Cape Town – Ajax Amsterdam are on a collision course with their franchise club in the Mother City, Ajax Cape Town, with a senior official from the Dutch club saying they would “get out” even if it costs them financially.
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A POLICE witness yesterday admitted that a decision to move into tactical phase of their operation during a wage unrest at Marikana – which left 34 dead – was made without any imminent threat at the time.
It also appeared that North West police commissioner Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo took this decision to move to phase three of the operation plan based on the fact that miners refused to lay down their weapons, rather than being based on any threat.
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The man accused of invading a soccer pitch and assaulting a referee with a vuvuzela will be back in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
On April 8, Velaphi Mkwanazi appeared in court with Zenzele Zikali, who is accused only of pitch invasion.
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Residents of Oersonskraal informal settlement near Wolmaranstad expressed relief after they received food hampers from the social development department.
The community has a huge number of unemployed youth and many residents rely solely on social grants for survival.
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Business stakeholders in the North West have resolved to implement an integrated socio-economic land use plan to benefit the province.
This happened during a two-day mediation strategy and plan for mining, tourism and land claims.
The workshop was held in Rustenburg on Thursday.
Participants included representatives of the provincial government, district and local municipalities, national departments, public entities, academic institutions, representatives of traditional communities, chamber of mines and the mining sector and the tourism sector.
“The parties committed to the implementation of the strategy to promote harmony among all role players to optimise their development potential.
“They undertook to promote partnerships within a mutually beneficial and conducive environment and to collectively strive for the advancement and realisation of the mediation strategy and plan for sustainable development,” provincial government spokesperson Lesiba Kgwele said.
The stakeholders endorsed the National Development Plan (NDP) as the basic platform to advance development.
Provincial planning commission head in the office of the premier, Darkey Afrika, said: “We must not allow the darkness of ideological and intellectual disorder to blind us to the prospects of a better tomorrow. This is succinctly articulated in the NDP with all its imperfections and reinforced by our vision for a better and a prosperous country with a capable and developmental state ready to serve our people without any revolutionary pretence and subtle Marxist deception. The audacity to ignore the truth will never triumph over the NDP.”
The adopted strategy will be presented to Premier Thandi Modise and the executive council for consideration.
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The need for political parties to encourage their supporters to participate in elections came to the fore during last week’s by-elections.
The province had by-elections in the Rustenburg and Tswaing local municipalities where the ruling ANC and the DA retained their seats.
However, low voter turnout was witnessed, signalling the need for more engagement between parties and their supporters.
Independent Electoral Commission figures show that in Ward 9, Rustenburg, a paltry 17.69% voter turn-out was recorded while Ward 14, Tswaing, posted an equally low 28.13%.
ANC candidate Glen Michael Mutle got 879 of the 974 cast votes, showing 90% support. The ward has 5506 registered voters. Mutle was contesting Kgosi Walter Montoedi of the African People’s Convention (APC), Mojalefa Dyke Sekosana of Cope and Tshekisho Andrew Sebati of the UCDP.
The seat fell vacant after the death of an ANC councillor. In Tswaing, Paul Stephanus Bam of the DA scored 832 of the 861 votes cast. Representing a 96% support and convincingly beating his APC competitor Mojalefa Skosana to retain the city that was left vacant after the then DA councillor resigned.
A total of 3118 people are registered to vote in this particular ward.
Provincial ANC elections leader Hlomane Chauke said though the ruling party did not field a candidate in Tswaing, they were happy with the outcome of the by-election in Rustenburg.
“People have continued to show confidence in the ANC and we want to congratulate the newly elected councillor and impress upon him that the need to account and deliver services to the people is what makes ANC identify with the masses,” he said.
Chauke said that preparations were under way for the 2014 elections and party supporters need to be encouraged to participate in elections.
Provincial DA leader Chris Hattingh said retaining ward 14 in Tswaing was a huge achievement for his party.
“Despite the low turn-out, we managed to increase our support in some areas. For instance, in one zone, we recorded more than 100 new votes from the 11 we got in 2011. We are confident the party is progressing in our intended direction,” he said.
Hattingh said more work needed to be done to encourage people to go out and vote because democracy thrives on numbers.
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The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) praised provincial social grant beneficiaries for “playing by the book”.
During a radio interview in Kimberley recently, Sassa national spokesperson Kgomoco Diseko said among all the provinces in the country, the Northern Cape had the least reports of corruption and fraud on grants allocations.
“Grant fraud is rife in other provinces. For example, a parent would instead of registering one child for a child support grant give false information that she had triplets or twins and she would register them under false names and IDs. In this province you hardly ever come across such reports – people here play by the book,” Diseko said.
Diseko advised social grant beneficiaries who have re-registered for their grant and obtained the new chip-and-pin Sassa payment card to ignore belated letters requesting them to re-register.
“The post office strike delayed the sending out of these letters and they are currently being delivered in an effort to clear the postal backlog.”
Diseko said the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, had extended re-registration deadline by a month until today. “Everyone who has not re-registered any type of grant by now and is not in possession of the new card needs to present themselves and their children receiving child grants, if applicable,” he said.
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