Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma will receive an honorary doctorate of leadership from Limkokwing University during an official visit to Malaysia on Monday and Tuesday.

Zuma would meet Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak during his trip, the international relations department said on Friday.

He would also accept a lifetime award for global peace, on behalf of former president Nelson Mandela, from the Mahathir Global Peace Foundation.

Zuma would be accompanied by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom, and Energy Minister Ben Martins.

The international relations department said 2013 marked the 20th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. It said South Africa was the largest investor in Malaysia from Africa, with investments in the petro-chemicals, insurance, food and beverages industries.

South African business people were part of the delegation and would attend the South Africa-Malaysia Business Forum.

Total trade between South Africa and Malaysia grew from about R13.8bn in 2008 to R19.7bn in 2012.

SAPA

Rustenburg – The ANC in the North West and the SA Civic Association (Sanco) have sought to dispel the notion that their relationship has hit rock-bottom.

“Both the organisations confirm that such a perception is untrue, baseless, and mischievous,” they said in a joint statement on Friday after a meeting.

“These perceptions are meant to defocus us from our historical mission and our endeavours of ensuring a better life for all the people of the North West.”

The unity of the African National Congress and Sanco was essential if they were to ensure people were living better lives.

The two agreed to stop having public spats and leaders would meet to discuss political developments in the province.

Sanco would also play a central role in ensuring an ANC victory in the upcoming by-elections in Tlokwe and Ramotshere, the organisations said.

Sapa

Mahikeng – Two North West MECs who collapsed minutes after each other during a provincial executive meeting in Mahikeng are showing noticeable improvement, the ANC said on Friday.

North West chairman Supra Mahumapelo visited the two on Thursday afternoon, spokesman Kenny Morolong said in a statement.

“The ANC wishes them a speedy recovery… Like true soldiers, they honoured the meeting regardless of their exhaustion,” Morolong said.

On Wednesday economic development MEC Motlalepule Rosho complained of back pain and collapsed as she was being led out of a meeting to see her private doctor. Sport MEC Tebogo Modise, who was escorting her, collapsed minutes later.

On Thursday, the provincial department said both were in a stable condition in hospital.

North West premier Thandi Modise attributed their collapse to fatigue.

“Programmes for… Rosho and… Modise had been quite hectic in recent months…,” she said in a statement.

She called on people in the province to join the executive council in praying for their speedy recovery.

The meeting was adjourned for about 45 minutes for doctors in the meeting, health MEC Magome Masike and acting director general Mokgethi Radebe, to attend to the two before they were taken to Mahikeng Provincial Hospital.

Sapa

Pretoria – There was confusion among police officers just before two of them were hacked to death at Marikana last year, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Friday.

“It is our instruction that there was confusion among the police officers on 13 August 2012. There was no clear communication and no clear line of command between General William Mpembe and junior commanders,” said Louis Gumbi, for the family of slain Warrant Officer Sello Leepaku and wounded Lieutenant Shitumo Solomon Baloyi.

Mpembe is North West deputy police commissioner.

Gumbi said he would also argue that police Nyala armoured vehicles were equipped with loudspeakers Mpembe could have used to tell the officers they were escorting striking Lonmin mineworkers to a hill near Nkaneng informal settlement.

Leepaku was one of the two policemen hacked to death when miners attacked police on 13 August.

Warrant Officer Tsietsi Monene was also shot and hacked to death that day. Baloyi was stabbed.

“I disagree with the statement from advocate Gumbi,” said Mpembe. “Each unit had a commander and it was clear as to who was the overall commander.”

He said he did not view the participation of his junior commanders as a conflict.

“I did not see it as a conflict. I saw it as a contribution,” Mpembe said.

He said he met striking mineworkers along a railway line where police wanted to disarm them. When it became clear to him that the officers would not be able to disarm them at that spot, he allowed the police to escort them to the hill.

While this was happening, the mineworkers turned on the officers and two were killed, he said.

The commission was adjourned until 09:00 on Monday.

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people killed during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in North West, in August last year.

Police shot dead 34 people, almost all striking mineworkers, on 16 August 2012, while trying to disperse and disarm them. Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The Hawks investigative unit has to abide by police objectives under the SA Police Service Amendment Act, the Western Cape High Court heard on Friday.

David Unterhalter, for the Helen Suzman Foundation, argued that the act’s guidelines aligned the unit’s crime-fighting strategy with that of the police.

