A Germiston family is refusing to bury a body from the Nigerian church collapse, which was identified as their daughter.
On February 6 A C130 Hercules brought back 11 bodies from Nigeria; Among them, a body supposedly that of Patricia Mkhulisi.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za
Acting Energy director-general Wolsey Barnard on Tuesday said it would take 20 months for the Eskom War Room committee to return South Africa to normality. Barnard was speaking at the African Energy Indaba in the place of Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.
“Big Business is giving us big support,” he told delegates. “Now, everyone in the country needs to pull their weight.”
For more http://www.sabreakingnews.org.za
As of April, eligible citizens will be able to apply for their Smart ID Cards at the Home Affair’s kiosks in their nearest bank, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.
The Minister said this when he led a briefing by government’s Governance and Administration Cluster at the Imbizo Media Centre in Parliament on Tuesday.
The Minister said this would be a pilot project.
The Minister said to date, two banks – FNB and Standard Bank – have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Home Affairs for the pilot project.
Nedbank has indicated its willingness to sign on the dotted line and Minister Gigaba hopes Absa will also join the partnership.
He said his department had also approached the South African Post Office with the aim of reaching an agreement on how some of its infrastructure could be used as well.
“There are several new innovations that are going to be introduced by the department in the course of this and the next financial years to assist South Africans in applying for their Smart ID Cards and passports in an extremely convenient way.
“That is why the President announced that we will soon be able to apply for our Smart ID Cards at our bank…
“At the moment there are three banks that have come on board and we have signed a memorandum of understanding to start a pilot process with them – so that a person can … go to the Home Affairs kiosk in the bank, submit all their applications, take their biometric photograph, automated fingerprint and their electronic signature and that is compiled to an electronic package and deposited to Home Affairs,” he said.
The Minister said the innovation would help ease the queues at Home Affairs’ 403 offices nationwide, while delivering a crucial service to citizens quicker, efficiently and professionally.
Those that are eligible to apply are pensioners older than 60 years or 16 year-olds.
Meanwhile, the Minister said government had a massive task to ensure that over 38 million citizens with green-coded ID books are converted to Smart ID Cards.
“To date we have issued over one million Smart ID Cards, in less than a year. We are confident of reaching the target of 1.6 million cards by the end of the 2014/15 financial year,” he said.
– SAnews.gov.za
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane has labelled President Jacob Zuma a broken man presiding over a broken society.
In a hard hitting speech delivered during the debate on the state of the nation address, Maimane accused Zuma of breaking Parliament last week when security personnel were deployed to strong-arm EFF MPs demanding to know when he would pay back the money spent on non-security upgrades at his Nkandla residence.
For more http://www.citypress.co.za
North West- The North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Human Settlements will hold oversight meetings with municipalities under Bojanala District Municipality at Rustenburg Local Municipal Chamber on Wednesday at 09h00.
The municipalities will be presenting their Annual Reports 2012/13.
The meetings are scheduled as follows;
Municipality
Time: 09H00
Venue: Moretele Local Municipality
Rustenburg Local Municipal Chamber
Rustenburg Local Municipality
12h00
Bojanala District Municipality
15h00
The meetings will be attended by the Executive Mayors, Members of the Municipal Councils and Municipal Public Accounts Committees, Municipal Managers including senior management of municipalities. Auditor General’s office will also be present.
-TDN
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Kingston Nkhatha will line up for SuperSport United against his old team Kaizer Chiefs in the Absa Premiership tonight, expecting to hear more of the booing that marred his time at Naturena.
The Zimbabwean, who joined Matsatsantsa during the January transfer window, joined Chiefs in 2012 from Black Leopards and had a torrid time with club supporters.
On one occasion Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter labeled the boo-boys ‘idiots’ and questioned his own future in Naturena.
For more http://www.kickoff.com
Mahikeng- Thirty members have been elected through a fair electoral process, with members in agreement as to the measures that were used to reach to the final number. As with many processes that have to be done democratically there were some issues that were raised and members then required clarity in order to agree on matters at hand.
“There were some deliberations here and there, where clarity was needed once a cadre suggested that members who weren’t present at the conference and hadn’t followed through with letters of acceptance or declining nominations hadn’t been received. The outcome though, was satisfactory and abided with democratic processes all thanks to the members and the electoral agency deployed for the procedure needed” ANC spokesperson Oupa Matla said.
The election of additional thirty members is a combination of broad demographic representation of all the four regions of the province. This echoed the honest advice that the National chairperson, Baleka Mbete had shared earlier, that ‘factionalism is a disease that affects all levels within the ANC and needs to be dealt with vigorously’.
Spirits weren’t dampened by any of the deliberations and kept singing and chanting before breaking away for some of the core business of the conference, that being the different commissions whereby members could decide on a way forward and how delegates need to give feedback to their various branches.
The commissions in questions included: Peace and stability, robust conversations on economic transformation, social transformation and political education to name a few.
“As the conference draws to a close and load shedding threatened to slow things down, ironically when there had been a presentation during the day from a representative from ESKOM. Members were not deterred and instead kept their spirits high reminding themselves of the core business for attendance” Matla said.
The list of the thirty PEC additional members:
HAMILTON – David Miller and JP Duminy both scored centuries as South Africa overcame a real challenge from Zimbabwe to record a 62-run victory in their opening World Cup Pool B game in Hamilton on Sunday.
Miller (138 not out) and Duminy (115 not out) rescued the Proteas’ innings after they had been in trouble at 83 for four, as they put on a world record fifth-wicket stand of 256 to guide their side to 339 for four.
Elton Chigumbura’s side, however, also showed that they would be a dangerous opponent for many sides with opener Chamu Chibhabha (64), Hamilton Masakadza (80) and Brendan Taylor (40) showing they were all highly competent international batsmen.
For more http://www.enca.com
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.
The Guardian 