SuperSport United have confirmed that former Platinum Stars mentor Cavin Johnson is their new coach.

The former Platinum Stars coach has signed a three-year deal with Matsatsantsa.

“It’s been a lot of thinking that has gone into this decision,” Johnson says. “There’s hard work ahead for myself. There are a lot of trophies in the cabinet here. I’m here to add to that.”

SuperSport chairman Khulu Sibiya says the club expect Johnson to improve on the second-place finish he achieved with Platinum Stars.

“Choosing Cavin was not a difficult decision. Look what he has done. We want tho develop our own success. Look at what he achieved at Platinum Stars.

“The length of the contract is three years. There’s no pressure but like all teams there is a mandate: Do better than Platinum Stars. You know where Platinum Stars finished, right? Do better than that.”

To which Johnson added: “Maybe in the three years we can win the treble …”

Platinum Stars released a statement yesterday insisting they would not accept Johnson’s resignation, as he still has a contract with the club.

SuperSport director of football Stan Matthews says: “Cavin was available for his signature. So we won’t comment on Cavin’s dispute with Platinum Stars, that’s between Cavin and Platinum Stars.”
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Cape Town – The City of Cape Town has been granted a final interdict against those who interfere with servicing of toilets, Mayor Patricia de Lille said on Wednesday.

The Western Cape High Court made the interim interdict final on Tuesday.

She said the order would ensure that affected communities, especially Kosovo, Kanana, and Barcelona, were given essential services without the obstruction of a few individuals.

The city approached the court last month after groups of people disrupted the servicing of container and portable flush toilets (PFTs).

At the time, former Sannicare janitors responsible for cleaning communal toilets blocked part of the N2 highway with burning tyres and dumped faeces on the road.

They were protesting against being dismissed after demanding that they be paid the equivalent of a 16-hour work day.

Sannicare rejected the demand and said it was against labour legislation.

Some residents of Barcelona and Kanana apparently removed some of the container toilets from the neighbouring informal settlement, Europe, to close down the highway.

An interim interdict was obtained against 89 former Sannicare employees and seven residents of Ward 40, associated with the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

The interim order prohibited the named individuals from interfering with service delivery, city staff, and property.

It also prevented them from blocking any roads into and surrounding the N2, Borchards Quarry, NY108, the R300, Klipfontein Road, Stock Road, Symphony Way, Sheffield Road, and Vanguard Drive.

A second protest took place in the vicinity about a week after the interdict was granted.

Dumping of faeces

In protests against rolling out the PFTs human waste was thrown on the steps of the Western Cape legislature and at provincial Premier Helen Zille’s convoy.

De Lille called on those involved not to do anything illegal.

She appealed to the ANCYL to prevent its members from doing so.

Last week, ANCYL national task team co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe took a tour of the toilets in the Barcelona and Kanana informal settlements.

He explained the political stance on the issue.

“Throughout this saga, the name of the ANCYL has been mentioned and we felt as a task team we must come and summarise the problems of our people and give the necessary support that they need,” he said at the time.

He said the ANCYL distanced itself from faeces throwing, but not from raising poor service delivery.

“We are talking to them that there is a better way that we can employ in raising the plight of our people without having to throw faeces all over the province,” he said.

“If they do not listen to that, we are forced then to look at the internal processes of disciplinary action.”

– SAPA

Pretoria – A mechanic was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Wednesday for killing his 3-year-old son with a pick-axe handle.

“In my view a sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment would be an appropriate sentence for the crime committed,” Judge Nico Coetzee said in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

“Therefore the accused [Vincent Mugwagwa] is sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.”

The court found Mugwagwa, 54, guilty on 3 June.

The court heard he came to the country after losing his job in Zimbabwe in 2010. His wife and four of their nine children later joined him. The other five are still in Zimbabwe.

On June 11 last year his wife accused him of being unfaithful while she was in Zimbabwe. The couple started to argue. He chased her and the children out of the house, and followed them to a neighbour’s house, where he picked up a pick-axe handle and hit his youngest child, Wesley.

“The accused lost his temper and was emotionally unstable at the time he committed the murder,” Coetzee said while handing down sentence.

‘Boy ran to dad’

Describing what happened from the court papers, Coetzee said the 3-year-old boy ran to his father. Mugwagwa hit him on his head several times.

He called an ambulance and reported the incident to police himself. The boy died in hospital three days later.

“He described the incident, saying things got out of hand,” Coetzee said.

During court proceedings earlier this year Mugwagwa said: “I don’t know how it happened. I did not believe it when they told me I was going to be arrested… I don’t have an explanation for what I did that day.”

Coetzee said Mugwagwa’s wife of 29 years, Dorica Chipeta, had forgiven him. She pleaded with the court not to send him to jail because she and the children needed his financial support.

The children were currently not in school because she could not find work.

“His wife had forgiven him for what he had done. She said he was a loving and caring father and husband,” Coetzee said.

“He had a very close relationship with the children and they wanted to see their father. She had forgiven him. The children had forgiven him.”

Mitigating factors

Murder in South Africa would continue and not decrease unless perpetrators were harshly punished, he said.

Mugwagwa’s age, the fact that he was a first offender, and that he showed remorse were taken into account for sentencing, Coetzee said.

Earlier, social worker Yvette van Schalkwyk: “Mr Mugwagwa is not a person who has a pattern of being aggressive.

“If we look at the circumstances at the home, I’ve got great empathy for the mother and the children.”

‘Kids pray with dad’

Van Schalkwyk was presenting a probation officer’s report ahead of sentencing.

She said she conducted a house visit and it was difficult to talk to the children. Chipeta, however, helped her speak to two of their nine children.

