By Obakeng Maje

Soweto-The Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA 2013 Trophy will be in Soweto this Saturday, 24 November 2012 as Standard Bank and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) continue to afford fans the opportunity to see and be photographed with the coveted prize.

The final of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA 2013 will be played at the magnificent Soccer City stadium on 10 February 2013, after which the winning captain will hold the Trophy triumphantly aloft into the Soweto sky.

But before then, football fans will be able to see the biggest prize in African football for themselves at the Jabulani Mall in Soweto this Saturday, 24 November from 11:00 until 15:00

Accompanying the Trophy will be Bafana Bafana legends Neil Tovey and Brian Baloyi, who will be on hand to chat to supporters and relay their stories of having played in the continental showpiece.

It follows highly successful tour stops in Durban last month and in Port Elizabeth this past weekend when hundreds of supporters turned out to be seen with the Trophy.

“I really enjoyed it in Port Elizabeth, to witness so many people come out to see the Trophy was amazing. You could really feel the buzz of excitement about the upcoming Orange Africa Cup of Nations and Standard Bank should be congratulated for staging this tour to help get people excited about the event,” Baloyi says.

Soccer City will host a double-header on the opening day of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA 2013 on Saturday, January 19 as South Africa take on debutantes Cape Verde Islands, and later Angola meet Morocco.

The competition will then be played a tour other stadiums before returning to Soccer City for the final on Sunday, February 10, where a new champion of Africa will be crowned.

“Soccer City is known as the National Stadium of South Africa and it is a fitting place to open and close the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA 2013.

The old Soccer City stadium was a great venue and has special memories for me and all South Africans as it is where we won the competition in 1996. But this new venue is truly magnificent and it is a chance for new memories to be created, hopefully with the South African captain holding the Trophy aloft once more,” Tovey says.

“It will be crucial for South Africa that they get off to a good start against Cape Verde Islands and if they do then there is every chance that we will see them again at Soccer City on 10 February.

I am sure the stadium will be packed for the opening games and that will create a special atmosphere and give the players the boost they need to perform,” Baloyi adds.

The final stop of the Trophy Tour will be at the Riverside Mall in Nelspruit on Saturday, 8 December (11:00-15:00).

Standard Bank is the Official Banking Partner of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA2013 and the Trophy Tour is a successfully established initiative by CAF and the bank to present “Africa’s Cup” to fans in the run-up to the event. The 2008 tournament in Ghana and the 2010 event in Angola were also supported by Standard Bank Trophy Tours. 

“We are delighted to have the trophy back in Mzansi after hosting successful Standard Bank Trophy Tours in the country ahead of previous Orange Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. The fact that this time it will stay here until the final of the 2013 event on February 10 makes it extra special.  

“The Africa Cup of Nations is a tournament steeped in history and over the past 55 years of competition we have seen some memorable tournaments. This Standard Bank Trophy Tour is the start of what we hope will be another great memory for the continent and further proof of South Africa’s tremendous ability to host major international competitions,” says Jenny Pheiffer, Head of Brand and Sponsorships, Standard Bank.

“We see this as a major opportunity to connect with our customers, football fans and our employees through our shared passion for Africa and African football. It will allow them an opportunity to become part of the South Africa 2013 tournament and share their love for the game,” she added

About Standard Bank’s sponsorship of CAF competitions:

Standard Bank signed as the Official Banking Partner to the major competitions of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in December 2008, confirming its commitment to African football.

The decision to partner with CAF competitions was driven by Standard Bank’s growing presence as a leading African bank, with a heritage that stretches back 150 years. 

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BY Obakeng Maje

Pretoria-From the 25th of November until

10th of December, our country and the world will be observing the 16 Days of Activism Campaign on No Violence against Women and Children minister Lulu Xingwana said. 

“The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children is a United Nations campaign, which takes place annually from the 25th November (International Day of No Violence against Women) to the 10th December (International Human Rights Day)” She said. 

“2012 marks the 13th anniversary of the national campaign which began in 1999. The theme for this year is: “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!”  As a sub-theme,South Africa will also focus on the theme for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW): “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and children”.The campaign strapline remains: Don’t Look Away – Act Against Abuse” Xingwana added. 

Militarization and violence is a major challenge particularly in regions affected by conflict. Domestic violence becomes even more deadly when guns – legal or illegal – are present in the home, because they can be used to threaten, injure or kill women and children. Indeed, women are three times more likely to die violently if there is a gun in the house.

The 16 Days of Activism Campaign focuses primarily on generating an increased awareness of the negative impact of violence on women and children as well as society as a whole. The campaign further seeks to address issues that affect vulnerable groups (women, girls and boys, LGBTI communities, people with disabilities, etc.) such as sexual harassment, rape, cultural practices that are harmful to women and children (ukuthwala, child muthi killings, witchcraft burning), etc. 

“Whilst there are programmes and interventions to prevent and respond to the abuse, government cannot do this alone and therefore depends on mutual partnerships with non-governmental organisations, business, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, political parties, various sectors of society and communities. Success of the 16 Days of Activism campaign is dependent on the partnership between government and various sectors of society including the media” She yelled. 

“The reality that we must collectively confront is the reluctance on the part of some victims of violence to come forward and seek legal advice and social support. This could be due to a lack of knowledge of their rights, the social stigma around domestic violence or the inaccessibility for rural women of police and courts” Xingwana outlines.

