Daily Archives: May 7, 2012

Gaxa for Chiefs?

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Former Mamelodi Sundowns defender Siboniso Gaxa returns to South Africa this week for holidays following the completion of the Belgian Pro League where he plays for Lierse SK, but is also faced with the possibility of staying longer. 

Word is that two teams – one of them Kaizer Chiefs – are interested in signing Gaxa, who is also said to be considering a return to the PSL if he fails to move on from Lierse.
 
Giving weight to a Chiefs move is that Gaxa is familiar with prospective head coach Stuart Baxter – the man that handed him his first Bafana Bafana cap in 2005.
  
Gaxa has been at Lierse for two years playing regularly for the first team – who finished in 12th position this season – but is apparently said to favour a move away from the club, though he still has a year remaining on his contract.

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How many fights can a bedroom take?

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unhappy couple

By Deborah Andrews

London – The average couple bicker in the bedroom 167 times a year – with nabbing the duvet emerging as the biggest grumble, a survey has found.

Researchers have uncovered a host of annoyances couples face when they’re between the sheets.

The age-old problem of snoring ranks second to yanking the duvet from each other as a reason for a night-time squabble.

One in 10 couples claim to have a bust-up over snoring at least twice a week – with more than half of respondents saying men are the worst culprits.

But 39 percent said the two sexes were as bad as each other, according to the poll by hotel chain Premier Inn.

Other bedroom conflicts include whingeing about being too hot, allowing the children to sleep in the bed, and not being “in the mood”.

Claire Haigh said: “Our research shows most of the arguments couples have in the bedroom are down to habits that are easy to resolve as a relationship develops.

“People suffer from snoring to varying degrees and the research shows how something like snoring can impact on our day to day lives, especially if one person in the relationship is missing out on much-needed sleep.”

The poll found the average person was disturbed nearly twice a week by their partner’s snoring, but one night a week they awakened themselves with their own heavy breathing.

The survey studied 2 000 people, all of whom were in a relationship. Of these, exactly half said their other half snored.

Other bones of contention in the boudoir are allowing children to sleep in the marital bed and venturing on to the wrong side.

Being touched by freezing cold feet is also likely to cause tension, as is the bedroom being too chilly.

The time at which couples go to bed, leaving lights on to read and leaving drinks on the bedside table are also likely to spark a spat, the survey has found.

But it’s no wonder there is confusion – cuddling for too long can cause problems in a relationship, as can not cuddling for long enough. – Daily Mail

What couples fight about

1. Hogging the duvet

2. Snoring

3. Being too hot

4. Not being “in the mood”

5. Allowing kids to sleep in the bed

6. Venturing on to the wrong side of the bed

7. Being too cold

8. Being touched by your partner’s cold feet

9. The time at which you go to bed

10. Leaving a light on to read

Limpopo students face murder charges

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About 100 students will be charged with murder and assault following an attack in which a man died at the University of Limpopo, police said on Monday.

The students assaulted a group of eight men accused of robbing a student of a cellphone on the Mankweng campus on Thursday, Constable Moses Molepo said.

However, investigations had revealed that the men were merely visitors.

“The men visited the campus during Thursday and not in the early hours of Wednesday, when the student was robbed.”

Molepo said there was no evidence linking the men to the robbery.

“The student who was robbed was not able to identify any of the accused men.”

The eight men were attacked with sticks, stones, and other weapons.

“Three of the men managed to escape while the five others were badly injured. One of the men died in hospital on Friday.”

Molepo said the students also stoned the ambulance called to take the injured men to hospital, but did not hurt the medics. They broke a campus office window.

“At this stage police are trying to establish who the involved students were in order to charge them.”

Molepo urge anyone with information about the attack to contact the police. – Sapa


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RDP homeowners get R1.5m bill

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jhb billing chaos

By ANNA COX

he City of Joburg’s billing chaos is going from bad to worse.

Now the council has revived a year-old disputed bill for R1.5 million for an RDP house that runs on prepaid services, and sent the shocked homeowners a pre-termination notice.

The city cannot explain how such accounts and pre-termination notices are generated.

The Cosmo City residents, who have pre-paid electricity and water for their RDP house, received the pre-termination notice demanding payment of R1.5m.

Mapule Emily Matsinhe, a domestic worker, and her husband Edward received the pre-termination notice, which was sent to the correct name at the correct address.

Because they use pay-as-you-go electricity and water, they do not owe anything for services, said Mapule’s employer, Anne Naylor, who is trying to get to the bottom of the mess.

