Johannesburg – Door-to-door campaigns held in five Tlokwe wards on Monday helped the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) understand the community’s concerns, the party said on Monday.

“In all these wards the leadership was well-received except in one area where the level of dissatisfaction was visible, and we have promised people in that ward to return and deal with their grievances,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

“We believe that we are gradually reversing the negativity that characterised the situation in Tlokwe,” he said.

Members of the ANC’s NWC were deployed to wards in Tlokwe to campaign ahead of next week’s by-elections.

Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor and Mthembu were sent to Ward 4, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane to Ward 13, ANC chair Baleka Mbete and Deputy Minister in the Presidency Obed Bapela to Ward 18, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to Ward 26, and Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom to Ward 12.

By-elections will be held on 18 September in Tlokwe, in Wards 1, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 20 and 26.

The wards, which were previously represented by the ANC, became vacant when it expelled the councillors.

Expelled councillors

In July, the ANC expelled 14 councillors after its provincial disciplinary committee found them guilty on four counts of misconduct for participating in a motion of no confidence against Tlokwe mayor Maphetle Maphetle.

Maphetle was replaced by DA Councillor Annette Combrink.

However, the ANC’s national disciplinary committee overturned the expulsions.

Despite this, eight of the councillors reportedly registered as independent candidates for the by-elections.

Mthembu said some of the previously expelled councillors were helping the ANC to win the council back.

He said the party was confident it would win all nine by-elections.

The ANC retained control of Ward 9 in Tlokwe, with 738 votes, in a by-election held last month. It was followed by independent candidate Khotso Ratikoane with 504 votes.

Last week, ANC Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte said the party was confident it would be able to “bring back” the North West to a “solid ANC”.

“Clearly there are issues around the mayor of Tlokwe and the ANC’s processes will be in place to deal with those issues,” she said.

“There have been mistakes made on all sides… and what we are trying to do is to find a way forward that will not only appease people but is the right thing to do.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Constitutional Court will hear arguments on Tuesday relating to the awarding of a social grant tender, which was found to be invalid by a lower court.

The unsuccessful bidder, AllPay Consolidated Investment Holdings, argues the tender process was procedurally flawed and unfair, and violated sections of the Constitution.

The R10bn tender was awarded to Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) for the administration of social grants over a five-year period.

The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), which pays around R15m in social grants a month, initiated the tender process, aiming in part to address fraud and theft problems within its system.

A central issue in the tender was the provision of a system which could reliably identify the recipients of grants.

AllPay approached the North Gauteng High Court with various concerns about the tender process.

The court found in favour of AllPay, and ruled that the tender process did not comply with the requirements and was procedurally unfair.

The court declared the tender process invalid, but did not set the tender aside because it would have disrupted the delivery of social grants.

AllPay appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which found in favour of Sassa and overturned the high court order.

The SCA held that a fair process did not demand perfection in every step, nor could a tender be set aside for inconsequential irregularities.

In the Constitutional Court, AllPay wants the SCA’s decision set aside.

– SAPA

Hammanskraal – An Mpumalanga primary school principal was jailed for in effect 12 years on Monday, for murdering her former gardener on suspicion of stealing money and jewellery from her house.

The North West High Court, sitting in the Temba Magistrate’s Court, in Hammanskraal, had found Pinky Magalefa, 56, guilty of kidnapping and intentionally murdering Johannes Moseta, who was also her neighbour, in 2010, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Magalefa was the headmistress of Nkotolane Primary School in Mmametlhake village near KwaMhlanga.

“After returning from work, Magalefa realised that her house had been broken into and that jewellery and R800 in cash had been stolen,” Mmametlhake police spokesperson Hastings Chaane told African Eye News Service on Monday.

“She insisted that the deceased [Moseta] had a hand in the break-in and hired three young men to search for him.”

Chaane said the three men found Moseta in Pretoria, about 80km from the village.

“They bound his hands and feet together with a rope and drove with him back to Mmametlhake. There, with an instruction of Magalefa, they took him to the bushes and beat him to a pulp.”

Chaane said police arrived to find Moseta’s motionless body in a pool of blood.

“We rushed him to the local hospital, but he was certified dead on arrival at the facility,” said Chaane.

In handing down judgment, Judge Festus Gura said it was clear Magalefa had intended to kill Moseta.

He found the three men Magalefa hired to search for Moseta were not guilty, and said there was no evidence that they were involved in the murder.

The judge sentenced Magalefa to 12 years for murder and three years for kidnapping.

The sentences would run concurrently.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The burning of Karabo FM, a community radio station in Sasolburg, in the Free State, was an attack on the democratic principles of South Africa, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) said on Monday.

“This tragic incident is yet another reminder that, almost 20 years into democracy, the right to freedom of expression and specifically media freedom still needs to be protected and advanced,” it said in a statement.

“The… institute adds that such attacks should be treated not just as an attack on media freedom, but an attack on the foundations of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.”

According to the station’s board chairperson Sam Mkhwanazi, it was deliberately burnt down by two unidentified men on Saturday.

“Two armed men, covering their faces, went into the studio carrying 25l of petrol. They sprinkled it around and set the place alight on Saturday night,” he said at the weekend.

The two ordered the presenter out of the studio before setting the building on fire at 21:00.

“We do not know why they burnt [down] the station. The whole building has been destroyed. Our hard work of five years was destroyed in two minutes.”

He said the station had a normal relationship with residents in Sasolburg, and he could not understand why people had burnt it down.

“People loved the station. It is a great loss to us,” he said.

He hoped police would speedily investigate the cause of the fire.

Mkhwanazi encouraged the community of Sasolburg and the surrounding areas to work with them to provide information which would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Local conflict

The FXI said Karabo FM was “in the middle of the local conflict” around plans to merge Parys and Sasolburg.

