CE QUI S'EST PASSE EN 98
Février 98 :
President Nelson Mandela will
open parliament on Friday with what
an aide says will be a
candid review of progress and weaknesses
during South Africa's
first four years of democracy.
``The president's
speech will be a review of progress made,
but also identifying areas in which
there are weaknesses -
perhaps, this year, more candid,''
presidential adviser Joel
Netshitenzhe told Reuters.
The opposition
National Party (NP) has already come out
fighting, saying Mandela's opening
speech will be the most
important since the country's first
all-race elections in 1994.
``The presidential
address will have to provide proof the
present government has solutions,
plans and the will to execute
these plans in the areas of the
economy, education and crime,''
NP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk
told a news conference.
Mandela
will challenge the popular perception his government
is failing to deliver on many of
its 1994 election promises. His
ministers are certainly busy, preparing
more than 180 bills for
debate before parliament adjourns
on September 23.
Deputy
President Thabo Mbeki, expected to take over from
Mandela at general elections due
some time between March and May
next year, is in effect already
running the country.
Political
analysts say the ANC is unlikely to fall below 50
percent of the vote next year, and
they expect Mbeki to try to
boost the party's 62 percent vote
in 1994 and win the two-thirds
majority necessary to amend the
constitution.
``It's
a pity that not enough time will be spent on these
important and controversial bills,''
Michael Schoenteich,
parliamentary affairs manager of
the Institute of Race
Relations, told Reuters.
Schoenteich
said there was a danger more controversial
legislation would be pushed through
at the end of the session
when attention was turning to the
election.
``Towards
the latter half of the year..the MPs will find the
temptation too great to use parliament
as a platform for
electioneering,'' he said.
The first
month of the new session will be taken up with
unfinished legislation from last
year. Attention will then shift
to the budget, which will be presented
by Finance Minister
Trevor Manuel on March 11 and debated
two weeks later.
The finance
committee will debate and possibly amend the
crucial Money Bills Amendment Bill,
which could allow parliament
more say in the budget making process.
Commentators
said one of the most important and probably
most controversial pieces of legislation
would be the Employment
Equity Bill designed to remove workplace
discrimination
entrenched by the previous apartheid
regime.
``It would
be very foolish if legislation like this with
such negative consequences for job
creation was just
steam-rollered through,'' said independent
political analyst
David Welsh.
Schoenteich
agreed: ``Our concern is that the state will
dictate to private employers what
to do and will discourage
employers from hiring more people.
It distracts from the
colour-blind ideal of a non-racial
society,'' he said.
Welsh said
unemployment, which some estimates put at a third
of the working population, would
top the agenda this year, with
a delayed Presidential jobs summit
now due in the coming months.
Job creation
would be one of the major election issues,
Welsh said, along with soaring crime
levels and the delivery of
government services.
Other contentious
legislation due for debate includes the
Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance
Bill, controlling
South African mercenaries abroad
and the Prevention of Unlawful
Occupation of Land Bill, regulating
squatting.
The Open
Democracy Bill should make government more
transparent and the Correctional
Services Bill aims to change
parole policies and set a minimum
time in jail for offenders.
Février 98
President Nelson Mandela
Friday set tough economic and social
targets for South Africa
ahead of elections next year that
will close the first phase of
transition from apartheid to democracy.
He said
the government would remain committed to the tough
fiscal targets of Finance Minister
Trevor Manuel's growth and
reconstruction program and urged
the public to adopt a new
morality against crime and self-enrichment.
``This
is our call to all South Africans -- to firm up the
moral fibre of the nation,'' he
said.
Mandela
also announced plans to trim the public service
which, in spite of early promises
to cut the state wage bill,
has increased by about 10 percent
under democracy to 1.2 million
in the national and provincial administrations.
Manuel
said later an announcement of targets for job cuts
would undermine negotiations with
the public sector unions.
``What
is clear is the fact that the president this morning
said there is no room for equivocation,''
the finance minister
said. ``We've got our battle orders
to get this thing in line.''
Bond and
foreign exchange markets largely ignored Mandela's
remarks, with analysts saying they
were ``nothing new,'' while
opposition critics said the speech
was just rhetoric.
Tony Leon,
leader of the business-oriented Democratic Party,
labeled the speech unsatisfactory
and unconvincing.
``The president
announced no new measures to speed up
privatization, reduce taxation or
get rid of restrictive labor
legislation. These are all essential
ingredients of our future
economic growth,'' Leon said.
``The speech
was disappointing -- propagandistic rhetoric
with an eye to the election,'' said
rightist Freedom Front
leader Constand Viljoen.
Mandela,
who turns 80 in July, plans to retire when black
and white South Africans vote together
for only the second time
between March and May next year.
Officials
said his deputy and heir apparent, Thabo Mbeki,
was deeply involved in writing Friday's
speech, which showed no
relaxation of the commitment to
fiscal discipline that has been
a trademark of Mandela's administration.
Mandela
reiterated his government's commitment to reducing
the budget deficit from five percent
of gross domestic product
in fiscal 1996/97 to three percent
by the turn of the century.
``We cannot
pretend that the deficit targets we have set
ourselves do not test our capacity
and will. But we cannot
divert from the course we have chosen.
There is no other route
to sustainable development,'' he
said.
He said
South Africa would continue to privatize some state
assets and to eliminate remaining
foreign exchange controls,
which currently affect residents
but not foreign investors.
But he
said privatization would never become an ideology.
``We shall
privatize where necessary, but we shall also set
up new state enterprises where market
imperfections and failures
play themselves out to undermine
social programs.''
Underlining
the need to cut the state's labor force, he
warned, ``We cannot use the proceeds
of privatization to fund
salaries and other consumption expenditure.
Put in simple terms,
we need to cut spending on personnel.''
Congress
of South African Trade Unions leader Sam Shilowa
told Reuters afterward his federation,
the most powerful labor
body in the country, would not automatically
fight Mandela's
plans.
``We don't
believe this is a declaration of war on us... He
has raised issues that need to be
looked at,'' Shilowa said.
Mandela
said the government would encourage investment and
promote private sector job creation
to reverse the rising tide
of unemployment, estimated by many
analysts at more than 30
percent.
``Jobs,
jobs and jobs is the clarion call that should guide
us...We must launch joint efforts
toward an economy that creates
jobs; toward a society that cares
by helping the unfortunate in
its ranks to help themselves,''
he said.
Mandela
claimed a series of successes for his four-year-old
government, which took power after
a landslide win for his
African National Congress in the
first democratic elections in
1994.
``Those
who bore the brunt of apartheid oppression say that
things are a lot better. But they
also say -- and are justified
to say so -- that what has been
done is not enough.''
He said
electricity, telephones and clean water, as well as
improved education and better health
care, had been delivered to
millions of blacks held back under
centuries of white rule.
But he
said the ANC's election promise to build one million
new houses during the first five
years of democracy was
unattainable.
``On the
issue of housing in particular, it is necessary to
go back to basics,'' he said.
Officials
said Mandela would open parliament for the last
time next year, when legislators
gather briefly to enact a
pre-election budget.
Février 98 :
White-minority rule is gone for good
across southern Africa, but whites still own and
farm huge swathes of the best land
while poor blacks scramble to
make ends meet on dry, infertile
patches.
Promises
to redistribute land win votes across the region.
But simply grabbing land from whites
and handing it over to
black peasants without giving them
proper financial and
technical support is a recipe for
disaster, experts say.
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe recently stunned
international aid donors with plans
to hand 1,500 mainly
white-owned farms over to blacks,
paying only for buildings and
improvements to the land.
Namibian
President Sam Nujoma has also bowed to pressure
from his ruling Swapo party and
trade unions to speed up land
reforms, promising that land needed
for redistribution will be
acquired by 2000. Union leaders
want him to allow for the
expropriation of land without compensation.
South Africa
has taken a more gradual, legalistic approach,
which some commentators say is moving
too slowly. A recent spate
of apparently politically motivated
murders of white farmers
hint at the dangers of delay.
SENSIBLE
LAND REFORM CAN BENEFIT EVERYBODY
Although
white farmers and business might squirm at the
prospect of handing over land, economists
and land tenure
specialists say redistribution can
help boost yields and growth
as well as achieving equity goals.
