Orlando Pirates have received a major boost ahead of Wednesday’s Absa Premiership match against Polokwane City with the news that striker Collins Mbesuma and midfielder Thandani Ntshumayelo have recovered from their respective injuries and will resume full training this week.

Mbesuma and Ntshumayelo’s return will come as major boost for Pirates, who are on the back of a 1-0 loss to AC Leopards in the CAF Champions League.
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Erick Mathoho and Knowledge Musona both trained with Kaizer Chiefs’ first team yesterday and will be available for selection tomorrow night.

Mathoho was left out of the squad for the Maritzburg United game last weekend after he felt some pain in his thigh, while Musona was substituted in the second half due to stomach cramps.
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The draw for the Telkom Knockout took place on Monday night and saw defending champions Bloemfontein Celtic drawn against last year’s losing finalists Mamelodi Sundowns.

Bloemfontein Celtic lifted the domestic trophy last season, with Clinton Larsen’s troops seeing off the likes of Orlando Pirates, Free State Stars and Chippa United to secure a place in the final – where they beat the Brazilians 1-0.

Orlando Pirates will meet play-off winners Mpumalanga Black Aces, with Aces being the home side in the clash.

Fellow Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs will also take on one of the promoted sides – with Amakhosi travelling to Polokwane City.

The Dube Birds, Moroka Swallows, with host University of Pretoria in their opening clash of the cup competition.

SuperSport United face an interesting opening tie as they will hosts Ajax Cape Town while Free State Stars will be at home to AmaZulu.

Clever Boys, Wits, take on Golden Arrows while last season’s ABSA Premiership runner’s up Platinum Stars host the Team of Choice, Maritzburg United.

Full Draw is as follows:

SuperSport United v Ajax Cape Town

Bloemfontein Celtic v Mamelodi Sundowns

Free State Stars v AmaZulu

Wits v Golden Arrows

Platinum Stars v Maritzburg United

Mpumalanga Black Aces v Orlando Pirates

Polokwane City v Kaizer Chiefs

Moroka Swallows v University of Pretoria
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Bloemfontein – The situation at the Mangaung Correctional Centre, near Bloemfontein, is calm and under control, prison security said on Monday.

Some 311 workers at the maximum security facility went on strike from Thursday last week, and management brought in manpower from outside the city, said Andy Baker, head of G4S Africa.

“We have resources in South Africa from which we could draw. We have some 13 500 full time employees in South Africa,”

On Monday, prison management also had a prisoner riot to handle, which broke out in some sections.

“We have exceptional response teams for such situations which brought the riot under control within 30 minutes,” said Baker.

The prisoners burned blankets, broke toilets, windows and damaged some 40 porcelain basins they wanted to use as projectiles.

Baker said one man was taken to hospital due to the riot.

However, by 7pm on Monday the situation was calm and peaceful, Baker said.

He described the actions of the striking workers as frustrating.

G4S said workers had ignored a signed agreement to return to work on Thursday night.

“There is a possibility that workers would lose their work, because they are now busy with an illegal and unprotected strike,” said Baker.

The company said its first responsibility was to get the situation back to normal within the facility.

Baker said G4S has committed themselves to address the issues which led to the strike.

“We hope sanity would prevail and workers do the right thing by coming back to work in the right and legal way,” he said. – Sapa

Johannesburg – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is still awaiting information to complete a probe into the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home, her office said on Monday.

“The relevant party has been requested to provide the outstanding information by 30 September 2013,” Madonsela’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said in a statement.

“Upon receipt of the information, the public protector will finalise the provisional report, which will only be shared with affected parties.”

Madonsela’s report is expected to shed light on how money was spent on refurbishing President Jacob Zuma’s private homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.

Masibi said the purpose of releasing a provision report was to give affected parties an opportunity to respond to the findings.

She reminded the media that section (7) 2 of the Public Protector Act prohibited the disclosure and publication of the contents of a provisional report.

“The public protector will study the responses and integrate them to the extent possible in the final report.

“The responses will not be discussed or commented on, as this undermines the integrity of the investigation as well as the public protector’s effectiveness,” Masibi said.

The final report would be made public after it had been finalised.

The date had not yet been decided.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The police must stop the violence between South Africans and Somalians living in Port Elizabeth, the ANC in the Eastern Cape said on Monday.

“Any type of violence, including looting of shops owned by Somali nationals is illegal, wrong and has no place in South Africa,” ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said in a statement.

“The SA Police Service [SAPS] members are the first and last line of defence for our communities, and we call on them to use the law and public order policing techniques to stop this wave of violence.”

