Johannesburg – Sunday Independent editor Moshoeshoe Monare has resigned.

The resignation was confirmed by The Star’s editor Makhudu Sefara, IOL reported on Thursday.

According to the report, Monare said his resignation was for personal reasons.

Monare tendered his resignation on Tuesday and will be leaving Independent Newspapers at the end of this month, the company’s CEO Tony Howard said in a statement on Thursday.

Monare was in the same statement quoted as saying: “The past ten years have provided me with enormous professional opportunities and personal growth. It was a decade well spent, and a privilege to have worked with outstanding and extraordinary men and women of Independent Newspapers.”

Upheavals

The Independent Group has been rocked by a number of upheavals in recent months.

Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois was allegedly dismissed on 6 December over her decision to cover former president Nelson Mandela’s death as a wraparound supplement. This was published on the same day the newspaper ran a story which painted its newspaper group shareholder Sekunjalo in a negative light.

Independent News and Media SA (INMSA) chair Iqbal Surve said the move formed part of a strategy aimed at arresting poor sales figures.

“Ms Dasnois was not fired,” Surve said in a statement.

Dasnois, however, has said she was “unfairly dismissed”.

Financial journalist Ann Crotty resigned from the Independent Group’s financial daily, the Business Report this week and longtime labour columnist Terry Bell’s column was suspended in January.-News24

Johannesburg – Media coverage by Zulu news programmes were more critical of paralympian Oscar Pistorius than other language groups, research company Media Tenor said on Thursday.

“[The tone] received from Zulu TV seemed to be a lot more critical at 82% compared to other TV news reports, thus moulding the public’s perception that Pistorius was probably guilty,” principal researcher Ludene Brown said in a statement.

Sotho news programmes were 30% critical of Pistorius and Afrikaans news was 29% critical of him.

“Many convicted killers do not get close to this level of negative coverage,” said Brown.

“It is unprecedented.”

Pistorius is accused of killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February last year.

TV coverage of Reeva skyrockets

Brown said the media likened Pistorius to fallen heroes such as philanderer Tiger Woods, murder accused OJ Simpson, and substance abuser Lance Armstrong, showing that “the media was already pillorying [him]”.

Media Tenor said television coverage of Steenkamp skyrocketed after her death.

“Steenkamp was a lesser known model and TV personality prior to her death,” co-researcher Minnette Nieuwoudt said.

“Her media presence skyrocketed after her untimely demise.”

The only positive outcome of her murder was that domestic violence in South Africa was highlighted, Nieuwoudt said.

Nieuwoudt said 105 968 television reports on six news programmes were monitored last year in Media Tenor’s research.

Percentages were based on news programmes in specific language groups.

Media Tenor said its data supported reports that Pistorius was given a trial by media.
– SAPA

Johannesburg – Eastern Cape police were on Thursday searching for three men who allegedly set a car alight and burned themselves in the process in Kwalanga near Uitenhage.

The car was torched on Wednesday evening in Limekaya Street, said Warrant Officer Basil Seekoei.
It was allegedly set alight by three men travelling in a white Polo Playa.

“It’s further alleged that the men set themselves alight but managed to flee from the scene.”

The owner of the burned vehicle was apparently the uncle of one of the three men.

Police were investigation a case of malicious damage to property, said Seekoei.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Two men accused of attacking advocate Dali Mpofu told the East London Regional Court it was not a robbery but a struggle over pants, the Sowetan reported on Thursday.

Mpofu was stabbed on a beach in East London in April last year. Accused Chuma Komeni and Thulani Simon both pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

Sivuyile Ntlonze, for the accused, said his clients stabbed Mpofu in self-defence.

Ntlonze said Komeni was relieving himself in the bush when Simon walked down to the beach to get sea water to use as a laxative.

He saw a pair of pants lying unattended and walked over to it. Mpofu then appeared from the bushes.

Komeni went to help his friend when Mpofu assaulted him, said Ntlonze. When the assault got serious, Komeni stabbed Mpofu with a nail clipper.

Mpofu reportedly said this was a lie as he was stabbed with knives.

Mpofu said he sitting on the sand dunes at the beach. When he realised the sand was wet, he took off his pants and placed them next to him.

It was then that the assault ensued.

– SAPA

Moretele – Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema scolded the police on Wednesday for shooting at protesters.

