President Jacob Zuma has no option but to fire Women, Children and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana after remarks stereotyping Calvinists, the Christian Democratic Party said on Wednesday.

“Many non-Afrikaners, black and white, are members of Calvinist churches and her latest statement could be considered as religious intolerance,” said CDP spokesperson Rev Theunis Botha.

Xingwana made the remarks in an interview for an Australian Broadcasting Corporation segment on the arrest and murder charge against paralympian Oscar Pistorius following the 14 February fatal shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

In the segment, which also looked at violence and gun ownership in South Africa, she said: “Young Afrikaner men are brought up in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child, they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own it.”

Stereotype

This prompted the CDP to say that: “This is also not the first time Xingwana stereotyped a community based on untruths.

“In her infamous Church Square speech, she accused farmers across the board of atrocities against farmworkers, based on a single Western Cape incident – by then already proven to be false by the police and reported as such to government months earlier.

“The country does not need demolishers in Cabinet or any other place in government, but bridge-builders.”

Earlier, the Afrikanerbond said Xingwana had “abused her office” and did not reflect honour or dignity in her position.

“This minister has proven beyond any doubt that she is not fit to hold office in a constitutional democracy,” Afrikanerbond secretary Jan Bosman said.

He noted that she had also said: “We also have cultural differences as well in our own communities where we have women who are forced into marriage and we are dealing with all those issues.”

In the ABC report, which aired on Monday, the focus was on how the Pistorius case highlighted gun violence in South Africa.

“I would ask him to tell the truth. I would ask him to respect women,” Xingwana said.

“I would ask him to get rid of all his guns. Because I believe if he did not have guns in his home, Reeva Steenkamp would be alive today.”

Apology

Bosman said Xingwana’s statements were an “extreme verbal attack on the integrity of Afrikaners”.

“It is unwarranted, uncalled for and without any substance. At the very least the minister owes Afrikaners, men, women and children, an apology without any reservations,” Bosman said.

“We can only deduce that she chose to attack Afrikaners to create a smokescreen for her total lack of any programme of action whilst [minister] and to deflect from the serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement in her department and her failure to provide a report with details about these allegations to Parliament.”

The Afrikanerbond would take up the matter with Zuma’s office for the president to “act against one of the most incompetent ministers in his Cabinet”, Bosman said.

Meanwhile, Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum said on Tuesday it was considering bringing a complaint before the Equality Court against Xingwana.

“Xingwana’s remarks boil down to a blatant contravention of various sections of the Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act,” spokesperson Ernst Roets said.

“She has discriminated on the basis of race, faith and gender. On top of that, she clearly lacks the necessary expertise to talk knowledgeably on the topic.”

Roets said AfriForum had submitted the matter to its legal team.

 SAPA

The arrest of MEC China Dodovu has piled pressure on Premier Thandi Modise who now faces the possibility of watching the implosion of her cabinet.

Dodovu was arrested by the Hawks in Potchefstroom on Monday as the eighth suspect implicated in the murder of ANC regional secretary Obuti Chika in December last year. Dodovu becomes the most senior ANC politician to be arrested in connection with Chika’s killing.

The development came on the back of three other MECs whose positions are under serious threat following damning revelations of financial improprieties.

They include social development MEC Mositsanagape Mokomele-Mothibi who conceded to having spent R174000 on accommodation and entertainment during her excursion with friends to Mangaung last year. Possibilities are that she will be removed by the ANC and have a criminal case opened against her.

The other two are finance and education MECs Paul Sebegoe and Louisa Mabe. The two are jointly under a multi-pronged investigation by the Hawks, the public protector, the auditor general and the Public Service Commission after close to R20m was spent on legal fees in disciplinary cases involving three officials.

Results of the investigation are to be released soon and if implicated, the two face the possibility of arrest.Ironically, Modise appointed Sebegoe to act at the local government department, raising serious concerns over her position on the fate of her lieutenants.

Political analyst Prof André Duvenage from the North West University said: “This is an all-time low for the province and we are likely to see continued tension as long as ANC members do not set aside their differences. Assassination incidents are becoming more frequent, considering that just before Obuti Chika was gunned down, an alleged attempt was made on suspended ANC provincial secretary Kabelo Mataboge.

“It’s time for an overall clean up of the province and it rests upon Premier Thandi Modise to take decisive action.”

The DA’s Chris Hattingh said Dodovu’s arrest placed Modise in a predicament, with four members of her cabinet now under a cloud.
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North West – The DA’s final attempt to retain control over the Tlokwe municipality drew a blank when its arguments over irregularities in the council were dismissed, leading to the ANC regaining control over the North West municipality in Potchefstroom.

A show of unity prevailed from the ANC benches when all its councillors, including those who have previously initiated a motion of no confidence in their own mayor, voted him back to the seat he was forced out of, three months ago.

Maphetle Maphetle was demoted to an ordinary councillor in November when 19 of the 30 ANC councillors initiated his unseating amid factionalism and infighting prior to the Mangaung conference. 

They wanted to replace Maphetle with Lucky Tsagae. 

The remaining ANC councillors supporting Maphetle walked out of the council chamber, leaving the ANC out-numbered by the opposition and opening the door for DA councillor, Professor Annette Combrinck, to be elected to the seat. 

