Daily Archives: January 11, 2014


By Kgatliso Ramose
Cape Town-Bafana Bafana came from behind to beat Mozambique 3-1 in an electrifying opening game of the African Nations championship at the Green point stadium earlier this evening.

This is the first tournament to be given “A” status by the football controlling FIFA which means that the players will get international caps for the games, their goals will count as international goals.

The games will have impact on the FIFA rankings.

During press conference, the CAF president Issa Hayatou said that in 10 years time CHAN will be the biggest tournament in the world of football.

The first goal of the tournament came on the 10th minutes from starting time. On the 30th minutes Sbu Vilakazi was brought down just near the penalty spot and the penalty was awarded.

Kaizer Chiefs striker converted the penalty.

Katlego Mashego almost doubled the score-line for Bafana Bafana four minutes after that,but he was denied by the up right post.

On the 58th minutes Hlompho Kekana gave Bafana Bafana a lead with a stunner just few meters away from the centre line.

After that it was a one way traffic as Bafana Bafana were all over Mozambique like a rash. Bernard Paker sealed a game, scoring his 21st international goal in the Bafana colour.-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @Kgatliso_Ramose

A murder-accused go on trial


A Norwegian national accused of killing his cell mate in a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo, went on trial on Friday in Kinshasa, his lawyer said.

Joshua French, who also holds British citizenship, is accused of murdering his friend and fellow Norwegian Tjostolv Moland, whose body was found at Kinshasa’s Ndolo military prison on August 18.

French’s lawyer Marie-Andre Mwila said her client appeared in front of the Ndolo military court in the capital on Friday.

“He is depressed. I need time so that he can get himself together a bit,” she told AFP, adding that she had evidence proving that Moland had committed suicide.

Mwila said she feared if French continued to be held under current conditions “he will lose it too”.

Moland, 32, and his friend French, 31, were arrested in DR Congo in 2009 and sentenced to death in June 2010 after being convicted of killing the Congolese driver of a car they had rented.

The men, both former soldiers, denied the charge and said the driver was killed by bandits. They said they had come to DR Congo to set up a security firm.

Oslo, which had tried in vain to get the two men transferred to Norway, expressed its incomprehension at the charges against French, saying in December a joint investigation between Congolese and Norwegian forces had concluded there was a lack of evidence against him.

No executions have been carried out in DR Congo since President Joseph Kabila came to power in 2001, and death sentences have regularly been commuted to life imprisonment.

Penal facilities in the vast country date from Belgian colonial times and are decrepit and overcrowded.

Inmates are exposed to disease, dehydration and starvation. Rights groups report that prisoners can die of hunger or torture. – Sapa-AFP

Zuma: We planning to create six million jobs


Mbombela – President Jacob Zuma says the ANC is aiming at creating at least six million jobs in the next five years.

President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday the ANC aimed at creating at least six million jobs in the next five years.

“[The] majority [of jobs] will be reserved for young people,” he said.

He was speaking at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga where the party launched its 2014 election manifesto.

The stadium was packed to capacity with followers enjoying song and dance ahead of Zuma’s address.

He said the African National Congress was also planning on increasing the number of training and skill centres throughout the country.

Zuma said the party would ensure the youth subsidy was effective.

“The ANC will take practical steps to ensure implementation of the youth subsidy does not replace incentivised working,” he said.

He said the financial sector would be encouraged to be more inclusive and accessible.

SAPA

‘Blacks for sale’ ad sparked outrage in Brazil


Rio De Janeiro – A shocking ad on one of Latin America’s biggest online marketplaces, offering “blacks for sale for one real” ($0.42), has sparked outrage in Brazil and a police investigation.

The ad featured a photo of two black children, and suggested any blacks purchased could “serve as carpenters, masons, cooks, security guards, nightclub bouncers, janitors, garbage collectors, or housekeepers.”

Within a few hours, some 1 700 Brazilian responded with outraged comments.

Government officials also weighed in, with the agency in charge of racial equality urging online vendor MercadoLivre to turn over information on the author of the ad to bring charges against him.

The ad was “an offense to the entire society”, rights official Carlos Alberto Silva Junior told AFP Friday.

“Incitement to discrimination or prejudice by race, colour, ethnicity or religion” is punishable by two to five years in jail and by a fine, he added.

He emphasized that the Internet sites should assume their share of responsibility and put in place filters to block any racist content.

MercadoLivre, the biggest online buying and selling community in Latin America, said it has turned over account information for the person who posted the ad, which went up Sunday, to Rio de Janeiro police and an investigation was planned.

Labour and educational rights

Meanwhile, the site had pulled the ad and condemned it.

But David Santos, the head of Educafro, a civil rights group championing the labour and educational rights of blacks and indigenous people, said the ad may have an unintended positive impact.

He told AFP “that unconsciously this person has helped us debate with Brazilian society to make it aware that blacks have the same rights as whites.”

More than half of Brazil’s 200 million people are of African descent, the world’s second largest black population after that of Nigeria.

The Latin American country was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, in 1888, and Afro-Brazilians complain of widespread racial inequality and disproportionate poverty.

