Johannesburg – Nineteen new political parties have been registered on a national level with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) over the past nine months.

Prominent among this group are Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang SA, Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters, and the Workers and Socialist Party.

The lesser-known parties include the Lekgotla for Democracy Advancement, the International Revelation Congress (IRC), and the Poelano Revelation Party.

All these are contesting next year’s national elections and hoping for seats in Parliament.

Kokoloti Mametja, leader of Lekgotla, on Wednesday said South Africans were “wising up” and realising the ANC was not delivering.

“In this country… we are in very, very big trouble. As a public servant I know that,” he told Sapa.

“A lot of South Africans are wising up (sic).”

Mametja, a former African National Congress member, worked in the Gauteng local government department. He resigned from his job in August this year.

He said the “wheels started coming off” for the ANC in the early 2000s when nepotism, corruption, and cadre deployment surfaced. Lekgotla was started in 2011 as a civil rights organisation.

“We went into the communities and initiated dialogue over the past three years. You need to find a greater objective and ours is service to the people.”

Not listening

Mametja said current leaders and politicians were not listening to the people.

“We are going to speak the language of ethics, the language of good governance. Good governance can’t take a back seat, it needs to be the national agenda.”

He said a membership audit had not been conducted yet, but that the party had a presence in the provinces. The party, which was launched in July, would start campaigning in October.

“We might be operating at a low budget but there is nothing stopping us. We are a functioning political party right now. We don’t have an organisation which is groping in the dark. We are actually ready,” Mametja said.

The IRC’s Thinawanga Mammba said he started the party because the ANC was not doing anything for the people.

“When the ruling party came in they said they will unite all South Africans, but they are dividing people. They did not fulfil their promises.”

Mammba, who claimed to be a former National Union of Metalworkers of SA shop steward, said no one should still be living in a shack without electricity or running water.

He claimed the IRC had 34 000 members so far and was strong in Limpopo.

Political butterfly Philemon Sadick, who fluttered from one party to the other, registered the Poelano Revelation Party in March.

During apartheid Sadick said he campaigned for the ANC, but when the party came into power he decided to join the National Party to try to “neutralise” its image.

Battling

However, when the NP decided to merge with the ANC Sadick left the party.

“I decided to leave it and join the Democratic Alliance. The Democratic Alliance was not nice for me so I decided to go and learn more about the ANC and I became again a member of the ANC until I registered this party,” he explained.

Sadick said he was focusing on getting a seat in Parliament so he could “lay matters on the table”.

“My problem is poverty is fluctuating in rural areas and government is not supporting emerging farmers and emerging business people. Crime is my problem, and xenophobia, and drugs.”

Sadick said his party had about 2000 registered members and he was battling with funding.

Other political parties registered this year are: the Bolsheviks Party of SA, Direct Democracy Forum, First Indigenous Nations Civic Association of SA, the Nationalist Coloured Party, the Nehemiah Liberation Christian Party, People’s Party of SA, Security Workers Political Party, SA People’s Party, True Freedom Party, Ubumbano Lwesizwe Sabangoni, and the United Congress.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) on Wednesday accused media and opposition parties of distorting the auditor general’s findings published in its 2012/13 annual report.

Auditor General Terence Nombembe found the NYDA had racked up R62m in irregular spending and failed to act against the officials at fault.

“The AG’s report points to areas of improvement in the NYDA finances and operations,” spokesperson Siyabonga Magadla said.

“Among these, the AG’s report has noted significant improvements in the reduction of irregular expenditure, which dropped from R133m in the 2011/12 financial year to R62m in the 2012/13 financial year.”

Magadla said while this was welcome, further steps were being taken to cut irregular spending even further.

The AG found the NYDA had flouted National Treasury regulations by procuring goods and services worth more than R500 000 without a proper tender process.

Magadla said this did not suggest money was wasted or misappropriated.

“In such instances, deviations were approved by the accounting authority wherein it was impractical to source three quotations [due to time constraints or scarcity of the service required] as required by the Treasury regulations,” he said.

The agency had further financial losses to the tune of R31.5m in defaulted loans.

In his opinion, Nombembe noted that the recovery of the money was “doubtful”.

“In terms of the possible defaulted loans… the agency has put in place a recovery plan to recoup this money,” said Magadla.

“The NYDA is taking legal action on all defaulted loans. Slow-to-pay and no-pay customers are handed over to debt collectors.”

Magadla also justified the widely criticised salaries and bonuses paid to management and staff.

Performance bonuses totalling over R7.5m was approved for 2012/13.

Top management and senior management were paid out close to R5m, while general staff were paid R2.6m.

“It is not uncommon for any organisation or institution to pay its staff performance bonuses, and this is usually done in line with signed performance agreements with staff at the start of the financial year,” Magadla said.

“They are therefore paid against agreed upon performance targets and to do otherwise would be illegal on the part of any employer.”

