Johannesburg – Eight members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) held a brief picket outside the Gauteng police headquarters in Johannesburg on Friday.

Members of the EFF provincial command team sang struggle songs, including “Siyaya” (“We are going forward”) and danced in a circle, watched by a handful of police.

The protesters, wearing red accessories associated with the newly registered political party, shouted slogans including “Down with [national police commissioner] Riah Phiyega, down”, and “Viva EFF, viva”.

Spokesperson Patrick Sindane said they were protesting over Phiyega’s recent appointment of Major General Bethuel Mondli Zuma as Gauteng police commissioner.

The appointment was later withdrawn when it was found that Zuma faced a charge of drunk driving.

Zuma, who is not related to President Jacob Zuma, was to have replaced Lieutenant General Mzwandile Petros, whose last day as provincial commissioner was on Saturday.

EFF leader Julius Malema did not attend the picket.

Addressing a small group of reporters and a few police officers standing at a distance, Sindane said: “I will just speak so that everyone can hear.”

“We are here as the Gauteng central command team to picket against the appointment and withdrawal of Zuma.

“We don’t care whether it [the appointment] was withdrawn when it was discovered what kind of a drunkard he is.”

Phiyega ‘failing dismally’

The fact that the appointment process, including police background checks, did not prevent Zuma’s appointment indicated that Phiyega was “failing dismally”, he claimed.

Such failures threatened to turn Gauteng into a “Mickey Mouse province”.

“We, as the EFF, cannot allow that to happen… As a protest movement, we can never be passive spectators.”

Sindane said the event was merely a small picket as a preparatory step towards a massive march to be held in Gauteng.

The EFF called for Phiyega to be recalled from her post.

Sindane said the picket was brief because the provincial EFF members needed to be in Pretoria for another picket, which would take place at the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) offices.

Before the picket, EFF members distributed party membership application forms at a petrol station next to the provincial police headquarters.

The membership forms call on prospective members to abide by the party’s “aims, objectives and radical policies” and include a section for donations to the party.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The IFP has called on Transport Minister Dipuo Peters to seek solutions to road accident problems in KwaZulu-Natal.

“We hope the minister in co-operation with KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu will come up with a plan to curb these avoidable tragedies in the province,” said IFP spokesperson Petros Sithole on Friday.

“We are shocked and distraught by yesterday’s [Thursday] accident in KwaZulu-Natal. We were still in shock and mourning the death of the… maidens from Umzumbe… Now barely a week later another tragic accident has happened.”

On Thursday, 22 people were killed when a truck crashed into four minibus taxis and a car on the M13 in Field’s Hill, Pinetown.

The presidency and police initially put the death toll at 27, but acting president Jeff Radebe on Friday said it was 22.

Traffic officials said it appeared the brakes on the truck had failed. The truck driver was arrested on culpable homicide charges.

Two bouquets of flowers were placed at the intersection of the accident on Friday.

Ten people returning from the annual reed dance festival at the Nyokeni Palace were killed in an accident in the province on Sunday.

The Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal believed human error was behind Thursday’s crash.

“Surely the interchange between M13 and Richmond could have been avoided. Hence we believe that it’s no accident but human error or negligence,” provincial secretary Zet Luzipo said in a statement.

“To us as workers, road carnages like this one always have a direct bearing on the economy, social security system, health care and poverty.”

Economic council

Luzipo said Cosatu intended convening a provincial economic council to discuss several matters including the improvement of roads.

He extended condolences to the bereaved families, and his sympathies to the province’s transport department.

“We also extend our sympathies to the KZN department of transport because this turned to undermine all their efforts to end road carnages and reduce them into a department of mass funerals,” said Luzipho.

Provincial legislature transport portfolio committee chairperson Mxolisi Kaunda said road accidents had “engulfed” the province.

“The portfolio committee is condemning all the vehicles that are not roadworthy on our roads,” he said in a statement.

“It further appeals to the KZN department of transport to conduct a thorough investigation on the cause of the accident.”

Kaunda said the committee wanted to see justice take place, and harsh sentences imposed on motorists found guilty of road offences.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau will meet City Power management on Friday to receive an update about the restoration of electricity in some parts of Gauteng, the city said in a statement.

This follows power disruptions in parts of the West Rand and northern Johannesburg after a few hundred City Power staff downed tools on Wednesday afternoon.

City Power said the strike was not union-led.

The workers were unhappy about a new shift system the power distributor was implementing.

It was believed that striking workers had sabotaged the infrastructure causing the widespread blackouts, which impacted on traffic flow and affected some businesses’ operations.

Earlier on Friday power was fully restored to areas including Houghton and Melville by noon, while other parts of Johannesburg could be left in the dark over the weekend, City Power said.

The electricity supply was also reconnected in Auckland Park, Kew, and Bramley, the power distributor said in a statement.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The DA on Friday urged KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu to ban heavy vehicles from using Field’s Hill.

“The ongoing use of Field’s Hill as a route for heavy vehicles travelling to and from Durban has been a concern for many years,” DA MPL Radley Keys said in a statement.

