A meeting of Parliament’s joint Standing Committee on Defence on Thursday was an internationally embarrassing disgrace, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said.

DA MP David Maynier said in a statement: “The fact is that today the committee was a national and international embarrassment.”

He claimed committee chairperson Jerome Maake had tried to make sure difficult questions about the deployment of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) were suppressed.

“This was clearly an attempt by the ANC’s chief whip, Mathole Motshekga, who was also ominously present at the meeting, to politically manage the ‘CAR situation’ in Parliament.”  Maynier said the committee did not have the capacity to properly investigate the SANDF deployment to CAR.

On March 23, 13 South African soldiers were killed and 27 wounded when Seleka rebel fighters attacked them near the CAR’s capital Bangui. Earlier, the Freedom Front Plus claimed an admission that South African troops were not prepared for attack in the CAR meant government had failed them.

“The acknowledgement by the Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, that the national defence force had neither been prepared for or expected the rebels to attack them in the CAR, confirms that the government had failed the defence force,” FF Plus  MP Pieter Groenewald said in a statement.

“Through this, the Minister acknowledges that there was insufficient support and in particular insufficient information support for the troops in the CAR.” This was after Mapisa-Nqakula conceded South African troops were not prepared to deal with an attack in the CAR. She suggested there were questions about the military intelligence provided to soldiers on the front-line.

“We never deployed to the CAR to wage a battle. We never anticipated a battle.” Groenewald said there were serious questions to be asked about military intelligence’s capability.

“One of these is how the Minister and President Jacob Zuma were incorrectly advised before the decision was taken to send troops to the CAR. The information was clearly not accurate and military intelligence has to take the responsibility for this,” he said.

BAINGUI – The rebel leader who seized power in Central African Republic and proclaimed himself president accepted on Thursday a call by regional leaders to speed up a transition to democracy, but could stay in office, his information minister said.

Michel Djotodia led thousands of rebel fighters of the Seleka coalition into the riverside capital of the mineral-rich country on March 24, toppling President Francois Bozize.

CARLIFORNIA – Facebook Inc unveiled “Home” softwareon Thursday to place the world’s social network front and centre on Android users’ smartphones, a move that may divert users from Google Inc services and steal some of its rival’s momentum in the fast-growing mobile arena.

Its new family of apps will let users display mobile versions of their newsfeed and messages prominently on the home screens of a wide range of devices based on Google’s Android operating system, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters.

Shares in Facebook climbed 2 percent to $26.83 (17.6 pounds) in the afternoon. Google stock was off 1.5 percent at $793.81.

“Why do we need to go into those apps in the first place to see what’s going on with those we care about?” Zuckerberg told the hundreds of reporters and industry executives gathered at Facebook’s Menlo Park campus.

“We want to bring all this content to the front.”

Facebook executives showed a new “chatheads” messaging service and “coverfeed” — both of which dominate users’ home screens and continuously feed messages, photos, status updates and other content from Facebook’s network.

“Home” brings the competition between the two Web superpowers to the mobile front, which is becoming many consumers’ primary conduit to the Internet. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, and Google, the dominant Internet search engine, are locked in battle for Internet users’ time online and for advertising dollars.

For Facebook, bolstering its mobile presence is critical. Nearly 70 percent of Facebook members used mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to access its service at the end of 2012, and 157 million of Facebook’s roughly 1 billion users accessed the service solely on a mobile device.

The company has stepped up efforts to ensure that its revenue-generating ads can be viewed on mobile devices and Zuckerberg has said that the company’s engineers are now focused on creating “mobile-first experiences.”

Reports that Facebook was developing its own smartphone have sporadically appeared for years though Zuckerberg has shot them one down, saying that building a Facebook phone would be “the wrong strategy.”

With specialized software that adds a layer on top of Android, Facebook may get many of the benefits of having its own phone without the costs and risks of actually building a hardware device.

Singapore – Three Lebanese soccer referees were charged Thursday for receiving sexual bribes in exchange for fixing a match in Singapore, the government’s anti-corruption bureau said.

Referee Ali Sabbagh, and assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb, were charged before a district court for “corruptly” receiving sexual gratification “as an inducement” to fix the match they were to officiate Wednesday, court documents showed.

The charge sheets said the three committed an offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The three had been due to officiate in Tampines Rovers’ AFC Cup fixture with East Bengal when they were abruptly dropped and questioned by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

Replacement officials were brought in for the game, which was won 4-2 by the Indian team.

CPIB said in a statement Thursday they had acted on “prior information of match fixing” involving the three referees.

