Johannesburg – South Africans owe government institutions like the South African Revenue Service (Sars), municipalities and traffic authorities a staggering R180bn in overdue taxes, municipal accounts and traffic fines, according to an investigation by Rapport’s Pieter-Louis Myburgh.

For more http://www.news24.com

Orkney – A police captain and her 60-year-old mother were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder of her father in Orkney, North West police said.

“The arrest came after the detectives at Orkney did an intensive investigation where the suspects were questioned and the daughter’s car was taken to the laboratory for forensic investigation,” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

“The forensic results came back positive, showing that the blood that was found in the car of the suspect (the captain) was the deceased’s blood and the soil was the same form as that on the crime scene.”

The 44-year-old police captain was arrested while on duty in Klerksdorp and her mother was picked by police at her home in Kanana.

The police officer’s father was found dead in the veld at Orkney on December 10 with panga wounds on his body and head, Ngubane said.

The man was last seen with his wife and daughter who were helping him to walk from a nearby tavern.

“The cause of this gruesome manslaughter is not yet confirmed, except that the deceased was due to get his pension at work, at Orkney Engineering Mine,” Ngubane said.

“The two suspects have been making numerous enquiries making demands that pension money should be released to them.”

The two are expected to appear in the Orkney Magistrate’s Court soon.

Sapa

Johannesburg – A North West policeman accused of attempting to kill his girlfriend, also a police officer, appeared in the Stilfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Ditiro Maano, 35, will be back in court on March 17 for a decision on his bail application, police spokesman Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

He allegedly repeatedly shot and wounded the 33-year-old woman during an argument in Strathvaal, Stilfontein, last Tuesday.

Sapa

Klerksdorp – A 19-year-old man, Marven Van Rooysen, appeared in the Klerksdorp Magistrates Court on Tuesday for the alleged murder of his 46-year-old stepfather on Saturday, 7 March 2015 at 19:40 in Extension 12, reported the Klerksdorp SAPS.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

Rustenburg – Two men were killed when their plane crashed near Potchefstroom airfield, near the army base, on Thursday morning, North West police said.

“The craft had two male occupants suspected to be between the ages of 28 and 38,” said Sergeant Kealeboga Molale.

The SA Civil Aviation Authority was investigating.

Sapa

Mahikeng – The Hawks arrested seven members of a suspected drug trafficking ring in North West, provincial police said on Friday.

The arrests were the result of a 10-month operation focused on an organised crime syndicate allegedly specialising in drug dealing and trafficking. The suspects were arrested in various parts of the North West, including Mahikeng, Lichtenburg as well as Vryburg.

For more http://www.iol.co.za

The South African Senior Women’s National Team (Banyana Banyana) safely returned home on Friday after participating in the annual Cyprus Women’s Cup.

Banyana Banyana played four matches in the tournament – winning one and losing the other three, but head coach Vera Pauw is not fazed, but is proud of how the team performed.

South Africa was drawn in Group C alongside Mexico, Belgium and the Czech Republic – and finished 10th after losing 1-2 to Finland.

After three months of no action – they last played in October last year in the CAF African Women’s Championships in Namibia – the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana were using the tournament to prepare for the upcoming qualifiers of the All Africa Games and Rio Olympics.

South Africa will again be in action on Friday, 20 March away to Botswana in the first leg qualifier. Kick-off is at 18h00.

They will start camp on Sunday, 15 March in Johannesburg.

SAFA Media caught up with head coach Vera Pauw to get her thoughts of the Cyprus Cup which took place from 2 – 12 March.

Matlhomola Morake: Coach how did the tournament go?

Vera Pauw: If you look at the results, people will think that we did not perform well but in fact we did very well, far above our expectations because players are just coming back from their break. Most of the players haven’t played since October last year, some of them played in November and a few in December but after that there were no games and no training at their clubs.

So in essence we did our pre-season just a week before we played in the Cyprus Cup which, for me, is amazing as we helped the teams we played against to get full preparation ahead of their various competitions and we competed very well against them. They are all ranked within the top 30 on the FIFA World Rankings, and Finland were the semi-finalists of the European Championships. They also have 12 players in Sweden and Germany playing there. We have given almost every player in the squad a game.

We could have won every game we played, in fact there was no game where I felt we had no chance. But we have learnt that if you make a silly mistake you will get punished – whether they score against or they deny you a chance to score. Overall we have done well but the difference between the top and perhaps where we are, that is near the top, is that one or two moments you make a mistake you are in trouble and that is why we need to play these games.

