The Siya crew can confirm that newly promoted Premier Soccer League side Mpumalanga Black Aces have signed goalkeeper Calvin Marlin on a two-year deal.

The 37-year-old started training with the promotion/relegation play-off winners following his release from Mamelodi Sundowns at the end of last season.
For more http://www.soccerladuma.com

A colleague of Paul Nothnagel, who allegedly shot and killed his teenaged daughters and seriously wounded his ex-wife before committing suicide, has described him as a hard worker.

Andre van Tonder of Media24 News says the incident has come as a shock for all who worked with Nothnagel. The children and their mother were on their way to school when the incident took place in Alberton. Van Tonder says they still have to come to terms with the incident.

“Everybody is shocked at this time and I would understand it because it’s totally out of his character. He’s never been an aggressive person, definitely not in the work situation. He was always working hard and yes, we actually knew Linda as well and the kids. At this stage it is an absolute shock to all the personnel and it is something we don’t understand.”

Meanwhile, learners and staff at the Helpmekaar High School in central Johannesburg are battling to come to terms with the murder of two of their learners on Thursday.

Helpmekaar principal, Klaus Konig, says they are trying their best to help the learners deal with the tragedy.

“I have heard this morning that Linda’s mother was operated last night. At this stage because there was crime involved, we are unable to make definite plans at this stage. We are really in grief since yesterday morning and we are forced to help our children to get through this grief.”

Police say Linda was apparently taking the children to school around 6.30 A.M. when the shooting happened. Nothnagel was allegedly hiding behind a tree, spotted their vehicle and fired several shots into the vehicle with a 9 millimetre pistol.A colleague of Paul Nothnagel, who allegedly shot and killed his teenaged daughters and seriously wounded his ex-wife before committing suicide, has described him as a hard worker.

Andre van Tonder of Media24 News says the incident has come as a shock for all who worked with Nothnagel. The children and their mother were on their way to school when the incident took place in Alberton. Van Tonder says they still have to come to terms with the incident.

“Everybody is shocked at this time and I would understand it because it’s totally out of his character. He’s never been an aggressive person, definitely not in the work situation. He was always working hard and yes, we actually knew Linda as well and the kids. At this stage it is an absolute shock to all the personnel and it is something we don’t understand.”

Meanwhile, learners and staff at the Helpmekaar High School in central Johannesburg are battling to come to terms with the murder of two of their learners on Thursday.

Helpmekaar principal, Klaus Konig, says they are trying their best to help the learners deal with the tragedy.

“I have heard this morning that Linda’s mother was operated last night. At this stage because there was crime involved, we are unable to make definite plans at this stage. We are really in grief since yesterday morning and we are forced to help our children to get through this grief.”

Police say Linda was apparently taking the children to school around 6.30 A.M. when the shooting happened. Nothnagel was allegedly hiding behind a tree, spotted their vehicle and fired several shots into the vehicle with a 9 millimetre pistol.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Basic Education says they are expecting better results in this year’s Annual National Assessments.

The department has finished preparing for the assessments, which will be done slightly different this year. The assessments, which have been written by Grades one to six and Grade nine learners, will also include Grade 10 learners this year.

The department’s spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says they are expecting a better result as it has been a trend if based on previous surveys. He says since the introduction of the new system, the first year you get bad results, the second year you get improvement, so everybody knows what is expected of them, hence they expect good results.

Meanwhile, schooling has ground to a halt at the Oakford Primary School at Verulam north of Durban amid a dispute between school authorities and the land owner. The owner locked out the teachers and learners. Chairperson of the School Governing Body (SGB) Mfanje Mbango says the main problem is that the new owner of the property, Professor Marais, has forced the parents and the learners to use the pathway which runs through the dense sugar cane plantation, which is not safe at all.

Mbango says the parents are very concerned because their children are not safe and they are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the whole process. The SGB leader says they hope that everything will be back to normal on Monday and is appealing for teaching and learning to resume on Monday.Basic Education says they are expecting better results in this year’s Annual National Assessments.

The department has finished preparing for the assessments, which will be done slightly different this year. The assessments, which have been written by Grades one to six and Grade nine learners, will also include Grade 10 learners this year.