Pedro Olinto,
a World Bank land tenure expert, told a Cape
Town conference on land reform the
bank believed ``secure
property rights are a condition
for a thriving economy. ...
Countries with more equal land distribution
grow faster.''
Bill Kinsey,
an economist at Amsterdam's Free University,
said his studies showed Zimbabwe's
initial land reform, launched
after independence in 1980 with
a specific poverty focus, had
been highly successful.
``Small
farmers pick every insect off the plant by hand.
They know every square of land.
As individual attention declines
the yield per unit declines, all
other things being equal,''
Kinsey said.
But he
said Zimbabwe abandoned its progressive approach
because benefits were not immediately
visible and switched to a
program of redistribution to the
political elite. ``Now the
focus is just the racial transfer
of property. ... The
government is in trouble and they're
just trying to bolster
support,'' he said.
RADICAL
LAND REFORMS COULD HURT THE POOR
International
donors have said Mugabe's latest plan could
cripple Zimbabwe's agriculture-dependent
economy and harm the
black peasants it is supposed to
help. They say successful
resettlement needs lots of capital
to help new owners buy
equipment, seeds and fertilizer
-- funds Mugabe's cash-strapped
government is in no position to
offer.
But Mugabe
may be forced to adopt a more gentle approach as
foreign funders such as the International
Monetary Fund and the
European Union apply pressure before
releasing loans.
Namibia,
where a tiny white minority owns 45 percent of the
land, also has ambitious plans to
redress the imbalances of the
past. But the government has bought
only 30 of 6,000 commercial
farms since independence in 1989.
``Namibia
said its priority was to get land to the poor. But
in practice what has happened has
been very small-scale and
top-down,'' said Rob Blackie, an
environmental economist working
for the Namibian government.
Blackie
says Namibia's fragile semi-arid land is very
vulnerable to erosion and most of
the areas owned by white
farmers are probably the driest
in the country, while the ruling
elite owns the most fertile land
already.
Land ownership is still a highly
emotional issue in South
Africa, where whites make up about
13 percent of the population
and hold more than 70 percent of
the land. The former apartheid
regime kicked thousands of blacks
out of areas declared
white-only and barred black citizens
from buying land.
But the
reform program directed by Land Affairs Minister
Derek Hanekom has so far succeeded
in stopping blacks from
marching onto white farms to claim
the land for themselves.
The scheme
is based on the three pillars of land tenure
reform, redistribution and restitution
of land grabbed from
blacks after the Land Act of 1913,
which made it illegal for
blacks to buy or rent land outside
reserves.
Hanekom
says around 23,100 claims for restitution have
already been lodged and these would
be judged by a land claims
court. His department aims to settle
claims by obtaining land at
market prices from willing sellers.
South Africa
had negotiated the handover of more than 1.25
million acres of mostly private
land to blacks by last December.
But the process is painfully slow.
``There
is a lot of muttering that it is going too slowly,''
Catherine Cross, rural sociologist
at the University of Natal,
told Reuters. ``Delivery needs to
speed up quite a bit in order
to relieve serious overcrowding.''
Cross said
South Africa had focused more on the legal
protection of rights and less on
supporting new owners and using
land reform as a tool to combat
poverty. ``The process has been
driven by lawyers, not economists,''
she said.
Février 98 :
A witness at the trial of hard-line
former South African president P.W. Botha Thursday
presented a government enemies list
of anti-apartheid activists
targeted by Botha's powerful State
Security Council.
The witness,
reading from state documents, said the Council
called for the ``identification
and elimination of revolutionary
leaders and particularly those with
charisma'' and said another
document ordered the ``physical
destruction'' of
revolutionaries, including people
inside and outside South
Africa.
Botha,
82, faces contempt charges for ignoring a subpoena to
appear before the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) to
answer regarding the Council --
an inner cabinet that directed
security force operations in the
1980s.
Botha,
the once-feared ``Great Crocodile'' who ruled the
country until 1989, has denounced
the truth commission as a
``circus.''
Following
the testimony of Paul van Zyl, the commission's
executive secretary, the trial was
postponed until June 1
against the wishes of Botha, whose
lawyer told the court that
the delay was ``totally unacceptable
because it will result in
untested allegations being sent
out into the world.''
Botha was
overheard telling his legal team that he thought
the case should proceed. ``This
case was set down for four days.
Come, let's go on,'' Botha said.
The enemies
list of people seen as a risk to Botha's
minority government included Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, the
ex-wife of President Nelson Mandela,
and Nobel peace laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, now chairman
of the truth commission.
As he explained
why the TRC wanted to question Botha, van
Zyl produced the list, drawn up
in 1986 by Botha's State
Security Council at the height of
black resistance. He said it
used disinformation campaigns, surveillance
and detention of
leading activists.
The list
singled out for ``intensive investigation'' people
like Arthur Chaskalson, now the
chief judge of the
Constitutional Court, top advocate
Sydney Kentridge and Nelson
Mandela's lawyer George Bizos.
Justice
Minister Dullah Omar, then a human rights lawyer,
was targeted for ``investigation
with a view to be detained.''
Botha,
who looked frail and walked with a limp on the second
day of the trial, was ousted by
reformist president F.W. de
Klerk, who initiated reforms that
led to black voting in 1994.
At the
height of Botha's rule up to 30,000 black opponents
were jailed without charge and,
according to human rights
groups, more than 20,000 people
were killed in political
violence.
If convicted,
Botha faces a fine of $4,000 or a two-year
prison term. Tutu has said he would
not press for a jail term
given Botha's age, poor health and
his status as a former
president.
Février 98 :
President Nelson Mandela said Tuesday
that cracks were appearing in South
Africa's post-apartheid
sense of identity, but these must
not undermine the achievements
of the past four years.
In a speech to parliament, Mandela referred to a discredited
military report of a left-wing coup
plot against him, a row over
the government's failed efforts
to appoint a judicial commission
to investigate the white-dominated
sport of rugby, and growing
racial tension in schools and on
farms.
``I dwell on these matters not only for their own
importance. They are also related
to what is widely acknowledged
to be a certain weakening in the
sense of a common national
identity that we have been building
since we began our
negotiated transition,'' he said.
``It is only too easy to stir up the baser feelings that
exist in any society, feelings that
are enhanced in a society
with a history such as ours,'' he
told the parliament.
``Worse still, it is only too easy to do this in a way that
undermines our achievements in building
national unity and
enhancing the legitimacy of our
democratic institutions,'' he
said.
The 79-year-old president, in his last year in office,
referred to the ridiculed intelligence
report that gave warning
of a planned coup in the run-up
to next year's elections and led
the chief of the national defense
force to resign.
``The report was without substance and inherently
fantastic,'' he said. ``No serious
attempt was made to keep the
alleged plotters under surveillance
and no attempts were made to
properly authenticate the report.''
Mandela was handed the report February 5 directly by South
African National Defense Force chief
General Georg Meiring, who
went over the heads of his political
masters and bypassed usual
channels in doing so.
Parts of the report were leaked to the press in March,
forcing the matter to the top of
the government's agenda and
spawning a rash of conspiracy theories
involving left- and
right-wing extremists.
He also cited the high-profile dispute between the
government and the governing body
of rugby, which is followed
like a national religion among whites.
The row over the way the South African Rugby Football Union
(SARFU) conducts affairs, a dispute
essentially over the
continued white dominance in the
sport, has dragged Mandela into
court and provoked calls for the
SARFU executive to quit.
``What does give cause for deep concern...is how a sport
which only three years ago became
a worldwide symbol for our
small miracle has once again become
an icon of conflict,
division and resistance to change,''
said Mandela, who in 1995
donned a Springbok jersey to demonstrate
national unity as South
Africa won the Rugby World Cup.
The president also spoke of the possibility of the ``old
fault-lines of our society'' cracking
open again.
The racial divide has been shown by the outpouring of grief
over the killing a six-month-old
black baby by a white farmer
last week.
The shooting, on a smallholding outside Johannesburg,
prompted condemnation by Mandela
and led to the white farmer's
opting to stay in jail rather than
risk his life by applying for
bail.
While white leaders have also condemned the shooting, many
have questioned why Mandela chose
to comfort the family of the
dead black infant while ignoring
the families of white farmers
killed by black intruders.
