Monthly Archives: May 2012

BRITS POLICE ON THE HEELS OF FIVE ATM BOMBERS!!!

NEWS Leave a comment

Pic: (Taken from internet)

BY Obakeng Maje

An Automated Telling Machine (ATM) was bombed in Brits in the early hours of Thursday 31 May 2012 at about 2:00.

The incident occurred at Assen Green Store.  Police are still looking for five suspects who run away after allegedly blasting the ATM.

Police were summoned to a scene after they received a tip off that there were people who are trying to bomb an ATM. The police team, swiftly reacted to the information and pursued them, during the alleged chase,

“The suspects started shooting at the police and that resulted on cross fire between the police and the suspects. No one was injured during the shooting spree”Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.  

North West police together with a team formed by National Intervention, two police choppers, tracker  team (suspect tracing unit) and  K9 Unit were part of the search.

“The suspects drove away and decided to abandon their car and left the scene on foot and disappeared along the bushes around  Madinyana near Jerico” Ngubane continues. 

The abandoned Golf 5 vehicle has been under police guard and it is believed to have been high jacked from Midrand in 2011.

Pistol live ammunition, R5, AK 47 rifles , empty cartridges and undisclosed amount of cash were found inside the vehicle. 

The search for the five suspects still continues and the police are urging community members  around Jerico and Madinyana not try and arrest the suspects by themselves.

They are urging community to report them to the nearest Police Station.

Follow us on twitter @Taung_DailyNews

Safa settles Sangoma debt

NEWS Leave a comment

BY Tiyani Mabasa

Muti man S’bonelo Madela claims that the South African Football Association have settled his debt, meaning there is nothing stopping Bafana Bafana from winning matches now. 

Madela is the sangoma who alleged that Safa reneged on a muti deal post the Fifa 2010 World Cup, but now he is a happy man and the nation can breathe a sigh of relief after this muti drama.

“They gave me the money,” Madela tells KickOff.com, but refused to comment further except to assure the nation that all is fine now.

Madela claimed last year that he ‘worked’ on the stadium in Bloemfontein, where Bafana beat France 2-1 and he was paid R10 000 instead of the R100 000 the two parties allegedly agreed on.

Bafana have not won a match since Madela made threats in October that they will not win until Safa pay him.
Now they will face Ethiopia on Sunday aware that Madela’s so-called ‘boy’ won’t be playing goalkeeper for the opposition.

All is well that ends well.

Follow me on Twitter @Taung_DailyNews

Tough guys are softies really

NEWS Leave a comment

vinnie jones lib

Related Stories

Tough guys are really softies at heart, a study suggests.

Psychologists found that men with a more aggressive appearance – typically those with wider faces – were more likely to sacrifice themselves to help friends or colleagues.

The researchers, at the University of St Andrews, gave students money to play a game in which they could either enrich themselves or risk their cash to assist their group.

Dr Michael Stirrat said: “It was surprising… our participants with wider faces were more co-operative than the other men.”

Previous research had found that men with wide faces are judged to be aggressive and dishonest, while facial masculinity has also been commonly associated with a perceived lack of warmth and co-operation.

The university said the study, published this week, lends greater understanding to masculinity and male group behaviour and overturns previous theories that masculine looking men are “bad to the bone”.

Dr Stirrat, a researcher at the School of Psychology’s Perception Lab, said: “Dominant looking men – typically characterised by wide faces – are often portrayed as ‘bad to the bone’, but we wondered whether the relationship between facial width and personality was really so simple.

“We suspected that men who look aggressive and untrustworthy might actually be good guys in some contexts.”

One example is that of Terry Butcher, who famously played on for England in a World Cup qualifier in 1989, despite blood pouring from his head and covering his white strip after being injured.

Another is the late Colin ‘Mad Mitch’ Mitchell, the soldier who led the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the British reoccupation of the Crater district of Aden in 1967.

