Johannesburg – The case of a driver accused of killing three children when a train crashed into his car at a railway crossing was postponed in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, North West police said.

“The case was postponed to 17 April and he is still in custody,” Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

Qawukeni Lwandile, 27, was the driver of a Toyota Avanza carrying 12 pre-primary and primary school children when a train smashed into the vehicle at a railway crossing between Zinniaville and Rustenburg Noord on 20 March.

Police alleged that Lwandile passed other motorists who were waiting at the train level-crossing to allow an oncoming train to pass.

The vehicle got stuck on the level crossing and a train hit and dragged it, killing an eight-year-old boy on the spot.

Two more children were declared dead on arrival at the Job Shimkane Tabane hospital.

“The police are also investigating why 12 children were being transported in a vehicle not certified to carry passengers, and would also look into charging the driver with overloading the vehicle, as well as contravention of the National Road Traffic Act,” Mokgwabone said at the time.

SAPA

Cape Town – India will be favourites not only in the minds of many critics but by statistical ammunition as well when they tackle South Africa in the ICC World Twenty20 semi-final in Dhaka on Friday (15:00 SA time).

More likely to feel at home on the expected turning pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium anyway, the unbeaten, group-winning Indians will enter the clash knowing that they hold a clear-cut 5-2 edge in victories after seven prior meetings between these foes in the T20 format.

Four of those fixtures have been in the global get-together, with India claiming three wins to the Proteas’ one.

The figures paint a fairly daunting picture, but at the same time Faf du Plessis’s team have quite enjoyed their unsung status at the event and will doubtless treat Friday’s match as a further opportunity to punch above their anticipated weight — rather than be burdened with their old ICC-tourney reputation as giants who fall over their own feet when the going gets tough.

That said, if South Africa want to try to grab any solace from previous meetings, it is that they have only played India once before in Subcontinent conditions at T20 level … and on that occasion they came within a very whisker of an upset.

In what was also the last T20 encounter between the two nations, at the Sri Lankan-staged ICC World Twenty20 of 2012/13, last man Morne Morkel was bowled off the second last delivery at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium as the Proteas were agonisingly bowled out for 151 in reply to India’s 152 for six to succumb by one run in a group game.

They have not yet played each other in India, with the three strictly bilateral meetings all having been once-off affairs on South African soil (two Wanderers, one Moses Mabhida Stadium) and India holding a 2-1 edge there as well.

Their overall T20 history against each other began in the 2006/07 season, when India won by six wickets with a ball to spare at the Wanderers.

AB de Villiers and Albie Morkel are likely to be the only two South African survivors from that meeting who will take to the field for Friday’s semi (assuming Morkel is passed suitably fit after his finger dislocation against England a few days back).

Even at that pretty infant stage of T20 as an international-level concept, the Proteas had already identified certain specialists in the game’s most condensed format, so the likes of Loots Bosman and Tyron Henderson had cracked the nod then.

South Africa’s most satisfying victory of the mere two they’ve achieved over India has to be the 12-run one achieved at the England-hosted World T20 of 2009, when they were able to defend a modest total of 130 for five (De Villiers 63).

Their heroes then were the spin duo of Johan Botha (4-0-16-3) and Roelof van der Merwe (4-0-13-1) who strangled the life out of India’s renowned strokeplayers as the side batting second were curtailed to 118 for eight in their 20 overs.

Perhaps that will serve as a motivator on Friday for the likes of in-form Imran Tahir and his slow-bowling partner JP Duminy …

These are all the T20 results between the countries:

2006/07, Johannesburg: India won by six wickets

2007/08 (World T20), Durban: India won by 37 runs

2009 (World T20), Nottingham: SA won by 12 runs

2010 (World T20), Gros Islet: India won by 14 runs

2010/11, Durban: India won by 21 runs

2011/12, Johannesburg: SA won by 11 runs (D/L method)

2012/13 (World T20), Colombo: India won by 1 run

Sport24

Johannesburg – A 16-month-old child was nearly hit by a truck on Thursday as he was walking along the N1 freeway near the Grasmere offramp, Gauteng traffic police said.

