MONTHLY REPORT--SWAZILAND BUREAU--APRIL 1987

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: May 4, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
EMBASSY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
P.O. Box 199
Mbabane, Swaziland
4 May 1987
MMB - 7006
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH : Chief, Operations Group
qP44l
SUBJECT : Monthly Report -- Swaziland Bureau -- March 1987
I. GENERAL
A. On 24 April the Bureau Chief and Deputy Chief attended a celebration
at the Royal stadium of King Mswati III's 20th birthday. Along with 3,000
other leading dignitaries, members of the royal family and loyal citizens,
the Bureau delegation watched the Royal Swazi Regiments parade and the Swazi
police motorcycle corps put on a display of trick motorcycle riding, a special
favorite of the king.
B. Bureau employees were very happy to see a pay raise appear in their
checks this month. This 10.6 percent pay raise was approved by PMCD retro-
active to 31 August 1986. Astonishingly, so far no errors by RAMC Paris have
been detected in the calculations for this pay raise.
C. Bureau staffers this month have been busy running the new FERS
comparison software left by the Pretoria Administrative Officer who visited
the Bureau in early April. We have all found the software most enlightening,
and two of the staff have already begun contributions to the Thrift Savings
Plan during the first open season.
II. OPERATIONS
A. Monitorial /Editorial
1. Events in South Africa kept the Bureau busy during the month of
April. Most of the activity centered around the lead up to the White parlia-
mentary elections scheduled for 6 May. On 9 April Pik Botha warned the country
of an ANC planned terrorist offensive to disrupt the elections, specifically
pointir~ to armed ANC infiltration from Zambia. This was followed by a number
of mines exploding in white areas of Natal. Finally on 25 April, a South
African patrol was discovered on a reconnaisance mission in the Zambian town
of Livingstone, reputedly investigating ANC infiltration routes and bases.
In the resulting clash, five people were killed, whom the South Africams claimed
were ANC supporters, butthe Zambians claimed were ordinary citizens.
2. Union activity also increased in South African, with the postal
workers and railroad workers continuing their strikes. In the worst incident
during the railroad workers strike, the South African police surrounded the
COSATU union hall, where a mass meeting was in progress. As union members
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
started to flee the hall, the police opened fire, killing 3 strikers on 22
April. The state-run railroad broke the strike by firing some 18,000 striking
workers.
3. Bureau wordage for the month has increased largely due to increased
processing from the nightly South African Network news program on television.
This 1-hour program, normally not worth processing, has been the main forum
for debate on the positions of the various parties contending for the elections.
Now 4 or 5 nights per week, the bureau has been processing one or two inter-
views or panel discussions by high level party spokesmen on election issues.
4. Interest in relations between the United States and Angola surfaced
this month when an Angolan delegation, on a visit to Brazzaville in the Congo,
met with a U.S. delegation led by Chester Crocker. This coincided to some
extent with a move to reopen the Benguela railroad, as an alternative to South
African routes for moving goods from central Africa to the coast. The Benguela
railroad has long been closed by the MPLA-UNITA fighting.
5. Starvation in Mozambique also became a topic of major international
concern, as large relief efforts have begun to help solve a problem which many
observers say has reached the level of the Ethiopian situation of a few years
ago.
B. Technical
1. The new Victor VPC II computer arrived in mid-April as a backup
to the IBM hard disk now in use in the Teleop room. The new Victor is being
tested an hooked up to an ASR before being installed in the Teleop room as
a "hot" spare.
2. Both Bureau UPS units were modified by a contractor in April-so
that these units would recognize the slightly different power from the Bureau
generator and click off. Previously, whenever the city power went off, the
UPS units would continue to operate until exhausted, not recognizing the
generator power as legitimate.
3. Fluctuating city power has caused the Bureau to use its generator
frequently during April. The unsteady power has caused the Bureau lights to
flicker rapidly on and off, giving us a nightly light show until the editors
cut off city power entirely and rely on the generator exclusively. The
problem, we think, can be traced to a new city transformer installed a block
away two months ago, but repeated calls and pleas to various levels of the
Swazi Electricity Board have been fruitless so far.
4. A new microwave oven for office use was bought and installed
in April. This should allow our hardworking staff to get a quick hot meal
during busy shifts, a special advantage during this heavy election coverage
period.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
III. ADMINISTRATION
A. Personnel
Periodic Step Increases were awarded in April to Bureau monitor
and teletypist
IV. VISITS
Embassy GSO supply personnel had a tour of the Bureau on 28 April to get
an idea of the size of the operation, and our small supply needs, which they
purchase locally for us.
V. COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
The Bureau Chief and Deputy Chief, and their spouses, have been working
with the American parents group to develop a program of supplementary education
for their primary and secondary school children. The group has interviewed
three potential teachers for an afternoon program of additional instruction in
such areas as social studies, American studies, science, computer studies, and
remedial reading and math. We have also procured copies of the Stanford
Achievement test, which the GSO (a former New York City teacher) has volunteered
to administer, to test the children's abilities compared to their American
peers.
, Swaziland Bureau
STAT
STAT
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/04: CIA-RDP88-00733R000100130009-1
Swaziland Bureau Production Report for APRIL
1987
I.
TOTAL
TOTALS FROM ALL SOURCES:
PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH:
434350
TOTAL
NON-PUSL I SHABL_E WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH:
!4900
TOTAL
NUMBER OF PUBLISHABLE ITEMS FILED DURING MONTH:
987
BROAD-
C '"`
r-f?~ 1.-S ,
PRESS
AGENCIES
I 'U[:L i -
..r.
CATIONS
I .[ . INPUT OF REGULAR COVE-RAGE: 7024.00 13980.00 131.00
(minutes or issues per week) min. min. i s-;ues
III. OUTF'U"i FROM A[._!.... SOURCES:
(pu.b1 i. shabl e words per month.'
ANGOLA
Luanda Domestic Service in
Portuguese
BOTSWANA
Gaborone Domestic Service in
English
Gaborone BOTSWANA DAILY NEWS in
English
CLANDESTINE
(Clandestine) Radio Truth in
English to Zimbabwe
(Clandestine) Radio Truth in
Ndebel e to Zimbabwe
(Clandestine) Voice of Resistance of the
Black Cockerel in
Portuguese to Angola
(Clandestine) KUF' in
Portuguese to Southern and Central
Africa
(Clandestine)