National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has rejected the Northam Platinum’s wage increase offer. The Limpopo-based company said in an opened letter published in a newspaper that its offer of between 8 and 9% is final.

Several thousand NUM affiliated members have been on strike for the past three weeks. NUM chief negotiator, Ecliff Tantsi said they have rejected the offer with its contempt.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

With South African school holidays around the corner, the annual pilgrimage to the coast and inland provinces is often accompanied by heavy traffic and incidents of road deaths.

Already, South Africa has seen two of the worst carnage – 29 people killed last month in Mpumalanga and 24 last week in KwaZulu-Natal.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

The case against the 31-year-old suspect, accused of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl, has been postponed to the 13th of January next year in the Uniondale Magistrate’s Court in the Southern Cape.

Jannie Ruiters is not expected to apply for bail. Shafeeka Baartman was found on Friday night with a scarf around her neck, and her legs tied with clothes.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

A police witness at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, Brigadier Adriaan Calitz, has rejected media reports that he commended police officers for killing 34 Lonmin miners last year.

Calitz has told the commission he commended the officers for following instructions and not because they had killed people. He addressed the officers after the shootings.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

Pietermaritzburg – Failure by a high court judge’s registrar to record that a man had been granted bail cost him three years in jail, the Pietermaritzburg High Court heard on Monday.

This mistake prompted Sivion Mkhize, 28, who was later set free after an appeal, to launch a R16 million claim, plus loss of earnings, against the minister of justice and constitutional development.

The minister’s counsel was opposing the claim on the basis that it was no longer valid as it was more than three years old.

Acting Judge Piet Bezuidenhout will decide on the claims and defence.

Mkhize, from Ladysmith, was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in the Dundee Circuit Court by Judge Leona Theron in February 2001. She sentenced him to jail for life for murder, plus 15 years for aggravated robbery at a garage near Ladysmith.

Two of his co-accused absconded, leaving Mkhize as the sole accused.

Theron granted him leave to appeal because part of the evidence against him rested on voice identification. She also granted him R5000 bail.

Mkhize’s leave to appeal was recorded but not his access to bail.

He was sent to Waterfall Prison in Utrecht where officials refused to release him on bail.

Eventually Mkhize wrote to the then Judge President of KwaZulu-Natal, Judge Vuka Tshabalala, who wrote back to him informing him that he had been granted leave to appeal, but not bail.

Despite efforts by Mkhize and his family to have the record set straight he stayed in jail until February 2004 when a full Bench set aside his conviction and freed him.

An emotional Mkhize told the court that he started doubting his mental condition while in prison as both he and his family knew he had been granted bail, but he was still in prison.

The matter continues.

Sapa

Pretoria – A senior policeman was unaware that mineworkers “lying around” after a clash with police at Marikana last year were dead, the Farlam Commission heard on Monday.

In a statement submitted to the commission, Brigadier Adriaan Calitz testified that due to the noise around the koppie, he had not heard the police tactical response team (TRT) firing live ammunition at the strikers.

“I contacted Lieutenant Colonel [Solomon] Vermaak on radio and inquired from him why the TRT was not following our dispersal action. He said he would go and check and later reported that the TRT were at the kraal and there were bodies lying around.

“I thought, given my experience and the absence of such a report to me, that the bodies referred to people who were injured by the dispersion action or lying down to be arrested,” Calitz said in his statement.

He detailed how he instructed officers to pursue protesters who were escaping in the northern and western directions. He urged the officers to arrest the fleeing protesters.

“I gave clear instructions over the radio to the dispersion group [police officers] ‘do not shoot unless the target engages you’. I repeated the instruction to ensure that members understood me clearly,” said Calitz.

“The shooting I was referring to [meant the use of] rubber rounds and not sharp ammunition. They were to use rubber only as a last resort if the armed strikers approached them with dangerous weapons.”

Calitz, one of the police commanders assigned to the operation during the labour unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West, was testifying in the commission’s public hearings in Centurion.

Naked miners

Last week, he testified that a large group of naked miners performed rituals behind a koppie the day before the shooting.

Calitz said a white Toyota bakkie off-loaded buckets at the koppie, near the Nkaneng informal settlement in Marikana on 15 August last year.

“A group of strikers went to the bakkie and surrounded it. I reported to the JOC [joint operations committee] that it was suggested to us by some members that the buckets contained muti,” he said.

After 16:00, a police helicopter patrolling the scene reported that about 800 naked strikers were behind the koppie “and a traditional healer was busy with them”.

