The Northern Cape High Court has postponed the case brought by Cope against MEC for finance John Block, who is also ANC provincial chairperson.

Cope filed an application last week seeking an order directing Block to disclose all his interests since he took office in government.

The matter had been scheduled to be heard yesterday but had to be postponed because of the late submission of replying affidavits from the Northern Cape legislature’s ethics committee.

The case was postponed to September. The committee’s replying affidavit was only submitted on Monday morning, less than an hour before the case was to start. The papers were apparently due to be submitted last week Friday.

Cope MPL Pakes Dikgetsi said it was clear that ANC members in the legislature were scared to hold Block to account.

“We have been asking since March 2013 that the ethics committee must investigate complaints laid by Cope. Until last week they have been refusing to meet,” Dikgetsi said.

He said the deputy speaker was trying to “quash” the complaint.

“It was only by serving them with court papers that they are coming to see that they have been in the wrong.”

He said for the past six months the ANC had used its majority to “undermine and to break the law”.

“We have been patient with them but no more. We know our complaints have merit.”

Asked if Cope was trying to score political points by taking the matter to court Dikgetsi disagreed.

“We are simply asking the court for an order that will compel the speaker and deputy speaker to stop dragging their feet and to start being serious about their jobs.”

Kimberley-A task team has been established to look into the demands of workers at the Sol Plaatje municipality in the Frances Baard region over the take up of contract workers.

This came after the intervention of the ANC on Monday who tried to break the stalemate between the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the municipality over the matter.

MEC for corporate governance, human settlement and traditional affairs Alvin Botes has welcomed the intervention of the ANC.

The ANC intervention came in the wake of a strike by Samwu members who demanded that more than 300 casual workers be employed permanently by the municipality.

Workers threatened to embark on a full-blown strike over the matter.

Yesterday Botes confirmed that a task team would be established and its terms of reference would be finalised on September 3, “whereupon the execution of their mandate will start”.

“The task team will, as reported, have one month in which to finalise its work and report back to the collective. I am of the opinion that there is not as yet a crisis as portrayed by the media but should no amicable solution be found soon, I will use all powers entrusted in me to intervene and resolve the matter within the legal framework provided,” he said.

Botes said he supported the initiative and recognised the progress made by the municipality with regard to the recent audit outcomes.

He also applauded the municipality for having moved from a series of disclaimers to a qualified audit.

“If we are to deliver services of high quality to the people, we need to ensure that the municipality is fully functional and that all parties involved fulfil their contractual obligations.”

Source: http://www.thenewage.co.za

A case against against the ANC Northern Cape chairperson, John Block’s company, Suid Afrikaanse Soutwerke, and the Department of Minerals and Energy is set to be resolved after the parties opted to settle the matter out of court.

Saamwerke Soutwerke succesfully sued the respondents after claiming they had colluded to exclude their company from benefitting from a salt mine in the Kalahari.

Saamwerke salt mine sued Block’s company, his partners in the venture and as the Department of Minerals and Energy for R35m.

The matter which was postponed on Monday due to a dysfunctional air conditioner, was heard in the Northern Cape High Court yesterday. In 2011 the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein upheld a high court decision which ruled that Block’s company had been mining salt illegally in Upington with forged permits for five years. The company sued for damages incurred during that period.

After two days of cross examination the applicants and the respondents are now set to reconvene on Friday after agreeing to settle the matter out of court.

The applicants submitted that they only started mining in 2011 after they were given mineral rights in 2005. Their action followed a high court ruling in 2011 which found Block guilty of hijacking a salt mine in Upington.

The provincial ANC chairperson, who was a director of the company, operated the mine for five years with a fake permit. Saamwerke Soutwerke co-director Mongile Gubula said the matter had dragged for far too long.

Source: http://www.thenewage.co.za

Mining unrest has rattled South Africa, but ongoing turmoil has been a hammer blow to the country’s platinum belt, calling into question the future of an entire city.

First was the violence and then came the job cuts.

After months of labour unrest and years of high costs, two top firms around the northern city of Rustenburg are rolling out plans to shut shafts and cut thousands of jobs.

Anglo American Platinum will close three operations here and cut 4,800 jobs from September, a year after the Marikana massacre at neighbouring Lonmin mine.

Lonmin — where 34 miners were shot dead a year ago by police — had already mothballed a shaft last year.

For the city of Rustenburg, where mining officially makes up 77 percent of the economy, the impact could be devastating.

Local businessmen, from utilities consultants like Ben Roothman to street vendors like Tomaz Utui, fear the loss of jobs means the loss of customers.

For every person laid off, a whole household loses its income, so many more thousands are affected, according to Roothman.

“It’s a foregone conclusion that it will have a definite impact on Rustenburg,” he told AFP.

Utui, who hawks snacks, clothes and cigarettes outside Amplats’s soon-to-be-shut Khomanani shaft, sees a dire future if the miners disappear.

“There’s nothing here. We’re not selling if these guys aren’t working.” Already, he said, “These guys don’t have any money.”

