Cape Town – A train derailed near Brackenfell station in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon, the city’s fire and rescue services said.

“The train did not catch fire. The train derailed and grass next to the train caught fire due to sparks,” said spokesperson Theo Layne.

He said the train left a junction between two platforms around 14:00.

No injuries were reported.

Johannesburg – Two people were killed in a car accident on Hendrik Potgieter Road in Little Falls, Roodepoort, on Friday morning as a driver apparently tried to avoid a roadblock, metro police said.

“A motorist in a Honda was travelling west on Hendrik Potgieter. When realising Johannesburg metro police officers were on a roadside check, he turned… into oncoming traffic,” Superintendent Edna Mamonyane said.

The Honda crashed into a Hyundai, which was travelling East, and two passengers in the Hyundai were killed. The driver of the Hyundai was critically injured and taken to hospital.

The driver of the Honda was allegedly drunk and was arrested on the scene. He was in custody at Honeydew police station.

He was expected to appear in court soon to face charges of culpable homicide and reckless or negligent driving, Mamonyane said.

Durban – More than 2 800 matric pupils and at least 34 teachers and principals in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were allegedly involved in mass cheating, the education department said in Durban on Friday.

A total of 2 089 pupils in KwaZulu-Natal and 778 pupils in the Eastern Cape were implicated in cheating during the 2014 matric exams, basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told reporters.

No results from the affected papers, written at 19 KwaZulu-Natal and 14 Eastern Cape exam centres, would be released.

“The decision has been taken to further block all the results. In the Eastern Cape, the results will remain blocked,” he said.

Over the past two weeks, the department had conducted interviews with invigilators and pupils.

“People have now committed themselves in writing to answering in a certain way, and in some cases people have implicated themselves even further.

“In other cases people are saying some interesting things that have attracted the attention of those conducting the probe.”

He said there had been a few confessions, mostly from pupils. These had strengthened the investigators’ evidence.

“There are clear patterns that there was co-ordinated assistance.”

The motive for teachers taking part in the cheating had not been determined.

“One of the learners did say that the teachers at the school were lazy. They were not teaching, and many periods passed by without a teacher.”

It was suspected that teachers or principals provided help to pupils to make up for the lack of teaching during the year.

Mhlanga said some pupils sitting the exams had crossed out their own answers and inserted identical wrong answers. He conceded it was worrying that, apart from the cheating, the teachers appeared not to know the correct answers.

In one exam question, pupils were asked to explain the similarities between the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Nuremberg Trials, held after WWII.

“It’s difficult to have 30 people having the same own words,” said Mhlanga.

It was not known when the department’s formal hearings into the matter would be completed, but those who had a case to answer would be allowed legal representation. Those found guilty could be banned from writing matric for up to three years.

He said the department was implementing measures aimed at preventing such problems recurring. Mhlanga said he could not reveal details of these as the measures were still being reviewed and needed approval.

President Jacob Zuma’s salary will increase to over R2.7 million per annum this year and he will receive a lump sum payment of over R100 000 in back payments.

National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete and Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng will receive just over R2.6 million with similar back payments.

All government officials are in for a salary increase now that the Independent Commission for the remuneration of public office bearers has made its recommendation on public sector salaries.

The increases for our top officials are as follows:

» President Jacob Zuma: R2 753 689 up from R2 622 561

» Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa: R2 602 297 up from R2 478 378

» Ministers: R2 211 937 up from R2 106 607

» Deputy ministers: R1 821 577 up from R1 734 835

» Speaker of the national assembly and chief justice: R2 602 297 up from R2 478 378

» Ordinary member of parliament: R989 883 up from R933 852

» Premiers: R2 081 868 up from R1 982 731

» Mayors: R1 152 803 up from R1 097 907

» Traditional leaders (kings): R1 078 599 up from R1 027 237

The commission, which is obliged to make salary adjustment recommendations for public officials every year, said it had proposed “a 5% adjustment for Public Office Bearers earning more than R 1 000 000 and 6% for public office bearers earning less than R 1 000 000”.

The increase hovers around the inflation mark.

The commission released its report following the monetary policy committee announcement that left the repo rate unchanged, and predicted an average inflation forecast of 5.4% for 2015.

