Johannesburg – The Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Act was published in the Government Gazette on Thursday, the presidency said.

The act, also known as the electronic tolling bill, was signed into law by President Jacob Zuma. 

“The President signed the Bill into law on Saturday, 21 September before departing for the United States of America to attend the 68th United Nations General Assembly Session.”

The announcement was made on Wednesday. 

On the same day, Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) Judge Fritz Brand reserved judgment on whether the tolling of Gauteng’s freeways should be reviewed.

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance brought the appeal in its challenge against the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), the transport minister, and the Treasury.

In April 2012, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted Outa an interdict approving a full judicial review before electronic tolling could be implemented. The interdict prevented Sanral from levying or collecting e-tolls, pending the outcome of a review.

In September last year, the Constitutional Court set aside the interim order, and in December, the High Court in Pretoria dismissed the application.

The court granted Outa leave on January 25 to take the matter to the SCA in Bloemfontein.

Sapa

East London – Seventeen men have been jailed for various sexual offences in the Eastern Cape, police said on Thursday.

The sentences were all handed down last week, spokesperson Thulani Mbambala said.

The suspects were aged between 17 and 88.

One of the culprits, 88-year-old Ntakopo Desi from Lusikisiki, was given a 10-year prison term for the rape of a 72-year-old woman.

In another case 48-year-old Mbulelo Ntapo from Butterworth was given a 10-year jail sentence for the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Lungile Ndululo, 37, from Grahamstown was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping a 42-year-old woman.

SAPA

Pic:(By Obakeng Maje)

Pretoria – Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Thursday ignored a Unisa management decision to cancel his talk at the campus on land distribution, and addressed students outside the hall instead.

“It was an irresponsible act by management to cancel after we had been granted permission. We came here and defied them,” Malema said outside the University of SA’s (Unisa) Theo van Wyk building in Pretoria.

He said the cancellation was due to threats by members of the SA Students’ Congress (Sasco) to interrupt proceedings.

Members of both organisations insulted each other and a scuffle resulted in Sasco members being injured.

Malema encouraged his supporters to “protect meetings”.

“You must manhandle them if there is a need. Never behave like cowards. Protect meetings, do whatever it takes to ensure [the] meeting goes ahead,” he said with a loud-hailer.

Provoking members

National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) Unisa chair Ntsako Nombelani accused the EFF of provoking members of Nehawu and Sasco.

He said he did not understand how the meeting had gone ahead following communication with the institution’s management about the cancellation.

“We were told yesterday [Wednesday] that the event was cancelled because the people who invited them no longer met the bargaining threshold,” he said.

Nombelani said they would be laying charges against the EFF.

Unisa SRC president Brian Mphahlele accused Malema of destabilising learning and not having the best interests of students at heart.

Sasco’s Unisa chair Solly Nkuna said earlier only registered students would be allowed into the ZK Matthews Hall, where Malema had been expected to speak.

“We have vowed to disrupt any talk given by Malema,” said Nkuna.

“We took a position that non-students are not going to enter or participate. We will destabilise everything until such a point that students are the only ones left inside [the hall].”

Former ANC members

He accused university management of turning Unisa into a platform for unhappy former ANC members.

Malema, the ANC Youth League’s former leader, was expelled from the party in 2012.

“We realise that Unisa, instead of being an institute of learning, is becoming a platform for those expelled from the ANC,” Nkuna said.

Nkuna said Sasco had a duty to protect the “rainbow nation” and would not support an organisation that wanted to forcefully grab land.

“The issue must be addressed accordingly. We can’t allow our country to become like Zimbabwe,” he said.

“We won’t support Malema as he talks about grabbing land from the whites.”

EFF supporters sang: “One Zuma, one idiot”, while holding their hands above their heads to represent a showerhead.

“Malema is coming” and “Julius sent us because we are not afraid”, they sang.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A 9m-high statue of former president Nelson Mandela will be erected at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday.

“The Union Buildings has for many years been a symbol of white minority domination,” he said in Johannesburg.

The statue of Mandela, who remained an “enduring symbol of our struggle for freedom, democracy, dignity, and equality”, would be unveiled by President Jacob Zuma on 16 December.

The bronze-plated statue was being created by sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren. Prinsloo said the project had been a life-long dream.

He spoke about the difficulties of capturing Mandela’s image and decisions that had to be made on the pose, expression, and age the statue would depict.

“We decided we would give him a smile,” Prinsloo said.

The statue would capture Mandela as he looked about 10 years after his election as South Africa’s first democratic president.

