The extent to which police are resorting to violence and suicide to settle their personal affairs is worrisome, North West Premier Thandi Modise said in expressing shock that a warrant officer shot his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself near Orkney on Thursday.

“When the number of women who are becoming victims of uncontrolled rage associated with those in possession of guns is increasing, then a question need to be asked as to how many other people be they private individuals and or police officials who are mentally and psychologically unfit to be in possession of firearms still possess them and what is being done to disarm them,” stressed Premier Modise.

It is alleged that policenu  received   reNot rated yet. received a complaint of two bodies lying in an open field on Wednesday.According to Spokesperson of SAPS North West, Brigadier Thulane Ngubane who confirmed that police are investigating a case of murder and suicide,  the bodies have since been identified as that of  Warrant Officer Moeketsi Joseph, 40 who was stationed at Vierfontein in the Free State and that of  his 30 year-old  girlfriend Kedibone Kotola.Moeketsi was reportedly found lying with his service pistol in his left hand on his chest and a bullet wound in the left ear while his girlfriend was found with a bullet wound in the left eye

Johannesburg – The ANC has declined to comment on a National Union of Metalworkers’ claim that DA economic policies formed the basis of the ANC’s National Development Plan (NDP).

“We will take the matter with them offline as part of Cosatu, if  there is a need or request from (the Congress of SA Trade Unions),”  spokesman Keith Khoza said on Thursday.

“The DA does not have policies. The DA’s policies are a nuance of broader ANC policies.”

Earlier, Numsa, an affiliate of Cosatu, said its 311,000 members  rejected the NDP as a “right wing” document.

“After a thorough analysis, the (central committee) came to the extremely disturbing conclusion that significant and strategic parts of the NDP were directly lifted from DA policy documents,” said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim.

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Pretoria – The chairman of the DA in Mkhondo, Mpumalanga, is claiming R250 000 in damages from a DA council member whom he claimed linked him to an incident where under-age prostitutes were allegedly solicited during a councillors’ workshop held in Durban.

Hein Sunkel is claiming for defamation in the Pretoria High Court following a letter written by Walter Masuku. The latter handed the letter to another local councillor, Rob Wilson.

Sunkel told the court that Masuku wrote the letter on October 13, 2011, and handed it to Wilson. 

In the letter, handed to court, Masuku stated that after finishing the workshop, he and Sunkel had a drink in a hotel bar. Sunkel, he said, “bought himself hot stuff”, while he had a tin of coke, as he is not a drinker. 

They then set off to look at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, together with some other councillors. It was late when they returned and en route they encountered “many young girls moving around the streets”.

Masuku said in the letter that while they were “chatting” to these girls, a police van stopped and asked what they were doing. 

Masuku said he at this point asked to be taken back to the hotel, as it was “unsafe for us to talk with these young girls”.

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Rustenburg – Alcohol worth about R80 000 was destroyed in Rustenburg on Thursday, North West police said.

“The liquor was seized from liquor outlets in Rustenburg policing areas during Safer Festive Operation Duty Calls,” Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

The alcohol was confiscated from tavern owners without licences. – Sapa

Klerksdorp – Nine prisoners have escaped from police custody in Klerksdorp, North West, police said on Thursday.

On Wednesday a policeman apparently opened the door of the holding cells to release a detainee who had paid bail, said Brigadier Thulani Ngubane.

“Several other detainees then attacked the police official and overpowered him.”

They took the keys from the official, opened the cell door and fled through the loading area, into the street.

One of them was caught by a policeman returning from his lunch-break.

The escaped men had been facing charges ranging from housebreaking and theft to robbery and car theft. – Sapa

BY Obakeng Maje

Orkney-North West police are investigating a murder and suicide case after a 40 year-old police officer allegedly shot girlfriend and self.

Police discovered their bodies at Goedgevonden Small Holidings lying 3m apart. 

Warrant Officer Joseph Moreki,40 was stationed at Vierfontein in Free State and he was found with his service pistol on his chest with a bullet wound in his ear.

“Police seized his service pistol for ballastic and residue test as the investigations continues” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

“Even though the cause of the death is not known, police identified the girlfriend as Kedibone Kotola,30” Ngubane said.

