The 19th edition of the Nelson Mandela Challenge sees South Africa take on reigning African champions Nigeria at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday evening.

In the first of two matches this week in honour of the great Madiba – SA will also take on Burkina Faso in the inaugural Nelson Mandela Sports and Culture Day at FNB Stadium on Saturday – Gordon Igesund’s side will have the massive challenge of trying to put one over the Super Eagles.

Nigeria claimed their third continental title earlier this year, defeating Burkina Faso in the AFCON final at FNB Stadium. Returning the team to the scene of their recent triumph will bring back good memories for coach Stephen Keshi.

The Eagles also have predominantly good memories of playing against Bafana Bafana, with the West Africans very much the dominant team in the rivalry. In seven meetings of the sides down the years, they boast five wins compared to just one for SA.

However, the good news for Igesund and his side is that Bafana’s lone win against Nigeria was in the Nelson Mandela Challenge back in 2004. On that occasion, South Africa won 2-1 in Johannesburg.

It is the second successive year in which Bafana are taking on the reigning African champions for the Mandela Challenge; last year they lost 1-0 to Zambia at FNB Stadium, with Collins Mbesuma scoring the only goal.

Overall, Bafana have seven wins, four draws and seven losses in 18 previous Mandela Challenge matches. Their last win was over Norway (2-1) in the 2009 edition.

SA v Nigeria – previous meetings
1994 World Cup qualifier, 10/10/1992, Lagos – Nigeria 4-0 South Africa
1994 World Cup qualifier, 16/01/1993, Johannesburg – South Africa 0-0 Nigeria
2000 AFCON second round, 10/02/2000, Lagos – South Africa 0-2 Nigeria
2004 AFCON first round, 31/01/2004, Monastir – Nigeria 4-0 South Africa
2004 Friendly, 17/11/2004, Johannesburg – South Africa 2-1 Nigeria
2010 World Cup/AFCON qualifier, 01/06/2008, Abuja – Nigeria 2-0 South Africa
2010 World Cup/AFCON qualifier, 06/09/2008, Port Elizabeth – South Africa 0-1 Nigeria

Nelson Mandela Challenge history

1994 South Africa 2-1 Zambia
1995 South Africa 1-1 Argentina
1996 South Africa 2-3 Brazil
1997 South Africa 0-2 Netherlands
1998 South Africa 2-1 Egypt
1999 South Africa 1-0 Sweden
2000 South Africa 0-0 France
2002 South Africa 1-1 Senegal – Senegal won 4-1 on penalties
2003 South Africa 2-1 Costa Rica
2004 South Africa 2-1 Nigeria
2005 South Africa 2-3 Senegal
2006 South Africa 0-1 Egypt
2007 South Africa 0-1 USA
2008 South Africa 3-2 Cameroon
2009 South Africa 2-1 Norway
2010 South Africa 0-1 USA
2011 South Africa 1-1 Cote d’Ivoire
2012 South Africa 0-1 Zambia
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Middlesbrough and Bournemouth have been told to up their bids to land South African striker Tokelo Rantie.

Both Championship clubs have tabled bids just under £1-million (R15-million), but that was rejected by Swedish club Malmo. And agent Nadime Mahmoud has warned it will take a big offer to lure Rantie to England, with French club St Etienne also interested.

“Malmo don’t want to sell so we have to respect that,” he says. “They do not have a chance to find a replacement because the transfer window closed on Sunday.

“But it would be a good opportunity for Tokelo to go to England one day. We will have to see whether they will match the club’s valuation or he will stay.”

Rantie, who has seven goals in 15 League matches so far this season, signed a long-term deal at Malmo in April, having joined initially on loan from Orlando Pirates.
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Mamelodi Sundowns are almost close to sealing the signing of Zambian midfield genius Mukuka Mulenga following protracted negotiations that have dragged on for months.

KickOff.com has established that the transfer now hinges on the finalisation of Mulenga’s personal terms with his club Power Dynamos, having already agreed on the transfer estimated at R3million and a 20 percent sell-on for the Zambian Super League club.

Mukuka will complete his move to Sundowns on a four-year deal.
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Johannesburg – Three men accused of killing a farmer in Newcastle were arrested on Tuesday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Police spokesperson Vincent Mdunge said the men would appear in the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

They faced charges of murder, housebreaking, theft and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Timothy Green, 44, was shot dead at his farm on Sunday night.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The so-called DNA bill was formally adopted by Parliament’s police portfolio committee on Tuesday.

The criminal law (forensic procedures) amendment bill provides, among other things, for the taking of DNA samples from certain people for use during criminal investigations.

However, MPs said they were concerned that police management had presented them with only an estimate of how much implementing the bill would cost.

Earlier, SA Police Service (SAPS) chief financial officer Stefan Schutte told the committee it would cost over R1.2bn to implement.

Diane Kohler-Barnard of the Democratic Alliance said there appeared to have been no preparation for implementation.

“It’s last-minute scrambling… you give this [costing] to us at the last minute… I’m quite horrified at what’s happening here,” she said.

The DA and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) declined to vote on the bill’s adoption, saying they first had to provide their respective caucuses with a copy of the cost implications.

Committee chairperson Annelize van Wyk said she was more concerned about where the money would come from.

