Cape Town – Parliament spent about R16m on food and beverages last year, according to a report.

Parliament’s annual budget for refreshments stands at R18m. This includes tea, coffee, cool drinks and platters of finger food available at committee briefings, Eyewitness News reported.

Parliamentary spokesperson Luzuko Jacobs told EWN that Parliament does not only cater for numerous briefings, but also for major external events such as the Take Parliament to the People programme, which involves catering for over 30 000 people.

However, opposition parties have criticised the amount spent on catering at Parliament as excessive.

“I think it’s money wasted. If they want a cool drink, they must buy it themselves,” the DA’s Watty Watson said, adding that he believes most of the food ends up being wasted.

He said R16m could feed eight million children twice a day for a full year.

The DA will ask for a full breakdown of Parliament’s catering expenses.
For more http://www.news24.com

Soweto – Beneath the undying loyalty of poor blacks to the ANC, there is a growing resentment towards the movement that delivered South Africa from apartheid 18 years ago.

In Soweto, once home to anti-apartheid heroes Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, residents struggling against high unemployment, crime and pervasive corruption are not afraid to speak frankly about what they call the ANC’s rot.

“The ANC is not a bad movement, it is the people who have brought the rot to the party,” said Slavate Marema, who has never had a job since finishing school five years ago.

“Leaders don’t seem to care much about us once they get our votes. All they seem to care about is enriching themselves and driving around in fancy cars, and telling us that government has no money,” said the 22-year-old.

After decades of championing the fight against apartheid rule, the ANC led South Africa peacefully into a “rainbow nation” in 1994 and its leader Mandela was elected the country’s first black president.

But the ruling ANC is now accused of abandoning its roots and core constituency.

“As far as I am concerned we have no government. They are serving themselves, busy lining their own pockets,” said France Diholo, a retired factory worker.

“The rot that you see today, did not start with [Jacob] Zuma, it has been creeping up slowly since Mandela days,” he lamented.

Service delivery

Too often, Soweto residents complain, ANC membership has become synonymous with instant wealth and the beneficiaries of lucrative government contracts seem to be politically connected.

The ANC government has often come under fire for excessive spending on luxury hotel stays, and providing small armies of round-the-clock security to officials, while the most of the population battle unacceptably high crime rates.

“These days security seems to be reserved for high profile ANC politicians, who travel with groups of armed police in fast cars. When communities need them they are not available,” fumed Tankiso Mmusi.

Although the ANC government has built 2.8 million homes since taking power, around 20% of South Africans still have no electricity and 10% no running water. Protests over service delivery are frequent.

Reports that the government spent more than R200m of taxpayers’ money upgrading Zuma’s private home, complete with helipad, underground bunkers and a clinic, are jarring for many.

A divided society

Despite being the largest economy on the continent and home to a burgeoning black middle class, South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.

The grievances are reaching a crescendo at a difficult time for the ANC, as it prepares for a leadership conference on Sunday, held every five years, which effectively kicks off the campaign for elections in 2014.

But like many people who felt angered by the ANC, Diholo said he will continue voting for the party, which still holds a commanding electoral majority.

Failed transformation

At the 2009 elections the ANC won almost 66% of the 17-plus million votes cast.

The DA, which is often seen as “too-white” by black voters, got just 17% of the vote.

The bigger risk for the ANC may be that voters stay away from the polls altogether.

But according to Andile Mngxitama, a firebrand columnist for The Sowetan newspaper, the “conditions for a revolution are rife in South Africa”.

“The ANC has failed to transform the state into an instrument of the people,” he wrote in a recent column.

“The question we need to ask is will the South African revolution be by the ballot or by insurrection, like the Arab Spring?”

That may be over-exuberant, but there is little doubt the ANC’s revolutionary lustre has lost some of its shine.

– AFP

Johannesburg – Government will establish its own government school in order to improve skills, ethics and professionalism in the public sector, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday.

“This school will educate, train, professionalise and develop a highly capable, skilled, socially and committed public service cadreship with a sense of national duty and a common culture and ethos,” Sisulu said in a speech.

“As a recognition of our public need that there is a ‘competency gap filling’ among public servants that is urgent, the school will be established before the end of October this year.”

“Our new school of government will as a consequence seek to institutionalise a culture of professionalism and innovative thinking within the public service and serve as a catalyst for reform,” she said.

