Pretoria – There must be information police have held back in the inquiry into 44 deaths during labour unrest at Marikana last year, the Farlam Commission said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Tshepo Mahlangu said this had been discovered in the past 10 days.

The commission had, therefore, postponed its proceedings until Wednesday next week.

“In the past 10 days we have discovered through the evidence leaders that there must be info that was not disclosed by the police, that seeks to suggest that the information was withheld to try and portray a certain approach to the commission in relation to what has been discovered,” Mahlangu said.

Previously, evidence leader Advocate Geoff Budlender, asked that the commission be postponed to allow his team to examine the police evidence.

In Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott’s version on a computer hard drive containing the police’s evidence, “some documents have been added and some files we haven’t seen before”, Budlender told the commission.

He said the police team had been co-operative, but that the process of going through the evidence “could take some time”.

The commission, sitting in Centurion, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West last year.

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

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

President Jacob Zuma established the commission shortly after the unrest.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The murders of two elderly women in Lenasia this week is disturbing, Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko said on Thursday.

“Such an act of criminality does not only rob the families and their grandchildren of their beloved ones but demonstrates cowardness,” she said in a statement.

“This case should receive the highest attention by the criminal justice system.”

On Wednesday, the bodies of two elderly women were found in a house they shared in Lenasia extension 11.

Gauteng police spokesperson Kay Makhubela said a relative found the women, aged 70 and 75.

“One of the old ladies, who was full of blood, was found in the sitting room. The other was found dead in a bedroom,” he said at the time.

The motive for the killings was unknown and the weapon used had not yet been identified.

Both women suffered head wounds, and one had strangulation bruises.

“We cannot rule out that there might have been rape, but that will be determined by the investigation,” Makhubela said.

Mazibuko urged people to contact police if they had information about the crime.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Specialised police units played a part in reducing South Africa’s crime, civil rights group AfriForum said on Thursday, after the release of the annual national crime statistics.

“It is clear… that specialist units contributed sizeably to the reduction and combating of priority crimes in the past financial year,” AfriForum community safety head Reg Crewe said in a statement.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said, among other things, sexual offences decreased by 0.4% during the 2012/13 financial year.

The results showed that 609 people were sentenced to 826 life sentences for sexual offences.

“The Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) accounted for 499 of these convictions,” said Crewe.

It was time government listened to the people and implemented specialised units everywhere, he said.

– SAPA

Cape Town – A flood alert has been issued for areas in the Cape Metropolitan area as dams, canals and reservoirs are filled to capacity across the Western Cape as a result of persistent heavy rains.

The department of water affairs on Thursday advised all disaster management authorities across the Western Cape that the increasing rainfall is resulting in dams overflowing, affecting mostly low-lying areas, the City of Cape Town’s Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said.

The greater part of the Cape Flats, that is located in low-lying and flood-plain areas, is already saturated due to persistent rainfall during the past month, he pointed out.

There is also a possibility that areas and farming communities that are located next to watercourses, rivers, or in close proximity to dams may be affected, Solomons-Johannes said.

He said a special flood advisory has been issued to subsistence and emerging farmers along these areas, urging them to take the necessary action to protect crops and livestock.

Solomons-Johannes added that the city had deployed its disaster response teams and engineering crews to assess the levels of the water across Cape Town to ensure that the necessary action can be taken to safeguard life and property.

The City is geared to initiate the necessary pro-active measures to discharge water from the catchment areas to counter flood damage.

Useful contact numbers:

· Flooding, blocked drains and service disruptions: Call 0860 103 089 or SMS to 31373.

· Electricity outages/disruptions: Call 0860 103 089 or SMS to 31220.

· Road Closures: Call the City’s Transport Information Centre on 0800 65 64 63 regarding delays on roadways and deviations.

· Weather Reports: listen to alerts on the radio and television; visit http://www.weathersa.co.za ; or call the Cape Town Weather Office on Tel: 021 934 0749/0831 or the weatherline on 083 123 0500.

