Polokwane – Three Agang SA members accused of malicious damage to property appeared in the Mahwelereng Magistrate’s Court, Limpopo, on Wednesday, the party said.

The magistrate postponed the matter to September 6 to allow the prosecution more time to investigate the charge, Agang SA said in a statement.

The three were arrested on July 22 after a Mzombane residents’ meeting in Mokopane ended in chaos. Agang SA said the members had organised a discussion of their concerns about standards of living and a lack of service delivery with the Mogalakwena municipality’s mayor at the meeting. The mayor did not arrive. Angry residents told an African National Congress councillor, who came instead, to leave.

“The community of Mzombane, like many others across the country, is fed up with food parcel pay-offs when all we were asking for was water, electricity, jobs, decent education, and healthcare,” Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele said in the statement.

Sapa

Parliament – MPs are edging closer to passing the DNA bill – a much needed tool to improve conviction rates in the country.

Deliberations on the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment bill – which covers the use of DNA as evidence in criminal investigations – continued in Parliament’s police portfolio committee on Wednesday.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – A man was arrested while transporting a consignment of cigarettes without documentation in Sebenza, Ekurhuleni, on Wednesday, police said.

Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago said contraband cigarettes worth R2.8 million were seized after the 42-year-old man led police to a rented warehouse he was taking the consignment to.

“A total of 807 half-master cases were found in the truck. Arriving at the suspect’s warehouse, metro police uncovered 97 more half-master boxes of cigarettes. A total of 907 boxes estimated to be worth approximately R2.8m were seized.”

Officials of the SA Revenue Service and the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa were called to inspect the confiscated cargo and to determine its source.

The man, who has dual citizenship in Zimbabwe and South Africa, was expected to appear in the Edenvale Magistrate’s Court soon.

He would face a charge of possession of contraband cigarettes.

Sapa

Nelspruit – An Mpumalanga man who admitted to shooting dead his ex-girlfriend in front of her colleagues asked for a lenient sentence on Wednesday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that Steven Malumane, 25, from Chochocho outside Hazyview, appeared in the Nelspruit Circuit of the Pretoria High Court.

He pleaded guilty to five charges including murder, hijacking, kidnapping, and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Malumane attacked Cynthia Mashego, 35, at her workplace on the third floor of the Sanlam building in Mbombela on March 22 last year. He shot her in the corridor, fled and hijacked a blue Toyota Corolla and kidnapped its owner, Vusimuzi Frans Mabuza. He fled with Mabuza to his parents’ home in Chochocho. His family called police and he was arrested.

“I ask to offer my apology to the deceased’s family. I realise what I did is wrong and I ask them to forgive me,” a sobbing Malumane told the court.

“Last year I did ask my family to go to the Mashego family and ask for forgiveness on my behalf. I also ask for forgiveness from Mr Mabuza… I was frightened and wanted Mabuza to accompany me home to report what I had done to my family.”

Malumane, who claimed he was getting around R10 000 from his two businesses each month, asked the court to consider a lenient sentence, so he could be released early and support his two children and his ex-girlfriend’s family.

Mashego’s mother, Agnes Shabangu, 59, told the court no one from Malumane’s family had come to ask for forgiveness.

“I have not seen anyone from his family who came to ask for forgiveness, since the incident happened. My daughter was a breadwinner in the family,” she told the court.

“She was very helpful. I am now left to care for her child and I can no longer work. I’m deeply hurt by her death and have still not recovered from the trauma.”

After Mashego broke up with Malumane and she had moved on with her life, he started sending her threatening smses.

The court heard that on the morning of March 22, Malumane went to Magagula Attorneys, where Mashego worked, dragged her into a corridor and fired two shots. One of the bullets hit her in the back. She died on the scene.

Prosecutor Molatlhwa Mashuga asked the court to impose a minimum sentence, which would serve as a deterrent to Malumane and other would-be criminals. Malanguti Malanguti, for Malumane, asked the court to consider a lenient sentence as he had shown remorse and asked for forgiveness.

Justice Mmonoa Teffo found Malamane guilty and postponed the matter to Friday for sentencing.

Sapa

Johannesburg – Claims that an elderly East London man died because of a five-hour ambulance delay should be probed, the public protector’s office said on Wednesday.

The man’s wife complained to Thuli Madonsela when she paid Frere Hospital an unannounced visit earlier in the day, her spokesperon Kgalalelo Masibi said in a statement.

