Pretoria – Tshwane metro police officers have been accused of assaulting an elderly woman and locking her up for two days in a police cell.

Sindiswa Hejena, 60, of Silverton, told The Sowetan how she was assaulted by a female officer and two male colleagues after a church service last Tuesday.

“A Nigerian man, a congregant at our church, was given a traffic fine for parking incorrectly and he was begging them not to give him a ticket,” she said.

“My husband and I told him to take the ticket and that’s when the woman officer told my husband ‘voetsek you old man’.

“I told her not to speak to him like that because he was elderly,” Hejana said.

She said the female officer became angry and attacked her.

Hejana was taken to the Pretoria Central police station and was allegedly attacked again.

A police spokesperson said the matter would be investigated.

For more details go to www.news24.com

Former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has missed the deadline to challenge the SA Revenue Services’ application for the sequestration of his estate to cover a R16 million tax bill, The Times reported on Tuesday.

Malema filed a notice of intention to oppose the application in the High Court in Pretoria on February 18. He had until last Monday to file his answering affidavit.

According to a court document dated March 14, Malema failed to file the affidavit. As a result the application was set down on the unopposed motion court roll.

The hearing has been scheduled for April 17. Malema’s lawyer Tumi Mokwena refused to comment, the newspaper reported.

In December, Sars secured a court order for the attachment of Malema’s assets.

In January, sheriffs seized his Sandton and Polokwane homes. Sars then rejected a R4m settlement offer and auctioned Malema’s assets in the Sandton and Polokwane homes in February. – Sapa

A Pietermaritzburg father has admitted to raping his 13-year-old daughter on several occasions over four months, the Witness reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, the 39-year-old man admitted in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court to having committed sexual acts with his daughter on various occasions between December and March.

This was contained in a statement read by his Legal Aid attorney, Amsha Narain.

The man’s wife caught him raping their daughter when she unexpectedly returned home. The man was found guilty on a single count of rape. He would appear in court again on April 9. – Sapa

Johannesburg – Eighteen-year-olds can drive, pay taxes and join the army – but will be banned from drinking alcohol if Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has his way.

Raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 is just one of a raft of measures being considered by Motsoaledi and 10 government ministries to reduce the harm caused by alcohol consumption.

Motsoaledi also wants to see a complete ban on drinking before driving, a ban on alcohol advertising, and a review of alcohol pricing.

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

CAPE TOWN – Communications Minister Dina Pule says she wants to restore stability to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as quickly as possible.

Pule and the remaining SABC board members will report to Parliament today about the situation at the public broadcaster.

The board could likely be dissolved after most of the members quit, leaving the SABC without a functioning governing body.

Six board members resigned yesterday, leaving only three positions filled.

The minister’s spokesperson Siya Qoza said she “has noted the request from the president to liaise with the National Assembly to try and find a solution as quickly as possible.”

Qoza said the minister was trying to do that as soon as possible.

The corporation has been thrown into disarray after infighting over several issues, most notably Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s position as acting chief operations officer.

Former board chairperson Ben Ngubane and his deputy Thami ka Plaatjie resigned earlier this month. It is understood they wanted Motsoeneng to continue as COO, while most board members felt he should be replaced.

Motsoeneng has faced questions over his ability to lead the SABC’s operations after it emerged he did not complete matric.

PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE TO DECIDE ON PLAN

On Monday, President Jacob Zuma’s office announced that he had accepted the resignations of chairman Ngubane, his deputy and six board members.

The Communications Portfolio Committee Chairperson Eric Kholwane said the committee has to take a decision on one of two things.

Kholwane said “appropriate” steps would be taken once the committee has heard from the remaining board members and the chief executive officer today.

The committee could opt to fill the posts, which could take months to complete, or it could dissolve the board and appoint an interim one.

Courtesy of http://www.ewn.co.za

By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega has will be cross-examined at Marikana Commission in Rustenburg after her appearance was adjourned last week.

Phiyega came under siege for her utterances after commended police on what they did to slain miners on the 16 Aungust last year.

According to the commission, Phiyega was seen laughing in that. Tape. 

The Commission want Phiyega to explain her remarks.

However Phiyega said she has been targeted because of her gender and called for truthful and balanced reporting by the media. This she told the Marikana Commission of Inquiry and added that she was hurt by media reports last year that she laughed when video footage showing how mineworkers were shot at Marikana, was shown at the commission.

Phiyega says it would be against her character to act in such a way. Phiyega has drawn massive crowds at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry as she testifies for the first time. 

Legal Resources Centre advocate George Bizos has criticised legal counsel for the police, advocate Ishmael Semenya’s for the way he has been questioning her. 

The human rights lawyer has suggested the Semenya has so far been lenient to Phiyega. 

The police chief will take the stand this morning and she is expected to testify on the role of the police in the Marikana tragedy in which 34 lives were lost in August last year. 

Bizos says Phiyega should explain whether she understands the public order policy document. 

The legal counsel for the police, Ishmael Semenya however says there’s nothing wrong with his line of questioning.

Last week Phiyega has spent the morning agreeing with the contents of a public order policy document relating to crowd management as she appears before the Marikana Commission of Inquiry. 

Phiyega is the first witness that the police force has brought to the commission. 

The commission was established after 34 people were killed following a violent unprotected strike at the Lonmin Platinum Mine’s Marikana operations in the North West in August last year. Advocate Semenya has been reading out the outlines of the document to Phiyega.

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The province’s ANC Youth League (ANCYL) on Monday expressed shock at reports that the mother body has dissolved the league although provincial secretaries from Limpopo and Gauteng have confirmed being informed of the disbandment.

Provincial secretary Dikgang Stock said: “This is news to me, I only heard about it in the news. I am in Johannesburg now and we will be having an NEC meeting this evening. Maybe it is then when I will be briefed about the outcome.”

