Cape Town – When it comes to helping the disabled, the mandate of the department of women, children, and people with disabilities is to monitor and report, but not necessarily to deliver jobs, says its political head.

“The department… is mandated to advocate for, and monitor and report on, the rights of persons with disabilities. [It] is not as such a service delivery department,” Minister of Women, Children, and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana said in a written reply to a parliamentary question on Friday.

She was responding to a question by Democratic Alliance MP Michael de Villiers on what action her department was taking this year to help people with disabilities find work and set up small businesses.

Xingwana’s reply comes a day after the release of government’s latest Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT), which scored her department 42nd out of 42 national departments for its management practices.

Reports on gender equality not submitted

Among the performance areas of the department red-flagged in the MPAT report is service delivery. The red flag indicates the department does not have “a service charter and service standards”.

Incongruously, the department was also red-flagged for its “management of diversity”, meaning it did not submit mandatory reports on both gender equality and job access for disabled people.

In her written reply, Xingwana said that while the departments of labour and trade and industry were the ones mandated to help the disabled with jobs and business ventures, her own department had “extended its mandate on an ad hoc basis”.

This was being done through a “disability rights mailing list”, which provided a platform for employers to advertise vacancies earmarked for people with disabilities.

Job seekers could register on the same site, she said.

Among the “strategic outcome-orientated goals” listed on the department’s website is a commitment to “facilitate the empowerment of women, children, and people with disabilities for equitable access to public and private sector programmes and services”.

– SAPA

Cape Town – National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) staff were paid performance bonuses totalling over R7.5m for 2012/13, Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane revealed this week.

“Staff members who were eligible for performance bonuses in accordance with the applicable human resource policies of the NYDA, specifically the performance management, as well as the remuneration and benefits policies, received performance bonuses,” Chabane said in written reply to a Parliamentary question.

Top management and senior management were paid out close to R5m, while general staff were paid R2.6m.

A further R7.7m was set aside for the current financial year but would likely not be spent.

“Members of the newly appointment board of the NYDA will not qualify for the performance bonuses in the 2013/14 budget,” Chabane said.

Democratic Alliance youth leader Mbali Ntuli described the bonuses as a disgrace, adding “no bonuses can be justified”.

“How can the NYDA see it fit to pay its senior managers massive performance bonuses while the organisation still can’t get it together? It has not achieved anything.”

The money should have been used on bursaries and job creation.

“Instead, the money was used to enrich a few ANCYL cronies,” Ntuli said.
Sapa

Johannesburg – A 26-year-old man died when his car collided head-on with a truck near Grabouw in the Western Cape, paramedics said on Friday.

The accident happened on the N2 near Sir Lowry’s Pass, ER24 spokesperson Vanessa Jackson said in a statement.

The impact was so severe that the car was ripped apart.

“When paramedics arrived on the scene they found the engine of the car on the side of the road and the rest of the car on another side of the road,” said Jackson.

The driver was ejected from the car and his body found a few metres from where the accident happened.

“The driver of the light vehicle was declared dead on scene and no one in the truck was injured.”

The accident happened on Thursday night around 23:00.

The cause of the accident would be investigated by police.

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– SAPA

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma’s decision to refer the protection of state information bill back to Parliament was a wise move, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said on Friday.

“We had always indicated that there were still problems with the bill and that the best way forward would’ve been to send it to the Constitutional Court for advice,” Madonsela told an Association of Independent Publishers conference in Johannesburg.

The decision was “progressive”, and hopefully the remaining problems with the bill would be sorted out, she said.

On Thursday, Zuma announced he would not sign the bill into law because it was incoherently drafted and therefore unconstitutional.

“It is my opinion that the bill would not pass constitutional muster,” Zuma said.

The announcement was widely welcomed by critics who have campaigned against the legislation for years.

The president singled out two sections of the bill as problematic, but his office indicated that a letter sent to Speaker Max Sisulu mandates lawmakers to revise the contentious official secrets bill as a whole.

Zuma mentioned Section 45, which in its current form criminalises the improper classification of state information and provides for prison sentences of five to 15 years, depending on the level of wrongful classification.

It notably makes it a crime to classify information to conceal corruption or influence a tender process.

