Platinum Stars coach Cavin Johnson has been making the most of his quiet week at the Rustenburg-based club.

With most of Dikwena’s first-team squad back after being away on international duties at the weekend, the Absa Premiership rookie coach will have a full-strength squad to wreak havoc when struggling Mamelodi Sundowns visit the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Saturday.

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By Obakeng Maje

Taung,Mogopela B-A 21 year-old learner in Mogopela B, near Taung is furious at the Department of Education after she was told to return to grade 11 as they made mistake on her report.

Maphefo Precious Diphoko told Vaaltar FM news team that she quit school because of the treatment she received from Kgosietsile Lethola High School.

“Since this year I’ve been attending grade 12 classes. And two weeks ago I was called to a meeting by school principal and ordered me to bring my parents” wracked Diphoko said.

“The meeting took place and the principal said I actually failed grade 11,so I must go back to grade 11 class and repeat” she told Vaaltar FM news.

Maphefo said she feel coaxed as along she has been studying and writing grade 12 trials and tests.

Our crew tried to get clarity from both Department of Education and school principal,but with no luck.

A week ago North West SADTU secretary general plea that MEC for Department of Education in the province mme Louisa Mabe must resign according alleged emblezzment been going on in the sector.

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Johannesburg – The South African government on Tuesday faced calls for an inquiry into why troops were sent to the Central African Republic, after 13 soldiers died there in weekend clashes with rebels who seized the country.

The killings, Pretoria’s heaviest military loss since apartheid, raised questions over why the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) was present in Bangui – the official line being they were sent to train local forces.

The opposition Democratic Alliance said the “highly questionable deployment” should be probed by Parliament.

“The real fact is we don’t know why the SANDF were deployed in the CAR and that’s why we need a comprehensive investigation,” said the DA’s shadow defence minister David Maynier.

He added there was speculation the soldiers were sent to “support or prop up” ousted president Francois Bozize, who has now fled the CAR into exile.

President Jacob Zuma in January authorised the deployment to help local troops as part of a bilateral pact.

Four hundred soldiers were cleared to go, but just over 200 were sent.

At the time, the SANDF said the soldiers would also protect a small group of South African troops already on the ground.

South Africa has forces in African hotspots like Sudan, and Zuma said on Monday the deployment was part of efforts to bring peace to the region.

But Maynier said the probe should aim to determine whether Zuma had misled lawmakers as to the reasons why the troops were sent to Bangui.

The South African soldiers fought a nine-hour battle at the weekend with rebels who swept into the capital Bangui. Altogether, 13 were killed and 27 injured.

The bodies of the dead soldiers arrived home on Tuesday night.

The DA has called for a parliamentary committee to be set up to probe the matter. – AFP

Johannesburg – Oscar Pistorius’s brother Carl is expected to appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of culpable homicide.

The charges relate to an accident in 2008 which led to the death of a 36-year-old woman.

In a statement last month, the Pistorius family’s attorney Kenny Oldwadge said culpable homicide charges were brought against Carl Pistorius after the accident, but were later withdrawn by the State.

The National Prosecuting Authority later reinstated the charges.

Oldwadge said there was “no doubt that Carl is innocent”, and he said the charge would be challenged in court.

“Carl deeply regrets the accident. Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proved that he had not been under the influence of alcohol, confirming that it was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl’s car.” – Sapa

By Obakeng Maje

Taung-With only two days before the long Easter weekend and the much anticipated high volume of visitors , the province’s Operation Paseka has started in earnest.

In the past few days in North West, the provincial visible policing unit, tactical response team, public order policing unit and the flying squad will be out in full force to enforce law and order.

The Department of Human Settlement and Safety spokesperson Simon Mmope said the operation comprised stop and searches, vehicle patrols, foot patrols and our traffic officers will be more observant on the roads.

“We wil more observant and our visibility will not be comprimise. We will impound any road unworthy vehicles that pose any risk on our roads” Simon Mmope said.

“The operations are executed to prevent and combat any wrongdoing in order to ensure a safe and secure environment for all road users, especially as we are approaching the Easter holidays” Mmope said.

The Department said hefty traffic fines will be issued to those who will be found to be in contravention of the law.

Department bought 16 new vehicles to add to the existing ones. According to the statistics six people has already lost their lives since last week. 

