Johannesburg – A recent diarrhoea outbreak in Bloemhof, North West, that led to the deaths of three babies is being probed, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Friday.

“People in Bloemhof and many other areas are entitled to the right to clean drinking water that is enshrined in our Constitution and in our laws,” it said in a statement.

The organisation recently released a report on sanitation, stating it was unacceptable that apartheid-era spatial geography still negatively affected black, poor and working class people 20 years into democracy.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday contaminated water was the probable cause of the Bloemhof diarrhoea outbreak.

“Considering the nature of the diarrhoea disease, the specific types of E. coli and viruses detected in ill persons, and the extent of the outbreak in the affected community, contaminated drinking water is the likely source of the outbreak,” it said in a statement.

Three children in the area, aged under two years old, have died from diarrhoea, complicated by dehydration.

Since 25 May, over 500 cases of people suffering from diarrhoea have been recorded at health care facilities in Bloemhof.

The NICD ruled out cholera as the cause of the outbreak.

“E. coli bacteria were identified in a number of stool samples tested at Tshepong National Health Laboratory Services, and have been confirmed at the NICD Centre for Enteric Diseases as specific types of E. coli that can cause diarrhoea.”

Various diarrhoea-causing viruses were also identified in the samples.

The municipality has since drained the entire water system and sanitised it.

The NICD said the number of cases of diarrhoea had declined, but there were still more cases reported than usual. This indicated that the outbreak was not yet over.

Residents were advised to make their drinking water safe by boiling it for one minute. Alternatively, one teaspoon of household bleach could be added to 20 litres of water to ensure it was potable.

Earlier on Friday, North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo’s spokesperson, Sam Mokaila, confirmed that Lekwa-Teemane municipal manager Andrew Makwapane had resigned amid the water contamination crisis.

Makwapane was suspended on Monday after a meeting by provincial and municipal leaders.

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Johannesburg – It was the “worst possible thing” to have the IEC connected to any politician, the Electoral Court heard on Friday.

This was the submission of, David Unterhalter, SC, for the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the Congress of the People, Agang SA, and the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Having the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) connected to a politician amounted to a conflict of interest, Unterhalter said.

He was submitting his final arguments to the court sitting in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

The five parties want IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula removed because she did not follow due processes in the procurement of the IEC’s premises in Centurion, Pretoria.

A forensic investigation by the Treasury found that the procurement of the Riverside Office Park was neither fair, transparent, nor cost-effective.

The Treasury investigation followed a recommendation by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in her own investigations into the matter.

Madonsela found Tlakula had a relationship – possibly of a romantic nature – with the chair of Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, Thaba Mufamadi.

He was a shareholder in Abland, which owns the commission’s current premises.

“If you happen to be the CEO of an electoral commission, you can’t be in a business relationship with someone who is a politician,” Unterhalter said.

He said this was a compromised relationship.

‘Honest mistake’

Daniel Berger, SC, for Tlakula has told the court his client had made an “honest mistake”.

He asked the court to take into consideration that she made this mistake while still serving as the IEC’s CEO, not while in her current position.

Berger contended the procurement deal had not affected how she conducted her duties.

Unterhalter argued in response: “Tlakula had a duty to disclose. Just because she didn’t stand to derive financial gain does not make the relationship okay.”

In 2010 the IEC published a document on its tender processes, in which it indicated its staff had been trained in the subject.

This might mean she willingly ignored the procedures, Unterhalter said.

Berger said he was unaware of this and could not argue on it.

Justice Lotter Wepener gave Berger until Tuesday to produce a written submission in reply.

Judgment was reserved.

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Pretoria – The mineral resources department will pull out of negotiations in the platinum wage dispute if parties do not come to an agreement next week, Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Saturday.
“On Monday all the parties [mine bosses and Amcu] will be coming back,” he told reporters in Irene, south of Pretoria.
“I am pulling out on Monday if they do not find each other. If they do not find each other I wish them and South Africa luck.”
Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members at Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum downed tools on January 23 demanding a basic monthly salary of R12 500.
They have so far rejected the companies’ offer that would bring their cash remuneration to R12 500 by July 2017.
The strike has cost the employers R21.2bn in revenue and employees have reportedly lost R9.4bn in earnings.
Last week Ramatlhodi set up a inter-governmental technical team to help resolve the wage dispute.
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Johanensburg – President Jacob Zuma sent condolences to the Mbeki family following the death of their 98-year-old matriarch, Epainette, on Saturday.

“Words are not adequate to explain the sad loss of this mother of our nation,” Zuma said in a statement.

Epainette Mbeki, 98, died in East London, Eastern Cape.