On the same weekend the child was killed, black robbers beat
up and stuffed a cloth soaked in
fertilizer into the mouth of an
81-year-old white farmer, resulting
in his choking to death.
Février 98 :
South African President
Nelson Mandela said Wednesday much
had been achieved since the
end of apartheid, but not enough
to end crippling poverty and
joblessness among the majority black
population.
``We have
only started along that road. We are proud of the
achievements we have made. But the
poverty that continues to
stalk millions; the problems of
education, housing, health,
landlessness and lack of jobs continue
to afflict the majority
of our citizens,'' Mandela told
parliament at the end of the
president's budget debate.
Mandela
thanked legislators for the praise they gave him in
the debate, but stressed the achievements
since the country's
first all-race elections in 1994
were due to efforts by
everyone.
``All these
are reminders that the mission of meaningful
freedom, democracy and human rights
is yet to be fulfilled,'' he
said in what is likely to be his
last budget vote before he
hands the presidency to his deputy
Thabo Mbeki next year.
``The journey
to that goal is one that involves all of us.
No one can stand aloof. In simple
terms, none of us can ever be
secure if the bulk of society is
indigent and insecure. The
challenge we face is whether we
ride the tide of history
or...seek to stem it,'' Mandela
added.
In particular,
he noted that most of the privileged rich
were still white, while the vast
majority of the deprived were
black.
He called
on all parliamentarians, whatever their political
affiliation, to work for the good
of the country rather than
scaremongering or scoring points
in the period before next
year's national elections.
Mandela
stressed his ruling African National Congress (ANC)
was firmly committed to the constitution
despite suggestions by
some opposition members that it
might try to change it, if the
ANC won more than two-thirds of
the seats in the elections.
Février 98 :
South African President Nelson
Mandela, ending a visit to Angola
Thursday, outlined his vision
of a southern Africa reunited by
trade routes that Cold War
conflicts and apartheid tore apart.
He thanked
Angola's government for its support during South
Africa's long anti-apartheid struggle
and told a news conference
before flying home from Luanda that
ties were better than ever.
``Our relations,
which have always been good, have improved
100 times and that is absolutely
necessary because Angola
occupies a unique position in this
region,'' he said.
Mandela
earlier laid a wreath at an unmarked grave of fallen
guerrillas from his African National
Congress, who were given
training and shelter by Angola's
formerly Marxist government.
Angolan
officials have said privately that they were
disappointed Mandela, visiting for
the first time in his four
years as president, had not come
earlier to pay tribute to the
backing he got from President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos.
Mandela
aides said he had waited until the political climate
in Angola, finding its way out of
two decades of civil war,
seemed right.
Dos Santos'
ruling MPLA signed a peace accord in 1994 with
its rival, the Western-backed UNITA
under Jonas Savimbi.
UNITA delegates
now serve in a unity government but Savimbi
still refuses to come to the capital
from his rural stronghold,
saying he fears for his life.
Mandela
gave a clear message that his patience with Savimbi
was waning. ``I am convinced that
the government has taken very
positive steps to show their commitment
to peace and I do hope
that UNITA would appreciate the
gestures they have made,'' he
said.
Official
sources in Angola told Reuters Mandela had not been
in contact with Savimbi since U.N.
sanctions were imposed on
UNITA in October but said his deputy
Thabo Mbeki had urged
Savimbi to participate in the peacetime
government.
Mandela
said he was satisfied the MPLA had done enough to
accommodate Savimbi's demands for
him to travel to Luanda,
including a personal security force
of 400 men.
``My impression
is that the MPLA as well as the government
has made very serious efforts to
show their commitment to peace.
Unless we get him (Savimbi) to participate
fully in this process
there will always be problems,''
he said.
Urging
cooperation to ensure lasting peace, he added: ``The
masses of people want to get on
with their lives.''
Mandela
said South Africa was interested in investing more
to rebuild the economy of Angola,
which is rich in oil and
diamonds, after 20 years of civil
war.
He said
he and dos Santos discussed South Africa's hopes of
helping to develop three main economic
corridors involving the
port of Lobito, the southern province
of Namib and Malange in
central Angola.
``One of
the aspects in which we as South Africans are
interested in, apart from the oil
industry, is to participate in
the development around Lobito, Namib
and Malange,'' he said.
``Although
a country in Europe won a tender for the Lobito
corridor we in South Africa are
just next door and to deal with
us means that the operation could
be cost effective.''
Mandela
said he was happy with dos Santos' response but gave
no further details.
Février 98 :
President Nelson Mandela Friday
said job creation was the new struggle
for South Africans,
urging workers to help cement the
country's hard-won political
freedom with economic growth.
Mandela,
fresh from a state visit to neighboring Angola
where he outlined his vision of
a southern Africa reunited by
trade after being torn apart by
Cold War conflicts and white
rule, addressed a May Day rally
in the mining town of Kimberley.
Donning
a miner's hat in a crowd-pleasing gesture, he said
job creation was one of the most
urgent and critical challenges
facing post-apartheid South Africa.
``We have
turned our country from years of stagnation to
sustained growth. But not enough
new jobs are being created,''
Mandela said.
``Workers
and trade unions are at the economic heart of our
country... Without your participation,
our efforts to become
more productive and competitive
will not succeed.''
Since taking
power in 1994 Mandela's once socialist African
National Congress (ANC) has adopted
tight fiscal policies and a
market-friendly approach that it
said would create 400,000 jobs
by the turn of the century.
In fact,
jobs are still being lost rather than created and
trade unions have warned that employment
is at its lowest level
in 16 years.
South Africa
estimates that only a third of the labor force
has formal work.
To address
the crisis, Mandela's government has agreed to
hold a job summit later this year
with both business and labor.
Business
has criticized the swathe of new labor-friendly
laws introduced by the government
as detrimental to economic
growth, but Friday Mandela again
refused to back down.
He pledged
the ANC's loyalty to the Congress of South
African Trade Unions, its alliance
partner and the country's
largest labor federation.
He also
praised a contentious law planned by his government
-- the Employment Equity Bill, which
advocates a form of quotas
to promote blacks within the workplace.
Mai 98 :
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) announced Wednesday the first
decision on reparations to some
of the thousands of victims of
gross human rights violations under
apartheid.
After more
than two years of painstaking research, public
hearings with more than 2,500 people
and statements from over
20,000, the TRC said it had written
to a first batch of 700
people telling them they could claim
for damages.
``We have
told the people they can claim. For now it will
only be interim reparations up to
a maximum of about 2,000 rand
($400),'' John Allen, spokesman
for Commission chairman
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, told Reuters.
``The final
level of reparations will have to wait until we
have made our final report, the
government has read it and
parliament has decided,'' he added.
Commission
officials have to field almost every day
inquiries from frustrated people
asking for their money.
Allen said
recently officials understood the frustration,
but the Commission had to make all
possible verification checks
of each claim.
Set up
to lay bare some of the violent acts committed during
more than 40 years of apartheid
rule as part of the process of
national reconciliation, the Commission
said it had made
findings on over half the statements
it had received.
More than
90 percent of these had been found to have
suffered gross violations of their
human rights.
The Commission
is in the throes of writing its final report
which is due to be handed to President
Nelson Mandela by the end
of July.
Allen said
it was impossible to tell if the decision on the
criteria for judging the final level
of reparations would be
made before parliament was dissolved
for elections next year.
In the
meantime, the Commission said it aimed to send out
its findings to more than 2,000
victims a week, accompanied by
reparation application forms.
Mai 98 :
Economic growth in Africa should
average 5.0 percent in 1998, up from 3.7 percent in 1997 when
low commodity prices, El Nino and
civil strife combined to
disappoint forecasts, the African
Development Bank (AfDB) said.
The impact
of Asia's economic crisis could depress the
prices of certain African commodities
further in 1998 and reduce
demand from Europe and North America,
the bank added in its
annual development report published
on Thursday.
However,
the commitment of African governments to economic
reform and efforts to reduce conflict
should sustain growth,
said the AfDB noting the positive
trend since the mid-1990s.
``Over
the last three years, four-fifths of African
countries have achieved positive
economic growth, in stark
contrast to the situation at the
beginning of the decade when a
third of them experienced economic
decline,'' it said.
