Johannesburg – The Daily Sun must publish a front page apology for the publication of two graphic photographs of corpses, Press Ombudsman Johan Retief has ruled.

The ruling comes after the Government Communication and Information System, the co-operative governance department, and others complained about the front page photographs published above the fold on 29 October and 6 November.

The colour photos were of the corpses of people killed in mob justice attacks.

Insensitive, dehumanising

According to the complainants, the pictures were insensitive, dehumanising, inconsiderate, caused discomfort to society, and lacked compassion.

There were also concerns that the pictures exposed society, including children, to extreme violence and desensitised people to violent crimes.

“Some complainants add that such graphic pictures, if they have to be published, should not be exhibited on the front page,” Retief said.

One of the photographs was captioned: “This picture shows the burning body of sangoma James Magagula, who was killed by Khutsong residents on Sunday. The people’s paper is publishing the picture to show what happens in communities where there is no rule of law and justice is just a word.”

The publisher, Jeremy Gordin argued: “We felt that an ‘example’ should be made of the horror that happens when people lose faith in the country’s justice system…”

Section nine of the Press Code reads: “Due care and responsibility shall be exercised by the press with regard to the presentation of brutality, violence, and suffering.”

Public interest

Gordin said a meeting of senior staff debated the use of the images and the consensus was that the pictures were in the public interest, and that the Daily Sun had adhered to section nine of the code.

Retief said the fact that a meeting was held was “commendable, and should be general practice”, but did not guarantee a sound ethical outcome.

“The basic principle in this instance is that the more well-known a person is the more leeway the press has of publishing explicit pictures.”

He cited the example of media coverage of the 1966 assassination of prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, where most newspapers published colour photographs of his bloody body on their front pages.

“The public interest was so overriding that this was deemed to be acceptable,” he said.

“However, this would not have been the case when a largely unknown person was murdered.”

There was no doubt the Daily Sun should have covered the stories relating to the disputed images, but the manner in which it was presented was questionable.

‘Gross details’

Retief believed the newspaper should not have identified the bodies and should have avoided causing unnecessary harm to the victims’ loved ones by adequately blocking out the faces of the corpses.

Also, the paper should not have published “gross details of wounds”. The photographs, if used at all, should have been in black and white, small, and not on the front page.

It should also have carried a front page warning for sensitive readers.

“The pictures were both unacceptable, caused people unnecessary harm, and shifted the borders of ethical journalism beyond appropriate standards,” Retief found.

According to the complaints procedures, the Daily Sun has seven working days to appeal the ruling.

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Johannesburg – An Mpumalanga man, accused of killing his epileptic seven-year-old daughter and having sex with her corpse, claimed on Thursday he had been forced to admit guilt.

He told the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that his lawyer forced him to plead guilty to the charges.

The accused, from Boschfontein village, outside Malelane, near the Swaziland border, is suspected of murdering his daughter, who had epilepsy.

On Thursday, his defence submitted a statement in which he pleaded guilty to murder and violating a corpse. But he distanced himself from the contents of the statement, saying he was not satisfied with his lawyer’s services.

According to the confession, he fetched his daughter who lived with her mother so she could visit him at his house on 15 August last year.

After playing for a while, the girl went to sleep in another room.

The next morning he woke to his daughter’s cries and found her having a seizure. Believing she was suffering and in pain, he decided to put her out her misery. He grabbed her, and beat her until she died.

According to the statement, he violated the corpse repeatedly, left the body in the room and went to sleep next to a nearby dam.

When Justice Nomsa Khumalo asked the accused if he was satisfied with the contents of the plea, he said: “No, I am not satisfied.”

He said he met this lawyer in court on Wednesday.

“He showed me photographs of the body of my deceased daughter, saying I am the one responsible for her death,” said the father.

“He also showed me papers and asked me to sign. He made me plead to the crime. I am not satisfied with his services.”

The lawyer decided to withdraw from the case and asked the court to excuse him.

Khumalo postponed the matter to 10 February next year for the accused to get another lawyer.

He is out on R1000 bail.

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The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will soon introduce a law which forbids any national coach without an ‘A’ Licence to coach national teams on the continent.

This was revealed by renowned CAF instructor, Ghanaian Ben Koufie who is taking through former and current national coaches in a CAF equivalent of licence ‘A’ assessment course at SAFA House.

