Cuba will send more medical doctors to South Africa. Cuban ambassador to South Africa, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio visited the Polokwane and Tshilidzini hospitals in Limpopo on Monday to observe the work done by Cuban doctors in the country.

De Cossio says: “We’re expecting 94 new doctors before the end of the year to come to South Africa. Some of them will come to the province of Limpopo. Well, there will be additional contribution.”

De Cossio adds: “They’ll be working together with the South African doctors to continue to provide health care to the people here. They are highly qualified, they are motivated, they have got experience of working in other countries and I think they can be of help here.”

“And I can appreciate the effort of the government for the delivery of healthcare service. Our aim is to work together to see how the two countries with our respective strength can continue to cooperate for the mutual benefit,” the ambassador explained.

More than 300 doctors have been sent to work in the country since 1994.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

The ANC has accused the Public Protector’s conduct suggesting that she is protecting the interests of a particular section of society.

ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe was reacting to Thuli Madonsela’s report on security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s residence in Nkandla.

Madonsela has handed her report to Ministers in the Security Cluster. Mantashe says the confusion Madonsela displayed when she said she did not know where to take her findings reflects negatively on the President.

He has also questioned a statement by Madonsela before releasing her report that the public will be disappointed about the findings. Madonsela was asked to probe widely criticised upgrades worth R206 million to Zuma’s Nkandla home.
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Mbombela – The trial of a driver charged with murdering 24 farmworkers, when his truck crashed into a goods train in Mpumalanga last year, was postponed on Monday.

George Mandlazi, 33, was not asked to plead to 24 counts of murder, and reckless or negligent driving when he appeared in the Nelspruit Circuit of the High Court in Pretoria on Monday, a Sapa correspondent reported.

The trial was postponed to Wednesday after Mandlazi’s defence told the court it was not ready to proceed.

Mandlazi is out on bail of R3000, which was granted by the Barberton Magistrate’s Court last August.

He previously told the court he intended pleading not guilty.

He was driving the truck when it collided with a coal train between Hectorspruit and Malalane on Friday, July 13 last year. Nineteen people died on the scene of the crash and five died later in hospital or on their way to hospital.

Mandlazi was initially charged with culpable homicide, and then murder. The charge was reduced to culpable homicide at his first court appearance, but was later changed back to murder.

Sapa

Maake, Mpumalanga – The wife of former Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale and four others appeared in the Maake Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga on Monday.

Mokgadi Kgohloane and her co-accused would be back in court on December 9, said Hawks spokesman Paul Ramaloko.

They were arrested earlier this year in connection with illegal mining in the Maake area.

The co-accused are Kgohloane’s co-directors in the mining company Blue Platinum Ventures 16, that allegedly operated without a valid permit.

Kgohloane faces a possible R5 million fine or 10 years’ imprisonment if found guilty of mining illegally.

Sapa

Johannesburg – No unrest incidents occurred in Khutsong on Monday evening and police were monitoring the area, said Gauteng police.

Police were maintaining a high visibility, said Brigadier Neville Malila.

Six people, including a sangoma, were killed on Sunday, allegedly by residents.

Four of the six bodies were identified as James Magagula, 61, Mojalefa Maleho, 23, Makume Makume and Akhona Ngwati.

“The deceased who were killed in Extension 5, Carletonville are not yet identified. Names will be released as soon as they are available.”

The six were killed after about 400 men, believed to be Khutsong residents, held a meeting to discuss gangsterism.

Malila said a group of men went to a house in Khutsong Extension Three, where they attacked a 61-year-old traditional healer, setting him and his house alight. The man died on the scene.

Other groups from the meeting went to Extension Four, Phase Two, where two young men, allegedly members of a gang, were assaulted and set alight. They also died at the scene.

In Extension Five the groups assaulted a number of people they accused of being gangsters.

“Two alleged gang members were stoned. One died on the scene and the other at the Carletonville hospital,” said Malila.

The body of a sixth man was found on Sunday night. He had been set alight.

Earlier, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa condemned the killings and said the perpetrators would face the law.

Sapa

Kimberley – No semen or male DNA was found on the body of the girl killed in the Griquatown farm murders, the Northern Cape High Court heard on Monday.

The information was part of a list of admissions handed in to the court by the defence team of the 17-year-old boy accused of the murders.
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East London – A matric pupil has been beaten to death by a group of people who believed he was involved with the disappearance of children in Nomphumelelo township in East London, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.

