the United Nations, which is attended by the President of Italy, UN Secretary-General, and also representatives from many countries including ministerial level officials.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

HOME LOAN AND MORTGAGE DISCLOSURE ACT

To promote fair lending practices, which require disclosure by financial
institutions of information regarding the provision of home loans; to establish an
Office of Disclosure; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

A copy of the Act can be found here. The Act has still to be proclaimed.

Source: Department of Human Settlements

United Nations AIDS report confirms worst epidemic in history

An estimated three million people will have died of AIDS in 2000, the highest annual figure yet recorded. 500,000 of these were children. Although 2.4 million of the total deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, the latest UNAIDS and World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics also show serious increases in the number of HIV infections in countries that are part of the former Soviet Union, as well as in South and South-East Asia. The UNAIDS/WHO report was timed to appear for World AIDS day, December 1.

AIDS has now killed a total of 22 million people, making it the deadliest epidemic in the history of mankind and overtaking the total of 20 million killed by Spanish Flu in 1918. The series of statistics in the UNAIDS/WHO report reveals the horrifying scale and spread of the disease. However, the report is just as staggering in spelling out the totally ineffective global response to this pandemic. In line with the attitude of the major Western governments, the report calls only for prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa—education and provision of condoms—and basic care and support for those infected. There will be no attempt to deal with the widespread poverty, collapsing healthcare systems, or to provide the anti-retroviral drug treatment available in the West. The derisory sum of $3 billion a year being asked for by the UN will condemn millions of people to die.

Total world figures for HIV infection were 36.1 million, of which 1.4 million are children. 25.3 million of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc as a whole, there were at least 700,000 cases of HIV infection, up from just 420,000 cases last year. In the Russian federation, 50,000 new infections were reported in the first nine months of this year compared to 29,000 registered in the previous 12 years. This increase is largely due to intravenous drug use and is likely to be a serious underestimation as many cases are unreported. The Russian Ministry of Health released a report estimating that about 14 million Russians, about 10 percent of the population, will be infected by 2005. “What we had predicted and feared is now happening, and that's an explosion of HIV”, said Peter Piot, UNAIDS director, pointing to the lack of concern shown by governments in the region.

South and South-East Asia now has 5.8 million people with HIV. Although this is only a small proportion of the region's population, figures are expected to rapidly increase, especially in China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam has had 2,371 deaths from AIDS, but it is predicted that this will rise to 46,000 by 2005—with 200,000 HIV infected. China is predicted to have 10 million HIV cases by 2010, with HIV cases growing at 30 percent each year.

A Reuters report from India states that the country now has 3.7 million people who are HIV infected, the largest number in the world after South Africa. A health ministry spokesman stated that effective antiretroviral treatment was too expensive for the country's health budget.

The UNAIDS/WHO report shows a slight fall in new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, from 4 million in 1999 to 3.8 million in 2000. This is hardly encouraging news, given the fact that the figures are statistical estimates with large margins of error. It probably means that the epidemic has gone on for so long that it has already affected a high proportion of people in the sexually active population. The other possible explanation put forward by the UN—that AIDS prevention programmes are beginning to take effect in some African countries—do not seem credible when the dire situation in countries the UN claims to represent “success” stories—like Uganda and Zambia—is seriously examined. Experts fear that the epidemic could spread in highly populated Nigeria, where HIV rates are now about 5 percent of the population, increasing to the much higher levels now found in Southern Africa.

Another serious aspect of the UNAIDS/WHO statistics is the recent increases in HIV infection in the West. During 2000 it is estimated that 30,000 people in Western Europe and 45,000 in the US have been infected with HIV. This increase on the rates throughout the 1990s suggests that although the totals are still low compared to Africa, basic education on the danger of AIDS/HIV is lacking.

AIDS in Africa

Media reports over the last few days have provided heart-rending illustrations of the effect of the disease in Africa. A British Channel 4 TV documentary, AIDS The Global Killer, showed the situation in Livingstone, Zambia. On the intersection of main trunk roads the high HIV infection is attributed to a large number of sex workers. A local school was shown where the head teacher had lost so many teachers and pupils he is now allowing sex education classes in spite of opposition from the Catholic Church. Groups of orphaned children are shown sleeping rough; a mother dying from AIDS had been forced to send her child to be looked after by a charity. A highly educated civil servant took the brave decision to openly admit he had AIDS but has since been shunned by his friends. Despite his relative affluence he cannot afford the price of basic antibiotics to treat his infections.