The average
gross domestic product growth rate in 1997 was
brought down by low or negative
rates in some big African
states. The AfDB had forecast 4.4
percent in its 1997 report.
Morocco's
economy, for example, shrank by 1.1 percent after
growth of 11.8 percent in 1996,
adverse weather conditions
ruling out a repeat of the impressive
performance in agriculture
in 1996, when cereal production
grew fivefold, it said.
Civil war
in the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, meant its gross domestic
product contracted by an
estimated 5.0 percent after years
of stagnation.
There was
also negative growth of 16.7 percent in
neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville,
with the effects of its own
civil war compounded by a fall in
oil prices, which also
depressed growth in Nigeria and
Libya.
Growing
investment in Angola following the restoration of
growth, particularly in oil, helped
its economy grow by 8.0
percent in 1997, the AfDB said.
Tiny Equatorial
Guinea has also struck oil, with the result
that its economy grew by a phenomenal
98.7 percent in 1997.
Inflation
is coming down across the continent, averaging
17.6 percent in 1997 versus 24.4
percent in 1996.
The figure
was exaggerated by hyper-inflation in countries
like the Democratic Republic of
the Congo and Angola, where
prices rose 445 and 1,500 percent
respectively. For that reason,
the AfDB highlighted the median
inflation rate of 7.0 percent.
Restrictive
fiscal policies played a part in the inflation
success, at the same time reducing
budget deficits to what the
AfDB called a historic low of 1.9
percent of GDP in 1997.
The flip-side
is that public sector investment has fallen
and foreign investment, though rising,
is inadequate to generate
growth rates of 10 percent or more
needed to make a dent in
poverty in Africa.
Foreign
direct investment in Africa totalled $5.5 billion in
1996, just 1.5 percent of total
world flows.
Nigeria
alone took in a third of that. Egypt, Morocco,
Tunisia, South Africa, Angola, Ghana
and Ivory Coast accounted
for another third.
The AfDB
is working with other creditors like the World Bank
to bring Third World debt down to
sustainable levels, freeing up
resources to invest at home to reduce
poverty.
In the
long term, a skilled workforce is just as important,
the AfDB said.
``The recent
improvements in economic growth will only be
sustainable if there are, among
other factors, competent people
with knowledge and skills to capitalise
on new employment
opportunities,'' it said, making
human capital development --
broadly, education and health --
the focus of the 1998 report.
Juin 98 :
Black South Africans must not abuse
the power they won in their triumph
over apartheid, President
Nelson Mandela's heir-apparent,
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki,
said Wednesday.
``As much
as we were our own liberators, so are we all the
architects of our destiny,'' Mbeki
told parliament.
``The time
has come to call and impose a halt to the abuse
of freedom in the name of an entitlement
said to arise from our
having been the victims of apartheid,
especially by those
elements among the black elite which
have a voice,'' he said.
The deputy
president cited the example of black students who
burnt down university offices because
the administration would
not give them $100,000 for a student
party.
Mbeki,
who is set to succeed Mandela in elections next year,
said some members of the new black
elite wanted to satisfy
seemingly insatiable greed.
The deputy
president dedicated most of his speaking time in
a debate on the budget of his office
to discussing reactions to
a keynote speech he delivered last
Friday in a special
parliament session on reconciliation
and national unity.
``Let none
of us pretend that the debate about change will
be capable of being handled in the
manner of a cozy chat around
a bountiful dinner table,'' he said.
``It will be rough and
painful and drive many of us to
shout at one another, to curse
and use misunderstood and hurtful
words.''
Mbeki said
last week that South Africa was still divided
into two nations of rich whites
and poor blacks and warned of
mounting black anger if expectations
were not met.
Juin 98 :
- Former South African President P.W. Botha, on trial for ignoring a Truth and Reconciliation Commission subpoena to testity on the activities of his apartheid gavernment, has expressed surprise that the chairman of the Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has asked him to publicly apologise for his government's policies.
Tutu made a personal plea to Botha to apologise for the ''deep pain and suffering'' his government's policies had caused, after Tutu had testified in the trial.
However, Botha's lawyer, Ernst Penzhorn, said the former president is resentful that Tutu has not taken the time to read Botha's 1,800-page submission to the commission.
''He will not reply at this stage and he regards it as a bit premature,'' Penzhorn said.
Martin Coetzee, executive secretary of the commission's amnesty committee, testified that of the 7,060 amnesty applications received by the commission, just 346 claimed to be members or former members of the security forces, compared to 702 people from African Natioal Congress structures who had applied for amnesty.
The state's case against Botha drew to a close Monday afternoon with Bruce Morrison, Western Cape deputy attorney-general, claiming Botha had no legal excuse for ignoring a subpoena or refusing to attend a hearing on the State Security Council, which he once chaired.
He said Botha's claim that he refused to appear before the commission because it was biased had backfired because he had agreed to appear before the commission for an investigation, rather than a full hearing.
''That alone explodes the endeavour to cloak his defence both with substance and principle,'' Morrison said.
Botha chose not to take the stand, but his advocate, Lappe Laubscher, claimed the subpoena issued against Botha was flawed and that the commission had acted in bad faith.
The case has been postponed to 17 August, when judgement will be given.
Juin 98 :
Lawyers defending
former South African president P.W.
Botha against charges of
showing contempt towards the nation's
truth commission abruptly
closed their case on Monday, meaning
Botha will not have to
testify.
Prosecutors
earlier finished presenting evidence and
witnesses they hoped would show
the commission had plenty of
reason to want to question Botha
on how much his government knew
about apartheid-era murders and
abuses.
Botha,
82, has refused to appear in person before the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, which
has statutory powers.
An irascible
political leader once feared as the ``Great
Crocodile,'' he is on trial for
flouting three subpoenas from
the truth commission to answer accusations
that his government
sanctioned murders and other human
rights abuses.
If Botha
is convicted of contempt, he faces a fine of up to
20,000 rand ($4,000).
Botha has
denied all involvement and has resolutely refused
to apologise for his government's
actions, saying he never
sanctioned murder.
He sat
in a comfortable padded chair next to the wooden dock
in the heavily-guarded court, remaining
impassive throughout the
hearing.
``We are
also closing our case,'' his lawyer Lappe Laubscher
said. The defence has cross-examined
and argued, but led no
evidence and called no witnesses.
Closing arguments began.
The trial,
adjourned for a week, resumed on Monday with
evidence that 346 policemen and
soldiers sought amnesty for
gross human rights abuses committed
in defence of white rule.
Martin
Coetzee, of the amnesty panel of the truth commission
which is delving into crimes on
both sides of the apartheid
divide, said the security force
men had detailed 2,500 incidents
for which they needed indemnity
but would not elaborate.
The evidence
was meant to counter Botha's argument that a
small clandestine group of security
force members had murdered
and tortured on their own account
to maintain white rule.
Laubscher
disputed previous evidence that human rights
abuses were widespread within the
apartheid security forces.
Even if
the 346 policemen and troops seeking amnesty were
guilty, that would back up Botha's
defence, he said, adding:
``It would be a minutely small percentage.''
Botha ruled
South Africa from 1978 to 1989 with an array of
harsh security laws aimed at suppressing
black resistance.
At the
height of his rule, up to 30,000 mostly black
opponents were jailed without charge
under emergency laws.
Coetzee
told the court in the small coastal town of George
-- cordoned off with razor wire
and heavily policed for Botha's
trial -- that the commission had
received 7,060 amnesty
applications in all, a tenth of
them from African National
Congress members.
Under cross-questioning
from Botha's lawyers, he said he was
unable to cite any cases in which
the last surviving apartheid
hardliner was directly implicated.
However,
Coetzee said a former commissioner of police
requesting amnesty for the death
of a black activist had blamed
his actions on the general political
climate engendered by
Botha's determination to crush all
dissent.
Numerous
security forces members have blamed Botha's State
Security Council for their actions,
saying they were acting on
orders to ``neutralise'' and ``eliminate''
enemies of white
rule.
Juin 98 :
South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
has been criticised for ruling
against an inquiry into alleged
African National Congress
atrocities at its detention camps
during the struggle against
apartheid.