“We have phoned the number quoted and have not received any advice as to what to do about this,” she said.

The Matsinhes were sent the huge bill about a year ago and queried it then. They hadn’t seen a bill until the problem resurfaced, much to Edward’s confusion.

“We got this bill last year, and we don’t know what to do, so we asked our employers to help us.

“We can’t pay this money as we live in an RDP house,” said Mapule.

The council says the matter is still under investigation. It says that on the system, the rates account reflects an outstanding amount of R295.

“Our team is investigating the errors relating to the final process of printing of statements (configurations), which is suspected to be the source of a problem with the termination notice the customer received,” said revenue department spokesman Kgamanyane Stan Maphologela.

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Buying a home won’t get much cheaper!!!

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Several housing experts are predicting that this year will be the last chance for home buyers to cash in on the weak housing market.

By Les Christie

Several housing experts are predicting that this year will be the last chance for homebuyers to cash in on the weak housing market.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Buying a home may never get any cheaper than this. Several housing experts are predicting that this year will be the last chance for bargain hunters to cash in on the best deals of the weak housing market.

With home prices down 34% nationally since 2006 and mortgage rates at historic lows, homes have never been more affordable — but it won’t stay this way for much longer.

Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services (PNC,Fortune 500), said he expects home prices to flatten out by the third quarter and start climbing by next year.

A number of factors will help bolster the housing market, he said, including a decline in the number of foreclosures and continued job growth. In addition, homebuyers will have better access to mortgages as they get their finances in order and improve their credit scores.

Some economists, like Trulia’s Jed Kolko, expect home prices to pick up even more quickly. Trulia’s data shows that the national average for asking prices already increased 1.4% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the last three months of 2011.

“This is a strong indicator that we will start seeing home price indexes, like the S&P/Case-Shiller, start to report home price increases this summer,” he said.

Prospective homebuyers who’ve been sitting on the fence shouldn’t worry if they aren’t quite ready to make the leap. Analysts are predicting that the initial price gains will be modest, at least, in most markets.

Hoffman, for example, is forecasting a 2% increase in 2013 compared with 2012. Meanwhile David Stiff, chief economist for Fiserv, predicts that prices will turn in the last quarter of 2012 and will rise 4.2% for the 12 months through September 2013.

Foreclosures start to fade. One major factor that will drive the trend is the cooling of the foreclosure crisis. Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, said that the percentage of mortgage loans 90 days or more late, a good predictor of future foreclosures, is “falling fast.”

That percentage dropped 15% year-over-year to 3.1% through the end of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And the decline is accelerating: More than 70% of the decline came in the last three months of the year.

Before things slow down, however, buyers should brace themselves for a temporary spike in the number of foreclosures as banks start expediting the processing of hundreds of thousands foreclosures that were stuck in the system following the robo-signing scandal. That backlog should move more quickly now that new guidelines for processing foreclosures have been outlined in the $26 billion foreclosure settlement.

Many of the bank-owned properties currently coming out of the foreclosure pipeline are being snapped up by investors who are fixing them up and renting them out — often to those who were displaced by the foreclosure of their own home. That has helped to lift prices on foreclosed properties, according to Alex Villacorte, the director of analytics for Clear Capital, which specializes in housing market valuations.

“That could have a significant impact on the market overall in terms of providing a rising floor to home values,” he said.

In some markets hit hard by foreclosures, the turnaround in prices is already underway. Phoenix recorded an 8.4% jump in home prices during the three months ended April 30, compared with the three months ended January 31, according to Clear Capital.

“It’s crazy,” said Tanya Marchiol, founder of Team Investments, a Phoenix real estate investing firm. “Stuff I was selling six months ago for $60,000 to $80,000 is now $90,000 to $110,000.”

Miami saw a 4.6% increase quarter-over-quarter through April, andTampa, Fla., was up 4.4%, according to Clear Capital.

Goodbye 3.8% mortgage. In addition to home prices, mortgages could also move higher.

Mortgage rates have been at or near historic lows for much of the past six months. The average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has not topped 4.5% since July 2011 and this week, it hit 3.84%, a new low.

But rates aren’t expected to remain at these record-low levels much longer. As the economy continues to recover, rates will move higher, said Doug Lebda, CEO of LendingTree, the online lending site. Although, he said, they will “stay very reasonable.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association is forecasting that the 30-year fixed will hit 4.5% by the end of the year.

Greater demand for loans will help fuel the increase, according to Lebda.