BBC Radio World Service interviewed people dying with AIDS in Kenya, where 200,000 have died in the last year. At an orphanage, the reporter was shown the nearby graveyard of children who had recently died. In Harare, Zimbabwe, the local cemetery is now full because of AIDS-related deaths, and an appeal is being made for families to break with traditional custom and accept cremation.

Reports in Village Voice reveal the situation facing a group of AIDS patients at Gulu, Uganda. The vast majority of them had gone at least five days without food in the last year, demonstrating the effects of poverty on the disease. A partner in an advertising and media firm in Uganda was interviewed, as one of the 852 people out of 930,000 infected with HIV who has been able to afford antiretroviral drugs. His firm is now making less money, so he can no longer afford the $6,250 needed for a year's treatment.

The economic impact of AIDS in Africa is referred to by the UNAIDS/WHO report. Studies show the devastating impact that the disease is likely to have on the economy of Southern Africa, which contributes 40 percent of the region's economy. It is predicted that the country's Gross Domestic Product will be 17 percent lower than it would have been in the absence of AIDS, wiping $22 billion off the economy. In Botswana, with a relatively wealthy economy due to income from diamond mining, it is estimated that health spending will more than treble over the next 10 years.

Western powers largely ignore global catastrophe

The UNAIDS campaign theme for World AIDS day this year reflects the total refusal of Western governments to seriously address this global catastrophe. “Men make a difference”, targets the individual responsibility of men for the growth of the infection—along the lines of moralising Victorian philanthropy. “Harmful cultural beliefs about masculinity”—i.e. men forcing women to have sex and refusing to care for infected family members and orphans—are seen as the key problem. In contrast, the report hardly addresses the basic problems facing the majority of people in Africa—the provision of clean drinking water and nutritious food, to say nothing of healthcare and education systems which have rapidly declined under the IMF and World Bank privatisation programmes of the last period.

World AIDS day also gave US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the occasion to declare, “We are not winning the war against AIDS” and call for “a global effort with gutsy leadership, backed by donors and caring people everywhere.” This was said in the context of a US political leadership that has donated a mere $1 billion to combat HIV/AIDS to 75 countries over the last 10 years—an average of $100 million a year. Even this paltry sum is higher than that donated by any other Western nation. The US Congress has voted a global aid budget of $460 million for 2001, not only for HIV/AIDS but also for all infectious diseases. The figures contrast with an annual US defence budget of $310 billion. French President Jacques Chirac said that in the European Union, whose presidency is currently held by France, “we are faced, morally and politically, with a situation of failing to assist people at risk”, but he merely called for yet another UN conference to bring together representatives of developing countries, pharmaceutical companies and NGOs.

A response that is perhaps even more cynical was given by the World Bank. With its headquarters fronted by a huge 32-foot high red ribbon, a spokeswoman boasted of the $500 million that the Bank's board had approved in September for HIV/AIDS work in sub-Saharan Africa. The bank is providing “soft loans”—with lower than usual repayment terms—for 25 African countries, most of which already have a huge debt burden.

Several campaign groups are now focusing on the issue of anti-HIV drugs. At the Durban International AIDS Conference last July, drug companies promised to cut their prices by as much as 80 percent to African countries. The cut has failed to materialise. So far only Senegal has negotiated a price-cut on AIDS drugs. The charity Doctors Without Borders says that the combination of three drugs at present on sale in the US for $42.60 a day ($15,500 a year) could be sold to poor countries at $2.14 a day ($780 a year) and still make a profit.

In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has won considerable support against the ANC government, which is refusing to provide drugs except for health workers infected with HIV and for those who can afford them privately (the latter group includes politicians who have their own insurance scheme). TAC's deputy chairman, Mark Heywood, told the world media that at present only 10,000 of the four million infected with HIV in South Africa had access to anti-retroviral drugs, and that a significant price reduction would bring access to 300,000 within two years.