According to local Chamber of Commerce head Pieter Malan “at a micro-level the impact is huge.”

“For medium-sized companies who deliver services direct to the mine it’s painful,” he added.

Rustenburg was founded 162-years ago after Dutch settlers trekked inland from Cape Town and started farming.

Since the 1920s platinum — now used predominantly in catalytic converters and jewellery — has been mined in the area, known by geologists as the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

Rustenburg was a host city for the 2010 football World Cup and was the country’s fastest growing metropolitan area in that year, according to government figures.

For the moment the city is still growing at a clip.

Modern housing complexes are springing up around the city and the region’s luxury resorts and game reserves attract tourists in their droves.

With around 70 percent of the world’s platinum production coming from the area, up to now the city has bounced back with the ebb and flow of mine activities.

But the scale of this latest turbulence has left many bracing for tough times ahead.

Last year’s stoppages squeezed global production by 13 percent, the lowest in 12 years, according to London-based precious metals firm Johnson Matthey.

Stalled production cost South Africa as a whole $1.15 billion, but in Rustenburg it hit contractors — who provide jobs to at least 30,000 people — particularly hard.

Last year already engineering and construction firm Murray & Roberts ended contracts with nearby Aquarius Platinum and Lonmin.

As ever-increasing running costs and labour turmoil make investors wary of South Africa, fears exist that Rustenburg might collapse with its mines, as happened to other “ghost towns”.

Three hundred kilometres (186 miles) away there is a warning of what could happen.

Welkom — optimistically named “welcome” in the Afrikaans language –once produced a quarter of the world’s gold and employed around 170,000 people in mining.

But its heyday has long gone. The waning industry today employs 30,000 people, while battling with high costs and low gold content.

To prevent a similar demise, Rustenburg’s Chamber of Commerce wants the city economy to adapt so it will survive mining’s eventual decline.

“We have to be more concerned about what to do 30 years from now,” said Malan.

“How do we become less dependent on the mining industry — that’s the important question.”

-Sapa-AFP

Johannesburg – A man was arrested in connection with the murder of a nine-year-old girl in Knysna, Western Cape police said on Sunday.

Spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said the man, 32, was arrested shortly after the little girl’s body was found on Saturday night.

“The deceased… was playing with her friends… [on Saturday] morning when the suspect approached them on foot.

“He offered to walk with [her] through the bushes to a nearby shop to buy chips, but he was seen coming back from the shop alone,” said Steyn.

The girl’s family reported her missing in the afternoon.

Police and community members began searching for her and her body was found on Saturday evening.

“She had an open wound in her neck,” said Steyn.

Police were investigating whether she had also been raped.

The man was arrested and charged with murder. 

He will appear in court soon.

SAPA

Pretoria – Communication among the different alliance partners was of paramount importance to ensure an effective working relationship between its different parts, SA Communist Party general secretary Jeremy Cronin said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters following the conclusion of the alliance summit in Centurion, Cronin said there was a communication gap between the alliance partners which needed to be closed.

“As we go to the elections, [we need] to communicate among ourselves and [with] South Africans,” he said.

“We need to deepen the relationship and effectiveness of the alliance…working together.”

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said an alliance task team would be set up, comprising members of each organisation, which would create a capacity of the alliance secretariat to follow up on alliance resolutions.

Cronin said the task team was not set up with the coming elections in mind as it was not “some short term sprint” but rather a body which would take the long view on alliance policy and resolutions.

He said there were no topics within the alliance that could not be discussed.

“We must not fall into some kind of narrow, mechanical conformity. That should not be confused with chronic oppositions.”

Mantashe said the major emphasis of the summit was on economic issues, with the National Development Plan (NDP) discussed among other topics.

“Its about taking a leap forward on what we have been doing over the last 20 years,” said Mantashe.

He said the summit was not a symbolic gesture, given the alliance partners met all the time and discussed serious matters.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Four drivers were arrested for speeding with two clocking over 200km/h on the N12 eastbound near Voortrekker turnoff on Sunday, Ekurhuleni Metro police (EMPD) said.

The road has a speed limit of 120km/h.

A 32-year-old man driving a BMW M3 was caught doing 208km/h, EMPD spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago said in a statement.

The driver claimed there was a robbery in progress at his business in Primrose.

He was escorted and it turned out he was lying, said Kgasago.

“He was immediately arrested and charged with reckless and negligent driving.”

A 24-year-old motorcyclist was caught doing 204km/h on the same road.

He claimed he was late for work.

Two other drivers were also arrested for driving at speeds of 164km/h and 169km/h.

They were all expected to appear in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court soon.

On Saturday, eight speedsters were arrested in Brakpan and Benoni.

The highest was travelling in 158km/h on the R23 near Mans road in Brakpan.

He said he was late for work.

Five were caught travelling at speeds between 142km/h and 153 km/h on the same road.

Two others were arrested in Benoni for allegedly driving at over 107km/h on Main Reef and Garysteel which are 70km/h zone, said Kgasago.