The course which commenced on Wednesday, 20 November, will run until Friday, 22 November 2013.

Those attending the course are Gordon Igesund, Serame Letsoaka, Pitso Mosimane, Jomo Sono, Clive Barker, Kenny Ndlazi, Joseph Mkhonza, Mlungisi Ngubane, Mike Mangena, Shakes Mashaba, Augusto Palacios, Trott Moloto, Screamer Tshabalala and Alex Heredea.

“I know this might sound funny as most coaches might say why I should have a certificate when I am already a good coach. However, the truth is, you can be a good driver but it is an offence to drive without a valid driver’s licence,” said Koufie.

The Ghanaian said it was disappointing that Africa’s national team coaching space, especially senior teams, was still dominated by foreign expatriates despite CAF hosting high-profile coaching courses.

“This must change. Africa must own its own space if we are going to get the respect of the international world,” he said.

SAFA’s acting Technical Director, Fran Hilton Smith said she was impressed with the direction the country was taking in empowering local coaches.

“We can only develop top quality players if we have qualified coaches,” she said.

Cape Town – Cabinet ministers tried to reclaim the public discourse on the Nkandla affair from Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Thursday.

They contended that the president’s security was their responsibility and required secrecy.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele and his colleagues at police, defence, and public works responded to Madonsela’s statement on Wednesday that she regretted consenting to their request to scrutinise her preliminary report on the R206m improvements at Nkandla for security risks.

Madonsela said she would ask the ministers to nominate experts to meet her to discuss contested aspects of the report in a bid to depoliticise it.

Said Cwele: “At no stage did the cluster try to politicise the report. All that we are doing, we are exercising our constitutional mandate in terms of section 198 of the Constitution, which says national executive and Parliament have got the responsibility to uphold national security, including that of the head of state, the president.

“It is not optional, we are constitutionality obliged,” he said.

Cwele said Cabinet would apply all laws on the statute books to the president’s homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal, including the National Key Points Act and the Protection of State Information Act – the apartheid-era official secrets law.

He went on to defend the state’s decision to classify the report of the government task team that probed reports of misspending at Nkandla by saying it could not “outsource” its responsibilities on national security.

Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, which debated that report behind closed doors, last week in effect justified the use of public funds at Zuma’s homestead.

Cwele and his colleagues hammered home the message that MPs found no evidence that the public works department paid for improvements to Zuma’s private property and that security structures, necessitated by his status, were set up on adjacent state land.

Propaganda campaign

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said Zuma was the victim of a propaganda campaign suggesting he used taxpayers’ money for his private home.

“We have seen these things being peddled, said time and time again, that the state built the houses for the president with R206m, which is a lie.

“Those who do so follow the example of Goebbels, the propagandist of Hitler. No matter how often you repeat this lie, it is a lie. We have disaggregated this R200m, where it went, and most of it went to the security features.”

Madonsela told a media briefing on Wednesday that the government had tried to obstruct her investigation into the improvements at Nkandla in many ways, including accusing her of conducting parallel investigations.

On Friday, she received a 28-page submission from Mthethwa on behalf of the ministers in the security cluster stating their concerns on potential security risks posed by her provisional report.

Madonsela said she would amend the provisional report where she saw fit, but if she needed to consult on the ministerial objections, she would not talk to them, but to security experts nominated by the state.

This comes after the ministers took her to court to secure more time to study her report than the five days she had allowed.

The court challenge marked a new low in Madonsela’s increasingly fractious relationship with the government.

SAPA

The new leadership at SAFA has received a significant boost with the massive success of the Bafana Bafana game against Spain.

In spite of predictions that the game would be poorly supported because it was a late kick-off on a workday, some 60 000 people poured into the FNB stadium to watch. The excitement in the stadium after Bafana Bafana striker Bernard Parker put the winning goal in the net was tangible with thousands of Bafana supporters blowing their vuvuzelas, waving  their South African flags and singing “Shosholoza” with pride.

Bafana’s 1-0 win against the World and European Champions: Spain was not only a huge boost for the morale of Bafana Bafana but was also a high-point for countless thousands of Bafana fans throughout South Africa who have stuck with the team despite them not qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

“This win was very important for South Africa,” said Danny Jordaan, SAFA’s new President.  “It proved that Bafana Bafana can be a force in world football, it has given a lift to all our players not just the Bafana team but all those players who aspire to one day to be in the team.”