The camps were
spread across Africa, including Angola,
Zambia, Botswana, Uganda and Tanzania.
The ANC has admitted
executing at least 34 people in
Angola alone during the 1980s.
It said some were mutineers, and
others accused of being spies.
TRC spokesman
Mdu Lembede said on Monday the commission was
stymied by legal limitations, which
precluded it from
guaranteeing indemnity from prosecution
abroad for actions
committed outside of South Africa's
borders.
This is
seen as meaning that the world will only hear a
restricted version of what went
on in the camps during the
now-ruling ANC's long fight against
apartheid rule.
Relatives
of victims interned in the camps -- who have
eagerly anticipated revelations
before the truth commission on
the ANC's human rights record --
see this as justice denied.
``We are
being treated like pieces of dirt,'' says Joe
Seremane, whose brother, Timothy,
was executed by the ANC in a
camp for being an alleged apartheid
spy.
``I am
very angry at the way things are taking shape. No one
wants to say anything except behind
closed doors,'' he said.
``Why can't these people just be
decent?''
Seremane,
who was tortured and imprisoned by the apartheid
regime, has asked the commission
for more information and urged
the ANC to tell all it knows of
his brother's death.
But the
ANC says it has been transparent and has gone
further than any other political
party before the TRC.
``Our submission
to the TRC deals with the Seremane case.
The ANC made the most honest and
open submission of all the
political parties,'' party spokesman
Ronnie Mamoepa told
Reuters.
``We haven't
said we don't want a public hearing. If the TRC
decided to hold one, we would want
to cooperate fully.''
``There
are incidents the TRC knows about but we cannot
force people to come forward for
amnesty,'' commission spokesman
Mdu Lembede said.
The TRC
defends itself by saying it has heard from families
of the victims and has held a public
hearing with the ANC at
which its leaders were questioned
about the camps.
At least
one amnesty case involving human rights abuses at
an ANC camp will also be heard in
public later this year.
Juillet 98 :
The political temperature in South
Africa continued to rise on Friday as police reported
another death in the troubled KwaZulu-Natal
province, where at
least 32 people have been killed
in the past two weeks.
Police
spokesman Vish Naidoo said Bulelani Xolo, a prominent
member of the opposition Inkatha
Freedom Party (IFP), was gunned
down on Thursday in the Nkotaneni
area of KwaZulu-Natal.
Police,
political parties and independent violence monitors
believe the killings could signal
the start of a new round of
political violence in the province
ahead of a general election
planned for May 1999.
KwaZulu-Natal
has a history of bloody turf battles, with
more than 14,000 people being killed
in the 10 years preceding
the first all-race vote in April
1994.
The latest
violence comes hard on the heels of the deaths of
two senior officials of the ruling
African National Congress
Party (ANC) the previous day, also
in KwaZulu-Natal.
In addition,
25 people have been gunned down in Richmond, a
picturesque town in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Richmond
violence has been blamed on tension between the
ANC and the United Democratic Movement
(UDM), a new party led by
Bantu Holomisa, a former leading
light in the ANC.
The UDM
denies causing the violence, saying the ANC is at
fault.
``It's
sad that in the runup to elections one is observing a
situation where members from various
parties, including the ANC,
are being killed,'' IFP spokesman
Blessed Gwala told Reuters in
a telephone interview.
He said
the violence would top discussions at the party's
annual conference on Saturday in
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa's
most violent province where more
than 14,000 people were killed
in the decade before the historic
1994 elections in bloody
conflict between the IFP and its
arch-rival the ANC.
President
Nelson Mandela's heir apparent, Thabo Mbeki, has
been invited and will attend the
conference, a move which some
analysts said was significant and
aimed at boosting peace moves
in the province.
Gwala,
however warned that the country's political leaders
should act instead of just talking
to effectively tackle and
contain the fresh outbreak of violent
confrontations, not only
in Richmond but also in other areas
around the province.
His views
echoed those of political analysts and violence
monitors who said the Richmond killings
could have sparked off
the slayings in other parts of the
province.
``I think
that's correct. There is a concerted strategy to
the Richmond killings. They are
quite well-planned,'' said Jenni
Irish, co-ordinator for the Network
of Independent Violence
Monitors.
``In part,
the violence in Richmond is setting an example
for people in other areas to resort
to violence and I think we
are going to see an increase in
violence ahead of the
elections,'' she told Reuters.
In Richmond
on Friday, police reported a lull overnight in
the town, 500 kms (310 miles) southwest
of Johannesburg, saying
they had made one of their first
arrests in connection with an
attack on Wednesday night which
left a 16-year-old youth dead.
``There
were no incidents reported last night. Everything
seems quiet in the town. We have
increased patrols in the town
and the reinforcements are helping,''
Captain Joshua Gwala said.
The South
African government began on Wednesday beefing up
security in the town by doubling
the number of soliders to 240
and moving in an extra 240 policemen
to bolster a force depleted
by the removal of some officers
suspected of collusion in the
violence.
Another
four people were killed in a separate incident on
Friday morning, Naidoo added, but
said police believed this was
related to inter-clan rivalry in
the coastal province.
``These
people were shot at point blank range. A three-month
old baby was also wounded,'' Naidoo.
Juillet 98 :
Archbishop Desmond
Tutu's investigation into the dark
truths of South African
apartheid winds up this week with
victims relieved that their
stories have at last been heard
and many whites angered by the
guilt they are being asked to shoulder.
The agonies
of those who have heard for the first time the
cruel details of how their loved
ones died have been matched by
the anguish of former rulers who
feel they and their race have
been defamed by a biased panel created
to crucify them.
Opinion
is deeply divided over whether the statutory Truth
and Reconciliation Commission has
reconciled or further divided
a nation torn by decades of white
domination.
``The Truth
Commission has ended up with a more polarized
country. I and my people feel totally
alienated from the new
South Africa,'' former apartheid
defense chief Constand Viljoen,
leader of the Afrikaner Freedom
Front, told Reuters.
``Reconciliation.
That is where the Truth Commission has
failed,'' said Marthinus van Schalkwijk,
leader of the National
Party, which imposed apartheid for
45 years. ``The people of
South Africa are now further apart
than when the Truth
Commission started.''
Tutu, the
1994 Nobel Peace prize winner who has been the
commission's chairman and moral
conscience, firmly disagrees.
``I am
thrilled in many ways at what has taken place. We
were asked to try and find the truth
-- and we have discovered a
fair degree of that -- and to promote
reconciliation,'' he said.
``The commission can make a contribution,
and perhaps a
significant contribution, to reconciliation.
But it is going to
be the work of every single South
African.''
EVIDENCE
POINTS TO WHITE ATROCITIES
Most of
the evidence from the 2,500 people chosen from among
21,000 victims of gross human rights
violations pointed to
atrocities committed by or on behalf
of whites.
The commission
is empowered only to investigate and not to
prosecute. It can grant immunity
from prosecution for
politically motivated offenses and
can offer limited
compensation to victims.
Veteran
African National Congress activist and present
Transport Minister Mac Maharaj,
once known as the most tortured
political prisoner, believes the
process will lead to healing.
``I am
of the strong view that reconciliation needs to be
understood as a process that will
take a fair amount of time,
particularly in a society such as
South Africa,'' he said.
``What is crucial to that process
is that victim and perpetrator
need to reach out to each other
in the context of
reconciliation.''
Tony Leon,
head of the Democratic Party, which is rapidly
developing into the main opposition
party to the ANC, takes a
cautiously middle view.
``Everyone's
prejudices have been exposed. The majority of
blacks are appalled and the majority
of whites just want to
close the book as quickly as possible,''
he said. ``But it's
been eye-opening for those people
in whose names these things
were done and who generally didn't
know what was happening.''
Public
hearings into the activities of President Nelson
Mandela's former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
admissions by a
former government minister that
the security services bombed
church buildings and cinemas, and
revelations of a dirty tricks
poisons program have by turns shocked
and revolted people.
COMMISSION
CRITICIZED
The main
criticism of the commission is that it has been
heavily slanted against the former
apartheid regime and its
supporters while turning a blind
eye to murder and torture of
ANC dissidents in the liberation
movement's guerrilla bases.