SAPA

Johannesburg – KwaZulu-Natal Transport Minister Willies Mchunu instigated an investigation on Sunday following a deadly bus crash in Melmoth that left at least 10 people dead.

The bus was carrying people returning from the Reed Dance ceremony which took place at the Nyokeni Royal Palace in Nongoma.

Earlier reports said that eight people had died and 62 others had been injured, but the African National Congress Women’s League said meanwhile it was saddened by reports of the untimely death of nine young women.

Mchunu said in a statement: “I have instructed the [law enforcers] investigation to assess the cause of the accident; the state of the driver and the roadworthiness of the bus.

“We are all shocked at the spate of accidents especially in the last three months, which show a dramatic increase in road fatalities. 

“The other worrying trend is that many of these accidents involve the loss of young lives.

“In this instance, these children had gone to participate in a cultural ceremony that promotes the wellbeing and dignified growth of young girls through to adult life,” he said.

Ceremony

Netcare911 paramedics reported that eight people [two women and six men] had died and 62 others were injured when the bus overturned, slid down the road and smashed into [steel] barriers.

“Paramedics… arrived at the scene and found that the barriers had pierced through the front of the bus,” said Netcare911 spokesperson Chris Botha.

Mchunu extended his condolences to the families of those killed.

“On behalf of the provincial government, I would like to send my deepest condolences to families and friends of the young girls who have lost their lives.

Earlier, Zululand mayor Zanele KaMagwaza Msibi said she was shocked and saddened by the incident.

“When parents released their children to participate in the ceremony, little did they know that they were saying their last goodbyes to their children who perished during the accident,” said KaMagwaza Msibi.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Former president Nelson Mandela is back at his Johannesburg home after almost three months in hospital, but his condition remains critical and difficult days lie ahead.

While life for Mandela will be more comfortable at his home, he is not out of danger.

The presidency, announcing his discharge from hospital, said he remains in a “critical” and “at times unstable” condition.

At home the former president will receive essentially the same intensive medical care as he did in hospital.

He will be treated by “a large medical team from the military, academia, private sector and other public health spheres,” the government said.

His home has been reconfigured for the treatment.

“We can now provide the same level of care in homes,” said Paris-based pulmonary specialist Bertrand Dautzenberg, citing advances in devices like respirators.

Palliative care

Often the decision to send a patient home is made because of a clinical improvement. But the aim can also be to make a still-struggling patient more comfortable.

“When a condition lasts a long time, sometimes physicians decide to send a patient home, even if he has not been stabilised, with the aim of encouraging healing, to provide palliative care, to make them more comfortable,” Dautzenberg said.

Mandela has at times seemed to be in a dire condition since being admitted on 8 June.

He was rushed to hospital in the middle of the night with what the government described as a lung infection, but which may well have been pneumonia.

In late June visitors reported he was on life support, unable to breathe for himself and had not opened his eyes for days.

Court documents filed by his family’s lawyers went as far as to say that he was in a vegetative state and that doctors recommended his life support machine be turned off.

A close friend said that suggestion had been rejected by doctors, unless there was massive organ failure.

They were vindicated. The once spry boxer appeared to have at least one more fight left in him.

Condition not worsening

By early August, the government was reporting that Mandela was responding to treatment and his condition was steadily improving.

Since then he has at times been unstable, but medical interventions have stopped any further worsening of his condition.

The lung infection appeared to have been contained, although doctors were still draining fluid from the lungs.

This procedure may well have been linked to a plural effusion – a build up of infected fluid around the lungs.

A large build-up, while sustaining infection, also makes it difficult to breathe.

Mandela now has a long history of pulmonary illness to overcome, and his advanced years will make that recovery even more difficult.

In 1988, while serving his 27-year prison term, Mandela was diagnosed with early stage tuberculosis.

Two litres of fluid were drained from his chest and he spent six weeks recuperating in hospital.

Four months later he had recovered and for more than a decade there was little sign of trouble, but in January 2011 a string of infections began.

Since then he has been hospitalised five times, treated for acute respiratory infections, gallstones, pneumonia, and once to receive a thorough check up.

May be admitted to hospital again 

Even amid the joy of his latest release, a sixth hospitalisation cannot be ruled out.

“If there are health conditions that warrant another admission to hospital in future, this will be done,” the presidency said.

Doctors may simply have decided that come what may, Mandela would be happier at home and may stand a better chance of recovery.

“The fact of being in a somewhat normal environment is always positive for the patient,” said Dautzenberg.

AFP

By Obakeng Maje

Mahikeng-North West police are investigating a case of culpable homicide after a man was allegedly knocked down by a car on Saturday.

“It is alleged that a group of youngsters were allegedly walking along University road in the early hours of the morning” sergeant Kelebogile Moiloa said.

Moiloa said a 32 year-old driver allegedly tried to control his car to avoid crashing into the group! But failed.

“He plagued on a 19 year-old man and he was certified dead on the scene” she said.

Police are investigations continue.-TDN

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