Money in Codesa

TALKS on constitutional reform in South Africa, now code-named Codesa, may be deadlocked but meetings still have to carry on and that means good business for those who have to accommodate and feed the delegates.

A confidential report says Codesa talks are costing the South African taxpayers about R3 million a month. It says the major beneficiary of the talks is the World Trade Centre near Jan Smuts Airport which was in financial quagmire before the Codesa talks since only a third of its facilities were being utilised.

Today Codesa uses between 3 000 and 22 000 square metres of the available 32 000 on a regular basis. Hotels throughout the area are fully booked to cater for delegates from the 19 organisations represented in the talks.

The deadlock may be costing the ANC support, sadly to the great advantage of the National Party which seems to be gaining support from the Coloured and Indian electorate as well as from blacks.

President De Klerk now seems to be enjoying the best of both worlds. He is now globetrotting and is enjoying the hospitality of the Russian leaders, his foes for more than 30 years and is dining with the mighty Japanese while at home his supporters still enjoy the privileges ushered in by the apartheid in South Africa.

But news that three black South African Olympic hopefuls were barred from sharing training accommodation with their white counterparts in Natal Province because the caretaker would not allow blacks in the flats used by other athletes should serve to drive home the message that apartheid is far from being dead and still rules in South Africa.

Abel Mokibe, Jan Rau and Zithulele Singer were told in no uncertain terms that they were not welcome into the flats because they were black. Although the owners of the flats said the incident had been a most “unfortunate understanding” the fact that the South African Roadrunners Association had to seek alternative accommodation for the black athletes clearly illustrates that the incident was not just unfortunate but even perhaps deliberate.

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