“It is trying to diminish the independence of the directorate by trying to force it into the strategic operational priorities of the police,” he said.

“If you crowd the slate of the institution and insist it must do certain things, then its ability to focus on corruption is devalued.”

The foundation is seeking an order declaring sections of the amended act inconsistent with the Constitution to the extent that they fail to secure adequate independence for the Hawks.

Independence from political interference

It wants the court to suspend the declaration of constitutional invalidity for 12 months in order for Parliament to remedy the defect in accordance with the court’s judgment in the matter.

The amendments were drafted in reaction to a previous Constitutional Court victory by businessman Hugh Glenister, in which the executive was ordered to change the legislation to provide the Hawks with independence from political interference, among other things.

Glenister brought his suit following the dissolution of the Scorpions, an investigative unit under the National Prosecuting Authority, in 2008. The Scorpions were replaced by the Hawks, which fell under the SAPS.

Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) approached the Constitutional Court separately in November last year to oppose the amendments, arguing they were still insufficient.

Direct access to the Constitutional Court was denied and the two parties agreed to appear before a full bench of high court judges at the same time and present their arguments.

Financing problems

Unterhalter told the court one of the problematic sections related to the financing of the Hawks.

The Hawks head had to prepare and provide an estimated budget and present it to the police commissioner. In cases where there was disagreement over the amount, the police minister had the power to mediate.

He argued that the unit should be able to request a budget directly from Parliament, rather than from an accounting officer.

“There can’t be a situation where the head must look to the commissioner as the accounting officer to procure. You don’t want an independent body dependent on the commissioner for procurement.”

Judge Siraj Desai said it was standard procedure for all commissioners in government departments to be accounting officers.

“The actual distribution of funds is by the national head [of the Hawks],” he said.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Allegations that President Jacob Zuma is corrupt are untrue and uncalled for, his lawyer told the Western Cape High Court on Friday.

Kemp J Kemp said it was completely irrelevant that businessman Hugh Glenister had chosen to base his case, regarding the Hawks’ independence, on so-called “facts” relating to corruption in the country.

He wanted these “facts” by expert witnesses in affidavits to be struck down.

The court was hearing applications by Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) to declare parts of the SA Police Service Amendment Act inconsistent with the Constitution, to the extent that they failed to secure adequate independence for the Hawks investigative unit.

‘A scurrilous allegation’

Kemp cited one allegation about the “corrupt relationship” between Zuma and his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

“What must we do about that? It’s not even true,” Kemp asked.

Judge Siraj Desai replied: “It’s quite clearly a scurrilous allegation.”

The lawyer read out a portion of the document which alleged that if one looked at Zuma’s “lifestyle”, it could be assumed that he was guilty of corruption in at least two instances.

Kemp said he refused to deal with the documents.

“The fact that Shaik was guilty does not mean Zuma was guilty. It really goes too far.”

Zuma was charged with corruption after Shaik was found to have facilitated a bribe for him from a French arms company, as part of the multi-billion rand arms deal.

The charges against Zuma were later dropped.

Extent of corruption

On Thursday, Glenister’s lawyer Paul Hoffman asked whether it was responsible to keep the Hawks within the control of police “under the circumstances”.

Judge Judith Cloete asked what circumstances he was referring to.

Hoffman replied it was the extent of corruption in government and state security bodies, as supported by his expert witnesses in affidavits.

“It’s the factual circumstances of the executive, the SAPS, and the pre-2012 Hawks, the un-turbo-charged Hawks,” he said.

Desai said at the time that it could not be expected for these opinions to be taken as facts.

The amendments were drafted in reaction to a previous Constitutional Court victory by Glenister, in which the executive was ordered to change the legislation to provide the Hawks with independence from political interference, among other things.

Glenister brought his suit following the dissolution of the Scorpions, an investigative unit under the National Prosecuting Authority, in 2008. The Scorpions were replaced by the Hawks, which fell under the SAPS.

Glenister and the HSF approached the Constitutional Court separately in November last year to oppose the amendments, arguing they were still insufficient.

Direct access to the Constitutional Court was denied and the two parties agreed to appear before a full bench of high court judges at the same time and present their arguments.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – An Eastern Cape High Court ruling on Friday allowing the ship Barkly Pearl to load animals for slaughter in Mauritius is deeply disappointing, the SPCA said.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [SPCA] approached the court with an urgent application to prevent the ship from loading the animals, the SPCA said in a statement.

