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

Johannesburg – An Mpumalanga murder accused was not forced into signing a confession, the Nelspruit Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that prosecutor HE Mayinga told the court that Lucky Smanga Nkosi was never threatened and did have his rights read to him.

“It was read three times to the accused. Firstly, it was read twice by Constable Ndlovu on 7 January and by Captain [Freddy] Magagula on 9 January, when he took the statement from him,” Mayinga told the court.

Judge Sipho Sithole accepted the statement as admissible.

“The constitutional rights are read before the actual statement. On this form, there are rights spelled out, about legal representation and the right to consult a legal practitioner of your choice,” Sithole said.

“As opposed to these rights, you put your signature, including that of Capt Magagula, but you still tell the court your rights were not read out.”

Nkosi, 39, appeared for the murder of Gloria Mdluli, who was shot four times at her home in Masoyi on 27 September, 2009.

According to the statement read out in court, Nkosi confessed that he and his co-accused Bhudi Gama, Wanda Masuku and Jan Mamabolo, were paid R10 000 to kill Mdluli after Masuku’s mother accused her of bewitching Masuku’s father.

Nkosi told the court that the arresting officer, a Constable Ndlovu, ill-treated him after his arrest at Kabokweni police station and forced him into confessing.

Previous court case

“Ndlovu never read my constitutional rights to me. When Captain Magagula took the statement, he also never read my rights. He threatened me and asked another constable to get the tools, which I believed would be used to torture me.”

He said he did not told the magistrate when he appeared in the district court about the torture.

“I only told my legal representative and also asked to be moved from the police station cells to prison,” Nkosi testified.

Nkosi said he knew Ndlovu through a previous court case in which he was accused of killing Ndlovu’s brother.

“I knew Constable Ndlovu. He used to attend court when I was on trial for the murder of his brother, Eric Ndlovu [who was killed in 2002].”

The trial continues.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A protest over water problems in Brandfort in the Free State ended behind closed doors on Tuesday.

It was organised by the local Democratic Alliance, which said it would ask the Public Protector to investigate.

The protesters marched to the Masilonyana municipal offices to demand an end to what they described as ongoing water shortages in Brandfort and surrounding areas.

The group wanted to hand over an SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) report to officials, which found some human rights violations in the municipality.

However, the municipal offices were closed.

The SAHRC found the municipality guilty of contravening human rights such as the right to dignity, privacy, security of person, right to a clean environment and health, and access to information.

No municipal representative arrived to receive the residents and opposition party’s memorandum on Tuesday.

Patricia Kopane of the Democratic Alliance said the offices were empty within working hours with no visible notice of where the officials would be.

The Masilonyana municipality’s head office is based in the neighbouring town of Theunissen.

“People could not even pay for services,” said Kopane.

Total silence

The DA was also met with total silence and locked doors at a local community hall, which they booked for a meeting.

“We followed all bylaws in asking permission from police and the municipal authorities a week before,” said provincial leader Patricia Kopane.

“There has been nothing from the municipality, no access.”

The municipality was not immediately available to comment.

On Saturday, Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and Free State premier Ace Magashule announced immediate plans to address the provinces water problems.

All municipalities had to submit water action plans by 22 July.

Intervention measures for dry areas had to be put in place with immediate effect by municipalities.

Kopane said the DA would continue to push for delivery in Brandfort.

She said details of the party’s own plan for the water crisis would be announced later.

It would involve protests, oversight visits to highlight the plight of communities and the petitioning of the government to deal with the matter without delay.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The SA National Defence Force denied on Tuesday reports that its soldiers were engaged in combat with rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“The SANDF wishes to categorically state that our members in DRC have not been engaged in any battle with the rebels'” spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said.

“Over the past 36 hours there have been various reports coming through various sources and we would like to put it on record that there have been no SANDF engagements in the eastern DRC with rebels.”

The Times Live website reported on Tuesday that soldiers of the Six SA Infantry Battalion had been deployed in the DRC in a United Nations “intervention brigade” and were in the middle of a “very intense firefight”.

It reported that the brigade consisted of 2 069 soldiers, of whom 850 were South African, and fell under the authority of the UN’s broader 19 000-strong Monusco peacekeeping mission in the Congo.

According to the report, Lieutenant Colonel Felix Prosper Basse, a spokesperson for the Monusco force, said on Monday that the South Africans were ”in the middle” of the fierce fighting around Goma, the provincial capital.

“The [Monusco] operational base in Monigi has always been a South African base. It is on a hill dominating Goma,” said Basse.

The South African troops were reportedly involved in two other clashes in the past week, sparked when another rebel group, the Mai Mai, attacked a nearby M23 base.

However, on Tuesday news agency Agence France-Presse reported that the brigade, which comprised troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania, were expected to be active within the next few weeks.

Dlamini requested the media to stop “speculating” about what was happening in the eastern DRC and try and get factual information.

“Reports on the ground indicate that Sunday/Monday’s attacks by the government troops on positions of the M23 at Mutaho near Goma were predetermined,” he said.

“The FARDC [government troops] employed various capabilities and succeeded to dislocate the M23 from Mutaho. The SANDF was not in any way affected by the clash between government forces and M23.”

He said the SANDF consistently indicated that it had not engaged any rebel forces in the DRC.

– SAPA

Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu must investigate corruption allegations involving high-level police officers, trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.

“We call on minister Sisulu to make this matter the first assignment for her department’s new anti-corruption bureau,” spokesperson Johan Kruger said in a statement.

“Such a step would confirm that Minister Sisulu is indeed serious about clamping down on corruption.”

Solidarity said it had written to Sisulu asking her to probe the matter.

This was after weekend reports that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, former national police commissioner Bheki Cele, and senior generals had known about the existence of evidence showing rampant fraud, corruption, and looting of the police’s crime intelligence secret fund for years. However, nothing reportedly had been done.

City Press reported on Sunday that the claim was made in a dossier before the Labour Court as part of a former police auditor’s battle with the SA Police Service.

The newspaper said it was in possession of secret reports and official documents in which Colonel Johan Roos, the head of inspection and evaluation of the crime intelligence unit, asked the court to force police to promote him to brigadier and reinstate him as an auditor.

The documents reportedly detailed how Roos had since 2004 reported the fund’s alleged looting to his superiors in an effort to stop it.

Mthethwa’s spokesperson, Zweli Mnisi, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday but told City Press that the minister dismissed any allegations of a cover-up and that the matter was before the court and was therefore sub judice.

Solidarity said it was representing Roos in a discrimination case in the Labour Court in Johannesburg.

“The information that came to light over the weekend is a central part of the case,” Kruger said.

“Although Solidarity can assist Roos only in so far as the labour dispute is concerned, no stone should be left unturned to thoroughly investigate the allegations of corruption that has gone unpunished.”

He said the labour court case was at an advanced stage and a trial date was expected soon.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-North West police a looking for unknown suspects who bombed two ATMs in Rustenburg on Tuesday.

Police opened a case of ATMs bombing and attempted murder after a 42 year-old man was shot at by fleeing ATMs bombers.

The incident took place at East End,in Rustenburg on Tuesday said Pelonomi Makau.

“Police launched a case of ATMs bombing and attempted murder. A man was allegedly leaving a filling station when unknown suspects in a white BMW shot at him” Pelonomi Makau said.

He suffered a bullet wound in his leg and was rushed to a local hospital for medical attention.

Police were summoned to the crime scene, but allegedly found suspects already gone. 

“The ATMs were badly damaged and police could not determined the amount of money stolen yet” she said.

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