Johannesburg – Education determines a person’s ideological outlook but there must also be a mindset change, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said on Friday.

“[People] must reorientate themselves from being forces of resistance to being forces of change,” Mantashe told students at the University of the North West, Vaal Triangle Campus in Vanderbijlpark.

“You can’t burn a library to build a road… The mindset must change, people still burn libraries.”

He said education should be used to produce intellectuals who would help build the future.

Mantashe urged students from a working class background to use their education to better the communities they came from.

“Once you acquire knowledge, it will only have a meaning if you use it to advance that working class where you come from.

“Society must benefit from your knowledge.”

Mantashe was talking on the theme “education as a site for the struggle”.

There had been progress as the number of university students had tripled in the past 20 years.

He said although free, quality education was important, more emphasis needed to be put on getting children from poor families into universities.

The youth were the people who would build the future of the country.

“Students have a responsibility of building the future.

“This can only be a reality if students take their role seriously.”

– SAPA

John Block, MEC for Economic Development and Bulelani Magwanishe the Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises have reviewed the progress of capital expenditure projects taking place in the province with local business and youth stakeholders in Upington recently.

A number of obstacles were identified which are delaying the implementation of infrastructure projects currently being undertaken by State Owned Companies (SOC) such as Eskom, Transnet and Alexkor.
– See more at: http://www.nctimes.co.za/govt-reviews-capital-projects/#sthash.Iv5UKv1J.dpuf

The late Chief Justice Pius Langa has been hailed as a champion of law and democracy. Politicians, legal eagles and hundreds of community members paid tribute to the 74-year-old Langa during a memorial service in Durban on Thursday night.

Langa, who died last week after a long illness, will be accorded a special official funeral in Durban on Saturday.

One of the political activists, Don Mkhwanazi says Langa has always been driven by a thirst for quality and justice for all. “I knew Judge Langa when I was still young at university, I used to go to court cases as I was very much interested in law.”

Mkhwanazi says Langa was also a leader in the underground struggle of our country. “He was the president of the National Democratic Lawyers Association and we work together very closely on matters of national importance in the struggle.”

Born in Bushbuckridge in 1939, Langa obtained his law degree from the University of South Africa, and was admitted as an advocate in 1977.

In 1994 he was promoted to senior counsel. Judge Langa went on to become one of the first 10 judges of the Constitutional Court and in 2005 he became the first black Chief Justice until his retirement in 2009.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has come out in strong support of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)’s General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi at a meeting in Port Elizabeth.

This follows revelations of an extra-marital affair involving Vavi and a 26-year old married woman and allegations of rape.

He was loudly applauded by members during a speech in which he apologised for embarrassing the labour federation.

Sadtu president Thobile Ntola says: “I think we are very happy as an organisation and happy as affiliate of the federation. We are happy he apologised to members here and elsewhere in country over what have happened in the past.”
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Embattled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has come out swinging in a speech to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in the Eastern Cape, again apologising for his affair with an Eastern Cape employee, the subsequent rape allegations and lambasting government for adopting the national development plan (NDP).

Last weekend, shocking claims emerged that Vavi had raped a Cosatu employee. The accuser did not lay criminal charges against him but brought an internal complaint against Vavi to Cosatu. Vavi laid extortion charges against her, and alleged that the 26-year-old woman asked him for money in exchange for her silence.

Vavi admitted to having sex with her, but insisted it was consensual. The accuser withdrew her complaint to Cosatu on the first day of the inquiry.
For more http://www.mg.co.za

The former principal legal researcher at the Arms Procurement Commission, attorney Kate Painting, has broken her silence to reveal she resigned in March after a disturbing “second agenda” emerged at the commission.

“When the commission’s work commenced in earnest I was one of two legal professionals. We were virtually tasked with setting up the commission. I went on fact-finding trips overseas and initially believed we would fulfil our mandate; another agenda soon emerged, as did an obsessive control of information, family relationships and incompetent administration,” Painting said in a statement she released to the Mail & Guardian. “Fear is a common theme at the commission and any non-compliance with the second agenda is met with hostility.”
For more http://www.mg.co.za

President Robert Mugabe’s party has won at least a two-thirds majority in parliament, enough to amend the country’s constitution, according to a tally of official results.

With over 180 seats declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Mugabe’s Zanu-PF had won 142 seats in the 210-member chamber.
For more http://www.citypress.co.za

A Mpumalanga man who shot dead his ex-girlfriend in front of her colleagues was jailed for 30 years on Friday, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Steven Johannes Malumane, 25, of Chochocho outside Hazyview, was sentenced by the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court for murdering Cynthia Mashego, 30, on the third floor of the Sanlam building in Mbombela on 22 March last year.

Mashego’s colleagues testified that Malumane entered their office around 08:00 and asked to speak to her.

Minutes later, he dragged her into the corridor and a gunshot went off.

When her colleagues tried to see what had happened, another shot was fired, forcing them to close the door and hide in their office.

Judge Mmonoa Teffo noted that Malumane had insisted on speaking to her even though she was scared and had tried to avoid him.

“You found her with her two colleagues and she refused to speak to you. You insisted until her colleagues allowed her to speak to you,” Teffo said.

“She was very scared. She came and you spoke to her from the reception, went with her to the corridor where you shot her and left the building.”

A few minutes later, Malumane hijacked Vusimuzi Mabuza, threatened him with a gun, and forced him to drive to Chochocho, where police later arrested him.

“These offences you committed were serious and the circumstances were bad,” said Teffo.

“You shot a defenceless woman where she thought she was safe. Your actions have traumatised her co-workers and you never showed respect. If they knew you were going to kill her, they would not have allowed her to speak to you.”

Guilty plea

Teffo said the State had pointed out that Malumane had pleaded guilty only when he realised there was overwhelming evidence against him.

He sentenced Malumane to 25 years’ imprisonment for murder, 10 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, seven years for possession of an unlawful firearm, and three years for possession of ammunition.

Five years of the robbery sentence would run concurrently with the murder sentence.

“All other sentences will run concurrently, meaning you will serve 30 years imprisonment,” Teffo said.

She granted him leave to appeal against the sentence.

– SAPA

The ANC in the North West vowed on Friday to pull out all the stops to win the forthcoming by-elections in Tlokwe municipality and elsewhere in the province.

“[We] continue to intensify our efforts to mobilise members and support in Tlokwe for the forthcoming by-elections,” said party spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi.

“In other regions the African National Congress is content that we will emerge victorious as well.”

Tlokwe’s ANC mayor Maphetle Maphetle has been unseated twice when ANC councillors voted with the opposition to replace him with DA Councillor Annette Combrink.

The ANC’s North West provincial disciplinary committee expelled the councillors concerned, resulting in them losing their seats.

Mnisi said Tlokwe municipality was one of the eight municipalities where the ANC intended winning by an overwhelming majority.

The elections would take place on 7 August.

“The people of the North West know the good work the ANC does to better their lives. Our people will vindicate us next week and moving forward by ensuring our overwhelming victory during these by-elections.”

– SAPA

A traffic officer and a security guard have been arrested for shoplifting in Heidelberg, police said on Friday.

Police spokesperson Mathews Tshabangu said they were arrested on Thursday after being were caught on camera stealing clothes at Edgars.

The officer, in full uniform, was filmed entering the fitting room, leaving it with a plastic bag full with clothes, and proceeding straight to the entrance, where she spoke to a female security guard.

She left the shop without being searched, said Tshabangu.

The stolen clothes, still with the price tags on, were found at the officer’s house.

The women would appear soon in the Heidelberg Magistrate’s Court, he said.

– SAPA