The North West Provincial Executive Council (Exco) has welcomed an investment of more than R1,1 billion that is to boost job creation in the province.

Premier Thandi Modise says that the investment by Sephaku Cement, an associate company of Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed, Sephaku Holding Limited for the construction of a cement production facility represents the largest investment in a South African enterprise by an African Company.

Construction of the Aganang Cement Project stretching over an area of 65 hectares at a site situated about 35 kilometers outside Lichtenburg commenced three months ago.

The limestone mine,clinker and cement manufacturing plant with a guaranteed kiln production capacity of 6000 tons per day, the biggest single kiln line in South Africa is targeting to manufacture approximately 1.2 million tons of cement per annum.

Three hundred and two previously unemployed people 50% of whom are from the province are currently employed on the project which is also expected to create 650 employment opportunities for local sub contractors.

Sinoma International has reportedly also spent R500 million locally towards construction of the cement market is targeting to supply Gauteng, Northern and North Western region of the country with cement for the next 40years.

The provincial government is engaged in discussion with Sephaku Cement regarding the upgrading of the 24,65 kilometer D933 Gelukspan road between the cement factory and the R503 Lichtenburg/Mahikeng road for it to carry the expected increase in truck loading during the operational phase of the project support.

Meanwhile, an agreement has been reached with all crop farmers belonging to the Kopanong Communal Property Authority affected by the mining operations on the farm Verwaal 57 10 and Stiglingspan 7310 to compensate them with R1500 per hectare per annum for as long as the land cannot be cultivated as a result of mining operations.
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A Mpumalanga widow has presented her husband’s convicted killer with a Bible and advised him to seek Jesus Christ.

Güdryn Schoeman, 69, presented the Bible to Aaron Majawodwa Nkosi, 30, through his lawyer Lawrence Manzini, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Nkosi was appearing for mitigation before sentencing in the Nelspruit Circuit of the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Manzini told his client that the Bible was from his victim’s widow.

“Güdryn Schoeman has asked that you repent and find a way to Jesus Christ,” Manzini told Nkosi as he handed him the Bible in full view of the court.

“She has sent this Holy Bible as a present to you. She said you should accept it and find a new life.”

Güdryn’s husband Johannes Hendrik Tolstoi Schoeman, 86, was killed at their home on Vygeboom Farm near Badplaas on December 17, 2010.

Nkosi, who quietly sat in the dock, accepted the Bible.

Prosecutor S Ntuli told the court that Güdryn, as a Christian, had told him she had already forgiven Nkosi for murdering her husband.

“In her statement presented before court, Schoeman said her husband was an incredible man. He helped everyone on his farm and was among the farmers in the apartheid era who loved his African employees,” Ntuli said.

“Schoeman said her husband has helped in building proper houses with running water for all his farm labourers. He also built two schools, two soccer fields and paid his workers well.

“He left his farm in the hands of seven of his staff members to run it and he only assisted them when needed.”

On Tuesday, Nkosi was found guilty of murder, robbery and kidnapping, while his co-accused Thomas Johannes Nyathi, 30, was acquitted of all the charges.

Judge Mmonoa Teffo said she had to acquit Nyathi because there was no evidence which positively linked him to the crime.

She said the only piece of evidence Ä blood samples taken from the crime scene Ä were inadmissible because proper procedures were not followed by the police team.

On Wednesday, Ntuli told the court that Schoeman left a financial strain on his wife’s shoulders as she was now obliged to run the farm with the seven reliable staff members.

“This was a very serious crime to be committed against farmers and it is prevalent in the region. The two accused grew up on the same farm. They both knew the Schoemans very well and that they were vulnerable elderly citizens. But the Schoemans did not know them,” Ntuli said.

“The attack was well planned. Nkosi and his accomplice attacked them in the safety of their own home. The deceased, according to evidence, did not resist when attacked due to his old age.”

Ntuli told the court that most farms in the region were easy targets for criminals because they were far away from police stations.

“Help gets to them at a later stage. Although Mrs Schoeman has forgiven the accused, she’ll never forget the ordeal for the rest of her life,” Ntuli said.

“There are no compelling circumstances on the accused and he has shown no remorse to his actions. This act was perpetrated by greed. They were only looking for money and weapons. Schoeman did not deserve to be killed in that manner.”

Teffo postponed sentencing to Friday. – Sapa

Cape Town – The largest source of sand for the building industry in the Western Cape was attacked by arsonists shortly after 11pm last night.

Two diggers and one excavator sustained serious fire damage at the SSB sand mine in Macassar, off Baden Powell Drive. Metro fire fighters brought the blaze under control.
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WEARING a white rosary around his neck, a 19-year-old Woodlands man has told a judge he had no idea why he has been implicated in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

The teenager has been charged along with his 16-year-old brother and 22-year-old Kyrone Spalding.

They are being tried in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in connection with the July 2011 rape and murder of Nomathemba Xaba in the Mountain Rise Cemetery.
For more http://www.iokl.co.za

Criminals operating in Chatsworth’s Silverglen Nature Reserve have shot and wounded a police officer.

Warrant Officer Marlin Christopher Pillay, 39, was found wounded by his colleagues who were patrolling the area on Tuesday.

The police officer was believed to have stopped to search a man when he was attacked by three armed men, who fled, said a source close to the investigation.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal is again preparing to remove hundreds of people from the voters roll for two by-elections, in what is another major discovery of incidents of electoral fraud in the province.

An estimated 800 people are expected to be removed from the voters roll of by-elections scheduled for KwaMashu and Jozini respectively.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

A DURBAN faith healer, chided by a court for his “despicable” conduct in having sex with a woman who came to him for help, has been acquitted of rape.