Eastern Cape police said seven men had been arrested at the weekend for looting and burning Somali-owned shops in Port Elizabeth.

At least 10 shops in KwaZakhele and New Brighton were attacked.

Police spokesperson Miranda Mills said two shops were looted and burnt in Ntintili street, and a car parked outside was set alight.

Several other shops were targeted on Sunday following the arrest of a Somali man accused of shooting dead a man outside a shop on Saturday evening.

Police had since moved some foreigners out of the area.

Mabuyane said the ANC in the province was calling on residents in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.

“Somali nationals must also stop using violence to resolve challenges they face but must put their trust in the police to deal with any challenge.

“Violence will not help us deal with any situation but will make matters worse for our people,” he said.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A minibus taxi transporting more than a ton of dagga was seized near Cornelia on Monday, said Free State police.

Police spokesperson Mmako Mophiring said police arrested the 41-year-old taxi driver, from KwaZulu-Natal, on the R103 near Cornelia in a routine crime exercise around 10:45.

“When searching the vehicle, they found bags of dagga with a combined weight of 1 025.55kg,” said Mophiring.

It was believed that the seized dagga, worth about R1.2m on the street, was being taken to Gauteng.

Most of the seats in the Toyota Quantum taxi vehicle had been removed to accommodate the load of 81 bags.

The driver would appear soon in the Frankfort Magistrate’s Court.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A man has been arrested for killing his father and grandmother in Malamulele, Limpopo police said on Monday.

The 37-year-old hacked his father with a panga and beat his 81-year-old grandmother to death with a piece of wood, said police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi.

The bodies were found on Monday morning.

“The motive for the attacks is still unknown,” he said.

The man would appear soon in the Malamulele Magistrate’s Court.

– SAPA

Durban – The driver of an articulated truck that killed 23 people when its brakes allegedly failed has a new lawyer.

Sanele Goodness May’s lawyer Theasen Pillay withdrew from the case when he appeared in the Pinetown Regional Court on Monday.

Pillay was appointed by May’s employers Sagekal Logistics.

The case against May was postponed to 8 October, after his new lawyer Professor Mdletshe told the court that new evidence had been given to the prosecution, and it had been agreed that the case would need to be postponed while this evidence was investigated by police.

It was not revealed in court what this information was and the matter was postponed for a formal bail application.

The application had previously been set down for Wednesday.

Earlier Pillay said three other attorneys had arrived at court to defend May.

The accident occurred when the truck May was driving hit four fully-laden minibus taxis and two cars on the corner of Field’s Hill (M13) and Richmond Road in Pinetown shortly before 19:00 on 6 September.

He was initially charged with 22 counts of culpable homicide, but this was subsequently upgraded to 22 counts of murder and a charge of reckless or negligent driving.

A 23rd person injured in the crash died on Saturday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has refused to make public reports about the state of animal health in South Africa, the DA claimed on Monday.

DA MP Annette Steyn said the party submitted an application earlier this year to the department for the reports, one of them by the World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on foot and mouth disease. The request was denied.

“On 26 July… the DA submitted another… application, to which we have received a response today, where the department states that the OIE report was not provided by the organisation,” Steyn said.

“This is in contradiction to a letter from the OIE clearly stating that a detailed assessment has in fact been made available to… [the department].”

She said the department’s denial of the existence of the report was “clearly intended to mislead the public about the true status of animal health in South Africa”.

Joemat-Pettersson said Steyn was “creating a storm in a teacup”.

“There have never been any secrets nor denials about the existence of the OIE report and, in fact, Ms Steyn has been informed of this personally,” she said in a statement.

“A parliamentary answer to the question on the OIE made it clear that the department was in discussion with the OIE and that the report would be made after evaluations had been completed.”

Joemat-Pettersson said the DA was using the OIE as a red-herring, when it should be focusing on ensuring the Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA) was passed.

“The purpose of the… bill is to provide a legal framework for the implementation of the small scale fisheries policy.” she said.

“To date, the DA has not given any backing to the amendment despite the fact one of the hardest hit communities is located within the West Coast of the Western Cape [which is led by the DA].”

Joemat-Pettersson said “Steyn and her DA counterparts” had to explain why they were so focused on the OIE report, instead of investing their energy on the MLRA.

Steyn said the OIE report contained information about steps the department needed to implement for the ban on South Africa’s meat and poultry exports to the EU to be lifted.

“The ban will not be lifted until the issues identified by the OIE are rectified by… [the department],” she said.

“If the department once again fails to meet the requirements of the OIE, the economy could lose at least R4bn in export revenue and thousands of jobs in the coming year.”

Steyn said the DA would request the report directly from the OIE.

– SAPA