By Obakeng Maje

Kathu-Police are investigating a case of possession of suspected stolen copper wire.

“Police were busy patrolling the area when they noticed a suspect carrying a copper wire” Lieutenant Donald Mdhuli said.

“A 56 year-old man claims that he was given a copper by Eskom employees at a dumping site” he said. 

The copper weighs 21.3kg and estimated at the street value of R2000. 

This happened today at Mangaan street in Kathu. The suspect has been arrested and will appear at Kathu Magistrate Court soon. 

The investigations continue.

By Obakeng Maje

Kimberley- A 34 year old man was sanctioned to five months in prison after he was arrested for being in possession of drugs.

“Iqraam Obaray,34 appeared briefly before magistrate for dealing with drugs” police said.

Northern Cape police arrested Obaray two year ago after a tip off from a community member. “Police acted swiftly and discovered crystal myth drug from him and was arrested” Lieutenant Donald Mdhuli said.

It is alleged that Obaray was on his was to Cape Town to trade his business there. 

He was fined R3000 or five months in jail.

Cape Town – At least R64 million of public money has been paid to the New Age newspaper since December 2010, the Democratic Alliance claimed on Wednesday, and it has called for a formal commission of inquiry into parastatals’ sponsorship of the newspaper.

This follows claims that DA leader Helen Zille is a hypocrite, and that the party received money from the Guptas, who have ties to President Jacob Zuma and are the owners of The New Age.

Zille on Tuesday denied that the Guptas gave money to the DA, but confirmed that an executive in a Gupta company had given the party R200 000 “in his personal capacity”.

A report in The New Age on Wednesday claims Zille knowingly accepted a donation from the Gupta family.

The New Age reported that Zille sent Atul Gupta a letter on May 25, 2009, thanking him for his donation to the party.

Zille has refused to name the donor, citing confidentiality, and The New Age report did not state whether Atul Gupta was the donor, even though the letter was addressed to him.

On Wednesday afternoon

the DA released a statement with the heading: “New Age funding is apartheid ‘Infogate’ Scandal all over again”.

In the statement the party said: “There has been at least R64 million in public money to New Age since Dec 2010, that we know of.

“It has the hallmarks of the apartheid ‘Info Scandal’ all over again and needs a full investigation.”

The party said the R64 million comprised figures they were aware of – “but there may be more”.

The party called for a formal commission of inquiry into parastatals’ sponsorship of The New Age.

Cape Argus and IOL

Here is the full statement by DA leader Helen Zille:

New Age funding is apartheid “Infogate” Scandal all over again

Over the past six months, the Democratic Alliance has been piecing together as much information as we have been able to verify on how The New Age is funded. The picture that emerges is alarming.

The New Age is almost entirely funded by ANC governments at national and provincial levels, which accounts for 77% of its advertising revenue stream alone, despite the fact that it has no audited circulation figures.

The New Age has received at least R64.6 million from the government in the form of advertising revenue and “sponsorships” since December 2010 – and these are only those payments we know about. For example, we have not yet had replies to our parliamentary questions from five government departments about advertising in The New Age. And since it has emerged that Premier Nomvula Mokonyane’s office spent R683 000 in order to be given a platform to speak at one of the newspaper’s breakfast briefings, there will be further follow-up questions about such sponsorships to all of the 14 Ministers and Premiers who have spoken at these events.

It is particularly disturbing that after the DA’s questions in Parliament, the Editor of The New Age, Mr Moegsien Williams, made an appointment to meet a senior DA leader for the express purpose of getting the DA to “back off” from the Parliamentary questions. Mr Williams arrived at the DA leader’s home together with Mr Atul Gupta and Mr Nazeem Howa, the chief executive of The New Age. The three adopted a heavy-handed approach, and said the DA should be aware of the fact that the Independent Group would soon be bought by a well-known ANC sympathiser and that this would be very bad for the DA. They suggested it would be best if the DA did not make an enemy of The New Age. The DA leader said the Party would continue asking questions in Parliament about the use of public funds.

The parallels with the apartheid-era “Infogate” scandal are inescapable. The Information scandal, also known as “Infogate” in the late 1970s, involved the covert channelling of public funds to the Citizen newspaper to subsidise a more “government friendly” English-language newspaper. The Citizen newspaper was originally made to appear as if it was a private business initiative of Mr Louis Luyt, a close associate and benefactor of the National Party leaders at that time. Both Dr Connie Mulder and Prime Minister John Vorster were forced to resign after a Commission of Inquiry found that they were aware of the public funding used to finance the newspaper.