“Subsequent investigations revealed that the trio corruptly received gratification… in the form of free sexual service from three females,” the CPIB said in a statement.

“Singapore has always adopted a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore,” it said.

The CPIB added that it “investigates into match-fixing through bribery cases and will not hesitate to take action against any parties involved if they had given or received bribes to fix a match”.

Singapore has a long record of match-fixing scandals and criminals from the tiny but wealthy Southeast Asian country have been blamed by Europol for orchestrating an international network responsible for rigging hundreds of games worldwide.

In February, Singapore came under pressure to act against the cartels, whose activities fuel illegal gambling estimated to be worth billions of dollars, when the head of Interpol called for the arrest of an alleged ringleader.

Singapore police later said the suspect, Tan Seet Eng or Dan Tan, was assisting investigations, but he was not arrested or charged with any crime. – Sapa-AFP

Cape Town – Questions remained on why South African troops were singled out, apparently by rebels, in the Central African Republic, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday.

Briefing Parliament’s standing committee on defence, she conceded South African troops were not prepared to deal with an attack in CAR, which left 13 SA National Defence Force soldiers dead.

Both the minister and a SANDF lieutenant-general hinted at a third force at play during the clash on March 23.

“We were not equipped in a way that will be able to repel that kind of battle. We never deployed to the CAR to wage a battle. We never anticipated (a battle),” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

The minister said the troops had been well aware of rebels outside the CAR capital Bangui who wanted to take over power in that country. However, there were still many unanswered questions.

“I’m still wondering how we lost it there, what happened.”

The SANDF troops were equipped and had the necessary armoury to deal with the rebels they expected to encounter. But rebels were armed with mortars and heavy-calibre weapons.

“I think that is what we did not anticipate, that the kind of rebel you would end up protecting yourself from is the kind of rebel which will come in heavy vehicles and will have high-calibre machinery,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

She could not respond to opposition party MP’s concerns on why military intelligence had provided the wrong information to troops. The minister said there was a “phenomenon” they could not identify which was playing itself out in Africa.

“If you anticipate a rebel army of about 400 to 500 and suddenly on the day you are confronted by this rebel grouping, you suddenly find thousands of people who can’t even speak the language of the local community there, that should worry us.”

Mapisa-Nqakula said the same “phenomenon” had been present during fighting in other countries, such as Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo, meaning there was cause for alarm.

“As South Africans, because of where CAR is, the strategic nature of its location, it’s something that should worry us.”

The minister’s claim of a third force was backed up by Lt-Gen Derrick Mgwebi, who told MPs SANDF analysis had showed the level of training of rebels and the equipment at their disposal. But, what soldiers were confronted with were groups not part of the Seleka rebels. He went as far as insinuating the attackers were not even from the CAR.

“You look at the uniforms, you look at the boots, you look at the level of equipment they have and you look at the speed at which they move, you realise who you are confronted with.”

Mgwebi would not identify where the opposing troops came from, but indicated he knew.

“The type of uniform… can give one an indication which areas within that region they are coming from,” he said.

As soon as soldiers were ambushed the SANDF was forced to increase its level of readiness and reconfigure its troops.

“If we didn’t, we could have probably been in a worse situation than we were.”

Mgwebi said of the 27 wounded in battle, 18 had already been discharged from hospital. Of those still in hospital, one was in a critical condition.

Mapisa-Nqakula later denied troops were deployed to protect assets of individuals and companies connected to the African National Congress.

“The story doing the rounds, that’s in the Mail and Guardian, about assets of individuals which really have nothing to do with what the defence force was doing in the CAR.”

She insisted troops were protecting military assets, which included 27 vehicles sent to the CAR in December last year.

Mapisa-Nqakula sprang to the defence of SANDF soldiers who reportedly shot dead child soldiers. She said this was not inhumane, as SANDF troops were forced to defend themselves against armed children.

“We are not expecting our soldiers to blow kisses at them.”

Some of the troops in the CAR had already returned home. Mapisa-Nqakula refused to divulge details about when other troops would arrive home, insisting it was an operational matter.

On Wednesday, President Jacob Zuma announced South Africa would withdraw its troops from the country.

Earlier this week, ousted CAR president Francois Bozize accused Chadian special forces of helping remove him from office, also indicating they were responsible for the attack on South African troops. – Sapa

Bafana Bafana midfielder Dean Furman has fully recovered from the injuries that he sustained in South Africa’s boisterous 2-0 win over Central African Republic (CAR) in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The match was played in Cape Town last month.

The England-based midfielder was taken off late in the first half after sustaining a gash above his eye and on the nose. He was immediately rushed to hospital where he underwent further tests.

