Johannesburg – The number of suicides among police officers paint a bleak picture, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Tuesday.

“Our figures indicate that… from January to June 2013 the figure stands at 34. This is a very bleak picture to say the least,” Mthethwa said at a suicide prevention summit in Pretoria.

Mthethwa said the number had forced the police to examine the systems to deal with police trauma.

“Our analysis indicates that the trends in the commission of such suicides include [the use of] a service firearm, hanging, and overdose by tablets,” he said.

Poor financial management, personal trauma, and mental health issues were among the leading causes of suicides.

“When horrible road accidents happen and many innocent lives are lost… police have to cordon off such gory scenes. Some of the scenes are so gory we cannot even start describing them here.”

Mthethwa said society had to acknowledge the difficult conditions under which officers worked.

“In many instances they are not emotionally and psychologically equipped to handle those stressful situations, which frequently leads to a catastrophic impact on their mental wellness.”

According to the statistics, 73 officers committed suicide in 2009, 97 in 2010, 85 in 2011, and 98 in 2012.

Mthethwa urged officers to seek professional counselling and support services, which were freely available to them.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The row between Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and MPs over the extent of her investigative powers, intensified on Tuesday against the backdrop of her adverse findings against IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula.

Madonsela faced a barrage of questions on her mandate, partly prompted by her call for a “quiet discussion” on this issue that has bedevilled her relationship with Parliament’s justice portfolio committee since last year.

She was briefing the committee on her office’s annual report, and seeking support for a request for an additional R35m in funding from the Treasury.

ANC MP Mathole Motshekga asked Madonsela to explain her understanding of the term “state affairs”, and said it was regrettable that nearly 20 years of its establishment there was still confusion about the exact role of the office of the public protector.

“If we are not clear about that, then we are going to have a problem on money,” he said.

Madonsela responded that her mandate extended to investigating the state “in its entirety” and that she drew her definition from the Public Finance Management Act.

The question is integral to Tlakula’s rejection of Madonsela’s findings that her role in renting new headquarters for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was improper and amounted to maladministration.

Legal advice sought

In a 55-page reply to Madonsela’s report leaked to the media, Tlakula claimed that the Public Protector Act gave Madonsela the power to investigate maladministration on the part of the government, but that although the IEC was an organ of state it “does not form part of government”.

Parliament has asked for legal advice on how to handle the protector’s report on the matter, with some MPs noting that it was unprecedented partly because it involved two chapter nine institutions.

Madonsela told the committee there was nothing strange about chapter nine institutions overseeing each other.

“It is the first time that I’m hearing that they are excluded from my mandate,” she said.

“The auditor general audits all of us and he is a chapter nine institution.”

Turning to Motshekga’s wider question, she said it was strange that there had not been confusion about her mandate until last year, although she had tackled the same kind of cases as her predecessors who were not challenged about their mandate.

“Advocate [Selby] Baqwa was investigating all state affairs. He was investigating at three levels of government and it was never an issue,” she said, referring to the first person to hold her post after the office was established in 1995.

“There is nothing new that we have done, not a single thing.”

Chapter nine institutions refer to institutions established in terms of chapter nine of the Constitution to support democracy.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has expressed shock and dismay at the murder of two toddlers in Diepsloot north of Johannesburg, the Presidency said on Tuesday.

“These gruesome incidents of extreme torture and murder of our children do not belong to the society that we are continuously striving to build together,” Zuma said.

“We condemn these murders in the strongest possible terms. Whilst we appeal to the communities not to take the matters into their hands, we also want to urge them to work with law enforcement authorities to find the perpetrators and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

The girls, aged two and three, were found dead in a toilet cubicle by a resident on Tuesday morning.

Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said they were reported missing on Saturday by their parents.

AgangSA urged the police to act with speed in their investigation.

“We urge the police to act with speed in their investigations to ensure that whoever is or are responsible for the shocking crime against these children are brought to book,” said Vanessa Hani, Women’s Forum co-ordinator.

She visited the family of the girls. The party identified them as Zandile Mali and Yonelisa Mali.

“The story of the girls’ family is too sad for words. Theirs is a story of poverty, denial of dignity – hopelessness that is repeated all over the country.”

“It is a story of millions of our fellow citizens who live like forgotten people after almost 20 years of freedom,” she said.

She said that the family of 11 people – with Zandile and Yolisa included – lived in a cramped shack that afforded them no privacy.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A couple was found dead in their home in Fichardt Park in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, Free State police said.

A 27-year-old man went to visit his parents and there was no response to his knock on the door even though both their cars were parked in their driveway, said Captain Chaka Marope.

“The man called the police when his parents did not respond to his knocks,” said Marope.

Marope said when police arrived, they broke the door open.

“After entering the house they found a 56-year-old male and his 42-year-old wife lying in a pool of blood.”

The man was found with his own revolver in his right hand.

“It is suspected that the man killed his wife and then shot himself,” said Marope.

The motive for the killings was not known and police had opened an inquest docket.

– SAPA

Pic: (By Obakeng Maje)

Vanderbijlpark – There will be no true reconciliation in the country as long as whites have the land, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said on Tuesday.

“You [whites] are more than welcome. This is your country, no one should make you [feel] threatened, but you will be unsettled if you are not ready to heed the call,” he told students at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) in Vanderbijlpark.

“Let’s share the land; let’s share the minerals.”

Wearing a yellow, buttoned shirt and dark sunglasses, Malema stood on the back of a bakkie in the parking lot of the VUT’s main residence on Tuesday.

The students were dressed in red T-shirts and red berets. Some shielded themselves from the sun with umbrellas while others sat under trees.

Malema referred to the land owned by white people as “stolen property”. He said it might have been land which they inherited, but that their grandfathers had killed black men for that land.

“We not going to commit white genocide,” he said.

“You are suffering from a generational curse, because of the people who came before you. To get rid of the curse you must give back the land. You are in possession of stolen property.”

EFF ‘not racist’

Malema said the EFF was not a racist organisation, but was an honest organisation.

“White South Africans should love EFF, because we [are] the only organisation that tells them the truth,” he said.

“If white people want a permanent honeymoon, they must deliver the stolen property,” he said.

Malema was referring to reports that some EFF members had displayed placards with racist messages at its launch in Marikana at the weekend.

According to Gauteng EFF spokesman Patrick Sindane, the messages read: “Honeymoon is over for whites” and “To be a revolutionary you have to be inspired by hatred and bloodshed”.

He said the party was disappointed in those members.

Malema said there needed to be “genuine” reconciliation in the country.

“These people, the black masses are hurting…. The more you become more rejecting to the idea of sharing the land, you will have an unled revolution, and that is anarchy. We don’t need anarchy. Let us talk about a genuine reconciliation,” he said.

“The future is going to be very bright if you decide to share with us.”

Just before Malema arrived at the gathering, students sang songs ridiculing President Jacob Zuma and made gestures mocking the way he pushes his glasses up his nose.

– SAPA