JOHANNESBURG – An open letter addressed to former EFF MP Andile Mngxitama has accused him of stealing confidential party information and feeding it to the media.

The letter, simply titled ‘Dear Comrade Andile”, bears the signature of the Economic Freedom Fighters Accountant, Rirhandzu Baloyi.

In it, he alleges that Mngxitama – who refused a leadership position at the party’s elective People’s Assembly last year as it went against his “revolutionary conscience” – himself has none.

For more http://www.enca.com

Johannesburg – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was happy with preparations ahead of Lesotho’s elections scheduled for 28 February, his spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on his return to South Africa on Saturday.

Ramaphosa was visiting in his capacity as SA Development Community-appointed facilitator after an attempted coup in August which led to prime minister Tom Thabane fleeing for South Africa.

Mamoepa said the latest visit included meetings with King Letsie III, representatives of the coalition government namely Thabane of the All Basuthu Convention (ABC), deputy prime minister Mothejoa Metsing of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and minister of gender and youth, sports and recreation Thesele Maseribane of the Basutho Nationa Party .

Besides the coalition partners, he also met representatives of the non-governmental organisation sector, church leaders, and chiefs of security agencies the Lesotho Defence Force and the Lesotho Mounted Police Service.

Earlier in February President Jacob Zuma hosted a delegation from the coalition government led by Thabane, in Zuma’s capacity as chair of the SADC troika organ on politics, defence and security co-operation.

Mamoepa said during that meeting the delegation had raised corners over security, the violation of the Maseru facilitation and security accords, and had discussed a request for SADC to help deliver a credible election.

The election will be taking place two years sooner than originally expected, as agreed in the accords.

“Following his interaction wtih roleplayers in Lesotho on Friday and Saturday, the deputy president expressed satisfaction with preparations for the forthcoming “brought forward” elections,” said Mamoepa.

“He drew inspiration from the great optimism seen by the ordinary people of Lesotho who remain determined to express their will through democratic elections later this month,” he continued.

“Furthermore, he expressed the confidence that the security challenges facing lesotho will continue to receive the attention of SADC.”

Oberserver mission

Ramaphosa also announced that a SADC oberserver mission would be deployed on Tuesday 18 February in Maseru to monitor the elections.

This follows the recent deployment of the SADC electoral advisory council which visited lesotho to assess the readiness for elections.

The SADC troika of heads of state and government meeting will be held later this month.

According to an Institute of Security Studies research paper, the elections might be a “quick fix” attempt at resolving the conflict.

Researchers said the main causes of the tensions in Lesotho, which is completely surrounded by South Africa, “are its governance structures”.

“A coalition government has ruled since May 2012, consisting of the three dominant parties: the Basotho National Party (BNP), Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and All Basotho Convention (ABC).

“Previous attempts to resolve tensions have been superficial. The parties clashed over the appropriate distribution of resources within the coalition government. This division became increasingly visible at the beginning of September last year between the parties of Thabane (ABC) who is allegedly supported by the police, and Metsing (LCD), who is said to have the loyalty of the military forces”.

A report on the Lesotho Times website said that the parties have rejected a proposal by the Independent Electoral Commission to have voter-validation machines at polling stations.

Parties interviewed said the machines had not been tested properly for such a crucial election.

Johannesburg – ANC chairperson and National Assembly speaker Baleke Mbete has warned that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) may move to provincial legislatures and municipalities next, the Mail&Guardian online reported on Saturday.

Addressing the party in the North West’s eighth provincial congress in her capacity as one of the African National Congress’s top six officials, she said: “Don’t ever think what’s happening in Parliament has got nothing to do with you in branches.

“Those thugs there are going to come to provinces to run a similar campaign, not only in legislatures but also in municipalities.

“You must teach our children not to be misled by those wearing red overalls. Those people (EFF) are not working with people of this country alone, they are pawns in a bigger scheme of things where some western governments are involved”.

She said the EFF wanted to “collapse Parliament” and force an early election.

“They want to take this country so that they must take over the mines and share them with friends they were seen gallivanting with in Europe,” she was quoted as saying.

She encouraged ANC deployees to work hard saying reportedly: “If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place”.

Cape Town – Thursday’s ejection of Economic Freedom Front (EFF) members from Parliament, during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address, was a meticulously rehearsed security operation by the police and parliament’s security staff, reports the Sunday Times.

According to the newspaper, details have emerged of how a simulation of the swift and violent ejection by EFF members was conducted on three occasions last week.

For more http://www.news24.com

Cape Town – The Daily Maverick has revealed who the enforcers were during the State of the Nation Address.

A Public Order Police officer, who appears to have played a leading role in forcibly removing Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema and other EFF MPs from the State of the Nation Address this week, has boasted on Facebook of a “hunt for Juju” in the “once hallowed halls of Parliament”. 

For more http://www.news24.com

Cape Town -Paramedics and other emergency personnel are on the scene of a light aircraft crash in the veld close to the R59 near Parys.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Santi Steinmann reports that “A man and his five-year-old son has tragically lost their lives during a light aircraft crash near the R59 near Parys this afternoon.”

For more http://www.news24.com

BY STAFF REPORTER

MOGWASE- Police are investigating a case of
business robbery where a 55-year-old victim was robbed of an
undisclosed amount of cash by five unknown suspects at his business at
Mogwase Bodirelo Industrial on Friday at about 02:00am, North West police said.

Captain Pelonomi Makau said that the victim was contacted by his colleague informing
him that there was robbery at their work place. Upon arrival the
victim found the security official tied up in a room.

According to the information, the suspects broke the office windows and grinded the
safe where they robbed the business an undisclosed amount of cash
before they fled the scene on foot.