I am overall very happy, it was extremely important to be here (at the Cyprus Cup) and I think the players learnt as much as they could.

MM: Looking at this tournament, is South African football different from European football?

VP: Actually not, the difference is just the level of play. It is just that the countries we played against here are used to playing at this level because if you look at the Nigerian team they also have very quick build-ups and fast in their play, so there’s not so much difference except when you have been playing at this level for a long time it shows. If you look at the game against Finland though, you can see the wet weather conditions did not help and it took the players a long time to adapt.

MM: So is the team going back (to the Cyprus Cup) next year?

VP: I am very happy and pleased to announce that the team will be invited to the tournament again next year, and that is because of our performance on the pitch, they want us to come back and I think that is a compliment in itself, it shows everybody sees our development and I am very proud of that.

MM: You brought in new players, how did they fare?

VP: In general they have done really well and some of them even got to play. Now we need to see how they have developed because they give the team more depth.

MM: No rest for the team, just a couple of days and back in action early next week?

VP: We are facing Botswana in an All Africa Games qualifier away in Botswana. Our players need a few days rest and will return to camp on Sunday (15 March) to start training on Monday (16 March) so we can prepare well for the Botswana clash, especially a faster build up and a faster attack.

MM: How do you keep the players focused on the job at hand and not look down on the opposition as it might happen after playing the highly-ranked teams?

VP: We came here (at the Cyprus Cup) to play this tournament and said we have to grow in terms of our play and next week we need to adapt to what we are going to face against Botswana, but we have played so many times against such opposition that I don’t think we will have issues and also we have enough time for adaptation.

CYPRUS WOMEN’S CUP

2 – 12 March 2015

Group A – Larnaca                                           Group B – Larnaca                            Group C – Ayia Napa

Canada                                                                                 Australia                                              South Africa

Italy                                                                       England                                                                Belgium

Republic of Korea                                            Finland                                                 Czech Republic

Scotland                                                               Netherlands                                       Mexico

South Africa’s results in the 2015 Cyprus Women’s Cup:

Wednesday, 4 March

Mexico                                 2 – 0       South Africa

Friday, 6 March

Belgium               0 – 1       South Africa

Monday 9 March

South Africa       0 – 1       Czech Republic

Wednesday, 11 March

South Africa       1 – 2       Finland

South Africa appearance in Cyprus Women’s Cup:

2008 –   DID NOT PARTICIPATE

2009 –   6^th position

2010 –    8^th

2011 –   DID NOT PARTICIPATE

2012 –   10^th

2013 –   11^th

2014 –   DID NOT PARTICIPATE

2015 –    10^th position

Tournament winners (finalists in brackets)

2008                       Canada (USA)

2009                       ENG (Canada)

2010                       Canada (New Zealand)

2011                       Canada (Netherlands)

2012                       France (Canada)

2013                       ENG (Canada)

2014                       France (ENG)

2015                       ENG (Canada)

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

Johannesburg- COSAFA pride will be at stake when Amajita play Zambia in an academic match on Sunday after both teams were eliminated from the CAF U20 African Youth championships currently taking place in Senegal.
Both teams failed to win or draw any of their opening two games.

South Africa lost 2-0 to Ghana before losing 2-1 to Mali while Zambia lost 1-0 and 2-1 to Mali and Ghana respectively as both COSAFA representatives were knocked out of the junior tournament.

However, Amajita coach Thabo Senong said while the two defeats were disappointing he said the match against Zambia would be fought as any other competitive game.
“The modern environment entails to take each game seriously whether you have lost your way in the competition or otherwise. It is a culture you have to inculcate in today’s players.

“While we will give each player a run on Sunday, we will still play to win,” said the 34-year old mentor.
The youthful coach said the tournament was a huge learning curve for the team and the technical staff and were now wiser going forward.

“We expected to do better than what we achieved but that is the nature of this sport, you at times lose but in doing so, must learn and correct your mistakes.

“I still don’t believe that there is a huge gap between COSAFA countries and those in West Africa. The only difference maybe is that the competition in this part of the world is more comprehensive than in Southern Africa where a few countries perform well on constant basis.”

After the match on Sunday, South Africa leave Senegal on Monday and are expected to arrive on the same day at ORTambo Airport at 16h45.

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_