All the evidence points to the same thing: the ANC are using public money (both overtly and covertly) to fund a newspaper which is openly favourable to their government:

At least R27 million was spent by government on advertising in The New Age in less than two years;

At least R37 million has been spent by government departments and state-owned entities on sponsorships;

Government departments and state-owned entities are reportedly coerced into buying advertising space, and buying The New Age at inflated prices.

Offices and institutions of state owned enterprises also serve as distribution networks for The New Age to boost its circulation figures, which the newspaper will not submit for audit.

We believe that the information we have collected so far represents more than sufficient evidence to warrant a full judicial Commission of Inquiry into the government’s funding of The New Age.

Specifically, such an investigation should establish:

Precisely how much of The New Age’s overall revenue is derived from the state; and

The legality of using public money to fund a pro-government newspaper that was ostensibly started by a benefactor of Jacob Zuma and the ANC.

The DA can reveal today, based on replies to parliamentary questions, that government departments and state entities spent at least R27 million on advertisements in The New Age between December 2010 and October 2012. The full breakdown can be seen below.

The full extent of government’s sponsorships of The New Age business breakfasts is also not yet clear. In a parliamentary reply, PRASA conceded that it funded eight additional business breakfasts, but did not declare how much was paid to sponsor these breakfasts. However, at the rate of R1 million per business breakfast that other SOEs paid, the PRASA sponsorship could represent another R8 million in payments to The New Age. The Department of Justice also dodged our parliamentary question, and several other departments and entities have not yet answered.

A DA analysis of advertising in The New Age conducted between 31 October 2012 and 15 November 2012 revealed that 77% of advertising in The New Age was paid for by government. A similar Mail & Guardian study over a different period found that 76% of advertising in The New Age was paid for by government.

Besides advertising in the newspaper, several state owned entities have paid at least R37 million in so-called sponsorships of The New Age’s business breakfasts, which are also broadcast live on SABC at no cost to the newspaper.

It is likely that the money spent on The New Age by government that we know about is only the tip of the iceberg. Just today, documents emerged which reveal that Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane’s office paid R683 000 to The New Age as sponsorship for the business breakfast at which the Premier spoke.

Did the other Ministers, Premiers and heads of SOEs who spoke at business breakfasts pay similar amounts? Indeed, the DA has verified that at least 14 other Ministers, Deputy Ministers, heads of SOEs and President Jacob Zuma have spoken at The New Age business breakfasts.

The influence of the Guptas over government was revealed in a February 2011 Sunday Times report which set out, amongst other things, how government departments and officials were bullied into advertising in The New Age. Recent reports also suggest that Minister of Public Enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, put pressure on South African Airways to buy more copies than they needed of The New Age newspaper at almost double the price.

I have today written to President Jacob Zuma to request that he appoint a judicial Commission of Inquiry – headed by a retired judge – to investigate the funding of The New Age. The revelation that the apartheid government was funding a newspaper to peddle propaganda brought down a Prime Minister and a Cabinet Minister. If President Zuma truly wants to restore the integrity of his office, he will subject The New Age to the same levels of scrutiny.

Recent reports suggest that YouTube will soon be charging people for watching videos on the website.

YouTube, the video website that is owned by Google, plans to offer paid subscriptions to some of the content on its site later this year.

The methods of paying have not been decided but it is believed that the company will follow different models across various channels for revenue earnings.

Released reports say that there may be various methods of paying ranging from ‘pay per view’ to yearly subscriptions.

According to The Mobile Indian, subscription model is likely to be adopted for online services in the beginning but will eventually be made available for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as time goes by.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this move by YouTube would add a new revenue stream for the company and its thousands of content partners, and it could potentially help the site lure new video creators who want a subscription model rather than rely only on advertising.

“We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models,” a YouTube executive was quoted on Wall Street Journal.

“There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we’re looking at that.”

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

A woman from Pretoria has tried in vain for 15 years to cancel he deceased mother’s SABC television licence, it was reported on Wednesday.

Capital Park resident Elizabeth van Zyl told Beeld her mother Martha Bezuidenhout died in Pretoria in August 1998.

“She was a pensioner who lived with us, and was the proud owner of a television with a valid licence. When she died, I made copies of her death certificate, wrote a nice letter, and posted it to the SABC.”

However, Van Zyl had since received countless postal demands addressed to her mother, and letters threatening court action.

She said she still had her mother’s ashes as she intended burying them with her father, in Durban.

