South Africa Government

Koos Botha is a burly, bull-necked man who wears thick, wraparound mirrored sunglasses and a gruff demeanor. On his wall, he proudly displays a 1990 newspaper photo that shows him punching a local official in the face. But the former Conservative Party member of Parliament doesn't exhibit the far more disturbing pictures of his once private war to preserve apartheid and a white-ruled South Africa. It began at 2 a.m.

Two retired icons and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, are being kept waiting as the South African government weighs a decision on granting a visa for the Tibetan spiritual leader. Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop for Cape Town, invited the Dalai Lama to attend his 80th birthday celebration next week and to deliver the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on Oct. 8. But the African National Congress government, wary of irritating the country's largest trading partner, China, has refused to indicate whether it will grant the visa.

The word went down hard in South Africa's largest black township, where symbols of liberation are still rare and revered. "It's a blow to us, I'll tell you," Rebecca Mofutsane, a Soweto office worker, said Friday. "We had admired her, called her 'mother of the nation.' Now the 'mother' is killing the people of the nation? It is terrible."

The South African government's AIDS program suffered another legal defeat Thursday when the Constitutional Court upheld a ruling forcing officials to immediately begin distributing a key drug to HIV-infected pregnant women. The government, which has come under criticism for its often confusing approach to fighting AIDS, had resisted creating a widespread program to provide the drug nevirapine to HIV-infected pregnant women.

Near the charred hulks of burned-out homes, up the dirt path from an army patrol, Rhoda Sibiya sat on a rock and carefully signed a commitment to South Africa's young democracy. The question is whether the document, a voter registration card for local elections scheduled nationwide in November, could also be a death warrant. "We are not safe here," the 33-year-old textile worker said nervously. "People are being killed almost every day."

The South African government proposed land reforms to remedy inequities between blacks and whites--and admitted it might decide to seize some land from whites. Most of the reforms would be accomplished through a grant program that would give blacks money to buy land from whites, who own 87% of South Africa's property but make up only 12% of the population, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom said. Expropriation would be only a "measure of last resort," Hanekom added. Between 1960 and 1980, 3.

The historic convention of the African National Congress, which ended early Sunday, removed any doubt that supporters of the onetime guerrilla movement are committed to negotiations--but are also deeply suspicious of the white-controlled government. The result of that militant pragmatism is likely to be renewed clashes with the government over ANC protest marches and resistance campaigns, such as the occupation of empty white schools by pupils in severely overcrowded black schools.

The government said Thursday that the security concerns holding up the release of jailed nationalist leader Nelson R. Mandela include threats against his life from both radical left-wing blacks and right-wing whites. "We want him to get out of that prison and walk the streets of our country as a free man . . . and alive," said Adriaan Vlok, the government minister of law and order.

This dusty ranching town looks and feels a lot like Texas. The biggest happening within miles is the weekly cattle auction. The landscape is flat, dry savannah. Late last century, the town served as the capital of a maverick white republic whose flag featured a single star. But when William Langeveldt moved back home to Vryburg a few years ago after living in the United States, he was reminded of an American town during the civil rights struggle. "Vryburg is the Birmingham, Ala.

The government on Monday lost a court appeal that could have allowed it to continue restricting access to a key drug for thousands of pregnant women who are HIV-positive. Reaffirming an earlier ruling, a Pretoria high court ordered the government to provide the anti-AIDS drug nevirapine to all public hospitals with the capacity to use it, even as the government awaits a hearing before the country's Constitutional Court in May.

The government here launched a full-court press Friday to clarify its position on the use of anti-AIDS drugs and quiet a storm of criticism. At a regular Cabinet meeting earlier in the week, authorities resolved to step up efforts to eliminate inconsistencies in what activists, health officials and opposition politicians say has been a controversial and confusing policy toward South Africa's AIDS epidemic.

The government's AIDS policy is facing a serious challenge as key South African politicians, medical specialists and church leaders rebel against state restrictions on the distribution of drugs that could curb the spread of the disease.

South African President Thabo Mbeki vowed Friday to intensify his government's fight against the country's AIDS epidemic, restore land to thousands of families evicted under apartheid, and work to ensure a fair presidential election in neighboring Zimbabwe. In an hourlong "state of the nation" address to mark the reopening of Parliament following its holiday recess, Mbeki promised concrete programs that would help improve the lives of South Africans.

On one side are Zulus who say they were unjustly evicted from their land under apartheid. On the other, descendants of a Scotsman who became a white Zulu chief and then the patriarch of a mixed-race family that still controls vast acres of sugar cane. A contentious blend of legal claims, racial privilege and ancestral attachments is threatening to erupt in this fertile coastal region of South Africa.

The Constitutional Court here ruled Monday that the South African government acted unconstitutionally in sending a suspected American Embassy bomber to the United States to face the death penalty and should have instead sought to protect him from this punishment. The hand-over to the FBI of Tanzanian citizen Khalfan Khamis Mohamed was rife with irregularities, Constitutional Court President Arthur Chaskalson said.

Allegations that three senior members of the ruling party were plotting to oust or harm South African President Thabo Mbeki were dismissed Thursday as "paranoia" and "crazy rubbish" by government opponents, analysts and prominent political figures. The accusations made this week by Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete, who has launched an investigation into the alleged conspiracy, were aimed at businessmen Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa.

Pharmaceutical giants entered settlement talks with the government Wednesday, signaling that they are dropping their fight against a law that could provide cheaper versions of AIDS drugs to millions of South Africans. The firms' lawsuit, postponed until today as the discussions continued, has deeply embarrassed the drug companies since hearings began six weeks ago. Many of them have responded by drastically cutting prices on their own.