“Through the extensive visibility of police vehicles in the province, we will manage to curb the occurrence of drink and driving on the roads. This will minimise death rate.” He said. 

The municipal traffic will continue with roadblocks in support of the Arrive Alive Campaign.

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The third week of the Sasol League was not lacking in goals as a total of 112 goals were scored from the matches that were played on Thursday and over the weekend.

With many of the national team players returning to their clubs and those who never made it to Cyprus wanting to prove a point, the games over the past weekend were always going to be action packed with lots of drama.

Three-time national champions and defending champions Palace Super Falcons showed that they had no intention of giving up the title with another vintage performance scoring twice against a strong Tuks team. The dazzling performance sent out a clear indication to all teams that anyone who wanted the league title would have to dig deep to take it from them.

Whilst only the inland provinces have begun their title chase, the amount of goals scored was evident that the teams have hunger and determination to score goals; something that bodes well for the rest of the season. 

Golden Ladies, Mamelodi Sundowns, Moroka Swallows and Classic Academy are some of the teams that have put their hands up as title contenders at this early stage in the competition. All teams bagged four goals or more in their respective games with Golden Ladies finding the back of the net nine times in their game against Clive United.

Weekend results:Golden Ladies9Clive United0  

Palace Super Falcons2TUKS0  

Mamelodi Sundowns6NWU Vaal Campus1  

Moroka Swallows4Lusaka Ladies1  

Classic Academy6The Bold & Beautiful1 

Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund took time off his busy schedule on Tuesday, 26 March 2013 to interact with football followers through Bafana Bafana’s official twitter account @Bafana _Bafana1.

It was the first time that the coach has had such an interaction with the Bafana fans and said afterwards that it was a relaxing and exciting exercise.

He added that he would like this interface to be a regular feature.

The interaction with the fans, which lasted over an hour, afforded the coach the opportunity to understand what the football supporters think as well as to answer some of their questions.

Hundreds of fans sent out their questions but due to time constrains, the coach could not cover all the issues. He however, thanked all those who took time to ask questions adding this gave him an insight on the thinking of fans. At the end of the session, the coach picked five best questions who each will receive a Bafana shirt.

Not surprisingly, the question that dominated the debate was around the selection of players, in particular the omission of Orlando Pirates midfielder Andile Jali from the current set up.

The coach said every South African player deserved a chance to play for the national team provided they are on form, emphasising all players were selected on merit and merit alone.

The coach said he will now focus on the return legs of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Central African Republic and Ethiopia scheduled for June.

By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-The Department of Social Development and Women,Children and Disabilities held a two day summit for poverty alleviation in Rustenburg.

Department spokesperson Vuyisile Ngesi said poverty alleviation is a main priority in the province.

“The department has invited department of Health,Education and Agriculture to work together in teaching most communities about how to fight against poverty” Vuyisile Ngesi said.

According to department, there are few projects that has been launched since 2008.

The livestock projects and chicken scheme are some of the projects.

“The chicken scheme was launched in 2008 at Dr Ruth Mompati District in Mmayera,near Taung. The project was kickstarted Miss Baleka Mbethe. We have offered skill development to those in charge and we have seen some improvements” Ngesi said.

MEC for Social Development,Women,Children and Disabilities mme Mosetsanagape Mokomela-Mothibi was a main speaker. 

The aim of the summit was to make sure rural development is be taken into consideration and to fight against poverty in segregated areas.

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Durban – “BRICS, Don’t Carve Africa” reads a banner in a church hall in downtown Durban where civil society activists have gathered to cast a critical eye at a summit of five global emerging powers.

The slogan evokes the 19th Century conference in Berlin where the predominant European colonial states carved up the African continent in a scramble historians see as epitomising the brash exploitative capitalism of the time.

Decades after Africans threw off the colonial yoke, it is the turn of the blossoming BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa to find their motives coming under scrutiny as they proclaim an altruistic-sounding “partnership for development, integration and industrialization” with Africa.

Led by that giant of the emerging powers, China, the BRICS are now Africa’s largest trading partners and its biggest new group of investors. BRICS-Africa trade is seen eclipsing $500 billion by 2015, with China taking the lion’s share of 60 percent of this, according to Standard Bank.