“With several outbreaks of violence over the past months, Karabo FM has remained a medium that sought to maintain some independence.”

In August, the Municipal Demarcation Board decided to drop a merger between the Metsimaholo and Ngwathe municipalities in the Free State.

In January, four people were killed, several were injured and hundreds were arrested during protests against the proposed merger. Several cars were set alight and government buildings were damaged in Sasolburg’s Zamdela township.

The University of Witwatersrand’s radio academy director Franz Kruger said in the FXI statement that the attack illustrated the state of media freedom at the local level.

“This is an appalling attack on media freedom, committed with great impunity, and highlights the extent to which media freedom at local level is far from guaranteed”.

Earlier on Monday the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) expressed sadness at the fire.

“The MDDA is saddened by this incident, as it has deprived the community of an essential information asset which kept the community informed and entertained at all times,” CEO Lumko Mtimde said in a statement.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Lawyers representing the miners wounded and arrested during labour-related unrest at Marikana are disappointed at the decision not to postpone the public hearings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry.

The miners would view the decision as unfair, said their attorney Andries Nkome.

Commission chairperson, retired judge Ian Farlam, ruled on Monday that it would not be prejudicial to the miners wounded and arrested at Marikana last year to continue the hearings.

The application to defer the hearings was brought by Dali Mpofu, who also represents the arrested and wounded miners.

‘Not fair’

Mpofu and other lawyers have provisionally withdrawn from the commission while he continues to seek funding.

“Our clients understand that every day this commission continues half a million rand of their money is being spent to run the commission. It is not fair,” Nkome told reporters outside the auditorium in Centurion where the commission is sitting.

“The so-called victims of the [Marikana] massacre are not participating in the commission. Our clients were not here today, I think they had anticipated the ruling would be against them,” he said.

Nkome said he anticipated that his clients would not receive the commission’s decision well.

“Our clients see this commission to be running only with the parties which seem to be the perpetrators of the injustices. Obviously, they would not be feeling well,” he said.

The commission’s evidence leaders have been representing his clients.

Claim rejected

On Friday, Mpofu took a swipe at the evidence leaders, claiming they were on the justice department’s pay-roll.

However, the evidence leaders’ head, Geoff Budlender, rejected Mpofu’s claim.

The commission, which is sitting at the Tshwane council chamber, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s Marikana operations near Rustenburg, in North West.

Police shot dead 34 people – almost all striking mineworkers – while trying to disperse them on 16 August 2012. Ten other people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

The commission was appointed by President Jacob Zuma shortly after the unrest.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the 1999 arms deal was adjourned on Monday because of burst water pipes, the commission said.

“The hearings of the arms procurement commission have been adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, due to burst water pipes in the Sammy Marks Conference [Centre],” spokesperson William Baloyi said in a statement.

“We will await the city [of Pretoria] to advise on the progress.”

Last week, the commission heard that several government departments had played complementary roles in the strategic defence procurement package.

SA Air Force combat systems director Brigadier General John Bayne said the focus of the SAAF team involved in the project had been limited to ensuring the procurement of competent aircraft.
He said the final decision on procurement lay with the government.

Bayne said he did not take part in the procurement process at a decision-making level.

The government acquired, among other things, 26 Gripen fighter aircraft and 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainer aircraft for the SAAF as part of the arms deal.

The defence and military veterans department, arms procurement parastatal Armscor, and the National Treasury are expected to make presentations to the commission on the rationale behind the armaments acquisition.

President Jacob Zuma appointed the commission, chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, in 2011 to investigate alleged corruption in the 1999 multi-billion rand arms deal.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A 4-year-old girl was found hanged in Katlehong, Johannesburg on Monday, police said.

The half-naked body was found by a passer-by hanging on a tree in an open veld, said police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini.

“Police will determine whether she was raped before being killed,” he said.

Dlamini said the girl went missing on Monday afternoon, but was not reported missing by her parents.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A trial date has been set down for a policeman accused of trying to extort money from a diamond company director, Northern Cape police said on Monday.

Constable Denzel Engelbrecht, who faces fraud and corruption charges, appeared in the Springbok Magistrate’s Court on Monday, said Colonel Priscilla Naidu.

Trial was set down for 27 and 28 January.

The officer, from Port Nolloth, was accused of trying to extort at least R4 000 from a director in exchange for information.

“The constable produced false documents to the woman where it is alleged that some of her workers were implicated in a police investigation,” Naidu said at the time of his arrest in July.

Naidu said the allegation was that: “[He] falsely represented to the woman that he was going to make the case go away.”

He is out on bail.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A man fired several shots at security guards investigating screams in a car park on Monday, East London police said.

A man and a woman were in a car parked at the Colonnade, on the beachfront, in the early hours of the morning, said police spokesperson Stephen Marais.

“The guards allegedly heard a female screaming and ran towards the vehicle,” he said.

The man fired shots at the guards and the guards ran for cover.

The man sped off.

It was not known if the man left with the woman, but she was not on the scene when police arrived, said Marais.

He said police recovered a live round and a spent cartridge on the scene.

Police were investigating an attempted murder case.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – An acting national commissioner of correctional services has been appointed, Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said on Monday.

Ndebele appointed chief operating officer Nontsikelelo Jolingana to the position following the retirement of commissioner Thomas Moyane.

“On behalf of the correctional services family, we express our sincere gratitude to Mr Moyane for his tireless efforts and contribution to the correctional services fraternity,” Ndebele said in a statement.

“Under his leadership, South Africa has made tremendous strides towards inculcating a human rights culture in our correctional system and ensuring safe, secure and humane incarceration.”

– SAPA