Johannesburg – The DA did not attend a Tlokwe council special meeting on Friday, because it was illegally convened, the party said.

“The DA-led coalition in the Tlokwe Municipality in Potchefstroom decided not to attend a special council meeting this morning [Friday] illegally convened by the speaker, Barei Segotso,” North West DA leader Chris Hattingh said in a statement.

He alleged the meeting contravened the council’s rules of order and the Municipal Structures Act.

A quorum of 50% of the councillors plus one was needed to call such a meeting. This condition was not met for Friday’s meeting.

Tlokwe municipal spokesperson William Maphosa could not immediately comment on the claims that the meeting was convened illegally.

The ANC in the North West said earlier that a motion of no confidence in Tlokwe Mayor Annette Combrink, of the DA, was on the meeting’s agenda, but it would not be effected.

“While the motion appears as an agenda item in today’s [Friday] council meeting, the ANC will not be acting on this matter today,” spokesperson Kenny Morolong said in a statement.

Fourteen ANC councillors were expelled from the party in July for participating in a motion of no confidence in then Tlokwe mayor Maphetle Maphetle. He was replaced by Combrink.

The ANC’s national disciplinary committee subsequently overturned the expulsions.

No reply

Hattingh said the DA had received no reply to letters written to Segotso about its concerns relating to the meeting.

He said no council meetings had been called for three months, despite a number of pressing service delivery issues which needed to be discussed.

“No other agenda point addressing delivery was on the agenda for [Friday’s] special council meeting,” Hattingh said.

Morolong said a motion of no confidence in Combrink would be delayed.

“The inevitable removal of the mayor, who ascended to the position through the subversion of democracy, will only be effected after the conclusion of the outstanding by-elections.”

The ANC retained control of two of three wards in Tlokwe by-elections on Wednesday.

The Electoral Court in Bloemfontein ordered on Tuesday evening that five of the nine by-elections in Tlokwe be postponed.

This was after the court heard an application by five independent candidates, who were disqualified from taking part in the by-elections by the Independent Electoral Commission.

A sixth by-election, in Ward 13, was earlier postponed after an out-of-court settlement.

North West Local Government MEC Manketsi Tlhape said on Wednesday the date for the remaining by-elections would be announced once her office received the required documents from the IEC.

Morolong said: “The ANC reaffirms its unwavering resolve to restore democracy and the will of the people of Tlokwe, thus building on the foundation we have already laid to change the lives of our people for the better.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Five people were arrested in connection with a farm robbery in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Friday.

They allegedly robbed an elderly couple of money and weapons, Colonel Jay Naicker said.

“The couple were tied [up] with cable ties and the suspects fled taking the farmer’s two shotguns, two revolvers, and an undisclosed amount of cash,” Naicker said.

The first man was arrested on Wednesday in Upper Tugela and another, believed to be the mastermind, in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.

“The police investigation continued last night [Thursday] and three further suspects were arrested in Bergville.”

During the arrests the money and weapons stolen during the robbery were recovered.

The men were due to appear in the Bergville Magistrate’s Court and would face charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of unlicensed firearms, and possession of suspected stolen property.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Corrupt police officers will be hunted down and dealt with mercilessly, acting Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Joel Mothiba said on Friday.

Following the release of Gauteng’s 2012/13 crime statistics by Premier Nomvula Mokonyane in Johannesburg on Friday, Mothiba pledged to root out corrupt officers.

“We are concerned about the SAPS [SA Police Service] members as well as metro police members that are involved in crimes and corruption,” he said.

“They [corrupt officers] undermine the good work being done by law enforcement officials.”
He pledged to take stern action against his corrupt subordinates.

“Government has declared zero-tolerance on corruption and we will lead and deal with all corrupt, criminal elements in our midst mercilessly,” said Mothiba.

“We will hunt them down. An appeal is being made to members of the community to stop offering bribes to our members. It takes two to tango. If communities stop corrupting our members there will be less corruption.”

Rising trend

Earlier, Mokonyane expressed concern over the rising trend of police officers involved in graft.

“A worrisome statistic shows that 18 out of 50 provincial policing precincts were reported as crime-infested dens that recorded police collusion and outright corruption,” she said.

“The Johannesburg central police precinct tops the list with approximately 13 000 criminal cases that were perpetrated by officers in uniform.”

In the 2012/13 Gauteng crime statistics, Mokonyane revealed that vehicle hijackings in Gauteng increased 2% in the past financial year.

She said the country’s most populous province had intensified efforts to counter the hijackings.

Mokonyane: Crime under control in Gauteng

Increases were recorded in stock theft, up by 5.1%. Robberies at residential premises increased by 3.6%.

Mokonyane said robberies at business premises, murder, and motor vehicle theft had diminished in the province. Sexual offences declined by 10%.

She remained upbeat that crime was under control in Gauteng.

“What is heartening is that the apprehension of [corrupt officers] was not done by a nurse, a doctor, or a journalist. It was done by members of the SA Police Service and other law enforcement agents.

“We still have the confidence, as the provincial government, in the capacity of the police to fight crime.”

A bleak picture about crime in the country emerged when Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa released the national crime statistics in Pretoria on Thursday.

The national figures indicate that serious crime such as murder, burglary, aggravated robbery, and hijackings are on the rise.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A Sasolburg school teacher who was shot by a pupil was in a stable condition after undergoing surgery, a hospital official said on Friday.

Emfuleni MediClinic spokesperson Retha Behr said the teacher was operated on to have the bullet removed from his leg.

He was in the intensive care unit of the Vanderbijlpark hospital on Friday afternoon.

“He is in a stable condition,” said Behr.

The teacher was shot by a 15-year-old at a Sasolburg high school on Friday morning around 10:45, Free State police said.

