By SAPA

Makhado, Limpopo – A lion that escaped from a private game reserve has been terrorising residents of the small northern town of Makhado for a week, police said on Thursday.

Police have been hunting for the beast, but so far have been chasing their tails.

“We have been informed that a male lion escaped from Safari Lodge outside Makhado last week,” said police spokesman Nechindamatsi Marubeni.

“It was last sighted yesterday (Wednesday) and our search party has so far not managed to capture it,” he said.

Marubini described the lion as a “grown male with a big head”.

“Obviously the townspeople are scared, because they do not know when it might pounce,” Marubeni said.

He appealed to members of the public to immediately report any sighting of this king of the jungle.

The northern province of Limpopo is home to a number of private game reserves but dangerous animals rarely break out.

A large part of Kruger National Park, the country’s biggest wildlife park, also straddles the province. – Sapa-AFP

By Obakeng Maje

Bafana Bafana captain, Bongani Khumalo believes home support will play a pivotal role if the hosts are to have a successful AFCON 2013 campaign.

The National Team has one last training session left before the start of the 29th Edition of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations South Africa 2013 where they meet Cape Verde in the opening match of the tournament on Saturday, 19 January 2013 at the National Stadium in Nasrec, just outside Soweto.

The match kicks off at 18h00.

Good news in the camp is that midfield kingpin Kagisho Dikgacoi has returned to full training after missing out two days on Monday and Tuesday. He joined the rest of his teammates on Wednesday and finished Thursday’s session without any complaints.

Captain Khumalo told a packed media conference that home support will work for the team.

“That is the advantage you have when you are playing on home soil; you have the fans right there with you every minute of the game and on behalf of the team I would like to thank all the supporters who have come out to support us, we appreciate the faith and the confidence they have shown in us. 

“The atmosphere South African supporters always create is world class and absolutely unbelievable, and it can inspire every player to go beyond his potential, so coming to this game on Saturday with 90 000 fans is very special. You never know when you will have this opportunity again and we want to make the most of it,” said Khumalo. 

Head coach Gordon Igesund believes the tournament is motivation enough for the players to do well.

“Playing for your country in front of a full house in the opening game of AFCON is enough to push the players to deliver. Everybody is excited about that and they are jumping out of their skin to get onto the field, I believe they are ready for this,” said Igesund.

As for pressure, the Bafana Bafana mentor says it is part of the game.

“There is pressure for every single coach in this tournament. If there is a coach who tells you he is not under pressure, he is not telling the truth. But it is the kind of pressure that we can handle, the type that is exciting, the type of pressure that you are hosting the tournament and you want to do well and make the country proud,” he added.

Bafana Bafana will have their last training session on Friday, 18 January at Orlando Stadium in Soweto starting at 11h00.

Meanwhile, South Africa has moved two places up on the Coca Cola FIFA World Rankings released on Thursday (17 January). Bafana Bafana is now placed 85th in the world and 22nd on the continent.

By Obakeng Maje

Carnavon-The body of a police officer, Constable Serame Mpolokeng who murdered his girlfriend Zola Malleta(24) as well as her mother Sara Malleta (54) on the 13th December 2012 has been found in Carnarvon.

“The police sought after Mpolokeng for a period of a month and three days. His body was discovered today Thursday about 11 O’clock” Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana. 

“His body was discovered by a farmer who was walking in the veld, he became curious after he smelled a bad odour” He said.

A farmer went to the direction where the smell was coming from police said.

He found Mpolokeng’s decomposed body lying in the veld.

“The police reacted to the call, after they were alerted by the man. Upon arrival on the scene, the police found the service pistol, that was used in the commission of the murder lying just next to him and his two cellphones” Olebogeng Tawana said.

His car keys were also found in the pockets of his trouser. 

On the 13th December 2012, Mpolokeng stabbed his girlfriend several times with a bottle neck on the body, after an argument at spotsbar in Carnarvon. 

The police were called to the crime scene. 

Upon police’s arrival on the crime scene he ran away, and the victim who was his girlfriend was taken to Carnarvon hospital to receive medical treatment for the stab wounds.

Between 05:00 and 05:30 the very same day he went to the hospital, and asked the security guard to show him the ward in which his girlfriend is. After he was shown the ward in which the girlfriend was admitted to, he went in and shot both his girlfriend Zola Malleta(24) as well as her mother Sara Malleta (54). 

“Sara Malleta visited her daughter after she was informed that about the ordeal” police said

Free State – We can’t show you the pictures, but we can tell you what we saw.

The minute we arrived at the Groenpunt Correctional Centre maximum-security entrance in the Free State, prison warders were putting on their shields and bullet-proof vests and rushing to units housing high-risk prisoners.

There was some commotion, and members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on correctional services made their exit. They criss-crossed paths with armed warders who hurriedly headed in the other direction, invading the office they had been observing.

The portfolio committee left.

Then, through the fence, we saw a mob of warders assaulting a man dressed in orange garb – apparently a defenceless prisoner – who squirmed and groaned in pain.

We don’t know who he is, or what happened to him afterwards.

But we saw them passing the man around in a circle, brutally beating him.

As cameras clicked away, capturing the action, the men in brown continued to beat the prisoner.

Then they took him away, and came for us. What happened next was an hour-long traumatic experience that left us feeling like terrorists.

“What are you doing?” asked an armed warder dressed in brown uniform.

His colleagues joined him and they blocked our car.

“Please get out of the vehicle,” said one of the warders.

There were three photographers, including one from The Star, and a reporter from The Star.

With an army of armed warders surrounding us, the photographers were ordered to delete pictures they had taken, capturing the beating we had just witnessed.

Our cameras were confiscated, our cellphones too. A camera left with us by an official from the portfolio committee was also seized.

We were ordered into Correctional Services cars and taken to an administration block, where we were lined up and body-searched. It was humiliating and terrifying.

Shaking in fear, we could see other warders peeping through the door.

For about an hour, we stayed in that room, defenceless and without a word on what would happen next.

Unbeknown to us, our phones, cameras and memory cards were being surveyed by the prison’s IT people. And when the cameras were returned, all data, including pictures unrelated to the Free State prison facility, had been deleted.

During this process, The Star’s journalist was taken to the women’s toilets to be body-searched.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – A nurse was attacked with a hot iron when she and her colleague were robbed in their Daspoort, Pretoria, flat on Wednesday, police said.

The 24-year-old walked in on four men armed with knives who had overpowered her flatmate earlier when she opened the door after they knocked, Captain Bonginkosi Amos Msimango said in a statement.

After they forced their way into the flat at around 5.30pm, they tied up the first nurse, also aged 24.

When her colleague came home from work at the Hercules Clinic later, they tied her up as well and used a hot iron to burn her on her chin and elbow, until she handed over her car keys.

The men fled with a laptop and the woman’s Polo Vivo.

No arrests had been made. – Sapa