The body of a 36-year-old police officer reported missing has been found, Eastern Cape police said on Friday.

Police spokesperson Marinda Mills said the officer’s body was discovered on Thursday around 23:30 in his car between Motherwell and Uitenhage with multiple wounds.

“A couple of metres from the vehicle police found another male with stab wounds and [he] was taken to hospital,” Mills said.

Police could not reveal which hospital the man was taken to, as they feared his life might be in danger.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Platinum miner Lonmin has turned down a request to help pay the legal fees of miners taking part in the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, it said on Friday.

Lonmin human capital manager Abey Kgotle confirmed he had sent a letter to the Hola Bon Renaissance Foundation, which made the request, in this regard.

He said no further comment would be made.

According to the letter the company notes the foundation’s application and says it was duly considered.

It reads: “We certainly support you in the belief that it is right that all interested parties continue to have a voice at the commission. However, given the conflict inherent in Lonmin providing financial assistance to a party with whom it may be in opposition and the negative perceptions this could raise, we cannot accede to your requests.”

The foundation sent the letter on 25 July.

Following Lonmin’s response on Tuesday, foundation project manager Lebogang Moima asked for a meeting to further discuss the reasoning behind the request.

Kgotle confirmed the meeting request and said it would be arranged, refusing to provide further details.

On 10 August last year, rock drillers at Lonmin’s Marikana operations, outside Rustenburg in North West, embarked on an unprotected strike for a monthly salary of R12 500.

More workers joined the strike and the protesters gathered on a hill near the Nkaneng informal settlement, some carrying weapons such as pangas, spears, knobkerries, and iron rods.

Thirty-four workers were killed when police fired on them on 16 August while attempting to disperse and disarm them.

Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in strike-related unrest in the preceding week.

Commission of Inquiry

President Jacob Zuma established the Farlam Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deaths.

In June Dali Mpofu, for the wounded and arrested miners, told the commission that due to financial constraints his team could be forced to withdraw from the inquiry.

He brought an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria several weeks ago seeking state funding, but this was dismissed.

Mpofu then took the state to the Constitutional Court, asking that it pay for his legal team.

The Constitutional Court was to have delivered judgment on Friday but postponed the ruling until Monday.

The commission’s proceedings have been postponed several times while solutions to the funding problems were sought.

Government has so far spent about R6.7m on legal representation for police.

Moima said the foundation considered itself a mouthpiece for the disadvantaged and the request formed part of its advocacy responsibilities.

“We are hoping our meeting with Lonmin will just be progressive in a way that they will pay, even just partly. It’s important that even Lonmin must show commitment.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has vowed to challenge his suspension from the trade federation, he told reporters in Johannesburg on Friday.

“I have instructed my lawyers to challenge the decision to put me on leave of absence pending investigation and possible disciplinary action,” he said.

“I believe a grave injustice is being visited on me. I believe that my suspension will be proven to be both procedurally and unsubstantially unfair.

“The laws of the country, including the right to be treated fairly, has been trampled upon by the very same people who are mandated to defend the rights of workers and all South Africans, including myself.”

He said one of the reasons he was challenging the suspension was that Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini had circulated an “intelligence report” that aimed to “destroy” him.

Cosatu announced on Thursday that Vavi had been put on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing relating to an affair he had with a junior Cosatu employee.

“[Vavi] has been released from all his official duties as the general secretary during this period of investigation until such a time that the outcome of the [disciplinary] hearing is known,” deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said.

Dlamini said Vavi was placed on special leave after the special central executive committee (CEC) meeting.

Rape claim

Last month, a junior Cosatu employee accused Vavi of rape.

He admitted to having a consensual affair with her.

The woman subsequently withdrew a sexual harassment complaint against him.

Vavi said the intelligence report, which he distributed at the briefing, aimed to discredit a number of South Africans including ANC MP Tokyo Sexwale, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim.