The department’s spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says they are expecting a better result as it has been a trend if based on previous surveys. He says since the introduction of the new system, the first year you get bad results, the second year you get improvement, so everybody knows what is expected of them, hence they expect good results.

Meanwhile, schooling has ground to a halt at the Oakford Primary School at Verulam north of Durban amid a dispute between school authorities and the land owner. The owner locked out the teachers and learners. Chairperson of the School Governing Body (SGB) Mfanje Mbango says the main problem is that the new owner of the property, Professor Marais, has forced the parents and the learners to use the pathway which runs through the dense sugar cane plantation, which is not safe at all.

Mbango says the parents are very concerned because their children are not safe and they are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the whole process. The SGB leader says they hope that everything will be back to normal on Monday and is appealing for teaching and learning to resume on Monday.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

A 30-year-old domestic worker was found dead at her workplace in Glenvista south of Johannesburg, police said on Friday.

It is alleged that she was killed during a house break in on Biggersberg Road.

Residents returned home from work at 18:00 to find the home broken into and their domestic servant, who had been home alone, tied and gagged dead in a cupboard. It seems she died of suffocation.

Constable Michael Kgatla said the woman’s body was found in a cupboard on Thursday evening.

“The woman is from Lesotho. Her employer left her at the house in the morning and found her dead at 6pm.”

A murder docket has been opened.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Classes continue to be disrupted at two schools near Verulam in Durban. A dispute is raging over an access road leading to the schools. The schools are situated on private land.

The Sheme siblings haven’t attended school for a week. The gates to nine year-old S’bonelo’s primary school remain locked. Schooling at the Sacred Heart Secondary school, which his sister attends, has also been halted.

Learner Zizipho Sheme says: “ This thing is affecting us because we have two months left now to write our exam, so we have no school to go to because it’s late now, if we go to other schools, they won’t accept us.”

Land owner Marius Maritz says he shut the gates to Oakford primary this week in accordance with an arbitration order that a newly-constructed access road be used by parents and pupils. The order followed an environmental impact assessment by the Department of Water Affairs which found the existing road was under a flood line.

A new gravel road was built to accommodate pupils. The parents claim the new road is dangerous.

School Governing Body’s Mfanje Mbango says: “We are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the process at least of expropriation, so that we will know exactly where the future of the school is.”

The Provincial Department of Education says negotiations are continuing to resolve the problem.

Department of Education HOD Dr Nkosinathi Sishi says: “If the owner of the land insists that he would like to shift the gates, we have no legal basis to stop him. We have to then re-build another school for the community.”

It’s unclear whether schooling will resume on Monday.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Nelson Mandela’s close friend and comrade, Andrew Mlangeni says he will say very little about the former president’s health moving forward out of respect for the families wishes.

The struggle stalwart and former Robben Island prisoner was speaking on the side-lines of the observance of Nelson Mandela International Day in New York, after he made a call in a newspaper interview last month for Madiba’s family to release him.

Family members criticized the calls and Mlangeni says he’s learned his lesson.

“Let me be frank with you, a few weeks ago, the Mandela family requested everybody to say very little about Madiba, they are going through a very difficult period, all of them and the more comment we give to the media about Madiba, they say it’s not good for them, so I’m strictly trying to respect that,” explains Mlangeni.

He says he’s been close friends with Madiba since the 1950s and added that, although he respects the family’s wishes, people on the outside are understandably also concerned.

“His illness does affect even us, who are not members or relatives, he was my president of the ANC, president of the state of SA, my co-prisoner for more than a quarter of a century, more than 25 years we’ve been together in prison. Every time he opens his mouth to say something, just one word, second word you know already the entire story, that’s how close we were on Robben Island some of us. The moment I open my mouth I just say one word, people can know that this is the story he’s going to tell me,” he says.

It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for

Mlangeni, who will later on Friday ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in honour of Madiba’s 95th birthday and the 4th Nelson Mandela International Day , says it’s gratifying to see the world and not just South African’s rally around Madiba’s legacy.

“It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for, he was representing all those good values, Madiba has always been saying, children must go to school, we must fight poverty, make sure that people are employed,” says Mlangeni.

