Pretoria – Murder accused Oscar Pistorius should be denied bail, Women’s Minister Lulu Xingwana said outside the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning.

Xingwana joined a group of women protesting outside the court where Pistorius, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was applying for bail.

“We are here as the [ANC] Women’s League, community and NGOs [non-governmental organisations] to say ‘No bail’,” said Xingwana.

“It does not matter what standing Pistorius has in society.”

Double-amputee Pistorius was arrested shortly after Steenkamp was fatally wounded at his home in Pretoria on Thursday.

“We want him to be treated like other criminals that have been charged with murder or abuse of women,” Xingwana said.

Those found guilty of such crimes should be punished with the “stiffest sentences”.

She called the on government to tighten firearm regulations and to ban guns in homes.

“These guns, most of the time, are used to kill women and children in homes,” Xingwana said.

“Our plan is to say: ‘No guns in our homes’. We want to feel safe and secure in our homes.” – Sapa

The SAFA Development Agency has set its priority on increasing the base of coaching educators in South Africa to see as many as 15 000 coaches throughout the Local Football Associations (LFAs) licensed by the end of the 2013.

There are currently 30 licensed coaching educators in South Africa and the vision is to increase the base of instructors to 150 to carry out this bold new plan.

The starting point is to train the present Level 3 as well as Level 2 coaches who are interested in being coaching educators.

One coach will be assigned to oversee the training two LFA’s.

Last year SAFA launched its Technical Master Plan designed to rebuild the structures of football from the grassroots in order to create sustained international success for its national teams.

A key element of the plan is the ambitious goal to achieve a coach: player ratio of 1:20 in the next ten years.

This would mean licensing 15,000 coaches a year for the next ten years. “Given that since 1997 we have licensed almost 9,000 coaches, the scope of the plan is revolutionary”, says Fran Hilton Smith, Acting Technical Director. “In order to achieve it, we will have to run two CAF “C” Licence courses in every one of our 311 LFAs each year, as well as one “B” Licence course in every Region, and one “A” Licence course in every Province” she added.

“This is a big task but we must set goals and try to achieve them. For this to happen, we need more coach educators as at present we only have 30. This is where the Level 3 and 2 coaches come in- to be trained as educators in their regions.”

“This will give us the necessary number of coaches that we require to achieve the levels of international success that we aspire to” says Dennis Mumble, Acting CEO of SAFA. The newly formed SAFA Development Agency will be assisting SAFA to set up the necessary project plans for this roll-out, as well as to raise the necessary funding to make it possible.

SAFA Development Agency CEO, Dr Robin Petersen, says that each one of these coaches to be trained will also be trained as a Life Skills Educator, as it is scientifically demonstrated that all-round coaching is necessary to create successful teams.

“Having these coaches as life-skills educators will also give us a network of trained people to get across crucial social programmes in health, gender, skills development, leadership formation and other key issues” says Petersen.

There will be no cost to the willing candidates but they will be remunerated for their efforts.

Coaches will be communicated with to see who is interested in taking up this opportunity or they can contact Ms Christina Phafane in the Coach Education department.

Boston – Scientists are still sorting out the details of last year’s discovery of the Higgs boson particle, but add up the numbers and it’s not looking good for the future of the universe, scientists said on Monday. 

“If you use all the physics that we know now and you do what you think is a straightforward calculation, it’s bad news,” Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, told reporters. 

Lykeen spoke before presenting his research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. 

“It may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable and at some point billions of years from now it’s all going to get wiped out,” said Lykken, who is also on the science team at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. 

Physicists last year announced they had discovered what appears to be a long-sought subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, which is believed to give matter its mass. 

Work to study the Higgs’ related particles, necessary for confirmation, is ongoing. 

If confirmed, the discovery would help resolve a key puzzle about how the universe came into existence some 13.7 billion years ago – and perhaps how it will end. 

“This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now, there’ll be a catastrophe,” Lykken said. 

“A little bubble of what you might think of as an ‘alternative’ universe will appear somewhere and then it will expand out and destroy us,” Lykken said, adding that the event will unfold at the speed of light. 

Scientists had grappled with the idea of the universe’s long-term stability before the Higgs discovery, but stepped up calculations once its mass began settling in at around 126 billion electron volts – a critical number it turns out for figuring out the fate of the universe. 

The calculation requires knowing the mass of the Higgs to within one percent, as well as the precise mass of other related subatomic particles. 

“You change any of these parameters to the Standard Model (of particle physics) by a tiny bit and you get a different end of the universe,” Lyyken said. 

