From the BBC - 17 September

United Kingdom Foreign Office advice describing Uganda as poorly prepared to deal with the millennium computer bug has raised hackles in Kampala.

The New Vision quoted the manager of the country's Y2K task force as demanding "an immediate apology" , saying the reports were based on old data.

But The Monitor called on the government to do more in the field of information technology.

"If Uganda does not treat the Internet urgently, it might as well be that we never learned to read and write," the paper said.

"Just as the Uganda government after 1986 made HIV/Aids awareness a national obsession, the Internet will need to be publicised as our pathway to future development. We cannot afford to default on this one, whatever our other national shortcomings."

In South Africa, the millennium bug was deemed less of a headache than the country's ongoing crime crisis.

"Y2K has nothing on SA criminals" was how South Africa's Business Day interpreted a US State Department update on millennium compliance.

It quoted extracts from the report saying South Africa appeared generally well-prepared to deal with the problem but visitors should be wary of violence and crime.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 17, 1999