www.thesouthafrican.com
29 October - 4 November 2013
Issue 538
41433
CLAIM YOUR TAX REFUND TODAY!
0808 141 2315
TAX, FINANCIAL AND MIGRATION EXPERTS: Money Transfers, Tax Refunds, Visas, Limited Companies & Accounting, UK Bank Accounts, CV & Job Assistance, Travel Clinic, Shipping, Legal and Umbrella Services
www.1stcontact.com/mast1
TOKYO SEXWALE ARRESTED IN INSIDE: US FOR APARTHEID ‘TERRORISM’ p3 | SA named ‘African Country of the Future’ for foreign direct investment
| ANC fumes as leading SA businessman, anti-Apartheid stalwart and former Housing Minister detained at New York’s JFK due to outdated US ‘terror list’ that still included the names of many senior ANC leaders - including Nelson Mandela - until recently
p7 | SA film ‘Of Good Report’ opens top festival
p14 | Travel: Eternal Egypt - still safe, but now your ZAR buys more memories
By STAFF REPORTER A MAJOR embarrassment for South Africa as well as for the USA unfolded at the weekend as former Cabinet member and struggle icon Tokyo Sexwale was arrested at John F Kennedy Airport in New York - all because his name has never been removed from an Apartheid-era ‘terrorist’ watch list. According to ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza, the ANC had not been aware that Apartheid-era security lists were still maintained by the American government. Khoza nonetheless announced the party’s intention to see that the matter was taken up urgently at the highest levels. The paranoia of American transport officials since the events of September 11, 2011 has become legendary. For most travelers, this official skittishness takes human form in the officials of the notorious Transportation Security Administration, created by the Bush administration at the same time as the Department of Homeland Security. The zeal the TSA applies in keeping terrorism from American soil has been a steady source of controvery since the agency’s inception. Regular complaints of frisking and racial profiling have been interspersed with more serious passenger complaints against full-body scanners, luggage searches and thefts, as well as various No-Fly Lists. It is the latter that likely
UK Immigration • UK Visas • Permits • EEA visas • Residency • Citizenship • Appeals • Sponsorship Licences South African Immigration
|APARTHEID’S REVENGE: Prominent businessman and noted philanthropist Tokyo Sexwale has racked up many achievements in his time in office, but none melted the resolve of New York border security officials to detain the senior politician on 1990s-era ‘terrorism’ grounds. The arrest is another blunder for the embattled TSA, whose rigour has long angered visitors to the USA
inconvenienced Sexwale. The situation is perceived to be deeply embarrassing for the US, which has faced mounting internal and external pressure over its security and privacy policies. This pressure has peaked in the wake of the Wikileaks scandal, when huge volumes of data about US intelligence activities were released to the media. The detainment of Sexwale, a respected businessman and longtime senior government minister who was once also Premier of Gauteng Province, reveals a worrying level of
incomptence on the part of the American authorities. The appearance of Sexwale’s name is also a difficult reminder of the late conversion of some parts of the US political community to the ANC cause - the major liberation party was listed as a terrorist organisation until the Apartheid regime unbanned it in 1990, whereas many other first-world nations had long considered a more legitimate expresison of South African aspirations than the Nationalist government then in power. Details of the specific US no-fly list that bore Sexwale’s
name and triggered the arrest remain murky, but Sexwale was released within a matter of hours once the mistake had become clear, according to Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Sexwale has reportedly instructed his lawyer, Lesley Mkhabela, to take further steps against the US Government. Sexwale’s name appears to have been left out of George W Bush’s efforts to clear all ANC members’ names - including that of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki - from the terror lists in the last decade.
0845 074 0514 info@bic-immigration.com www.bic-immigration.com
The Leading Name in UK Immigration
Third Floor, Cutlers Court, 115 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7BR
Ref No. F201000144