After Mangaung, the ANC had vowed to return the mayorship to the party, and sent President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa to Potchefstroom DA councillor Annette Combrinck was defeated by 31 to 21 votes.

All 30 ANC councillors were present at Tuesday’s council meeting, where they successfully passed a motion of no confidence in the DA mayor.

Nineteen DA councillors, two Freedom Front Plus councillors and a Cope councillor voted against the motion. 

The vote came after several attempts by the DA to delay the motion, saying proper procedure was not being followed and that councillors were not given any regular notice.

But on Tuesday, the speaker, Barei Mosiane-Segotso, ruled that the council could continue with the motion. 

The DA on Monday approached the Pretoria High Court to halt the motion, but the application is yet to be heard.  

In Tuesday’s vote, Maphetle received 31 votes against Combrinck’s 21 votes.

Overseeing the process from the gallery were ANC national executive council deployees Bathabile Dlamini, Humphrey Mmemezi, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Obed Bapela and the ANC’s chairman in the North West, Supra Mahumapelo.  

The DA recently alleged that R143 million was spent irregularly under the ANC’s watch in Tlokwe, adding that a further R152m was spent without proper authorisation.

The ANC, through its acting secretary in the North West, Gordon Kegakilwe, also promised to investigate allegations of corruption levelled against Maphetle.

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Klerksdorp-Eight men accused of killing ANC North West official Obuti Chika are expected to apply for bail in the Klerksdorp Magistrates Court today.

They are North West provincial ANC Youth League chairman Papiki Baboile (27), ward secretary Paul Molomonyane (33), Councillor Itumeleng Molebatsi (50), municipal worker William Malefo (46), community member Jeffrey Letuka (28) and minibus-taxi driver Kgotso Kali (36).

They each face a charge of premeditated murder and two charges of conspiracy to commit murder. The seventh accused in the matter, North West Local Government MEC China Dodovu, was arrested on Monday.

Chika, 33-years-old, was shot at point-blank range in the driveway of his home in Alabama, Klerksdorp, on December 14. 

He died at the Klerksdorp Hospital shortly after his arrival. 

He was the ANC’s regional secretary in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality.

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Cape Town – Truant teachers were absent for close to 7.5 million days last year, according to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

“We have the highest rate of absenteeism in SADC (the Southern African Development Community). We’re at 19 days (average per teacher) a year. It’s huge. An average of 10 percent nationally,” she told reporters at Parliament on Tuesday.

It is understood that teacher absenteeism in other SADC countries is an average of nine days per teacher per year.

According to the department, there were 392,000 teachers employed at public schools around the country in 2012.

With each teacher, on average, being absent for 19 days last year, the total number of days absent multiplies out to 7 448 000.

Motshekga said there was “great concern” in her department about teacher accountability Ä arriving at school on time, and teaching for the full day.

Her department was looking at introducing an electronic clock-in system to replace manual attendance registers.

Responding to a question, she described the average of 19 days taken off by public school teachers as “pure absenteeism”, but said serious illness had also played a part in the high figure.

“Part of it is the burden of disease, where you find teachers over a period of time have not been to school, but in most instances it’s just poor administration.”

This was the reason the department wanted to switch to an electronic clock-in system.

Motshekga said transport problems were also a reason many teachers were late, or absent from work. – Sapa

The bail application by one of the two men accused of killing Anene Booysen enters its second day in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Jonathan Davids, 22, pleaded not guilty to the crimes on Tuesday. He and Johannes Kana, 21, are accused of raping, killing and mutilating Booysen, 17, on February 2. Kana had not yet pleaded and was expected to apply for bail at a later stage.

The court heard on Tuesday that Davids was convicted of theft last February and received a five-year suspended sentence.

He also had three assault cases withdrawn against him in Bredasdorp, in September 2007, January 2008 and October 2011.

Booysen visited a nightclub in the town on Friday, February 1. A few hours later, she was gang-raped and mutilated. She was found at a construction site where she worked the next morning. She died in hospital later that day.

Sapa

Non-performing housing contractors appointed by the province’s human settlements, public safety and liaison will soon lose their contracts, the department said yesterday.

The announcement came after the human settlements branch acting head of the department, Monnapula Motlogelwa held one-on-one technical sessions with municipalities and contractors in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality.

His engagement with municipalities and contractors was aimed at finding solutions to housing challenges experienced in housing projects, creating healthy relations with municipalities and to accelerate housing delivery in the province. The session was the result of a number of complaints from the public and challenges experienced in the process of reducing the housing backlog and incomplete projects.

Motlogelwa warned that the department would not sympathise with incompetent contractors. “We have a mammoth task of delivering quality houses and dealing with the mushrooming informal settlements in the province.

“We need committed men and women in construction who will deliver in the best interest of our communities out there – on target.”

He said that the department would assist emerging women contractors to increase the pace of housing delivery in the province. Motlogelwa said the department was focused on strengthening partnerships and ensuring that projects yielded targeted job opportunities, ensuring that housing targets were met without compromise on quality, that roles were clarified and that early warning and monitoring systems were in place for prompt intervention.

“This is the right step to ensure that as citizens we receive quality service from the government, which promised to restore our dignity by providing quality housing,” RDP house beneficiary Boyce Mooketsi said.

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