MONTHLY REPORT, SWAZILAND BUREAU, AUGUST 1988

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200290015-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: September 5, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 CIA-RDP94-00798R000200290015-8
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
Monthly Report Swaziland Bureau
FROM:
Chief, Operations Group
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
C/DRD
CASS
C/ICCS
Managing Editor
ME/AF Branch
WE/LA Branch
USSR/EE Branch
C/Prod
Retain/Destroy
FORM 61 O USE PREVIOUS
I_79 EDITIONS
DATE
RECEIVED FORWARDED
EXTENSION NO
Est 1988
--STAT
OFFICER'S COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
INITIALS to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 : CIA-RDP94-00798R000200290015-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 : CIA-RDP94-00798ROO0200290015-8
5 September 1988
FBIS-5815-88
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH : Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT : Monthly Report, Swaziland Bureau, August 1988
By the end of the month, a local contractor had completed an upgrade
of the security bars on all windows and vents on the Bureau proper and the
technician's shop. This completes the overall security upgrade program
recommended by Monrovia Security during a visit by a Monsec officer in
March.
II. OPERATIONS
A. Monitorial/Editorial
1. Angola, South Africa, Cuba and the United States met in Geneva
2-5 August to discuss practical steps for halting hostilities in
southwestern Africa. A joint statement issued simultaneously in all
capitals on 8 August revealed that the parties agreed to the
withdrawal of both Cuban and South African troops from Angola, to a
2 month truce in Namibia beginning 1 September, and to a recommendation
that UN Security Council Resolution 435 on the independence of Namibia
be implemented from 1 November. The SADF began withdrawing from Angola
on 8 August, and completed the withdrawal on 30 August. Meanwhile
further quadripartite talks were held in Brazzaville 23-26 August
to discuss a timetable for the withdrawal of Cuban troops.
2. On 7 August Botswana President Quett Masire and his chief of
protocol were slightly injured when their executive jet was forced to make
an emergency landing en route to a Frontline States meeting in Luanda,
Angola. Angola subsequently apologized to Botswana for mistaking Masire's
jet for an enemy plane.
3. ANC leader Nelson Mandela entered a Cape Town hospital on 13
August for treatment of tuberculosis. On 18 August, President P.W. Botha
declared: "I don't think that at his age and condition it would be wise
for him to choose to go back to prison."
4. A strong explosion severely damaged Khotso House in Johannesburg
on 31 August, causing the police to declare the building uninhabitable.
The building contained the head offices of the South African Council of
Churches, the Black Sash, the Detained Parents Support Committee and other
vocal opponents to apartheid. The explosion was the culmination of a month
of increased violence in South Africa, in which 10 smaller explosions,
attributed to limpet mines or grenades, were reported in Johannesburg and
other urban areas.
CONFIDENTIAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 : CIA-RDP94-00798ROO0200290015-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 : CIA-RDP94-00798R000200290015-8
5. King Mswati III of Swaziland has commissioned an extravagant new
palace which, he has ordered, must rival "those seen in James Bond films."
Construction cranes are already in place at the site, a mountain crest
overlooking northern Mbabane. The new Palace will include such amenities as
two swimming pools, one with a glass bottom to be built over the
discotheque; a central reception court that can be flooded by a waterfall
in a nearby dining room; and four mechanical palm trees which double as
fans. The design resembles two overlapping drums, recalling traditional
construction forms, and includes a 10-foot-wide moat.
B. Coverage/Cruising
1. Dakar PANA in English/French remained virtually unmonitorable
throughout the month.
III. ADMINISTRATION
Personnel
1. Deputy Chief
2. Administrativ
e Assistant
departed PCS 7
ugust.
EOD'd 21 August.
25X1
25X1
25X1
3. Deputy Chief moved into her house 24 August,
after contractors repainted the house and completed minor repairs.
4. Editor moved into his house on 2 September, after 2
long months of hot lying. Extensive renovations including a new roof,
dining room and kitchen, are virtually completed. The painters expect to
finish their work "soon."
IV. VISITORS
1. Contractors
viited the
Bureau 9-11 August to install the bureau's new Victor transmi
ts computer.
2. ALA Branch Chief and two ALA members paid a
surprise visit to the Bureau L =: =
16 August during a 15-17 August tour of
Swaziland.
3. Ambassador Mary Ryan paid her first visit to the Bureau 22
August.
Chief, Swaziland Bureau
riv
3M j
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/02 : CIA-RDP94-00798R000200290015-8