Johannesburg – The Gauteng province’s advertising boards in the ANC colours is a threat to the country’s democracy, the FF Plus said on Wednesday.

“The advertisement campaign, which carries out government successes, will cost more than R2m a month,” Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) leader Pieter Mulder said in a statement.

“Propagandist advertisements in the colours of the governing party which is displayed during an election and paid for with taxpayers’ money would never be allowed in any mature democracy anywhere in the world.”

Opposition parties’ voters were in effect paying for what he called ANC propaganda during the election.

Beeld newspaper reported that Gauteng spent more than R2m a month of taxpayers’ money on advertising the province’s ANC-led government’s successes.

The province reportedly had 51 advertising boards around the province in the party’s green, black, and gold.

Thebe Mohatle, Gauteng provincial spokesperson, told the paper the advertising was put up as part of a government campaign to make South Africans aware of good service delivery.

He declined to give information on the budget for the campaign.

Continental Outdoor Media, who hires the advertising space, said it cost between R40 000 and R50 000 a month per board.

ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza asked how the board could be linked to the party when there was no party logo on it.

“Government is celebrating 20 years of democracy and it’s using colours that attract people. There are no restrictions on what colours to use.”

Mulder said the FF Plus would ask Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and the Independent Electoral Commission to investigate the “abuse” of taxpayers’ money.

He said the boards needed to be removed or the ANC had to be forced to pay for them with their own funds.

– SAPA

Mbombela – More than 20 witnesses are expected to testify in the R140m fraud trial of the Mpumalanga community safety department’s former head Thulani Sibuyi when it resumes in May.

Sibuyi, 37, and his co-accused, GNT security owner Vusi Mashaba, 41, appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Wednesday, a Sapa correspondent reported.

“The State is ready for trial. The defence have been handed the list of witnesses and the disclosure of the docket has been made. They are aware of the final charges faced by their clients,” prosecutor Patrick Nkuna said.

“The State intends to bring more than 20 witnesses, which the defence has been furnished with.”

Sibuyi and Mashaba handed themselves over to the Nelspruit police on 8 August after a warrant of arrest was issued for them.

They were released on bail of R50 000 each.

Sibuyi faces charges of fraud and Mashaba charges of fraud, forgery, and uttering. They have not yet pleaded.

Magistrate Eddie Hall postponed the case to 7 May for trial.

He warned the two not to contact any of the witnesses.

“If it happens that you want to do business with the department and may contact some of the witnesses, you are warned to inform the state first,” he said.

Nkuna previously told the court that Mashaba, on behalf of his company GNT, allegedly submitted a fraudulent tax certificate when applying for a tender to provide security to government property or entities in the Gert Sibande region.

Nkuna said Sibuyi failed to stop the appointment, leading to GNT being paid R4m a month for three years.

Last month, Sibuyi resigned as HOD after he was arrested in Gauteng for alleged drunken driving. He was released on bail of R1 000 and would appear again in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court once the result of his blood test was known.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – South Africa is a transparent democracy in which everyone is held accountable, Police Deputy Minister Makhotso Sotyu said on Wednesday.

“We have the Human Rights Commission, the Competition Commission, the public protector, Icasa, the auditor general, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate [IPID] and many others,” Sotyu said at an IPID strategic planning session in Pretoria on Wednesday.

“Is there a country in which government and its institutions are held accountable to the extent that it happens in South Africa? Ours is a very transparent democracy in which everyone is held accountable.”

Sotyu said IPID’s core mandate was to make all South Africans feel safe and secure.

“Avoid getting involved in politics. Do not allow to be used by anyone to further political ends. You are not politicians. Be professionals and the citizens of this country will respect you for that,” she said.

Sotyu said that, according to IPID’s 2012/2013 annual report, it had dealt with 6 728 cases, which was 37% more than the 4 923 handled in the previous year.

Earlier this month, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said Cabinet had recommended the appointment of former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride to head IPID.

“We believe Mr McBride’s appointment as head of IPID will help this important institution to achieve [its]… mandate,” Mthethwa said at the time.