However important the access to drug treatment is, as the UNAIDS/WHO report points out: “in countries that are worst affected by the epidemic, rising sickness and death often take place against a background of deteriorating public services, poor employment prospects and endemic poverty.” Combination drug treatments available in the West, which are not a cure but have been shown to halt the development of full-blown AIDS, can only be administered within an adequate health service. The drugs produce serious side effects and require constant care and supervision of patients. They can only be part of the solution to an enormous social crisis that must be tackled as a global emergency. Western politicians have so far completely rejected any kind of coordinated intervention that would mean spending hundreds of billions of dollars to halt the impact of this deadly disease.

Source: World Socialist Web

South Africa to Distribute $50 Million in Donated AIDS Drugs

After months of official indecision over how to confront the epidemic ravaging South Africa, the government announced today that it would make critical drugs available to people who have H.I.V. or AIDS. In a deal signed today, World AIDS Day, the government agreed to accept a $50 million donation of the drug fluconazole from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The drug, which treats a deadly brain inflammation and other AIDS-related maladies, will be provided free in public hospitals and clinics for two years.

Earlier this week, South Africa's government gave conditional approval for a drug for pregnant women that reduces the risk of transmission to the fetus of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, according to officials at Boehringer Ingelheim, manufacturer of the drug, nevirapine. Dr. Nono Simelela, who heads the H.I.V./AIDS unit in the Ministry of Health, confirmed today that nevirapine would be distributed to pregnant women soon. Details about the drug distribution were sketchy, but they were welcomed by advocates and experts, who have criticized the government's lagging response to the virus, which has infected more people in South Africa than anywhere else.

During the last year, President Thabo Mbeki has confounded scientists by questioning the safety of commonly prescribed anti-AIDS drugs and the widely accepted causal link between H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, and AIDS. Prominent doctors, researchers and advocates around the world have accused the president of wasting time while people were dying. In October, Mr. Mbeki acknowledged that his public statements were hampering efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Today, however, the government won praise for its efforts to provide expensive drugs free. In local pharmacies, one tablet of fluconazole costs about $17. ''Until now, it has been accessible only to people who could afford these extremely high prices,'' said Morna Cornell, director of the AIDS Consortium, which represents dozens of groups fighting the disease here.

This week, the United Nations reported that 25.3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- the bulk of the world's infected -- have H.I.V. or AIDS. This year alone, 2.4 million people in the region died of AIDS. The good news is that the number of new infections seems to be stabilizing. In 1999, four million people became infected with the virus, the United Nations said. This year, the figure is expected to be 3.8 million. But there is still a desperate need for affordable drugs. In South Africa, about 20 percent of adults -- about 4.2 million people -- are believed to have H.I.V. or AIDS.

Today, government officials pledged to continue to pressure pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for the developing world. The Pfizer drug fluconazole is the only outpatient treatment for cryptococcal meningitis, the brain inflammation that affects 1 in 10 AIDS patients, officials said. It is also highly effective in treating a fungal infection of the esophagus that afflicts about 20 to 40 percent of AIDS patients. The infection makes it painful to swallow and can result in severe weight loss and death.

Health officials said the drug would be available to all poor patients for two years. And even afterward, they said, Pfizer will continue to provide the drug to patients already taking it. Sputnik Ratau, a government spokesman, said it was unclear when fluconazole would start appearing in public hospitals. Some advocates for AIDS patients criticized Pfizer and the government for not providing the drug to the minority of poor patients who are treated in private clinics. Even less is known about how widely nevirapine, the drug that reduces H.I.V. transmission from mother to child, will be distributed.

Officials at Boehringer Ingelheim said the government offered only conditional approval of the drug on Thursday. Kevin McKenna, the technical director at Boehringer Ingelheim, said he was optimistic that final approval would come quickly. The company has offered to provide the drug free for five years. Mr. McKenna said he hoped that distribution would start by February or March.

Source: New York Times

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD ACT 38 OF 2000

The purpose of the CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD ACT is to provide for the establishment of the Construction Industry Development Board; to implement an integrated strategy for the reconstruction, growth and development of the construction industry and to provide for matters connected therewith.