Earth will likely be long gone before any Higgs boson particles set off an apocalyptic assault on the universe. Physicists expect the sun to burn out in 4.5 billion years or so, and expand, likely engulfing Earth in the process. – Reuters

The State cannot prove that paralympian Oscar Pistorius knew his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was on the other side of the bathroom door when she was shot, his lawyer said in court on Tuesday.

Evidence would also be brought if needed, of men who had shot their wives or children thinking they were burglars, advocate Barry Roux said at Pistorius’ bail application in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

Roux said he would also bring evidence of burglaries and robberies at security complexes, if necessary.

Pistorius is charged with the murder of Steenkamp at his home in the early hours of St Valentine’s Day last week.

A teary-eyed Pistorius watched while Roux countered the State’s indication at his first appearance on Friday that it intended arguing that Steenkamp’s death was premeditated murder.

“We submit it’s not even murder,” Roux said.

“There’s no agreement there, not even concession that this is murder.”

Earlier, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel repeated that the State’s case was that her death was premeditated, and that it rejected that she may have been mistaken for a burglar when she was shot three times through a bathroom door.

“We say this in itself constitutes premeditated murder of a burglar,” said Nel.

“Pistorius put on his prosthetic legs, walked to his bathroom and fired four shots, three of which hit his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp”, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

“He prepared. He armed himself. The motive was, he wanted to kill,” Nel alleged in Pistorius’ bail application.

Nel said Pistorius, a double amputee who became an Olympic athlete, walked seven metres to the small bathroom.

“He fired four shots. Three hit Steenkamp. “It is those cold facts that makes this a premeditated murder,” alleged Nel.

He said the bathroom door was broken down and, according to blood spatter analysis, Pistorius picked up Steenkamp and carried her downstairs.

Pistorius kept looking at his feet, his jaw clenched, as submissions on Steenkamp’s final moments were made to magistrate Desmond Nair, who has to decide whether to grant him bail. 

While this was taking place, a private family funeral service for Steenkamp was being held at the Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday morning. – Sapa

Mafikeng – A North West man went to fetch his belongings from a house he rented last year, only to find his landlord dead in a bedroom, police said on Monday.

He had last seen his landlord alive in June, said Captain Amanda  Funani.

“When he came back last year December, he went to look for the (landlord) and could not find him at his home,” she said.

“(On Sunday), he went to one of the landlord’s relatives, who granted him permission to go and fetch his belongings.”

There was a bad smell in the house when he opened the door, said Funani.

The man then went to the bedroom used by the landlord and discovered a decomposed body inside.

“The police were summoned and it is suspected that the remains might be that of the 65-year-old landlord,” said Funani.

“According to information from the deceased’s neighbours, the man was last seen in July 2012.”

He had not been reported missing. – Sapa

Rustenburg – A mineworker is in a critical condition following clashes at Anglo American Platinum in Rustenburg in the North West, police said on Tuesday.

“There is one very critical person at the moment,” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

He denied reports that a mineworker was killed in the clash between security guards and workers on Monday which left several people injured.

The critically injured person was taken to Milpark hospital in Johannesburg with serious head injuries.

“The person was hit by a blunt object,” he said.

Ngubane said that 13 people were injured at the Siphumelele shaft.

“Some of the people were hacked with pangas and sharp objects, while others were shot with security rubber bullets,” Ngubane said in a statement.

“A group of about 1 000 strong… attacked four people who were at the union offices. Mine security intervened and fired rubber bullets, and in the process a total of 13 mineworkers, including four security guards, (were injured).”

Workers’ leader Gaddafhi Mdoda said workers from all shafts did not report for work on Tuesday; instead they would meet at the Bleskop stadium.

“We want to do away with Anglo management. Details will be disclosed at the meeting,” he said.

In August last year, Amplats fired 12,000 strikers from its operation in Rustenburg. The workers were later taken back.

The North West town was the scene last year of violent mining protests which left dozens dead. – Sapa

Cape Town – Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesman Lionel Adendorf has been suspended after he wrote a letter to the Cape Times criticising provincial ANC leader Marius Fransman last week.

Deputy director-general for Fisheries Greta Apelgren-Narkadien suspended Adendorf on Friday after the letter was published on February 14.

“It was the last straw,“ Apelgren-Narkadien told the Cape Times.

In the letter Adendorf described Fransman’s behaviour at a memorial service for rape and murder victim Anene Booysens as “inappropriate and disrespectful”. At the memorial Fransman launched an attack on Social Development MEC Albert Fritz and Safety MEC Dan Plato.

Adendorf is an ANC member and previously worked for the party when Mcebisi Skwatsha was chairman of the ANC.

Apelgren-Narkadien said Adendorf “attacked the deputy minister (Fransman) but didn’t declare it was his personal opinion”.