“It is suspected that the child was dropped on the freeway since there are no houses around,” spokesperson Busaphi Nxumalo said.

She said traffic police patrolling the N1 noticed a truck swerving and then saw a child walking on the freeway around 19:00.

He was taken by police to a place of safety while they searched for his mother, she said.

Meanwhile in KwaZulu-Natal, a two-year-old boy fell out of a shopping trolley in Shakas Head, on the north coast, while playing with friends and landed on his head, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said paramedics arrived at the scene around 17:00 on Thursday and found the child lying on the ground with life-threatening injuries.

He was placed on a ventilator and taken to a nearby hospital.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Limpopo’s education department on Thursday expressed disappointment with “false claims” that undelivered textbooks were found in a warehouse in Fetakgomo.
“The department wishes to set the record straight,” department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said in a statement.

“The contents in the boxes are not textbooks but manuals and workbooks used previously by the province. They are being stored at the Fetakgomo teacher training college as they were left over from specific deliveries made in the past.”

He said the department had no contract with Edu Solutions to deliver textbooks in Limpopo.

Earlier, the DA said it had found “thousands” of undelivered textbooks during a routine oversight visit to a teachers’ training college in Fetakgomo.

DA spokesperson Desiree van der Walt said security guards prevented the party’s delegation from completing its oversight visit, but photographs of the books were taken.

“This is shocking given that schools have had to drag the Limpopo education department to court to get books delivered,” she said.

“We have identified at least 47 schools without all the textbooks they need. And now we are discovering warehouses still filled with undelivered textbooks.”

Mhlanga said the matter was being investigated and he would comment further when the facts were established.

On Monday, he dismissed allegations that some schools in Limpopo had not received textbooks.

More than 6.5 million textbooks had been delivered in 2014 and including an additional 406 000 which was ordered to address shortages.

“We acknowledge that there are schools that have reported shortages in February and orders have been made and delivered.”

Shortages

A further 387 000 textbooks were ordered on 20 March after reported shortages, he said.

Most of the 18 000 books alleged to be short were the textbooks the schools were supposed to get back from pupils at the end of the year.

He said most of the schools involved had failed to check or verify the deliveries of textbooks against the orders placed.

“They only did so after the advent of the 2014 school year.”

He said the department had taken steps to ensure that books were delivered on time and that any reported shortages were addressed.

Meanwhile in Gauteng, an application against the department was temporarily struck off the North Gauteng High Court roll.

“The judge encouraged the parties to reach an agreement outside court because the department had put in place systems to address all the matters regarding the delivery of textbooks in Limpopo,” Mhlanga said.

If an agreement was not reached the matter would return to court on 22 April for argument, he said.

“The applicants also told court that the department had addressed the issues they had raised as part of their court action.”

Law centre Section27 launched an urgent application against the Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the Limpopo department of education in May 2012 for failure to procure and deliver textbooks for pupils throughout Limpopo.

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Leeudoringstad-MEC for Human Settlements Public Safety and Liaison Nono Maloyi will on Friday hand over about 112 houses to the Leeudoringstad families living in rural villages of the Maquassi Hills local municipality.

The hand over is a continuation of the departmental programme that started in the past two months.

The benefiting families are mostly those that have been living in mud houses and shacks. Most of these families are dependent on social grants and other government programmes as poverty seem to be the order of the day.

“The handover is part of celebrating twenty years (20yrs) of freedom, and also in line with the Outcome 8 of the National Development Plan vision 2030 which is intended to improve the quality of people’s lives and bring back dignity to the marginalised communities across the province” departmental spokesperson Ben Bole said.

The hand over programme is also part of the department’s service delivery initiative and reduction of housing backlog in the province.

The handover will take place as follows:

Date: 04 April 2014

Time: 10H00

Venue: Kgakala stadium 

-TDN
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