The programme of the sixteen days campaign starts with the opening event on Sunday in Kimberly, Northern Cape. The closing event for the 16 Days Campaign will be held in Rustenburg, North West on December 10.

Other important dates during this period include the Siyahlola Campaign which is led by President Jacob Zuma on the 4

th of December in Mpumalanga, the launch of the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe on the 10

th of December in the North West, as well as the Gender-Based Violence Summit on the 26th and 27th of November until 10th of December.

Various government departments, provinces and civil society organisation have organized various activities to raise awareness around campaign. We will continue to partner with various media organizations to ensure that we highlight the need to act against abuse of women and children. The call to action is for all of us to work together to reduce the number of sexual offences, attacks and murder of women and children in our country.

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Recent attempts by the Gauteng housing department to evict people from homes built illegally in Lenasia in the south of Johannesburg show the difficulties the various arms of government face in fulfilling their constitutional obligations with regard to housing.

The Lenasia homes were built in defiance of a court order, after their owners were told they did not have legal title to the land. The owners were also informed that the people they had paid for the land were fraudsters, who are now in jail.

The evictions are being challenged in court by the South African Human Rights Commission. However, the department’s call for the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act to be changed shows it now believes it cannot fulfil its obligations.

The department says the situation in Lenasia is just the tip of the iceberg, and that all around Gauteng thousands of people have invaded homes that it built for others who had been waiting for years. As it interprets the act, if people have occupied a property for 48 hours, they cannot legally be removed unless alternative accommodation is found for them. This applies across the board; whether a person has means is deemed irrelevant. Even someone considered well-off cannot be evicted easily — a fact many private landlords have lamented over the past few years.

This means that when properties are invaded, the department is stuck between its legal obligations to those for whom it built the homes in the first place and its inability to evict quickly those who have invaded the property. It appears that those who commit such an illegal act can benefit from it in the long run.

The department has also found that while it can obtain court orders, as it did in the Lenasia case, those are often not enforced, leaving it without any legal options.

At the same time, a series of recent judgments in the Constitutional Court have started to grow the legal burden placed on municipalities. Last year, judges ruled that the City of Johannesburg had to provide accommodation for a group of people evicted from a private property. This case has huge implications for all municipalities, as it could mean councils now have to bear the burden of housing people who are homeless.

Considering South Africa’s current urbanisation trends, this is a financial burden that could skyrocket in the near future.

Councils are unlikely to be able to carry this burden themselves, and the City of Johannesburg has already suggested it could lead to huge changes to its budgeting system.

Frustration with this issue therefore seems to be growing at both the provincial and the local government level, as they are the ones tasked with providing shelter. They might also have an ally in some in the judiciary. Two years ago, South Gauteng High Court Judge Nigel Willis penned a judgment in which he warned of the dangers of never being able to evict someone, suggesting this could even lead to banks refusing to grant mortgages because once a property was invaded, the owner lost control and abandoned it.

This has happened often in the Johannesburg central business district.

When the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act was first proposed, the focus was very much on the rights of farm workers who were being evicted from the land on which their families had lived for generations. The act’s main aim was also to redress the balance of power between property owners, seen as rich, and renters, seen as poor. However, the act was then implemented across the board, with possibly unintended consequences. Government departments now seem to be paying part of that price.

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Johannesburg – On Monday afternoon, a Grade 11 pupil came home angry and humiliated. The 18-year-old was bare-chested and barefoot.

His school bag and cellphone were gone. He was in tears as he entered his mother’s home in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni.

He had fallen victim to a gang who intimidated his school, Phineas Xulu Secondary School. They’d chased him after the final bell, pelted him with stones until he stopped and then robbed him of everything except his pants.

His mom consoled him as she prepared to report for duty as a constable at Vosloorus police station.

She returned at the end of her night shift and went to bed, only to be awakened a few hours later by her armed colleagues swarming into her house wanting to arrest her son.

A Grade 10 pupil, Nkululeko Ndlovu, 18, had been shot dead.

Her son was the prime suspect – and he had apparently used her service pistol to shoot his tormentor dead.

She protested that her pistol was in its locked safe when she’d got home. The officers demanded to see it. Ejecting the magazine, they showed her that bullets were missing.

On Wednesday, the soft-spoken 36-year-old officer was in shock. Grief creasing her face, she struggled to put into words what she felt.

“I am hurt about what happened to my baby. I am very concerned about his future. He never mentioned bullying to me before.

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Johannesburg – An East Rand Grade 11 pupil was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the fatal shooting of a fellow pupil he accused of bullying him, police said.

The 18-year-old pupil would soon appear in the Vosloorus Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder and possession of unlicensed firearm, said Captain Pinky Tsinyane.

Gauteng education spokesperson Charles Phahlane said the Grade 11 pupil at Phineas Xulu Secondary School, in Vosloorus, Boksburg, allegedly took his mother’s firearm to school and shot the other pupil.

He said the youth’s mother was a metro police officer. The woman’s official firearm was used in the shooting.

“The Grade 11 learner is alleged to have been bullied repeatedly by a Grade 10 learner and two other boys, who yesterday afternoon (Monday) allegedly took his cap and cellphone,” said Phahlane.

The youth allegedly shot the Grade 10 pupil when he and his friends confronted him in class on Tuesday.

The department had arranged for psycho-social counsellors and representatives of faith-based groups to go to the school.

Education MEC Barbara Creecy and safety MEC Faith Mazibuko would meet to discuss ways of curbing schoolchildren’s access to firearms, Phahlane said. – Sapa