Police commissioner Riah Phiyega is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before the Farlam commission of inquiry into last year’s Marikana shooting in North West.

“She will be called to give evidence on the role played by the South African Police Service on the events that are the subject of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry,” commission spokesman Tshepo Mahlangu said on Tuesday.

Mahlangu said Phiyega would be called by lawyers representing the police.

Phiyega was criticised in August after she said police officers should not be sorry about the shooting, near Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana, which left 34 protesting miners dead.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana. On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered on a hill near the mine.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

Sapa

Ladybrand police in the east of Bloemfontein say they are concerned by the increased incidents of child rape in the area and sentences need to be tougher.

This comes after the Ladybrand Regional Court successfully convicted and sentenced a Lesotho citizen to 20 years imprisonment for the rape of a 15-year-old girl near a dump site in Ladybrand last year. The man was sentenced on Monday.

The girl was walking home from a local primary school in Manyatseng, near Ladybrand with her 11-year-old brother when the incident took place. They were walking along the dump site when they met Motlatsi Sello.

He produced a knife and chased the boy away and later used it to stab the girl in her shoulder. He then undressed the girl and raped her.

Police spokesperson Lt-Col Annelie Wrensch said: “When he was done he went away and left the victim there. She managed to walk home and reported the matter to her mother.

“Cops were called and a rape case was opened.

“Two days after the incident the victim recognised the rapist at one of the neighbouring farms and informed her mother.”

Wrensch said the mother called the police and they immediately arrested Sello.

For more details go to http://www.thenewage.co.za

Rustenburg – The NUM sought to establish on Tuesday how often miner Mzoxolo Magidiwana carried two weapons during a wildcat strike by Lonmin mineworkers last August.

Karel Tip SC, for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), showed the Farlam Commission of Inquiry two video clips where miners were seen singing and waving weapons above their heads.

Tip asked Magidiwana if he saw himself in either of the clips. The miner pointed out that he was in both.

In the second clip, taken on August 16, Tip asked Magidiwana if the “Kill the NUM” song was being sung while miners were “clicking”  two weapons above their heads.

Magidiwana responded: “That is correct. It was only on the 16th (of August) that I had two weapons.”

The commission heard that Magidiwana borrowed the extra weapon from someone also present at the strike to sing the song.

Tip said the striking mineworkers sung the “Kill the NUM” song while Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president Joseph Mathunjwa addressed them on a hill near Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in the North West.

Magidiwana said he could not recall exactly when they sung the song and who was addressing them, but he told Tip he knew the song and offered to sing it to the commission.

Tip said Magidiwana was captured in one of the clips “clapping hands with vigour and enthusiasm” while singing the song.

Magidiwana, speaking through an interpreter, said: “That is correct.”

Dali Mpofu, for the injured and arrested miners, intervened, and  said Tip needed to clarify whether he wanted to establish if it was  on two different occasions or two different video clips.

Mpofu told the commission that Magidiwana said at various times that he had two weapons on only the one occasion.

Magidiwana also again told Tip that he could not recall going to  the hill on August 15.

Terry Motau SC, for Lonmin, started his cross-examination shortly before tea-break.

He sought to establish why and when other Lonmin employees joined the illegal strike by rock drill operators, and said some workers had claimed they were stopped from going to work.

“When did you decide you want Lonmin to pay you R12 500 after deductions?”

Magidiwana responded: “The day all the Lonmin workers decided to  put tools down and demand the money.”

The commission heard that August 10 was the last day Magidiwana

went to work.

Motau continued his cross-examination, asking: “Do you want the commission to believe that on 10 August you had no idea that the R12,500 was already demanded and that Lonmin had already responded to the demand?”

Rustenburg – Police commissioner Riah Phiyega is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into last year’s Marikana shooting.

Commission spokesman Tshepo Mahlangu confirmed on Tuesday that Phiyega would be called by lawyers representing the police.

“She will be called to give evidence on the role played by the SA Police Service on the events that are the subject of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry,” he said in a statement.

Phiyega was criticised in August after she said police officers should not be sorry about the shooting, near Lonmin’s platinum mine  in Marikana, which left 34 protesting miners dead.

“Safety of the public is not negotiable. Don’t be sorry about what happened,” Phiyega was quoted as saying by the Sowetan newspaper on August 20.

Phiyega was speaking at Warrant Officer Sello Ronnie Lepaku’s funeral. He was killed in August, allegedly by protesting Lonmin miners.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana. On August  16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered on a hill near the mine.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

On Tuesday, the commission heard evidence from miner Mzoxolo Magidiwana who was shot and wounded on August 16. Evidence leader, advocate Thantaswa Lupuwana questioned Magidiwana on why he and other miners carried dangerous weapons on the day.

For more details go to www.iol.co.za

Parliament, Cape Town – More than R49 million was spent on consultants involved in building projects at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead, Democratic Alliance MP Anchen Dreyer said on Tuesday.

While the generally-accepted norm for consultants fees in the building industry was “about 18 percent of the total cost of the contract”, those paid at Nkandla where “almost double” this figure, she told MPs in the National Assembly.

“While we know that the total cost for the Nkandla project amounts to R210m, the amounts paid on consultants warrant a closer look… a total of R49.1m was spent on consultants.”

