Kimberley – The Sol Plaatje Municipality delegation, led by Executive Mayor, Agnes Ntlhangula, to China, which is believed to cost ratepayers around R900 000, has come under fire from opposition parties.

Cope MPL Pakes Dikgetsi said on Monday that the trip was clouded in controversy.

“The event that the mayor and her officials will be attending deals with green energy and the provision of solar panels, which is not the function of the mayoral office. It is the task of Eskom.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Kimberley – While a 10-man delegation, led by Executive Mayor, Agnes Ntlhangula, arrived in China on Sunday night already, Sol Plaatje councillors were totally unaware of the almost R1 million trip, which has been described as “nothing more than a glorified holiday”.

It is believed that on the eve of the departure, a special mayoral committee meeting was hurriedly called to inform committee members of the trip, which will see five councillors and five officials spending almost a week in the Hunan Province in China.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Pretoria – Lawyers for families of miners killed in Marikana, North West, last year, provisionally pulled out of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry’s proceedings on Tuesday.

Nicole Lewis, who represents the families at the commission, announced after a lunch adjournment that the families were acting in solidarity with the group of mineworkers who were wounded and arrested on August 16.

“The family members have given instructions for us to place on record. They feel very uncomfortable participating as long as the miners who were injured and arrested aren’t present or at the very least (if ) their position is clear,” she said.

“As things stand at the moment, they have a very strong feeling that they do not wish to participate further (at the commission). We will take further instructions from them tomorrow.”

Lewis said the families’ final decision would be announced on Thursday.

“Until that time, the family members won’t be participating. I have to ask the commission to excuse me.”

Commission chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, asked Lewis whether the families had instructed her to sit in and not participate, or to leave the hearings.

Lewis replied she had been told to leave the room.

“Essentially they don’t want to be present in the commission and they also don’t wish their legal representatives to be present.”

Farlam replied: “It’s a pity, but you will have the transcript, to study it. I am not sure if your clients (can) prevent you from doing that.”

On Monday, lawyers representing the mineworkers wounded and arrested provisionally pulled out of the commission’s proceedings.

Dali Mpofu announced the decision to withdraw, pending a High Court in Pretoria ruling on his application for the State to fund the legal team.

“Our instructions (from the mineworkers) are to await the judgment and at that point to receive further instructions. In the meantime, we will not be participating for the victims,” he said.

“If we are back later on in the week, we will have the extra burden of catching up with what would have happened (at the commission).”

On June 21, Mpofu told the commission that, due to financial constraints, it could be his last day representing the miners. He then brought the urgent court application seeking funding for representing the mineworkers. Mpofu wants President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to approve payment for the mineworkers’ legal team.

The commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 mineworkers in strike-related violence in Marikana in August.

On Monday, Mpofu promised that he would update the commission about his team’s decision, based on the court outcome.

“Irrespective of the outcome, as professionals, we have a duty to come here and brief the commission. We are not going to just disappear,” he said.

Contrary to media reports, the high court ruling could be made “anytime from now”, he said.

The commission is set to resume on Thursday morning. – Sapa

Pretoria – Trade union Amcu instructed its representatives on Tuesday to temporarily withdraw from the proceedings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry.

The move followed an announcement of a withdrawal by lawyers representing the families of mineworkers killed during the unrest involving Lonmin platinum’s workers in Marikana last year.

The families’ lawyers stated their withdrawal was in solidarity with the mineworkers who were wounded and arrested on August 16, and were no longer represented at the commission.

Irene de Vos, for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), said a final decision on the union’s future participation at the commission would be announced.

“Amcu supports the families’ approach. They support what Ms Lewis placed on record earlier.”

Nicole Lewis represents the families of the mineworkers killed.

“The position is not final, it is under review, but until further notice I have been instructed not to partake in these proceedings,” De Vos said.

Commission chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, asked her whether her clients had instructed her to sit in and not participate, or to leave the hearings. She said she had been instructed to leave the room.

Lawyers for families of miners killed in Marikana, North West, last year, provisionally pulled out of the commission’s proceedings earlier on Tuesday.

Lewis announced after a lunch adjournment that the families were acting in solidarity with the group of mineworkers wounded and arrested on August 16.

“The family members have given instructions for us to place on record. They feel very uncomfortable participating as long as the miners who were injured and arrested aren’t present or at the very least (if) their position is clear,” she said.

“As things stand at the moment, they have a very strong feeling that they do not wish to participate further 1/8at the commission 3/8. We will take further instructions from them tomorrow (Wednesday).”

Lewis said the families’ final decision would be announced on Thursday.

“Until that time, the family members won’t be participating. I have to ask the commission to excuse me.

“Essentially they don’t want to be present in the commission and they also don’t wish their legal representatives to be present.”