‘Mad Mitch’, whose reoccupation of the Crater became known as “the Last Battle of the British Empire”, went on to manage a charitable trust involved in the removal of land mines.

The original football hard man Vinnie Jones has also changed his image by going on to front adverts for the British Heart Foundation, in which he performs CPR to the tune of Staying Alive.

The findings suggest that facial width may be related to performance and achievement because these men put more time and effort into groups of close friends and colleagues.

The results support recent research that showed that the facial width of male chief executives predicts their business performance and the facial width of male presidential candidates predicts their drive for achievement.

In the St Andrews study, half of the students given money by researchers were told that the outcomes of the game would be compared with St Andrews students, the other half that they would be compared with a rival university.

The prediction was that the wider faced men would respond to the rivalry in the second condition and sacrifice their money for their own group.

Dr Stirrat said: “It was surprising that our predictions were confirmed; when we mentioned the rival university, our participants with wider faces were more cooperative than the other men.

“When we didn’t mention the rivalry, they were much less cooperative.”

The researchers say that compared with women, men appear to be more sensitive to intergroup relationships, especially when they are being observed.

The results suggest that while more robust males may show more ‘masculine’ behaviour in anti-social ways, such as physical aggression, they are also more likely to make sacrifices to support the groups to which they belong.

Dr Stirrat said: “The same characteristics in men predict both anti-social and pro-social behaviour, depending on the context.” – Daily Mail

The study is published in the journal Psychological Science.

Cleaner accused of raping boss’s son

NEWS Leave a comment

gavel_may 14

Related Stories

A Cape Town domestic worker has been arrested for allegedly raping her boss’s teenage son.

The accused was fired from her job and found herself behind bars when her employer allegedly found out that she had sexually assaulted the woman’s 15-year-old son.

The woman was arrested on April 14 and faces a charge of statutory rape.

Two days later she appeared in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court where prosecutor Shaina Naidoo told the court that the 24-year-old woman had been employed by a Bergvliet family as their domestic worker.

 

She told Magistrate Marietjie van Eeden that while working for the family, the accused had allegedly forced the teenage boy to have sexual intercourse with her.

Naidoo asked the court to postpone the matter for a week while police investigators checked if she had any pending cases or previous convictions.

When the accused appeared in court again on April 23, she was told that the State was not opposing her release on bail.

But Naidoo asked the court to set strict conditions as part of her bail.

In her sworn affidavit handed to the court, the accused said she knew the boy and his family for a year and knew where they lived.

 

She said that she lived with her grandmother in Macassar and that she had a one-year-old dependant.

She also said that she intended pleading not guilty.

The accused’s bail was set at R300 and she was warned not to make any contact with the boy or his family.

She was instructed to stay out of the Bergvliet area and to report to the Macassar Police Station every Monday and Wednesday between 6pm and 10pm.

The accused was back in court on Wednesday where she heard that cops had wrapped up their investigation into the alleged incident and were ready to proceed with the trial.

Naidoo asked the court to postpone the case so that arrangements can be made for the matter to be transferred to the Wynberg Regional Court.

The accused was not home when the Daily Voice visited her on Wednesday.

Her grandmother, who was sitting in the doorway, said the accused wasn’t home and sent a young girl to call the woman’s sister.

“She lives in the bungalow at the back with her sister,” says the ouma.

“I don’t know where she is but maybe her sister will know.”

When the sister came to the door, she insisted that she didn’t know where the accused was.

“Ek is haar sister. Vir wat soek julle vir haar (I’m here sister. Why are you looking for her)?” she asked.

“Who sent you to come look for her?”

 

The young woman folded her arms across her chest and insisted she didn’t know where her sister was.

“She hasn’t come home yet and I don’t know where she is or what time she’ll be home.”

*This article was published in the Daily Voice

Naked face-eater’s girlfriend blames voodoo

NEWS Leave a comment

iol news pic Rudi Eugene zombie man may 31

Related Stories

The girlfriend of the man who chewed off most of another man’s face believes her boyfriend was either drugged or a voodoo curse was put on him, according to a report.