After 13 years of debate, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff enacted in August 2012 a controversial law that reserves 50% of university spots to students from public schools, with a priority given to blacks, mixed race, and indigenous people.

AFP

ANC manifesto wonderful- Zuma


Nelspruit – The ANC manifesto will tell South Africans exactly who to vote for, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

“It’s a wonderful manifesto,” Zuma told party heavyweights and supporters at an African National Congress dinner in Nelspruit, ahead of the official launch of the manifesto at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

“We are asking people to come out and vote. It is their hard won vote, and of course tomorrow [Saturday] we are telling them exactly who to vote for, because we believe very strongly that the ANC is the organisation of the people,” he said.

Zuma, who is also ANC president, gave a short description of what could be expected from this year’s manifesto, which was dedicated to former president Nelson Mandela, who died in December.

“Our manifesto says many things…. We present our vision in it. We present our key commitment to move South Africa forward and it goes into detail,” he said.

The manifesto would look at the country’s 20 years of democracy, but also at what the party had done in the past five years.

It looked at policies and plans which had helped the country. It also dealt with the National Development Plan, rural development, job creation and the economy, food security, health and education and crime and corruption, said Zuma.

He told the audience to support the ANC.

“The ANC needs your support, you have a duty to support the ANC…. You will be making a wise investment.”

The ANC had been getting better governing since the dawn of democracy, Zuma said.

SAPA

ANC manifesto wonderful- Zuma


Nelspruit – The ANC manifesto will tell South Africans exactly who to vote for, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

“It’s a wonderful manifesto,” Zuma told party heavyweights and supporters at an African National Congress dinner in Nelspruit, ahead of the official launch of the manifesto at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

“We are asking people to come out and vote. It is their hard won vote, and of course tomorrow [Saturday] we are telling them exactly who to vote for, because we believe very strongly that the ANC is the organisation of the people,” he said.

Zuma, who is also ANC president, gave a short description of what could be expected from this year’s manifesto, which was dedicated to former president Nelson Mandela, who died in December.

“Our manifesto says many things…. We present our vision in it. We present our key commitment to move South Africa forward and it goes into detail,” he said.

The manifesto would look at the country’s 20 years of democracy, but also at what the party had done in the past five years.

It looked at policies and plans which had helped the country. It also dealt with the National Development Plan, rural development, job creation and the economy, food security, health and education and crime and corruption, said Zuma.

He told the audience to support the ANC.

“The ANC needs your support, you have a duty to support the ANC…. You will be making a wise investment.”

The ANC had been getting better governing since the dawn of democracy, Zuma said.

SAPA

ANC to woo disgruntled voters


Mbombela – President Jacob Zuma on Friday launched the ANC election manifesto, hoping to help woo voters increasingly frustrated with persistent poverty, joblessness and corruption.

ANC has in recent years been battered by accusations of graft and blamed for failing to spark greater economic growth.

“We must therefore intervene decisively to take our economy forward,” Zuma told hundreds of party bigwigs and supporters at an African National Congress dinner on the eve of the campaign launch.

General polls are due in the first half of this year but the date is yet to be announced.

“The manifesto talks to what we will do, build an inclusive economy that creates jobs, transform our rural areas and… fight corruption and crime,” said Zuma.

He did not reveal the details of the “wonderful” manifesto saying they will be made public at a rally on Saturday.

Despite its ranking as Africa’s richest country and 20 years after the fall of apartheid, South Africa is still dogged by high levels of inequality and joblessness rates are growing stubbornly high.

“That is why the manifesto focuses a great deal on ensuring that we have the kind of policies that will help us reduce inequality, create jobs and systematically and progressively eradicate poverty,” Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom told AFP.

ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters that “the economy is going to be featuring much more strongly in terms of what we want to achieve”.

He described the text as “actually one of our best manifestos”.

Young voters

Facing one of its toughest elections ever, the ANC is expected to also focus its energy on rallying young voters.

For the first time, South Africans born after the end of apartheid, so-called “born-frees”, will be casting ballots.

Yet they are the generation at the receiving end of slowing economic growth and dwindling job opportunities.

“The ANC faces it biggest challenge amongst younger South Africans,” said political analyst Daniel Silke.

“The younger voter or first-time voter is much more questioning, they are more discerning, they are going to need to be convinced to vote for the ANC,” added Silke.

The manifesto hinges around the so-called National Development Plan, which Zuma painstakingly defended during his speech but is opposed by some of his allies in the labour movement who see it as neo-liberal.

Despite growing unpopularity, the ANC is still expected to win the polls, but could see a drop in its share of the vote to under 60%.

Zuma this week vowed that the ANC would govern South Africa “forever and ever”.

He said the party which turned 102 years old on Tuesday, was on “a journey that is long.”

“It’s still a long walk to prosperity,” said Zuma, borrowing a phrase from Mandela’s autobiography “Long Walk To Freedom”.

Among those challenging the ANC in this year’s vote will be populist politician Julius Malema, a former party youth leader who was expelled in 2012.

AFP