Death Valley, California – By 9am, the two bags of ice I loaded into the cooler are gone and the floor of my rental car looks like a bin at a recycling plant. Hydration is essential.

I know what to expect in Death Valley: unrelenting heat so bad it makes my eyes hurt, as if someone is blowing a hair dryer in my face. I don’t leave CDs or electronics in the car because they could melt or warp. I always carry bottles of water.
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At the beginning of this year President Jacob Zuma fired the first salvo against construction firms engaged in collusive and anti-competitive behaviour in order to line their bank accounts at the expense of taxpayers and the economy.

The President, in his 2013 State of the Nation Address, warned: “We are cracking down on corruption, tender fraud and price fixing in the infrastructure programme.”
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During the course of the past month – Youth Month – we have heard a great deal about our children and how lost they are; young girls with sugar daddies; boys in gangs stealing, raping and taking drugs; kids spending school hours drinking on the streets. We have heard about how the system has failed this generation and how nothing awaits them except a lifelong cycle of unemployment, crime, unwanted pregnancies, addictions and jail.

It doesn’t have to be this way.
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Pietermaritzburg – Many questions remain about the death of a man found with his throat slit during a KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Fitness Test, a commission of inquiry heard on Wednesday.

Minenhle Mazwi Mbandlwa said he did not believe suggestions that his cousin Sanele Ngcobo committed suicide.

A doctor had told him it would have been impossible for Ngcobo to inflict such a deep incision on himself, Mbandlwa told the commission in Pietermaritzburg.

Ngcobo was found with a 13cm cut across his neck during the fitness test.

Mbandlwa asked the commission to investigate affidavits, in the possession of the transport department, that someone saw his cousin break a bottle.

The commission should also look into the person who claimed to have heard people screaming that someone was cutting himself, Mbandlwa said.

“What I seek clarity on, is the person alleged to have heard screams the same person who saw him breaking the bottle?” he asked.

“If he was identified by his T-shirt, where did his T-shirt disappear to?

“If that was the situation, did anyone bother to report this to the police?”

The commission was appointed by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize earlier this year to probe the deaths of eight people who took part in a 4km run at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg in December.

This formed part of a fitness test for Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) job applicants.

Nomusa Khuzwayo, for the families, raised questions about the whereabouts of the sharp object used during Ngcobo’s death.

Mbandlwa said he expected that this object would have been found.

“Would you agree that whoever kept the instrument would be the person who used it?” Khuzwayo asked.

Mbandlwa agreed with her.

He also asked the commission to allow people who worked at Alexander pools, near the stadium, to give evidence.

The commission said it would investigate Mbandlwa’s concerns.

The inquiry continues on Thursday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A suspected armed robber was arrested after he and an accomplice allegedly robbed a house in Zola, Soweto, on Wednesday, police said.

“The two of them broke into a house in Zola Three and assaulted the occupants with a shovel,” police spokesperson Kay Makhubela said.

The pair made off with clothes and an undisclosed amount of money.

The man was arrested in Zondi.

“The suspect still has an outstanding case, which is under investigation and another one of armed robbery,” said Makhubela.

Police were still hunting for the second suspect.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Customary and common law favours the greater Mandela family in their legal battle with Mandla Mandela, a constitutional law expert said on Wednesday.

University of SA African renaissance Professor Shadrack Gutto said customary law demanded that Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, who is also the chief of Mvezo in the Eastern Cape, follow due process before exhuming remains.

He did not follow the correct approach when moving the graves from Qunu to Mvezo in 2011.

“Mandla Mandela is the chief of Mvezo and not of Qunu,” Gutto said.

“Therefore, if he did not go through the process of consulting the chief in Qunu before exhuming those bodies in another chieftainship… that was wrong in customary law.”

The fact that the critically ill Mandela had reportedly already voiced his preference to be buried alongside his children in Qunu was another factor that counted against the Mvezo chief.

“The wishes of Tata Nelson Mandela ought to prevail in these circumstances and [the] actions taken by Mandla undermine that,” Gutto said.

Mandla also transgressed common law in disturbing the graves in Qunu.

“Graveyards are protected under law and, therefore, if you go and exhume the bodies without having the proper permission to do so, that application should have been taken, for legal reasons, to court. He did not do that and that is again a problem,” Gutto said.

The Eastern Cape High Court ruled against Mandla on Wednesday, after he tried to have a court order compelling him to return the remains to Qunu overturned.

