By TDN
Potchefstroom- As part of the National Minister of Sport and Recreation Mr. Fikile Mbalula’s Sport Plan which seeks to ensure maximum access to sport, recreation and physical education in every school in South Africa, the North West Department of Sport, Arts and Culture together with Education will be hosting Provincial Schools Leagues Competitions at Potchefstroom Kopano Military Base on the 14th September 2013 under the theme “The Future Stars”.
“It is through these competitions that learners across the province are afforded the opportunity to participate in a multi-coded event in order to showcase their talent and sporting skills. It will also ensure full integration of sport for athletes with disabilities in the competitions” Department spokesperson Shirley Montsho said.
The following sporting codes will be participated on during the event by both primary and Secondary Schools: Netball, Chess, Rugby, Cricket, Volleyball, Tennis, Gymnastics, Hockey, Football, Table Tennis, Athletics and Basketball.
“Our Schools are the bedrock to identify and develop talent from”, said MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Mme Tebogo Modise.
“This is a critical period in a child’s live to groom and nurture talent for the development of our future stars” further said MEC Modise “Motswana a re leojwa le sa le metsi concluded MEC Modise.
MEC said in order to encourage participation and more effort from Schools, there will be an award ceremony where the winning schools will receive medals, trophies and equipments during competition.-TDN

The event will be held as follows:
Date: 14th September 2013
Time: 09h00
Venue: Potchefstroom Kopano Military Base

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By TDN
Mahikeng-Boxing enthusiasts and guests at a gala dinner hosted by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) to honour Norman “Pangaman” Sekgapane were taken on a trip down memory lane when speaker after speaker reminisced about the epic battles the legendary boxer fought.
The event was held in Mafikeng over the weekend.
Among the guests were veteran boxing administrator Stanley Sono, Boxing SA’s Dr Peter Ngatane and members of the local boxing fraternity.
During the event, guests were treated to live serenading acapella sounds and awe-inspiring television clips of some of the greatest local boxing bouts, including those that featured “Pangaman”.
In a speech delivered on her behalf by the Acting Head of Department, Ms Faith Mashimbye, MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms Tebogo Modise paid homage to Sekgapane and said the Province was proud to honour him.
“Even to this day, from the corners of Cape Town to East London, Durban and Johannesburg, any boxing enthusiast worth his or her salt knows about the memorable battles that this man fought on the ring,” said Ms Modise.
“Who will forget his epic fights against seasoned warriors such as Anthony “Blue Jaguar” Morodi and Nkosana “Happy Boy” Mgxaji” said Modise.
MEC Modise said Sekgapane is the man who used to pack stadiums with his bouts against Antonio Cervantes, Harold Volbrecht, Bramley Whiteboy, Tsietsi Maretloane, Mzwandile Biyana and many other boxers of the highest calibre in the world.
She added that the boxer would always be remembered for his ring presence.
“The Norman “Pangaman” Sekgapane that we know was (like) a master chess player in the ring. He was always clear about his strategy, often catching his opponents unawares. This is the man who became the darling of the boxing game with his tactics and sheer hard work.” She said.
Commenting about his boxing career with Sekgapane, Dr Ngatane – who was also an amateur contemporary of the boxer – said even during their amateur years, “Pangaman” was always inspirational.
“He was quiet off the ring and did not seem bothered as we all were preparing for our bouts. He approached his craft with dignity and made his statements with his fists.”
Accompanied by members of his family, including his mother, wife, sisters and children, “Pangaman” expressed joy at the recognition.
“Many boxers are recognised when they are no longer living,” he said. “I thank the North West Province for such a great honour.” he said.-TDN
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Music and Arts enthusiasts in general will be treated to a rarity on 28th September 2013, when Mmabana Mahikeng Theatre hosts the Annual Recorder and Choral Extravaganza.
The objectives of the programme which is in its sixth year are among others, to strengthen the recorder’s indescribable value in introducing music literacy to young and beginning music scholars, and overall, is that a great number of children with special musical talent but with no gift of singing, will be catered for and be given an opportunity to develop their talent at an early stage of their life.
This year’s programme will comprise two segments which will include items from early beginning of the recorder, right through the years to the present day including some great South African choral compositions, the other part will comprise exciting Christmas Carols which will usher the audience into the celebratory mood of this great event.
A strong fifty member ensemble consists of recorder consort and percussionists accompanying current and past Mmabana vocal training students some of whom are pursuing professional training with various tertiary institutions around the country.
The Recorder is a musical instrument that is a type of flute made out of wood, plastic or ivory.
Production is scheduled as follows:

