MDC secretary Tendai Biti has defied Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and announced that the MDC-T had won the election.
At a press conference held at the MDC-T’s headquarters in downtown Harare, Biti, who is also Zimbabwe’s finance minister, told journalists that “our people will win the elections … I can confidently say that the mood out there is a mood of a people’s victory. It (election) will not be stolen.”
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Athletics South Africa (ASA) does not have high expectations for the upcoming IAAF World Championships. Provision has been made for 23 athletes to represent the country in Moscow, Russia, next month with a realistic goal of only two medals.
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Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Siyabonga Nkosi says his team is determined to start its new season with a bang, when the MTN8 competition gets underway next weekend.

“We set ourselves targets before the start of the season and we are excited to have the chance to win the cup,” Nkosi said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to do well and start positively and the team loves winning silverware so this competition is no different.”

Chiefs were eliminated in the first round of last year’s tournament, but went on to win both the Premiership and the Nedbank Cup last season.

They begin their pursuit of the MTN8 trophy against surprise package Tuks next weekend.

Tuks beat the Glamour Boys on the last day of the season in May and boast an unbeaten record against Chiefs. But Nkosi said the team were itching to set the record straight against the league new-comers.

“You have to be cautious of any team,” he said.

“For us, we approach every game the same way and Tuks will be no different. Obviously they have a good record against us but this is a new season and we, as Chiefs, want to improve and do better, especially against teams that beat us last season.”

Playing Chiefs makes it easy for our coach [Steve Barker] because we are all motivated so he doesn’t have to do or say much

The competition pits the top four teams, who all received home ground advantage in the opening round, against the next four, gifting Chiefs the luxury of home support at FNB Stadium.

“It’s a great place to play,” Tuks skipper Tebogo Monyai said of the 90 000 fortress.

“It will be close to full and that means every player is excited by the occasion. Playing Chiefs makes it easy for our coach [Steve Barker] because we are all motivated so he doesn’t have to do or say much.”

Monyai said AmaTuks had done very well in their first season in the country’s top-tier but they were, nevertheless, realistic about their first appearance in the MTN8 tournament.

“We will have to control the players and be careful they don’t overdo things,” Monyai said.

“It’s history in the making for Tuks to be in the top eight for the first time and we need to carry on writing history going forward.”

In the other opening round games, Platinum Stars, last season’s Premiership runners-up, faced a tricky home encounter against Free State Stars, while Orlando Pirates would travel to the Mbombela Stadium to take on SuperSport United.

Wits kick-off the tournament against Bloemfontein Celtic on Friday, August 9 in Johannesburg.

MTN8 first round fixtures:

Friday, August 9: Wits v Bloemfontein Celtic (Bidvest Stadium).

Saturday, August 10: Platinum Stars v Free State Stars v (Royal Bafokeng Stadium), Kaizer Chiefs v University of Pretoria (FNB Stadium).

Sunday, August 11: Orlando Pirates v SuperSport United (Mbombela Stadium).
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It is still not clear whether lawyers at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry will get interim funding from an unnamed foundation, the commission heard on Wednesday.

The commission’s chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, said he “may have been too optimistic in thinking they would have received a decision by now”.

“I understand we will have an answer, in one way or the other, on whether we will have funding, by Tuesday,” he said, in adjourning the commission until 9.30am on Tuesday.

Dali Mpofu, representing the mineworkers wounded and arrested at Marikana, wanted the funding for his legal team.

Mpofu intended filing papers with the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether the State should fund their work at the commission. He made a similar request in the High Court in Pretoria earlier this month, but it was dismissed.

He has since asked that the commission be postponed until August 19, pending the outcome of the court proceedings. Farlam has
yet to decide on Mpofu’s request.

The commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of 44 people during strike-related unrest in Marikana last year.

Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the
preceding week.
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KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Community Safety, Willies Mchunu, has raised serious concerns about the high number of firearms in the province that are in the wrong hands.

He believes that they are the cause of a number of heinous crimes. On Wednesday, he visited the Nxele homestead at Mbongolwane in Eshowe, where five family members were brutally murdered.

