Pretoria – Scores of journalists milled outside the Brooklyn Police Station, east of Pretoria, awaiting the arrival of paralympian Oscar Pistorius on Monday morning.

Pistorius was granted R1 million bail on Friday in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. As part of the bail conditions, he was ordered to report to the Brookyln Police Station twice every week – on Mondays and Fridays.

News crews erected small tents and gazebos along Duxbury road, outside the police station. Passing motorists slowed down curiously  with a few asking if Pistorius had already checked in.

The world-famous athlete was arrested on February 14 for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home. – Sapa

Pretoria – The legal team of murder accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius declined to comment on Monday on reports that the athlete is considering approaching the High Court in Pretoria to ease his bail conditions.

“I can’t comment on that,” said one of his lawyers, Brian Webber.

The Times reported on Monday that Pistorius’ legal team was considering its position to approach the court.

“I have no comment on that at the present moment, unfortunately. We are still considering our position and this is really as much as I can say right now,” his advocate Kenny Oldwage told the newspaper.

He did not specify which conditions were undesirable.

The athlete was expected to report to the Brooklyn police station on Monday morning as part of his bail conditions, which were set down by magistrate Desmond Nair in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

He was ordered to report to the station twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.

The 2012 Paralympics 400m gold medallist has spent his first weekend at home, after being held for eight days at the Brooklyn police station.

He is charged with murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot at his home in Pretoria on February 14.

In an affidavit submitted as part of his application for bail, Pistorius said he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

After listening to extensive argument, Nair ruled that the sprinter was not a flight risk, and that the State had not shown that he had a propensity for violence.

Pistorius was granted bail of R1 million. He was allowed to pay an initial instalment of R100 000, with the balance due by March 1.

The conditions of bail included that Pistorius not be charged with any offence relating to violence against women; not return to his home in Silver Woods country estate; not apply for travel documents; and not take banned substances or alcohol.

He would live at an undisclosed address until his next court appearance on June 4. – Sapa

Durban – Oscar Pistorius’s defence team is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to examine the toilet door through which Reeva Steenkamp was shot, calling it one of the most critical pieces of evidence still outstanding.

The door was removed by police before Pistorius’s team had the chance to examine the crime scene.

Durban forensic pathologist Reggie Perumal, who has been hired by the defence, said the State was only going to start its assessments of the door now that Pistorius’s bail application was over.

“It is critical that we examine this door so that we can see the trajectory of the bullets and establish exactly where she was in the toilet when she was shot. Next to the post-mortem results this is the most crucial information needed,” he said.

Perumal, who was present at the post-mortem of Steenkamp’s body and took more than 200 photos, said many of the rumours about the crime or events leading up to it, such as her having been pregnant, were easily ruled out.

“There was also a theory that Steenkamp had a clump of Pistorius’s hair in her hand when she died, but we even have photos of her hands and there were only two strands of hair on her hand and they were her own, long blonde hairs.”

“We decided to get as much of our evidence as we could through the investigating officer so that I did not need to be called as a witness during the bail application. He was at the autopsy so that was actually a blessing for Oscar.”

But it is not only the post-mortem that Perumal relied on as he also assessed the crime scene. In fact, it was he who, through seeing a particular mark on the toilet wall, realised that a bullet cartridge was in the toilet and suggested it be retrieved.

“A lot of injustices are done in criminal cases because of improper crime scene investigation,” he said.

Perumal also told how bloody swipes from Steenkamp’s hair – as well as other blood markings in the house – supported Pistorius’s story of where he picked her body up and carried it.

For more details go to www.iol.co.za

Bela-Bela, Limpopo – A prospective bridegroom who would have married next Saturday, was killed in a freak accident involving his own gun, Beeld reported on Monday.

Seymore Coetsee, 34, manager of the luxury game farm Swala Lodge, about 30km west of Bela-Bela, was shot on Friday while he was moving a washing machine in the home he and his fiancee would have occupied after their marriage.

An emotional Bryn Thomas, the owner of Swala Lodge, said the gun had been lying on top of the washing machine. It fell on the floor and went off, as the safety clip was not on.

The bullet hit Coetsee in the stomach and exited through his back, before it hit the roof.

His fiancee, Sam Sampson, 34, was standing a few steps behind him when the shot went off.

After the accident, Coetsee was still alive, but he died in the ambulance en route to Pretoria.

Coetsee’s sister, Annemie, who is married to Sampson’s brother, Marius, arrived from Britain on Sunday to attend the wedding, still  unaware of the tragedy.

Trudie Laubscher of Klerksdorp, Coetsee’s aunt, said the family was devastated.

