Cape Town – KwaZulu-Natal will soon have a new Big Five game reserve.

Halfway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the 4 600ha conservation project involving the local community will lead to the establishment of the Mayibuye Community Game Reserve in Camperdown.
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Abuja – Nigeria’s highest ranking military officer on Monday gave a glimmer of hope to the families of more than 200 schoolgirls held by Boko Haram militants, revealing they had located the missing teenagers.

“The good news for the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you,” Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh told reporters in the capital Abuja as the hostage crisis entered its seventh week.

Nigeria’s government and military have been sharply criticised for their response to the mass abduction on 14 April and were finally forced to accept foreign help, including from the United States, in the rescue effort.

Unmanned US drones and surveillance aircraft have been scouring northeast Nigeria and neighbouring Chad from the air while British, French and Israeli teams have been on the ground providing specialist assistance.

Badeh was speaking after addressing demonstrators who had marched on defence headquarters in Abuja, the latest in a series of daily protests that has sought to keep up the pressure on the government.

The officer refused to divulge any further details, describing the operation as a “military secret”, but he added: “We are working. We will get the girls back.”

Addressing the protesters, Badeh said the military was faced with a dilemma of whether to send in ground troops, given fears of deaths and casualties among the 223 girls still being held.

“Nobody should come and say the Nigerian military does not know what it’s doing. We know what we are doing. We can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back,” he told the crowd.

“So, we are working. The president [Goodluck Jonathan] is solidly behind us. The president has empowered us to do the work.”

AFP

Polokwane – Limpopo’s traditional affairs department has approved 275 permits for initiation schools and rejected 36 applications, an official said on Monday.
Malesela Dikgale, chairperson of the provincial task team on initiation schools, said the initiation period would start on 20 June and end on 18 July.

Thirty-six applications were rejected because the aspirant operators did not comply with the standards required by the Initiation School Act of 1996, said Dikgale.

“There should be a letter from the traditional authority that approves the plan. Secondly there should be a letter from the department of environmental affairs about the plan,” said Dikgale.

There was a growing need among parents to have their children initiated.

“People are interested and we have seen an increase over the past years. In 2012, we have seen a record of 43 000 initiates… this is a sign of increase and the department of health will be happy about that,” said Dikgale.

This year, the department refused to associate itself with some schools operating in households in the province’s Waterberg region.

He said there was a lack of traditional leaders in this area and some operators from North West province had tried to open initiation schools there.

“We call upon parents to verify the legitimacy of initiation schools with their respective traditional authorities before they send their children.”

SAPA

Cape Town –  President Jacob Zuma’s appointment of ex-spy chief Siyabonga Cwele as minister of telecommunications and postal services, could soon see the rebirth of an apartheid-era information ministry, the DA said on Monday.
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Abuja – Nigeria’s highest ranking military officer, Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh, on Monday said they had located the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants.

“The good news for the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you,” Badeh told reporters outside defence headquarters in the capital Abuja after speaking to protesters.

Badeh said they would not use force to free the girls.

AFP

Cape Town – Argentinian lock Manuel Carizza looks set to make a return to Super Rugby after an injury-enforced lay-off from the game.

The towering second-row forward tore wrist ligaments early in the season when playing in the Stormers’ second game of the 2014 season.

He looked in fine nick at Monday’s training session at City Park, and Stormers coach Allister Coetzee said he’ll be considered for the run-on XV for Saturday’s derby against the table-topping Sharks in Durban.

Wing Kobus van Wyk, one of the four try-scorers against the Cheetahs last weekend, has another wrist injury and he will possibly be sidelined for three weeks.

Just over a month ago he suffered ligament damage on the same wrist.

“Carizza is looking good and he’s in our selection plans for this week,” said Coetzee.

“It looks like he has recovered well.

“Kobus has reinjured his wrist and he’ll probably be ready to play when Super Rugby resumes at the end of June.”

Coetzee also announced that Jean de Villiers’ Super Rugby season was over.

The Stormers captain has a knee injury which has ruled him out of the game for at least two months.

“Jean’s Super Rugby season has ended and he won’t recover by the time the season ends in mid-July,” Coetzee said.

“We’ll lose out on his leadership role but other leaders like Schalk Burger, Duane Vermeulen, Deon Fourie and Juan de Jongh are all capable of stepping into the breach.”

The Stormers were unable to conduct a full-scale training session on Monday as several players were attending the Springbok training camp in Durban.

Other players like prop Allistair Vermaak and Cheslin Kolbe picked up bumps and bruises in the Cheetahs game and sat out on Monday.

Burger is also an injury concern ahead of the Sharks game after he was troubled by neck spasms last weekend. He has, however, joined the national training group in Durban.

“The chances of Schalk playing against the Sharks are 50–50.