“Having viewed the footage of animals exported on the vessel previously, the judge expressed his opinion that cruelty was prevalent and that this would have to be resolved in the future.”

Judge Jean Nepgen also ruled that no formal application was applicable in terms of the Livestock Improvement Act in relation to the export of animals for slaughter.

“This effectively means that the livestock carrier, the Barkly Pearl, may be loaded with South African cattle and may set sail with them to be slaughtered in Mauritius,” the SPCA said.

SPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith said: “The SPCA has motivated, campaigned, spoken out, and publicised this archaic and cruel practice over many years, since the 1990s in fact.”

The society had tried every avenue but, sadly, it had come to nothing, she said.

The SPCA had public support to lodge the urgent court application and reiterated their motivation that there were alternates, with exporting meat rather than live animals being preferable.

“The SPCA and our support base vow that we shall not stop the fight to prevent the export of live animals for slaughter,” she said.

“Our mandate is the prevention of cruelty. We are firmly committed to this. The SPCA shall remain focused and resolute.”

– SAPA

Mbombela – A man accused of armed robbery wrestled with police in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Friday after his bail was cancelled.

“What you are doing to me is criminal. You cannot keep me there… No, no, no, this is not right,” Sibusiso Zulu protested.

Magistrate Edward Hall decided to keep Zulu in custody for failing to satisfactorily explain why he skipped bail on 26 June.

Although Zulu resisted, police eventually succeeded in dragging him out of the courtroom. He would be back in court on 30 August, a Sapa correspondent reported.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – The treason trial of two alleged right-wing plotters will start in the Free State High Court in November this year.

Magistrate Andries Schoeman transferred the case to the high court and postponed the trial to 4 November when Mark Trollip and Johan Prinsloo appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Schoeman said the men would face charges of treason and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, as well as firearms and ammunition charges.

The State alleges the two men, in conjunction with others, were part of a group who planned “Die Slag van Mangaung” (The Battle of Mangaung) to eliminate the country’s leaders.

A third accused, Martin Keevy, was on Friday again referred for observation at the Free State Psychiatric Complex.

Prosecutor Torie Pretorius told the court he would be evaluated by another doctor for another 30 days.
All charges against a fourth accused, Hein Boonzaaier, were dropped on Friday.

Government overthrow

The State alleges Trollip and Prinsloo plotted to kill African National Congress leaders at the party’s Mangaung elective conference in December 2012.

Pretorius said the men’s defence counsel would receive copies of the docket within a week.
Also handed in to court was the charge sheet against the two men.

In relation to the treason and conspiracy charges, the State alleges the men tried between July 2012 and December 2012 to overthrow the government.

They apparently tried to get hold of mortar bombs and firearms and ammunition to kill, among others, President Jacob Zuma, Cabinet members, and other ANC members in Mangaung.

The State alleges the men intended putting themselves, other people unknown to the State, and the “Boerevolk” in a position to govern South Africa.

The State attached a list of 36 witnesses who would testify in the trial.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – There is a need to continue building police stations in the Western Cape because of gang violence and drug abuse, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Friday.

“We have pointed out that what we are confronted with in this province is a 200-year-old deep-seated legacy that cannot be eradicated by police alone,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening of the Lentegeur police station.

“To this end, we are currently implementing a gang combating strategy that is designed to both combat gang violence as well as eliminate the criminal economy of these gangs.”

Police community relations needed to be strengthened.

The start of “operation combat” in July last year had already helped stabilise some Western Cape communities, including Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Hanover Park, and Manenberg.

Mthethwa said police would ensure that Lentegeur would also benefit.

‘New station will help crime fight’

“This is an integrated strategy and what this means is that it incorporates various pillars, such as visible policing, investigations, crime information management, and importantly, the support and involvement of communities.

“The opening of this police station will definitely help our crusade in this regard,” he said.
A multifaceted approach was needed.

Parents, NGOs, and faith-based organisations needed to help with social factors, such as substance abuse. Everybody needed to be involved, not just police.

“While the SAPS [SA Police Service] will continue to arrest those who commit crime, a greater and growing awareness among parents/guardians to look after and protect children must be intensified within society,” said Mthethwa.

“Any commission of crime by children is a societal challenge that requires a societal response, not just by police but all of us as a collective.”

He said police were improving their investigative capacity to ensure criminals were arrested and punished.

– SAPA