Ahmed Rajab Mohomed walked out of the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday a free man after being found not guilty of raping a Phoenix mother who wanted him to rid her house of evil spirits
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Pretoria – There was enough evidence that former Nigerian Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye and his friend Andre Gouws had conspired to murder Chanelle Henning, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked the court to convict Monye and Gouws of conspiring to murder Henning.

Henning was gunned down in a drive-by shooting outside a Faerie Glen crèche in Pretoria on November 8, 2011.

The State submitted that the two had conspired with former policeman Gerhardus (Dup) du Plessis and Willem (Pike) Pieterse to murder Henning.

Du Plessis and Pieterse, who are self-confessed drug addicts, are serving 18-year prison sentences after confessing to killing Henning.

They implicated Monye and Gouws, who was friends with Henning’s husband Nico Henning, as the men behind the murder.

Monye was acquitted on another murder charge in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court when Henning was shot.

He admitted introducing the two killers to Gouws, but said he knew nothing about the murder.

Gouws admitted watching Henning’s movements at her husband’s request, but said he wanted to see if he could catch her with drugs.

He denied arranging her murder.

Nel handed a detailed time line of events and comprehensive heads of argument to the court.

He argued that the court should accept the evidence of Du Plessis and Pieterse as their versions had been consistent and was corroborated by cellphone detail billing and video footage.

Their versions that there were meetings on particular days and at specific places were later confirmed by the accused themselves.

Nel described Monye and Gouws as two of the worst witnesses he had ever met.

“They were deceitful, had tailored their versions and their versions were in addition not only improbable but also factually impossible,” said Nel.

“This is… one of the rare cases where the State could argue that a conviction should follow on the strength of the State case even if the accused’s version, evaluated in isolation could be argued to be reasonable possible.”

Nel said Du Plessis and Pieterse accepted that they had committed an atrocious crime and that murdering a woman they had never met was senseless.

The two were willing to face the accused and never contradicted themselves, Nel said.

In contrast, Gouws sat back in the witness box with stretched arms.

He answered questions confidently at first but slowly regressed as he tried to hide behind a childhood injury that purportedly affected his memory.

Nel said Gouws had even relied on the Bible to convince the court that he was telling the truth, but was nevertheless a dismal witness.

He argued that only Nico Henning could have disclosed the home, work and crèche addresses and only his friend Gouws could have provided detail about the deceased to Monye and the two killers.

The victim initiated custody proceedings shortly before she was killed and with her out of the way, there was at least one less role player in the custody battle, Nel argued.

He said Gouws had avoided contact with Nico on the day after the murder, but could however not resist to “congratulate” his friend and to tell him he was proud of him that evening – this after Nico thought he had done well in a lie detector test.

Matthew Klein, for Monye, and Daan Mostert, for Gouws, both argued that the court should be careful of relying on the evidence of self-confessed drug addicts, murders, thieves and co-perpetrators.

Klein said the State’s case was based on circumstantial evidence and one could not merely infer that the State had proved its case against his client beyond reasonable doubt.

Mostert argued that the killers had been in possession of the murder weapon long before they met Gouws and that Gouws’ version that he had never discussed anything with the two was reasonably possibly true.

Judgment would be delivered on November 25. – Sapa

The ANC in the Frances Baard region in Kimberley takes seriously allegations of bribes being paid in exchange for houses, the party said on Wednesday.

“We hold a strong view that the provision of housing, water, electricity and other basic amenities to our communities is our revolutionary duty,” African National Congress spokesman Ali Diteme said in a statement.

“We also hold a strong view that the elected public representatives and government officials have got a responsibility to ensure that the deserving beneficiaries are prioritised when houses get allocated to the communities.”

Diteme said the allegations that people were paying bribes for houses in Leratong Park were reported in the Diamond Fields Advertiser.

He said the ANC was commissioning its own investigation into the allegations.

The ANC in the region believed that the “first come, first served” principle had to apply, and that people could not by-pass the beneficiaries list.

Diteme called on community leaders to exercise restraint and caution.

“(They must) provide leadership and rise above petty squabbles, when dealing with sensitive and emotional matters such as housing.

“… We will deploy our team to work hand-in-hand with all the stakeholders, including the team from the municipality and the provincial government to quell the situation and address the problems of Leratong Park once and for all,” he said. – Sapa

Durban – The uncle of a man accused of trafficking girls knew that his nephew kept them at a Durban hotel, the Durban Regional Court was told on Wednesday.

“I knew that Sandile had young girls kept at 20 Fisher Street,” Bhekuyise Petros Mbhele told the court.

He was testifying in the trial of his nephew Sandile Patrick Zweni and four others on an assortment of charges including human trafficking, racketeering and keeping a brothel.

He and his co-accused Dr Genchen Rugnath, his wife Ravina, Nonduzo Dlamini, 24, and Bhabha Dubazini have pleaded not guilty to the 156 charges.

Rugnath owns the Inn Town Lodge, where some of the alleged offences took place.

The testimony of Mbhele, who operated a taxi for Zweni, follows that of a young 18-year-old girl.

She testified on Tuesday that she was held against her will by Zweni until she was addicted to crack cocaine, and then prostituted herself to buy drugs from him.

Mbhele made his admission under cross-examination, after Rugnath’s lawyer questioned him about his statement to the police.

Mbhele said he knew about the girls at Fisher Street because that was where he would collect his taxi from Zweni.

He also collected the taxi and petrol money from Zweni at a number of other locations.

From 2007, the location was the Inn Town Lodge, owned by Rugnath.

He said did not see Rugnath at the lodge, but recalled seeing his wife arrive there with plumbers on an occasion in 2011.

During the Rugnaths’ bail application, Ravina Rugnath said in a statement that she was a housewife and had nothing to do with the hotel.

– SAPA