Improve efficiency

Sisulu said regardless of a person’s political orientation, religious background, rank or seniority “for as long as you are a public servant you will attend this school.”

She told the Tshwane branch of the Black Management Forum that government existed to meet the basic needs of people.

“Governments exist fundamentally to meet the basic and human needs of its people and to create an environment where they can exercise their right to life and right to freedom.”

However, government had experienced complexities as a result of influences of the global economic and fiscal crises.

Sisulu said the National Development Plan identified that the country needed to improve its efficiency in the state machinery.

She said to achieve the developmental state discussed in the NDP, government must ensure that state administration at all levels was effective, efficient, professional and capable.

The first space at which government moved was to engage labour through the 2012 collective agreement, she said.

Professional public service

“We jointly committed that our citizens are entitled to have a professional public service rewarded for hard work,” she said.

To professionalise the public sector, government took a decision to investigate salary levels to ensure that public servants were appropriately remunerated.

“Here the notion of equal work for equal pay has been mooted.”

An office of standards of compliance had since been established with the department to promote a high standard of professional ethics and compliance to norms and standards across the public service.

“Our view is that this office will detect, intervene and assist in developing managerial and supervisory systems, especially in the areas of human resource and financial management…,” Sisulu said.

“Our view is that our citizens’ contact and access to public services and goods must be similar across the length and breadth of our country, irrespective of whether it is in a metropole or rural village.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Advocate and Judicial Services Commission (JSC) spokesperson Dumisa Ntsebeza has criticised the government for not employing black advocates, it was reported on Friday.

Ntsebeza said this was driving black advocates out of the profession, The Star newspaper reported.

According to the report, Ntsebeza felt a policy should exist where no white advocate should be briefed by the government if they did not have a black, Indian or coloured junior assisting.

He said government used mainly white law firms and advocates such as David Unterhalter and Jeremy Gauntlett, who were made out to be “superhuman”.

Unterhalter and Gauntlett recently represented the SA National Roads Agency Limited and the Treasury respectively in the case against e-tolling in Gauteng.

Gauntlett was passed over earlier this year by the JSC for a position on the Constitutional Court.

Ntsebeza told the newspaper that many black and women advocates left the profession because of a lack of briefs from the state, which was the biggest consumer of legal services in the country.

He was commenting on a written parliamentary reply from Justice Minister Justice Radebe, who said his department was well on its way to fast-tracking the appointment of black and women judges.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will not vote for the ANC, he wrote in an opinion piece carried by the Mail&Guardian on Friday.

“I have voted for the ANC, but I would very sadly not be able to vote for them after the way things have gone,” he wrote in a piece for Prospect magazine, which was carried by the Mail&Guardian.

“I am not a card-carrying member of any political party,” he said.

Tutu said there was a need for change in the country.

The African National Congress had been “very good” at leading the country in the struggle to be free from oppression.

“They were a good freedom-fighting unit. But it doesn’t seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can easily make the transition to becoming a political party.”

He said the “first thing” the next elected Parliament had to do was to change the electoral system so one was elected on the basis of the constituency, and would be accountable to the electorate.

“Those in Parliament are accountable to their party first rather than the electorate.”

Tutu wrote that although the country had the capacity to be one of the most vibrant countries in the world, it had the most unequal society in the world.

“We can’t hold our heads up with pride when you think of the levels of violence in our country.”

He wrote that South Africans were “amazing”. They had been committed to freedom during the political struggle, and had been ready to lay down their lives.

“But now one can point to so many instances of corruption, of unaccountability,” he wrote.

“Seeing how standards have dropped is so galling, because it seems to give ammunition to those who would say: ‘we warned you that once you had a black majority government you would see a steady decline in standards’.”

– SAPA

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has apologised for seeing red in the Nedbank Cup semi-final, explaining that a personal tragedy sparked his actions.

Baxter was sent of by referee Victor Gomez in the match against United FC on May 4 for abusive language, and will have to watch Amakhosi’s final two matches from the stands.

The coach explains that he heard the news that a player at his former club had passed away before the match, putting him under psychological stress.

“I was probably over-emotional on the day after receiving the news of the death of my goalkeeper at my former club AIK in Stockholm, Sweden,” Baxter tells kaizerchiefs.com. “Ivan Turina died in his sleep on the 2nd of May, the news that shattered not only me but my whole family and sent shock waves in Swedish football.”