It was once quiet area, now it’s been torn apart by the recent killings. Community members fear of possible revenge attacks. This has forced some residents to flee their homes.

Mchunu says there is a lot of firearms (doing the rounds) and people are highly trained to commit such barbaric crimes. The question that remains however is the motive of the crime.

It’s now emerged that it might be linked to a love triangle involving the local chief. But he’s refuted these allegations.

Meanwhile police are still searching for 16 suspects. Seven have appeared in court and remain in custody.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Counting of ballots has started at some Zimbabwean polling stations in the capital Harare under tents that were used temporarily by electoral officers that are now relying on candle light and gas to do their work.

Earlier the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said since the electorates are voting in large numbers, those who are already in queues will not be turned away and will be allowed to vote past 7pm official closing time of the poll.

The fiercely contested election is pitting veteran President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Both sides are forecasting landslide wins with President Mugabe saying he will concede if defeated.

It’s been largely peaceful, however, the opposition party, the MDC has made startling claims of duplicate ballots printed, high numbers of voters turned away and fake prints of registration receipts.

The ZEC has a tight deadline by law it has to release the results within five days.

Uitenhage – A 53-year-old woman died when she was run over by an articulated truck in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, police said.

The accident happened when the truck driver turned from Bubbs Avenue into Caledon Street, said Warrant Officer Gerda Swart.

Apparently part of the trailer swung onto the pavement and struck the women, who died on the scene.

Police were investigating.

Sapa

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma is considering extending the commission of inquiry into the multi-billion-rand arms deal, the presidency said on Wednesday.

“President Jacob Zuma has received and is considering a request to extend [it] by 12 months,” spokesperson Mac Maharaj said.

The commission’s term was due to expire in November. Its public hearings were scheduled to start next week.

Former president Thabo Mbeki, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and Congress of the People (Cope) president Mosiuoa Lekota were some of the people expected to testify in the first phase of the inquiry.

The commission, which is probing the R70bn arms procurement deal, would hold public hearings from 5 August until 31 January at the council chambers of the Sammy Marks Conference Centre, Pretoria.

The deal, which was initially estimated to cost R43m, has dogged South Africa’s politics since it was signed in 1999, after then Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) MP Patricia de Lille raised allegations of corruption in Parliament.

Zuma himself was once charged with corruption after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who had a tender to supply part of the requirements, was found to have facilitated a bribe for him from a French arms company. The charges against Zuma were dropped in April 2009.

The commission, which is probing the R70bn arms procurement deal, subject to Zuma granting an extension beyond November, spokesperson William Baloyi said.

Mbeki and Manuel were set to testify in the second half of January.

Rationale for arms

Baloyi said the first phase of the commission would “deal with the rationale for the Strategic Defence Procurement Package”, and whether the arms and equipment acquired were under-utilised or not utilised at all.

The first witnesses would be navy and air force officials. Armscor witnesses would be named later.

Kasrils and Lekota would be called as witnesses between 30 September and 4 October, followed by department of trade and industry officials until 11 November.

Former public enterprises minister Alec Erwin was expected to testify for three days in November, followed by National Treasury officials until the end of that month.

“It is also important to note that the programme is not cast in stone and circumstances prevailing at the hearings may require that it be adapted or altered, and this may also effect the sequence of witnesses,” Baloyi said.

“Some of the witnesses may be recalled at a later stage, when the commission deals with the terms of reference relating to allegations of impropriety, fraud and corruption in the acquisition process, a phase in which the ‘whistleblowers’ and those who are implicated will feature.”

The commission would be held in the council chambers of the Sammy Marks Conference Centre in Pretoria.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Young people must register for next year’s general elections because they have more to gain than older voters, DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said on Wednesday.

“Register to vote. It is an important act of civic duty,” she said in a speech planned for delivery at the Vaal University of Technology in Vanderbijlpark.

“You will have a choice that will shape your life for decades to come. When you cast your vote, I want you to think of your future.”

She said young people made up about a fifth of the electorate and, therefore, had significant political “clout”.

“As the youth of South Africa, you have more to lose or gain than anybody else in this country. You still have long lives to live.”