“It is terrible to have to inform joyous relatives at the airport that they’re going to be attending a funeral instead of a wedding,” a tearful Laubscher said. – Sapa

The ANC is set to wrest back the Tlokwe mayoral seat from the DA tomorrow after ruling party councillors were ordered to reinstate ousted mayor Maphetle Maphetle.

ANC top leadership held a national working committee meeting in Potchefstroom recently and gave a directive that its councillors should work together and pass a vote of no confidence in incumbent Annette Combrinck.

The DA on the other hand boasts that the three months it has been in charge of the municipality has given it enough foothold to convince the electorate to vote for it in the coming elections.

Its leader, Helen Zille, visited the municipality at the weekend and expressed satisfaction with what she saw.

Zille said that under Combrinck, a municipal infrastructure grant unit was established to speed up the application and transfer process for national grants, ensuring that none of these grants go unspent and to speed up the roll-out of basic services to residents.

“Urgently needed repairs were carried out to the city’s fire fighting vehicles to allow them to function properly. Before this, several firefighting vehicles were standing idle, unable to carry out their crucial work – especially in Ikageng, where fires spread rapidly.

“The DA refused to accept that R736000 of public money was spent on a new mayoral car ordered by the former mayor.

“The new Mercedes Benz E-class with customised rose wood interior was delivered to the council because it was too late to stop the order, but we have referred this purchase to the auditor-general for investigation and to see if it is possible to recover any or all of the cost,” she said.

She added that townships in Potchefstroom were for the first time exposed to real service delivery issues where refuse was collected and connections to water and electricity made.

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

Following his team’s 3-0 thrashing of Bidvest Wits in the Nedbank Cup, Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has warned that it is far too early for the Glamour Boys to pop the champagne.

Amakhosi have in the past few seasons found the going tough in this Cup and were the victims of small teams, but against Wits they were in familiar territory.

A strong Absa Premiership side, particularly one that accounted for Amakhosi’s scalp in the Telkom Knockout last year, was just the sort of challenge to inspire a magnificent performance, and Chiefs emphatically did that.

“I was very pleased with the performance of the players. We took 10-15 minutes to settle in. We used a different system that we worked about four hours on and I think the players played the system very well,” said Baxter.

Two first half goals from defenders Siboniso Gaxa and Morgan Gould and a third from substitute Mandla Masango saw Chiefs cruise to a convincing win.

On Friday, 2012 losing finalists Mamelodi Sundowns needed a goal in the dying minutes of extra time to beat Ajax Cape Town and progress to the last eight stage of the competition. Left back Tebogo Langerman fired Pitso Mosimane’s side into the lead.

Meanwhile Chippa United carried their miserable league form into Cup football when they were dumped out of the competition by National First Division side United FC. Former Chiefs striker Lucky Khune scored in extra-time to hand Dan Malesela’s side a 3-2 victory.

There were no nasty surprises for Golden Arrows, who beat Vardos FC at Makhulong Stadium to book their place. Manqoba Mngqithi’s boys demolished the Tembisa side 4-0.

Defending champions SuperSport United needed the lottery of the penalty shoot-out against Moroka Swallows to move to the last 16. Swallows defender Roger Da Costa missed his penalty and Bradley Grobler scored United’s fifth penalty to knock Zeca Marques’ side out.

The game between Maritzburg United and University of Pretoria also needed penalties to decide the winner. Cuthbert Malajila was the hero for the Team of Choice.

North West Premier Thandi Modise has pledged that her administration is to spend over R1, 2 billion in the new financial on creation of viable human settlements as part of social infrastructure investment.

Reaffirming the change of the paradigm from provision of housing to creation of sustainable human settlements in her State of the Province Address, Premier Modise pronounced that the R1,2 billion is to be spend on construction of  15230 housing units across her province.In outlining housing delivery targets for the new financial year and reporting on the delivery of 12 housing units for the 2012/2013 financial year, Modise said that Community residential units modelled along the one build in Ikageng township in Tlokwe Local Municipality are to be build to increase social housing rental housing stock across 13 municipalities in the province.

She said that eight municipalities have been assisted in reviewing their housing sector plans.The process is to be completed before the end of the current financial year.

NWest intensifies rollout of school sports, sports infrastructure and recreational facilities Six hundred schools are to benefit from the joint school sports programme to be rolled out by the Provincial Department of Sport,Arts and Culture and the Department of Education in the new financial year, North West Premier Thandi Modise has revealed.

The development of a multi-sport facility in Ngaka Modiri Molema District and major revamp of Itsoseng Stadium to make it usable and safe to host major games were some of the projects that were announced by Premier Modise during her state of the Province Address on Friday.

While Pudimoe and Letsopa libraries are to be completed next month, the Premier also reported that sports complexes that are under construction in Manthe and Mamusa and libraries in Lomanyaneng, Gannalagte and Tlokweng will be completed in the new financial year.