Polokwane – Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) has appointed a private firm to help speed up payment of R70m it owes to service providers, the province said on Monday.

“The [RAL] board assured that the appointed firm will take at most three weeks to verify invoices,” provincial transport spokesperson Joshua Kwapa said.

The department declined to mention the name of the company.

The firm was appointed after contractors complained to Transport MEC Lehlohonolo Masoga about RAL’s slow pace of processing payments.

Kwapa said all “legitimate invoices” would be paid within a month.

“This challenge has resulted in contractors, the majority of which are SMMEs (small, medium, and micro-enterprises), struggling to survive because of non-payment,” he said.

“The MEC also instructed the [RAL] board that where approval is needed it should be obtained without delay, even if it means the board meets every weekend.”

RAL falls under the transport department and is tasked with implementing road maintenance and upgrades in Limpopo’s five districts.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The terms of reference of the Presidential Remuneration Commission on pay in the public sector have been finalised and gazetted, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

Replying in writing to a Parliamentary question, Zuma said the commission would be made up solely of former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo.

“They [terms of reference] provide for a commission to be appointed to investigate remuneration and conditions of service in the public service… with the remuneration of educators receiving priority attention…,” Zuma said.

The terms of reference included:

– matters relating to organisational development;

– job evaluation and grading;

– recruitment;

– appointments and promotions;

– human resource planning and performance management systems; and

– policies and practices in the public service.

The commission was expected to complete its work within eight months.

“The chairperson [Ngcobo] will determine the methodology of conducting the work of the commission including the drafting of the project plan,” Zuma said.

The work of the commission was delayed by several months after the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) threatened strike action.

It demanded, among others, that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga be fired and her director general Bobby Soobrayan be investigated for allegedly breaching the Public Finance Management Act.

Sadtu has since dropped some of its demands after Motshekga announced Soobrayan would be probed.

– SAPA

A bid to challenge Minister Lulu Xingwana’s nod for Nelspruit to be renamed Mbombela was delayed on Monday.

The matter was not heard in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria because of a scheduling error.

“It was a scheduling issue that was totally out of our control, none of the parties [in the case] were involved,” said Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (LCBT) financial manager Linda Grimbeek.

“It’s so frustrating and disappointing. The case took two years to get to the high court. We were hoping to have this whole thing done. Our advocate has applied for a new date.”

The decision to take the matter to court was made in June.

The court has the power to change Xingwana’s decision was made while she was the minister of arts and culture.

Her decision was taken in 2009 and was published in a government gazette that year.

“Only a high court can change something that was gazetted,” Grimbeek said.

A Sapa correspondent reported that the LCBT, which was opposed to the name change, had managed to raise R450 000 to take the matter to court.

They needed R50 000 more.

“We are awaiting pledges… which should be sufficient to cover the full amount. Raising the extra money is not an issue,” she said.

Name change

Nelspruit’s name was officially changed to Mbombela on 16 October 2009.

“Even though the name change was approved, the implementation process has not yet been started because of the confusing proclamation of whether the city must be called Mbombela City or Mbombela,” Grimbeek said.

“Then there are the legal proceedings that we have undertaken. All of these have blocked the process of implementing the name change.”

Grimbeek said the Mbombela local municipality was already too indebted and probably could not raise the R450m needed to change street names, and websites, among other features.

National department of arts and culture spokesperson Mack Lewele said the matter would be dealt with in court.

The provincial culture, sport and recreation department, the umbrella body for the Provincial Geographical Names Committee, said it would await the court’s judgment.

“We will await the outcome of the court case and will thereafter act in accordance with the judgment,” said department spokesperson Sibongile Nkosi.

According to the SA Geographical Names Council and the department of arts and culture, more than 849 place names were changed in South Africa between 1996 and 2010.

– SAPA

Cape Town – A Johannesburg woman was sentenced to three years of community service for three counts of fraud by the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, Cape Town, on Monday.

Nkensani Mabunda, 32, who fraudulently obtained loans totalling R690 000 from a bridging finance company between May and July 2008, will have to clean her local police station and other state-owned buildings for three years.

Although Mabunda qualified for the prescribed minimum prison sentence of 15 years, magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg concluded that there were reasons to impose a less severe sentence.

Wynand du Plessis, for Mabunda, had asked for a suspended prison sentence for the mother of three.

Prosecutor Derek Vogel told the court Mabunda had already repaid R440 134, which was a compelling reason for the court to be lenient.

He said the case had taken five years to reach a conclusion, which was “another substantial reason to deviate from the prescribed prison sentence”.

Vogel said the charge was at one stage withdrawn because of the “status” of the investigation.

“The police docket had been destroyed in a car smash, and the original investigating police officer had resigned,” Vogel said.

