Pretoria – 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 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.

Nelspruit’s name was officially changed to Mbombela on October 16, 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 R450 million needed to change street names, and websites, among other features.

National department of arts and culture spokesman 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 spokeswoman 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

Polokwane – Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) has appointed a private firm to help speed up payment of R70 million 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 spokesman 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

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 spokesman 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

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

Two men were arrested in Kimberley on Monday in connection with copper theft, Northern Cape police said.

Copper worth a street value of about R75 000, was sold to a scrap metal dealer in Kimberley for R6 500, said police spokesperson Andrea Cloete.

“Police received information about a silver Opel Corsa travelling with suspected stolen copper,” she said.

Two men, aged 29 and 34, were arrested at the Shell Ultra filling station on the N12 after being linked to copies of identity documents they left at the scrap metal dealer, said Cloete.

A date for their court appearance was not immediately available.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The justice department has awarded the controversial tender to review rulings of the country’s two top courts to the Human Sciences Research Council and the University of Fort Hare’s law school.

The project would be officially launched in September, Narnia Bohler-Muller, the deputy director of the HRSC’s Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery programme, said on Monday.

“The contract has not been signed yet, so I cannot provide details… except to confirm that the department is aiming to have the project officially launched by mid-September,” she said.

The HSRC confirmed, however, that the brief for the R10m contract consisted of studying the impact of judgments of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal on the country’s socio-economic climate.

“The overall aim of the proposed 18-month research project is to assess the impact of the two highest courts, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, on the lived experiences of all South Africans, particularly in respect of the adjudication and implementation of socio-economic rights within the context of a developmental state, and pertinent issues relating to access to justice with a view to addressing inequality and the eradication of poverty,” it said.

The planned review was first announced by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe in 2011, and raised fears that it could compromise the independence of the judiciary.

Among those who warned against it was veteran human rights lawyer George Bizos, who said last year: “I would appeal to parliamentarians and others that in relation to matters of justice, the courts are our final arbiters. Please believe it.”

Mamphela Ramphele, who has since launched the opposition party AgangSA, said the review could be “poison” for democracy.

Radebe has denied that the review is an attack on the judiciary and said the majority of judges had no problem with it.

– SAPA

Durban – Adventurer Sean Wisedale made a brief appearance in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Wisedale, 47, who allegedly drove his car into a neighbour’s gate in Durban’s Glenwood suburb on Sunday, faces charges of drunken driving, malicious damage to property, and causing a public disturbance.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson said Wisedale’s case was postponed to February 28 to allow him to seek an attorney.

The Mercury newspaper reported that Wisedale, 47, was arrested shortly after the incident on Sunday morning.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said Wisedale started “screaming and shouting” at 06:20, and kept saying Haroldene Road was his road.

At 07:15 it became quiet and then “there was a loud bang”, she was quoted as saying.

Wisedale had allegedly reversed into a gate.

He allegedly tried to run away when police arrived at the scene, according to the report, which published a picture of him running.

Wisedale was the first South African to climb Mount Vinson, the highest mountain in Antarctica. He also climbed the “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains of each of the seven continents.

Wisedale specialises in climbing expeditions, and also delivers motivational talks.

Ramkisson said Wisedale was out on bail of R2 000.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Constitutional Court will hand down judgment on Tuesday on an application for a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma to be debated in Parliament.

DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, supported by seven other opposition parties, tabled the motion on 8 November.

However, National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu later adjourned a programming committee meeting without the debate being scheduled, on the basis that no consensus had been reached.

The DA took the matter to the Western Cape High Court where it was dismissed by Judge Dennis Davis.

Davis ruled that it was any MP’s right to request a no confidence debate, and that such requests were “by their very nature” urgent.

But, because the rules of the National Assembly did not make provision for no confidence debates, Davis could not tell Sisulu when and where the debate should be heard.

The high court held that Parliament had the obligation to give effect to the right to debate and vote on a motion of no confidence, but that only the Constitutional Court could hear this matter.

It was argued by Mazibuko’s lawyer in the Constitutional Court in March that the high court erred in finding that the speaker did not have the power to schedule the motion in the event of a deadlock in the programme committee.

Mazibuko submitted that the National Assembly rules were inconsistent with the Constitution.

Sisulu submitted that the application be dismissed as the date for the scheduled debate had passed.

He also submitted that Parliament did not fail in its constitutional duties because the motion could be scheduled either by the programme committee or the National Assembly.

The National Assembly chief whip submitted that the application was based on factual and legal misconceptions.

– SAPA

Cape Town – SANDF chief Lieutenant General Solly Shoke must explain to Parliament whether soldiers are properly equipped to help with peacekeeping efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the DA said on Monday.

DA MP David Maynier said he would write to the defence standing committee chairperson asking for Shoke to brief Parliament on the deployment of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) troops in the eastern DRC.

“The SANDF’s mission is peace enforcement, rather than peacekeeping, and there is not only a high risk of casualties, but also of being drawn into a regional war with countries, such as Rwanda, who are allegedly supporting rebel groups, such as the M23, in the eastern DRC,” Maynier said.

The mission was high-risk and South Africa could not afford a “repeat performance of the military disaster in the Central African Republic” on 23 March when 13 SANDF soldiers were killed.

“We must be sure that the SANDF [troops] are properly equipped to execute the task assigned to them by the United Nations,” Maynier said.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma informed Parliament that 1 345 soldiers had been deployed to the DRC.

The deployment was from 13 June 2013 to 31 March 2014.

The expected cost of the deployment was R402 800 000.

The soldiers would be part of a “force intervention brigade”, under the UN Monusco peacekeeping force.

On Friday, SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said the intervention brigade comprised soldiers from South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi, and was mandated to engage “armed groups”.

“They will not wait and watch while civilians are being attacked by armed groups,” Dlamini said at the time.

“They will intervene to engage, neutralise, and disarm.”

– SAPA