Rustenburg – The conduct of miners believed to be affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) took centre stage at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.

Lonmin miner Vusimuzi Mandla Mabuyakhulu, speaking through an interpreter, told the commission he feared for his life and was scared to go home after being told NUM members were looking for him.

On Thursday morning, Mabuyakhulu told the commission he had not been sleeping at his house.

Commission chairman judge Ian Farlam said no witness should be intimidated. If needed, Mabuyakhulu would be provided with witness protection.

Karel Tip, for the NUM, said it was opposed to any “sort of unlawful intimidation”.

“No event of this kind would have been sponsored by any structure of the NUM,” he said.

The commission heard that Mabuyakhulu was shot, assaulted and left to die by men associated with the NUM on August 11.

He is employed at Lonmin Platinum’s Karee mine, where rockdrill operators went on strike in demand of a R12,500 a month wage last year.

“We need the money. The work we do is extremely difficult,” he said.

The commission heard that in August, rockdrill operators decided  that no union could represent them when speaking to mine management  about wage increases.

He said one of their reasons was because “it had become clear that NUM indicated that it would not be able to discuss wages for rock drill operators”.

On August 10, five representatives went to speak to mine management, which informed them that the NUM had told the mine not to speak to striking workers.

The workers then agreed they would go to the NUM’s offices for clarity.

On the morning of August 11, a group of about 3000 striking workers gathered at the Wonderkop Stadium.

They were told people had been shot by NUM members, and that miners had been accosted at a bus station and forced, at gunpoint, to return to work.

He said that as the group walked to the offices it came across a  group of NUM members singing songs. They heard two gunshots and started running.

Mabuyakhulu was shot in the back.

Recalling the shooting, he said: “No one was prepared to help another man; it was difficult, because we were all running away….  NUM members were following from behind and found me lying on the road.”

When the men, dressed in NUM attire, asked him where he worked, Mabuyakhulu said he lied to save his life.

He told the commission one of the men accused him of lying, and of being a member of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

“Then one man appeared from the side and said ‘let’s finish him up’,” he said.

Mabuyakhulu said a man on his left had a spear and repeatedly hit him with the handle, until it broke. Another man in white overalls and a NUM T-shirt stood in front of him with a butcher’s knife.

“I felt a blow on the back of my head and lost consciousness. After they left me, I came to and I tried to crawl away…”

The commission heard that Mabuyakhulu was unable to say which day he regained consciousness, and was not aware which hospital he was taken to for treatment.

“It’s with the help of the Almighty that I survived. Apparently my time had not come as yet,” he said.

A short video of a group of men walking with sticks, metal objects and pangas was shown to the commission.

“Those are the men that attacked me,” Mabuyakhulu said, pointing  to the television screen in front of him.

He told the commission that a statement made in his name on August 17 was not completely correct, and that the signature was not his.

He asked show the commission his injuries, explaining that although the mine had declared him fit to go underground, he felt he was unable to efficiently do his work.

He told the commission that Amcu could not negotiate wages, because it was not a “recognised union”.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin Platinum’s mine in Marikana.

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

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

The commission resumes on Friday morning with the cross-examination of Mabuyakhulu. – Sapa

Johannesburg – On Wednesday night, Reeva Steenkamp tweeted excitedly about her upcoming romantic surprise. On Thursday, she was gunned down – shot at close range at least twice by a 9mm parabellum pistol.

On Thursday night, her boyfriend, world-famous Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius, was in jail. He had spent Valentine’s Day in custody on suspicion of murdering her in a crime of passion. On Friday, he will appear in court, where he will apply for bail, and the NPA will oppose it.

Six months ago, Pistorius strode the world as an athletic hero, becoming the first Paralympian to compete in an Olympic final. On Thursday, he dominated the world’s media once again.

Police are now trying to piece together the events leading up to the shooting in the upmarket Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria.

According to police spokeswoman Brigadier Denise Beukes, witnesses heard shouts and screams coming from Pistorius’s residence at about 8pm.

It was not the first time that “issues of a domestic nature” had occurred at the house.

