The local organising committee (LOC) is not impressed with the turnout of soccer fans in Port Elizabeth during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

“On the issue of Nelson Mandela Bay, this concern is shared by all of us… it’s just that we are surprised by the level of that (fans not coming in numbers to the stadium),” LOC CEO Mvuzo Mbebe told reporters in Johannesburg on Friday.

What was more surprising, according to Mbebe, was that complimentary tickets had been issued for fans in Port Elizabeth, on top of the free transport made available to spectators.

More measures were being put in place in an attempt to increase the turnout at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

“We are looking now at the system of, instead of us issuing complimentary tickets beforehand, we only give people tickets when they arrive at the bus station or the train station.”

With these efforts, the LOC hoped that fans would come out in their numbers for Saturday’s quarter-final match between Ghana and Cape Verde.

Meanwhile, Mbebe confirmed there were only 6000 tickets left for next weekend’s Afcon final at the National Stadium in Johannesburg.

People were advised to buy the tickets in advance, rather than waiting to see which teams would reach the final.

The LOC was pleased with the running of the tournament since it started on January 19.

“We got the thumbs up from Caf (Confederation of African Football), and we also got the thumbs up from the public of South Africa,” Mbebe said.

-Sapa

Cape Town – Former South African rugby boss Louis Luyt died at a hospital in Durban on Friday morning. He was 80 years old.

Volksblad’s sport editor, Hendrik Cronjé, confirmed the news to Sport24 on Friday. The cause of Luyt’s death is still unknown but he had been suffering with heart ailments for some time.

Luyt started the The Citizen newspaper in 1976 and was also the mastermind behind the construction of the new Ellis Park Stadium, as well as being at the helm of the Transvaal Rugby Union during the 1980s and early 1990s.

He became president of the then South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) in the early 1990s and was SARFU boss when the Springboks won the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Luyt quit his rugby job in 1998 after being accused of racism and financial mismanagement. He then became a member of Parliament as leader of the Federal Alliance in 1999.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) knew about Lonmin miners’ wage demands a month before a violent strike at the Marikana mine, the Farlam commission of inquiry heard on Friday.

“Yes I agree with that,” NUM president Senzeni Zokwana told the hearing at the Rustenburg civic centre.

He was responding to a question from Ishmael Semenya, for the police, on whether the union was aware of the wage demands by workers at Lonmin’s Karee mine in July.

Semenya asked why the union did not take the initiative to get a mandate from workers, both there and at Marikana, knowing they wanted a salary increase and they were threatening to strike.

“But there was an attitude towards NUM already,” Zokwana said.

He said the attitude these workers had was that they could deal with wage negotiations on their own. They approached management and said they did not want the NUM to be involved.

“The [rock drill operators] chose to go their own route and disregard their own union.”

Zokwana said union members would usually approach the union with their mandate.

NUM would have negotiated if the environment had allowed it.

“There was no way the union could negotiate for people who didn’t want it.”

On August 16 last year, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 wounded when police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered on a hill near the mine.

In the preceding week, 10 people, including two police officers and two security guards, were hacked to death.

-Sapa

Johannesburg – The retail price of petrol will increase by 41 cents a litre on Wednesday, February 6, the department of energy announced.

Cape Town – A Cape Town family nearly buried a stranger when their undertaker brought the wrong body to a funeral.

The Galant family had been arranging the funeral of 58-year-old Magdalene Galant, their beloved mother and granny.

She died on January 26, shortly after suffering a heart attack.

Her death turned into a double tragedy for the Hanover Park family when undertakers delivered the wrong body and insisted it was Magdalene.

A distraught Michael Galant said he knew something was wrong when he opened the coffin before the church service.

“I opened my wife’s casket and she didn’t look right. I immediately knew something was wrong,” he said.

The grieving Hanover Park father said when everyone else became suspicious his worst fears were confirmed.

Michael said: “My daughter came to me and said, ‘that’s not mommy’, and then I knew this was a big mistake.”

The family said they then approached the undertaker.

Magdalene’s daughter Leota Lakay said the undertakers from Morning Star Funeral Services couldn’t explain the body swap.

She said: “First they told us it is my mommy. But I said to them it’s not her.

