Orlando Pirates’ talented young midfielder, Tshepo Liphoko, is on his way back from a short training spell with Greek side, Atromitos FC.

The 18-year-old spent the latter part of this season on loan with PSL side, Golden Arrows, going on to impress during his time there, and the Siya crew recently revealed that he was awaiting a work permit to travel to Europe.

Now it has been revealed by his representative, Mike Makaab, that Liphoko is on his way home from Greece at present after spending a short time with Atromitos.

Makaab said, “Tshepo has been spending time with Greek side, Atromitos, who have one of our other youngsters, Arago Jamal, who is signed to them. He was just there as part of his development programme and is due back in South Africa this week.”

The player’s representative went on to thank Orlando Pirates’ chairman, Irvin Khoza, for his continued support in helping promote young talent.

He went on, “I want to thank Pirates’ chairman, Irvin Khoza, who has been pivotal in helping develop these young players, he did it for with Nanana Ntuli and now he’s doing with same with Tshepo.”

While it is believed that Liphoko impressed during his time in Greece, Makaab insisted that his spell there was only for development purposes and not as part of a trial.
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Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Reneilwe Letsholonyane says he couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the season than playing in the Nedbank Cup Final as he seeks to add yet another new medal to his trophy cabinet after winning the League title last week.

Letsholonyane now wants to break new ground again by bringing home the country’s premier knockout tournament and says he couldn’t have asked for a bigger stage than what Moses Mabhida will provide on Saturday afternoon.

“No player here at Chiefs could have asked for more. This is the biggest game on the day in the country which makes it different and special in many ways. If you don’t win on the day then you will not get the gold medal so it is a massive game,” says Letsholonyane.

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Since his arrival at Chiefs five years ago ‘Yeye’ has won every other trophy on offer in domestic football except for the Nebank Cup which has proven rather way too problematic for AmaKhosi to win since Nedbank took over the sponsorship of the country’s biggest knockout competition.

“We have the League in the bag and now we are going for the second trophy because we really want that double, plus this is a trophy that most of us have never won. So there will be no better ending to the season than winning the Nedbank Cup.

“I really need that winners’ medal and we want to make sure our fans also stand up with pride as the go into the off-season by also winning the Nedbank for them. As a player playing in a Cup Final is what you strive for and winning games is what we actually live for so this is yet another game that we are aiming to win. The bonus is that with this particular game there is a trophy for the winner,” he says.

The Bafana Bafana midfielder adds that he has respect for the opponents on the day – SuperSport United – but believes the atmosphere will give them the edge in making it a memorable Cup Final.

“They (SuperSport) are obviously a difficult team to play because they are good which should make for a balanced game.

“However, the atmosphere will give us the advantage because I have already been told that the stadium is sold out. We really want this trophy,” adds Yeye, who will go on to celebrate his 31st birthday two weeks after the Final.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Bafana Bafana’s friendly international match against Lesotho will go ahead on June 2 in Maseru.

Initially, the match had been penciled for June 1 and later on, there was doubt whether the match would go ahead but the South African Football Association spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi confirmed to KickOff.com today that the match will go ahead as planned.

Bafana will use the friendly to prepare for the two 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Central African Republic on June 8 in Cameroon and against Ethiopia on June 16 in Addis Ababa.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Maritzburg United striker Cuthbert Malajila confirms that his club is engaged in talks with Mamelodi Sundowns that could result in a possible transfer.

The Zimbabwean international, who scored 10 League goals in his first Premiership season, is on Pitso Mosimane’s shopping list together with Black Leopards’ Rodney Ramagalela.

READ: Awal is not for sale

While Zimbabwean media yesterday reported that Sundowns would this week announce the acquisition of Malajila on a five-year contract, the player tells KickOff.com that he is yet to put pen to paper.

“All I can tell you at the moment is that Sundowns and Maritzburg United are holding discussions related to a possible transfer, but nothing is yet to be finalised,” Malajila says.

“Just like you, I am also waiting for the outcome of those talks.”

Mamelodi Sundowns spokesperson Kabelo Mosito could not immediately shed light on whether or not the player would be snapped up by the huge-spending Pretoria-based giants.

“I am in a meeting so I am not in a position to comment,” Mosito said.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Kaizer Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune says winning the Double in his first season as captain will be a memory to cherish for the rest of his life.

Khune is so close to that achievement he can even smell it with Chiefs coming up against SuperSport United on Saturday in the Nedbank Cup Final in a game which if they win they will have completed their first Double since 2005 when AmaKhosi won both the League and Coca-Cola Cup.

Though Khune took over as captain from Jimmy Tau in October, 2011 this has been his first full season playing with the armband and will emulate the retired Patrick Mabedi the last man to lead Chiefs to a Double.

“To achieve a Double in my first full season as captain will be a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” says Khune.

“But again it is not all about me but the club’s success and if we win the Double it is for the club and not Itumeleng as a captain but for everyone who has worked hard and contributed to the club’s success,” he says.

Khune actually believes Chiefs they have a squad that deserves the Double this season.

“It is possible (to win the Double) because we have a great squad and a team that is humble and hard working so I believe we stand a good chance of winning the Double this season,” says Khune, who has been the best player in the PSL this season.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Johannesburg – They stay hidden indoors, operating in brothels and hotels, away from people’s eyes.

Young, constantly high and drunk in order to cope with their trauma, this is the reality for child prostitutes.

According to the Activists Networking Against the Exploitation of Children (Anex), the clandestine nature and the illegal status of sex work in general makes it difficult to know just how many children are doing this in South Africa.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Pietermaritzburg – An advert for trainee positions at the KwaZulu-Natal transport department specified that a stringent physical assessment was required, a commission of inquiry heard in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.