But at about 3am on Thursday, neighbours called the police when they heard gunshots coming from Pistorius’s house.

Paramedics found Steenkamp lying downstairs in the entrance hall of the R3.9-million house. She had been shot in the head and upper body.

According to a source, nothing could be done for her.

The 29-year-old former FHM model, who had been dating the 26-year-old for two months, was declared dead at the scene. A 9mm gun registered to Pistorius was recovered. There was no sign of a forced entry.

Pistorius was taken to a Pretoria clinic, where he is said to have undergone tests for alcohol use.

He was due to spend the night in the holding cells of the Boschkop police station before appearing in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court this morning.

“The police are still busy with preliminary investigations. We are not sure of the details of the charges, because we still don’t have the docket in our possession. He will be kept in custody,” said Medupe Simasiku, the regional spokesman for the director of public prosecutions.

Police say that the couple were the only people in the home at the time. There was no sign of forced entry, and the claim Pistorius had thought his girlfriend was an intruder had not come from them, police said.

At about 10.15am, a convoy of 10 police vehicles, including a van, believed to be carrying Pistorius, drove out of the complex and headed to the police station.

Pistorius’s attorney, Kenny Oldwage, and the athlete’s sister, Aimee, were later seen leaving the station in separate vehicles.

At about 11.45am, Pistorius emerged, escorted by two plain-clothed police officers. Covering his head in a grey hooded jacket, Pistorius looked calm as he was led to a white VW Polo. He was taken to the Mamelodi Clinic, where he had his blood drawn. Speaking outside the police station last night, Oldwage said Pistorius was “emotional, but he is keeping up”.

News of the shooting was met with shock and disbelief around the world.

Pistorius’s friend, Justin Divaris, the chief executive of the Daytona Group, said he had had a very sad day.

He said he was very close to both Pistorius and Steenkamp. “I introduced them,” he said. “I am close friends with Oscar, and my girlfriend is the deceased’s best friend, so this has been very hard.”

Divaris said that Pistorius and Steenkamp had met at a race day at Kyalami. The connection was so strong that they attended the South African Sports Awards together that night.

At the time, the athlete was involved with Samantha Taylor, and after pictures emerged of Pistorius and Steenkamp together, Taylor said Pistorius was a player when it came to women.

Divaris said the couple were very much in love. “They were even talking about getting married and having kids,” he said. “There are terrible stories out there, but they aren’t true – they were in love.”

On Wednesday, Steenkamp asked on Twitter: “What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay”.

Pistorius’s father, Henke, said his son was “sad” and a “bit emotional”, adding: “I don’t know nothing. It will be extremely obnoxious and rude to speculate. I don’t know the facts. If anyone makes a statement, it will have to be Oscar.”

Oscar’s agent, Peet van Zyl, said he was “sure what’s happened has been a terrible mistake, but I really don’t have the details.”

MPs want provincial MECs of human settlements and heads of department to account for underspending over the last few months.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee on human settlements Nomhle Dambuza said on Thursday they wanted the provincial MECs and heads of department to appear before the committee and explain underspending in their departments.

She said that the national department of human settlements was correct in its decision not to release the last tranche of funds to the provinces because it would have resulted in fiscal dumping.

The national department of human settlements has withheld R4.5 billion to the provinces, said Dambuza.

She said the provinces must get their house in order and start spending money on projects.

She said it did not look like the provinces would be able to achieve their targets because of the slow pace of delivery.

Most provincial departments had underspent their budgets during the last three quarters of the 2012/13 financial year.

Dambuza said they were happy that the national department would not be transferring R4.5bn to the provinces because the money would not be spent.

The portfolio committee wants provincial MECs of human settlements and heads of department to come to parliament and account for this, Dambuza said.

She said provinces must align their delivery objectives with budget plans.

“What is important is the alignment of the expenditure figures with service delivery value on the ground, furthermore, the issue of capacity within the national department, provinces and the metros is crucial in terms of having capable, committed and dedicated human resources, and credible systems, not just to have warm bodies without the ability to deliver,” said Dambuza.