She was the mother of former president Thabo Mbeki and the wife of the late African National Congress and SA Communist Party stalwart Govan Mbeki.

“We wish to express, on behalf of government and all South Africans, our deepest condolences and the nation’s solidarity with the Mbeki family at this hour,” said Zuma.

“May her soul rest in eternal peace.”

The Thabo Mbeki foundation also sent its condolences.

“Gogo Epainette, a humble servant of the people, will be remembered for her selfless dedication to the upliftment on the communities she served,” chairperson of the foundation’s board Dr Brigalia Bam said.

“To gogo Epainette, we say thank you for serving as a shining example of what it means to be a servant leader and may we forever draw our inspiration from the teachings of so gentle a soul.”

National Freedom Party leader and newly appointed Deputy Science and Technology Minister Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi said Mbeki would be remembered as a teacher, community worker and entrepreneur who taught the people in the Eastern Cape how to work for themselves in order to be independent.

“MaMbeki as she was affectionately known will be remembered as an independent thinker, an independent struggle icon who was not afraid to speak her mind,” kaMagwaza-Msibi said.

“Her critical approach to things was a lesson that people of South Africa have to use their minds to think independently but at the same time be constructive when dealing with matters affecting human coexistence and empowerment.”

She said Epainette Mbeki was a role model for all women.

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Cape Town – South Africa’s policy of race-based affirmative action is “killing babies” and must be scrapped, the country’s Institute of Race Relations said Friday.

The institute, which spoke out against racial discrimination under apartheid, said black empowerment policies had seen unqualified people appointed to positions where their incompetence hit poor and vulnerable communities.

It pointed to the deaths of three babies aged between seven and 13 months in Bloemhof in North West province this week, apparently caused by drinking contaminated tap water. Scores of others were also hospitalised.

“The Bloemhof municipality ‘lost its capacity’ to maintain the sewer plant,” the independent think-tank said in a statement quoting its Chief Executive Frans Cronje that accompanied its paper entitled “Killing Babies”.

“There is no doubt that the officials responsible for these deaths were appointed, at least in part, on grounds of race-based affirmative action and that a direct causal link therefore exists between the policy and the deaths.”

Cronje said that in all the commentary on the deaths there was no mention of affirmative action, because that would “cross the barrier of political correctness forced on our country by the ideology of race-based empowerment”.

The governing African National Congress implemented affirmative action when it came to power 20 years ago to redress the injustices of apartheid, under which the black majority were denied access to political and economic power.

But the IRR said the policy had created a “very small black elite” that used the system to perpetuate its own advantage over “the masses of desperately poor people”.

The ideology was “a veil behind which to conceal corruption and incompetence”.

South Africa needs to break down the barrier of political correctness that has shielded affirmative action and talk about alternatives, Cronje said.

These could include Economic Empowerment for the Disadvantaged, a policy being developed by the institute.

“This policy seeks to use socio-economic status to prioritise access to the building blocks of economic advancement, such as education, employment and entrepreneurship.”

Coupled with rapid rates of economic growth, this would allow poor people to pull themselves out of poverty and into the middle classes, the institute said.

Sapa-AFP

Johannesburg – Public servants should not expect bribes, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday.

“Public servants should not expect to be paid a bribe for executing the tasks that they are paid a salary for,” he told delegates at the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) special congress in Benoni, on the East Rand.

He called on them to serve the country with pride and dignity at all times.

“We need to recognise that we wear a badge of honour to serve our people.”

Ramaphosa said a good public service was needed for government to effectively implement the National Development Plan.

“Workers in the public service should work hard and inspire young graduates to take up careers in the public service,” he said.

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Port Elizabeth – An undertaker who ordered staff to saw off the legs of a corpse because it was too tall to fit into a coffin, has appeared in court charged with mutilation.

Ronel Mostert, who ran a funeral parlour in Grahamstown, appeared in Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday after one of her employees blew the lid on a three-year-old secret.

Mostert allegedly ordered staff “to get an angle grinder and cut off the legs” because the 33-year-old “man was too tall to fit into the coffin,” according to court documents.

The employee, Siphamandla Dyasi, claimed the incident had been haunting him and so he decided to come clean.

“I still hear the sound of the angle grinder in my head. I could not take it anymore,” he said in written testimony. “For all these years I have had difficulties sleeping.”

He alleged that Mostert had threatened them with dismissal if he told anyone about incident.

The remains of the man have been exhumed as part of the police investigation. They showed burn marks where the legs had been sawn off.

Police told AFP more allegations of corpse mutilation at Mostert’s Siyakubonga Funeral Services had surfaced since the case began last month.

The case has been postponed until June 27 for further investigation.

Sapa-AFP