JOHANNESBURG BRIEFING February 2005

News this month

Government corruption

One in ten members of parliament—40 in all, including some retired—are waiting to hear whether they will be charged with fraud in connection with a travel scam. South Africa's elite investigative police, the Scorpions, found that MPs used work-related travel allowances fraudulently to siphon off some $2m of government funds. Investigators allege that MPs transferred their travel vouchers to friends and relatives; in some cases they cashed the vouchers without making trips. MPs frequently travel long distances by plane from their constituencies to Cape Town, where the national assembly sits. The scandal was first uncovered last year, and travel agents have also been implicated.

South Africa's standing in the rankings of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption watchdog, is pretty stable: it remains one of the cleanest countries in Africa. But there are still enough examples of graft to worry observers, such as the current trial of a close associate of the deputy president, Jacob Zuma. The government has made a point of fighting corruption. The current crackdown is one of a few high-profile actions designed to keep officials in line.

Plea bargain

Mark Thatcher, the son of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's ex-prime minister, has negotiated a plea bargain to avoid trial in South Africa. He was arrested in Cape Town last August for allegedly financing an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. The plot was apparently led by a group of ex-soldiers, including Simon Mann, a Briton.

Facing a long trial for breaking South African anti-mercenary laws, Mr Thatcher admitted to “an attempt to contravene” one such mandate. He concedes that he had close contact with Mr Mann: he paid $275,000 into a bank account connected with him, and helped charter a helicopter for him. Mr Thatcher agreed to pay a fine of 3m rand ($500,000), and accepted a suspended sentence of five years in jail. He also promised to help police investigate others thought to be involved in the plot. After the case was settled, he promptly left South Africa, hoping to rejoin his family in the United States. But with a criminal record, entry into America is difficult. Now Mr Thatcher may be lying low in Frankfurt, Germany, to avoid the attention of journalists.

Stumping for aid

Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, came to South Africa in mid-January to promote the Commission for Africa. The project was set up last year by Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister, to devise a development plan for the continent. Mr Brown met Nelson Mandela, who agreed to come to Britain later this year to tell a gathering of leaders of the G8 industrialised countries about Africa's developmental needs. Mr Brown wants global international aid doubled to about $100 billion a year, and he wants debt relief for poor countries—worth about $80 billion—much of which would benefit Africa.

Messrs Blair and Brown suggest Britain will lead rich-country efforts to help Africa in 2005. They intend to raise the continent's aid payments and to put African issues on the agenda of the G8 meeting this year. They also pledged to do more for Africa within the European Union: Britain will hold the EU presidency in the second half of the year.

Public mourning

At a remarkable press conference at his home in Johannesburg, flanked by his family and close friends, a frail-looking Mr Mandela told the world that his only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, had died of AIDS. He was 54. Speaking in such personal terms about AIDS is politically significant. The disease remains cripplingly stigmatised: even though 5m South Africans have HIV, few admit to having a relative who has died of AIDS. This stigma has hampered efforts to limit HIV's spread and treat the sick.

Mr Mandela has previously said that the AIDS epidemic affected his family, but has never before said how. He is not the first African leader to speak openly about the disease: Zambia's former president, Kenneth Kaunda, once said that his son died of AIDS; and the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party in South Africa, Chief Mangosutho Buthelezi, has admitted that two of his sons died of the disease. The openness of these leaders is in stark contrast to the views of South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, who said recently that he has never known someone who died of the illness. Mr Mandela was discouraged from commenting on Mr Mbeki's position by a visiting cabinet minister.

Tough talk

Throughout the long political and economic crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, South Africa's authorities have refused to criticise the government of president Robert Mugabe. Preferring a policy of constructive engagement, also known as “quiet diplomacy”, South Africa's government instead lobbied for talks between Zimbabwean parties. The gentle pressure never involved a penalty, such as targeted sanctions or an electricity embargo, if Mr Mugabe refused to talk to his political rivals. But the policy may become a bit less quiet.

The annual meeting of the African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, produced a statement criticising Mr Mugabe's tendency to intimidate and restrict his opposition. It called for Zimbabwe politicians to have free access to the media and a more level playing field. This criticism comes just as Mr Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu-PF, is in trouble. It is divided between different factions, with many unhappy that the president tapped Joyce Mujuru, a woman from his own small ethnic group, to be vice-president. In-party fighting has erupted, with candidates jostling for the right to stand as an MP in the March elections.

Helping the survivors

The AIDS epidemic strikes South African children particularly badly. In response, new orphanages, child-hospices and care centres are opening, notably in Johannesburg, to look after sick children and those with families are incapacitated by the disease. In January, Elton John, a British pop-star, opened the doors of one such centre in a Johannesburg suburb, Eldorado Park. The Elton John Masibambane Centre runs projects to help orphaned, neglected or abused children, especially those identified by schools and clinics as particularly at risk.

The centre's 165 children get a full meal, a warm shower, help with school work and some care and attention. Staff also counsel parents who are dying of AIDS, and care for their children. These children are encouraged to carry out therapeutic projects, such as creating “memory boxes”, to help them remember their parents.

Catch if you can

February 2005

“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”

Until February 13th 2005

The musical about Joseph and his eleven brothers is nearly 30 years old—despite some reworking of the score by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1991. Standards such as the catchy “Any Dream Will Do”, and schmaltzy “Close Every Door to Me” and “One More Angel in Heaven” remain unchanged.

This production, approved by Lloyd Webber's office in Britain, has “a new look and a new sound”, and the gender of “The Narrator” has changed. It is a refreshing update, with a rich 24-person cast, plus six live musicians. Note that the theatre is bizarrely located, inside an enormous casino and entertainment centre that is built to look like a Tuscan village.

Pieter Toerien's Theatre, Montecasino Shopping Mall, Fourways. Performances on Tues—Sun (most at 8pm). Tel: +27 (011) 510-7000. Purchase tickets at Computicket's website.