Mazibuko was speaking at the launch of a new branch of the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso) at the university.

She said the Daso was the fastest growing student organisation in the country.

At the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), for example, the Daso recently secured three-quarters of the vote within three years of its launch.

At that university, the Daso helped students by implementing a shuttle transport service.

The Daso also believed it was important to introduce tutorials in students’ mother-tongues to help second- and third-language speakers reach their potential in classes and exams conducted in English.

“This has been implemented at NMMU. Students who attended those mother-tongue tutorials achieved a 100% pass rate in 2011 and 2012,” Mazibuko said.

“We can do the same right here.”

Mazibuko said that the ANC was “worried” that it could lose support in Gauteng.

“The ANC thought the same when they were in government in the Western Cape before the 2009 elections, and the same in the City of Cape Town before the 2006 elections.

“My message to [ANC Secretary General Gwede] Mantashe today, as I look around this room, is that you are in for a big surprise again, this time in Gauteng.”

– SAPA

Pretoria – A 28-year-old mother accused of murdering her three-week-old baby told the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday she was not mentally unstable.

Juanita Fourie, whose surname appears as Oldewage on the charge sheet, said she would not have been able to run a bottle store six days a week if she had been unstable.

She co-owned the Port Elizabeth business and was using the profits to pay her lawyer, she said.

Fourie told the court she was divorcing her co-accused Christiaan Oldewage, and was now using the surname Fourie.

Fourie and her husband are accused of abusing and murdering Fourie’s three-week-old baby Christiaan.

The baby died from multiple injuries in the Montana Hospital, in the north of Pretoria, hours after being admitted on 13 December 2011.

The baby had a fractured skull and multiple broken ribs.

The State on Wednesday asked the court to withdraw Fourie’s bail and refer her to a psychiatric hospital for observation.

This was after Fourie failed to turn up for her trial on Monday.

Warrant for her arrest

Her legal representative Carlo Viljoen told the court that she had suffered a nervous breakdown and was not fit to stand trial.

He also handed in a psychological report stating that Fourie suffered from anxiety and depression, was unable to face court proceedings and may only be ready to face the court on Friday.

Judge Lettie Malopa-Sethosa issued a warrant for her arrest, but held it over until Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Viljoen backtracked and submitted that Fourie was mentally fit and ready to proceed with the trial.

Fourie testified that she had not been in court on Monday because of incorrect advice she received from her advocate and psychologist. “Emotionally I did not feel ready to be here.

“I’m a mother. I lost my child. I’m accused of his murder.

She testified that she had received death threats, but conceded they were not from her husband.

“The last time I was in court I was followed and robbed of a statement and photos I wanted to use in court.

“Everything just built up and I didn’t feel ready at that stage, but I’m ready today.

Fourie said she had moved to Margate, in KwaZulu-Natal, to “get away from everything”.

“I was staying with my godmother, but she was shot in the face [with a paintball gun] one morning when she opened the door. “She told me it was meant for me.”

Heartache

Fourie said she was afraid to return to Pretoria, and that she had “lost everything” due to the negative publicity she received.

“I’m not mentally ill. I’m a mother who lost a child. I’m experiencing heartache. I had to give birth. It’s hard… I work and I do my investigations and I stay strong.”

Fourie told the court she had already been judged by her friends and family in Pretoria and lost her business as a hairdresser because of the allegations against her.

She testified that she had no history of depression and was not on medication, but said she wanted to avoid standing in court “with tears falling” and being unable to answer questions.

Fourie admitted that she had not always signed in with the police on Mondays, as her bail conditions stipulated, as she had been under the impression she could report on any day of the week.

Prosecutor Cornelia Harmzen argued that Fourie’s bail should be revoked, however, Malopa said she was prepared to give Fourie the benefit of the doubt.

Malopa described Fourie’s failure to come to court on Monday as a tactic to delay the trial and warned Fourie that only the court could excuse her from attendance.

Malopa postponed the trial to 2 December and extended Fourie’s bail, on condition that she report to the Port Edward police station on Mondays and Fridays.

Oldewage remained in custody, after abandoning his bail application.

– SAPA