Venue: Mmabana Mahikeng Theatre
Time: 17H30 for 18H00
Ticket price: R 20 adults and R10 students and children

Johannesburg – Walter Sisulu University management and trade unions have agreed on a wage package in terms of which workers will get a 5% increase backdated to January, the university said on Tuesday.

“The annual salary increase for 2013 will be an across-the-board increase on basic salary of 5%,” university spokesperson Angela Church said in a statement.

“The increase will be backdated to 1 January 2013, and paid with the salary run of September 2013, together with back pay,” she said in a statement.

This follows weeks of protests which eventually led to the university being closed. Classes resumed on Tuesday with a revised academic calendar.

Church said all the parties were committed to implementing the revised academic calendar.

Employees would be reimbursed for the resultant additional working hours with the payment on 12 September of the equivalent of an August 2013 salary cheque, less the usual deductions.

“The parties acknowledge that the no work, no pay principle during the industrial action applies. However, it is agreed that employees will, subject to the terms of this agreement, be entitled to trade-off leave,” she said.

This was aimed at limiting the consequences of the effect of the no work, no pay principle.

She said contract workers would be considered for permanent posts once the restructuring process had been concluded, subject to a match-and-place process.

The agreement would also result in workers being granted a once-off opportunity to migrate to a preferred retirement fund.

“It is agreed that an audit firm will be appointed to conduct a further audit on the process of migration to the new university salary scales.

“Should any error be found with the initial process, it will be corrected retrospectively to 1 January 2009.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A 28-year-old man has been jailed for 18 years by the KwaDukuza Regional Court for the statutory rape of a teenager, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday.

He was sentenced on Monday for raping his 14-year-old girlfriend, said Captain Thulani Zwane.

The teenager’s parents had asked him to stop seeing their daughter, but he continued the relationship and had sex with her.

The parents opened a case and he was arrested and charged with statutory rape, said Zwane.

– SAPA

Pietermaritzburg – Major General Bethuel Mondli Zuma, who was to have become Gauteng’s new provincial police commissioner, appeared briefly in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Zuma, 46, faces four counts for allegedly trying to evade a roving anti-alcohol patrol in 2008.

National police commissioner Riah Phiyega announced Zuma’s appointment as Gauteng police commissioner on 31 August, but withdrew it when it emerged that he had a case pending against him.

The charges Zuma faces are failing to stop when ordered, drunk driving, attempting to escape from custody, and defeating the ends of justice.

He is also alleged to have prevented traffic officers from taking a blood sample to test for alcohol and to have locked himself in a house for two hours.

The case was adjourned to Wednesday because trial Magistrate Riad Abrahams was on a course.

Zuma has argued that he ignored the patrol unit’s orders to stop because he feared that the uniformed person who signalled him to stop was a bogus officer.

As he sped away, traffic officers followed him to a house where he was arrested and breathalysed.

The breathalyser reading was 0.65, three times over the legal alcohol limit. He was released on bail of R500.

Zuma, who was attached to the police staff at OR Tambo International Airport at the time, was in Pietermaritzburg on a project when he was arrested.

At the time Zuma, who joined the police service in 1994, was driving an unmarked state vehicle.

Phiyega has said she was not aware of the criminal investigation against Zuma.

He is not related to President Jacob Zuma.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A woman was wounded on Tuesday in a shooting believed to be related to taxi violence in Roodepoort, Johannesburg metro police said.

“The injured female was taken to hospital and four taxis were damaged,” Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said.

The shooting occurred at the intersection of Ontdekkers and CR Swart roads on the West Rand.

He said the road would be closed until further notice to allow police time to investigate. The reason for the suspected taxi violence was not yet known and would form part of investigations.

SA Police Service spokesperson Constable Vincent Mashiteng said police were hunting for three man who fled the scene in a blue Toyota Corolla after the shooting.