He said the charge was reinstituted, but that the inordinate delay in finalising the matter had to count in Mabunda’s favour.

Mabunda was a first-time offender, and in the circumstances, a suspended jail sentence, coupled with a period of house arrest, would meet the interests of justice, Vogel said.

Sonnenberg said Mabunda had been driven by greed.

The delay in finalising the case was a compelling reason for not imposing the prescribed minimum sentence.

– SAPA

He and the other four members of the Boeremag bomb squad were also convicted of murdering Soweto mother Claudia Mokome and of attempting to murder former president Nelson Mandela with home-made bombs.

Van Rooyen applied for an urgent court order on Monday, to allow him to be transported to court in a car instead of the armoured truck used to transport several of the accused to and from court.

Alternatively, he applied for an order allowing him to testify in mitigation from the prison court.

His lawyer and the police eventually reached an agreement that he testify from the court at the Pretoria Central Prison on Thursday.

Piet Pistorius submitted that his client had not attended the trial since March because he suffered from an anxiety disorder and had panic attacks when he was transported to court in the back of an armoured truck.

He said an offer by the police to transport him in the back of a police van would have the same result.

Pistorius handed in a certificate from a psychologist confirming that Pistorius suffered from an anxiety disorder, and recommending that he should, where possible, be transported in a less cramped space.

“He wants to testify in mitigation of sentence, but there’s a practical dilemma because of his disorder.

“He says his condition has not improved and he still experiences stress when he’s transported [in an armoured truck].

“He asks to be brought to court in an alternative way,” he said.

Pistorius conceded that the police had a legitimate fear that Van Rooyen might escape because he was involved in escapes in 2006 and 2011.

Judge Eben Jordaan said Van Rooyen had a fundamental right to address the court and he was even prepared to make his own vehicle available to transport him to court.

Counsel for the police argued that Van Rooyen had not brought a proper application to which it could respond, but Jordaan urged the parties to find a solution.

“Why would he lie at this stage? There’s no plan to quickly saw off his shackles on the way to court,” Jordaan said.

– SAPA

Sun City workers will intensify their strike action until their demands are met, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the North West said on Monday.

The were demanding that all workers who were dismissed for attending workers day on May 1 be reinstated, said Cosatu North West secretary Solly Phetoe.

They were also calling for the dismissal of management members who instructed that two female workers accused of stealing R400 be stripped and searched by security guards, he said.

“Of the 6 000 workers employed by Sun City, about 3 000 have joined in the strike on Sunday and Monday and more are expected to join in on Tuesday,” Phetoe said.

The striking workers were members of the SA Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union and the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union.

Phetoe said 14 shop stewards were dismissed last week for organising workers for the May 1 celebrations, and for exposing the racial discrimination during the Gupta family wedding in May.

He said workers resolved on Monday not to return to work until management met their demands.

“No one will be working in Sun City tomorrow [Tuesday] and the public must support the workers,” Phetoe said.
For more http://www.news24.com

By Obakeng Maje
Kimberley-A lifeless body of a man found by the police stuffed in the toilet pit. Apparently during the incident the deceased was with his girlfriend, walking home from a local tavern in the early hours of Saturday morning in Gasese village at Kuruman.
“It is alleged that four men armed with knives confronted them and demanded money, at that stage a squabble ensued between the suspects and the deceased. Apparently the girlfriend tried to intervene; however one of the suspects smacked her in the face and ordered her to shut up” lieutenenant Olebogeng Tawana said.
The girlfriend ran for her life to seek help from the neighbours.
“Meanwhile the suspects stabbed the deceased two times in the lower body. They dragged him to a nearby house and throw him in a toilet pit” Tawana said.
The girlfriend of the deceased contacted the police after she realised that her boyfriend did not reach home and he do not answer his cellphone.
Police said the search and investigation was launched in the vicinity in which the incident started. While the police were busy with the search, the yard owner of the toilet in which the body of the deceased was allegedly thrown into approached the police and informed them about unusual noise in the toilet.
The police went inside the toilet to investigate, however to their dismay they found man’s body lower part in the toilet.
The police retrieved the body and the emergency personnel certified him dead.
The suspects were arrested shortly, after being pointed out by the deceased’s girlfriend as she knew two of them.
“Two of the suspects are due to appear before Kuruman Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder, while other two suspects aged 17 are to be assessed by the social worker” he said.
They will be notified about their date of court appearance after being assessed.

Investigation continues.-TDN
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Johannesburg – A group of people calling themselves military veterans trashed and looted the Germiston Civic Centre on Monday, the municipality said.

“We had a bunch of people masquerading as former MK [Umkhonto we Sizwe] members,” said Ekurhuleni mayoral spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

“Surprisingly, some of them were in their mid-20s. They were not even born during times of the struggle.”