Jordaan joked that after the game a friend told him luck has been on his side in his quest to reinvigorate SAFA.  “My response is that the harder I work the luckier I get,” he said. “We have a plan to put Bafana Bafana on top of the world and to develop football at all levels in this country. This is a positive beginning for me in my first months in office, but it is just the beginning there are great things to come.”

Dennis Mumble, SAFA’s chief executive, said that the new spirit at SAFA definitely had an impact in the lead-up to the game. “Our management team worked as hard as the players to make sure the game went off smoothly.  Sometimes I do not think that people understand the complexity of the organisation that goes into bringing the world’s top soccer teams to South Africa.

“Like everyone else at SAFA, I am aware that we have been through some troubled times.  Let’s hope this landmark victory at the very beginning of our new era is a sign of things to come.  I think people will look back and see our victory against Spain as a turning point in South Africa’s fortunes.”-TDN

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A ward councillor and nine other people were arrested for public violence in Lethabong near Rustenburg on Thursday, North West police said.

Police spokesperson Kelebogile Moiloa said a group of people burnt an excavator and pelted stones at a truck during a protest at a construction site.

“The TLB [excavator] was completely burnt. A councillor, two females, and seven males were arrested for public violence,” she said.

The group was reportedly unhappy with the appointment of a contractor.

The contractor was developing a site where houses would be built, she said.

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Johannesburg – Cosatu has asked Numsa and two other affiliates to withdraw their court action over general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s suspension.

“The request was made yesterday [Wednesday]… we are to wait and see,” Cosatu second deputy president Zingiswa Losi told reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday.

“It is not in the interest of Cosatu finding itself in court on these matters.”

The request was made to the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the Food and Allied Workers’ Union, and the SA Football Players’ Union at Cosatu’s three-day central executive committee (CEC) meeting this week.

Losi said the unions could not give the CEC an answer immediately.

“We would believe that they have taken that request and they will have to go back and consider [it], and they will have to come back and inform the federation of their decision.”

Numsa has lodged an application in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg challenging the suspension.

Vavi then filed papers to be added as an applicant in Numsa’s challenge.

In these, he asks the court to grant him an interim order interdicting and restraining Cosatu from enforcing any decision taken at its CEC meeting in August.

He wants final relief to review and set aside the decision to suspend him and institute disciplinary proceedings.

Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said the trade union federation had not asked Vavi to withdraw his court action.

“The CEC was talking to the affiliates, we did not ask comrade Zweli.

“All we will continue to do [is]… we will scorn off anybody who will not use and exhaust the internal processes of a progressive organisation and quickly take matters outside the organisation, like court,” Dlamini said.

Vavi was put on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing relating to his affair with a junior employee.

Rape charge

In July, the employee accused him of rape. He said they had an affair. The woman subsequently withdrew a sexual harassment complaint against him.

Cosatu acting general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the probe into Vavi’s conduct was nearly complete. The outcome of the investigation would be submitted to the CEC which would decide whether or not to bring charges against Vavi.

Dlamini said the issue was not just about “having sex in the office”, and a number of issues were being investigated.

These included employment, the recruitment policy, the name of the employee being given to the media, and power relations in Cosatu’s office.

“The investigation uncovered other things which need further investigation. It cannot be an overnight thing,” Dlamini said.

“It is not the fault of Cosatu. It is not the fault of investigators that there is a delay.”

He said the investigators needed those involved to co-operate, which Vavi had not initially done.

National congress

Numsa also came under fire at the CEC meeting for issuing a letter accusing Dlamini of dragging his feet regarding the request for a special national congress.

Ntshalintshali said the union was asked to withdraw the letter which it agreed to do.

He said a Cosatu special national congress would not take place this year.

“The president reported on the practicalities of convening such a congress, including among others, timing, costs and resources, the state of readiness of the affiliates, and the objectives and agenda of the congress.

“It was agreed that these issues be referred to a meeting of the NOBs [national office bearers] and affiliates’ presidents and general secretaries.”

They would report back to a special CEC meeting to be convened to discuss internal processes. If that meeting could not resolve the matter it would be taken to the CEC in February next year.