``In the
initial stages there was a good relationship, but
the whole process as it developed
was so biased against my
people that I was unable to go ahead,''
Viljoen said. ``It has
shown bias toward the former liberation
forces and has been
detrimental to former state officials.
Of the 17 commissioners,
15 are pro ANC,'' he added.
Leon said
final judgments should be based on the final
report, which will be handed to
Mandela in October, adding:
``One of the most significant elements
is how the actions of the
current government are going to
be dealt with in the report,
because those are the people who
are currently governing.''
Once more
Tutu leaps to the defense of his commission:
``Even
before we started people said it was going to be a
witch hunt against the former government,
Afrikaners, and biased
in favor of the ANC. All the evidence
is in the opposite
direction. For nobody have we had
a nine-day public hearing
other than for Mrs. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
If we had done
that for one Afrikaner there would
have been hell to pay.''
Tutu told
Reuters in an interview that he had threatened to
resign when the ANC said initially
it was not going to apply for
amnesty, a decision later reversed.
He also said the
TruthCommission had tried its best
to be as diplomatic as
possible in its dealings with former
President P. W. Botha, who
is currently on trial for refusing
to give evidence on the
activities of his government.
``Everybody
will say we bent over backward to try to
accommodate P. W. Botha. Many will
say we were soft in our
handling of him,'' he said with
a resigned shrug.
The Truth
Commission, to be suspended on July 31, will
reconvene briefly in September to
adopt a final report. A small
team will then spend two months
editing the draft final report.
Once approved, it will be printed
and handed formally to Mandela
at the end of October.
An autonomous
Amnesty Committee set up under the same act of
parliament will continue to sift
through the 7,060 applications
for clemency it has received in
a process that is likely to last
until next June.
For Tutu,
a tireless campaigner against apartheid, the
process has been exhausting and
emotional.
``A low
point has been the fact that we have not been able
to deliver anything to victims.
Another low point has been the
attitude largely of the white community
and of some members of
the former government. They have
been mean-spirited in the face
of extraordinary magnanimity on
the other side,'' he said
But the
process has had its highs as well, one of which was
the handshake between former air
force officer Neville Clarence,
blinded in 1983 by a bomb placed
in a Pretoria street, and the
former ANC guerrilla who planted
the device.
``That
seemed to be a kind of defining moment about
reconciliation,'' Tutu said.
Juillet 98 :
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
in South Africa is due to question the former head of chemical and biological
warfare, Dr Wouter Basson, on Thursday.
He has been called to give evidence
about his role in the development of chemical and biological weapons during
the 1980s.
Dr Basson is accused of masterminding
a programme to develop chemical and biological weapons to be used against
black people and anti-apartheid protesters.
He denies the allegation.
In a written statement, he said that South Africa's chemical and biological weapons programme was developed in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Cuban troops supporting the Angolan government against South African soldiers.
Bacteria against blacks
But Dr Basson's colleagues testifying to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have said he was leading research into a vaccine to sterilise blacks and a bacterium that would kill only black people.
The former head of a military research laboratory, Daan Goosen, testified on Tuesday that Dr Basson had also discussed the possibility of killing the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela, by using carcinogens and arranging the supply of snake venom "to eliminate an enemy of the state".
Dr Basson's colleagues said he also
oversaw the development at Roodeplaat laboratory, near Pretoria, of biological
and chemical agents for use against anti-apartheid activists.
According to testimonies to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Dr Basson alone controlled the network
of front companies that were involved in the project.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established a list of 102 companies that are believed to have been linked to Dr Basson's 7th Medical Battalion.
The web of front companies used to
cover up apartheid's biological and chemical weapons development is still
under investigation.
Dr Basson had attempted to escape
testifying to the Commission on the grounds that the hearing could prejudice
a forthcoming criminal trial in connection with his work.
But the South African High Court judged in favour of the Truth Commission.
BBC's Greg Barrow:"a source of great
concern to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission"
His appearance before the commission
was delayed on Wednesday because he said his legal team had not been properly
briefed.
A BBC correspondent in Johannesburg says that because the commission loses its power to subpoena people at the end of this week, Dr Basson may never have to testify if he can delay his hearing beyond Friday.
Juillet 98 :
South Africans are hearing evidence
that the apartheid government in the 1980s tried to kill its opponents
with chemical, biological and other secret weapons.
Scientists and officials from the
country's intelligence services are giving evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission about deadly substances and weapons - including poisoned screwdrivers
- developed in the mid-to-late 1980s.
But former government scientist Dr
Wouter Basson, who was summoned to provide crucial testimony, failed to
appear at Thursday morning's hearings. The reason given was that he is
still a practising doctor, and was called to the operating theatre.
Chikane: 'I am ready to forgive
but I need to know who I am forgiving'
Rev Frank Chikane, the former chairman
of the South African Council of Churches, says he was a victim of the strategy.
He fell into a coma and came close to death. He says his clothing was impregnated
with a neurotoxic substance.
"I am ready to forgive but I need to know who I am forgiving," Rev Chikane said in anticipation of the commission's hearings.
Recently it has emerged that the government also experimented with samples of anthrax and cholera, and also discussed developing a substance that would cause infertility only in blacks.
More names could emerge
Sibiya: perpetrators 'should not
be allowed to practise as scientists'
The names of more of those involved
are expected to emerge at the hearings. Dr Gordon Sibiya of South Africa's
Science and Engineering Academy said he believed that some of those involved
in the chemical weapons programme might still be working as scientists.
"I'm not suggesting another Nuremburg trial here, but I'm just saying that those people should not be allowed to practise in this country as scientists," Dr Sibiya commented.
There are also concerns that South Africa could have sold the results of its research to other countries.
The present government has been quick to say that it is not carrying out chemical warfare, but retains a defensive capability in case the country is ever the victim of a chemical or biological attack by a foreign power.
Août 98 :
Crime, poverty and corruption emerged
on Wednesday as the issues likely to dominate next
year's national election in South
Africa, only the second all
race poll in the country's history.
The subjects
came to the fore during a series of briefings
to reporters by leaders of the main
opposition parties in the
South African parliament which is
dominated by the ruling
African National Congress.
``We believe
unemployment, crime and corruption are the
three biggest challenges facing
South Africa. If we can get
these right everything else will
fall into place,'' Democratic
Party leader Tony Leon said.
``Crime
coexists with unemployment as our key issue,'' he
added. ``People feel more insecure
than at any time in the past
four years.''
Leon, positioning
the Democratic Party to become the main
opposition in parliament after elections
that must be held
before the end of July next year,
also called for a scorched
earth policy against rampant corruption.
Judge Willem
Heath, who heads an anti-corruption probe, said
earlier this year his unit had so
far uncovered cases of
official corruption worth collectively
6.2 billion rand ($1.01
billion), and that was just the
beginning.
Leon's
theme was mirrored by other opposition party leaders.
``It is
quite clear that the crime situation is not under
control,'' National Party leader
Marthinus Van Schalkwyk said.
His statement
came on the same day that leading Cape Town
crime fighter Superintendent Wickus
Holtzhausen announced that
he was temporarily quitting the
city after death threats from a
militant Moslem anti-gang group
PAGAD.
The South
African prison service said recently its jails
which were built to house 99,000
prisoners now held 143,000
inmates.
``We also
have evidence of a staggering increase in
government corruption,'' Van Schalkwyk
added, noting for good
measure that the government's GEAR
job creation scheme had
failed to achieve result.
For Stanley
Mogoba, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress,
the issues were poverty, and again
corruption and crime.
Mogoba,
describing the eradication of poverty as the
yardstick of social progress, called
on landowners --
particularly farmers -- to share
their resources or risk the
consequences.
``We are
offering farmers acceptance as Africans. But in
return for that they must give up
some of their land,'' he said.
``If they don't do that the danger
is the land will be taken
from them.''
He called
for the government's GEAR (Growth, Employment and
Redistribution) strategy to the
dumped and for corruption and
crime to be wiped out.
``We believe
our country deserves a better future,'' Mogba
said.
Constand
Viljoen, leader of the white Afrikaner people's
Freedom Front, saw the key issue
as crime, particularly attacks
on farmers.
Since January
this year more than 100 farmers have been
killed in attacks on their farms,
and the death toll since 1994
is more than 550.