“This morning, a 15-year-old boy was chasing three other pupils at school. He was stopped by the deputy principal, asking him why he was chasing them,” Sergeant Sellwane Mapamela said.

“During this questioning, the boy pulled a pistol from behind his back but a shot did not go off.”

Mapamela said the boy then ran away. Two teachers followed and tried to disarm him. During the scuffle, a shot went off, hitting one of the teachers in the right lower leg.

Mapamela said the boy again ran off and was accosted by police in DF Malan Street in Sasolburg. The firearm, believed to be that of his grandfather, was found in his possession.

The boy was in detention and undergoing psychological assessment.

Mamapela said an attempted murder docket had been opened.

“A case of pointing a firearm and attempted murder has been registered for further investigation.”

The boy was expected to appear in the Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court soon.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer has dismissed calls to reintroduce specialised police drug and gang units.

“The successes when it comes to drugs are because every single police officer accepts ownership in the fight against drugs,” he told journalists at the release of the Western Cape’s 2012/13 crime statistics in Cape Town on Friday.

“If we have a specific unit to do that, the ownership goes to that unit alone… we’ve seen it and history has taught us that.”

Lamoer emphasised that specialised investigating units, such as the Hawks and a task team, were analysing “certain trends” in the province.

The latest statistics, for the financial year from April 2012 to March 2013, painted a bleak picture for the Western Cape.

Violent crime, such as murder, assault, and robbery, increased by 10%, and Nyanga in Cape Town was again singled out for its murder rate.

Recently, the national government, the Western Cape government, and the City of Cape Town said they would work together to address the underlying causes of the high crime rate in the area.

“We want to welcome the initiatives from the provincial government in the Nyanga area,” Lamoer said.

“Safety and security can never only be the responsibility of the SA Police Service [SAPS].”

In 2012/13, 262 people were murdered in Nyanga.

Besides Nyanga, four other areas in Cape Town were among the areas with the top 10 highest murder rates in the country.

Khayelitsha had 168 murders, Harare 132, Gugulethu 129, and Delft 113.

The increased crime rates could be ascribed to a “toxic mix” of factors, such as gangsterism, drugs, and domestic violence, he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A mansion in Umhlanga Rocks, north of Durban, owned by the Gupta family was one of several properties raided by police looking for stolen IT stock, The Star newspaper reported on Friday.

A manager at Sahara Computers, also owned by the Guptas, was one of eight people arrested in the raid on Tuesday, according to the report.

The arrests were linked to a plan to scam Cape Town-based IT hardware distributor Syntech out of around R250 000 worth of stock.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson told The Star the eight arrested people appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and were granted bail.

Police Captain Frederick van Wyk reportedly confirmed a case had been opened in Cape Town and those arrested in Durban charged with fraud.

Gupta family spokesperson Gary Naidoo told Sapa on Friday afternoon he would issue a statement on the matter at a later stage.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Two men accused of trying to sell live crocodiles appeared in the Mankweng Regional Court on Friday, Limpopo police said.

The matter would resume on 1 November, said police spokesperson Matimba Maluleke.

In August, the two were granted bail of R1 000 each.

They were arrested after police received a tip-off that two men were selling the reptiles from a house in Ga-Mothapo and pretended to be interested buyers.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) took the crocodiles to a sanctuary.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu celebrates his 82nd birthday next month with a series of charitable events and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will be delivering his annual peace lecture.

On 7 October Annan will follow in the footsteps of Graça Machel and the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan spiritual leader gave his friend’s inaugural birthday lecture via a video link-up, after he was denied a visa to enter SA.

Pretoria has increasingly close ties with Beijing, which considers the Dalai Lama a violent separatist.

Before the speech Tutu will donate a sports field to a Cape Town school, and hand out gifts to the elderly.

The diminutive clergyman will also use the day to spread the message of caring for the environment.

A critic of the ANC, Tutu remains one of the prominent moral authorities of modern-day South Africa.

His wife of 58 years, Leah, will celebrate her 80th birthday on 14 October.

– AFP

Johannesburg – The African National Congress has lodged a complaint against the Mail & Guardian with the Press Ombudsman, the party said on Friday.

ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete submitted the complaint to the ombudsman this week over reporting about her on 6 and 13 September, spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said.

“The ANC supports the national chairperson’s assertion that the Mail & Guardian has deliberately sought to distort and misrepresent information,” he said.

The newspaper reported that mining company Gold Fields “buried” a New York law firm’s finding that a R25m share allocation to Mbete constituted bribery.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is outraged over a Grade 8 pupil’s attack on a teacher at Glenvista High School, her office said on Friday.

“The minister is disturbed by the violent behaviour of a Glenvista learner and would recommend all of those present be given trauma counselling after this violent event,” spokesperson Troy Martens said in a statement.

“This incident must be condemned in the strongest possible terms and the relevant punishment must be meted out.”

A video of the assault, which happened on Wednesday, was captured by a fellow pupil and went viral on Thursday.

The footage shows the pupil unsuccessfully trying to retrieve what looks like a school bag from the teacher at the school, south of Johannesburg.

After failing to get it back, he hits and kicks the teacher, then throws a chair and a broom as the teacher walks out of the classroom.

“The student responsible, together with the other learners who were cheering him on should all be disciplined accordingly,” Martens said.

Violence would not be tolerated in schools, from teachers, pupils, or their parents.

“Corporal punishment is not an option either as this is a form of violence in itself,” Martens said.

Rather, parents and communities needed to share the responsibility of teaching children standards of acceptable behaviour.

“Schools should not be the only place where children are taught morals as this should begin at home.”

The South African Schools Act contained a number of policies around violence in schools, which needed to be implemented at provincial level, she said.

– SAPA