Rome (Fides Service) - The general chapter of the Mariannhill Missionaries has elected a new Superior General and board of councillors. The new Superior is German born Fr Dieter Gahlen, aged 54 who has worked in South Africa for a long time. The general councillors are: Fr. Siegfried Mandla Jwara born in 1957 in Braemar (South Africa), until now provincial superior; Lay Br. Thomas Fischer, born in 1962 at Oberwinden (Germany), he has been on mission in Zimbabwe and is the first lay brother to be elected a member of the general government; Fr. David Fernandez, born 1948 at Prioro (Spain) missionary in Zimbabwe; Fr. Peter Grand, elected Vicar General, born in 1942 at Susten (Switzerland) he has worked in South Africa and in Zambia. I Mariannhill Missionaries were founded in 1882 as a religious congregation of Mariannhill Trappist Monastery in Kwa Zulu Natal (South Africa). Today the missionaries are 384 priests and brothers. They have communities in Europe, North America, Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Mozambique) and Papua New Guinea. (S. L.) (Fides Service 29/10/2002)