Viljoen
repeated his call for an Afrikaner homeland in the
northwest, but noted that his party
needed to broaden its
electoral base to include all Afrikaners
-- not just the 37.5
percent who voted for it in 1994.
Août 98 :
South African Deputy President Thabo
Mbeki called on Tuesday on
black and white citizens of the
country to bury their differences
and work towards ending
apartheid-era inequality.
``No race,
no shade of colour, no culture, no language and
no religion in our society is a
problem,'' Mbeki told parliament
in a special debate on the rights
of cultural, religious and
linguistic minorities.
``If the
real problem we face, of ending the legacy of the
past, persists...it will not be
because we are cursed with the
gift of diversity,'' he said.
``The fault
will express itself in conflict because we would
have failed to find the intelligent
ways and means by which we
would organise ourselves to unite
as a people around common
national aspirations and a common
identity.''
Mbeki said
richer South Africans, mainly white, should
recognise it was in their own interest
to join the struggle to
eliminate apartheid's legacy of
inequality.
He said
the parliamentary debate, which would also take
place in provincial legislatures,
was part of the process of
fulfilling the constitutional requirement
of establishing a
commission for the promotion and
protection of minority rights.
The deputy
president, set to take over from President Nelson
Mandela after the country's second
all-race elections next year,
said a national conference would
be held at the end of September
to work towards such a commission.
``We take
this opportunity to invite the country as a whole
and all organised and interested
groups take note of the
processes we have just announced
and take the necessary steps to
participate in the vital national
discussion,'' he said.
Valli Moosa,
Minister for Provincial Affairs and
Consitutional Development, told
a news conference earlier the
proposed commission should set the
stage for the development of
a non-racial South Africa.
``The commission
holds a great deal of promise, but also a
great danger. We do not want to
fan the flames of racial
prejudice,'' he said, explaining
why it was being rushed through
well ahead of next year's elections.
Andries
Beyers, parliamentarian for the former whites-only
National Party, supported moves
towards setting up such a body
but said South Africa was still
riven by deep divides.
``The way
in which the government in future deals with the
rights of minorities will determine
whether this country is
going to be a happy place for everyone,''
Beyers said.
``Only
when it is a happy place for minorities will it lead
to prosperity for the majority.''
Aout 98 :
South African Archbishop Desmond
Tutu on Tuesday published a
searing attack on South
Africa's former white leaders, saying
most had lied to his
post-apartheid truth commission.
``True
reconciliation cannot be based on lies,'' he said in
an article published in Johannesburg's
The Star newspaper.
Tutu,
chairman of a statutory Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) that ended a two-year
probe into apartheid's
human rights record on Friday, said
whites had not matched the
willingness of their black victims
to forgive.
``My dear
white compatriots...you have been let down by most
of your leaders, who have made you
out to be too mean-spirited
to respond to the incredible magnanimity
and generosity of the
victims,'' he said.
Tutu, former
head of the Anglican Church in southern Africa
and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
for his fight against white
rule, said the TRC had done well
but could have done better to
heal the wounds of apartheid, which
ended in 1994.
He said
evidence given by thousands of black and white
victims of the war over white rule
had solved many of the
riddles about the death or disappearance
of black leaders.
Most apartheid-era
ministers, however, refused to testify to
the truth commission or to seek
amnesty for human rights
offences, saying they had fought
a just war against Nelson
Mandela's African National Congress
and its one-time communist
allies.
Tutu said
the few who had agreed to appear had hidden behind
lies or qualified admissions of
limited guilt.
``Deception
was an integral part of...apartheid. Its high
priests...have lied as a matter
of course, or you have had very
clever hair-splitting sophistry,''
he said.
In an clear
reference to former President F.W. de Klerk, who
repudiated apartheid and led South
Africa towards democracy,
Tutu said those who had known about
illegal acts and done
nothing to expose them had condoned
those actions.
He cited
the police bombing of the headquarters of the South
African Council of Churches, Khotso
House. De Klerk first denied
knowledge of the bombing but later,
after being named by another
TRC witness, said he had known about
it but not sanctioned it.
De Klerk
told the commission he had never, during five years
as president, sanctioned an illegal
action but later conceded
that he had become aware of some
illegal activities after they
occurred.
Tutu said
this was not enough, urging South Africa's whites,
who are outnumbered five-to-one
by blacks:
``Please
grasp this opportunity -- or do you really agree
with those leaders and do you want
us to degenerate into a
Bosnia, a Rwanda, a Northern Ireland?
``Is there
no leader of some stature and some integrity in
the white community who won't try
to be too smart, who is not
trying to see how much he can get
away with, but who will say
quite simply: 'We had a bad policy
that had evil consequences.
We are sorry. Please forgive us',
and not then qualify it to
death.
``That
would help to close the chapter on our horrendous
past and enable us to move forward
into the future with
confidence, absolved, forgiving
and forgiven,'' he said.
More than
20,000 people died in political conflict in the
last decade of apartheid, hundreds
of them assassinated or
killed in clashes with police.
Août 98 :
Former apartheid
strongman P.W. Botha was sentenced
to a 10,000 rand ($1,600)
fine or 12 months in jail on Friday
after being found guilty of
contempt for flouting South Africa's
truth commission.
Botha,
82, was released on 50 rand ($8) bail pending an
appeal against the sentence and
conviction.
The magistrate
also imposed a 12-month sentence, suspended
for five years. He specified that
if Botha snubs the Truth and
Reconciliation Commision (TRC) again,
the suspended jail
sentence will be imposed.
Botha showed
no emotion when the black magistrate found him
guilty and he left the court building
in the southern town of
George, 400 km (250 miles) east
of Cape Town, looking relaxed.
His lawyer
said an appeal had been lodged in the Cape Town
High Court.
Magistrate
Victor Lugaju ignored prosecution pleas for a
60,000 rand ($9,450) fine, but was
adamant Botha had broken the
law.
``It is
the unanimous decision of the court that the failure
of the accused to appear...was unlawful,
intentional and without
sufficient cause,'' Lugaju said
in his judgment. ``The accused
is accordingly found guilty on the
main charge.''
Botha ignored
three summonses to testify in person before
the commission, which was trying
to uncover the chain of command
behind illegal murders and bombings
and the torture of black
anti-apartheid activists.
Botha,
who ruled the country for a decade until he was
ousted by his reformist successor
F.W. de Klerk in 1989, has
defiantly refused to work with the
commission, which he calls a
witch-hunt against his Afrikaner
people and a ``circus.''
The scene
outside the building, cordoned off with razor
wire, was enlivened by some 40 protesters
from the ruling
African National Congress (ANC),
who sang and chanted anti-Botha
slogans.
The TRC
welcomed the guilty verdict, saying the rule of law
had prevailed.
``The trial
has reiterated that all South Africans, no
matter how influential or powerful,
are treated equally before
the law,'' truth commission acting
chairman Alex Boraine told a
news conference in Cape Town.
``Mr Botha
has been held publicly accountable for his
actions in a court of law and he
has been afforded every
opportunity to defend himself, something
which was often denied
his political opponents during the
years of his rule.''
Boraine
is standing in for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who left
this week to take up an honorary
professorship in theology in
the United States and will only
return to present President
Nelson Mandela with the commission's
final report in October.
Boraine
said although the truth commission's mandate to
investigate human rights violations
expired last month, the
body's independent amnesty committee
could still subpoena the
former president to answer its questions.
``My only
hope and plea is that if Mr Botha is subpoenaed by
the amnesty committee...that he
will take advantage of that,''
he said. ``It is in his own self
interest. If he feels he has
been falsely accused then he should
appear to clear his name.''
Former
security force personnel testifying before the
commission directly implicated Botha
in bombings and accused him
of authorising the murder and torture
of activists.
Botha has
repeatedly denied any involvement in illegal
actions and has refused to apologise
for his government.
Novembre 98 :
The South African public prosecutor says there is not enough evidence to charge the former president, P W Botha, with killings and human rights abuses committed during the apartheid era.
Mr Botha was accused by the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission - which ended its work last month - of being
responsible for crimes committed during his period in office.
But the prosecutor, Dr Jan D'Oliviera,
said there was no proof to implicate Mr Botha in the abuses directly.