The NYDA executive will appear before Parliament’s portfolio committee on appropriations later this month, and are likely to be grilled by MPs on the report.
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Pretoria – A paramedic is missing after being attacked by a giant crocodile in front of her 12-year-old daughter in Botswana.

Beeld reported on Wednesday that Danelle Viljoen, 38, was on holiday with her daughter and friends at Shakawe in the Okavango Delta on Monday.

She was apparently watching her daughter and a friend’s son while they were fishing, and sat in the shallow water to cool down. Almost immediately, a crocodile pounded on her and dragged her into the water.

The crocodile was estimated to be 5-metres-long and a metre wide.

Botswana police searched along the river but there was no sign of Viljoen.

Viljoen’s daughter is being cared for by her grandparents, who are doing missionary work near Maun in Botswana.
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Bloemfontein – A careful argument on language in education has been distorted to create a media hype, Free State University rector Jonathan Jansen said on Wednesday.

“It still amazes me how a careful argument about language inclusivity can be seriously distorted for maximum media hype,” Jansen said on his twitter account in reply to a report about a speech in September.

Afrikaans newspapers Beeld and Volksblad published front page articles on Jansen’s opinion that exclusive white Afrikaans schools and universities held a danger for race relations in South Africa.

Jansen’s comments were made while delivering the Percy Baneshik Memorial Lecture of the English Academy of South Africa on 18 September.

Mother tongue education

In his speech, Jansen said English and not Afrikaans could be the “taal van versoening” – language of reconciliation – for South Africa.

He said English could also be the one major solution for the crisis in education.

“Instruct every teacher and every child in English from the first day of school rather than add the burden of poor instruction in the mother-tongue in the foundation years to the trauma of transition to English later on.”

Jansen said for many parents English was already the language of choice in schools.

The reason for this was that indigenous languages were poorly taught.

He said learning in a mother tongue was no guarantee of improved learning gains in school.

Threat to race relations

The Kovsie rector said English could be the foundation for a common language. He said he understood that the symbolism of supporting indigenous languages had a political value beyond his pragmatic reasoning.

Language differences were of themselves not contentious, but the mobilisation of languages for political purposes constituted the problem.

For this reason Afrikaans-dominant white schools and universities represented a serious threat to race relations in South Africa, he said.

“You simply cannot prepare young people for dealing with the scars of our violent past without creating optimal opportunities in the educational environment for living and learning together.”

Jansen said English had levelled the playing fields in the historically Afrikaans universities for common engagement between students.

The Kovsie rector confirmed his opinion on English as a reconciliation language in a tweet on Wednesday.

“I also believe that there is no way in which young people across divisions can heal past rifts without a common language; that is English,” Jansen’s tweet read.

AfriForum criticism

AfriForum on Wednesday criticised Jansen’s remarks, saying his “disregard of language rights [is] a bigger danger to reconciliation than to Afrikaans”.

Jansen’s comments about English being used as the medium of education and the danger of so-called white, Afrikaans schools “not only raises concerns about the future of Afrikaans at the University of the Free State, but also steps into the trap of political ideology and rhetoric to the extent that he loses sight of academic and cultural rights and principles”, said Alana Bailey, deputy CEO of AfriForum and deputy chair of the Afrikaans Language Board.

Mother tongue education is an internationally recognised principle, Bailey added.

“No single language can foster mutual respect and recognition by dominance. It will only be reached by the promotion of all South African languages.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The man charged with the murder of Dustan Blom will provide blood and handwriting samples, the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday.

Jean-Pierre Malan would also not bring a bail application yet, his lawyer Shaun Hamilton said.
“(We) reserve the right to apply for bail at a later stage.”

Malan is the boyfriend of Maruschka Robinson, believed to be a former stripper, who was arrested on 24 September, after Blom’s decomposing body was found in the boot of his own car at Montecasino, Fourways.

Security guards noticed a bad smell coming from it. Malan was arrested on 26 September.

Robinson did not object to giving a handwriting sample, but the magistrate advised her to seek legal representation before consenting.

The court would not make the order for Robinson’s handwriting sample until she was represented.

Prosecutor Yusuf Baba said he believed a conflict of interest could arise which might make it difficult for Hamilton to represent both Malan and Robinson.

Hamilton said: “…I believe that piece of evidence, in any case, will be challenged.”

Robinson, wearing a black top and an ornate belt decorated with hearts, and Malan, his head shaved and wearing a beige jersey, sat calmly in the dock, looking ahead.

Robinson said she had not had her right to legal representation explained to her and the magistrate explained this to her.

Baba said: “For the record, her rights were explained to her on her first appearance.”

The matter was postponed until 9 October for further investigation. The pair would remain in Johannesburg Prison until their next court date.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Deaths in police custody or as result of police action have dropped, but brutality and criminality cases shot up in 2012/13, according to the Ipid’s latest annual report.