The 23-year-old Mbulelo Mtati was killed on Sunday, said Brigadier Marinda Mills.

“The police confirmed that there are no children reported missing in the East London area.”

Mills said there was also no information or evidence linking the man with the crimes.

Eastern Cape provincial police provincial commissioner Lieutenant Celiwe Binta said revenge attacks were not an answer to crime.

“We are condemning this in the strongest possible way, as these disturbing incidents are unjustifiable. We are in hot pursuit of the perpetrators,” said Binta.

Sapa

Cape Town – An elderly Cape Town woman has lost a court bid to get maintenance that would allow her to keep up her lavish lifestyle.

Berenice Seidel, 74, lost a bid in the Western Cape High Court to get R80 000 in maintenance every month from her late husband’s estate, the Times reported on Monday.

The R80 000 would cover her living costs which included R20 000 for groceries, R10 000 for travelling and holidays and R5 600 for entertainment.

Seidel already receives R62 000 a month from her savings, lives rent-free in her Bantry Bay home, and has her electricity and rates and medical aid covered by the estate.

– News24

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has told supporters to give other political parties a chance to speak even if they do not like what is being said, the ANC said on Monday.

“President Jacob Zuma said that we are a democracy and that there should be tolerance,” said ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza.

“He said even if you do not agree, you should allow them to talk.”

Earlier in the day, the Sowetan reported that Zuma had told ANC members to give other political parties a chance to “talk their nonsense”.

He was delivering his annual National Council of Provinces address in Soshanguve, Pretoria.

“Allow a person to speak ‘azibhedele nje [to talk nonsense]’. If you don’t do that, you create a situation for someone to feel important. Leave them,” Zuma said on Friday, according to the report.

“The essence of democracy is that people are free to speak. We must be tolerant even if we don’t agree with what they say.”

Khoza said Zuma was speaking about the incident where DA leader Helen Zille was booed.

“Zuma said even if what they are saying does not make sense, you should allow them to speak.”

Zille prevented from speaking

On Thursday, a group of ANC supporters prevented Zille from speaking at the launch of the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone, her spokesperson Zak Mbhele said.

Zille was supposed to have delivered the welcome address at the launch followed by Zuma, who did not intervene.

“The crowd, which had been disruptive since the beginning, were dressed in ANC T-shirts. Some were bussed in [for the event],” said Mbhele.

He said the crowd became noisy when Zille took to the podium.

“It was the intention from the start to turn this event into an ANC party political rally,” Mbhele said at the time.

“She [Zille] said this was a serious abuse of state resources. It is corrupt to use state resources for a party political rally.”

He said Zille had called Zuma on Wednesday night to warn him that this was going to happen.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The SA Jewish Board of Deputies has bemoaned a remark by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane that South African ministers do not visit Israel.

“These statements contradict previous assurances the minister had given to the Jewish leadership that her government wished to play a role in helping Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their differences and would engage with both parties to further that end,” national board director Wendy Kahn said in a statement.

“They are further inconsistent with South African foreign policy in general, which is not to boycott other governments but rather to continually engage with them.”

Kahn said when the board last spoke to her Nkoana-Mashabane expressed an interest in South Africa playing a role in advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by bringing about a negotiated two-state solution.

Global conflict resolution

She said if South Africa applied “discriminatory punitive measures” against Israel then it would contribute nothing to the peace process.

“Aside from doing nothing to bring about a negotiated settlement of the Israel-Palestine question, [Nkoana-Mashabane’s comment] serves also to undermine this country’s credibility as a factor in global conflict resolution,” Kahn said.

On Friday, Nkoana-Mashabane said the country’s ministers did not visit Israel and that the board knew why.

“Ministers of South Africa do not visit Israel currently. Even the Jewish Board of Deputies that we engage with here, they know why our ministers are not going to Israel,” she said at a Congress of SA Trade Unions’ international relations committee meeting.

‘Palestine’s struggle is our struggle’

She said South Africa had not been asked to “close down” diplomatic relations with Israel, but that an agreement had been made to slow down and curtail leadership contact until things began to look better.

“The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle,” Nkoana-Mashabane said.

“The last time I saw a map of Palestine, I couldn’t go to sleep… It is just dots, smaller than those of the homelands, and that broke my heart.”

The meeting was also addressed by a group campaigning for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti, who had become a symbol of the Palestinian struggle.

– SAPA