Preamble

WHEREAS the construction industry plays an indispensable role in the South African economy in providing the physical infrastructure which is fundamental to the country’s development;

WHEREAS the construction industry experiences instability and interconnected structural problems which are associated with the declining demand in recent decades, the volatile nature of the demand and the consequent shedding of labour;

WHEREAS the construction industry operates in a uniquely project-specific and complex environment, combining different investors, clients, contractual arrangements and consulting professions; combining different site conditions, design, materials and technologies; combining different contractors, specialist subcontractors and the workforce assembled for each project;

WHEREAS the development of the emerging sector is frustrated by its inability to access opportunity, finance and credit as well as vocational and management training;

WHEREAS investment in physical infrastructure is constrained and there is a need to promote effective public sector spending and private sector investment and to interpret investment trends;

WHEREAS the construction industry impacts directly on communities and the public at large and its improved efficiency and effectiveness will enhance quality, productivity, health, safety, environmental outcomes and value for money to South African society;

WHEREAS the specialised and risk-associated nature of construction places an onus on the public sector client to continuously improve its procurement and delivery management skill in a manner that promotes efficiency, value for money, transformation and the sustainable development of the construction industry;

WHEREAS the development of the industry requires leadership and the active promotion of best practice; and

WHEREAS Government has a vision of a construction industry development strategy that promotes stability, fosters economic growth and international competitiveness, creates sustainable employment and addresses historic imbalances as it generates new construction industry capacity;

Source: SABINET

PROMOTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE ACT 3 OF 2000

Th purpose of the promotion of Administrative Justice Act is to give effect to the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair and to the right to written reasons for administrative action as contemplated in section 33 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996; and to provide for matters incidental thereto.

WHEREAS section 33(1) and (2) of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair and that everyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action has the right to be given written reasons;

AND WHEREAS section 33(3) of the Constitution requires national legislation to be enacted to give effect to those rights, and to-
* provide for the review of administrative action by a court or, where appropriate, an independent and impartial tribunal;
* impose a duty on the state to give effect to those rights; and
* promote an efficient administration;

AND WHEREAS item 23 of Schedule 6 to the Constitution provides that the national legislation envisaged in section 33(3) must be enacted within three years of the date on which the Constitution took effect;

AND IN ORDER TO-
* promote an efficient administration and good governance; and
* create a culture of accountability, openness and transparency in the public administration or in the exercise of a public power or the performance of a public function, by giving effect to the right to just administrative action.

Source: SABINET

ConCourt's 'no' to Judge Heath heading commission

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday declared Judge Willem Heath's heading of the Special Investigative Unit of the Heath Commission as inconsistent with the constitution.

Heath's SIU, established during former president Nelson Mandela's tenure, was initially asked to investigate government corruption in the Eastern Cape. Mandela extended the unit's mandate to encompass the whole country.

In July, while addressing a two-day conference on corruption, Heath said the unit had recovered R314 million since it was founded in 1997.

Constitutional Court president Arthur Chaskalson said the functions of the head of the SIU were far removed from the normal functions of the judiciary.

He said the intrusive investigative quality of the SIU was incompatible with the separation of powers between the judiciary and the government, as required by the South African constitution.

The judgment was unanimous.

Source: Nwes 24.com

South Africa Praised on International Court

Human Rights Watch today welcomed South Africa's ratification of the Rome Treaty for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The rights group commended Pretoria for taking a leadership role in the establishment of the ICC by proceeding with early ratification of the treaty.

In depositing its "instrument of ratification" at the United Nations today, South Africa took the formal step to become the twenty-third state to ratify the Rome Treaty. The ICC will prosecute future cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The court will come into being after sixty states have ratified the treaty.

"South Africa's ratification is a major step forward on the path to establishing the court," said Brigitte Suhr, Counsel for the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "South Africa has provided consistent leadership on behalf of an independent and effective ICC, and its ratification sends a strong message that this Court has strong support in every region. We believe its action today will help to spur additional ratifications in southern Africa and around the world." During the treaty negotiations for the ICC in Rome in 1998, South Africa, along with other states from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), played a key role in thwarting the efforts of some major powers to weaken the court. The strong united support for the Court from SADC nations, which South Africa helped to forge, was critical to the successful adoption of the Rome Treaty in the face of strong opposition from major world powers, including the United States.