He said the three were on foot when they started shooting at a taxi and then randomly shot at passing cars.

“At least 10 shots were fired with one hitting the woman who was transported to hospital,” he said.
No one in the taxi was hurt.

The shooting came a day after a Diepsloot man was wounded after taxi drivers in the area went on strike.

The drivers were demanding to be promoted to taxi owners. The man was standing with other taxi drivers when a silver-grey Mercedes-Benz drove up.

An argument ensued between the taxi drivers and the occupants of the car, one of whom opened fire, hitting the man in the lower body.

Mashiteng could not confirm whether the two incidents were linked, but said there had been taxi problems in the area for some time. No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A SA Air Force (SAAF) member appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on a murder charge on Tuesday.

The matter against Corporal Simphiwe Magudulela, 27, was postponed until 17 September for further investigation and to make arrangements for a psychiatric evaluation.

Magudulela was represented by a Legal Aid lawyer.

A man was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting at the Bloemspruit Air Force Base, outside Bloemfontein, at 02:00 on 1 September.

At the time, police said a member on duty had shot two colleagues.

One of the men died on the scene and the other was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

SA National Defence Force (SANDF) spokesperson Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said the circumstances leading to the shooting at the base were being investigated internally.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Evidence leaders at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry have revisited the use of stun grenades on protesting mineworkers at Marikana last year.

On Tuesday, evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson read out the testimony of Brigadier Johann Fritz, who flew over the protesters on the afternoon of 16 August 2012, in a helicopter.

Fritz had said: “I did not know at the time, the name of the person [police officer] who threw the stun grenades from the chopper. I now know that it was the air law enforcement officer [Aleo], Sergeant [Adrianna] Venter.

“I did not instruct that stun grenades be thrown from the chopper. I [only] permitted it when the Aleo told me that her unit had used this method of dispersing crowds very successfully in the past.”

Fritz had gone on to say he was not an expert in crowd management.

He was the overall commander of the special task force deployed to the strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg, in North West, last year.

According to Wikipedia, a stun grenade is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient the enemy.

The grenade is designed to produce a blinding flash of light and loud noise without causing permanent injury.

The commission heard that the stun grenades were thrown at protesting mineworkers in an attempt to make them run.

Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott, who is currently on the witness stand, said in his testimony on Monday, that this would have made it easier for the police to ascertain whether the protesters were carrying weapons.

“What I have picked up from colleagues [police officers who were also at Marikana] is that the strikers that were moving off, regrouped and then started walking again,” he told the commission.

“The explanation I was given was that stun grenades were used to break up the groups and hopefully to get them to start running. It is [more] difficult to conceal weapons when running than just walking away.”

Video footage

The commission then viewed footage of police officers throwing stun grenades from a helicopter.

Chaskalson said there was little resemblance between what was shown on the video and what Venter had told the commission in a statement.

According to her statement, a group of protesters armed with knobkerries, pangas, and guns stormed the police.

“What I would say is that this is what she is saying. We can’t see what she was seeing and it would be very wrong of me to think on her behalf,” Scott responded on Monday.

“Obviously, she would need to testify and tell the commission why she was throwing those grenades.”

Chaskalson asked whether Scott had been informed about the incident in which the strikers had “stormed members of the SA Police Service [SAPS]”.

He replied that he had not heard about it.

The commission, which is sitting in Centurion, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people during the unrest at Marikana.

Thirty-four people were shot dead, almost all of them striking mineworkers, on 16 August 2012, while police were trying to disperse them.

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

The public hearings continue.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – An unlicensed school transport driver was fined R2 300 for taking 21 children to school in an unroadworthy vehicle, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Tuesday.

The Toyota Venture was caught on Monday driving in the emergency lane on Leondale Road in Katlehong, said Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago.

The vehicle was transporting pupils aged between 4 and 10.

“It was found with defective brakes, non-functional door handles and passenger windows, smooth tyres, faulty steering, and all lights not in working order,” Kgasago said.

Police also discovered that the 25-year-old driver did not have a valid driver’s licence. He was then fined.

Kgasago urged parents and teachers to ensure that children were transported in roadworthy and suitable vehicles.

He said unroadworthy vehicles should be reported to the authorities.

– SAPA