The bloody spectacle unfolded mid-afternoon on Saturday, when police were alerted by the public as the attack was being carried out near Miami’s MacArthur Causeway.

Police ordered a naked Rudy Eugene, 31, to stop the assault, then fatally shot him when he continued to gnaw at the face of his victim, who was also naked.

Television footage and news photos have shown the two men sprawled on the sidewalk side by side, with the victim barely conscious and covered in blood with up to 75 percent of his face ripped off.

The victim, identified as 65-year-old homeless man Ronald Poppo, is fighting for his life in hospital.

Eugene’s on-off girlfriend of five years, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Miami Herald that either Eugene had either been drugged unknowingly or it was something supernatural – that someone put a voodoo curse on him.

 

Eugene was originally from Haiti, where voodoo is chiefly practised. His girlfriend, who is not Haitian, said she believed someone put a curse on him.

“I don’t know how else to explain this,” she said.

According to the report, she said the depictions of Eugene as a face-chewing monster do not make sense to her.

“Something happened out of the ordinary that day. I don’t want him to be labelled the Miami Zombie,” she told the Miami Herald.

She remembered Eugene as a man of faith who had recently been trying to stop smoking marijuana.

She insisted that he had never used any recreational drugs besides marijuana and was even trying to quit. Eugene would refuse to take over-the-counter medication for headaches and was sweet and well-mannered, she told the Miami Herald.

Eugene’s mother, Ruth Charles, also talked to the media to defend her son.

“Everybody says that he was a zombie, but I know he’s not a zombie; he’s my son,” she told CBS.

She also suspected he had been drugged.

“I don’t know what they injected in him to turn him into the person who did what he did,” she told CBS.

Eugene’s girlfriend said when she first saw TV reports of the attack, she had no idea Eugene was behind it.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, that’s crazy’,” she told the Miami Herald.

But she said she had been trying to call Eugene, who had left her house on the morning of the attack, but could not get in contact with him.

She told the paper that Eugene had called her earlier on Saturday to say his car had broken down, and when she had not heard back from him later in the day, she started feeling uneasy.

But it was not until Monday, when she was contacted by a member of Eugene’s family, that she found out that he was behind the grisly attack.

“I’ll never be the same,” she told the paper.

Police initially said the attack could have been provoke by an overdose of a powerful new form of LSD mixed along with “cocaine psychosis.”

Reports however on Tuesday suggested Eugene was likely under the influence of the synthetic stimulant “bath salts” made with the active agent mephedrone, which produces an often aggressive, chaotic experience for users, coupled with intense hallucinations. IOL, Sapa-AP, AFP

Nazir Alli to stay put – Motlanthe

NEWS Leave a comment

iol pic si nazir alli

Related Stories

 

Sanral CEO Nazir Alli, who resigned last month, is to “stay put”, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday.

“There is no search for a new CEO,” Motlanthe said in Cape Town.

Speaking in Cape Town at a media briefing on the controversial e-tolling system that the government is seeking to impose on Gauteng highways, he confirmed the resignation had been withdrawn.

Asked if this meant Alli had withdrawn his resignation, he said the SA National Roads Agency Ltd’s board had received the resignation, but Alli had proffered it in the belief that he was not contributing towards solving Sanral’s problems.

“We received a letter of resignation… (but) indeed the problem did not revolve around him… So there was an understanding he stays put.”

The board had still to formally deal with the matter.

Earlier, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele told journalists what Alli had been trying to do with his resignation was say: “If I’m the problem, I want to remove myself.”

However, the government felt Alli was not the problem.

“So that (his resignation) is not on… So we need to continue, particularly in this (coming) period, because we need all the experience that we have… we want all hands on deck,” Ndebele said. – Sapa


Pregnant in Grade 3

NEWS Leave a comment

AMUKELANI CHAUKE

The numbe

A report compiled by the Department of Basic Education, released earlier this month, details a litany of negative circumstances under which children are expected to complete their schooling.