Although results of the scan came back positive, showing no broken bones, there were concerns that the wounds would take time to heal.

But the hard tackling midfielder has since put that injury behind him, playing a key role for his League One club, Doncaster Rovers, which is fighting for promotion into the English Championship. He came on at half-time in their 1-0 defeat to Coventry last Friday, and then made his first start in a 1-0 home win over Swindon that took his side to the summit of the standings.

“I have fully recovered and in very good condition. There are still some scars to show from that memorable battleground but I am very fine now. 

“It was very painful at the time but I still wanted to go back to the field to play but I had problems with my vision so I could not continue. Fortunately the lads won the match which is good. But as for me I am now 100 percent good and would like to thank everyone for the support,” said Furman from his base in England.

“My family were there in Cape Town to support me and the boys; and that makes one feel great. Some of them flew from England to come watch the match. And to the people of Cape Town, I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for the great atmosphere that led to our victory.”

After three matches, South Africa is second in Group A with five points; two behind leaders Ethiopia, CAR is third with three points while Botswana is bottom of the table with a single point. 

Furman believes the top spot is there for the taking following victory over CAR.

“We are still there and we know it’s going to be difficult but getting that win over CAR was important for our course. Now we need to take that confidence into the next game to keep the momentum going. We have come a long way and we need to keep up the fight and do well in the next two away games against CAR and Ethiopia,” said the midfielder. 

He is concerned though with the situation in CAR where South Africa are scheduled to play in June but thinks that is for the administrators to solve rather than players.

On club matters, Furman is confident that Doncaster will be promoted but cautioned against losing focus with just five matches remaining in the league race in which two top teams get automatic promotion.

“It’s going to be a tight finish so it’s important that we keep focussed and keep fighting all the way. The number one priority is gaining promotion but winning the League One title would make it all more special,” said Furman, who is on loan at Rovers from Oldham Athletic.

“At the moment the focus is not my future, we have to finish the league first before I can sit down with the club and discuss my future. It is not about me now, but about the club and the mission at hand.”

Rovers are currently on 75 points, two ahead of second-placed AFC Bournemouth. Brentford is third on 70, followed by Sheffield United on 69 and Swindon Town on 68.

On Saturday Rovers will face Tranmere and the Carlisle United on Tuesday.

Durban – Two men are alleged to have beaten another man to death because of his bad manners, a prosecutor told the Durban Magistrate’s court on Thursday.

Prosecutor Blackie Swart said Mduduzi Sithole, 24, and Sanele Ngema, 22, were enraged when Sithiwe Akhona, 29, entered a room of the house where the three lived in Durban’s Sea Cow Lake area without knocking on the door.

They proceeded to beat him.

Swart said witnesses told police that Akhona fled, but the two caught him and dragged him back to the room, beat him further and then left him.

He died from his injuries on March 30.

The two were granted bail of R3 000 each. – Sapa

Cape Town – Police have backed down from threats to arrest journalists and seize computers from the Daily Voice newsroom.

On Wednesday last week, eight Mitchells Plain-based officers – led by Warrant Officer Morne Jackson – burst into the Daily Voice’s offices and demanded all records and computer equipment relating to a story they published last month.

The story was about two pupils who were filmed having sex in the back of a classroom during school hours.

The officers were armed with a search warrant and came to take away the newspaper’s computers.

This action would have effectively shut down the paper.

Top Daily Voice legal eagles Jacques Louw and Leroy Vilet swung into action and obtained a High Court order to suspend the warrant.

And this week, the State confirmed it would not now be proceeding with the warrant.

“This is a victory for freedom of speech – and common sense,” says Daily Voice editor Shane Doran.

“If the warrant was executed, this reckless and unconstitutional act could have shut down this newspaper and threatened the livelihoods of all our journalists.

“It went entirely against the rights enshrined in Section 16 of the constitution and was a complete waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

“This was a blatant attempt to kill the messenger and bully the Daily Voice – but it was also an unlawful act that had no justification in law.”

On March 16, the Daily Voice published a front page story headlined: “Sex in class video.”

The story was based on cellphone footage – sent to the paper by a concerned parent – of two pupils having sex in the back of a classroom.

The footage was filmed by a third student.

The Daily Voice immediately handed the footage over to the Western Cape Education Department, who launched their own investigation into the incident.

It subsequently emerged the video was filmed last May and had gone viral among students on the Cape Flats.

The three students have been charged under the Film and Publication Act, but a decision to prosecute the three has still not been made.

Daily Voice