Several match officials have missed the cut to officiate in the upcoming 2013/2014 Premier Soccer League season.

The officials were part of a group of referees, assistant referees and referees assessors (match commissioners) who attended a week-long FIFA workshop in Johannesburg.

The workshop started on Monday (15 July) at SAFA House and came to an end on Friday, 19 July 2013.
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Word coming out of the Orlando Pirates camp is that winger Tlou Segolela will be available for selection when Bucs take on Congo’s AC Leopards at the Orlando Stadium tomorrow night.

This, despite the fact that Segolela is without a contract following the expiry of his deal with Pirates at the end of last season. The speedy winger is, however, registered for the CAF Champions League.

Pirates coach Roger de Sa confirmed to the Siya crew that Segolela will be available for selection on Saturday.
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Orlando Pirates midfielder, Tshepo Liphoko, has returned to South Africa following his trial with Greek outfit OFI Crete FC.

Read: Bucs’ Liphoko For European Trial

Liphoko jetted out of the country just over a week ago to attend a trial with the Greek Superleague outfit, the same side that Kaizer Chiefs defender Lincoln Zvasiya joined on loan.

The trip to Greece for the youngster was his second in the space of six months, having had a short training spell with Greek side Atromitos FC back in May.

Read: Liphoko Trains In Greece
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The Siya crew can confirm that newly promoted Premier Soccer League side Mpumalanga Black Aces have signed goalkeeper Calvin Marlin on a two-year deal.

The 37-year-old started training with the promotion/relegation play-off winners following his release from Mamelodi Sundowns at the end of last season.
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A colleague of Paul Nothnagel, who allegedly shot and killed his teenaged daughters and seriously wounded his ex-wife before committing suicide, has described him as a hard worker.

Andre van Tonder of Media24 News says the incident has come as a shock for all who worked with Nothnagel. The children and their mother were on their way to school when the incident took place in Alberton. Van Tonder says they still have to come to terms with the incident.

“Everybody is shocked at this time and I would understand it because it’s totally out of his character. He’s never been an aggressive person, definitely not in the work situation. He was always working hard and yes, we actually knew Linda as well and the kids. At this stage it is an absolute shock to all the personnel and it is something we don’t understand.”

Meanwhile, learners and staff at the Helpmekaar High School in central Johannesburg are battling to come to terms with the murder of two of their learners on Thursday.

Helpmekaar principal, Klaus Konig, says they are trying their best to help the learners deal with the tragedy.

“I have heard this morning that Linda’s mother was operated last night. At this stage because there was crime involved, we are unable to make definite plans at this stage. We are really in grief since yesterday morning and we are forced to help our children to get through this grief.”

Police say Linda was apparently taking the children to school around 6.30 A.M. when the shooting happened. Nothnagel was allegedly hiding behind a tree, spotted their vehicle and fired several shots into the vehicle with a 9 millimetre pistol.A colleague of Paul Nothnagel, who allegedly shot and killed his teenaged daughters and seriously wounded his ex-wife before committing suicide, has described him as a hard worker.

Andre van Tonder of Media24 News says the incident has come as a shock for all who worked with Nothnagel. The children and their mother were on their way to school when the incident took place in Alberton. Van Tonder says they still have to come to terms with the incident.

“Everybody is shocked at this time and I would understand it because it’s totally out of his character. He’s never been an aggressive person, definitely not in the work situation. He was always working hard and yes, we actually knew Linda as well and the kids. At this stage it is an absolute shock to all the personnel and it is something we don’t understand.”

Meanwhile, learners and staff at the Helpmekaar High School in central Johannesburg are battling to come to terms with the murder of two of their learners on Thursday.

Helpmekaar principal, Klaus Konig, says they are trying their best to help the learners deal with the tragedy.

“I have heard this morning that Linda’s mother was operated last night. At this stage because there was crime involved, we are unable to make definite plans at this stage. We are really in grief since yesterday morning and we are forced to help our children to get through this grief.”

Police say Linda was apparently taking the children to school around 6.30 A.M. when the shooting happened. Nothnagel was allegedly hiding behind a tree, spotted their vehicle and fired several shots into the vehicle with a 9 millimetre pistol.
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Basic Education says they are expecting better results in this year’s Annual National Assessments.

The department has finished preparing for the assessments, which will be done slightly different this year. The assessments, which have been written by Grades one to six and Grade nine learners, will also include Grade 10 learners this year.

The department’s spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says they are expecting a better result as it has been a trend if based on previous surveys. He says since the introduction of the new system, the first year you get bad results, the second year you get improvement, so everybody knows what is expected of them, hence they expect good results.

Meanwhile, schooling has ground to a halt at the Oakford Primary School at Verulam north of Durban amid a dispute between school authorities and the land owner. The owner locked out the teachers and learners. Chairperson of the School Governing Body (SGB) Mfanje Mbango says the main problem is that the new owner of the property, Professor Marais, has forced the parents and the learners to use the pathway which runs through the dense sugar cane plantation, which is not safe at all.

Mbango says the parents are very concerned because their children are not safe and they are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the whole process. The SGB leader says they hope that everything will be back to normal on Monday and is appealing for teaching and learning to resume on Monday.Basic Education says they are expecting better results in this year’s Annual National Assessments.

The department has finished preparing for the assessments, which will be done slightly different this year. The assessments, which have been written by Grades one to six and Grade nine learners, will also include Grade 10 learners this year.

The department’s spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says they are expecting a better result as it has been a trend if based on previous surveys. He says since the introduction of the new system, the first year you get bad results, the second year you get improvement, so everybody knows what is expected of them, hence they expect good results.