“Then they said they pulled out the wrong drawer at the morgue.”

The Galant family say they tried to stop the funeral service but the undertakers convinced them to go ahead.

People continued to pack into the PPK Church in Hanover Park to pay their last respects to Magdalene, but soon word spread that it wasn’t her in the coffin.

“This was very traumatic for all of us. All we wanted to do was honour my wife and then this happened,” said Michael.

After the funeral service, the undertakers escorted the family to the mortuary in the Airport Industrial area.

Family friend Fatima Karriem said everyone was emotional.

“When we got to the mortuary they showed us that Magdalene was still there and they had given us the wrong person to bury. We were all just so shocked,” she said.

The Morning Star funeral directors apologised to the Galants and promised to help them arrange a second funeral.

A distraught Michael said he is meeting with them to finalise funeral details for a second time.

Leota added: “We didn’t know what to do. We had the wrong body at the church and my mommy was still at the morgue, everyone was very confused.”

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

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj and his wife Zarina have denied an allegation that they took bribes for a 1990s tender for new drivers’ licences, it was reported on Friday.

Their lawyers also questioned the Mail&Guardian’s motives in publishing the claim, made by Maharaj’s sister-in-law Shirene Carim, and her motives in making the “revelations”.

Carim told the Mail&Guardian of a Swiss bank account, into which it was alleged the proceeds of kickbacks on a 1990s contract for new drivers’ licences were paid.

Maharaj’s lawyers told the newspaper this was not the first time the claim was being made, but it had not been published or acted on until now because of its origin and “lack of veracity.

“Responsible journalism requires of you to treat these false, and undoubtedly uncorroborated allegations in a similar light…,” BDK Attorneys director Rudi Krause wrote in a response to journalist Sam Sole.

Carim told the newspaper her sister had told her, during a stop-over in London on her way to open the bank in account in Geneva in 1996, that Schabir Shaik was getting a tender “because he was a good comrade during the struggle”.

“She was going to Geneva because she was getting this money from this guy who was getting the tender,” she reportedly said.

According to the Mail&Guardian, a Scorpions investigation into Maharaj obtained documents which showed that money was later transferred into the account from a company which was in a consortium with Shaik to produce the new credit-car style drivers’ licences.

The case against Maharaj, who was transport minister at the time, was later withdrawn.

The newspaper described Carim’s move as apparently driven by “courage and bitterness, anger and principle”, and reported that Shaik, who claimed not to know Carim, had said there appeared to be “some family breakdown”

-Sapa

Burkina Faso arrived in South Africa with few expectations, and coach Paul Put says they have already achieved their target, as they aim for their best ever finish in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament.

The west African side have played in eight editions of the continental spectacle, only once making it past the first round, when home support carried them to a fourth-place finish in the 1998 edition of the competition, held in Burkina Faso.

When the Stallions defeated Ethiopia 4-0 in their second Group C match in Nelspruit last week, it was the first time the landlocked nation had won an Afcon game since defeating Tunisia on penalties in a quarterfinal match back in 1998 — compiling a record 15 games without a win in the continental showpiece. They went on to finish top of their group.

“We had one motivation — we wanted to qualify for the next round, which had never happened (on foreign soil) for Burkina,” Put said ahead of their last-eight clash against Togo at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday.

“I think it’s the biggest achievement because the country hosted it one time and then they played a semi-final, but it was a long time ago.”

With little pressure to progress to the playoffs, Put said he had told his squad to make use of the opportunity and prove their worth.

“I told the players, ‘you have to write history. It’s the moment to write history. Maybe this chance will never happen again’.

“Because we are very close (as a unit) we had to have the mentality to believe that we could go further. I think it’s history for Burkina Faso.”

-Sapa

Kimberley – A racketeering and fraud case against Northern Cape ANC chairman John Block was postponed to next year in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Phaladi Shuping said the matter was put off due to a constitutional challenge to the NPA’s racketeering certificate.

The matter would be back in court on January 31, 2014 again.

The charges relate to allegations that Northern Cape government departments purchased water purification equipment at inflated prices in 2005 and 2006.

Accused with Block is Intaka Holdings director Gaston Savoi.