Mthethwa’s ministry said in a statement that Cabinet decided to recommend McBride as IPID executive director at a meeting on 6 November.

“In terms of Section 6(2) of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act, 2011 (Act 1 of 2011) the relevant portfolio committee of Parliament must now consider the recommendation before the appointment can be confirmed,” the ministry said.

“IPID has been headed by an acting executive director for almost a year, and the stability of this important institution is crucial.”

Recommendation criticised

Opposition parties have criticised the decision to recommend McBride.

McBride, who is a former MP and government official, won an appeal in March against a conviction for drunken driving and attempting to obstruct justice.

He was arrested in 2006 after crashing his official car on the R511 following a Christmas party.

In September 2011, a Pretoria magistrate sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for driving under the influence of alcohol, and in effect three years’ imprisonment for attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

In 1998, McBride was arrested in Mozambique on charges of gun-running. He spent seven months in a Maputo prison and was later cleared of all charges.

He claimed he was investigating illegal gun-running with the National Intelligence Agency.

In 1999, McBride faced an assault charge after he, underworld boss Cyril Beeka, and another man visited an escort agency and allegedly assaulted an employee.

McBride was part of an Umkhonto we Sizwe group that bombed the Why Not Restaurant and Magoo’s Bar in Durban on 14 June 1986.

Three people were killed and 69 were injured in the explosion. He was captured and convicted, and was sentenced to death.

In 1992, he was released after his actions were classified as politically motivated.

He was later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Additional police are expected to arrive in Cape Town ahead of a protest planned by a group that led a violent march to the city centre late in October.

Cape Town Informal Settlements Organisation who planned the march, which has been denied permission by authorities, will reportedly bus in at least 50 000 members from all over the Peninsula to the CBD on Friday.

– News24

Johannesburg – A new political party reportedly started by businessman Kenny Kunene has been registered with the IEC.

The Patriotic Alliance’s details were available on the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) website on Wednesday.

The contact person was Thapelo Kenny Kunene.

The Citizen reported that Kunene wanted to start his own party, the Patriotic Alliance. It would be officially launched in Cape Town at the weekend, according to the paper.

“We will tell everything on Saturday at a media briefing. We want everyone at the same time. We don’t want to do separate interviews,” Kunene told The Citizen when asked for comment.

Kunene, a political butterfly, has gone from being an ANC member, to head of campaigns, mobilisation, and special projects for Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), to starting his own party.

In August, the EFF announced Kunene had resigned from the party.

Spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said at the time that Kunene had not left the party but asked to be “relieved of his leadership responsibilities”.

In July, Kunene said he was going into politics full-time as a member of the EFF.

Before joining the EFF he wrote an open letter to President Jacob Zuma criticising his leadership.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – T’is the season to be jolly — jolly critical, that is — in the City of Cape Town.

Mayor Patricia de Lille has been criticised by political opponents for encouraging people to mark the holiday season by writing personal messages to former president Nelson Mandela.

The city is collecting the messages at a civic centre exhibition honouring 95-year-old Mandela, who is critically ill, and plans to deliver them to him in three weeks.

Cosatu said De Lille is trying to gain support by associating the DA with Madiba.

The trade union accused de Lille of engaging in “ridiculous gimmicks” and said she had neglected the needy in Cape Town.

“Instead of trying to get standing through linking herself with Mandela, she should actually try doing good for the poor for once,” read a statement released by Cosatu in the Western Cape.

Solly Malatsi, De Lille’s spokesperson, pushed back, saying the criticism is “in stark contrast to the values of reconciliation and nation-building that Madiba taught us through his leadership”.

It is not the first quarrel over the legacy of Mandela.

Earlier this year, video footage showed a smiling President Jacob Zuma sitting with an unresponsive Mandela during a visit to the former leader’s home that some viewers thought was a stunt to promote the ANC.

In another incident, ANC supporters said the DA was capitalising on the Mandela name when it published a pamphlet showing an old photograph of Mandela embracing Helen Suzman.