Dreyer said this figure included:

* payment of R2.8m to mechanical engineers Mustapha Cachalia;

* a total of R4.8m paid to two electrical engineering companies, Igoda Projects and CA du Toit;

* R5m to “Ramcon project manager”;

* R6m to structural engineers Ibongho Consulting cc;

* R13.8m to quantity surveyors Ilangalethu Consulting; and,

* R16.6m to Minenhle Makanya Architects.

“In Nkandla, consultant fees constituted 30.4 percent of the total cost of the contract. This raises the question: Why were they paid so far above the industry norm?”

Dreyer called on Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi to table his report on spending at Nkandla “without any further delay”.

Responding in the House, Nxesi said a preliminary investigation into spending at Nkandla had revealed “irregularities”, and investigations, by both the Public Protector and the Special investigating Unit, were underway.

“Honourable Dreyer appears to have more information. Please, come forward with that information, we need it,” he said. – Sapa

Rustenburg – Lonmin platinum mine could have prevented the August 16 Marikana  shooting had it acted sooner, a miner told the Farlam Commission of  Inquiry on Tuesday.

“If your child is hungry and wants food, you take cognisance that the child is hungry. You don’t put the dogs on the child for being hungry,” miner Mzoxolo Magidiwana said in Rustenburg, through  an interpreter.

He told the commission that if Lonmin had told striking mineworkers how much it could afford to pay them, the police would not have shot at strikers on August 16 last year.

Commission chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, asked for clarity  on what Magidiwana meant when he said the employer should have acted sooner.

He replied that action should have been taken before workers decided to go to the hill near Lonmin’s Marikana mine on August 11.

Magidiwana was being cross-examined by Terry Motau SC, for Lonmin.

He said Lonmin did not mention that it could not pay mineworkers  the R12 500 monthly wage they were demanding.

Motau told the commission Lonmin management had already responded to the demand by workers, despite Magidiwana claiming he had heard nothing.

The miner said Lonmin should have talked to strikers.

Motau responded: “Lonmin knew that the 3000 strikers were armed with dangerous weapons…. Is it not unreasonable to expect Lonmin to go and negotiate on the koppie (hill) under those conditions?”

Magidiwana said Lonmin management should have negotiated with workers from the beginning of their industrial action.

They had gone on strike demanding R12 500 a month, but actually wanted “no less than R10 000 after deductions”.

“I would have been happy to receive R20 000, but the strike was,  according to me, to receive something in excess of R10 000.”

Asked about the difference in the salaries of rock drill operators, who initially went on strike, and other mineworkers who later joined, Magidiwana said they earned the same amounts.

He said underground work was difficult and warranted the increase.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana. On August  16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 were injured when  the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered on  a hill near the mine.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

On Tuesday morning, Karel Tip SC, for the National Union of Mineworkers, completed his cross-examination of Magidiwana.

The hearings continue. – Sapa

BY Staff Reporter

The North West Province is to establish technical teams on planning and one on water and sanitation, Premier Thandi Modise announced in her closing reply to the State of the Province Address Debate in the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday.

Premier Modise said that the Provincial Exco Lekgotla had resolved that regional planning meetings should be held to ensure that Integrated Development Plans and Local Economic Developments find proper expression in the provincial plan that part of the rollout of the National Development Plan.

““Making the people of our province to recite the National Development Plan(NDP) without seeing their concerns being addressed would show no foresight,” stressed the Premier in response to a call by COPE Provincial leader Nikiwe Num that people should recite the NDP.

On Num’s criticism that that the State of the Province Address was “too detailed”, Modise questioned whether Num is a leader of a party in opposition should not be holding government to account and representing the people who put her in the provincial legislature.

She said that Num spoke for many voices but failed to represent COPE in the debate.

Kaizer Chiefs defender Jimmy Tau is “comfortable” with the club’s decision to shelve talks over a new contract until he fully recovers from injury.

By Obakeng Maje

Taung-North West Department of Health MEC, Dr. Magome Masike will officially open Taung Hospital’s Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) TB Unit on Friday, 15 March 2013 at 10h00 as part of World TB Commemoration activities. 

“The unit is a component of the Department’s MDR TB decentralisation model that seeks to treat patients next to their home” Tebogo Lekgethwane said. “The opening of the Unit will be followed by a TB Indaba aimed at improving TB treatment outcome and infection control” department spokesperson said. 

The TB Indaba is scheduled to start at 14h00 at Taung Tusk.

Teams of healthcare workers, Directly Observed Therapy Supporters and developmental partners are currently busy with Intensified Tuberculosis (TB) Case Finding in villages around Taung. 

The major component of Intensified TB Case Finding is TB screening and those found to have TB symptoms will be referred to the nearest health facility.

Intensified TB Case Finding has been identified as one of the key priority areas critical to the success of Department’s effort to promote greater community involvement in disease management, community development, and empowerment to deal with own health issues and promote an integrated healthcare management system.

“TB case finding proved to be the most effective method to intensify community education on Tuberculosis, improve treatment adherence of all diagnosed patients, solicit treatment support for all patients on treatment by their immediate family members, and improve TB outcomes when it was piloted in the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District in January 2011” He said.

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