– SAPA

By TDN

Women in South Africa have always provided leadership in the struggle for liberation, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti said at the media briefing on the “reversing the legacy” of the 1913 Native Act exhibition held at the Mmabatho Convention Centre on Friday.

Minister Nkwinti said the exhibition is part of the government’s effort to conscientise South Africans about the effect of the infamous 1913 Natives Land Act which paved the way for the majority of Black South Africans to be removed from their land and banished to unproductive land reserved for black people. He said the loss of land destroyed the potential economic growth that could have thrived from these farming communities.

“The first big march was led by women in 1913 and because of their resistance women in South Africa have provided leadership. It is important that we carry forward a tradition that we got from those that came before us,” said the Minister.

In her remarks to accept the 7-day- free walk through tour, North West Premier Thandi Modise said that inequality and poverty can be traced back to the infamous 1913 Native Land Act which was the first formal instrument of apartheid that accounted for 100 years of dispossession, humiliation and tears.

Premier Modise who was accompanied by MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Desbo Mohono amplified the importance of the exhibition and urged the people of the North West to come to view it to learn from the mistakes of the past.  

“Let’s not go back into crying, but let’s not pretend that 1913 did not happen. Let’s say to our children: learn from the mistakes of the past, never do unto others that which was done to you. To those who were dispossessed and are recipient of restituted land we wish to say, as you take the opportunity of land being returned to you, we must make sure that land that is being redistributed is used productively. Using it productively will help us create jobs and make us more equal,” said Premier Modise.

Since 1994 the government has been trying to reverse the legacy of the land dispossession by a number of land reform initiatives which include land redistribution, restitution and tenure reform. A significant progress has been in the implementation of the land reform programme and 75 percent of the land earmarked for redistribution was acquired over the last 15 years.

The Executive Mayor of Mahikeng Local Municipality, Councillor Lena Miga and Kgosi Madoda Zibi were among some of the high profile officials gracing the occasion, which was characterised by a spectacle as ten supersonic trucks carrying twenty-three containers of exhibition material arrived for offloading and set up.

The exhibition entailed historic, heritage research and development of a story-line through consensus with all the various expertise from state archivists, historians, academics, heritage specialists, creative artists and other activists.

The explosive and interactive exhibition is part of the centenary anniversary of the Native Land Act and is expected to draw audience from across the province during its seven days run.-TDN

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Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal health MEC must make sure an agreement is signed to avoid closing Durban’s 103-year-old McCord Hospital, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday.

“The MEC must take control of the situation. He has already committed to taking over McCord and turning it into a state-run hospital,” DA spokesperson Makhosazana Mdlalose said in a statement.

Mdlalose urged MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo to push for signing an agreement between McCord Hospital management and the provincial health department without delay.

“If this transition is being managed as it should be, by both parties, then there shouldn’t be any issue and staff should certainly not be standing outside protesting,” she said.

On Thursday, staff mostly belonging to the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), protested outside the facility.

They carried banners that read “Yes to DOH [department of health]” and “No to Closure”.

The hospital was slated for closure earlier this year after the department opted not to renew its annual subsidy.

At the end of January, Dhlomo announced that the department had offered to take over the hospital and that the hospital’s board had accepted this.

On Thursday, the MEC’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said negotiations had taken place.

There was an agreement in place “waiting to be signed to effect the take-over of McCord Hospital by the provincial government by September 2013”.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – One of the men who defaced a controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma, was convicted in the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court of malicious damage to property on Friday, the SABC reported.

According to SABC news, the court found that Louis Mabokela, a Limpopo taxi driver, intended to damage the painting at the Goodman Gallery in Rosebank in May last year.

Mabokela reportedly maintained his innocence saying he saw nothing wrong with what he did.

He said he was merely protecting the image of the president.

The painting depicted Zuma with his genitals exposed.

The second defacer, Barend la Grange, has paid a R1 000 fine after admitting guilt.