She asked for an ambulance to be sent for her husband around 13:00 on Tuesday, but by 17:00 it had not arrived.

The woman said she was repeatedly assured that an ambulance was on its way.

At 17:00 the family rented a car to take the man to hospital, where he died.

“The EMS must investigate why the ambulance did not make it to the complainant’s house, even though call centre agents kept on telling her that it was on its way,” Madonsela said.

She said the hospital needed to investigate whether the man’s life could have been saved if the ambulance had arrived sooner.

Madonsela’s visit was part of her office’s “national stakeholder dialogue”, which would move to Gauteng next week.

– SAPA

Durban – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has removed more than 1 500 people from the voters’ roll in Vryheid, IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula said on Wednesday.

Possible voter registration fraud sparked the move and police had been asked to investigate, she told reporters in Durban.

The by-election for Ward 22 of the Abaqulusi municipality, scheduled for 24 April, was postponed after it was alleged that hundreds of people registered in the ward did not live there.

Andre Lotter, the former ANC councillor for the ward, obtained a court order postponing the election, allowing him to stand as an independent councillor and ordering the IEC to investigate the voters’ roll fraud.

Tlakula said the names of 1 525 people were removed from the Ward 22 roll and returned to the voters’ rolls from which they had been transferred. She said it could not be proved that they lived in the ward.

When the IEC published the names of 1 534 voters, urging them to make representations to the IEC, only 11 people came forward.

Eight were able to persuade the IEC that they should be registered in the ward and one had since reregistered in another voting district.

The by-election was scheduled to go ahead on 7 August.

KwaZulu-Natal chief electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said that starting in January, most of the 1 525 voters had registered in the ward prior to the announcement of the 24 April by-election.

He said the fact that so many voters registered in such a short time showed it was an “organised exercise”.

The IEC’s office in the municipality and those involved in the registration of the voters would also be investigated to see what had gone wrong.

Increase in registered voters

Last week it was reported that there were 3 695 registered voters in the ward in the 2011 local government election, but that by 24 April this year there were another 2 470 voters – an increase of 66% in two years.

Tlakula said anyone found guilty of forcing someone to register or persuading them to do so could face a 10 year jail term if convicted by the Electoral Court.

If a political party was found to have been complicit in such a fraud the court could fine it up to R200 000, with deregistration of the party being the top penalty.

The municipality is currently under administration. It was formerly controlled by the ANC with the help of the National Freedom Party (NFP).

Lotter’s resignation forced the by-election, leaving the ANC tied with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on 16 seats each in the municipality.

The NFP has seven, the DA three and one seat is controlled by a candidate from the Owethu Residents’ Organisation.

A split within the NFP’s ranks resulted in a hung municipality, with the same number of votes in favour of the IFP and the ANC, when the speaker was included.

Speaking after the IEC press conference, Lotter said he was unhappy that the IEC had not provided any information about who was behind the alleged fraud.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – 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 police spokesperson 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 – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu added his footprint to a walkway at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, north-west of Johannesburg, on Wednesday.

Tutu placed his foot in a block of wet concrete, joining a list of Nobel laureates who had done so.

Other famous footprints outside the Tumulus building at the site included those of former president Thabo Mbeki and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

The left-handed Tutu quipped as he put his signature next to his footprint: “God made people perfect; the others He made right-handed.”

He asked: “Waar’s my kous?” (where is my sock) when he finished making his footprint.

The project represents support for the belief that the first humans walked out of Africa to populate the rest of the planet.

A jovial Tutu joked with journalists and tourists while he was taken on a short guided tour of the Cradle’s exhibition centre.

The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the South African Anglican Church described the brief ceremony of leaving his footprint as “humbling” and “a huge privilege”.

Tutu burst out laughing while telling a story of how he and his wife were in the Netherlands when a 400-year-old school was named after him.

“A little girl rushed up to me and asked me if I was there when the school started,” he said.

“It is scientifically proven that we belong to one family. That is why ubuntu is so important. Ubuntu started here.”

Tutu’s footprints joined the human database at the Cradle of Humankind, which is also famous as the location where a pre-human skull, now known as Mrs Ples, was discovered.

A complete hominid skeleton, called Little Foot, was also unearthed at the site.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Western Cape Premier Helen Zille should quit after a court decision on Wednesday to set aside a decision to close 17 schools, the ANC Youth League said on Wednesday.

