LONDON – South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit on Thursday won her third gold medal at the 2012 Paralympics.

She finished first in the Women’s 200m IM S9 in a time of 2:34:22.

This brings Team South Africa’s gold medal count to five, with the overall medals won at 18.

On Tuesday, du Toit won the Women’s 400 metre Freestyle S9 final and last week, she snatched gold in the Women’s 100 metre Butterfly S9 final.

Du Toit is participating in seven events in London, making this her busiest Olympics to date.

The swimmer is expected to retire after these games.

ewn.co.za

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

By Obakeng Maje

vryburg- Two suspects will appear tomorrow at Taung Magistrate Court after being arrested for stock theft.

According to information received, the two suspects aged between 24 and 26 were bust by police after a tip-off from a member of a community.

 This incident took place at Letlhapong village near Taung.

It is alleged that two men went on to steal five cattle and three calves in Vultuin.

“They had a potential buyer from Christiana and the buyer arrived on the agreed spot while the police were busy interogating two suspects” Captain Makau said.

The two were arrested and charged for stock theft after the buyer admit that he was indeed here to cattle from suspects.

The police confirm that there are no relations between the suspects and the buyer,so he was not arrested.

The two will appear tomorrow in court.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

JOHANNESBURG – Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital management on Wednesday said reports of a huge patient backlog are true, but those numbers will drop substantially in the next few months.

The hospital’s surgery backlog was highlighted on Wednesday after Gauteng Health MEC Hope Papo revealed that almost four thousand patients are part of the surgery backlog.

Hospital CEO Johanna More said the only real backlog is the urology department which still has to treat 2,000 patients.

“I can tell you that between January and July 2012, we’ve already covered 19,620 operating cases.”

The province’s hospital has made news in recent months for broken equipment, non-payment to service providers and shortages of medication.

Follow us on twitter@Taung_DailyNews

Bloemfontein – Residents of Welkom have been shocked by a cellphone video showing a 14-year-old girl having sex with a 20-year-old man.

The girl’s 12-year-old friend was apparently told by the man to make the video, reported Volksblad.

The children had been drinking alcohol with the accused at his flat after which they lay down on a bed because they felt ill. 

The man then came in and said he wanted to kiss and cuddle with the victim. The younger girl was told to record his actions.

The man was arrested after the younger girl showed the video to friends at school and the principal called the police.

Neither the girl nor her friend were apparently able to remember the events of the night before.

The prosecutor in the case said the principal had acted correctly by calling the police.

The girls unwittingly also committed an offence in making and distributing the video but would probably only be told to undergo therapy and behavioural programmes.

The man was arrested.

News24

Church leaders, led by Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verryn, have intervened to avoid a clash between thousands of protesters and police at Lonmin in Marikana in North-West. The protesters are marching to Shaft 3 West of Marikana to ask management to close the Shaft.

An agreement to allow four delegates from rock drillers and four police officials have been allowed inside the Shaft to request management to heed their request. No violence has been reported thus far.

Earlier reports said another bloody clash between miners and police at Lonmin’s Kareespruit was imminent. The reports were triggered after striking rock drill operators ignored orders to disperse. The number of strikers carrying spears and axes was said to have increased from 1 000 to 2 000.

As police kept a watchful eye on the protesters, four Nyala vehicles as well as a water tanker were on stand-by. Peace negotiations aimed at ending violence in the mining area are expected to have resumed at Sun City.

Johannesburg – Thousands of defiant workers marched on the crippled Lonmin mine on Wednesday, refusing to end a deadly strike and threatening to make the platinum giant’s mine “ungovernable”.

Armoured police trucks and two police helicopters kept watch as around 3 000 miners, carrying sticks and chanting, marched to a shaft owned by the world’s number three platinum producer where a wildcat action is in its fourth week.

“We told them if they don’t close the mine shafts we will make them ungovernable,” a worker leader told strikers after the group had re-gathered near where police shot 34 people last month.

“The management is trying to divide us and coaxing some of you to go to work. Remember people died as a result of the struggle and at the end of the day your boss does not stay with you.”

Earlier, marchers took to the streets to demand that the company bow to their wage demands. One placard stating “Lonmin must decide to give us money or close”.

The show of defiance came as a fresh round of mediated talks kicked off to try to broker a breakthrough in the stalemate, as Lonmin warning that an indefinite strike will put 40 000 jobs at risk.

Mine manager Jan Thirion said worker representatives had threatened that “if we don’t leave here at one o’clock (11h00 GMT) they will come and burn down the shaft, burn down cars and kill us”.

“We want to talk peace, they want to talk war,” he told reporters after speaking to the representatives through a fence under high security.

But workers dispersed peacefully after their deadline passed, singing “(President Jacob) Zuma is a fool, we are ruled by stupid people” as they headed back to where police had opened fire on August 16, killing their colleagues.

Some carried a picture of a dead miner who is to be buried this weekend. There was shock at his death as he had left the site with only a bullet wound in the leg.

“We believe police finished him,” said worker representative Xolani Mzuzu.

“We consider him a hero like Chris Hani,” Mzuzu added, referring to the anti-apartheid icon gunned down a year before South Africa headed into democracy.

The deadly police volley against the miners on August 16 shocked the world with its echoes of apartheid-era police brutality.

The police shootings brought the death toll to 44 after escalating from a wildcat strike in which 10 people, including two police officers, had already been killed.

The dispute has become a battleground for rival political and labour factions and sparked fears of a spillover of unrest into the key mining sector.

London-listed Lonmin, whose shares dropped on Wednesday, reported 4.2 percent attendance across all its shafts but was hopeful of an outcome in the latest talks.

“We are willing to negotiate wages, in the right manner,” it said.

“Violence and intimidation have no place in bargaining. We are working hard to reach agreement with all parties through the peace talks. All of us must condemn violence.”

Workers are insisting on R12 500 per month. – AFP