The painting was said to be worth about R100 000 and gained value after it was defaced, the SABC reported.

– SAPA

– Oscar Pistorius’s ex-girlfriend has reportedly turned State witness and has told police about an incident in which the athlete allegedly fired shots through an open car sunroof.

City Press reported on Friday that Samantha Taylor, who dated Pistorius before he started dating Reeva Steenkamp, told police that Pistorius “stood up and fired shots through the sunroof” while she was driving along a highway.

It emerged on Friday that Pistorius could face two counts of recklessly discharging a firearm in public. The other charge relates to an incident in a Johannesburg restaurant in January when he accidentally fired a gun while sitting at a table.

Pistorius is due to appear in court on Monday to face murder charges after fatally shooting Steenkamp at his Pretoria home in February.

City Press previously reported on Taylor’s break-up with Pistorius after a year-and-a-half relationship. She told the newspaper that “Oscar is certainly not what people think he is”.
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Marikana – Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema was given a hero’s welcome at a commemoration rally in Marikana, North West, on Friday.

The crowd clapped, whistled, and raised hands when he arrived. Guests in a VIP tent rose when he entered.

Malema wore a red EFF beret, a black shirt, and dark sunglasses.

Friday’s event marks a year since 44 people were killed during a wage-related strike at Lonmin’s Marikana mine. Thirty-four mineworkers were killed when police fired on them on 16 August while attempting to disperse and disarm them.

The workers – armed with spears, pangas, iron rods and knobkerries – had gathered on top of a hill. They were demanding a monthly salary of R12 500.

Malema arranged for lawyers to represent the 270 mineworkers arrested after the shooting. At the time he was suspended as leader of the ANC Youth League. He was later expelled from the ANC.

Men dressed in green Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) clothing sang union songs at the large white tent where families of the deceased mineworkers were seated. Men carried umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and clapped in unison with their fellow workers.

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said a year later mineworkers were still paid a “slave wage”.

“Nothing has changed. Workers are still not benefiting from the economy of the country,” he said.

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Kimberley- Northern Cape police attended an accident scene in Barkly Road near Kimberley where four vehicles collided. The vehicles involved in a fatal accident are a White Toyota Tazz, a Black Opel Vivaro, a Red Isuzu Bakkie, and a Grey Chevrolet Captiva.
The accident happened on F riday at around 10:55 am.
“It is alleged that the White Toyota Tazz was travelling from the Northern direction towards the Southern direction of town whilst the other three vehicles were going on the opposite direction. Two occupants from the Opel Vivaro as well as one from the Isuzu bakkie were seriously injured and they were taken to hospital” Lieutenant Donald Mdhluli said.
Two other occupants were treated for shock.
“At this stage the cause of the accident is yet to be discovered and Police have opened a case of reckless and negligent driving”.
The investigation continues.
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By Obakeng Maje
Madibeng-The DA is concerned about the increasingly extravagant lifestyle of the Executive Mayor and fellow inner circle comrades.
DA said the Madibeng municipality does not have money for essential maintenance of the infrastructure, but official does not hesitate to lavishly entertain themselves at the ratepayer’s expense.
“The Executive Mayor and eleven of her cadres have arranged for themselves a luxurious break-away from 25 to 30 August at the Umfula Game Lodge at cost of R75 000. This is on top of the R19 000 that they recently spent on a relaxing outing to the Hartbeespoort Dam Cableway” Tiaan Kotze said.
The opposition party said Umfula Lodge outing will be another fruitless and wasteful demonstration of the Mayor and her committee’s disrespect for the ratepayer’s money.
“Their lack of financial discipline is costing the municipality dearly and is a clear display of their inability to manage competently and responsibly”.
“It has become imperative that the Mayor be stopped or preferably be removed from office. I reiterate that a DA led Madibeng, will be a Clean accountable Madibeng” Kotze concludes.-TDN
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