She said the committee would like to see provincial departments spending their money on the delivery of houses.

Xolani Xundu, spokesperson for human settlements minister, Tokyo Sexwale, said the committee had agreed that funds for March would have to be withheld because there was underspending of R1.3 billion in January and projected underspending for the year was R4.2 billion.

He said there were issues around provinces like the Eastern Cape and Limpopo which have accepted that they will not be able spend in March.

He said the director-general for the department Thabane Zulu has proposed that business plans for provinces must be scrutinised.

Zulu wants provincial business plans to be accompanied by operational plans.

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Modise’s office and the DA after the opposition party raised concern on provincial heads of department’s attending a two-day ANC lekgotla in Rustenburg last week.

The DA raised concern over allegations that Modise summoned the heads to a party event at the expense of the government. It has since taken up the issue with the public protector and the Public Service Commission.

In a statement, provincial DA leader Chris Hattingh said: “It appears that the government’s top officials, paid by the taxpayer, have been summoned by Premier Thandi Modise to the ANC North West lekgotla. In doing this Premier Modise has basically presided over a brazen mixing of party and state.

The lekgotla was taking place over two days and who was running the provincial government?”

Hattingh said that Modise’s actions were deeply unethical and an abuse of public resources.

“We will be laying an ethics violation complaint with public protector Thuli Madonsela. If an investigation finds Modise guilty of violating the Executive Ethics Act, she must do the honourable thing and resign. This attitude of serving the ANC and not the people of the North West has been a hallmark of Modise’s term in office.

“The DA warned the premier on many occasions when she was the deputy secretary-general of the ANC that she was neglecting governance to do her party work. We are demanding answers from her office about why this abuse has taken place immediately,” he said.

In response provincial government spokesperson Lesiba Kgwele said that only a desperate but shallow politician would target Modise for a meeting that was convened by the acting provincial secretary of the ruling party and not the premier. He said that it was unfortunate that he chose to use the office of the public protector to validate his spurious claims.

Kgwele further said that heads of department who attended the lekgotla had taken leave from their official duties, “in order to contribute towards and internalise resolutions to be taken in the interest of communities and receive a mandate from the party that has deployed them in the government”.

Kgwele said the heads were paid by the taxpayer and were not political appointments.

The DA said it would include these statements as evidence in the ethics violation charge and that they would now ask how often the heads were summoned to political gatherings and whether leave was taken.

Senior management at the provincial social development department has been ordered to reimburse R174000 paid for the accommodation of officials and a woman identified as MEC Mositsanagape Mokomele-Mothibi’s friend during the ANC elective conference in Mangaung last year.

The order was given by the provincial select committee on public accounts (Scopa) when it called Mokomele-Mothibi and her top management to account for the expenditure yesterday.

Records show that the department paid R174000 to Summer Place Boutique Guest House for seven officials from December 10 to 15 when these officials, including the MEC, were attending the Mangaung conference.

When asked for clarity, Mokomele-Mothibi conceded that her friend, only identified in documents as Mavis,

had indeed used one of the rooms.

“I can only account for Mavis, who works for the greater Taung local municipality. I agreed that she could sleep in a room that had been booked for the chief financial officer who did not come because the expenses had already been incurred,” she said.

While the MEC said the department was supposed to attend a benchmarking workshop with its Free State counterpart, which was cancelled at the last minute, she could not say whether Mavis and other people who used the accommodation were supposed to attend the said workshop or were at the ANC conference.

Department head, Matshidiso Mogale denied that the department had paid any money for people to attend the Manguang conference.

“The CFO and myself never signed anything about the ANC conference. I did not even go to Mangaung and the CFO was hospitalised at the time,” she said.

Scopa then asked the MEC and management to provide evidence for the expenditure. The order will be rescinded if they provide documentary evidence that the accommodation was a legitimate state expense.

The department will appear again on Tuesday next week but if the money was used to pay for accommodation to attend the ANC conference, it had to be repaid.