The continued spells of suicide by SAPS Members has caused serious concerns to the North West Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Zukizwa Mbombo, who yesterday during National Police Day celebration made the strong crowd of about 5000 police officers to commit not to kill themselves and take their lives.

Rustenburg – A miner wounded in the Marikana shooting does not object to having scars on his chest medically tested to determine when they were inflicted, the Farlam commission of inquiry heard on Wednesday.

Mzoxolo Magidiwana claimed the scars were from a ritual performed at his home in the Eastern Cape, in December 2011.

Police advocate Vuyani Ngalwana wanted the tests done to determine whether they dated from August last year.

This was because police believed that a ritual was performed on a group of protesters, known as the “Marakapa”, on the koppie in Marikana on or around August 14, two days before 34 Lonmin strikers were shot dead.

Ngalwana claimed the purpose of the ritual was to make the group “strong and invincible” to police.

Magidiwana denied he was a Marakapa and that he had the scarring ritual performed on him on the koppie.

At first he appeared hesitant to answer the question, and asked Ngalwana whether he, as a Xhosa man, had similar ritual scars. He said he would not object to the testing, provided his elders and lawyers were present.

Asked about his group’s apparent leader, Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki’s conversation with police prior to the August 16 shooting, Magidiwana said he did not know what was said.

Ngalwana alleged Noki told police that they, the police, would die on the koppie.

Magidiwana responded: “This thing you are always saying about Mambush… it hurts me because he did nothing wrong. We were killed there like flies.”

Noki was among those killed during the confrontation with police. Magidiwana became upset when asked whether, in Reuters footage shown to him, police could be seen retreating. He shouted and banged his fist on the desk. Commission chairman, retired judge  Ian Farlam, asked him to refrain from doing this and to answer the question.

Magidiwana then started crying. Farlam said it was not the commission’s intention to subject him to unnecessary pain.

Farlam said it was understandable that seeing the footage of a time when Magidiwana could have died, and some of his colleagues were killed, could be upsetting.

He adjourned the commission until 10am on Monday.

Earlier, Magidiwana claimed police encircled his group of protesters to shoot them.

“All endeavours were made to have us encircled so we could not get away.”

When the first police Nyala vehicle began to deploy barbed wire,  the group discussed its next move.

“Even as we were singing and moving, police started moving (to a gap in the police line). They knew we would go there and they would encircle us and shoot us.”

Magidiwana previously told the commission the police repeatedly shot and beat him on August 16. He was arrested for possession of a  firearm, but could not be detained because of the severity of his injuries. He has denied police claims that he carried a firearm and that he shot at a police Nyala vehicle.

The commission is holding hearings in Rustenburg, North West, as  part of its inquiry into the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana last year.

On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when the police opened fire while allegedly 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. – Sapa

Murder-accused North West MEC China Dodovu claimed on Wednesday a smear campaign was being conducted against him.

“My arrest can only point to an unholy alliance between some ANC leaders, the police and the prosecution,” he told reporters in Johannesburg following his suspension from the ANC’s provincial executive committee.

The ANC in the North West dismissed Dodovu’s claims as “baseless and devoid of any truth”.

Dodovu, local government and traditional affairs MEC, was released on bail of R20,000 on Tuesday after his arrest in connection with the murder of ANC regional secretary Obuti Chika.

Chika, 33, was shot in the driveway of his Klerksdorp home on December 14. He died in a local hospital.

Eight people, including Dodovu, were arrested in connection with the crime.

He said on Wednesday: “I am informed that those who suspended me claim to have done so informed by the ANC Mangaung national conference resolutions.”

The resolution states that urgent action will be taken against any ANC public officials or leaders facing damaging allegations of improper conduct.

At the conference last year, the NEC was instructed to constitute an Integrity Committee as well as draw up a booklet with a code of conduct.

This was meant to be circulated to all branches within the first quarter of 2013.

Dodovu said the NEC had not finalised the guidelines and the Integrity Committee as envisaged in the resolution.

“It is therefore safe to assume that the action taken against me is not in line with said resolution, but is a hatchet job that is justified by a deliberate distortion of a resolution that is well-intended, but is now savaged by factionalists masquerading as custodians of morality.”

He said several officials had been suspended or dismissed in the North West since the party’s elective conference in Mangaung last year.

“We see eliminations every day… it started with ANC provincial secretary Kabelo Mataboge, he was suspended, and now it’s me,” he said.