Farlam replied: “It’s a pity, but you will have the transcript, to study it. I am not sure if your clients (can) prevent you from doing that.”

On Monday, lawyers representing the mineworkers wounded and arrested provisionally pulled out of the commission’s proceedings.

Dali Mpofu announced the decision to withdraw, pending a high court ruling on his application for the State to fund the legal team.

“Our instructions (from the mineworkers) are to await the judgment and at that point to receive further instructions. In the meantime, we will not be participating for the victims,” he said.

On June 21, Mpofu told the commission that, due to financial constraints, it could be his last day representing the miners. He then brought the urgent court application seeking funding for representing the mineworkers.

Mpofu wants President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to approve payment for the mineworkers’ legal team.

The commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 mineworkers in strike-related violence in Marikana in August.

The commission is set to resume on Thursday morning. – Sapa

Johannesburg – South African national football coach Gordon Igesund is confident that Bafana Bafana will do well against an equally-confident home side in the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup in Zambia on Wednesday.

Igesund said his charges were seen as the underdogs, but he warned they should not be discounted.

“There is no doubt that Zambia has a strong team, but we have prepared well for this encounter.

“We have come up with a game plan that I believe will see us through, after we saw their last match where they dominated and eliminated Mozambique.

“They have about six players that played in the World Cup qualifiers which shows how strong they are.

“They will also be playing in front of their fans which should spur them on,” said Igesund.

“But I have always maintained that we should not worry about the opposition but focus on what we have to do, and stick to our plan.

“We respect the opponent but are definitely not afraid of them.

“We are going into this clash with players who are not well known, and that will give us a psychological edge.

“The the whole of Zambia is not giving us any chance of victory.

“It is always good to have a huge support, but then again that may also put pressure on you as expectations are high for you to win,” said Igesund.

South Africa will be without striker Edward Manqele who failed to recover from an ankle injury he suffered in their 2-1 victory over Namibia on Saturday.

Forward Lerato Chabangu, who is being monitored by the medical team, will face a fitness test at the squad’s final training session at the match venue on Tuesday.

Chabangu and Manqele did not train on Monday.

Zimbabwe and Lesotho will contest the other semi-final encounter at the same venue.
For more http://www.news24.com

Johannesburg – AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo’s decision to join the DA is unfortunate, the SACP said on Tuesday.

“[It] once more proves that no matter how good and heroic our parents can be, it does not follow that children will be the same,” the Eastern Cape SA Communist Party said in a statement.

It said Dalindyebo’s decision had to be understood in the context of his appeal of a 15-year jail term on various charges, including attempted murder.

“The marriage between the DA and the king of AbaThembu is actually a marriage of desperate parties; the king desperate to escape a jail term and the DA desperate to gain black votes… .”

Democratic Alliance Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip announced on Monday that Dalindyebo had joined the party.

“After a long meeting to discuss the DA’s values and the DA’s constitution, I can confirm that AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo has joined the DA.”

Trollip said Dalindyebo believed the DA’s “brand of clean government and delivery” was needed in the province.

Last month Dalindyebo made headlines when he reportedly described the ANC and President Jacob Zuma as “corrupt hooligans”. He made the remarks in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, at a prayer service for ailing former president Nelson Mandela.

Dalindyebo reportedly said the ANC had distorted the anti-apartheid icon’s legacy and behaved arrogantly. He said he would stop smoking dagga the day Zuma stopped being corrupt.

Uncouth tendencies

Dalindyebo previously said he would join the DA as a birthday gift to Mandela. Mandela, who remains in a critical but stable condition in a Pretoria hospital, turns 95 on Thursday.

The Gauteng African National Congress Youth League said on Tuesday that Dalindyebo’s attack on Zuma was “distasteful”.

“While we would not want to degenerate to his level, it is only appropriate that we warn him to refrain from his uncouth tendencies,” it said.

“The ANC and society does not need the likes of him in its ranks.”

The Eastern Cape ANC said on Monday the party was better off without him.

“With his majesty out of the ANC, we will have less worry as we will not have to baby-sit a king with reckless conduct. Maybe in the DA he has found people of the same ilk as him.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Crystal cocaine worth an estimated street value of R17m was seized on Tuesday at the Beit Bridge border post with Zimbabwe, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) said.

“The drugs were found concealed in a bag of surgical equipment kits being brought into the country by a female passenger on a long-distance bus travelling between Blantyre [Malawi] and Johannesburg,” it said in a statement.

The drugs were found by a Sars customs officer who was doing a routine check of the bus.

“When the bag was found, the passenger to whom it belonged showed the customs officer a ‘sample’ surgical kit which appeared to be genuine. ”

However, on checking the remaining kits, the customs officer found a crystalline substance at the bottom of all the kits – which had been concealed by the surgical instruments.”

The woman and the drugs were handed over to police.

– SAPA