“The children enjoy his company and often pray with him,” she said.

“I’ve spoken to the correctional officer. He is illegally in the country, therefore he can’t be placed under correctional supervision… His documents [have] expired.”

Mugwagwa, dressed in black pants, black T-shirt and a dark grey jersey, sat quietly in the dock watching Coetzee and occasionally looking down.

Chipeta sat in the second row of the public gallery and stared blankly ahead.

– SAPA

Kimberley – The DA’s national leader, Helen Zille, was met in Kimberley on Tuesday with sewage of a different kind… this time from a hosepipe after treated effluent water was sprayed by an irate municipal worker in an attempt to dampen a public meeting in the municipal gardens.

The drama unfolded in the Sol Plaatje municipal gardens on Tuesday during events leading up to a visit by Zille.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality mayor Afrika Thale has been suspended from the ANC for three years, the party’s North West provincial disciplinary committee (PDC) said on Wednesday.

“By virtue of his suspension, the respondent (Thale) will no longer be able to represent the applicant (provincial working committee) as the mayor and councillor of the Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality and must accordingly vacate his position,” the PDC said in its ruling.

The muncipality has its seat in Zeerust.

Thale was charged with six counts of misconduct over Rule 25 of the party’s constitution, which relates to management of organisational discipline.

The matter arose when Thale refused to resign as mayor after the provincial working committee (PWC) asked that he do so because he was not the preferred candidate of the provincial executive committee (PEC) or the national executive committee (NEC).

It was common practice in the ANC that the nomination of candidates was agreed upon by the party. It was then subjected to various processes that would culminate in various structures of the party endorsing the final list.

Thale argued he was the municipality’s duly elected candidate and saw no need to heed the PWC’s call.

After he ignored several calls to resign, the PWC wrote him a final notice which he failed to adhere to. The PWC then referred the matter to the PDC.

The PDC said Thale had a right to appeal the decision with the national disciplinary committee. – Sapa

Cape Town artist Zwelethu Mthethwa is at the centre of a police investigation into the murder of a Woodstock woman.

It was reported over the weekend that Mthethwa, 52, a painter and photographer, had been arrested on a murder charge last month.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Labour union, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) at Xstrata’s Steelpoort mine in Limpopo is meeting stakeholders in the Sekhukhune area in a bid to end the stalemate where about 2000 miners were dismissed.

Amcu representatives are, on Wednesday morning, meeting the Tubatse Municipality and traditional leaders.

Workers affiliated to Amcu downed tools at the mine three weeks ago, alleging racism by management.

While the leadership of Amcu is meeting community structures in Burgersfort to seek their intervention, hundreds of dismissed workers are gathered 4 km away from the mine.

They are later expected to meet three traditional leaders who are the owners of the land where the mine is operating to ask them to convince the mine management to reverse its decision.

The strike resulted in the shutdown of three chrome mine shafts.

Management has since obtained a court order instructing the miners to gather 4 km away from the mine.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

A new initiative to find an HIV vaccine has been announced at the South African Aids Conference in Durban.

This 10 year initiative builds on unexpected results from a study in Thailand which found some immune responses from the body to suppress the HI virus.

This new initiative is called ‘Uhambo’, meaning journey. University of the Witwatersrand Aids researcher Dr Glenda Gray says the first step will be to see if South African volunteers show the same response as those in Thailand.

After that, elements of subtype C of the HI virus that is most common in Southern Africa will be inserted in the vaccine and tested.

Various vaccines will be tested over the 10 year period. HIV Trials Network executive Director James Kublin says the first study has just begun and will last till the end of the year.
For more http://www.sabc.co.za

19 June 2013 marks the Centenary of the introduction of the Natives Land Act in 1913. The Act restricted black people to own land in certain territories only and had a shattering impact on communities across the country.

Christelle du Toit reports that land reform remains an emotional issue, with much that remains to be done, but that there are examples of it both working and failing.

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

The Somali Interior Ministry has confirmed that two South Africans are among the 15 people killed in an attack on the United Nations (UN) Compound in Somali’s capital, Mogadishu.

Somalia’s al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab insurgents have claimed responsibility for the attack. It is the first major attack targeting the UN since the agencies started relocating to Mogadishu after a 20-year absence.

The compound, which includes both residential and office areas is a short distance from the airport, which is the base of the African Union troops. The compound is guarded by its own security officers.

The Somali government and the African Union Mission for Somalia have condemned the attacks terming them cowardly and futile attacks. AMISOM says the attacks will not deter the mission’s collective efforts to continue supporting the people of Somalia rebuild their country.

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon condemned the brazen daylight raid as a “senseless and despicable attack on innocent UN civilians”.

Shebab fighters, who boasted about the killings, used both a car bomb and suicide attackers to blast their way into the fortified base in central Mogadishu near the airport.

UN sources said one staff member and two contractors were killed along with at least two Somali security guards, although the nationalities of the foreigners could not be immediately confirmed.

Security warnings of an attack have been in place for weeks, and UN staff regularly practise sheltering in a secure bunker inside the compound.

“Our commandos attacked the UN compound … we set off an explosion and entered the compound,” a senior Shebab official told AFP, saying they entered to attack “the infidel forces.”

Somali and African Union troops later moved into the complex – despite the Islamists battling back with heavy gunfire – to end the hour-and-a-half siege.

“The situation is under control… Somali soldiers along with African Union forces stormed the compound and killed the attackers,” said Somali police official Abdulahi Osman.

He said three civilians were confirmed killed, caught in the crossfire in the streets near the compound.

UN sources said one staff member and two contractors were killed along with at least two Somali security guards, although the nationalities of the foreigners could not be immediately confirmed. – Additional reporting by Sapa-AFP