Spain beat Italy in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in their Confederations Cup semi-final in Fortaleza, Brazil on Thursday.

The game came down to penalties after a 0-0 draw at extra-time, with the current World Champions winning the shoot-out 6-7.

Spain will face Brazil in the Final on Sunday.

Spain went on the attack early on, with Pedro hitting wide in the opening minutes.

Despite La Roja’s early possession the Azzurri were a threat on the wing, and Iker Casillas had to make the first save of the night on 20 minutes, coming off his line to stop Christian Maggio, after a pin-point pass from Andrea Pirlo.
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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape says it will write a letter to the MEC for Education, Grizelda Cjiekella, to ask that the education department takes urgent action in all reported cases of teacher abuse and assaults at schools in the province.

This after a teacher at a Kimberley high school was allegedly locked in a computer room where she was assaulted and verbally abused by her school principal.

The DA’s Dr Allen Grootboom says they are concerned about the attacks on teachers in the workplace.

“Firstly is because we have a problem of some teachers and some principals who are untouchables because of their position within the union and because of the allegiance and connection with the top structure. Once you don’t have those bindings, you are pushed around like a little pony.”

Grootboom adds: “One thing that is good here is that the educators themselves took it upon themselves to go to the department to present the department with a memorandum.”

However, the department of education in the province says the matter has been reported and a team comprising of labour has been tasked to look into the issues around it.

Departmental spokesperson, Sydney Stander, says schools are supposed to be friendly environments.

“We really condemn the incidence where teachers themselves are made or are belittled by the conduct of school managers and in this case without really saying he is guilty, we will look into it and take the necessary action.”
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The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has called for a programme to put street-kids into the schooling system.

The union’s Durban region held a march in the city to protest against rape, drugs and other social ills. The union says there is a very close link between such problems and children ending up on the street.
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Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders meeting in the Mozambican capital Maputo have sent messages of support for President Jacob Zuma and all South Africans as the nation keeps watch over former president Nelson Mandela.

President Zuma pulled out of the Summit on Trade and Infrastructure to visit Madiba last night, as a result, this heightened speculation about Mandela’s critical situation.

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Hazyview – Mpumalanga Education MEC Reginah Mhaule on Thursday deplored a decline in high school pass rates in the province, and urged pupils to choose learning over sex and drugs.

“In 2011, this school obtained 49%, and instead of improving the school declined to 43%. As a department this year we have taken an initiative to label all schools below 50% dysfunctional,” Mhaule told Grade 10, 11 and 12 pupils at Jerusalem High School near Hazyview, according to a Sapa reporter.

The students were attending winter classes.

“Like Nelson Mandela said: ‘Education is the best weapon one can use to change the world.’ Let us not sit and mourn that we are from poor families,” Mhaule added.

“Focus on your books and make sure you refrain from sex and drugs… We see it’s very cold these days, but for you to come here shows that you are keen to learn.”

Mhaule encouraged pupils to use the dial-a-tutor programme that the department planned to launch on 15 July. A tweet-a-tutor programme was also in the pipeline.

“You just need to call a specialist in your subject and ask any question. This is the department’s plan to make sure that you don’t fail saying you didn’t have support.”

The MEC was accompanied by two matriculants, Bonginkosi Mnisi and Calvin Mawere, who said they managed to produce top results despite poor family backgrounds.

“These young men are from very poor communities [poorer] than yours; they lived in homes without electricity, but through studying they became stars and are now having full time bursaries and after that they are going to work at big companies and make money to change the situation at home,” she said.

Kids urged to work hard

Out of Mpumalanga’s 529 secondary schools that offer Grade 12, Jerusalem High School is ranked 490th in terms of results.

Mawere, from Bushbuckridge, is studying medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He told pupils: “What you need is just hard work. Forget about problems at home. You may be from a poor family – parents drinking and some fighting every day disturbing you – but that’s not your problem. Your problem is the number of books which you have to read.”

Mnisi, a third year science student majoring in physics, astro-physics and applied maths, said he came from a community without electricity or running water, but obtained the top marks in his school.

“What I’m asking you do to is to try by all means to excel in your books,” he said.

– SAPA

Durban – The conduct of a prosecutor in the trial of businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane was questioned in the Durban Regional Court on Thursday.

Magistrate Blessing Msani asked State witness Waheeda Osman if she had read the transcripts of SA Revenue Service (SARS) group executive Mashudu Johannes Makwakwa’s testimony before she testified in court.

Osman told the court that prosecutor Meera Naidu read a few pages from the transcripts to her during a meeting.

“She did not give me the transcripts, she only read a few pages. She indicated that she could read his statements because they were public records,” said Osman, a SARS auditor.

Makwakwa testified in Mpisane’s tax fraud trial last year.

Responding to Osman’s statement, Naidu said she was entitled to interview witnesses before they gave evidence.

“It is my duty to prep witnesses,” she said.

Msani, and Rafik Bhana, SC, for Mpisane, asked Naidu to deny or dispute Osman’s statements, but she refused.