In a statement this week, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other prominent Cape Town residents warned of efforts to make the Western Cape “‘ungovernable’ simply because certain elements disagree with the democratic choice of the majority in that province”.

Demonstrators from poor areas of Cape Town plan to march on Friday to protest what they say are inadequate municipal services.

Violence broke out during a city march by several thousand protesters in October.

– AP

Johannesburg – The City of Cape Town applied for a court interdict on Wednesday to stop a protest by the city’s Informal Settlements Group.

The protest, which was scheduled to take place on Friday, was not approved, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille said in a statement.

“A golden triangle meeting, which incorporates the SA Police Service, did not approve their application due to credible evidence received under oath, indicating that such a gathering could result in a serious disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic; injury to persons; and possible damage to property,” she said.

“Law enforcement authorities have also established there are serious threats of unprecedented levels of violence erupting in the event that the march takes place.”

The city claimed protesters had vowed to continue with the demonstration despite being denied a permit.

De Lille said it pursued the interdict as a last resort to avoid a repeat of the violence during a protest organised by the same group a few weeks ago.

She was referring to a group of about 3 500 people which took part in what was believed to be a service delivery protest in October.

Some protesters looted shops and vendors’ stalls, and damaged property in central Cape Town.

De Lille said that while everyone had the right to protest, they also had to abide by the law.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A man was arrested for robbery and housebreaking in Nemago, Port Alfred, on Wednesday, Eastern Cape police said.

A Somalian saw the man with stolen groceries and clothing in a block of shacks in the informal settlement, said police spokesperson Luvuyo Mjekula.

He alerted the police, and police dog Misha found the man in one of the shacks.

The 32-year-old man was also wanted for stealing money during a housebreaking in the area last month, said Mjekula.

He was expected to appear in the Port Alfred Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – In the biggest drugs bust so far this year, drugs with a street value of about R75m were seized in Kempton Park, on the East Rand, on Wednesday, the Hawks said.

A Nigerian and a Tanzanian man were found with 20kg of heroin, 15kg of cocaine, and 15kg of tik during a police operation on Wednesday.

“This is the biggest drug raid we have netted so far this year in terms of value. The men were closely monitored by crime intelligence officers for the past few months,” said Hawks spokesperson Paul Ramaloko.

They were expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court soon.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said he was pleased with the work done by the Hawks.

“We congratulate the Hawks. This latest drug bust is consistent with our resolve as government to crumble drug syndicates,” he said in a statement.

“That is why, during the last two years, 669 arrests were effected and about 298 804 847kg of drugs confiscated, with a monetary value of R95m.”

He said the Hawks shut down 41 laboratories during the year.

“The use of drugs has become an international challenge. The distribution and sale of drugs are also major contributory factors to gang wars.”

Mthethwa said his department had already launched a campaign to target the drug problem.

“From a policing perspective, our focus has shifted from targeting and arresting the sniffers towards crippling the drug syndicates,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) distanced itself on Wednesday from comments made by a member on Facebook.

“We want to place on record that comments or status updates made by individuals on social media, despite their affiliation to Popcru, do not represent the organisation’s stance,” the union said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) showed media a posting on Facebook by a person it claimed was a Popcru office bearer in Gauteng.

Numsa deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said the post contained a public threat to kill general secretary Irvin Jim.

The post read: “All of u can write what u like and say all manner of things, it will never deter us from our strategic alliance with the ANC, I’m saying it now that Irvin Jim is the most vitriolic political amoeba and must be expelled within our ranks.

“Thugs and criminals must be out rooted from society even if it means it’s yourselves who are chatting here we must deal with u to the extent of killing you if u pose threat to life, no apology.”

On Tuesday, Cloete said Numsa and its attorneys would lay a complaint with the Hawks.

“[The Hawks must] investigate the call for the killing of the Numsa general secretary,” he told reporters.

On Wednesday, Popcru said it did not approve of the statement on Facebook.

“We have no ill-intentions or wishes towards the Numsa general secretary,” the police union said.

– SAPA