Source: Human Rights Watch

In Memory of Koos Malgas

The Owl House in Nieu Bethesda has become a national treasure: a place of beauty, pain and mystical metamorphosis which draws a constant flow of pilgrims to see it. The story of the Owl House has intrigued and inspired great writers such as Athol Fugard who explored it in his play, The Road to Mecca. The play took the story out to sophisticated international audiences and was turned into a film. Books and thesis' such as The Owl House by Anne Emslie and This is my world by Sue Imrie Ross tried to unravel its intricacies. Yet Koos Malgas (63), who passed away early Monday morning, November 20, remained in the shadows of Helen Martins' legacy for most of his life. He was Martins' right hand man and collaborator without whom most of the art work in and around the Owl House would not exist. Martins had the passion for a vision, while Malgas was the craftsman who made it materialise. She paid him for each piece, bargaining a price according to the work. Malgas was a humble but sparky man with a deep knowledge of nature who was proud of his San ancestry.

When Malgas was 26, Martins, who employed his father, asked him to make her a little statue. Malgas, who had previously only worked as a sheep shearer, collected some clay from a nearby dam and modeled a delicate frieze of a woman's face which he humbly presented to Helen Martins in a sardine tin. Martins was pleased, asking him to make "a much bigger one on that wall" and so began a unique creative partnership. There were already a number of cement owls, camels and wise men in the garden made by previous helpers but Martins liked Malgas' style and they worked together for 12 years. She would show him a postcard of an image or describe something in her mind, and he would create it in concrete. "She was very clever." Malgas often said of Martins. He admired her and missed her terribly. Martins gave Malgas a piece of land which had belonged to her father, but without papers, and he grew vegetables and kept his horse there while she was alive, but it was claimed by the town council after she died , (as was the Owl House itself, which they threatened to bulldoze.) When Helen Martins decided to die she gave Malgas a note to present to the police, giving permission for him to have her radio so that they wouldn't suspect him of stealing it. Two years after Martins' suicide in 1976 , Malgas left for Worcester to find work. Sixteen years later he was persuaded to return to Nieu Bethesda where he was employed by The Friends of the Owl House to restore sculptures.

He once told me that his dream was to create his own garden of sculptures. With so many mouths to feed, however, he did not have the time or the money to carry out this dream. He was the main breadwinner of a large family. He taught his son Johannes the technique he used and together they made copies of owls and some of the other characteristic Owl House figures to sell to tourists.

In 1993, artist Beezy Bailey gave Malgas some drawings he had done and asked him to make them into sculptures, providing for the cost of the materials. Malgas made them in his style and Bailey decorated them. They were exhibited in Cape Town as a collaboration. Unfortunately, none of the sculptures sold and Malgas did not get rich as he had expected.

A few years later Bailey called on Malgas again to collaborate, this time as a commission. This time, Malgas decorated the exterior of a building Bailey had purchased in Bloem Street, Cape Town, as an art factory with rooftop sculptures and low relief wall pieces. Malgas used the money to buy a bakkie. In the extreme isolation of Nieu Bethesda and the utter poverty that Malgas and his family had lived in all their lives, having ones own vehicle was the ultimate ticket to freedom. In his last years Malgas struggled to get a vehicle going and to get a driver's license. He overcame alcoholism but battled with his health. Breathing in the fine dust from mixing cement and grinding glass had damaged his lungs, but Koos Malgas always had a bright twinkle in his eye. One wonders whether if his circumstances had been different he would have been a great artist in his own right. He was a humble craftsman who played a role in the history of outsider art in South Africa, and should be remembered. His wife Joanna and his many offspring won't forget. The funeral was held in Nieu Bethesda on Saturday, November 25. If anyone would like to help the family, who have been left in dire poverty, they could call Boksie Malgas on 049 8411 621

Source: Artthrob

Khayyám Sikander was famous during his times as a mathematician. He wrote the influential Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra (1070), which laid down the principles of algebra, part of the body of Persian Mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In particular, he derived general methods for solving cubic equations and even some higher orders.

RECOGNITION OF CUSTOMARY MARRIAGES ACT 120 OF 1998

To make provision for the recognition of customary marriages; to specify the requirements for a valid customary marriage; to regulate the registration of customary marriages; to provide for the equal status and capacity of spouses in customary marriages; to regulate the proprietary consequences of customary marriages and the capacity of spouses of such marriages; to regulate the dissolution of customary marriages; to provide for the making of regulations; to repeal certain provisions of certain laws; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

The spouses of a customary marriage have a duty to ensure that their marriage is registered. Customary marriages must be registered within a period of three months after the conclusion of the marriage or within such longer period as the Minister may from time to time prescribe by notice in the Gazette.

Source: Sabinet