Defending champions Kaizer Chiefs will fittingly kick-off the new Absa Premiership season next week and have an opportunity to lay down their marker at least a day before some of their main rivals taste any action.

Amakhosi will travel to newly-promoted Mpumalanga Black Aces on Friday and have the opportunity to give themselves a three-point head start.

Coach Stuart Baxter has already urged his players to remain “humble” as they bid to claim back-to-back league titles, just as they did eight years ago when they had won the championship for two seasons running.

Their opponents for the opening game, to be played at the Mbombela Stadium, have already recruited heavily in the off-season with 16 new signings to date and a new coach in veteran Clive Barker.

The ex-Bafana Bafana boss has reiterated that their ambition is top-flight survival.

Eight other clubs begin their campaigns on Saturday, including Aces’ fellow promotion foes, Polokwane City.

The Limpopo club defied the tragic circumstance of losing four players in a motor vehicle accident last season to win the National First Division and their reward is Premiership football with a debut against Maritzburg United at the Harry Gwala Stadium.

University of Pretoria, a club both Aces and City will be aiming to emulate after they ended in the top eight after their own elevation last year, kick off their season against Moroka Swallows at the Volkswagen Dobsonville Stadium.

The Birds missed out on a top half finish in 2012/13 and will disappointingly not have the chance to defend the MTN8 title they had won at the start of last term.

Similarly, Ajax Cape Town were absent from the top eight and will begin their new campaign with the long journey to the King Zwelithini Stadium where they will play Lamontville Golden Arrows in round one.

The other game on Saturday sees SuperSport United, who will be without the familiar feature of Gavin Hunt in the dugout for the first time in over half a decade, host Free State Stars at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville.

Cavin Johnson is the new coach at Matsatsantsa and the ex-Platinum Stars boss will be desperate to career with a bang.

Johnson’s former club are amongst the four in action on Sunday with Dikwena and their interim manager Allan Freese hosting a new-look coaching team of Bidvest Wits at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.

The ambitious Students appointed Hunt as their boss in the off-season and he too will be keen to start his new job on a positive note.

Also on the same day, Bloemfontein Celtic and Mamelodi Sundowns clash in possibly the tie of the round.

Siwelele ended fifth last year, while the Brazilians will be determined to start out well after ending a poorly 10th in 2012/13 – their joint-worst finish in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) era.

That match takes place at the Free State Stadium.

The final match of the opening round is delayed until the following week due to Orlando Pirates’ involvement in the CAF Champions League.

The Buccaneers will start out their domestic season by hosting AmaZulu at the FNB Stadium on August 7.

Roger de Sa’s team will be keen to put a tough past 12 months behind them and improve on their third-place league showing and general overall challenge in 2013/14.

For more http://www.psl.co.za

By Obakeng Maje

Tlokwe-During the meeting requested by the NW ANC Chair, Supra Mahumapelo, earlier today, the DA was informed that the former Tlokwe Executive Mayor, Maphetle Maphetle and his former mayoral committee will vacate the municipal offices immediately. 

“He said that they will invite DA Executive Mayor Annette Combrink to welcome her in the offices and to do a formal handover” DA Chris Hattingh said.

“He further said that the ANC will formally withdraw their High Court application for leave to appeal against a judgment handed down on Monday by Judge Tuchten” said DA.

The DA welcomes this decision by the ANC.

“It vindicates our position (also strengthened by the high court judgment) that the ANC had no justification for their occupation of the offices other than to frustrate the DA and the municipal administration – all at the cost of the community that it was elected to serve” Hattingh outlines.

The DA’s Annette Combrink and her team are ready to start with their task. 

Hattingh said the first priority is to bring stability and sound administration back to the municipality. 

Committees that have become dysfunctional must be revitalised and the backlog of neglected issues must be cleared DA concludes.-TDN

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Cape Town – Despite entering into the election race with a “heavy heart” and the odds heavily stacked against his favour, Zimbawe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has refused to back down from the election contest.

Mail&Guardian reported that the MDC leader cast his vote just before 11:00 on Wednesday.

Months leading to the national election, President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party resisted key political reforms as outlined by the power sharing agreement signed in September 2008, while the military’s top brass publicly lent its support to Mugabe.

For more http://www.news24.com

South African media darling and business mogul Khanyi Dhlomo has again found herself in the spotlight. But this time her latest venture has been tinged with the unwelcome whiff of scandal. 

For more http://www.mg.co.za

Johannesburg – Bafana Bafana will host their Soccer World Cup qualifier against Botswana in Durban on September 7, FIFA has confirmed.

According to the Sowetanlive website, the match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium will kick off at 15:30.

But the venue for the key match in Group A between leaders Ethiopia and the Central African Republic [CAR] has yet to be designated, suggesting it is likely to be played at a neutral venue rather than in Bangui. 

That will come as much relief to Ethiopia but a blow to South African hopes.

Ethiopia have a two-point advantage over Bafana in the standings after being stripped of three points by FIFA for using an ineligible player. 

The respite for Gordon Igesund’s team gives them a chance to still salvage prospects of going to Brazil, but SA must beat Botswana and Ethiopia fail at the same time if Bafana are to finish top of the standings and advance to the final phase of qualification.