Meanwhile, schooling has ground to a halt at the Oakford Primary School at Verulam north of Durban amid a dispute between school authorities and the land owner. The owner locked out the teachers and learners. Chairperson of the School Governing Body (SGB) Mfanje Mbango says the main problem is that the new owner of the property, Professor Marais, has forced the parents and the learners to use the pathway which runs through the dense sugar cane plantation, which is not safe at all.

Mbango says the parents are very concerned because their children are not safe and they are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the whole process. The SGB leader says they hope that everything will be back to normal on Monday and is appealing for teaching and learning to resume on Monday.
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A 30-year-old domestic worker was found dead at her workplace in Glenvista south of Johannesburg, police said on Friday.

It is alleged that she was killed during a house break in on Biggersberg Road.

Residents returned home from work at 18:00 to find the home broken into and their domestic servant, who had been home alone, tied and gagged dead in a cupboard. It seems she died of suffocation.

Constable Michael Kgatla said the woman’s body was found in a cupboard on Thursday evening.

“The woman is from Lesotho. Her employer left her at the house in the morning and found her dead at 6pm.”

A murder docket has been opened.
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Classes continue to be disrupted at two schools near Verulam in Durban. A dispute is raging over an access road leading to the schools. The schools are situated on private land.

The Sheme siblings haven’t attended school for a week. The gates to nine year-old S’bonelo’s primary school remain locked. Schooling at the Sacred Heart Secondary school, which his sister attends, has also been halted.

Learner Zizipho Sheme says: “ This thing is affecting us because we have two months left now to write our exam, so we have no school to go to because it’s late now, if we go to other schools, they won’t accept us.”

Land owner Marius Maritz says he shut the gates to Oakford primary this week in accordance with an arbitration order that a newly-constructed access road be used by parents and pupils. The order followed an environmental impact assessment by the Department of Water Affairs which found the existing road was under a flood line.

A new gravel road was built to accommodate pupils. The parents claim the new road is dangerous.

School Governing Body’s Mfanje Mbango says: “We are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the process at least of expropriation, so that we will know exactly where the future of the school is.”

The Provincial Department of Education says negotiations are continuing to resolve the problem.

Department of Education HOD Dr Nkosinathi Sishi says: “If the owner of the land insists that he would like to shift the gates, we have no legal basis to stop him. We have to then re-build another school for the community.”

It’s unclear whether schooling will resume on Monday.
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Nelson Mandela’s close friend and comrade, Andrew Mlangeni says he will say very little about the former president’s health moving forward out of respect for the families wishes.

The struggle stalwart and former Robben Island prisoner was speaking on the side-lines of the observance of Nelson Mandela International Day in New York, after he made a call in a newspaper interview last month for Madiba’s family to release him.

Family members criticized the calls and Mlangeni says he’s learned his lesson.

“Let me be frank with you, a few weeks ago, the Mandela family requested everybody to say very little about Madiba, they are going through a very difficult period, all of them and the more comment we give to the media about Madiba, they say it’s not good for them, so I’m strictly trying to respect that,” explains Mlangeni.

He says he’s been close friends with Madiba since the 1950s and added that, although he respects the family’s wishes, people on the outside are understandably also concerned.

“His illness does affect even us, who are not members or relatives, he was my president of the ANC, president of the state of SA, my co-prisoner for more than a quarter of a century, more than 25 years we’ve been together in prison. Every time he opens his mouth to say something, just one word, second word you know already the entire story, that’s how close we were on Robben Island some of us. The moment I open my mouth I just say one word, people can know that this is the story he’s going to tell me,” he says.

It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for

Mlangeni, who will later on Friday ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in honour of Madiba’s 95th birthday and the 4th Nelson Mandela International Day , says it’s gratifying to see the world and not just South African’s rally around Madiba’s legacy.

“It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for, he was representing all those good values, Madiba has always been saying, children must go to school, we must fight poverty, make sure that people are employed,” says Mlangeni.

At 88 years-old, Andrew Mlangeni’s no spring chicken but he says age allows him to speak his mind even though he’s a little more cautious after his earlier remarks were repudiated by some Mandela family members.
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Lawyers for the victims of the Marikana tragedy will appeal the North Gauteng High Court ruling dismissing their application for State funding.

The victims are seeking State support to fund their legal representation.

Their lawyers temporarily withdrew from the Marikana hearings , three more legal representatives also withdrew in support of the victims.

They respectively represent injured miners, the families of the miners killed, the Legal Resources Centre and union AMCU.

The application for State funding was spearheaded by Dali Mpofu, on behalf of injured miners.

“We will continue, but in the event that they don’t want to participate in the commission, we have a right by law to subpoena them to come and testify at the commission,” says Commission spokesperson Tshepo Mahlangu.

But the appeal could stall the commission’s work, it has until October to conclude hearings.

The withdrawal of the victims’ legal team has led to some uncertainty in the proceedings at the Marikana inquiry.

Legal Aid SA says its financial support is determined by the country’s Legal Aid Act.

“We are funded to do civil cases and criminal cases which are in the judicial sphere, commissions of inquiry fall within the executive sphere of government and are appointed by the executive. We can only do that if we are authorised to do both in terms of the legal aid act and guide, we can’t work outside that,” says Legal Aid’s Patrick Hundermark.

A prominent religious leader and mediator during the Marikana unrest says the developments are unfortunate.

“It was almost rubbing salt to a wound, these people are wounded, still suffering and have not recovered and are not out of mourning their brothers, cousins and are told you have no place in our new democracy,” says a concerned Bishop Jo Seoka.

The commission has adjourned until Monday where further instructions from victims’ lawyers are expected.
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