However, the coach also adds that he believes his dismissal was harshly awarded.

“It was at the end of the game and I had not been warned before this incident,” he says.

“At the end of the day I take responsibility for my actions. I would like to apologise for my action to the referee and I regret that this happened – although it was in the heat of the moment.”

Chiefs are top of the Premiership log. Their final two League fixtures are against SuperSport United and University of Pretoria.

For more http://www.kickoff.com

While the race for the Absa Premiership title continues this weekend, football fans in the Free State are eagerly gearing up for the derby between Bloemfontein Celtic and Free State Stars.

Both teams are looking to end the season on a strong note to ensure that they can secure a top eight finish.

Celtic are in fifth spot at present, while Stars are eighth, but only three points separate the two rivals. And there are also a couple of teams hovering just outside the top eight that could be ready to pounce should any of the current incumbents slip up.

The points on offer are of course vital, but for the players, and even more so the supporters, Saturday’s clash at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein will be very much about pride and bragging rights.

And Phunya Sele Sele fans will know that in their captain Thabo Nthethe, they have someone who will be prepared to die out on the field to make sure that they go home happy.

The 28-year-old Bloemfontein-born defender is green and white through and through, having spent his entire career with his home-town club after having made his PSL debut back in 2004/ 2005.

The Bafana Bafana centre-back is hopeful that his side can add another derby scalp to the current campaign – Celtic have already beaten Stars twice this season.

“Stars beat us in the league, but then we went on to beat them twice in cup competitions. So hopefully we can continue where we left off in those games, and get another win on Saturday.

“We are in good form now, and we are targeting a top four finish, which we could achieve by winning our last two games,” he told PSL.co.za.

Nthethe says that the derby fever is tangible in Bloemfontein, and he understands how much this one means to the fans.

“Everyone is talking about the game. Everybody wants to be at the stadium for the match, there is a great vibe around town at the moment.

“Its always good walking out in front of our home fans, but for this game there is something extra in the air, you can feel it when you get out onto the pitch,” he explained.

The two clubs have played in 43 league derbies since 1986. Ea Lla Koto currently hold the advantage, with 14 wins to Celtic’s 12, while there have been 17 draws.

The last 10 league encounters ended as follows:

2007/08 Stars 1-0 Celtic Sibisi

2008/09 Celtic 1-0 Stars Mensah (og)

2008/09 Stars 5-1 Celtic (Makola, Mofokeng, Batabaire (og), Madimabe, Ngcobo; Schalkwyk)

2009/10 Celtic 2-2 Stars (Olomu 2; Richartz, Nkhatha)

2009/10 Stars 0-1 Celtic (Segolela)

2010/11 Stars 0-1 Celtic (Chenene)

2010/11 Celtic 1-0 Stars (Mthembu)

2011/12 Celtic 1-0 Stars (Spandeel)

2011/12 Stars 2-1 Celtic (Wome, Masehe; Bacela)

2012/13 Stars 1-0 Celtic (Nomandela)

For more http://www.psl.co.za

PAMPIERSTAD: The Pampierstad SAPS are investigating cases of murder, armed robbery and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition which allegedly took place on Saturday 4 May 2013. A group of men entered a local tuck shop and allegedly robbed the 28 year-old owner at gun-point from an undisclosed amount of cash and groceries. Upon fleeing they ran into Mr Isaac Pico (25), a neighbour who came to investigate the noise. He was shot in the head and died on the scene. Seven men were arrested at their homes in Pampierstad the next day. Police also found the firearm allegedly used during the crime. The seven suspects are James Thladi (23), Malebo Mahadika (22), Serami Bosvark (21), Lebogang Pilane (24), Olebogeng Ndineni (19), Otsile Monamudi (20) and Dumisani Mocumi (23). They appeared before the Pampierstad District Court, but the case was remanded to 14 May 2013. The men are also linked to another recent armed robbery as well as an attempted armed robbery in the area. The Pampierstad police were lauded for the swift arrests and the community for their assistance with information in this regard. Police request that information regarding the incident be forwarded to Detective Captain Lesang Moratiwa at 082 443 8640

For more http://www.kathugazette.com