Dlamini said Numsa’s refusal to take part in Cosatu’s “rolling mass action” was discussed by the CEC.

“When there are disruptions of the action… by members of the union… the CEC says no it can’t be.

“Cosatu NOBs must talk to Numsa directly. We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we think we moving in the same direction [when we are not],” he said.

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Durban – Officially one person remains unaccounted for after the collapse of a shopping mall under construction in Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Mandy Govender said police had so far only been informed of one person missing.

However, police could not rule out that others were buried beneath the football pitch size area of the mall that collapsed on Tuesday. A woman was killed and 29 people injured.

“We are not ruling out that there were other people on site, but only one contractor has told us that they are missing an employee,” Govender said.

A crane was removing rubble on the site on Thursday as members of the police search and rescue unit watched.

Three workers were planting poles for a fence around the mall.

On Wednesday, eThekwini metro Mayor James Nxumalo told reporters the developers and owners of the property, Rectangular Property Investments, never sought any permission to complete the mall.

He said construction went on despite no building plans ever having been approved. The municipality took the matter to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban and was granted an order on 14 November directing Rectangular Property Investments to suspend all building work.

The firm Gralio Construction, which was building the mall and some of whose workers were among the injured, could not be reached for comment.

A receptionist said: “I have just been asked to take messages and someone will get back to you.”

KwaZulu-Natal chief labour inspector Abey Raspae confirmed that no other bodies had been found. He said the department had not been told how many people had not been accounted for.

Govender said a culpable homicide docket had been opened.

She said this was standard procedure in the event of a death and it was too early to say who would be charged.

The mall was scheduled to open in March next year.

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Rustenburg-The owner of Ikitseng home based care at Lethabong outside Rustenburg is heaving a sigh of relief after the German Development Bank offered to built a centre for orphans and vulnerable children in the area.

Deborah Mosito said she established a small centre  at Lethabong to address the plight of orphans, vulnerable children including young people in 2004.

“I was prompted by passion and the love for children to open a centre like this one. I did not do it for myself. It is for the community that is why I am calling on all community members to support us without naming any price,” Mosito said, adding that the visit by German delegation to the centre has added much relief to the community of Lethabong which has a high number of child pregnancies, many of which are affected by HIV/aids pandemic. German Development Bank Director Busso Von Alvensleben said Lethabong village is one of the beneficiaries of community care centres to be built in the North West Province in the next financial year.

“We have, since 1994 focused on HIV/Aids prevention programmes. This funding is generated from the German tax payers for these programmes,” Von Alvensleben said during his visit to Lethabong on Thursday.

Meanwhile North West MEC  for Social Development Collen Maine said North West has become the third province after Limpopo and Kwa Zulu Natal to benefit from the German Development Bank initiative.

Maine said the German Development Bank will provide funding to the tune of R35 million for the establishment of  six modern type community care centres in all district municipalities in the province.

The centres, Maine said they will provides skills development services, computer rooms, library, counseling rooms and extension office for government integrated services.

“These projects will go a long way in contributing towards the agenda of developing social infrastructure of decent standard for services to those in need of care and protection,” Maine said.-TDN

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Johannesburg – The DA unveiled a new billboard against e-tolls on the N3 highway in Germiston on Thursday.

The blue and white billboard states: “A vote for the DA is a vote against e-tolls.”

DA spokesperson Mmusi Maimane said it formed part of an “intensive campaign to mobilise Gauteng voters against the government that brought us e-tolls.

“We urge motorists to vote for the DA to put a stop to this daylight robbery.”

Earlier this year, the DA commissioned anti-e-toll billboards on the N3 and N1 highways, which poked fun at the ANC and its role in the e-tolling saga.

On 7 November, the DA announced it would file papers in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to contest the constitutionality of the e-toll legislation signed into law by President Jacob Zuma in September.

The party believed the bill was incorrectly dealt with in Parliament and signed into law by Zuma.

The DA said the bill was incorrectly tagged and should be declared unconstitutional.

On 8 November, the Freedom Front Plus, agricultural union TAU SA, and the National Taxpayers’ Association also filed court papers to have the legislation declared unconstitutional.

Both parties argue that e-tolling will affect the competency of provincial government and municipalities by affecting urban planning, public transport, and traffic regulations.

E-tolls will come into effect on 3 December on Gauteng’s highways.

SAPA