“The DA has consistently campaigned – within the provincial legislature and at council level – for a ban on ‘heavies’ on this stretch of road.”

This comes after 22 people were killed when a truck crashed into four minibus taxis and a car on the M13 on Thursday night.

Traffic officials said it appeared the brakes on the truck had failed.

Acting president Jeff Radebe said in Durban on Friday that the Pinetown accident had claimed 22 lives.

Radebe was visiting the accident scene on the corner of Field’s Hill (M13) and Richmond roads, and would also visit various hospitals.

On Thursday, the presidency and police put the death toll at 27.

Traffic officials said on Thursday the M13 would be closed until Friday.

A Sapa reporter on scene said the road was reopened on Friday morning, the wreckage had been removed, and traffic was flowing as normal.

Homeless people were scavenging the site and going
through what was left behind.
Traffic lights at the intersection had malfunctioned, and no traffic police were on scene to direct traffic.

National Freedom Party (NFP) leader Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi said she was shocked and saddened by the incident.

She called on the transport department to carry out an intensive investigation.

“Road accidents in the country costs our economy almost R30bn and something must be done to reduce road accidents in our country,” she said in a statement.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The police plan to address strike-related unrest at Marikana last year did not include the use of live ammunition, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard in Centurion on Thursday.

“At no stage did the plan envisage the use of [live] ammunition. The plan had the backing of the skilled members to deal with any high risk situation,” said Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott.

Scott was presenting his 149-page statement to the commission, and detailed the police’s role in stopping the unrest last year.

He played an important role in drafting the police plan to disperse and disarm the striking mineworkers. The plan was referred to as the “Scott plan”.

The events at Marikana did not go as he had initially planned, Scott said.

The commission, chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the killing of 44 people during strike-related unrest near Lonmin’s Marikana operations in North West.

Police shot dead 34 people – almost all of them striking mineworkers – while trying to disperse them on 16 August 2012.

Ten other people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

The commission will hear argument on Friday in an application to postpone the hearings.

Dali Mpofu, for the arrested and wounded miners, has submitted an application for the postponement of the commission until the issue of funding for the miners’ legal team is resolved.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A total of 40 shacks were gutted by fire on Friday morning at the Rugby Club informal settlement in Roodepoort, Johannesburg emergency services said.

The fire was believed to have been started by either a faulty electrical appliance or a candle around 05:00, said spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi.

About 50 people have been displaced.

Mulaudzi said this was the second fire in the Johannesburg area in the last 24 hours. 17 shacks were destroyed and 25 families displaced in Diepsloot on Thursday.

Community members needed to look after their heating, lighting and cooking appliances as these often were the cause of such fire, he said.

“They must refrain from buying these products on the street as they are unregulated.

“We’ve started a campaign to educate people to look after their equipment and to identity non-regulated products,” said Mulaudzi.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The urgent court application by the suspended head of Limpopo’s human settlements department was dismissed with costs in a labour court, The Star reported on Friday.

Nnana Manamela filed the application to challenge Premier Stanley Mathabatha’s decision to suspend her with pay for alleged financial misconduct and irregularities.

According to the newspaper, the allegations related to the awarding of R900m worth of contracts to business partners of former premier Cassel Mathale and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema.

“I am concerned with the plethora of cases that come before the labour court brought by senior employees in the public sector to challenge their suspensions on an urgent basis,” acting Judge AJ Snyman was quoted as saying.

Manamela told The Star that investigations into the awarding of contracts were politically motivated, and subsequently her suspension. Snyman dismissed the claims.

“The applicant’s seniority also creates a risk that she could possibly tamper with evidence or influence subordinates, being a case pertinently made out by the respondents,” Snyman said.

Manamela’s disciplinary hearing was due to begin on 14 October.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Awaiting trial prisoners will in future be expected to wear uniforms to reduce the number of escapes, Beeld reported on Friday.

Correctional services department acting deputy chief commissioner of awaiting trial prisoners Willem Damons, said prisoners sometimes escaped unnoticed from custody because they wore ordinary clothes and it was not easy to distinguish between them and ordinary visitors.

He said the uniforms, which would be introduced in October, would be yellow.

The announcement on the introduction of yellow uniforms was contained in the White Paper on awaiting trial prisoners, which was approved on Wednesday by Cabinet.

Most of the provisions it contained had been included in a series of amendments to the Correctional Matters Amendment Act adopted by Parliament in May 2011.

Damons explained that the decision on the uniforms could not be applied earlier because they had experienced initial problems with the supply of materials for the uniforms.

He pointed out that the uniforms would not be worn during court appearances because of the principle that defendants were considered innocent until the court ruled otherwise.

– SAPA

Johnnesburg – South Africa’s petrol station and car retail and dealership workers will go on strike next week, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Thursday.

The strike for higher wages and better working conditions would start on Monday, Numsa said. The union had previously postponed an earlier start date for the stoppage of September 2, saying it wanted to give talks with employers a chance.
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