BRICS leaders persist in presenting their group – which represents more than 40 percent of the world’s population and one fifth of global gross domestic product – in the warm and fuzzy framework of benevolent South-South cooperation, an essential counterweight to the ‘old’ West and a better partner for the poor masses of the developing world.

In his first trip to Africa as head of state, China’s new president Xi Jinping expounded this line in Tanzania on Monday, saying his country wanted “a better life for African people” and was offering a relationship of equals.

“We think there’s too much back-slapping,” said Patrick Bond of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s centre for Civil Society, who helped to organise an alternative “BRICS-from-below” meeting in Durban to shadow the BRICS summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bond and other critics of the BRICS’ South-South pitch say developing countries that receive investment and assistance from the new emerging powers need to take a hard, close look at the deals they are getting.

Beneath the fraternal veneer, Bond sees “incoherent imperial competition” not unlike the 19th Century scramble, saying that BRICS members are similarly coveting and exploiting African resources without sufficiently boosting industrialisation and job-creation, all much needed on the continent.

This view has gained some traction in Africa as citizens from Guinea and Nigeria to Zambia and Mozambique increasingly see Brazilian, Russian, Indian, Chinese and South African companies scooping up multi-billion dollar oil and mining deals and big-ticket infrastructure projects.

Many of these deals have come under scrutiny from local and international rights groups. More than a few have faced criticism that they focus heavily on raw material extraction, lack transparency and do not offer enough employment and developmental benefits to the receiving countries – charges often levelled against corporations from the developed West.

“NEW FORM OF IMPERIALISM”

Anti-poverty activists say the profit motivation of large BRICS corporations working in Africa is no different from that of Western companies.

“Matters of greed are universal and their actors come from both the North and the South,” said Wahu Kaara, a Kenyan social justice campaigner and coordinator of the Kenya Debt Relief Network who attended the “BRICS-from-below” meeting.

This wariness of the new players in Africa has even permeated some government circles on the continent.

Warning Africa was opening itself up to “a new form of imperialism”, Nigerian central bank governor Lamido Sanusi accused China, now the world’s No. 2 economy, of worsening Africa’s deindustrialisation and underdevelopment.

“China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones. This was also the essence of colonialism,” Sanusi wrote in a March 11 opinion column in the Financial Times.

“Africa must recognise that China – like the US, Russia, Britain, Brazil and the rest – is in Africa not for African interests but its own,” Sanusi added.

Chinese and other BRICS leaders indignantly reject the criticism their group represents a kind of “sub-imperialism” in their growing economic and political engagement with Africa.

Zhong Jianhua, China’s special envoy to Africa, told Reuters that China and Africa’s common history of resisting colonial pressure put their relationship on a different level.

“China was bullied by others in the past, and so was Africa. This shared experience means they have a lot in common. This is China’s advantage and the reason why many Western countries are at a disadvantage,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Zhong added that China should encourage its companies to train and employ more African workers, responding to complaints that Chinese investors often brought in their own workforces.

Catherine Grant-Makokera of the South African Institute of International Affairs said BRICS governments did noticeably operate differently from the West in the way they offered financing and aid to nations in Africa.

“You’ve seen a greater willingness from the newer players to invest in things like hard infrastructure, either through financing mechanisms, or simply grants or gifts,” said Grant-Makokera, SAIIA’s programme head for economic diplomacy.

But she acknowledged the BRICS development aid approach, while offering faster turnaround times for projects, was often less restrained by labour and environmental considerations.

This has opened BRICS companies up to charges that in their haste to develop resource projects in Africa they flaunt local communities’ rights and ride roughshod over the environment.

Brazilian mining giant Vale, named in 2012 by the Swiss non-profit group Public Eye as the corporation with the most “contempt for the environment and human rights” in the world, defends its record in Mozambique, where it is investing billions of dollars to develop coal deposits and infrastructure.

It has faced violent demonstrations from Mozambicans protesting forced relocations and demanding greater benefits.

Vale’s head of Africa operations, Ricardo Saad, said the fact the company had experienced “problems” did not mean it could be accused of “neo-colonial” behaviour in Africa.

He said colonial powers just came and took the continent’s resources, without asking its people, whereas contracts today were closely negotiated with governments and communities.

“From the moment that I seek a licence to operate, where you talk to a community, where anything you do has authorisation and previous planning with the government, I can’t say that’s neo-colonialism,” Saad told Reuters.

