Johannesburg – The recent Gupta aircraft scandal has caused divisions in the ANC and in Cabinet and could lead to President Jacob Zuma’s ousting, according to unnamed sources in news reports on Monday.

The Star reported that Zuma and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe had “fallen out” over the Gupta’s landing a private aircraft with wedding guests aboard at the Waterkloof Air Force Base on Tuesday April 30.

It said the incident had been the final straw for Mantashe, who had privately expressed concerns that the family wielded too much influence in government and African National Congress affairs.

Mantashe’s supporters had since thrown their weight behind ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, after reports that some of Zuma’s allies planned to block him from taking over as ANC president in 2017.

It also said Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula threatened to resign, rather than be the “fall guy” – a claim her adviser Mike Ramagoma denied.

According to the report, a “kitchen cabinet” of “predominantly Zulu-speaking” ministers and national ANC leaders, took key ANC and government decisions without Mantashe’s input.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu dismissed suggestions Mantashe and Zuma had fallen out and that there was a “kitchen cabinet”.

He said that according to ANC tradition, Ramaphosa was likely to succeed Zuma.

The Citizen newspaper said it “understood” that plans were afoot to sack Zuma following the Gupta plane scandal.

“ANC top brass have concluded that Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas has brought the organisation and the government into disrepute and Zuma should go,” its source said.

The party was reportedly worried about its performance in the 2014 national elections and its national executive committee (NEC) had lost confidence in him – a claim ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza also rejected, saying the NEC had not even met to discuss the matter.

Daily Maverick writer Ranjeni Munusamy said the ANC had “never before been as forthright in demanding answers from the Zuma administration” over the controversy.

Munusamy wrote: “It could be that Mantashe has simply had enough of the Guptas running the state and ruining his organisation, and decided to stamp his authority on the situation.”

She also noted rumours of a “widening schism” between the Zuma camp and Mantashe, with Mantashe being “less cautious” about upsetting Zuma’s friends when he issued a statement questioning the plane’s landing. – Sapa

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt has appealed to the PSL to consider changing the League calendar to accommodate South African teams’ participation in continental competitions.

Matsatsantsa crashed out of the CAF Confederation Cup on Saturday following a 3-1 home defeat to Egyptian side ENPPI, but Hunt reckons Mzansi teams are on the backfoot from the get-go in Africa.

“We have to change the League season to what it was before,” he says. “We have to play from January to November like we used to so we won’t have windows and transfer of players. We work on the European system and yet in Africa they don’t have windows and transfers.

“When we register in December, we have transfers in January and if we get through we would have another window in June where we trade again and people don’t understand it. We need to have a better registration system so that it will allow us to register our strongest teams for these tournaments.”

Meanwhile, Hunt gave credit to ENPPI for the victory at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, saying they were the better side.

“There were more street-wise and clever than us,” the coach said. “They were physically strong as is always the case when you play against the north African countries. They were clever and kept their shape better than us.”

For more http://www.kickoff.com

After performing heroics in Lubumbashi on Sunday against African giants, TP Mazembe, Orlando Pirates have made it through to the group stages of the CAF Champions League, where eight teams will battle it out for the title.

The Bucaneers triumphed over Mazembe with a 3-2 aggregate win, despite having their captain, Lucky Lekgwathi, sent off and two penalties given against them, which Senzo Meyiwa saved, in the away leg.

Alongside Pirates, the other seven teams to qualify for the group stage are:

Recreativo Libolo (Angola)

AC Leopards (DRC)

Esperance (Tunisia)

Sewe Sport (Ivory Coast)

Coton Sport (Cameroon)

Zamalek (Egyptian)

Al Ahly (Egyptian)

The draw for the group stage of the tournament will be held on the 14th of May where the teams will be split into two groups before playing each other twice in order to select the four semifinalists, who finish first and second in the two groups.

Pirates landed safely back on South African soil last night and are now looking towards their next league encounter, against Mamelodi Sundowns, on May 11.

For more http://www.soccerladuma.com

The Siya crew have been reliably informed that Kaizer Chiefs are due to appeal the two-game ban handed down to coach Stuart Baxter.

Baxter, who took charge of the Chiefs bench at the beginning of the current season, was shown a red card during the weekend’s 2-1 win over United FC in the Nedbank Cup, after reportedly using ‘abusive language towards the assistant referee’ and prompting Victor Gomes to send him to the stands.

As it stands Baxter will miss Chiefs’ last two PSL games of the season, against SuperSport United and University of Pretoria, but will be back in time to lead them out in the Nedbank Cup final later this month.

However, a source within the club has told the Siya crew that they believe Baxter’s sending off was incredibly harsh and are hoping to appeal the ban and have him back on their bench for their next Absa Premiership outing on May 15.

The Glamour Boys, however, will have to wait before appealing the ban, as they cannot make any appeal against the red card until Gomes’ match report has been made available to the league.

In a recent game Gomes seemed to have sent Orlando Pirates coach Roger de Sa to the stands, but because there was no mention of the sending off in his match report, De Sa was back on the club’s bench for the next game.

For more http://www.soccerladuma.com

Johannesburg – Dismissed Kumba Iron Ore [JSE:KIO] workers arrived to picket at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) head office in Johannesburg on Monday.

“We are at the doors of the union, we are not fighting. We want national to assist us very urgently to get our jobs back,” said Phenyo Ohentswe, spokesperson for the group from Kuruman, in the Northern Cape.

