Durban – Two suspected robbers were arrested on Friday after a shootout with police in KwaMashu, Durban, on Friday, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Police were following up information about house robbery when they spotted a VW Polo in KwaMashu in the morning, Colonel Vincent Mdunge said.

“When police officers tried to stop the vehicle, it sped off and the two occupants started shooting at the police,” Mdunge said.

The police returned fire and one of the men was hit in the head. His partner was caught when he tried to flee. The wounded man was taken to King Edward hospital

“During investigations it was discovered that the suspects were linked to a house robbery in Newlands, where they tied up the owner of the house and took a cellphone and money.”

The two men would appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of house robbery and attempted murder.

Sapa

An eight-month old stolen baby has been found on the Esperanza farm in Welkom, Free State police said on Friday.

The baby’s mother travelled with an unknown woman from Thabong village to Welkom, where she was promised a job, Captain Stephen Thakeng said.

“The mother was told to go back home and fetch her identity document. The unknown woman offered to stay with the baby,” said Thakeng.

When the mother returned the baby and the woman were nowhere to be found.

“Police followed up information about a stolen baby in a house in Esperanza farm, where they found a child hidden and wrapped in blanket”.

The baby was reunited with the mother, while the unkown woman was identified as a Lesotho national.

She will appear in Welkom Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of child theft.

Sapa

Marikana, Rustenburg – Political parties called for peace and reconciliation as Friday marked the first anniversary of the shooting of 34 people in Marikana, North West.

“Marikana was a startling and traumatic rupture in what had always been a healthy climate of our labour relations framework, bringing harshly to the fore more questions than answers,” African National Congress spokesman Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

He called for peace in the area and for those responsible for the deaths to be prosecuted.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said the killings should never be repeated.

“We must all work to ensure that a tragedy of this kind is never repeated, and that all South Africans can come to feel included in a national economy that creates jobs and shared prosperity for all.”

Reconciliation and peace should be encouraged, Agang SA leader Mamphele Ramphele said.

“As we honour all those who died at Marikana, we must encourage a spirit of reconciliation backed by practical steps so that all concerned parties can work together to finally bring peace to Marikana.”

Peace was important for the area’s economy because it depended on the surrounding mines, she said.

“Investing in peace involves promoting greater inclusion in the benefits of mining for all.”

Thirty-four miners were killed on August 16 last year when police fired on them while trying to disperse and disarm them at Lonmin’s operations in Marikana.

Another 10 people were killed in strike-related violence in the preceding week.

Sapa

Pretoria – The North Gauteng High Court on Friday ordered acting national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba to lodge a copy of the Zuma spy tapes with the registrar of the court within the next five days.

The ruling by Judge Rami Mathopo followed an application by the Democratic Alliance.

The party wanted to overturn a 2009 decision by the then acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe to withdraw fraud and corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma.

Confidential representations

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in March last year ordered the NPA to lodge the record with the registrar of the high court, but the NPA refused to do so on the basis that it contained confidential representations by Zuma.

Mathopo ordered Jiba to comply with the SCA order and ruled that the record to be lodged include a copy and transcript of the electronic recordings Mpshe referred to in his announcement to withdraw charges against Zuma.

The record must also include any internal memoranda, reports or minutes of meetings dealing with the contents of the recordings or the transcript itself, insofar as these documents did not breach the confidentiality of Zuma’s written or oral representations.

With regard to the memoranda, minutes, and notes of meetings, Jiba was ordered to deliver copies to the DA’s Cape Town attorney within the next five days. Those parts of the document she considered confidential had to be marked.

The DA’s attorney was ordered not to disclose to any other party, including to the DA, any part of the document which Jiba said was confidential.

Should the DA dispute any claim to confidentiality and should the parties be unable to resolve the dispute, the DA could apply to a judge for a ruling on the issue.

The NPA and Zuma were ordered to pay the costs of the DA’s application.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Oscar Pistorius’s murder case will be transferred to the North Gauteng High Court for trial in early 2014, it was reported on Friday.