Witness damaging

“This is a basic matter of ethics… do you realise the assertion by the witness is damaging to you?

“If this matter doesn’t end, it may get reopened in the future,” Msani said.

Naidu said she had no further submission with regards to Osman’s evidence.

Osman also told the court that no one else was present during her meeting with Naidu.

She said Naidu had not coached her on what to say, but merely explained to her how to conduct herself in court.

Mpisane is accused of inflating invoices by more than R5 million in an attempt to cut her tax bill.

She is also accused of violating the Close Corporations Act by remaining the sole member of Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport CC when she had a previous fraud conviction.

She has pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues on 8 July.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Former president Nelson Mandela’s condition is stable though still critical, as the presidency announced, his grandson Mandla Mandela said on Thursday.

“Every improvement in my grandfather’s health is cause for celebration for many of us,” he said in a statement.

He continued to be heartened by the messages of support for the ailing icon, but was disappointed by the few who continued to spread rumours about his health.

“I call upon those responsible to desist from spreading mischievous rumours about Madiba’s state of health. Our government has been keeping all of us informed in this regard and there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information they provide to the public,” he said.

“At the end of the day my grandfather’s fate, like that of everyone else, lies with God and our ancestors.”

Mandla Mandela visited his grandfather in hospital earlier on Thursday.

He said the family continued to be grateful to government, the ANC, and the doctors in charge of Mandela’s health during “this difficult period”.

The presidency announced around mid-afternoon on Thursday that Mandela’s condition had improved during the night.

According to the presidency’s statement: “President Jacob Zuma visited former president Nelson Mandela in hospital in Pretoria today, 27 June, and was informed by the medical team that Madiba’s condition has improved during the course of the night.

“He remains critical, but is now stable,” spokesperson Mac Maharaj said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – One of the men accused of gang raping Ina Bonnette said he was told they were “lucky to get the chance to sleep with a white woman”, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.

Sello Mphaka testified he initially refused to co-operate when he was told he had to have sex with Bonnette, the wife of Modimolle businessman Johan Kotzé.

Kotzé, Mphaka, Andries Sithole, and Pieta Mohlake are alleged to have kidnapped, raped, and attempted to murder Bonnette in Kotzé’s rented Modimolle house on 3 January 2012.

They are also accused of murdering her 19-year-old son Conrad.

The four have pleaded not guilty.

Kotzé claimed he could not be held accountable for his actions. The other three said they had only pretended to rape Bonnette.

Bonnette testified that Sithole, Mohlake, and Mphaka looked on while Kotzé sexually tortured her and cut off her nipples and then took turns to rape her.

Mphaka testified that Kotzé was full of jokes when he took the three of them to Modimolle to wash his caravan.

Once there, they had to remove and replant palm trees before they were called into the house, supposedly to fetch soap so they could wash the caravan.

Once inside, Sithole told them they were there to have sex with Kotzé’s wife because he was “too fat” to have sex with her himself. She had affairs and had asked him to get other men to have sex with her.

“Andries said the woman would pretend not to know what was going to happen and she wanted to be tied up and gagged because she was noisy. I told Mohlake something’s not right,” Mphaka said.

“Andries [Sithole] said where will you ever see a white person giving his wife to black people? We’re lucky. Now we can experience how it feels [to have sex with a white woman].”

“I said no, I don’t want to sleep with the woman. That’s not what I came there to do. Mohlake also said he could not. Kotzé should rather pay us so that we could leave.

“Kotzé said he was not going to listen to a kaffir. A kaffir would do as he said. He said if we did not co-operate, no one would leave there alive. He said a kaffir is a strange thing. He rapes on his own but when you give him a woman he refuses.

“He did not look the same as before. He was angry. He came back with pantyhose and a firearm. He said he wanted to hear nothing further from us. Andries must give us the pantyhose to wear on our heads,” he said.

Forced at gunpoint

Mphaka testified that Kotzé forced him and Mohlake at gunpoint to get into a cupboard, where they could see through a tiny hole how Kotzé tied up his wife while Sithole taped her mouth shut.

Kotzé then ordered Sithole to have sex with his wife.

“The woman was not lying still. She kicked and then Kotzé slapped her. She asked why do you allow them to do this to me? He [Kotzé] said because you’re running around [with other men]. Who is the man in the red Volvo?

“I went to lie on her. I pulled down my zip, but my penis was still in my underpants.

“Kotzé pulled me away because he could see what I was doing. He called Mohlake, who also lay on top of her with his pants still on,” he said.

Mphaka did not agree with Bonnette’s evidence that he had an erection and raped her.

The trial continues on Friday.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The health of former president Nelson Mandela was weighing on Thursday on the visit by US President Barack Obama and an entourage of about 1 000 people to South Africa.

He is due in the country on Friday.

Mandela’s condition was on Thursday described by the Presidency as critical, but stable.

The anti-apartheid icon is being treated in Pretoria’s Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital, after he was admitted on 8 June with a recurring lung infection.
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