“Our employees have the right to speak to the media but they must say that this is their own opinion. I don’t think he did,” she said.

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

Pretoria – Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius appeared in court in Pretoria on Tuesday for the resumption of a bail hearing after he was charged last week with murdering his girlfriend.

The 26-year-old appeared in the dock at the Pretoria court in a black suit, blue shirt and grey tie and stared straight ahead anxiously.

Magistrate Desmond Nair asked Pistorius how he felt. Pistorius shrugged and stared straight ahead.

After Pistorius was brought in, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel launched straight into the first official details of what allegedly led to the death of Pistorius’ girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

“There are objective facts that are not in dispute,” said Nel.

He said Steenkamp was shot three times behind a closed bathroom door.

Pistorius is charged with Steenkamp’s murder last Thursday.

Pistorius’s family was squashed between journalists in the packed court.

His brother Carl and sister Aimee barely spoke, as behind and around them at least 130 people were crammed into the court, which usually accommodates about 40 people, with more trying to get through the door.

Independent forensic pathologist for Pistorius, Reggie Perumal, also arrived shortly after 9.30am.

Pistorius was brought to court early from the Brooklyn police cells where he had been in custody since his first appearance on Friday.

He was brought in through a different entrance to the one used on Friday, mostly escaping the glare of international publicity.

His family had already run the gauntlet of crowds waiting outside the court and an official among those inside the court pleaded with the public and media for order.

“We can’t let one more person in. Please all step back now,” he said

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

Pretoria – Oscar Pistorius applied for six separate firearm licences in January. Less than a month later, he stands accused of fatally shooting his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The killing took place during the early hours of Thursday at his luxury home in Pretoria.

On Tuesday, as the Paralympian prepares to show compelling reasons why he should be released on bail, The Star can reveal that Pistorius applied for licences for the following firearms:

* A Maverick shotgun;

* A Winchester shotgun;

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

By Staff Reporter

Xenophobia and its linkages with migration are to feature prominently during Provincial Consultation for the drafting of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) third progress report to be held as from 9h00 on Tuesday 19 February 2012 at the Mmabatho Convention Centre.

The objective of the APRM session for the period October 2010 to January 2013 to be hosted by the North West Provincial Government is to solicit stakeholder inputs on progress made in the implementation of the National Programme of Action (NPoA) and resuscitate Provincial Governing Councils.

The final consolidated country report is to be submitted to the African Union (AU) Summit Head of State and Government of APRM participating countries in May of this year.

“The participation of provincial government departments, municipalities, business sector, traditional leaders, labour, civil society, faith based organisations, non-government organisations, the academia, researchers, women organisations and youth organisations will contribute towards a balanced and objective review that will inform the NPoA,” says Premier Thandi Modise.

Premier Modise has noted that the APRM Country Review Report of 2007 had recorded that in South Africa:

• Definitions and measurement of poverty are agreed upon and applied.• Land reform contributes to sustainable livelihoods• Improved effectiveness and efficiency of the education system at all levels.• Strategies and programmes to improve children’s nutrition and ensure their healthy development are successfully implemented.• An integrated and holistic approach to combating HIV and AIDS, as well as diseases such as TB and malaria and other communicable diseases• Universal access to constitutionally mandated basic rights and services. While it observed that social capital is built at local levels, particularly in vulnerable and marginalised communities, and participation of civil society organisations in socio-economic development processes is improved, it called for development and strengthening of key institutions and social group to make them more effective. This includes support to women-led enterprises,

The report also highlighted that South Africa had demonstrated a firm commitment towards a total overhaul of the Asylum Seeker and Refugee Management (ASM) processes to strengthen its credibility, efficiency and

effectiveness.

Positive policy developments and refugee and immigration regime management that were recorded in the 2007 review report included:

• The Refugees Amendment Act No. 12 of 2011 which enabled the country to establish Refugee Status Determination Committees to improve the objectivity in the adjudication process.• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were drafted for officials involved in the processing of asylum seekers such as officials adjudicating claims; the inspectorate; and officials at ports of entry and Permitting to ensure uniformity in the processing of asylum seekers and refugees and more effective security and coordination.• Progress has been registered in enhancement of the National Internet Information Service (NIIS) that supports the processing of asylum seekers and refugees and assist with the adjudication of asylum claims, the tracking and tracing of applications and the production of reliable management information. This work will feed into the broader modernisation of systems programmes that will enable the integration of the entire management system. In addition to perceived linkages between migration and xenophobia, the report had noted that one of South Africa’s enduring characteristics is its diverse racial and ethnic composition and warned that, if not appropriately managed, can become a source of tension and division leading to political instability, social unrest, conflict and economic decline.