· Emergencies: Call 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 from a cellphone.

– News24

Pretoria – The number of aggravated robberies increased by 1.2% over the past financial year, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.

However, there were still 29.7% fewer of these crimes than nine years ago and 18.7% less than four years ago, Mthethwa said at the release of the 2012/2013 crime statistics in Pretoria.

Residential burglaries increased by 3.3% in the past financial year, and non-residential burglaries by 1.7% over the same period.

In the 2012/2013 financial year:

– theft out of motor vehicles increased by 3.6%;

– commercial crimes increased by 0.6%;

– car hijacking increased by 5.4%;

– robbery at residential premises increased by 3.6%;

– truck hijacking increased by 14.9%;

– drug-related crime increased by 13.5%; and

– cases of drunken driving, or driving under the influence of drugs, increased by 1.5%.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The number of aggravated robberies increased by 1.2% over the past financial year, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.

However, there were still 29.7% fewer of these crimes than nine years ago and 18.7% less than four years ago, Mthethwa said at the release of the 2012/13 crime statistics in Pretoria.

Residential burglaries increased by 3.3% in the past financial year, and non-residential burglaries by 1.7%.

He said common robbery decreased by 2.2% over the reporting period.

“The role of the community in supplying the necessary information and the patrols of the streets has drastically reduced possibilities of this crime,” he said.

“This is corroborated by swift arrests that have been affected.”

Mthethwa said shoplifting had decreased by 3.9% over the same period.

There were also decreases in robberies at non-residential premises, by 0.6%, in cash-in-transit robberies, by 20.3%, and bank robberies, by 80%.

In the 2012/2013 financial year:

– theft out of motor vehicles increased by 3.6%;

– commercial crimes increased by 0.6%;

– car hijacking increased by 5.4%;

– robbery at residential premises increased by 3.6%;

– truck hijacking increased by 14.9%;

– drug-related crime increased by 13.5%; and

– cases of drunk driving, or driving under the influence of drugs, increased by 1.5%.

Mthethwa said there was an 18% decrease in ATM bombings, from 261 cases in 2011/12 to 214 in 2012/13.

Arson decreased by 8.7% over the reporting period.

“Advancement in technology on individual dwellings, the improvement of the infrastructure to reduce informal housing, as well as electricity roll-outs have also assisted in reducing this crime,” Mthethwa said.

There was a 4.1% decrease in malicious damage to property and a 4.4% decrease in the theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

Sapa

An Eastern Cape traditional healer has been arrested for raping a teenage girl.

The girl’s brothers took her to the 27-year-old traditional healer in Dutywa on Tuesday because she was sick, said Police Captain Jackson Manatha today.

“It is alleged that the traditional healer said that he will take the girl to a nearby river to wash the illness out,” he said.

He told her brothers to stay behind.

“The healer allegedly raped the girl near the river,” said Manatha.

On their return, the girl told her brothers what had happened.

The traditional healer would appear in the Dutywa Magistrates’ Court once he had been charged, said Manatha.

For more http://www.citypress.co.za

By TDN

North West-Eighty learners from high schools across the North West province are to participate in the Annual Provincial Participatory Education Technique (PET) programme contest to showcase solutions to road safety challenges in their communities.

The main objective of the PET is to encourage learners to identify road safety related problems affecting their communities and to finding solutions by way of research hereby empowering them with a hands on opportunity to solve their community road safety problems.

“The programme in its fifth year is led by the Road Safety Directorate within the Public Safety Branch of the department and implemented in partnership with the Department of Education and local municipalities” departmental spokesperson Ben Bole said. 

He said the competition will further contribute towards the 2011-2020 decade of action campaign.

Research workshops were conducted by the Road Safety Officers in the past months to empower participating school teams, who are to be adjudicated on models and presentations illustrating their community road safety problem and researched solutions.

The event will be held as follows:

Time: 08H00 am

Date: 20 September 2013

Venue: Rio hotel in Klerksdorp/Matlosane-TDN

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