The following day, 34 people, mostly striking miners, were shot dead in a clash with police who were trying to disperse and disarm them. Seventy eight were wounded.

Inquiry

The Farlam Commission of Inquiry was appointed later that month to investigate the circumstances around the shooting, as well as the deaths of 10 other people, including two policemen and two security guards, during the preceding week.

He said the white Toyota bakkie was seen bringing substances in buckets.

“The chopper reported that the 800 or so naked strikers were performing rituals.”

In March, the commission heard that the sangoma believed to have performed rituals on the protesting mineworkers had been shot dead.

Advocate Ishmael Semenya, for the police, announced the sangoma’s death at the public hearings.

At the time, he said police had been trying to bring the 69-year-old sangoma Alton “Ndzabe” Zikhuthele Joja to testify as a witness before the commission.

Joja was to have testified before the commission about his role, and that of his sons, in rituals performed on striking miners.

The rituals were apparently supposed to make the miners believe they were invisible in the face of gunfire.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Security will be tight at the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane for EFF leader Julius Malema’s court appearance this week, Limpopo police said on Monday.

“[Police] will be monitoring and patrolling the area in and around the court, as well as the city centre and identified areas in Seshego, with the aim to ensure peace and stability,” police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said.

“No lawlessness will be tolerated and those who break the law will be arrested immediately.”

Last week, the corruption case against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader was postponed to next year.

He will make representations to a judge on Thursday and Friday on why the matter should not go to trial.

The former ANC Youth League leader allegedly made nearly R4m from corrupt activities.

He is out on bail of R10 000 and faces charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and racketeering.

Malema’s co-accused are his business associates Kagisho Dichabe, Lesiba Gwangwa, Helen Moreroa, and Makgetsi Manthata. They are out on bail of R40 000 each.

The State alleges Malema and the others misrepresented themselves to the Limpopo roads and transport department, leading to a R52m contract being awarded to On-Point Engineering.

According to court papers, Malema had business ties with Gwangwa, a director of On-Point Engineering.

Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust was an indirect shareholder in On-Point.

The department paid the company R43m. According to the charge sheet, Malema substantially benefited from this payment, using it to buy a farm and a Mercedes-Benz.

Tight control

Mulaudzi said: “Tight control will be enforced by members of the private security company at the court, as well as members of the SA Police Service.

“No dangerous weapons, such as fire-arms, knives, pangas or knobkerries will be allowed onto the court premises as well as surrounding areas.

A night vigil was expected to be held for Malema at the Oasis Lodge in Polokwane on Wednesday.

Mulaudzi said police would also be monitoring the vigil, as well as a motorcade and march into the city centre on Thursday morning.

A number of streets around the court will be closed on Thursday.

These were Schoeman Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein streets, Landdros Mare Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein Street and Hans van Rensburg Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein Street.

The march was scheduled to start on Oost Street down to Bodenstein Street.

– SAPA

Durban – Two men made a brief appearance in the Pinetown Magistrate’s court on Monday in connection with the killing of a policeman.

The case against Mthozi Ngcobo and Khulekani Vilikazi was postponed to 2 December for a formal bail application.

The two are accused of being involved in the killing of a 32-year-old police officer last week.

Four others appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with the officer’s death.

Police spokesperson Thulani Zwane said last week the officer was on his way to meet an acquaintance when he came across the men on 15 November.

“On his arrival at Mpola he was approached by the suspects who overpowered him and fired two fatal shots at him,” Zwane said.

He said the men, between the ages of 17 and 34, allegedly took the officer’s wallet, cellphones, bag, and his service pistol before burying him in a shallow grave in the area.

His car was found abandoned at Lindelani in Ntuzuma on Tuesday.

“One of the men was found in a house with two shovels, the deceased’s bag, firearm retainer, a blood-stained curtain, and muddied shoes,” he said.

Further investigation led to the arrest of three more men.

Magistrate Chris Annamalai refused an application from the media to be allowed to photograph the men.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Four illegal miners trapped in a mine near Robertville on the West Rand were rescued on Monday afternoon, paramedics said.

“Rescue workers managed to reach them safely and they were removed from where they were trapped for the past three days in the old mine,” ER24 spokesperson Christo Venter said.

“Fortunately none of the men sustained any injury and they were removed from the scene after being taken into custody.”

The miners were trapped when a mine shaft apparently collapsed.

The name of the mine was not known.

– SAPA