The Star reported that the trial had been set for 24 February to 14 March while EWN reporter Barry Bateman said the trial was set to start on 3 March and run until 20 March.

The National Prosecuting Authority also intends adding two additional charges but they will not be included in the indictment to be served on Monday, Bateman tweeted.

According to Bateman, the national director of public prosecutions approved the additional charges but the defence team intends making representations.

However, after it was reported that Pistorius would face the additional charges of discharging a gun in public, the NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke tweeted that there had been no “communiqué” from the NPA about additional charges.

Pistorius is facing murder charges for shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria.

– News24

The body of a 36-year-old police officer reported missing has been found, Eastern Cape police said on Friday.

Police spokesperson Marinda Mills said the officer’s body was discovered on Thursday around 23:30 in his car between Motherwell and Uitenhage with multiple wounds.

“A couple of metres from the vehicle police found another male with stab wounds and [he] was taken to hospital,” Mills said.

Police could not reveal which hospital the man was taken to, as they feared his life might be in danger.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Platinum miner Lonmin has turned down a request to help pay the legal fees of miners taking part in the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, it said on Friday.

Lonmin human capital manager Abey Kgotle confirmed he had sent a letter to the Hola Bon Renaissance Foundation, which made the request, in this regard.

He said no further comment would be made.

According to the letter the company notes the foundation’s application and says it was duly considered.

It reads: “We certainly support you in the belief that it is right that all interested parties continue to have a voice at the commission. However, given the conflict inherent in Lonmin providing financial assistance to a party with whom it may be in opposition and the negative perceptions this could raise, we cannot accede to your requests.”

The foundation sent the letter on 25 July.

Following Lonmin’s response on Tuesday, foundation project manager Lebogang Moima asked for a meeting to further discuss the reasoning behind the request.

Kgotle confirmed the meeting request and said it would be arranged, refusing to provide further details.

On 10 August last year, rock drillers at Lonmin’s Marikana operations, outside Rustenburg in North West, embarked on an unprotected strike for a monthly salary of R12 500.

More workers joined the strike and the protesters gathered on a hill near the Nkaneng informal settlement, some carrying weapons such as pangas, spears, knobkerries, and iron rods.

Thirty-four workers were killed when police fired on them on 16 August while attempting to disperse and disarm them.

Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in strike-related unrest in the preceding week.

Commission of Inquiry

President Jacob Zuma established the Farlam Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deaths.

In June Dali Mpofu, for the wounded and arrested miners, told the commission that due to financial constraints his team could be forced to withdraw from the inquiry.

He brought an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria several weeks ago seeking state funding, but this was dismissed.

Mpofu then took the state to the Constitutional Court, asking that it pay for his legal team.

The Constitutional Court was to have delivered judgment on Friday but postponed the ruling until Monday.

The commission’s proceedings have been postponed several times while solutions to the funding problems were sought.

Government has so far spent about R6.7m on legal representation for police.

Moima said the foundation considered itself a mouthpiece for the disadvantaged and the request formed part of its advocacy responsibilities.

“We are hoping our meeting with Lonmin will just be progressive in a way that they will pay, even just partly. It’s important that even Lonmin must show commitment.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has vowed to challenge his suspension from the trade federation, he told reporters in Johannesburg on Friday.

“I have instructed my lawyers to challenge the decision to put me on leave of absence pending investigation and possible disciplinary action,” he said.

“I believe a grave injustice is being visited on me. I believe that my suspension will be proven to be both procedurally and unsubstantially unfair.

“The laws of the country, including the right to be treated fairly, has been trampled upon by the very same people who are mandated to defend the rights of workers and all South Africans, including myself.”

He said one of the reasons he was challenging the suspension was that Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini had circulated an “intelligence report” that aimed to “destroy” him.

Cosatu announced on Thursday that Vavi had been put on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing relating to an affair he had with a junior Cosatu employee.