Section 42 purports to deal with failure to report possession of a classified document but refers back to an earlier section that sets out the maximum classification period, as stipulated in the National Archives Act.

Zuma was pressed by the media to explain in full why he found these parts of the bill problematic, but he declined.

– SAPA

Cape Town – A Cape Town man accused of killing and dismembering a teenage girl will go on trial in the Western Cape High Court in November.

Johannes Christiaan de Jager, 48, dressed in a tracksuit, appeared for his pre-trial conference on Friday morning.

He leaned in closer to his lawyer Sakkie Maartens to avoid a group of photographers.

Prosecutor Romay van Rooyen said the State was ready to proceed with its case.

The trial was to have started on 7 October but had changed to 11 November, because the first date was not available.

Maartens replied that he was only informed of the new trial date on Friday morning but was available for either date.

“We have received virtually 95% of the documentation and we will be ready in November,” he said.
De Jager would remain in custody until the trial.

He stands accused of murdering 16-year-old Charmaine Mare in January, while staying at her home in Kraaifontein, in Cape Town’s northern suburbs. At the time, Mare’s mother and other family members were away on a sea cruise.

He also allegedly raped and murdered a prostitute, Hiltina Alexander, in May 2008.

De Jager faces charges of murder, aggravated robbery, defeating the ends of justice, dismembering a corpse, and fraud.

He allegedly buried Mare’s partially-burned torso in open ground in Kraaifontein, and hid her arms and legs in a carton in the garage of her home. He then allegedly falsely reported her missing to police.

De Jager has already appeared in the Atlantis District Court for Alexander’s murder. The two cases have been combined.

The court heard on Monday that De Jager had a list of defence witnesses he intended calling. This list would be forwarded to his advocate for subpoena purposes.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Parliament has set a six-week deadline for MPs to review the protection of state information bill, after President Jacob Zuma referred it back to the legislature.

“The ad hoc committee must report to the National Assembly by 31 October,” Parliament said in a statement.

The 12-member committee will work in terms of rule 138, which means that it can invite submissions and call hearings.

The contentious official secrets bill had a fractious three-year passage through Parliament before it was adopted by the National Assembly in April.

Zuma opted not to sign it and on Thursday sent it back to Parliament for reconsideration.

The president singled out sections 42 and 45 of the so-called secrecy bill as instances of poor drafting that, he said, rendered it incoherent and irrational, and therefore unconstitutional.

Zuma’s letter of referral, published in Parliament’s list of announcements and tablings on Friday, suggest however that the committee has the power to look beyond these sections and make wider changes.

His decision was applauded by a wide front of opponents of the legislation, who have said they were poised to challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Four members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) were charged before a military court on Friday, on charges relating to the landing of a private aircraft at the Waterkloof Air Force Base.

SA National Defence Union (Sandu) national secretary Pikkie Greeff, counsel for two of the soldiers, said the exact content of the charges was not yet clear.

“It seems that the military’s view of the matter is that these officers are guilty of some military offence for their role in the Gupta landing, but it’s not clear what that role is alleged to have been.

“They are being charged with charges ranging from disobeying written instructions to conduct prejudicial to military discipline. It will only be clear from the final charge sheet what exactly the charges are,” said Greeff.

The four – Colonel Nomsa Khumalo, Lieutenant Colonel Christo Van Zyl, Lieutenant Colonel Christine Anderson, and Warrant Officer Thabo Ntshisi – appeared in the court, which is located inside the vast Thaba Tshwane military base in Pretoria.

A fifth officer, identified as Colonel Nkosi, was scheduled to appear later on Friday.

The matter was postponed until 2 October for preliminary investigations.

In court, the soldiers were informed that they were charged with contravening different sections of the military defence code (MDC).

“In terms of the MDC and the Defence Act there are certain offences that a soldier can commit which are formulated in the MDC,” Greeff said.

“Charges that were mentioned in this court includes sections [of the MDC] on disobeying written orders or instructions, conduct prejudicial to military discipline, and the abuse or misuse of state vehicles, aircraft or facilities.”

Gupta wedding

Sandu was representing Van Zyl and Anderson, while the others had private attorneys and SANDF counsel, he said.

A chartered commercial aircraft, Jet Airways flight JAI 9900 from India, ferrying more than 200 guests for the wedding of Vega Gupta and Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia, landed at the base in April.