The beaky, portly figure of South
Africa's former president has projected an ominous shadow over the workings
of the commission - and now it looks as if the entire process may be concluded
to the sound of Mr Botha having the last laugh.
Dr Jan D'Oliviera: "No evidence
suitable for a court of law "
Scornful of the efforts of the commission,
which was set up to probe the horrors of the apartheid era, the ex-president
refused to give evidence. He called the hearings a "circus" and was prosecuted
for staying away, but that was only a slap on the wrist.
The commission's final report was much more than that. Printed in five volumes, it named Mr Botha as one of the chief miscreants of the long years of white minority government and said that he "contributed to and facilitated a climate in which . . . gross violations of human rights could and did occur, and as such is accountable for such violations."
Prosecutor D'Oliviera: no evidence
for court
So everyone held their breath, waiting
for justice to take its course. But now Dr Jan D'Oliviera, the public prosecutor
who will decide who will be summonsed and who won't, has made it abundantly
clear that there is very little reason for Mr Botha to worry.
"We have no evidence suitable for a court of law against PW Botha," he told me in a matter-of-fact lawyer's voice. "We have to prove matters beyond reasonable doubt."
It sounds as if the decision is made.
The Truth Commission collected a mountain of evidence against Mr Botha,
but pile it up under the lawyerly eye of a public prosecutor and suddenly
it shrinks to nothing.
Yasmin Sooka was among the commission
members who sifted the evidence, and I found her alarmed at what Dr D'Oliviera
had told me.
If prosecutions did not follow, she commented, "I think we should be outraged, and I think there should be a will to take people up to the highest international court if necessary. This is, at the end of the day, about restoring the rule of law."
The reputation of the Truth Commission needs attention too: a person with myriad questions to answer has thumbed his nose at it, and now sleeps easy without having to worry about men in uniform knocking at his door.
The victims of the apartheid years had no such comfort.
Novembre 98 :
In August this year the former South
African president Pieter Willem Botha was found guilty of contempt against
the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
After a lengthy trial, the 82-year-old
was fined 10,000 rand and given a 12-month suspended jail term.
Mr Botha was charged after he failed to attend a TRC hearing in Cape Town on December 19, 1997. The commission wanted to question him about allegations that he headed a state-sponsored strategy to silence anti-apartheid activists while in office.
PW Botha was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984, and President from 1984 to 1989. In that time he always refused to make any concessions to the black population or to hostile international opinion.
From its inception, Mr Botha rallied
against the TRC, rejecting it as a "circus" and a "witching" against anti-apartheid
leaders and State Security Force (SSC) members.
Last year he declared: "I have nothing
to apologise for. I will never ask for amnesty (from the TRC). Not now,
not tomorrow, not after tomorrow."
That belligerence was a hallmark of his rule. Ordinary South Africans knew him as "the Great Crocodile". He once famously remarked: "When I am angry, I can be a Thunderbird."
Mr Botha was born into an Afrikaner farmer family in the Orange Free State. He first worked for the National Party at the age of 19 as a party organiser.
As Defence Minister from 1966 to 1979, he worked to increase the military budget by 20 times, thereby countering the effects of an international arms embargo against South Africa.
On becoming Prime Minister he said: " We must adapt or die" and, from 1981, embarked on a number of constitutional reforms. These were widely attributed to his desire to maintain the power of the white population while giving limited concessions to other races.
Constitutional reforms were combined with bloody crackdowns on violent opposition, and increased military repression by the security forces.
Human rights groups have estimated that up to 30,000 people were held without trial during states of emergency imposed by Mr Botha at various times between 1986 and 1989.
He introduced reforms, limited in scope, in 1985 and 1986, relaxing some apartheid laws such as prohibitions on mixed marriages and the demand that black people carry special passes.
In June 1988 legislation was passed providing for the establishment of a multi-racial consultative body - which would include black members.
But it was left to F.W. de Klerk, who succeeded Mr Botha when he resigned due to ill-health in January 1989, to set in motion more fundamental reform which was to change the face of South Africa.
Novembre 98 :
The South African
government will not prosecute former
apartheid strongman P.W.
Botha for human rights violations
committed under his rule due
to lack of evidence, South African
radio reported on Friday.
``We have
no evidence needed to bring him before a court of
law. We have to prove beyond a reasonable
doubt,'' it quoted Jan
D'Oliviera, the deputy director
of national prosecutions, as
saying.
In its
final report handed to President Nelson Mandela in
October, South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) said Botha, 82, was accountable
for gross violations of
human rights committed on a wide
scale during the period he was
president.
Botha,
who was ousted by his reformist successor F.W. de
Klerk in 1989, was not immediately
available for comment on
D'Oliviera's remarks.
He is currently
on bail after his August conviction of
contempt for the TRC which he has
repeatedly refused to work
with, calling it a witchhunt against
his Afrikaner people.
The TRC,
which was established after the end of apartheid to
examine the human rights record
of the war over white rule,
recommended in its 3,500-page chronicle
of its probe that human
rights abusers from both sides of
the struggle be prosecuted
unless they applied for amnesty.
But justice
officials said on Friday apartheid-era
politicians could get off the hook
after Justice Minister Dullah
Omar said prosecutions arising from
the truth probe would be
done in the national interest.
Omar told
a media briefing that he expected cases against
alleged human rights abusers would
take up to a decade to settle
in the wake of the two-year investigation
by the TRC of
apartheid atrocities committed by
all sides.
He said
that prosecutions were not aimed at hurting efforts
at reconciling a country still divided
by decades of racial
oppression, but rather at establishing
the rule of law.
``We must
establish accountability...for the future. We must
establish the rule of law,'' he
said.
But Omar
also said decisions to prosecute alleged offenders
would be taken ``in the interest
of the country.''
He did
not elaborate but officials in his department said
this offered a way for high-profile
politicians from both sides
of the apartheid struggle to avoid
a court date.
Décembre 98 :
South African Justice Minister
Dullah Omar said on Friday prosecutions
arising from the truth
probe would be done in the national
interest, a move officials
said could let apartheid-era politicians
off the hook.
Omar told
a media briefing that he foresaw that cases
against alleged human rights abusers
would take up to a decade
to settle in the wake of the two-year
investigation by the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
of apartheid atrocities
committed by all sides.
``The TRC
has recommended that prosecutions be completed in
two years. I think that is wishful
thinking...it is
unattainable,'' Omar said.
He said
that prosecutions were not aimed at hurting efforts
at reconciling a country still divided
by decades of racial
oppression, but rather at establishing
the rule of law.
``We must
establish accountability...for the future. We must
establish the rule of law,'' he
said.
But Omar
also said decisions to prosecute alleged offenders
would be taken ``in the interest
of the country.''
He did
not elaborate but officials in his department said
this offered a way for high-profile
politicians from both sides
of the apartheid struggle to avoid
a court date.
Several
leading politicians have been accused of human
rights violations, but have not
sought amnesty from prosecution
from the TRC, which has the power
to grant legal absolution in
exchange for what it accepts as
truthful testimony.
Among those
who have not applied for amnesty are former
President P.W. Botha, accused of
complicity in bombings of
anti-apartheid activists, and Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, the
former wife of President Nelson
Mandela, who has been accused of
murdering and kidnapping opponents
in the late 1980s.
It is also
possible that several other cabinet ministers
from the last white government as
well as some top leaders of
the ruling African National Congress
could also face prosecution
for having ordered incidents that
led to human rights abuses.
``There
has been no firm decision about the high-profile
cases, but I would guess it's unlikely
the likes of P.W. (Botha)
will be prosecuted,'' a justice
department official told
Reuters.
A special
prosecuting unit set up to deal with cases arising
from the apartheid era has several
prosecutions ready for trial,
but not of top current or former
politicians.
Jan D'Oliviera,
who heads the unit, said recently that cases
against two former generals in the
apartheid security forces
were ready for court, but that he
was awaiting the outcome of
their amnesty applications.
He also
said the case against Madikizela-Mandela was being
prepared but he was not prepared
to say when, or if, the
populist ANC leader would be prosecuted.
The TRC
report, compiled after two years of often emotional
testimony from victims and perpetrators,
branded apartheid a
crime against humanity, but also
said the ANC was guilty of
gross human rights violations in
its fight against the system of
legalised racial discrimination.
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