ACCESS TO INFORMATION - On April 1, the "Mail & Guardian" reported that the Durban Magistrate's Court cancelled an arrest warrant for a businessman who implicated Inkatha Freedom Party officials in a scheme to transfer money from the provincial government to party coffers. Sateech Isseri spent more than a year on the witness protection programme after alerting police and the auditor-general to the alleged scam. Isseri claimed that after he blew the whistle on the fund-raising scheme, he was framed with several criminal charges, including fraud and hijacking, all of which culminated in a warrant for his arrest issued in December last year.

Meanwhile, time is running out for the people's poet Mzwakhe Mbuli who must name senior ANC leaders who he claimed framed him, if he is to avoid a minimum of ten years sentence. Mbuli and his two co-accused were found guilty in the Pretoria High Court on March of armed robbery and possession of a hand grenade. Mbuli has maintained his innocence since his arrest, saying that he was framed as part of a conspiracy to cover up drug trafficking by senior members of the government during the trial. When addressing the issue of conspiracy, Magistrate Frans Poolman dismissed Mbuli's claims . "By placing Mbuli in jail, the conspirators had not kept him quit and Mbuli would not remain silent as long as he is alive," said Poolman.

BROADCASTING - On April 8, the newly appointed Independent Broadcasting Authority chairperson Mandla Langa announced the IBA's revised code of conduct, saying that the revision aims to bring the Code in line with the Constitution, particularly in relation to the Freedom of Expression provisions of the Bill of Rights. The Authority introduced the concept of "two-tier regulation", where the regulator sets general requirements and standards which are supplemented by guidelines drawn up by individual broadcasters. In this way, broadcasters will be required to formulate in-house guidelines on specific matters, some of which will not be covered by the new code. Such guidelines will be submitted to the Authority and will be published internally and among audiences. The other concept brought in was adequate viewer and listener information. This will give audiences responsibility to choose what they wish to see and hear and which material they wish to avoid. However, this can be exercised in a context where audiences are informed ahead of time about explicit material and material which may not be suitable for children. According to the Authority, it will not determine the exact nature of the warnings but leave this up to the discretion of broadcasters and where possible, broadcasters can work together to develop common warning and classification systems. On the negative side, the code brings in stricter regulations in regard to the representation of violence in broadcasting. Amendments will be forwarded to the Portfolio Committee on Communications to be passed in Parliament. CENSORSHIP - An installation on Gaikas Kop mountain in the Eastern Cape by artist Elaine Mathews, was discovered to be mutilated during the Easter weekend. According to Mathews, she discovered that the central figure which showed male parts had been mutilated, the penis having been ripped off, when she took a group of people to the site on April 4. Mathews had asked permission from a farmer Richard Bowker, to use the land that he owned on top of the mountain to put up her five sculptures as an installation, but Bowker later disagreed because he thought the sculptures were "satanic". Mathews then wrote a letter to a forestry company which rents part of the mountain from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, telling them that she would place the installation on their land. She then received a verbal approval from Hamish Wyly, the local forestry company's head. To Mathews surprise, she was threatened by phone by Wyly from on April 1, to "throw the sculptures off the mountain" if she did not remove them immediately because they were "funny business". However, the company's head office in Pretoria allowed her to leave the work on the mountain until after the Arts Festival which was taking place over the Easter weekend as the installation was going to be part of the Festival programme. Mathews said she took the work down on April 5 as she did not want any further damage to it. "I find it alarming that people are capable of condemning art that they don't understand, and can threaten to destroy creative work," she said.

DEMONSTRATIONS - The twelve Eskom employees accused of public violence for setting property alight at Eskom's headquarters, causing damage of about R5,4 million, would not be granted bail. During their formal bail application, investigating officer Inspector Frederik Gideon Louw asked the court to refuse them bail because he believed they would interfere with state witness because they worked together. The men were arrested on April 6 and charges have not yet been put to them. The arrest followed the strike by the National Union of Mineworkers at Eskom on July 15 1998, which resulted into the burning of three cars, smashing of windows and setting alight the conference room. It was alleged that the accused, acting with common purpose, forcibly disturbed the public peace or invaded the rights of other persons. The bail application continues.

ELECTIONS - On April 1, Sapa reported that the Cabinet had decided that it might be necessary to introduce regulations on the role of bodies such as the Government Communication and Information Service in the run up to the election. According to Sapa, the Cabinet agreed in Pretoria that the matter should be handled by the Independent Electoral Commission, the IBA and party liaison committees. The decision came after claims by the five opposition parties that the GCIS was being misused to boost the ANC in the election campaign. Deputy Minister in the office of the Deputy President, Essop Pahad denied that the complaint had prompted the Cabinet's decision on the need for guidelines on the role of the GCIS. "We are not interested in using either the GCIS or any other department to make propaganda for any political party. We are not going to do that," Pahad said. The issue was the recent R4,3 million GCIS publicity pamphlet and campaign to highlight government achievements. The parties argued that the campaign amounted to the abuse of taxpayers' money to promote the ANC ahead of the elections. In a joint statement, the parties said: "Regrettably the Cabinet attitude seems to us to be that they are entirely unrepentant about the GCIS pamphlet. They do not regard it as an abuse of power and of taxpayers' money and did not appear to know the difference between propaganda and information".

Ends