Mataboge was suspended in December 2012.

Dodovu said the past two weeks in particular had been stressful for him as well his family.

“I have been subjected to malicious rumours and serious threats that ultimately culminated in my incarceration for more than a week,” said Dodovu.

He said he had not been formally told of his suspension and had only learnt of it through the media.

“We only hear from media that we are suspended from the organisation, we don’t know whether it’s the membership or our participation,” Dodovu said.

“I intend to contest the summary suspension and denial of right of response.”

Paul Sebegoe has since been appointed acting MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs in the North West.

Dodovu and his co-accused were scheduled to appear in court again in April.

The other accused are: North West provincial ANC Youth League chairman Papiki Baboile, ward secretary Paul Molomonyane, councillor Itumeleng Molebatsi, municipal worker William Malefo, taxi driver Kgotso Kali, and community members Sihlangu Sekhakhane and Jeffrey Letuka.

North West ANC spokesman Kenny Marolong said: “If he [Dodovu] has issues of discontent, we expect him to approach the ANC.”

He rejected claims by Dodovu that some leaders were plotting his demise.

“The ANC will not dignify his rantings with a response; we will also reject a notion that the ANC was involved in a plot to get him arrested.”

Marolong said the party would allow the courts to administer justice for Chika’s murder.

-Sapa

The protracted restlessness in the communities of Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela in Greater Moruleng reached a new level as community members set up a protest camp in front of the tribal authority from Tuesday.

The protesters are calling for their traditional leader, Chief Nyalala Pilane, to step down.

It’s a call the Bakgatla community have made intermittently in the past decade.

Once again the grievances are the alleged corruption and maladministration of tribal interests and resources by the chief and his tribal authority.

This time, however, the subjects have added dissatisfaction with the traditional council, which they say is “illegal”.

“The so-called council is operating illegally because their term expired in 2010. We will camp outside these offices day and night until the premier comes here because she knows our predicament,” one of the protesters, Tshepiso Thebyane, said. “All we want is for the council to leave our premises and for a new council to be elected.”

Bakgatla-ba-Pilane royal family member Segale Pilane blamed the provincial department of local government and traditional affairs for the unrest.

“The department of local and traditional affairs wrote a circular in 2010 about the expired term and said the election process would follow but so far nothing has happened,” Pilane said.

“It was the duty of the department to remove the tribal council whose term had expired, instead they have left us in limbo.”

Segale Pilane also said he felt Chief Pilane had not engaged the community enough.

Tribal authority spokesperson Kebone Mosetle said the protesting “group of youth” outside offices did not have a mandate to represent nor speak on behalf of the tribe.

“No memorandum has officially been presented to the administration and it is very difficult to pinpoint what the issues are. It is the usual ranting about corruption, recruitment at the (local) mines and the expired term of office for the traditional council,” Mosetle said.

The spokesperson for local government and traditional affairs, Dineo Lolokwane, said elections for all traditional councils in the province would take place in the near future and “finally put the matter to rest”.

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

Residents of Tlokwe local municipality have been urged to use water sparingly as supplies have not yet normalised.

This came during a press conference held in response to the water crisis that started more than a week ago. Mayor Maphetle Maphetle said the crisis was not over yet but that the local council was doing all it could to restore supplies.

Last week the DA called for police to investigate a case of sabotage after it alleged that municipal workers had deliberately shut down five of the eight pumps supplying the city reservoirs instead of working on one at a time.

In his address, Maphetle said: “The crisis is still not over, but is under control. The supply lines are being monitored on an ongoing basis. Currently everyone is receiving water, although pressure is low in some high-lying areas such as parts of Extension 7 and Mohadin,” he said.

Maphetle said more pumps would be ready to function yesterday to improve on the three that were failing to adequately fill up the reservoirs.

“The purification plant and the Ventersdorp main reservoirs are full but the three minor supply reservoirs of Eersterantjie, Mohadin and Ikageng have been isolated until the pumping is returned to full capacity.

“These will be fed slowly once the pumping returns to full capacity and, barring any unforeseen problems, it is hoped the situation will return to normal in the coming week.

“We appeal to people to be patient, use water sparingly and report any water pipe bursts that may be noticed in their areas,” he said.

Water supply manager for the city Chris Stoltz assured residents that engineers were working flat out.

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