The new salaries will kick in retroactively from April 1 last year for national officials and July 1 for local government officials. This means that officials will be back paid a lump sum once the recommendations have been finalised.

Commissioner Neo Sephoti explained to City Press that the adjustments were delayed as several of the commissioners’ term of office had come to an end, including the chair. The commission had to wait for Zuma to appoint new commissioners which was finished in October, before they could make quorum again for their meetings and complete their work on the adjustments. http://www.remcommission.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=4660

The commission considered a number of factors in coming to the decision, it said in a press statement released today, including the forecast of the consumer price index, market salary increases in the past year and “the economic and social environment”.

The recommendations have been gazetted and will be passed by Parliament where it applied to the executive, and by the president where it applied to the legislature, said Sephoti.

Johannesburg – Five men are expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in connection with the shooting of African National Congress MP Jackson Mthembu.

The men, who were arrested between the end of October last year and the beginning of November, face charges of attempted murder and armed robbery.

They were all in their 20s and were arrested in their homes in an informal settlement in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga.

Mthembu was attacked while withdrawing money from an ATM in Mandela Street, Emalahleni, on 19 October last year.

He was approached by an armed man along with several others. They demanded that he withdraw all of his money from his account.

A scuffle ensued and Mthembu was shot. The bullet grazed his cheek and hit him in the shoulder.

He was hospitalised for 10 days and was booked off work until the end of November, 2014.

To further advance the course of establishing strong relations between Government and Private sector, the North West Department of tourism will host the Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Tourism Lekgotla with the sole aim of fostering integrated tourism planning and development across all spheres of Government.

This lekgotla will be used as a platform to derive means and develop methods which will enable the department to put in place systems to advance the course of Rural Tourism and elevate its impact on the socio-economic scale in rural towns across the province.

The session will be held as follows:

Date   : 03 February 2015

Venue: Taung Hotel and Convention Centre

Time  : 08:30

JOHANNESBURG – A private Pretoria school has denied it’s separating young children into classes based on race and hopes to convince parents of this at a special meeting due to take place tonight. 

Eyewitness News has learned that a group of almost 30 parents at the Curro Foundation School in Roodeplaat has complained about this by signing a petition. 
For more http://www.ewn.co.za

Klerksdorp – To effectively and efficiently foster integrated tourism planning and development across all spheres of Government, the North West Department of Tourism has commenced with a series of district Tourism makgotla across the province. 

First of these sessions was held at Klerksdorp in the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District where North West MEC for Tourism Desbo Mohono highlighted the importance of such stakeholder engagement sessions.

She said that they give industry role players the opportunity to make strategic inputs on how the department can improve the way it conducts its business.

“Platforms such as these can come up with tangible and possible ideas while at the same breath making sure that they become solutions to the promised land. These gatherings have to be able to answer pertinent questions that will either break or make us as a very competitive industry”, MEC Mohono said.

MEC Mohono went further to urge Tourism product owners to package their products well and explore other means of packaging besides the conventional methods.

“As a department we also urge our people to package their inventions in authentic cultural and nature based manner. The other very important factor that I have to make mention in particular when coming to packaging our products is the issue of. E-Tourism Frontiers in the digital market. This trend continues to evolve at a lightning speed and our commitment has to be on the cusp of this curve”, she added.

“Our mandate has always been results orientated in terms of overall direction for Tourism and the targets that we strive to achieve in the long run. As a government of the people we will come to your aid. We will try to assist everybody that shows determination and vigour and most importantly those that meet the criteria we have set to either receive funding or any other kind of help we can give to our people though our SETAs”, she concluded.

The District Tourism Makgotla will continue in other districts of the province with the sole intention of soliciting strategic inputs which will facilitate industrial and institutional growth of the Tourism sector in the North West Province.
-TDN
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Cape Town – In a foretaste of the ANC-DA political battle in Cape Town ahead of the 2016 local government elections, this year’s first full council sitting descended into chaos, with some ANC councillors seen throwing punches on Wednesday.

The tension between the political rivals was palpable from the onset as mayor Patricia de Lille and the ANC, led by Tony Ehrenreich, locked horns over issues that included services, MyCiTi bus routes and the renaming of Table Bay Boulevard after former president FW de Klerk.
For more http://www.iol.co.za