The report, “The Annual Surveys for Ordinary Schools for 2009-2010”, says that:

  • In Grade 3 alone, about 109 pupils fell pregnant in 2009 – as against “only” 17 in the same grade in 2008. In Grade 4, the number increased to 107 from 69 in 2008, and in Grade 5 297 girls fell pregnant in 2009;
  • The highest concentration of pregnant pupils was in high schools, from Grade 7 to Grade 9;
  • In 2009, a total of 45276 girls became pregnant;
  • Only 25% of ordinary schools had an e-mail address in 2010, and about 54% of schools had land-line telephones. Only 3% of schools in Limpopo had e-mail, compared with 98% in Western Cape, “a glaring inequality”; and
  • About 26% of schools had multi-grade classes in 2010, most of them in Eastern Cape.

Other societal factors mentioned in the report are that as many as a million children grow up without a father, and many others depend on the extensive social grant network for financial support.

The report, compiled from surveys taken in March every year at public and private schools, deals only with pupils. The department is expected to release the results of its research on teachers at a later stage.

An education specialist warned yesterday that if the problems cited in the report did not receive urgent attention South Africa would pay a high price.

Professor Kobus Maree, a lecturer in educational psychology at the University of Pretoria, said the Grade 3 pregnancy rate was “appalling” and “deeply upsetting”. A large number of these children became pregnant because of rape or abuse, he said.

“This is really unacceptable. For all those children who fall pregnant in Grade 3, how many rapists are brought to book? If you look at these figures, that means there are many rapists in the country walking around free.”

Maree said teachers to whom he had recently spoken felt that the teaching of life orientation had been dumped on them without adequate training. He recommended that the government make community service compulsory for child psychologists and they be used for teacher training at schools.

Maree said pupils in the higher grades often got pregnant to qualify for social grants.

The number of child grants is a reflection of the reliance of people on the social safety net provided by the government.

The 2813976 children receiving grants in 2009 increased to 3110688 a year later.

In 2010, 37% of all pupils in Eastern Cape and 32% of pupils in Mpumalanga received the monthly grant of R260.

Maree said that, though the government had to shoulder much of the blame, parents were also responsible because they did not give their children sufficient support.

The report shows that in 2010 more than 40% of government schools relied on a principal’s cellphone for communication.

Schools in two of the poorest provinces, Eastern Cape and Limpopo, were the most reliant on private cellphones, at 69% and 71% respectively.

Maree said that though the government had allocated a large chunk of its budget to education, incompetent and complacent public officials were not delivering educational infrastructure and other resources.

He cited the Pretoria High Court order that the Basic Education Department deliver textbooks to pupils in Limpopo by June 15.

The government should hire qualified employees to clean up the system – irrespective of politics or race, Maree said.

r of primary school girls getting pregnant has soared in the past few years.

 

Pienaar: Ethiopia are not amateurs

NEWS Leave a comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BY Tiyani waka Mabasa

Bafana Bafana captain Steven Pienaar has cautioned that Ethiopia are not amateurs and must, therefore, not be taken lightly.


‘Schillo’ will lead South Africa out on Sunday when they take on the Ethiopians in Bafana’s first match of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, and he says the team will leave nothing to chance.

“We know what lies ahead of us and this is important not just for the players, but for the whole country. It is really important that we qualify,” Pienaar says.

Bafana are placed 67th in world rankings while Ethiopia are 138th, but Pienaar insists that no team is a walkover these days.

“We will go into the game as favourites, but we just have to treat it as a normal game. We will be playing against 11 players, not amateurs. We have to give everything from the first to the last minute,” he says.

“We know Ethiopia is not gonna be an easy game; there are no easy games in football anymore so we know what is expected from us. We know it’s not gonna be easy at all.”

