Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter is hoping the likes of Bernard Parker and Knowledge Musona will be full of running when Amakhosi face Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates on Saturday.
Baxter rested Parker for Chiefs’ 2-0 loss to Platinum Stars in midweek, while he also opted to deploy fellow attackers Musona and Kingston Nkhatha off the bench against Dikwena with an eye to the weekend battle.
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Moroka Swallows coach Zeca Marques says new Orlando Pirates coach Vladimir Vermezovic could not believe his team escaped with a 1-0 victory last night.
REPORT: Swallows 0-1 Pirates
“Yes Pirates played well in the first half and had good chances and hit the bar twice but also the second half belonged to us and the reason that the Orlando Pirates coach did not come to the press conference is that he did not believe the result,” Marques said after the match.
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Orlando Pirates skipper Lucky Lekgwathi believes the League title race is far from over and says his side will fight until the last day.
Pirates returned to winning ways when they defeated Moroka Swallows 1-0 last night at Dobsonville Stadium to move to fourth on the log standings.
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Johannesburg – People were likely to use the word “guilty” more than “innocent” in reference to the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, according to figures by media monitoring group Data Driven Insight (DDI).
“The public and media are now likely to use the word “guilty” eight times more than “innocent” in media coverage about the Pistorius case,” said DDI spokesperson Tonya Khoury on Wednesday.
“We took the measurement of the trial and put ‘guilty’ to measure what kind of feedback it would generate.”
Their guilt monitor saw about 8.43% of the world media go with “guilty” while 1.14% of all media worldwide went with “innocent”.
Social media platform Twitter added to the Pistorius news coverage at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Khoury said.
Of the two testimonies heard on Wednesday, that of police colonel Johannes Vermeulen and Pistorius’s friend Daren Fresco, Fresco’s testimony accounted for more media activity.
“When you place these two testimonies alongside each other, Fresco’s media activity accounted for almost 80%.”
Khoury said the trial had generated more interest from abroad.
“The US, Germany, UK and Australia are covering the story more than South African media,” she said.
The data was compiled from 6.2 million social media platforms including blogs, forums, social networks and commentary, 60 000 global online newspapers, 2 000 South African print publications, and 66 radio and television stations.
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Johannesburg – A lot of work has been done to fight poverty, unemployment and inequality since 2009, President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday.
“We have created more jobs than before. Employment is now higher than it has ever been, at 15 million people,” Zuma said in a statement.
He was speaking during the launch of the election edition of the Progressive Leader magazine produced by the ANC Progressive Business Forum.
“More of our people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. Our social grants, received by over 16 million people, are one of the critical instruments in poverty alleviation,” he said.
He told guests of the work the African National Congress had been able to accomplish since coming into government.
Zuma said more than R1trn had been invested in national infrastructure projects, compared with R451bn in the previous five years.
“Nearly 500 informal settlements have been replaced with quality housing and basic services, thus providing our people with dignified housing,” said Zuma.
More was to be done in the area of sanitation and water provision in the next term, he added.
On business, Zuma said government had done a lot to create a conducive climate for business to thrive. He said the initiatives taken by government would translate into stronger domestic growth and more jobs.
Among the initiatives was the call to buy locally produced goods. He said the party wanted the state to buy at least 75% of its goods and services from South African producers and support small enterprises.
“We have also done well in promoting and protecting the country’s automotive sector, which is a valuable source of foreign direct investment.
“We are pleased with the progress in the growth of this sector and welcome all the major investments that have been made,” said Zuma.
He called on the private sector to respond appropriately, by increasing investment, production, exports and employment.
Zuma said private sector investment accounted for 63% of total investment. In addition, the private sector employed 77% of all working South Africans, he added.
“We therefore need active private sector participation in boosting inclusive growth to eradicate poverty and unemployment,” the president said.
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Pretoria – Day nine of Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial in the North Gauteng High Court will see forensic expert Colonel Johannes Vermeulen back in the witness stand.
On Wednesday, he disputed Pistorius’s claim that he was wearing his prosthetic legs when he broke down a locked door to reach his dying girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
Vermeulen told the court that the disabled athlete was on his stumps both when he shot at the door and when he battered it down with a cricket bat.
At prosecutor Gerrie Nel’s request, Vermeulen demonstrated the angle at which he had to swing the bat to strike the door where it left a dent made on the night of the shooting.
The mark was 1.53 metres from the bottom of the door of the toilet cubicle in Pistorius’s home in which Steenkamp was shot dead.
Vermeulen was the first policeman to take the stand since Pistorius went on trial last week.
The Paralympian pleaded not guilty to the charge of Steenkamp’s premeditated murder.
Vermeulen’s testimony appeared to take Pistorius’s defence by surprise, and advocate Barry Roux complained that he felt “ambushed”.
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Johannesburg – An investigation into how a 5-year-old boy died at a Soweto school last month has yet to be launched, the Gauteng education department said on Wednesday.
The Grade R pupil died after being run over by a lawnmower at the school.
Spokesperson Phumla Sekhonyane said the department would appoint independent investigators to conduct the probe.
“When there’s an incident like this, we appoint someone externally so there is an independent view,” she said.
“We never use our own people so that there are no cover-ups or anything like that.”
The Grade R pupil died after being run over by a lawnmower at the school.
It was unclear whether anyone from the school had been held accountable.