The chief then launched another application to rescind the court order, which had yet to be heard.

His spokesperson said Mandla would hold a news briefing on the matter on Thursday to respond to “allegations and dirt thrown in his direction”.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The remains of three of former president Nelson Mandela’s children, who were buried in Mvezo, were found on Wednesday evening, Eastern Cape police said.

“All three’s remains have been found and have been put into the different hearses,” police spokesperson Mzukisi Fatyela said.

“They were found in the same area but they were unmarked.”

He said the remains were being taken to a mortuary.

Earlier in the day, the ailing icon’s grandson Mandla Mandela, who is also the Mvezo chief, lost a challenge against a court order instructing him to rebury the remains in Qunu.

The Eastern Cape High Court later also dismissed an application by Mandla to have the earlier order rescinded.

Mandla exhumed the graves of the three children in 2011 and reburied their remains in Mvezo.

Mandla’s lawyer said it was illegal for the Mandela family to exhume the remains because there was no one at Mvezo to show them where the remains were, and the graves were not clearly marked.

Health officials started digging for the remains in the early evening after officials from the sheriff of the court’s office broke open a gate to Mvezo village to gain access to the graves.

ENCA cameras filmed an official using a pick-axe to force open the gate.

Three hearses and police vans entered the village.

They were to transport the remains of three of Mandela’s children from Mvezo, where he was born, to Qunu, where he grew up.

Mandela’s eldest surviving daughter Makaziwe Mandela and grandson Ndaba Mandela reportedly arrived at Mvezo along with the officials from the health department.

On Tuesday, criminal charges were laid against Mandla over the exhumation and reburial.

Fatyela said a case of tampering with a grave had been opened.

“The investigation started yesterday [Tuesday] after the case was opened,” he said.

Fatyela said members of the Mandela family laid the charge, but declined to name them.

Mandela remained critically ill on Wednesday in a Pretoria hospital, where he is being treated for a recurring lung infection.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – An 11-year-old girl was raped and stabbed several times in her Soweto home on Wednesday, Gauteng police said.

“The girl was sleeping in a house in Bram Fischerville with her little brother when she was attacked on Wednesday morning,” Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said.

A man entered the house and raped the girl before stabbing her three times in the upper body.

“She managed to call for help and the neighbours responded. She was taken to hospital where she is in a critical condition,” said Makhubela.

Cases of house robbery and rape have been opened. No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

North West – A seething ANC on Tuesday night threatened to discipline its defiant councillors in the Tlokwe municipality, accusing them of going out of their way to embarrass the party.

This came after councillors once more voted out as Tlokwe mayor ANC Maphetle Maphetle and replaced him with the DA’s Professor Annette Combrink.
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Mvezo – Health department officials started digging to find the remains of three of former president Nelson Mandela’s children in Mvezo on Wednesday, Eastern Cape police said.

“The graves are not marked, but when they find the coffins they will identify the remains,” Lt-Col Mzukisi Fatyela said.

“Police are on the scene monitoring the situation.”

Earlier in the day, the ailing icon’s grandson Mandla Mandela, who is also the Mvezo chief, lost a challenge against a court order instructing him to rebury the remains in Qunu.

Mandla exhumed the graves of the three children in 2011 and reburied their remains in Mvezo.

Mandla Mandela’s lawyer said it was illegal for the Mandela family to exhume the remains because there was no one at Mvezo to show them where the remains were, and the graves were not clearly marked.

Officials from the sheriff of the court’s office broke open a gate to Mvezo village on Wednesday afternoon to gain access to the graves. ENCA filmed an official using a pick-axe to force open the gate.

Three hearses and police vans entered the village.

They were to transport the remains of three of Mandela’s children from Mvezo, where he was born, to Qunu, where he grew up.

Mandela’s eldest surviving daughter Makaziwe Mandela and grandson Ndaba Mandela reportedly arrived at Mvezo along with the officials from the health department.

On Tuesday, criminal charges were laid against Mandla Mandela over the exhumation and reburial.

Fatyela said a case of tampering with a grave had been opened.

“The investigation started yesterday (Tuesday) after the case was opened,” he said.

Fatyela said members of the Mandela family laid the charge, but declined to name them.

Mandela remained critically ill on Wednesday in a Pretoria hospital, where he is being treated for a recurring lung infection. – Sapa