“The branch and the region are dragging their feet on our case. We have lost properties and our children are no longer in school since we were dismissed in October last year.”

He said 120 workers had been fired for not attending disciplinary hearings.

“The workers are innocent. The hearings were not communicated to us.”

He said they had travelled more than 700km to plead with the national leaders of the NUM to talk to the company about reinstating them.

“We are not fighting. We want help from the national office.”

NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the union had intervened and that some workers had been reinstated.

“The union could only talk on labour matters. Some of them are still appearing in court. We cannot negotiate with the magistrate to release them,” he said.

Seshoka said the workers seized mine machinery during an illegal strike last year, and refused to listen to the union’s plea that they go back to work.

“This was a serious offence (seizing mine machinery). We talked to them at that time they did not want to listen.”

The workers went on a wildcat strike in October, demanding a monthly salary of R15 000 for all Kumba employees.

They seized heavy mining equipment including giant trucks and bulldozers.

The police recovered the equipment and arrested 40 workers.

Seshoka said some of the workers had moved their membership to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), but now that they were in trouble they wanted the NUM to intervene.

Their strike followed wildcat strikes in the platinum and gold sectors, where workers ditched their union representation and decided to elect a committee of workers to negotiate for them.

At Lonmin Mine in Marikana, outside Rustenburg, workers obtain huge increases in September, after a violent strike in which 44 people died, 34 of them at the hands of the police.

-Sapa

Cape Town – Twelve South African pilots on a trip to raise awareness for cancer were arrested in Namibia at the weekend, it was reported on Monday.

The pilots were arrested at Ondangwa Airport on Saturday, apparently because their flight documents were not in order, the Cape Times reported.

They were released early on Sunday morning after a court found their arrest to be unlawful.

However, police refused to allow them to leave the country in their light aircraft, which had been “quarantined” until their flight papers were rectified.

According to the newspaper, the group of 20 left South Africa on 27 April on a 16-day flight trip across Botswana and Namibia.

The trip was partly a holiday and partly to raise awareness and fund for the Cancer Association of SA, which endorsed the trip.

“It’s a complete mess. We still have no permission to fly and may not fly until there is some sort of communication between the police and the Civil Aviation Authority,” trip organiser Larry McGillewie told the Cape Times.

The pilots’ lawyer, Farieda Kishi, said there had been a “procedural error” when the pilots were issued with a certificate of competency, but not a permit for landing.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Pupils are not taught to think, to solve problems or to read independently because most of their teachers do not know how to teach these skills, it was reported on Monday.

The first national evaluation of how pupils in Grades 1, 2 and 3 are taught showed that teaching was poor, that children’s ability to read was weak, and that they were likely to struggle for the rest of their lives, The Times reported.

According to the newspaper, basic education department researchers assessed the three grades in 133 urban schools last year.

They found that many teachers did not know how to inculcate problem solving and analysis skills, and concluded that the “billions” of rand spent on teacher training and development in the past 10 years had failed to produce results in the classroom.

The department’s development unit head Nick Taylor reportedly said teachers’ poor subject knowledge was “arguably the fundamental problem in the school system”.

According to The Times, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said in releasing the report that the department was particularly concerned about pupils’ poor levels of reading, especially those in the first few years of schooling.

– SAPA

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says it is meeting on Monday with all its branches to consolidate their salary demands for the gold and coal sectors.

This as South African mines express concern about the NUM’s indication that workers will demand a double digit wage increase this year. The mining industry is still reeling from months of violent strikes where workers demanded salary hikes of between R12 500 and R16 000.

NUM spokesperson, Lesiba Seshoka says the union has taken a decision that workers should receive a double-digit increase. Seshoka says they will meet with the Chamber of Mines next week to present their demands.

Gold producer, Harmony Gold is the latest to post a third-quarter loss caused by production shortfalls following labour unrest last year. Harmony Gold says it fell into the red following the temporary closure of its Kusasalethu mine because of union rivalry and violence.

Analysts say South Africa’s gold, platinum and coal producers have been agreeing to above-inflation wage increases for years, but steeply rising power and other costs mean another round of big wage hikes would push many into the red. 

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

Major-General Charl Annandale will be in the witness stand for a third consecutive week at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry in Rustenburg in the North West on Monday. 

Advocate George Bizos for the legal resource centre will continue to cross-examine Annandale.  Last week Bizos asked why Annandale did not accept personal responsibility for what had happened at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana on August the 16th last year. 

However, Advocate for the police Ismael Semenya objected to the question. Bizos is also expected to ask Annandale about what he termed the side-lining of the overall commander Major General William Mpembe. 

Bizos found it strange that Mpembe left in a police helicopter as soon as he heard that a shooting incident had taken place at Wonderkop. He had also argued last weeek that the police had limited resources during the August 16 shootings, leading to their plan resulting into a disaster.

Last week, the commission also heard that the police had experienced problems with their radio communication network. Annandale explained that only one radio channel was available to the police and that the analog system they used only allowed for one person to communicate at a time.

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

Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was the hero of the day in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Sunday following his exploits between the sticks.

Meyiwa saved two penalties during the game, in their 1-0 loss, as he helped the team advance to the Group Stage of the CAF Champions League with a 3-2 aggregate win.

For more http://www.soccerladuma.com