Even though mortgage rates have been cheap, borrowing for home purchases has been sluggish. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that homebuyers will take out mortgage loans totaling about $415 billion this year, an increase of less than 3% compared with 2011. Next year, however, it forecasts that amount will almost double to $706 billion.

As housing markets stabilize and prices stop falling, homebuyers will be even more confident about buying, said Humphries.

“People can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “And that can be enough to get them off the fence.”

 

 

Cop ‘burnt fiancée, son to death’

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IOL news may 7 NM mthembu6.JPG

By Bongani Hans]

A Durban police officer allegedly killed his fiancée and their six-week-old son by setting them alight after he spent the whole day terrorising his fiancée’s family members on Saturday.

The 32-year-old constable from the Durban Port Security Service was also badly burnt in the fire that killed his son Lungelo and Bonisiwe Violla Mthembu, a mother of three children.

Mthembu, 32, an agricultural science teacher at Mandlenkosi High School in Lindelani, died at her parents’ home in Inanda, north of Durban. Her two daughters, Amanda and Mbali, aged three and 10, were not injured.

For seven hours, Mthembu had locked herself in her bedroom to hide away from her fiancé, who allegedly tried to attack her several times with a firearm.

Mthembu’s younger sister, Ntombizodwa, said Mthembu had first escaped death on Friday after the constable had doused her with petrol at his nearby home.

Ntombizodwa said she had just handed young Lungelo to her mother in the bedroom when the man started the fire at Mthembu’s house at 8pm after breaking a back window and entering.

On hearing her sister crying for help, Ntombizodwa and other family members rushed to try to save her.

“I forced the door open and saw my sister covered in flames.

“I tried to save her by pulling her out of the room, but (the man) doused me with the petrol. I escaped as he was striking a match,” said Ntombizodwa.

She said she later saw the man burning.

All that was left in the bedroom where Mthembu and Lungelo were killed were the charred remains of furniture. The rest of the six-room house was also damaged by the fire.

On Sunday, a group of police officers was seen at the house searching for the constable’s service pistol.

Ntombizodwa said that before he had started the fire, the armed man had spent hours terrorising her family.

Mthembu locked herself in the bedroom after neighbours told her that they had seen the man carrying a petrol container, which he had hidden in a bush outside the house.

“(He) arrived at the house at about 2pm and demanded to talk to my sister, who refused to open the door.

“With a firearm in his hand, he forced my mother to try and convince my sister to open the door, but he was unsuccessful.

“He left, but at about 8pm I heard a window breaking and my sister shouting for help. I rushed to help her, but it was too late,” she said.

Neighbours helped to put the fire out before the badly burnt bodies of Mthembu and Lungelo were found. The constable was found with injuries and taken to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.

Mthembu’s elder sister, Nhlanhla Mthembu, said her sister and the constable had been in a relationship for the past four years, and had been living together at his nearby house. But she moved back with her parents a few months ago. Family members believed he had been frustrated by financial problems.

“They had been in the process of finalising wedding preparations. He had paid bride price although they had not finalised the wedding date,” said Nhlanhla.

 

Her sister had previously taught at Nombika High School in Ndwedwe and Myeka High School in Inanda.

Police spokesman Jay Naicker said that a case of murder and arson had been opened and that the constable was in a serious condition. – The Mercury

 

Juju comeback plan is hatched!!!

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AMUKELANI CHAUKE

Julius Malema’s hopes of making a political comeback have been boosted by the ANC Youth League’s drama

Pule Mabe, the league’s treasurer-general, got the boot on Saturday for allegedly misusing funds. This sparked an altercation at a meeting of the league’s national executive committee and metro police were called in.

Mabe, a member of the anti-Malema faction in the divided youth league, has reportedly been campaigning behind the scenes to succeed him as president. His supporters claimed that the proceedings that culminated in Mabe’s suspension were irregular.

The frontrunner for the top job is the league’s deputy president, Ronald Lamola, a staunch Malema supporter, who is acting as president.

The league is expected to announce Mabe’s suspension formally today and to set a date for an urgent meeting of its national general council. The meeting is expected to decide whether to try to save Malema through a ”political solution” or to draw up guidelines for a process to elect his successor.

The Times understands that the Malema faction’s strategy is to get the league top brass to ask the ANC executive to put his expulsion and suspension on the agenda for the party’s policy conference in Midrand next month.

The league – which has refused to recognise Malema’s expulsion – has been campaigning to have President Jacob Zuma replaced as ANC president by his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung in December.