“The reason I’m asking is that your expenditure… in the environment of FSL (Forensic Science Laboratories), you are already at 213% spent on consultants, and that’s only in the second quarter [of the financial year],” she said.

The committee nonetheless adopted the bill, saying it would be monitoring implementation very closely.

Amendments

The bill has seen significant changes since it was first introduced in Parliament about five years ago, when human rights and privacy issues were raised.

The original draft provided for storing DNA samples of persons charged with a crime, but this clause was removed because it was deemed unconstitutional.

The measure was also seen as being open to abuse by corrupt police officers, who could plant DNA at crime scenes.

The new bill will compel criminals or suspected criminals to provide police with a DNA sample.

The samples will then be destroyed, but the DNA profiles will be stored on a database.

Samples are taken – by specially-trained police officers – using a cotton-tipped swab, rubbed against the inner cheek. Epithelial (cheek) cells adhere to the swab.

Criminals in the country’s jails will be compelled to provide such DNA samples.

DNA will also be taken from arrested and charged people, and from volunteers, to eliminate them as suspects in a crime.

People can also volunteer to provide DNA samples for purposes of identifying bodies or missing people.

The bill will now be submitted to the National Assembly for debate and adoption.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Democratic Alliance on Tuesday stripped Nelson Mandela Bay Metro councillor Stanford Slabbert of his party membership.

“The DA has concluded a comprehensive disciplinary process, whereby charges were laid against councillor Stanford Slabbert for the circulation of an offensive and racist e-mail,” DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said in a statement on Tuesday.

This followed a disciplinary hearing that found Slabbert guilty of circulating a racist e-mail about President Jacob Zuma.

Slabbert sent an e-mail saying Zuma had more wives than brain cells.

The e-mail also slammed the ANC for producing “dumb idiots who wait for handouts”.

The e-mail said Zuma had led a country where a quarter of schoolgirls were HIV-positive because South Africans had “spread the disease more than anyone else in the world”.

Trollip said the hearing was attended by Slabbert and the legal representative defending him, with the DA providing a prosecution and a disciplinary hearing panel.

The recommendation by the provincial disciplinary council was that Slabbert’s party membership be terminated, after he was found guilty of contravening certain clauses in the DA’s federal constitution.

According to the party’s federal constitution, any member including a public representative is guilty of misconduct if he or she fails to carry out his or her duties or responsibilities according to standards set by the federal council.

Trollip said: “The actions by Mr Slabbert are contrary to the values of the DA and are condemned in the strongest manner.”

The hearing panel found the content of the e-mail to be divisive, insensitive and containing statements that can be classified as racial stereotyping and racist by nature.

“The forwarding of the e-mail by Mr Slabbert brought the name of the party into disrepute and did not reflect it as being a non-racial party for all voters, who subscribe to its principles and values,” said Trollip.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Free State police are searching for a local soapie actress to assist them in a fraud investigation, police spokesperson Stephen Thakeng said on Tuesday.

Nomathemeba Mokeretla, who plays the role of a doctor in the soapie Muvhango, had been identified as a possible witness by the fraud victim, he said.

The victim lost R600 000 in September 2011.

“The complainant saw the… [actress] on the programme when it was televised during the end of July 2013 and the beginning of August 2013,” Thakeng said.

He could not give further details.

Thakeng asked anyone with information about the actress to contact the police.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The nine police officers implicated in the murder of Daveyton taxi driver Mido Macia were granted bail in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

The nine officers were re-applying for bail after their legal representatives told the court they had new evidence, which could see the court overturn its earlier decision to deny them bail.

Macia was filmed being tied to the back of a police van and dragged along a street in Daveyton on 26 February.

Police confronted him because his taxi was apparently blocking traffic.

A scuffle ensued and he was taken to the local police station, where he was found dead in the holding cells several hours later.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has signed into law a bill that aims to promote access to justice, the presidency said on Tuesday.

Rigorous and urgent steps were needed to ensure that justice did not remain the privilege of the rich, but was a fundamental human right enjoyed by all, Zuma said in a statement.

“The Superior Courts Act is a step in this direction.”

The act provided for the re-organisation and rationalisation of high courts and their jurisdictional areas.

Currently, superior courts were structured in accordance with the Supreme Court Act.

With the implementation of the new act, the current 13 high courts, which included high courts inherited from the former self-governing apartheid homelands, would be rationalised into a single high court with a functional division of the court established in each province.

“The communities who live in the now Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces have endured the hardship of accessing the high court in north Gauteng and the high court in Pretoria, since the formation of the Union of South Africa, for a period of more than a century,” Zuma said.

“Legally they can now have the benefit of having their own division of the high court right at their doorstep. This will happen as soon as the construction of the two high court divisions in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces has been completed.”

The construction of the Limpopo seat of the high court would be completed by June 2014, while the construction of the Mpumalanga seat was expected to start before the end of this year, Zuma said.

The act would also place magistrates in every division of the high court under the control of the judge president of the division concerned.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was admitted to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on Tuesday, his ministry said.

“Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has this morning [Tuesday] checked into Steve Biko Academic Hospital for a surgical procedure and is likely to be out-of-office for at least a week,” health ministry spokesperson Joe Maila said.

Deputy Health Minister Gwen Ramokgopa wished Motsoaledi a speedy recovery.

“All of us wish you well minister, and a speedy recovery. It is our wish that you recover soon,” she said.

– SAPA