Meanwhile, Pienaar has welcomed the return of Siyabonga ‘Bhele’ Nomvete into the national team fold, saying there is plenty of fight left in the 34-year-old.

“Bhele has been around for so many years and he knows what is expected at the highest level. He’s been the top player in the League and it is good to have him back in the team… Sometimes you can expect the unexpected from him. He looks like he is 20 years old,” Pienaar adds.

 

2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust Opens 1 JUNE 2012

NEWS Leave a comment

BY Obakeng Maje

The 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP LEGACY TRUST today announced that the first applications for the funding of Trust opens on 1 June 2012 and will remain open for 2 months, closing on the 31 July 2012.  The Trust will be disbursing a total of R40 million of the R450.0 million received from FIFA as a legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,

The 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust is an entity established by FIFA and the South African Football Association (SAFA) at the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to promote and extend the development and the reach of the game of football within South Africa. It has to address critical gaps in Football development in all provinces of the Republic. In addition it has to support education and healthcare initiatives of NGO’s who use football as a vehicle a for community development as well as for humanitarian assistance for those in historically disadvantaged and impoverished communities.

The Fund focuses primarily on interventions that fall within the ambit of SAFA’s National Development Framework.  The Trust will have a deliberate bias towards strategic national programmes that aim to enhance football development in South Africa

The 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust will consider funding applications for the following
    (a)    Football development programmes including Courses for referees, coaches, administrators and players, Facility improvement and development, Equipment, Academies. This includes two categories of funding – one category for projects exceeding R10 000 that will require amongst other, business plans, financial statement and regular reporting and the second category for funding less than R10 000 for equipment where the only requirements would be the application form, a constitution and a letter of support from the Local Football Association (LFA) or Region. Strategic national, provincial and regional football development programmes which aims to improve the quality of football along the development continuum will enjoy priority. 
    (b)    Education including Bursaries for football players, coaches, referees and administrators (professionals included) as well as funding for NGOs that use football as a vehicle for community development through  Life skills, leadership and other relevant programmes.  Relevant football research projects will also be considered under this category.
    (c)    Health including Healthy lifestyle through football programmes, Research and development on football related health matters as well Training of specialist medical personnel for football teams
    (d)    Humanitarian causes including funding for football communities struck by disaster or tragedy

3. Who can apply?

The Trust will fund or subsidize projects of the following institutions/organizations:
•    SAFA
•    SAFA Regions
•    SAFA Local Football Associations
•    SAFA Associate Members
•    Amateur Clubs playing in amateur leagues
•    Schools and Universities
•    Supporters Clubs that are registered with SAFA
•    NGO’S that primarily use football as a vehicle for community development
•    NGOs hosting the 20 Centres for 2010
•    Other suitable structures that have a connection with football

REQUIREMENTS
All applicants for football development projects (total amount exceeding R10 000) must:
    (a)    Be Public Benefit Organisations (PBOs)
    (b)    Affiliated Members of SAFA or SAFA Regions or SAFA Local Football Associations and in good standing
    (c)    Include this application form, a Project Business Plan with an itemized budget and timelines
    (d)    Include the last Audited Annual Financial Statements the last annual report and its constitution
    (e)    Prove that the projects fall within the SAFA National  Development Framework

All applicants for football equipment (total amount not exceeding R10 000) must:

    (a)    Amateur Clubs (Voluntary Associations) or education institutions 
    (b)    Affiliated Members of SAFA or SAFA Regions or SAFA Local Football Associations and in good standing
    (c)    Provide an application form accompanied by the club’s constitution and a letter of recommendation from the SAFA LFA or Region

All applicants for education, healthcare and humanitarian projects through football must:

    (a)    Be Public Benefit Organisations (PBOs) These “qualifying‟ beneficiaries should be any one or more of the following: other SARS-approved public benefit organisations; or institutions contemplated in section 10(1)(cA)(i) of the Income Tax Act which conduct one or more public benefit activities; or associations of persons carrying on one or more public benefit activities; or department of state or administration in the national or provincial or local sphere of government contemplated in section 10(1)(a) or (b) of the Income Tax Act
    (b)    Be Non government organisations (NGO’s) who primarily use football for community/youth development  
    (c)    Include a Project Business Plan with an itemized budget and timelines
    (d)    Include the last Audited Annual Financial Statements and its constitution

How to submit your application?
Applications can be submitted through
Post:  Private Bag 2010, Mondeor, Johannesburg, 2091
Hand delivery: SAFA House, 76 Nasrec Road, Nasrec Ext 3, Johannesburg
Email address – fifalegacytrustapplications@2010oc.com
Enquiries:  Ms Sekganya Lebenya, SAFA House, Tel: 011 567 2008, Email: Sekganya.lebenya@2010oc.com, Fax: 011 494 3161

SA U20 looking to conquer the world’s best!!!

NEWS Leave a comment

BY Obakeng Maje

Having booked their place in the semi-finals of the 8-Nation International Tournament, the South African National Under-20 National Team (Amajita) is looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.

Amajita secured their position in the last four of the Cape Town-based tournament with a hard-fought one nil (1-0) win over Nigeria at the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday night (29 May 2012).

The result saw them finish second in Group A on six points, behind Argentina who accumulated their seventh point with a goalless (0-0) draw against Ghana.

The host nation did superbly well to bounce back from their opening game 3-1 loss to Argentina by beating Ghana 2-0 and then triumphing over the Flying Eagles, both formidable opponents.

While not as prolific in front of goal as they could have been, Amajita have excelled in all other aspects of play.

Their attractive football has captured the imagination. Since conceding three in the opening game, the defence has been watertight. The midfield has shone with their pace, skill and invention, and both strikers – Thabani Mthembu (two goals) and Jerry Mxabo have found the net.

Now coach Solly Luvhengo is looking to guide his side into the next phase, where Brazil could well be the opponents, if not Japan.

“I’m happy that we have advanced to the semi-finals as that means we are guaranteed two more games together (the semi-final plus potentially the final, or a third place play-off). This tournament is about getting as much experience as possible for the young players. Facing Brazil or Japan will be a big, big test of character.

“We have beaten two countries from Africa. I said from the beginning that each match will be tougher than the next. The challenge now is to go beyond that and beat teams from other continents,” he said.

The semi-finals will take place at the Athlone Stadium on Friday (1 June) evening, at 18H00 and 20H30, with Brazil, Japan, Argentina and South Africa set to entertain the Mother City with some exhilarating performances, if matches to date are anything to gauge by.

The final will take place at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday (16H30), with the play-off for third place kicking off at 14H00.

The tournament has thus far warmed up what has been an icy cold Cape Town. On the field, there has been an array of exciting young talents that have caught the eye. 

Amajita attacking playmaker Snethemba Ngidi, Argentine holding midfielder Alan Ruiz, Ghana left back Baba Abdul, Brazil centre back Wellington dos Santos and Japan attacker Shuto Minami have stood out in particular.

In the stands, there has been plenty of colour and entertainment as well, mainly with an African flavour.

The local brass band has provided the soundtrack, with good accompaniment from, in particular, a vocal group of Cameroon supporters, with Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria also having their own countrymen in attendance. There has even been a small but proud group of Japanese supporters.

Further up the stands in the VIP boxes, have been a host of local dignitaries and well-know football personalities.

Ajax Cape Town coach Maarten Stekelenburg, Boebie Solomons from Santos, Supersport United’s Gavin Hunt and Ernst Middendorp from Maritzburg United have all been spotted at the event.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s brother, Martin Ferguson, who works as a scout for Manchester United, is also reported to have been in attendance, so too have representatives from Real Madrid as well as clubs from Italy and Brazil.