The building accommodates the executive mayor, speaker, chief whip, staff and the other political parties.

About 100 people stormed into the building, looted and vandalised property.

Dlamini said they trashed furniture, computers and fridges and stole some items.

“We are still quantifying the damage. The thing is the building had just undergone refurbishment, so we are not sure exactly how much damage we are looking at,” he said.

The attackers assaulted some staff members.

“Some staff members had to be taken in for counselling, while others were taken home,” said Dlamini.

It was unclear what the group wanted.

“If we knew what they wanted, we could have spoken to them, but they just stormed into the building,” he said.

“They did not even give us their demands.”

Dlamini said about 60 people were arrested.

They were expected to appear in court soon on charges of theft, vandalism, trespassing and assault.

Dlamini said officials were still operating from the vandalised building and that service delivery would not be hampered.

– SAPA

Mbombela – The fraud trial of Mpumalanga community safety department head Thulani Sibuyi and a co-accused was postponed on Monday in the Nelspruit Regional Court.

According to a Sapa correspondent, the court heard that Sibuyi’s lawyer was out of the country.

The matter was postponed to 13 November to allow Sibuyi’s lawyer to be part of the proceedings and for the prosecution team to disclose the docket to the defence.

Charges

Sibuyi, 37, faces fraud charges amounting to more than R140m and his co-accused Vusi Mashaba, 41, faces fraud, forgery, and uttering charges.

The two men were not asked to plead during their appearance.

Earlier in August, Sibuyi and Mashaba handed themselves over to the Mbombela police after a warrant of arrest was issued against them.

According to the State, Mashaba submitted a fraudulent tax clearance on his own behalf and on behalf of his company, GNT security, which is alleged to have illegally benefited from payments of R4m a month for three years.

Prosecutor Patrick Nkuna previously told the court that the fraudulent document helped Mashaba’s company win a bid on a tender meant to provide security in the Msukaligwa local municipality area.

He said Sibuyi, as an accounting officer, had failed to stop the appointment, and verify the tax clearance, which led to the department entering a three-year contract with GNT security.

The two accused are both out on R50 000 bail.

Sibuyi remains at work while his case is in court.

Provincial director general Nonhlanhla Mkhize said she would not suspend Sibuyi from work as he had been told not to interfere with witnesses while he was out on bail.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has recommended that Parliament consider taking action against Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Pansy Tlakula.

Tlakula had a “grossly irregular” role in the procurement of the Riverside Office Park building in Centurion for the IEC’s head office, the protector said in Pretoria on Monday.

In a probe into the matter, Madonsela found improper conduct and maladministration on Tlakula’s part, and a conflict of interest involving a co-director, with whom she was accused of being romantically involved.

“The Speaker of Parliament… [should] consider whether action should be taken against advocate Tlakula for her role in the procurement… in light of the undisclosed and unmanaged conflict of interest and her contravention of the procurement laws and prescripts…,” Madonsela’s report stated.

She recommended that the IEC review its agreement with Abland, which was awarded the contract to lease the Riverside Office Park building.

Tlakula is accused of having a romantic relationship with Parliament’s finance portfolio committee chairperson Thaba Mufamadi, who owns a 20% stake in Abland by virtue of their co-directorship in Lehotsa Investments.

Allegations about their romantic involvement were not investigated as there was no “tangible” evidence.

The whistle-blower employee denied the allegation when interviewed by the protector’s office.

But, Madonsela found that Tlakula had failed to disclose her business relationship with Mufamadi to the bidding team, which compromised her independence and objectivity.

“Tlakula was highly involved in initiation, evaluation and adjudication of the bids for the procurement of the building,” said Madonsela.

“The ideal way that Advocate Tlakula could have mitigated and managed this conflict was through declaration of the relationship and recusal from the procurement process.”

Tlakula was investigated after United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa alleged irregularities in the procurement of the new building, the validity of lease agreements, and various payments to Abland.

Findings

Madonsela found that advance payments amounting to R1 653 215.46 were made by the IEC to Abland for the office premises, in contravention of the contract between Abland and the IEC, which required the procurement be subjected to an open market.

The protector also found that over R6m was paid for the IEC’s old offices that stood empty between October 2010 and July 2011.

But the amount was refunded to the IEC, without interest.

The financial loss to the commission in terms of interest was because there was no termination clause in the lease agreement.

Madonsela described this as a “haphazard handling” and “possibly reckless use of public funds”.

She found no evidence of an “irregular” payment of R22m paid by the commission in March 2010.

“An amount of R22 603 374.00 was approved as an amount for the fitting out budget in respect of the second addendum between the Riverside Office Park Trust and the commission… This amount was to be rentalised over the period of the lease.”

– SAPA