At 88 years-old, Andrew Mlangeni’s no spring chicken but he says age allows him to speak his mind even though he’s a little more cautious after his earlier remarks were repudiated by some Mandela family members.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Lawyers for the victims of the Marikana tragedy will appeal the North Gauteng High Court ruling dismissing their application for State funding.

The victims are seeking State support to fund their legal representation.

Their lawyers temporarily withdrew from the Marikana hearings , three more legal representatives also withdrew in support of the victims.

They respectively represent injured miners, the families of the miners killed, the Legal Resources Centre and union AMCU.

The application for State funding was spearheaded by Dali Mpofu, on behalf of injured miners.

“We will continue, but in the event that they don’t want to participate in the commission, we have a right by law to subpoena them to come and testify at the commission,” says Commission spokesperson Tshepo Mahlangu.

But the appeal could stall the commission’s work, it has until October to conclude hearings.

The withdrawal of the victims’ legal team has led to some uncertainty in the proceedings at the Marikana inquiry.

Legal Aid SA says its financial support is determined by the country’s Legal Aid Act.

“We are funded to do civil cases and criminal cases which are in the judicial sphere, commissions of inquiry fall within the executive sphere of government and are appointed by the executive. We can only do that if we are authorised to do both in terms of the legal aid act and guide, we can’t work outside that,” says Legal Aid’s Patrick Hundermark.

A prominent religious leader and mediator during the Marikana unrest says the developments are unfortunate.

“It was almost rubbing salt to a wound, these people are wounded, still suffering and have not recovered and are not out of mourning their brothers, cousins and are told you have no place in our new democracy,” says a concerned Bishop Jo Seoka.

The commission has adjourned until Monday where further instructions from victims’ lawyers are expected.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Bloemfontein – One of four rightwingers accused of plotting to murder senior ANC leaders is not fit to stand trial, his lawyer said on Friday.

Martin Keevy, 49, of Bloemfontein appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on charges of treason and conspiracy to plan acts of terrorism.

Marius Bruwer, for Keevy, said a unanimous psychiatric report from the Free State Psychiatric Complex found he lacked criminal accountability and was unfit to stand trial.

Prosecutor Torie Pretorius told magistrate Andries Schoeman the State disputed the contents of the report and asked for a further 30-day postponement for a re-evaluation.

“The State does not agree with the conclusions of the report,” Pretorius said.

Bruwer did not oppose the application.

Keevy was admitted to the complex again on Friday, where the State’s experts would re-evaluate him. He would be back in court on 16 August .

The State alleges that Keevy, Mark Trollip, Johan Prinsloo, and Hein Boonzaaier were part of a group who plotted to kill African National Congress leaders at the party’s Mangaung elective conference in December 2012. They allegedly called this “Die Slag van Mangaung” (The Battle of Mangaung).

Keevy, Trollip, and Prinsloo were denied bail, while Boonzaaier was granted R80 000 bail.

Trollip, Prinsloo, and Boonzaaier were expected to appear in court again on 23 August.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A police captain was arrested in Worcester for allegedly raping a 46-year-old woman in his official car, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said on Friday.

“The complainant alleges that on 20 June at about 23.30 she was raped by the suspect who was driving a marked SAPS vehicle while he was on duty,” spokesperson Moses Dlamini said.

“The suspect allegedly threatened to shoot the victim and her son if she reported the matter to anyone which resulted in her not reporting it immediately after the incident.”

He said the 46-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after the woman opened a case against him.

“The Ipid conducted an investigation and decided to arrest the suspect on the same day based on the evidence uncovered.”

The man would appear in the Worcester Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of rape, Dlamini said.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – Two men were caught stealing biltong worth over R900 from a Petrusburg butchery, Free State police said on Friday.

The men were loitering behind a butchery in town when two passing policemen noticed them on Thursday afternoon, Sergeant Thabo Litabe said.

“As the two suspects are known for committing crime in the area, the two officers became suspicious and decided to monitor their actions.”

Eventually, the men entered the butchery and the police officers decided to wait outside. The men appeared with two plastic bags containing 33 pieces of unprocessed meat worth R980.

Litabe said the men could not provide proof of payment for the meat and were arrested. The men were expected to appear in court on Monday facing a theft charge.

– SAPA