“It is disgusting that… Zille fully backed MEC for Education Donald Grant’s stubborn and heartless action to close these schools without due consultation and proper plans put in place,” ANCYL provincial task team convenor Muhammad Khalid Sayed said.

“The African National Congress Youth League welcomes the Western Cape High Court’s decision.”

Judges Andre le Grange and Nape Dolamo ruled that the reasons given for the closures were brief and that the public consultation process followed was inadequate.

They set aside Grant’s decision, made in October to go into effect from 31 December. He and his department were ordered to pay the legal costs of the schools and their governing bodies.

The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said the court’s decision was a victory for education in the country.

“The court ruling… has vindicated Sadtu,” the union in the province said in a statement.

“Our democratic courts have once again come to the favour of the poor, working class learners and parents in the Western Cape.”

Sadtu said it would not allow bullies in the provincial education department to jeopardise the future of poor children.

“We urge Grant and Zille to respect the courts and not to waste money with an appeal.”

– SAPA

Mahikeng-The mood was high with chanting and dancing by the Provincial Indigenous Games participants from all four districts, excited about their participation in the games at Mmabatho Stadium over the weekend.
The participants took part in games such as dibeke, morabaraba, intonga, juskie, khokho, diketo, kgati and many more.
“This is an opportunity to play our part in preserving the rich culture that our province and nation have inherited from our parents and our ancestors”.
“These games are what makes us different from the rest of the world and for that we proud. It’s our way of showing the world what they do not have.” MEC Tebogo Modise said.
Amongst the participants was a 27-year-old lady from Dinokana Village in Ramotshere Moiloa Service Point named Motsie Moumakwa a.k.a Taker, who took part in Intonga which is a male-dominated sport.
“I have been participating in this game for three years now and this sport has taught me endurance and self-discipline”. Said Taker.
Taker also urged young people to concentrate in sport and love what they do in order to achieve their dreams and to stay away from drugs.
The Indigenous Games Participants who will be representing the Province at National Level in Gauteng from 20th to 24th September amongst others are as follows:
1. Diketo
• Cynthia Mthimkulu from Mafikeng Service Point in Ngaka Modiri Molema District
• Maggy Mofokeng from Maquassi Service Point in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District
• Patrick Goxo from Mamusa Service Point in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Lucas Mahume from Ditsobotla Service Point in Ngaka Modiri Molema
2. Kgati
• Lucy Nakeng from Madibeng Service Point in Bojanala District
• Rorisang Mabeko from Moretele Service Point in Bojanala
• Desmond Rampai from Maquassi Service Point in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District
• Thapelo Matebesi from Ditsobotla Service Point in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Kgomotso from Kagisano Service Point in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati

3. Morabaraba
• Piet Molosi from Bray in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Frans Sehudugeng from Mamusa Service Point in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Rinon Mere from Mamusa Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Tekkie Nthodi from Maquassi Service Point in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District
• Flika Moleme from Maquassi Service Point in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda
• Elsie Chabangu from Madibeng in Bojanala District
• Beauty Nonyane from Moretele Service Point in Bojanala District
• Sinah Molatlhegi from Moses Kotane Service Point in Bojanala District
4. Driestokies
• Goitsemang Motshe from Ditsobotla Service Point in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Elma Matshindza in Taung Service Point in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Mmabatho Phefo from Moretele Service Point in Bojanala District
• Masego Mogapi from Ramotshere Moiloa Service point in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Tshepo Mlengetsha from Kgetleng Service Point in Bojanala District
• Simon Masiu from Maquassi Service Point in Dr. Kenneth
5. Incuva
• Koda Madibo from Maquassi service point in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District
• Tom Frieds from Leekwataemane Service Point in Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
• Gomolemo Pule from Ramotshere Moiloa in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Kholiwe Bojana From Ratlou Servcie Point in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Anna Manyeke from Moretele Service Point in Bojanala
• Olebile Naane from Ramotshere Moiloa in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Olebile Pule from Ramotshere Moiloa in Ngaka Modiri Molema District
6. Intonga
• Titus Mashishi from Moretele Service Point in Bojanala
• Pako Sshego from Bray in Dr. Ruth Mompati District
• Phafa Matsheka from Kanana in Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District
• Dipuo Barons in Ramotshere Moiloa in Ngaka Modiri Molema
• Motsie Moumakwa from Ramotshere Moiloa in Ngaka Modiri Molema.-TDN

(Edited By Obakeng Maje)

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