No one was injured and police investigations continues.

“Anyone with the information that may lead to arrest of the suspects
involved in this case can contact Mogwase police station or Crime Stop
number 08600 10111. Alternatively, anonymous Crime Line SMS tip-offs
can be done on 32211” Makau said.

-TDN

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BY STAFF REPORTER

MOGWASE- A 28-year-old suspect from Manamakgotheng village in Moruleng
will appear in the Mogwase Magistrate’s Court on Monday for allegedly killing his 6- month-old baby.

According to the information, the suspect who was allegedly under the
influence of alcohol visited his girlfriend and his baby  and held the baby in his hands.

He allegedly dropped him on the floor.

“It is alleged the baby suffered head and body injuries.  He was taken to the
local hospital where he later died. The suspect was arrested and
charged with murder” North West police spokesperson captain Pelonomi Makau said.
-TDN

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Johannesburg – The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Tripartite Alliance expressed concern on Saturday over the jamming of cellphones during the State of the Nation address.

SAHRC spokesperson Isaac Mangena said his organisation did not want to enter the political arena nor apportion blame to any party, but felt compelled to express its astonishment and disappointment at the events on Thursday.

On Thursday night, around 25 journalists launched a protest in the press gallery of the National Assembly because they did not have cellphone reception to file their stories.

DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen – supported by the EFF and Freedom Front Plus – rose on a “rule of order” to submit that the jamming was “in direct violation of the… Constitution”. The signal was then restored.

Mangena said: “The disabling of access to the internet in Parliament was and remains a serious violation of the right to receive or impart information or ideas to and from members of the public, and indeed the freedom of the press and other media as encapsulated in our Constitution”.

The SAHRC welcomed the presiding officers’ commitment to having the Secretary of Parliament probe the issue, and said it would monitor this.

“…We call on all leaders of political parties in this country to convene an urgent meeting to be facilitated by an independent individual/institution, or a collective of their choice to carefully and soberly reflect on what happened during State of the Nation, and inform the people of this country and indeed the world of what steps they will be taking to address and correct this situation and of course to prevent its recurrence going forward.”

The Alliance also condemned the signal jamming in a joint statement following a meeting of the secretariats of the African National Congress, SA Communist Party, Congress of SA Trade Unions and SA National Civic Organisation, in Cape Town on Friday.

“The secretariat condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the jamming of the signal in the National Assembly. It regards this as a serious error of judgment that must never be repeated.”

They said that some members of the media had also behaved in an unbecoming manner.

Disruption regrettable

“We urge the senior management in parliament and the parliamentary press corps to meet at the soonest opportunity to review events and to re-establish the collegial relationship which is so necessary for the effective functioning of our parliamentary democracy.”

The Alliance described the disruption of the president’s speech as “regrettable”.

Three Economic Freedom Fighters MPs, including party leader Julius Malema, were told to leave the House after they persisted in trying to question President Jacob Zuma about misspending on his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, after he started delivering his state-of-the-nation address on Thursday.

Security officers were called in to escort the MPs out of the National Assembly.

The Democratic Alliance walked out shortly afterwards in protest against the security officers’ presence in the National Assembly Chamber.

The Alliance said: “At the heart of the regrettable disruptions in Parliament has been the anarchy of a six percent party, the EFF, deliberately taunting and seeking to provoke counter-measures in order to pose as a ‘victim’ of state repression.

“This behaviour is deplorable and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

“Many of the conventions and institutions of our democratic parliament, a key achievement of decades of liberation struggle, assume a degree of multi-party mutual respect and at least a modicum of shared multi-party commitment to nation-building out of the ashes of our divided past.”

Mahikeng – At least 15 908 previously unemployed people from 15 local municipalities in Bokone-Bophirima are involved various projects that are intended to address community needs and priorities in their respective wards, through the Community Work Programme (CWP) which is a non-stare sector component within the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

Such projects include vegetable gardens, building of public amenities such as old age homes, , clearing of illegal dumping sites, home-based care, community house building, cleaning of illegal dumping sites etc. Through the programme, 25 CWP participants have enrolled (2015-2018) for a Grade R Diploma through the University of North West (Potchefstroom campus), through distance learning.

CWP is a programme of the national Department of Cooperative Governance and it targets unemployed and underemployed people within communities at ward level to accelerate job creation and enhance service delivery through ‘useful work’. The main purpose of the programme is to provide an employment safety net, to contribute to the development of public assets and services in poor communities, to strengthen community development approaches and to improve the quality of life for people in marginalised economic areas by providing work experience, enhancing dignity and promoting social and economic inclusion.

Participants have been contracted for a period of three years (2014-2017), work eight days a month and receive a stipend of R608. Their main role is to identify ‘useful work’ in their wards that address community needs and priorities. The “useful work’’ is planned in partnership with ward councillors and traditional councils and institutions identified through the support of implementing agents and municipalities.

MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements, Collen Maine said the programme has immensely changed the lives of benefitting communities. “People will acquire different skills and the much needed experience in the job market something which will go a long way in changing their lives. They must embrace the opportunity and make full use of it”, he said.

The Department has partnered with other stakeholders such as Departments of Social Development, Public Works and NGOs in order to ensure that the programme achieve its intended objective.

Local municipalities that have benefited from CWP are : Mahikeng, Ratlou, Tswaing, Ramotshere Moiloa, Moses Kotane, Madibeng, Moretele, Rustenburg, Ventersdorp, Maquassi Hills, Greater Taung, Naledi, Kagisano-Molopo, Mamusa and Kgetleng Rivier.  

-TDN

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