NEW VOICES

Development analysts say the BRICS, with their radically different economies, governments and competing priorities, still need to demonstrate that they can change global power structures to the benefit of the world’s poor and underprivileged.

“The fact that they are pressing for a new balance of power in the world has to be stressed as a positive thing…they have new voices,” said Nathalie Beghin of the Brazilian pro-democracy and rights organisation INESC.

But she added in a jab at what activists say is the BRICS’ leadership-focused, top-down mode of operating so far: “They say they are the voices of the poor. But where are the poor?”

SAIIA’s Grant-Makokera says the BRICS offer developing states other options for aid and investment as an alternative to the old Western partners.

“At least you’ve got a diversity now, I don’t think that can be underestimated,” she said. – Reuters

Pretoria -The 13 South African soldiers killed in a clash with rebels in Central African Republic (CAR) were named by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) on Tuesday.

It said Corporals Mokgadi Darius Seakamela and Ntebaleng Andrew Mogorosi, and Lance Corporals Daniel Sello Molara and Lukas Mohapi Tsheke were among those killed on Sunday.

The Riflemen killed were:

* Lesego Maxwell Hertzog,

* Zamani Jim Mxhosana,

* Xolani Dlamini,

* Vusumzi Joseph Ngaleka,

* Karabo Edwin Matsheka,

* Khomotso Paul Msenga,

* Maleisane Samuel Thulo,

* Motsamai William Bojane,

* Thabiso Anthon Phirimana.

All of those killed were members of One Parachute Battalion from Bloemfontein.

“In addition, the SANDF would like to report that the member who was reported missing in action has been found alive and is in good spirit(s),” the SANDF said in a statement.

“The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Chief of the (SANDF), Chief of Joint Operations and Chief of the SA Army wish to extend their sincerest condolences to friends and families of the deceased.”

Earlier, SANDF spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said the CAR rebels regretted the action that led to the deaths of the 13 soldiers.

“On Sunday morning the leaders of the rebels came to the base, and discussed what happened on the ground, and they regretted exchanging fire with SANDF soldiers,” he said.

“Since then there hasn’t been any threatening situation against the SANDF. We are not taking anything lightly and are taking all precautionary measures to ensure SANDF members are safe on the ground.”

Mabanga said they had not received any instructions regarding troop movements and the current death toll from Saturday had not changed.

“The current figures as mentioned yesterday (Monday), to the best of our knowledge, are accurate,” said Mabanga.

In addition to the 13 killed, 27 soldiers were wounded.

Mabanga could not comment on media reports alleging what happened on the ground.

“We cannot comment on reports by the media based on allegations,” he said.

Beeld newspaper reported on Tuesday that beyond the official toll of those injured, killed and missing, six special forces operators were also killed in the fighting.

The newspaper reported that the SANDF had become a target for reportedly helping CAR President Francois Bozize flee the country into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to the report, top structures were warned by senior SANDF officers last week that the CAR mission amounted to “suicide”.

SA Air Force aircraft were also put on standby on Monday night, though due to financial constraints the Gripens were not armed with weapons with an attack capacity.

SANDF soldiers reportedly struggled on the ground due to lack of logistics and air support.

Soldiers had to ask French parachutists for essential equipment, with only one doctor present, with a backpack for medical support.

The report also stated that renewed fighting broke out on Monday between SANDF soldiers and rebels.

The Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday that new reports on the “disaster” in CAR showed the need for a parliamentary inquiry.

“The SANDF soldiers evidently acquitted themselves well under fire, in circumstances where they were vastly outnumbered by rebel forces,” said DA defence spokesman David Maynier in a statement.

“But in the end they appear to have been left dangling, without the necessary military support. We need to get to the bottom of why the SANDF was deployed in the CAR, effectively to support President Francois Bozize.”

He said it also needed to be known how the 13 soldiers died in the CAR.

The DA had written to the speaker of the National Assembly Max Sisulu, requesting the establishment of a multi-party ad hoc committee to conduct an inquiry in the SANDF’s deployment in CAR.

“In the end, President Jacob Zuma’s decision to deploy the SANDF in the CAR – effectively to support President Francois Bozize – has been a complete disaster,” said Maynier. – Sapa