“[Vavi] has been released from all his official duties as the general secretary during this period of investigation until such a time that the outcome of the [disciplinary] hearing is known,” deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said.

Dlamini said Vavi was placed on special leave after the special central executive committee (CEC) meeting.

Rape claim

Last month, a junior Cosatu employee accused Vavi of rape.

He admitted to having a consensual affair with her.

The woman subsequently withdrew a sexual harassment complaint against him.

Vavi said the intelligence report, which he distributed at the briefing, aimed to discredit a number of South Africans including ANC MP Tokyo Sexwale, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim.

– SAPA

By TDN

Women in South Africa have always provided leadership in the struggle for liberation, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti said at the media briefing on the “reversing the legacy” of the 1913 Native Act exhibition held at the Mmabatho Convention Centre on Friday.

Minister Nkwinti said the exhibition is part of the government’s effort to conscientise South Africans about the effect of the infamous 1913 Natives Land Act which paved the way for the majority of Black South Africans to be removed from their land and banished to unproductive land reserved for black people. He said the loss of land destroyed the potential economic growth that could have thrived from these farming communities.

“The first big march was led by women in 1913 and because of their resistance women in South Africa have provided leadership. It is important that we carry forward a tradition that we got from those that came before us,” said the Minister.

In her remarks to accept the 7-day- free walk through tour, North West Premier Thandi Modise said that inequality and poverty can be traced back to the infamous 1913 Native Land Act which was the first formal instrument of apartheid that accounted for 100 years of dispossession, humiliation and tears.

Premier Modise who was accompanied by MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Desbo Mohono amplified the importance of the exhibition and urged the people of the North West to come to view it to learn from the mistakes of the past.  

“Let’s not go back into crying, but let’s not pretend that 1913 did not happen. Let’s say to our children: learn from the mistakes of the past, never do unto others that which was done to you. To those who were dispossessed and are recipient of restituted land we wish to say, as you take the opportunity of land being returned to you, we must make sure that land that is being redistributed is used productively. Using it productively will help us create jobs and make us more equal,” said Premier Modise.

Since 1994 the government has been trying to reverse the legacy of the land dispossession by a number of land reform initiatives which include land redistribution, restitution and tenure reform. A significant progress has been in the implementation of the land reform programme and 75 percent of the land earmarked for redistribution was acquired over the last 15 years.

The Executive Mayor of Mahikeng Local Municipality, Councillor Lena Miga and Kgosi Madoda Zibi were among some of the high profile officials gracing the occasion, which was characterised by a spectacle as ten supersonic trucks carrying twenty-three containers of exhibition material arrived for offloading and set up.

The exhibition entailed historic, heritage research and development of a story-line through consensus with all the various expertise from state archivists, historians, academics, heritage specialists, creative artists and other activists.

The explosive and interactive exhibition is part of the centenary anniversary of the Native Land Act and is expected to draw audience from across the province during its seven days run.-TDN

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Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal health MEC must make sure an agreement is signed to avoid closing Durban’s 103-year-old McCord Hospital, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.

“The MEC must take control of the situation. He has already committed to taking over McCord and turning it into a state-run hospital,” DA spokesperson Makhosazana Mdlalose said in a statement.

Mdlalose urged MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to push for signing an agreement between McCord Hospital management and the provincial health department without delay.

“If this transition is being managed as it should be, by both parties, then there shouldn’t be any issue and staff should certainly not be standing outside protesting,” she said.

On Thursday, staff mostly belonging to the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), protested outside the facility.

They carried banners that read “Yes to DOH [department of health]” and “No to Closure”.

The hospital was slated for closure earlier this year after the department opted not to renew its annual subsidy.

At the end of January, Dhlomo announced that the department had offered to take over the hospital and that the hospital’s board had accepted this.

On Thursday, the MEC’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said negotiations had taken place.

There was an agreement in place “waiting to be signed to effect the take-over of McCord Hospital by the provincial government by September 2013”.

– SAPA