“They want the Malema [disciplinary] issue to be raised [at the policy conference],” said a source yesterday. “They continue to defy the ruling [on Malema of the disciplinary committee] because they are of the view that the disciplinary committee is a structure of the ANC, and that the [league’s] leaders can be removed only by a structure that elected them to power.

“So the intention is to approach the ANC national executive committee to intervene, and we will propose a motion to have this issue [Malema’s expulsion] included on the [policy conference] agenda.”

With Mabe suspended, Malema’s faction, under Lamola, will have the edge when the league convenes its national general council meeting.

The source said a league resolution to have Malema’s situation discussed at the ANC policy conference would be a significant victory for him.

“The ANC branches could make a recommendation for the elective conference in Mangaung to review the sentences,” he added.

Insiders who were at the league’s executive committee meeting at Johannesburg’s Reef Hotel at the weekend said it was a “blood for blood” session – from which Mabe was removed.

An SMS circulated yesterday by a league executive member revealed that Malema’s allies at the meeting had tried to vote that Mabe be suspended but failed because they were outnumbered.

They are then said to have departed from normal procedure by asking ex officio members of the league – provincial chairmen and secretaries – to vote.

This, according to insiders, might be a contravention of the league’s constitution.

As a result, 15 officials who were opposed to Mabe’s suspension, realising they would be outnumbered, abstained from voting.

The rest voted for Mabe to be suspended.

“He . refused to go and there were exchanges and near blows. [The Johannesburg] metro police had to be called in,” the SMS read.

Metro police spokesman Wayne Minnaar could not confirm this yesterday.

League spokesman Magdalene Moonsamy refused to comment, and said all executive committee matters would be dealt with at a press conference this morning.

The ANC’s national disciplinary committee expelled Malema for bringing the party into disrepute and for sowing division with his remark that the league would organise opposition parties in Botswana to help them overthrow President Ian Khama.

Malema’s appeal against the expulsion was dismissed last month.

Two of his lieutenants, league spokesman Floyd Shivambu and secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, have been given lengthy suspensions.

The ANC disciplinary committee also summarily suspended Malema after he called Zuma a dictator during a public lecture last month.

tic suspension of a key opponent of its expelled president.

 

South Africans must have faith – Police Minister!!!

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South Africans must have faith - police minister

Rahima Essop 

JOHANNESBURG – Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Sunday called on South Africans to have faith in the criminal justice system, in light of the controversy surrounding crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli and the suspension of top prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach.

Mdluli was reinstated earlier this year after fraud, corruption and murder charges against him were dropped. He was suspended when the criminal charges were instituted.

There are now growing calls for a full investigation into his conduct, the charges raised against him and why they were dropped.

The withdrawal of charges against Mdluli and the suspension of prosecutor Breytenbach, who was calling for an investigation into the top cop, have fuelled claims that he is being protected at the highest level.

The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that Mdluli wrote to President Jacob Zuma in November pledging to support him in his campaign to be re-elected as African National Congress (ANC) leader.

“There is no cover-up, there would be no success in covering-up,” assured Mthethwa.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Diane Kohler Barnard said she will ask Parliament’s Police Portfolio Committee this week to hold a special hearing into the matter.

“This debacle has significant implications for the credibility of the police and for national security.”

She said the committee can summon any person to give evidence.

(Edited by Clare Matthes)

Child dies in CT shack fire!!!

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Shack fire

CAPE TOWN – A child has died in a shack fire in Khayelitsha in Cape Town over the weekend.

Authorities said they unsure what sparked the blaze.

Cape Town fire service’s Theo Layne said two other people had to be hospitalised.

“One adult female and one adult male sustained third degree burns. On child whose age is unknown died.”

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

CWAILE BACK IN COURT SOON!!!

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BY Obakeng Maje

Taung- Mr Cwaile will be appearing before magistrate on the 23rd of May,2012 in Taung. He was arrested three weeks ago in accusations of rape. Cwaile allegedly slept with a 15 year old girl after they went on a drinking spree.

And most of his supporter believe this is only politically-motivated to tarnish his name.Taung Hospital CEO believed as one of popular member of ANC,and his opponent want to clip his wings.

SAPS Spokesperson,colonel Mothusi Kgwenyape confirmed the news. “It is true that mr Cwaile will appear in Taung Magistrate Court soon with those allegations” he said.

Mobile’s first appearance saw a lot of his supporters chanting and singing struggle songs with placards waved in the air.

We will keep you posted when the event unfold. 

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