Applicant Njabulo Manqele had been quick to criticise the KZN government for giving only two days’ notice of the fitness test, Ravenda Padayachee SC, for the transport department, said during cross-examination.

However, the advertisement stated that applicants had to be physically fit, he said.

The commission was established by Premier Zweli Mkhize to probe the deaths of eight job applicants during a fitness test in Pietermaritzburg in December.

The job requirements were a senior certificate, a valid code B driving licence, and physical fitness.

Fitness

“Please note that successful candidates will be subjected to full medical examination to determine fitness before confirmation of appointment,” the advertisement read.

Applicants also had to have no criminal record and not be older than 35.

Padayachee said if Manqele had read the advert, he would not be criticising the government.

The fitness test formed part of a process to select Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) job applicants.

More than 34 000 people qualified to apply for 90 advertised trainee posts.

A total of 15 600 applicants attended a fitness test at Harry Gwala Stadium, in Pietermaritzburg, on 27 December, and a similar number on 28 December.

This week, Manqele told the commission he had travelled from Adams Mission, south of Durban, to Pietermaritzburg with his friend Sibonakaliso Mhlanga to participate in a 4km run.

Mhlanga was one of the applicants who died after participating in the fitness test.

Manqele and Mhlanga were in a group which ran at 19:30 on 27 December.

Manqele said his group was referred to as a “tsumani”, because it had more than 500 people. He could not remember whether it consisted of men and women.

On Monday he testified that groups were split into manageable numbers and that men and women were separated.

The commission continues.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The government expressed dismay on Wednesday that there were still citizens who did not want to integrate into a democratic South Africa.

“This disintegration is extremely disappointing as it perpetuates the ills of the apartheid era,” Government Communication and Information System CEO Phumla Williams said.

“Such acts were the main causes of a divided South Africa,” she said.

She was reacting to a report in The Times that residents of a settlement on the farm Kleinfontein, near Pretoria, had vowed that only Afrikaners would be allowed to live there.

According to the newspaper, all the settlement’s residents, from the security guards at the gate to the gardeners, were Afrikaans.

Government services

Williams said all South Africans were governed by the Constitution, which catered for people of all races and religions. She said Kleinfontein residents benefited from government services.

“We strongly discourage them from lobbying for the town to be declared independent from the Tshwane municipality, as this will be contrary to the Constitution of this country.”

The Times reported that the Kleinfontein’s controlling body’s chairperson Jan Groenewald said it would lobby the Tshwane municipality for the settlement to be declared independent.

“Eventually, the African National Congress government will have to approve what we are doing here,” he was quoted as saying.

Groenewald told the newspaper a resident had to be “an Afrikaner with Voortrekker heritage, a Protestant Christian and abide by the Blood River covenant”.

“We do not think in terms of race, we think in terms of culture… [but] you cannot ignore the fact that we have different races. That is the reality,” he reportedly said.

Residents included the leaders of several rightwing groups, but the community’s directors kept them in line, he said.

“We do not fly the South African flag because [South Africa] is a unitary state – the reason we find ourselves in this situation.”

– SAPA

Cape Town – Around 80 foreigners, including an Australian tourist, were detained on Wednesday for not having their documents on them.

Michael Camacho, an Australian tourist, was arrested while shopping for curios in Hout Bay, the Cape Argus reported.

“I was really flabbergasted, I didn’t know that carrying your passport was a requirement,” his brother-in-law, Oliver Potgieter, told John Maytham on Cape Talk.

Camacho was held at Caledon Square for around two hours.

Around 20 friends and relatives from across Africa waited outside the Cape Town police station for their loved ones.

They told the Argus that police arrested people without asylum-seeker papers during a raid.

Gesel Mpeta said she waited for almost four hours for her husband after being detained for two hours herself. She told the Argus she didn’t know they needed their papers on them at all times.

The raid was a joint operation between the police, department of home affairs and law enforcement, Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut told the Argus.

“Some of the people are still there, there were about 80 arrests. It was carried out throughout the city and we have these operations on a regular basis.”
For more http://www.news24.com

Rustenburg – Families of miners shot dead by police in Marikana last year walked out of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, in Rustenburg, on Wednesday when a senior police officer conveyed his condolences to them.

Major General Charl Annandale, who headed the police’s tactical response team during the unrest, was testifying about the events at Marikana.

Speaking about the role of the police in the violent unrest, he asked if he could address the relatives of the deceased.

Annandale told the commission he was not sure if he would ever get a chance to address them again.
“My heart goes out to each and every family of anyone who lost their lives… I’m aware of the gap that this leaves in everyday lives,” he said.

Broke down, left

Some of the family members broke down while Annandale was speaking. Almost all of them left the auditorium.

Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members also got up and left the proceedings.

“My wife always refers to this as a ripple effect… I know that this is so much broader than a lover missing a loved one,” Annandale said.

“I know there were breadwinners, fathers, sons, brothers and also husbands.”

He told the commission the lives of police officials were also deeply affected by the incident.

Dali Mpofu, for the injured and arrested miners, and Dumisa Ntsebeza, for the families of the deceased, noted the families’ grief.

Similar reaction

They agreed that the commission was not the appropriate platform for Annandale to have delivered his condolences, and suggested that this should have happened in a private meeting.

They said the commission saw a similar reaction when national police commissioner Riah Phiyega delivered her condolences to the families.

The commission, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people during the wage-related unrest in Marikana last year.

Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers in Marikana on 16 August. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.

– SAPA