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Johannesburg – Four people were still missing in Mpumalanga and Limpopo on Wednesday after extensive flooding in several parts of the country.
Two women, aged 64 and 69, have been missing from Makhado and Bela-Bela since the weekend, police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said.
“She [the 64-year-old from Makhado] left Tshitale village in the morning to get some wood. She had to cross the Mambedi River at some point and her dog, which she usually travels with, returned to the house alone.”
Persistent rain made it difficult to recover the body of a 69-year-old woman who was swept away with her husband while swimming in Bela-Bela at the weekend.
The two were swimming in an undercover swimming pool at the Kariba Lodge on Friday when the Bela-Bela dam overflowed and they were swept away.
The body of her 74-year-old husband was found on Saturday.
A 15-year-old youth who was reported missing on Monday was found, Mulaudzi said.
The boy was crossing the river with a friend on Monday.
“They were swept away, but the friend managed to grab onto an object and get himself to safety. He then alerted police about his friend.”
“The family did not alert police that he was found [on Monday]. But he is back at school now,” Mulaudzi said.
In Gauteng, Johannesburg emergency management services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said no drownings had been reported on Wednesday.
“We are just busy with mop-up operations around the city.”
Affected by flooding
Earlier, Mulaudzi said about 100 homes were affected by flooding in Zandspruit, near Honeydew, west of Johannesburg on Tuesday.
An emergency shelter was set up in the area for the displaced group of about 200, but they were reluctant to leave their belongings behind, Mulaudzi said.
Diepsloot and Ivory Park were also affected by the flooding. No drownings were reported in both areas, he said.
“We will continue to monitor the affected areas.”
In Tshwane, 10 homes collapsed in an informal settlement in Stinkwater on Tuesday afternoon.
“We assisted in organising alternative accommodation, blankets, and food parcels,” emergency management services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said.
Power had been restored to Mamelodi, Silverton and Samcor Park after the areas experienced power failures due to the heavy rains.
Nellmaphius and a few outstanding streets in Watloo were still out of power, City of Tshwane spokesman Moeketsi Bokaba said.
The two areas were expected to be switched back on by Wednesday evening.
“Consumers are advised to treat all electrical points ‘as live’. Switch off all non-essential appliances to assist with the load on the electrical network.”
March showers
Water affairs department spokesman Themba Khumalo said the rain in Gauteng was the most persistent for the March period in 14 years.
“This is confirmed by the weather services,” he said.
The department was trying to control dam levels in the province.
“If we don’t, they will burst.”
He said places such as Vereeniging would be in danger of being flooded if the Vaal Dam were to burst. The dam was currently 105% full.
“By yesterday [Tuesday] we had opened eight sluice-gates to control the levels so that the water would flow into the Vaal River.
“That puts the river at [risk] of overflowing too.”
He said those who lived near rivers should ensure that they were a good distance from the flood-lines.
“In places like the Jukskei River in Alexandra residents build homes below the flood-lines which is why every year they are affected [by heavy rain and floods],” Khumalo said.
SA weather services forecaster Ezekiel Sebego said there was a severe weather watch for Wednesday and Thursday for the eastern parts of North West, Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.
By the weekend the wet weather would move to other parts of the country, he said.
“By Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the rain will be moving to lesser affected provinces [such as] half of North West and the Free State.
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Cape Town – Slain Mpumalanga teenager Charmaine Mare was never in danger while staying in Cape Town, the Western Cape High Court heard on Wednesday.
“I cannot ever say I was a danger to her. I never once physically molested her or assaulted her,” testified her guardian at the time, Johannes Christiaan de Jager.
De Jager, 49, has denied killing Mare last January while his girlfriend, her daughter and his son were away on a cruise.
He maintains she fell to her death when he grabbed her arm in the bathroom.
Prosecutor Romay van Rooyen pointed to behaviour that seemed to contradict De Jager’s view of himself.
She asked why Mare’s friend in Mpumalanga tried to phone Kraaifontein police four times to ask them to go to De Jager’s home.
“I don’t know why,” he replied.
She asked why Mare would send cellphone voice recordings of him making advances towards her, to her friends.
He said he could not answer for her.
“Do you not think maybe it was a cry for help to people she knew to help her get away?” Van Rooyen asked.
De Jager said if the teenager had been in trouble, she would have said something to the teenage girls across the road.
He said he organised a braai a week before her death in which she was introduced to everyone in the neighbourhood.
Van Rooyen asked why Mare had asked a local estate agent for money.
“He only told me that she wanted money and wanted to go back to the Transvaal and that he gave her his telephone number, probably for her to call or when there’s trouble,” he said.
The prosecutor asked why Mare was so desperate to get away that she would borrow money from a stranger.
“In discussions with her, she said she missed her parents so I assume she wanted to go back [to Mpumalanga].”
The trial continues.
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Johannesburg – The Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the 1999 arms deal adjourned on Wednesday.
The inquiry would resume on Monday, spokesperson William Baloyi said in a statement.
He said two witnesses from arms parastatal Armscor – Barry de Beer and Pieter Burger – had completed their testimony.
A third witness from Armscor, Fritz Nortje, would take the stand on Monday.
The commission, sitting in Pretoria and headed by Judge Willie Seriti, is investigating allegations of corruption into the multi-billion rand arms deal.
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The Guardian 