He told a crowd outside the Moretele local municipal offices in North West that no one would stop them from protesting.

“I was told by EFF officials in North West that you would be marching. They said the officers here are used to killing people and we have come to join you so that they may kill us also,” Malema said.
For more http://www.news24.com

Johannesburg – There was no point to the DA’s march for “real jobs” on Wednesday, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said.

“We are going to have to stand our ground every time the DA wants to do something ridiculous, illogical and silly,” she told reporters after the DA’s march.

The Democratic Alliance’s march for “real jobs” started at the Westgate transport hub in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning and was supposed to end at Beyers Naude square, about a block from the African National Congress’s headquarters Luthuli House.

However, the procession was cut short when police stopped the DA at the corner of Marshall and Rissik streets and told them it was too dangerous to continue.

A short while later, a group of people wearing ANC attire ran towards the marchers and police fired stun grenades at them. On Miriam Makeba Street, a group, also dressed in ANC attire, threw petrol bombs at police.

Duarte said the DA came to Johannesburg looking for a confrontation.

“They meant to be confrontational. They took the undemocratic process of marching to another political party.”

If any other political party decided to march to the ANC’s headquarters it would get the same response, Duarte said.

The ANC admitted some of its members were carrying sticks and stones, but said party officials confiscated these.

Four people wearing ANC T-shirts were arrested for public violence.

Colonel Katlego Mogale said people became violent when DA supporters arrived in Rissik Street and police officers were stoned and petrol bombed.

Despite this, no injuries were reported, she said.

“If there are members arrested we want to know who they are, and if they are members we will take action,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said.

– SAPA

Pic: (By Obakeng Maje)
Pretoria – Financially embattled EFF leader Julius Malema will make it to Parliament after the elections, his party vowed on Thursday.

Several strategies were being implemented, including legal processes, to prevent Malema’s sequestration, Economic Freedom Fighters spokesperson Mpho Ramakatsa said in Pretoria.

“The legal work to prevent the sequestration includes lodging an appeal to set aside an admission of a R16m tax bill which Sars [the SA Revenue Service] tricked him [Malema] to sign on the basis that an agreement will be reached.

“The debt owed to Sars by a trust linked to Julius Malema is not R16m, but R4m. Sars ballooned this with 50% interest and 200% penalties,” Ramakatsa told a media briefing.

He said “misleading claims” were being spread by Sars and the media saying that Malema would not be able to assume public office after the May general elections.

“Commander in chief Julius Malema will form part of the EFF commissars, organisers, and fighters who will be sworn in as members of Parliament and provincial legislatures immediately after May 7.”

Ramakatsa added: “Concerned South Africans” had offered to establish a fundraising mechanism to cover the debt, should the legal challenges falter.

“An independent trust, with an independent board of trustees and operational autonomy, will therefore be set up and announced to deal with issues relating to fundraising that will prevent the [final] sequestration in case the legal processes do not succeed.

“Thousands of South Africans have contacted the EFF offering to donate and contribute money to the commander in chief, which will help prevent the sequestration.”

Malema was provisionally sequestrated by the North Gauteng High Court on Monday.

A draft order was signed and made an order of the court.

Malema and anyone else who does not want the order to be made final has until 10:00 on 26 May to give reasons as to why this should not happen.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A police constable was jailed for 24 years by the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday for killing a colleague, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate said.

The court – sitting in Palm Ridge on the East Rand – sentenced Constable Benson Lwayiphi Lufele to 18 years for murder and six years for attempted murder, said IPID national spokesperson Moses Dlamini.

“The sentence follows the accused’s conviction by the same court in December 2013,” said Dlamini.

Lufele, 35, killed 48-year-old Captain Mthembeni Walter Sibisi, while they were both off duty, on 19 August 2012.

Lufele was driving his private vehicle along Enoch Sontonga street in Katlehong on the East Rand. Sibisi was driving with his son along the same street in his private vehicle at the time.

The two vehicles then collided at an intersection, which led to an argument between the policemen.

Both men were unaware that they were both policemen at the time, said Dlamini.

Lufele allegedly shot Sibisi in the leg and when Sibisi tried to take away Lufele’s car keys, he fired multiple shots at Sibisi.

Sibisi died at the scene, said Dlamini.

SAPA