ACCESS TO INFORMATION - The National Assembly on January 25 endorsed the information bill over almost unanimous objections by opposition parties to a provision allowing the state to seek access to private records in the public interest. All parties, however, endorsed the principle that individuals should have the right of access to information held by the state in order to protect their rights, as provided in the Promotion of Access to Information Bill."The Citizen"on January 26 reported that in the debate, the Democratic Party and the New National Party said that the measure conflicted with the Bill of Rights, which was designed to protect the citizen against abuse of power by the state. Spokesperson for the Inkatha Freedom Party, Peter Smith, endorsed other provisions of the bill but objected to the state also being given the human rights set out in the constitution. "I have never heard of a Bill of Rights designed to protect the state against the citizens. The intention is to enable people to protect their rights against the state". Masilo Mabeta of United Democratic Movement said that government attempts to accumulate power were not unique in the world, nor on the African continent. It was a consistent trend in the new government in South Africa. Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said the government has turned on the light to bring to an end the secrecy and silence that characterised apartheid. "A leading principle of democracy is to foster transparency, we have extended this right to the state", said Maduna. Johnny de Lange, ANC chairperson of the committee responsible for the Bill, denied that the Bill diminished human rights. De Lange said that the state had the right, in the public interest to uplift the poor and the disadvantaged. Among the sections of the bill also rejected by opposition parties was that which exempts the cabinet from the open democracy provisions, meaning, citizens cannot obtain cabinet records. Corne Mulder of the Freedom Front said that the total exclusion of information kept by the cabinet may be unconstitutional and frustrates the real intention of the constitution. FXI, despite some reservations regarding the extensive list of exlusions, welcomed the new legislation.

CORRUPTION - The African Eye News Service on January 30 reported that Mpumalanga's sacked deputy speaker, Cynthia Maropeng and three co-accused admitted using almost R1-million in state funds to buy themselves houses and other personal items. Judge Willem Heath has been attempting to recover R967 000 from Maropeng, legislature secretary Wilson Ngwenya, legislature finance director Jomo Siboza and former legislature secretary Alfred Mahlangu for over one year. The four allegedly stole the money gradually over two years by diverting national parliamentary grants meant for the ANC's constituency offices to a secret Trust Bank account set up by Mahlangu in 1996. The scam was accidentally discovered by the Ngobeni Commission in 1998 while investigating Maropeng on an unrelated fraud and tender irregularities. All four were immediately charged with 36 counts of criminal theft, but the subsequent court case dragged on for over a year without a shred of evidence being led. In a bid to speed up the trial, Maropeng and her co- accused finally admitted on January 26 to using the money. Mahlangu only admitted diverting roughly R69 000 from a parliamentary constituency grant meant for the ANC. He claimed that he used the money to maintain and run a truck for his private business and to make personal loans to elected politicians. He was forced to resign from the legislature in 1997 after the abuse was discovered. Ngwenya and Sibozas then assumed signing responsibility for the account and channelled an estimated R900 000 through the account into Maropeng's personal bank account. Maropeng confirmed she used R190 000 of the money to buy a repossessed house. The case has been postponed to July 10 for trial.

CORRUPTION - "City Press" on January 30 reported that a KwaZulu-Natal crime syndicate has raked in hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of rand by issuing thousands of fraudulent driver's licences using the facilities of the former KwaNdebele homeland. According to the paper, the syndicate gets people who are desperate for licences, mainly from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and then issues them licence documents in Siyabuswa. "City Press" said its investigation revealed that the syndicate's kingpin transported thousands of desperate licence-seekers from the three provinces to the regional home affairs office in Siyabuswa. There, the licence-seekers were issued with confirmation documents which have supposedly been signed by the local magistrate or an official, confirming that the holder had a driver's licence, obtained from the former KwaNdebele homeland. "City Press" also established that these confirmation documents were obtained illegally by the syndicate, which then forged the signature of the magistrate or the authorising officer. After obtaining confirmation documents, the licence-seekers were taken to the traffic department where new ID type driver's licences were issued. The traffic department appeared to be unaware that the confirmation documents had been obtained illegally. "City Press" learnt that the owners of the driving schools in Siyabuswa and Kwa-Mhlanga blew the whistle on the syndicate because its activities were harming their businesses. The officer investigating the case, Inspector Jerry Maphanga of the fraud unit at Kwa-Mhlanga, said the scam could run into hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Maphanga said the scam had allegedly been in operation since 1999. Captain Sello Bokaba, who cracked the scam said the syndicate boss and home affairs officials took advantage of a government decision to grant new licences to residents of the former homeland who held homeland issued licences prior to 1994. However, Maphanga said their investigations had not linked any Mpumalanga traffic officials to the scam, but clerks in the traffic department were found to have been negligent in not verifying the information contained in the confirmation letters.

MEDIA AND RACISM - The SA Human Rights Commission announced recently that it would be holding public hearings on its interim report into racism in the media from March 1 until 10. SAHRC chairperson Barney Pityana threatened to invoke powers of subpoena to compel the media to testify about racist reporting in the hearings after the release of the report in November last year. The media was given 30 days to respond. According to the commission, the public hearings would be held before publication of the final report of the inquiry into 12 written submissions from individuals and organisations. Meanwhile, on February 5, FXI will hold a workshop among its members to explore the report and a possible response to it.

UNIONS - The SA Union of Journalists will hold a joint meeting with media trade unions on February 11 at which the unilateral restructuring of the industry will be discussed. SAUJ general secretary Motsomi Mokhine said the decision to hold the meeting was taken at the union's annual congress in December last year. "The decision also follows last week's announcement by Independent Newspapers that they plan to embark on editorial restructuring at their KwaZulu-Natal operations. The plan will lead to at least one job being lost and others being downgraded" Mokhine said. He said the company's plan will lead to fundamental changes being brought into the newsroom, resulting in journalists assuming more functions. "Both the National Association of Broadcasters and Print Media Southern Africa have been advised of this initiative, and plans are being made for a meeting with Independent Newspapers at the end of this month". Mokhine said the SAUJ was also concerned with the growing pace at which the industry was shedding jobs and the juniorisation of newsrooms, leading to loss of skills and a negative impact on news coverage, and the continuing uncertainty about the viability of Midi TV.

Ends