Committee chairperson Hlomane Chauke said: “We are giving you until Tuesday to furnish us with information on this R174000 but the bottom line is that if the money was spent for a party conference, it has to be paid back to state coffers.”

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Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma confirmed that mining taxes were up for review in a State of the Nation address which warned that the country needed to work against economic odds to achieve the aims of the National Development Plan (NDP).

Zuma acknowledged business’ concerns about barriers to growth, and called on other sectors, including labour, to help find solutions to push it to at least five percent – double the current forecast – and create jobs.

“In my last meeting with the business community, the sector indicated that for the economy to grow three-fold we must remove certain obstacles,” he said.

“We will engage business, labour, and other social partners in pursuit of solutions. No single force, acting individually, can achieve the objectives we have set for ourselves.”

It was widely expected that Zuma would use his speech as a rallying call to implement the plan, and his leadership victory at the Mangaung conference two months ago to try to get different political forces to converge behind it.

The president, who was battling flu, said it was a fact that the country would miss the target set out in the NDP of creating 11 million jobs by 2030 unless the economy grew threefold.

He termed the plan a road map for achieving a just and more equal country, but said its aims – from access to basic services to safety to employment – had recently been hampered by global economic woes, and he warned that these were not about to go away.

“The achievement of these goals had proven to be difficult in the recent past, due the global economic recession.

“The crisis in the Eurozone affects South Africa’s economy as the Eurozone was its major trading partner… Our GDP growth is expected to average at 2.5 percent cent, down from 3.1 percent in the previous year. We need growth rates in excess of five percent to create more jobs.”

In a nod to the left, the president also retained a focus on the role of a strong state in the economy, in rescuing stricken industries and rolling out infrastructure programmes.

“The past two years have demonstrated that where the state intervenes strongly and consistently, it can turn around key industries that face external and internal threats, as has happened in our manufacturing sector.”

He conceded that the state had encountered a learning curve on its infrastructure drive, and said projects would now be fast-tracked.

Zuma announced that mining taxes would be reviewed as part of a wider study on the suitability of South Africa’s tax regime.

Speculation to this effect had raised concern in the sector, but Zuma said he believed it had been handed policy certainty by the African National Congress’s decision at Mangaung to abandon the nationalisation debate.

“Later this year, the minister of finance will be commissioning a study of our current tax policies, to make sure that we have an appropriate revenue base to support public spending.

“Part of this study will evaluate the current mining royalties regime, with regard to its ability to suitably serve our people.”

Referring to the Marikana shooting, the president said he believed labour stability had been secured in the Rustenburg region.

He returned to the event later in his speech to signal a firm stance against violent protest, and announced that the police and the justice departments had been instructed to deal with it as a priority.

“Courts will be allocated to deal with such cases on a prioritised roll. The law must be enforced and it must be seen to be enforced, fairly effectively and expeditiously.”

In perhaps his most to-the-point annual address, Zuma took a tough stance on crime and on shortcomings in education.

He singled out the rape and murder of Anene Booysen in Bredasdorp, and called for a concerted effort to end violence against women.

“The brutality and cruelty meted out to defenceless women is unacceptable and has no place in our country.”

On education, he said a presidential remuneration commission would tackle the teaching profession first to ensure that it attracted and retained skills.

“In elevating education to its rightful place, we want to see an improvement in the quality of learning and teaching and the management of schools. We want to see an improvement in attitudes, posture and outcomes.”

He said the government’s insistence that teaching be termed an essential service would not affect the profession’s right to strike.

Political analyst Susan Booysens, from the University of the Witwatersrand, described Zuma’s speech as a “very beholden and conservative” move back to basics.

Her colleague in the economics department Oren Dayan faulted it for not holding out more stability to the mining sector.

“I find the speech to be very informative in terms of statistics and figures, but I was waiting for value in terms of economic growth and jobs stability for the mining industry,” said Dayan.

“What would have been expected from the president is how he would bring surety for the miners and the mining companies.”

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said Zuma had come up with nothing new.

“The president focused on the right issues… but he hardly came up with a single new plan,” she said. – Sapa