Sport24

Harare – Zimbabweans began casting ballots on Wednesday in a fiercely contested election dominated by Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his 33-year rule and overshadowed by suspicions of vote rigging.

The 89-year-old president, Africa’s oldest leader, is running for election for the seventh and perhaps final time, after a series of violent crackdowns, economic crises and suspect elections.

This time Mugabe vowed to step down if he lost and claimed the army – long the bulwark of his rule – would also respect any victory for Morgan Tsvangirai, his perennial rival.

But few are taking him at his word.

Even Tsvangirai, who was forced out of the race in 2008 after 200 of his supporters were killed, told CNN he took Mugabe’s promise “with a pinch of salt”.

Determined to cast their ballots, voters, some wrapped in blankets on a cold winter morning, started queuing up at least four hours before polling stations opened.

Voting appeared to be brisk in many urban areas, which have traditionally recorded strong support for Tsvangirai.

At polling stations set up in green tents on an open field in Mbare, the capital’s oldest township, several hundreds were standing in line.

At Epworth, a Harare township, 66-year-old Ellen Zhakata held back her tears after voting.

“I am happy to have cast my vote. I just want an end to the problems in our country,” she said. “All my children are outside the country because of the economic troubles here. I am so lonely. How I wish they could be working here.”

Economic crisis

Millions of Zimbabwean were forced to migrate to find work elsewhere after an economic crisis which was exacerbated by the violence-marred 2008 elections.

Some 6.4 million people, around half of the population of 12.9 million Zimbabweans, are eligible to vote at 9,670 polling stations across the country.

A candidate needs 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off and both Mugabe and Tsvangirai appear confident they can manage that feat.

Mugabe has focused his campaign on bashing homosexuals and on promises to widen the redistribution of wealth to poor black Zimbabweans.

Amid recovery from an economic crisis that saw mass unemployment and galloping inflation, Mugabe loyalists insist their hero is “tried and tested”.

Credible opinion polls are rare, but according to one survey by the US-based Williams firm in March-April, Mugabe could be in for a rough ride.

In a survey of 800 Zimbabweans, 61% said they had a favourable view of the MDC compared with 27% for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.

The poll showed Tsvangirai leading in seven of 10 provinces and that only 34% of those who voted for Mugabe in 2008 back him for president this time around.

Tsvangirai hopes his plans to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services will deliver a long-awaited victory.

Polling stations will close at 19:00. Final results are expected with five days.

The elections will also chose lawmakers and local government councillors.

In June, the Research and Advocacy Unit – an NGO – reported the existing roll included one million dead voters or people who have emigrated, as well as over 100 000 people aged over 100 years old.

AFP

Chairperson of Moral Regeneration Father Mkhatshwa has joined Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile in congratulating the North West for being the first province to host a Social Cohesion and Moral Regeneration Summit and a trendsetter in implementing resolutions of the National Summit held at Kliptown in July last year. . 

“You are a great province and the Moral Regeneration Movement is very very proud to be associated with you,” said Father Mkhatshwa who was speaking during the closing of the two-day Provincial Moral Regeneration and Social Cohesion Summit that commenced in Mahikeng on Tuesday.

Mkhatshwa said the North West province has always been a trendsetter  in activism within the Moral Regeneration Movement. “Once again you are becoming a leader in this area of work. With you we can only become a winning team, a winning country, a winning nation and we can all be very proud of your work,” said Father Mkhatshwa.

In his address at the summit on Monday, Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile also commended the North West Province for being the first province to host a summit on Social Cohesion following the resolutions of the National Summit on Social Cohesion. 

Minister Mashatile said it was appropriate that the North West was hosting the Provincial Social Cohesion and Moral Regeneration Summit during Moral Regeneration Month.-TDN

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Cape Town – A Ukrainian mother who duped an elderly man into investing R4m with a Ukrainian bank, but kept the money for herself, was on Tuesday given seven months to repay the money, or face prison.

Kateryna Karpovska appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court, before Magistrate Amrith Chabilall.

Chabilall said she had been in a romantic relationship with the man and the method she had used to cheat him was a disgrace.

He sentenced her to eight years’ jail, suspended for five years, on condition that the money was repaid by 28 February.

He said she had the means to repay it, according to defence attorney Pieter du Toit.

In addition, she was sentenced to three years’ house arrest, and ordered to do community service as a cleaner at the Table View police station.

Chabilall said Karpovska had qualified for the minimum sentence of 15 years for a first-time offender, for fraud involving R500 000 or more.

All that had saved her was that her children were with her in South Africa, and to jail her would leave them in a foreign country without support.

“This is the one single factor that saved you from going to prison for 15 years,” he told her.

Karpovska was appointed by the Ukrainian Joint-Stock Commercial Bank, better known as the Imexbank, as the chief representative officer (CRO) with the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb).

In all, she was sentenced on four counts of fraud, one contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and one violation of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.

According to the charge sheet, the bank eventually closed its South African representative office in March 2008.

Karpovska failed to inform the Sarb of this, and fraudulently continued as the Imexbank’s CRO with the Sarb.

In the R4m fraud, she falsely informed the man not only that she was Imexbank’s CRO, but also its chief wealth manager.

“It is disgraceful that a woman can do such a thing to a trusting man,” Chabilall said.

– SAPA