“I wish the SABC would take me to court. I’d love to wait until they call her name, so I can stand up with the box of ashes, and say ‘here she is’,” Van Zyl told the newspaper

According to Beeld, SABC communication manager Christelle Keevy said she needed the licence number to deal with Van Zyl’s complaint.

-Sapa

Durban – Gordon Igesund has rejected as “mind games” Mali coach Patrice Charteron’s assertion that the pressure is all on Bafana Bafana heading into Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.

The Eagles have battled their way into the last eight, spurred on by the thought giving joy to their people back home, embroiled in civil war. And Charteron suggested after their 1-1 draw with Congo that the expectation was now on Bafana’s shoulders.

“We really wanted to give pleasure to our country,” said the Mali coach. “We now play away in the quarter-finals and it is difficult in this competition to get out of the group … the only thing I think is Bafana must win the tournament, and the pressure will be on them.”

However, the Bafana coach was having none of it. “I heard his comments and he is doing what most people do – taking pressure off his own team. Believe me there is pressure on every team at this tournament, all the players are nervous. There is as much pressure on him as there is on me,” said Igesund. “We all want to do well and advance to the semi-finals. He is playing mind games, classing himself as the underdog.

“Mali are ranked third in Africa and we are ranked 22nd, you figure it out,” he added later.

The Bafana coach certainly has a point. Mali are one of the powerhouse sides of the continental game, and finished third at last year’s Afcon.

South Africa were not even at that tournament, or the one preceding it. In fact, they are in their first Nations Cup quarter-final since, ironically, they lost 2-0 to host nation Mali in 2002.

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

Johannesburg – Five years after Gary Smith and his sister Karen Buchanan were bound with rags and their mouths duct-taped before they were brutally assaulted, the police have made a breakthrough.

The siblings were bound, gagged, beaten, had their teeth pulled, and darts were thrown at Smith while Buchanan was stripped naked. Their four dogs had apparently tried to protect them, and two were killed and the other two were kicked.

And when their torturers had had enough, the 44-year-old man and his sister, 46, were both shot in the head.

When the crime was discovered, police found that their cellphones were smashed, a TV was missing and the safe was broken open.

For the past five years, no arrests were made.

And the motive for the attack was unknown.

However, just when the families of the victims – both Smith and Buchanan had been married and were survived by children – were to give up on the killers ever being found, police made a breakthrough.

Two men were due to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday in connection with the murder in the upmarket suburb of Northcliff on March 14, 2008.

Unconfirmed information is that one of the men was arrested in Durban while a second was nabbed in Mbombela.

Provincial spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini wouldn’t confirm where the arrests had taken place, but confirmed that two men had been taken into custody and that the arrests had happened two weeks ago.

By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-The retrenchement issue that looms at Amplants and Lonmin has been brushed aside for now. This decision was taken after talks between a National Unions of Miners(NUM) and the Amplants management.

According to NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka,the talks are at advance stage.

“Up to so far we are engaged in talks with the mines management regarding retrenchement issue” Lesiba Seshoka told sabc radio.

“The management promised us that their decision of retrenching 14 000 00 mineworkers will be reviewed” Seshoka said.

The Lonmin and Amplats announced two weeks ago that they will retrench 14 000 00 mineworkers. This never settled well with ruling party and other political parties alike where the government threatens to disarm the platinum mine owners their licencing rights.

“We have put a proposal on Anglo Platinum management’s table to come up with a solution reagarding the issue” Lesiba Seshoka said.

“We want to alleviate poverty,job losses. So,we still waiting for their respond” He concluded.

Brits – Three men accused of murdering former world heavyweight boxing champion Corrie Sanders appeared in the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Samuel Mabena, 27, Chris Moyo, 25, and Paida Fish, 19, faced charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, said Sergeant Philani Nkwelase.

The case against the three Zimbabweans was postponed until March 15, he said. They would remain in custody.

They allegedly shot and wounded Sanders during a robbery at the Thatch Haven Country Lodge outside Brits, during an armed robbery on September 22, 2012. He died later in hospital.

The police arrested them five days later in Oukasie informal settlement, near Brits, after a tip-off.

Police also recovered a cellphone, car keys, a purse and cash believed to have been stolen during the robbery.

A handbag, also thought to have been stolen in the robbery, was recovered at a second address.

Sanders won the World Boxing Organisation’s heavyweight title in March 2003 by dropping Ukrainian Wladimir Klitsckho in the second round in Hanover, Germany. He retired five years later. – Sapa