“The affected area (in his neck) has settled nicely he is feeling much better.

“At this stage we are preparing as if he won’t be playing but we’ll get a chance to see him when he returns from Durban and then make a call on Wednesday.”

As a result of the Bok camp, the Stormers will not have a full-scale training session this week, even though the players may be returning to Cape Town on Wednesday morning.

“Usually when the players come back from a Bok training camp we have don’t let them train flat out straight away.

“They do need a break and then Thursday is the team’s rest day.

“By the looks of things, we’ll only have the match-day squad working out together at the “Captain’s Run” in Durban on Friday.”

Coetzee said he expected a tough day against the Sharks.

“We are in for a very, very tough game because the Sharks are not the log-leaders for nothing.

“This match will be one of the biggest challenges for us this year.”

SAPA

Johannesburg – Three men accused of murdering a Free State farmer and his wife are expected to apply for bail this week, the Hawks said on Monday.
“They are all set to apply for bail in the Dewetsdorp Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday,” said Hawks spokesperson Paul Ramaloko.

Ismael Mafosi, Teboho Khoantle, and Johannes Pitseng allegedly attacked farmer Andrew Monokara and his wife Lorraine on their farm Graigmont, near Dewetsdorp, on 6 May.

The three allegedly tied up the couple with a wire and shot them in the head. The woman was raped, Ramaloko said.

Monokara died instantly while his wife succumbed to her wounds in Bloemfontein’s Pelonomi hospital on 9 May.

The attackers took a television set and a firearm which belonged to the farmer. They fled the scene in the couple’s double cab bakkie.

The vehicle and the firearm have since been recovered following the arrest on 19 May.

The three men first appeared in the Dewetsdorp Magistrate’s Court on 21 May on charges of murder, robbery and illegal possession of a firearm.

Ramaloko said investigators awaited DNA results in order to be able to link them to the rape charge.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum said the Monokaras were the first black farming couple murdered in a farm attack in the province.

“This incident proves beyond any doubt that farm attacks are not a racial issue. Rural areas are unsafe and the refusal by the police to introduce proper security aggravates the situation,” said spokesperson Ian Cameron.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A Limpopo woman accused of hacking one of her three-month-old twins to death with an axe was sent for mental observation on Monday.

The matter was postponed to 30 June in the Vuwani Magistrate’s Court.

The woman allegedly hacked her baby to death at the Ha-Mutsha village outside Thohoyandou on Friday evening.

“The badly injured baby was taken to Tshilidzini hospital but was declared dead on arrival,” said Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi.

The 30-year-old mother was alleged to have tried to also kill the second twin.

“While the police were racing to the crime scene, some frantic community members managed to rescue the other twin whom she allegedly wanted to kill, and contained the mother until she was detained by the police,” said Mulaudzi.

The surviving twin was doing well and was with the woman’s relatives.

Mulaudzi said the motive for the attack was unknown.

SAPA

Cape Town –  President Jacob Zuma’s appointment of ex-spy chief Siyabonga Cwele as minister of telecommunications and postal services, could soon see the rebirth of an apartheid-era information ministry, the DA said on Monday.
For more http://www.news24.com

Pretoria – A man identified only as Mr X will not testify this week about the 2012 Marikana shootings, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the events said in Pretoria on Monday.
Arrangements that needed to be made first with the Lonmin platinum mine were taking longer than expected, said commission chairman, retired Judge Ian Farlam.

Mr X had been scheduled to take the stand on Wednesday.

He is said to have been part of a group of protesting miners who underwent a ritual at Marikana that included the burning of live sheep on the night of 11 August 2012.

The rituals were a preparation for a confrontation with police, according to documents in the SA Police Service application.

He is expected to testify about “the killing and intimidation of Lonmin employees who were unwilling to take part in the violent strike”.

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people during the violent wage-related strike at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations.

On 16 August 2012, 34 people, mostly mineworkers, were shot dead by police, who were allegedly trying to disarm and disperse them.

Another 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed during the preceding week.

Earlier in the day, a police officer testifying before the commission denied having given the order to shoot to police on 16 August.

“I only shouted watch out, I didn’t give the instruction to shoot,” Captain Wayne Peter Kidd said.

Advocate George Bizos for the Legal Resources Centre, said two police officers alleged Kidd gave an instruction to shoot on 16 August 2012.

Kidd was part of a reserve group deployed in Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West, to protect an informal settlement near the hill where the strikers had gathered.

He told the commission he did not know the details of police Standing Order 262.

It contains guidelines on how police should perform crowd management during protests and public unrest.

Kidd said he was put in charge after the public order police commander left.

Bizos asked Kidd if his supervisors knew that he had no experience in crowd management.

“I don’t know if they knew, but they knew I was a Tactical Response Team commander,” he said.

The inquiry continues.

SAPA