The passengers were then transported, either by light aircraft, helicopter or in police-escorted vehicles, to attend the lavish ceremony at Sun City’s Palace of the Lost City in North West.

The landing sparked widespread criticism and several investigations were launched.

A government investigation exonerated President Jacob Zuma and his ministers, and found that the landing was the result of “collusion by officials”.

In June, eight of the 11 Tshwane metro police officers accused of providing unofficial security for the Gupta wedding guests pleaded guilty at an internal disciplinary hearing by the city.

The municipality’s probe into the scandal examined the extent of the damage caused by the officers’ involvement in the fiasco, Tshwane metro police executive director Console Tleane said at the time.

– SAPA

nesburg – Convicted murderer Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye’s fight to stay out of prison continued on Friday in the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto, as his legal team launched yet another bail application.

The hip hop singer’s counsel Rudi Krause informed the court that the appeal followed the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the case of taxi driver Jacob Humphreys.

“Murder charges are simply unsustainable. He [Maarohanye] should be convicted for culpable homicide,” he said.

The SCA in March converted the 10 murder charges against Humphreys to charges of culpable homicide.

Humphreys’s 20-year prison sentence was reduced to eight years.

Ten school children died when Humphreys drove over a railway level-crossing into the path of an oncoming train.

This was Maarohanye’s third appeal for bail since his conviction last October.

In December last year, Maarohanye and his co-accused Themba Tshabalala were each sentenced to 25 years in jail.

The two were each sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for murder and four years imprisonment for attempted murder.

For use of drugs, driving under the influence of drugs, and racing on a public road, they got a year for each count, to run concurrently.

Drag-racing

They were drag-racing in Protea North on 8 March 2010, when they crashed into a group of schoolboys. Prince Mohube, Mlungisi Cwayi, Andile Mthombeni, and Phomello Masemola were killed.

Frank Mlambo and Fumani Mushwana were left permanently brain damaged.

Maarohanye first appealed before magistrate Brian Nemavhidi in February and his appeal was refused.

He then went to the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg and failed.

Judge Nico Coetzee said he agreed with the Protea Magistrate’s Court’s finding that Maarohanye had failed to prove exceptional circumstances to support the application.

On Friday, prosecutor Raymond Mathunjwa said Maarohanye’s legal team was relying on a ruling that was different to their case.

“Humphreys’s case from the beginning was a schedule five not six case,” he said.

He added that in Humphreys’s case, it was a question of misjudgement.

“There were no drugs or racing involved. There was no recklessness, which is the case in this matter. I would say the matter remains a schedule six,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Senior police management blocked a planned raid on charities associated with former president Nelson Mandela, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.

High level police officials were reportedly worried that a raid on the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and the Nelson Mandela trust would cause embarrassment.

After this, a letter from police unit the Hawks was sent, including to some Mandela relatives, demanding financial statements.

Chief executive of the children’s fund Sibongile Mkhabela’s spokesperson Oupa Ngwenya confirmed a letter was received.

“The account the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund has with Nedbank is public knowledge and has been accounted in the financial statement for the year ended 31 March 2013 and is included as… [a note in] the annual report.”

Ngwenya and Danielle Melville, spokesperson for the foundation’s chief executive, said the letters had been passed to Mandela’s lawyer Bally Chuene.

The letters reportedly related to charges of fraud, forgery and uttering laid against Mandela’s former attorney Ismail Ayob.

In July, a court application for the removal of George Bizos, Tokyo Sexwale, and Chuene as directors of Harmonieux Investment Holdings and Magnifique Investment Holdings was struck off the court roll.

The application was brought by Mandela’s daughters Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Mandela-Dlamini.

Mandela is at home recovering after a lengthy stay in hospital.

SAPA

Johannesburg – South Africa’s media needs to be protected, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said on Friday.

“The media helps to keep democracy alive, though they sometimes get it wrong,” she told an Association of Independent Publishers conference in Johannesburg.

“What a sad day it would be that corruption were to continue because there was no media to inform us of it. Let us protect the media.”

Madonsela said it was society’s duty to protect the independence of the media, and indicated that the media helped her office perform its core functions.

“The media is the most effective accountability mechanism, as in the world it watches closely over those that exercise power in public platforms.”

SAPA