The matter includes, among others, the acquisition of a portable water purification unit by the Sol Plaatje municipality for Ritchie, an area near Kimberley, in April 2011.

It is alleged that Intaka was paid more than R2.7 million before the plant was installed or commissioned.

The Sol Plaatje municipality includes Kimberley and surrounding areas such as Ritchie and Modder River. – Sapa

Bafana Bafana are ready to put up the fight of their lives when they face Mali in an Afcon quarterfinal tie at a sold-out Moses Mabhida Stadium tomorrow night.

Gordon Igesund’s motivational skills will also be on full display in a match that could turn out to be a bruising affair.

If the fire and determination displayed by striker Lehlohonolo Majoro is anything to go by, the coach’s passion and pure bullheadedness may already have rubbed off on his players.

Majoro, whose team enter this contest as underdogs, yesterday insisted he was ready to play, despite not having received a clean bill of health.

The 25-year-old striker received stitches to a cut on his leg shortly after coming on from the bench to score Bafana’s second goal in their 2-0 victory against Angola.

“I feel fit and in my opinion I am ready to play. But the doctor still has to confirm that. I am quite happy right now and my fingers are crossed,” he said.

The Major, as the Kaizer Chiefs fans have baptised him, also set the record straight with regards to the team’s goal scoring drought. Of the four Bafana goals so far in the tournament, just one has come from a forward – Majoro.

“I wouldn’t say this is about the strikers only. In my view, the defenders and midfielders are also a part of it because football is a team sport. If they (the strikers) can help out in defence when the team is under pressure, then it shouldn’t be a problem if the defenders score,” he said.

Only five players, in a Malian team of 28, stand below 1.8m, which Majoro’s teammate, Thuso Phala, downplayed as a factor.

Phala and his teammates will have to rely on their mobility to outsmart the Malians, and having delivered solid performances in the tournament so far, he should find this task up his alley.

“They are big boys, tall and very strong, but it is not about the height. I think it is about what a team does with the ball on the field of play, it is about who wants it more. But Mali are not third on the continent for nothing” he said.

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

Inflation at the production level may not be getting any worse, but it’s certainly not getting any better. That is the message from December’s Producer Price Index (PPI) just released by Statistics South Africa.

If anything, according to some economists, there are some grounds for concern. Further weakening of the rand will weigh heavily on the import component of goods before they enter the retail chain where they are felt by the average household.

The annual rate of increase of the PPI for December remained unchanged at 5.2%, the third successive month, which encourages some analysts to believe manufacturers and wholesalers will be comparatively disinclined to try to foist cost increases on to retailers and, ultimately, households.

Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings, was encouraged by the agricultural component of the index, believing that concerns over rising food prices were abating. But even as he was talking, Eskom was embroiled in hearings on its tariff requests at Nersa, the electricity price controller. If Eskom’s tariff demands are met and if the rand continues its decline, producer costs will be under pressure.

“The good news is that food inflation looks reasonably well contained, helping consumers,” he said.

Elna Moolman, economist at Renaissance Capital, also agreed that the food inflation was well behaved with grain and meat prices actually falling at the farm gate. Thabi Leoka, Standard Bank economist said it was encouraging to see that growth in prices of food at the manufacturing level slipped in December to 9.2% year-on-year from 11.1% in November. Though Leoka did not explicitly say so, but even at this lower rate, prices will double every eight years, something of which the person who controls the household’s purse strings should be aware.

“Nonetheless, we believe that higher food prices will continue to be a risk as the lagged effect of the spike in the global soft commodity prices in mid-2012 will filter into the PPI basket.”

Manqoba Madinane, an economist at Econometrix, said most important was that the manufacturing PPI, which is the largest sub-component and accounts for 62.3% of the index, increased by only 3.7% year-on-year in the month, suggesting that factory input cost pressures were muted.

“There are indications that growth momentum in PPI inflation is in fact slowing down. One can expect a weaker feedback into headline CPI in the medium to longer term. This added to the belief that the CPI is unlikely to breach the Reserve Bank’s upper 6% limit, or if it does it will not be for long,” he said. Some economists said this was largely supportive of the continued recovery in business.