He said if the ANCYL NEC is shown the door, they will accept the resolution.

“We are operating in a democratic state, if democracy suggests that it is proper to dissolve leadership of a structure within the ANC, we will therefore abide by that resolution.”

The province’s ANCYL has been a stronghold of expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and declared its support for Malema publicly and his policies. Stock had at one stage even made a call on national television for the removal of President Jacob Zuma as the ANC president in Mangaung, and vowed that his deputy then, Kgalema Motlanthe, would emerge victorious at the conference.

He said if the league’s NEC was disbanded, then their provincial structure would be illegitimate. The ANCYL is expected to host its provincial conference in April.

Meanwhile, the Youth Communist League in the province said it accepted the decision to dissolve the NEC.

Provincial spokesperson, Kabelo Mohibidu said: “We welcome the decision by the NEC to dissolve them, actually it is long overdue.

“Structures of the league were dysfunctional.”

He said they would support an interim structure which would be put in place till the next conference.

“At least now young people will have a voice, they have been subjected to other individuals’ ideas for a very long time,” Mohibidu said.

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

Johannesburg – The African National Congress is not in a state of turmoil, secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

“Rectification is not turmoil,” Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.

“When you correct your organisation you are not in turmoil; it means you are in a phase of strengthening the organisation. Strengthening the organisation is not a once-off activity, it’s an ongoing process.”

This followed the decision by the ANC national executive committee to dissolve the ANC Youth League’s NEC and the Limpopo provincial executive committee (PEC).

The decision was taken at a three-day NEC meeting held in Irene, south of Pretoria at the weekend.

Mantashe said the fact that the ANC could identify areas where there were problems and confront them reflected a healthy organisation.

“A sick organisation runs away from problems and digs its head in the sand… the ANC doesn’t do that.”

Mantashe denied that dissolving the ANCYL NEC and the Limpopo PEC was a purging exercise.

“The Mangaung conference has come and gone… we don’t go around purging people,” he said.

“You cannot be flat-footed and do nothing when things go wrong, because you fear that you will be seen as purging.”

He said the dissolving of the ANCYL leadership was as a consequence of its continued ill-disciplined behaviour that brought the organisation into disrepute on numerous occasions.

An interim team would be selected and put in place by the national working committee.

The task team, which would be called the national task team (NTT) of the ANCYL, would take over responsibility of the league’s NEC.

“It (the NTT) will be young people. You (are) not going to find people with grey beards like me there,” said Mantashe.

“(The NTT) will work on rebuilding the youth league and also trying to give us a face that will appeal to young people… you don’t need to be rowdy to lead the youth league.”

He said knowledge needed to be a key component of leadership.

The NEC had instructed that all processes be stopped immediately with regard to the pending provincial and regional conferences of the ANCYL.

Some were trying to rush these conferences, and members were being bought so that leaders could be elected.

“We can’t have a leadership that is instant,” said Mantashe.

“The… difference between filter coffee and instant coffee is quality.”

ANCYL deputy president Ronald Lamola had been leading the ANC’s youth wing since its leader Julius Malema was expelled from the party last year.

Last week, in an interview with Sowetan newspaper, Lamola said the ANCYL’s leadership would quell the anarchy which characterised it last year.

He said the ANCYL was going to toe President Jacob Zuma’s line.

Mantashe said it was important for the ANC to sort out problems otherwise “your house will collapse on you”.

“We want a youth league of the ANC that appeals to the young people in society and unfortunately society doesn’t forget and say ‘no you behaved in a particular… way before Mangaung and now you have changed’ and they forget,” he said.

Mantashe said the structures of the ANCYL needed to be rebuilt.

The Limpopo PEC was dissolved for having “un-ANC behaviour and institutionalised factional conduct”.

It would be replaced with an interim structure that would be given nine months to work towards convening a provincial conference.

A list of the provincial task team was being decided during a meeting on Monday. A provincial general council would be held in Limpopo on Sunday.

Mantashe said there were a number of issues in the province in which there was no leadership, but there were groupings, and the ANC was paying the price.

“These issues cannot go unnoticed by the ANC,” he said.

Mantashe said dissolving the PEC would not affect government positions.

Provincial chairman Cassel Mathale is also the Limpopo premier. – Sapa

Two women shot dead, Premier calls for threats of violence against women to be kept in check

Threats of violence against women who have been granted protection orders still needs to be kept in check and evaluated to prevent violent incidents that results in them being killed by their estranged partners, North West Premier Thandi Modise said in condemning the fatal shooting of a mother and her daughter in Lethabong near Rustenburg over the weekend .

“The threat that necessitated the protection order should not be underestimated by authorities to ensure that the complainant’s safety is to a certain extend guaranteed. Where possible, guns which have claimed lives of estranged lovers and partners have to be confiscated. The rate at which guns are used to kill women by their partners is unacceptable,” stressed Premier Modise.

According to police, the 44-year-old mother and her daughter, 28, were at home when the man broke in around 3:00 am on Saturday. A quarrel ensued. The man ,30, took out a firearm and allegedly shot his girlfriend in the stomach and chest.

The mother was shot three times, twice in the chest and once in the chin when she tried to intervene.

Modise called on the public to assist police locate the whereabouts of the suspect who is still at large.

Spokesperson of the South African Police Service- North West, Brigadier Thulane Ngubane confirmed that police are investigating a case of murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm

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Kimberley – A Northern Cape teenager appeared in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on charges of raping a nine-year-old boy.

Gopolang Riet, 19, was denied bail and will remain in police custody until his next appearance in April.

The State, on Friday, alleged that Riet raped the boy several times in the ABC Cemetery and at Ottoskopje Mine in Galeshewe earlier in February.