There were 696 deaths in custody in 2012/13 compared to 932 in the previous financial year, according to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s report released on Tuesday, 1 October.

The number of cases of brutality and criminality against police increased by 37% to 6 728.

Alleged police brutality came under the spotlight in February when minibus taxi driver Mido Macia was dragged behind a police van along a street in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg. He was later found dead in the local police station’s holding cell.

The report revealed that 168 cases of rape in police custody had been lodged, compared to 40 the previous year.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The baby of Adriaan Netto and his girlfriend died a painful death at the hands of her parents, a judge said on Wednesday.

A couple convicted for the rape and death of their 10-month-old baby girl were sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years in prison each by the.

Judge Majeke Mabesele gave Adriaan Netto, 37, and his 34-year-old girlfriend a total of 18 years behind bars.

They received four years each for culpable homicide, three for child abuse, and 15 for rape. The sentences for culpable homicide and rape would run concurrently.

Before sentencing the couple in the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, the judge said he had a duty to send out a clear message to communities and parents that violation of children’s rights would not be tolerated.

No remorse shown

The couple sat in the dock with their heads bowed as the sentences were read out.

Mabesele said they had shown no remorse for the child’s death.

“It is evident she died a painful and undignified death at the hands of her parents. With the seriousness in nature of the crime, society will look to the courts to dish out harsh sentences. I’m mindful that reasoning should be above emotions to avoid sentencing in anger,” he said.

Mabesele said the couple had faced life sentences but he had taken into account their personal circumstances.

Although the court had a duty to impose the harshest sentence, he had to consider their two other children.

“I don’t agree with the argument raised by the State on the other children being well taken care of. These children should be raised and guided through life by their parents,” he said.

‘Long-standing child abuse’

On 18 September, Mabesele found the couple guilty of culpable homicide, child abuse, and the rape of their 10-month-old baby girl.

Mabesele found that while the couple had not murdered the child, as charged, their neglect and abuse made them culpable for the baby’s death in March last year.

“[I] conclude that the deceased sustained bodily injuries while under the care of her parents,” the judge said.

Testimony by Netto and the woman that they did not know how the baby was injured was not true.

“[The] injuries suggest long-standing child abuse,” Mabesele said.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – Officials at the Mangaung Correctional Centre outside Bloemfontein have confirmed there is a hostage situation at the prison.

G4S Africa head Andy Baker said prison management was dealing with the incident, but did not give more detail.

He said contingency measures designed to deal with hostage situations had been put in place.

Earlier, a local radio station reported that four inmates took a female guard hostage on Wednesday morning.

Two inmates took a doctor and a nurse hostage at the Mangaung Maximum Security Prison in December 2012. The hostage drama lasted 48 hours.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A Kruger National Park environmental monitoring officer and a villager are being treated in hospital after they were attacked by animals in two separate incidents on Tuesday, SANParks said.

In the first incident, official Amos Muhlovu fell on to a rock while trying to escape from a charging buffalo at Punda Maria, north of the park, said acting SANParks spokesperson Rey Thakhuli on Wednesday.

“The… officer managed to escape but fell on a rock and sustained injuries. He is receiving treatment at the Malamulele hospital,” he said.

In the other incident, Biyamirhi Maluleke was attacked by a leopard between Maphophe and Josefa villages outside Punda Maria, but managed to escape.

Thakhuli said Maluleke was being treated at a nearby hospital.

It was suspected that the leopard had escaped from the park.

“Rangers were deployed to trace the leopard and tracked it back into the park. We are making sure it does not go back to the community,” he said.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Tlokwe-The ANC today again tried to take control of Tlokwe illegally by switching council agendas and sneaking in a motion of no-confidence in the DA Executive Mayor, DA said.

“An independent councillor was forced to leave the council chamber in an artificial attempt to achieve a majority in the council” Democratic Alliance Chris Hattingh said in a statement.

DA said the meeting to remove the DA mayor could not be constituted since it was not quorate.

It is alleged that the ANC councillors proceeded, without the council being quorate, to debate
the salaries of MMC members.

“They also put reasons forward to the North West MEC for Local Government to conduct a Section 139 intervention into the Tlokwe municipality and to appoint an administrator to take control of the council” Hattingh said.

ÐA said this is an obvious attempt to re-instate ANC control by stealth.

“It is all part of sustained attempts by the ANC to destabilise the council in the run up to the by-elections on the 23rd of October” he said.

DA outlines that since it took over in Tlokwe, the ANC has done everything in its power to destabilise the council and prevent real service delivery from happening.

“DA will continue working to make sure that Tlokwe is a corruption-free and effective municipality that delivers services to its people”.

They said ANC’s delaying tactics, together with the persistent attempts at vote-buying by ANC and government officials form the backbone of the ANC’s election strategy for the upcoming by-elections.

“The ANC has been forced to resort to these tactics because they know that they have no service delivery record to run on in the Tlokwe municipality” Hattingh said.-TDN
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