Prinsloo demonstrated the pose the statue would assume, arms outstretched and one foot slightly forward.

The pose intended to convey “how he embraces the nation”, Prinsloo said.

Transporting the statue

The R8m statue would be transported in four sections on a flat-bed truck and assembled on the lawns of the Union Buildings.

It had to be completed by 9 December to be ready for unveiling on 16 December, Reconcilliation Day.

The statue would be 3m taller than the 6m-high Mandela statue at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Mashatile said the statue was part of efforts to establish new symbols to reflect the collective aspirations of South Africans.

“We once more take this opportunity to wish Tata Madiba well as he recovers at his home,” he said.

Thursday marked the 26th day since Mandela was discharged from a Pretoria hospital, where he spent nearly three months being treated for a recurring lung infection.

President Jacob Zuma said in a speech released on Wednesday that Mandela was responding to treatment while convalescing at his Houghton home.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Danny Jordaan and “Shoes” Mazibuko will go toe-to-toe on Saturday in a bid to succeed outgoing SA Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani.

“This is an ironical twist to the elections,” said Nematandani, who has no chance of being re-elected because he did not receive any nominations from the 52 Safa regional associations.

“I cannot deny a pang of disappointment over the turn of events. My objective when I took over as president was to unite the opposing factions that exist in South African soccer and I never wavered on this principle.

“But the job is only half done. Now, it would seem, divisions are again set to escalate. Administrators like Danny [Jordaan] and Shoes [Mazibuko] are both needed in the soccer set-up and should be working together. Not fighting each other for power.”

Mazibuko piloted Nematandani into the post of Safa president four years ago.

Apparently disillusioned by the Transformation Forum group in which Jordaan and Mazibuko were at one time both prominent influences, Mazibuko and a sizeable wing of the organisation became disillusioned with its objectives.

They courted PSL chairman and Orlando Pirates boss Irvin “The Iron Duke” Khoza to stand as a powerful candidate for the Safa presidency.

The move, however, was stymied by the disclosure of a resolution in the Safa constitution that prevents a club owner from becoming president of the national association.

Attempts to scrap the ruling faltered over the fact that it required a two-thirds majority among the Safa regions.

Mazibuko was then launched as the candidate to oppose Jordaan and the existing supporters within the Transformation Forum.

A big question now regarding Saturday’s crucial election centres round whether the considerable support that would have gone Khoza’s way will now align itself to Mazibuko.

Meanwhile, the 55-year-old Nematandani said that after 25 years of service to various segments within the Safa organisation, he did not intend to back out of the soccer set-up.

“Soccer is a significant part of my life and this is not going to change now.

“I will be ready to serve Safa, Caf, and Fifa wherever required.”

SAPA

Cape Town – More than 100 complaints of sexual misconduct were laid against teachers last year, according to the SA Council for Educators [Sace]. 

In its 2012/13 annual report, tabled at Parliament on Thursday, the council said it received a total of 556 complaints for various “alleged offences or breaches” between 1 April last year and 30 March this year.

Of these, 104 were for “sexual misconduct, including rape”.

The council was established in terms of the Sace Act. According to this legislation, no person is allowed to practise as a teacher in South Africa unless he or she is registered with the council.

Other categories of offences listed in the annual report, including the number of such complaints laid against teachers, are:

– Verbal abuse, victimisation, harassment and defamation: 83;

– Fraud, theft and financial mismanagement: 65;

– Racism: two;

– Corporal punishment and assault: 182;

– Unprofessional conduct, alcohol abuse, absenteeism and insubordination: 115;

– Negligence: nil; and,

– Murder: two.

27 teachers struck off roll

The council said 319 of the total 556 cases were “finalised in forms other than disciplinary hearings”.

A total of 57 disciplinary cases were finalised over the 12-month period.

According to the report, 27 teachers were struck off the council’s roll of educators indefinitely.

Yet another was struck off, but may re-apply after a certain period, and a further 28 were struck off, but the striking off was suspended for a certain period.

On the number of appeals received from those struck off, eight were from those struck off the roll indefinitely for sexual offences.

Of the eight, five were finalised and the appeals dismissed. The other three appeals had been postponed.

On dealing with abuse of pupils by teachers, the council said one of the biggest problems was the general lack of co-operation by the parents of the abused children.

Parents’ responsibility

Parents had refused council officials’ access to the abused children.

“In some case, the abusers would end up being referred to ‘as sons-in-law’,” the report states.

This practice had negatively affected the council’s operations.

“[E]ach year we have a lot of sexual abuse cases that are being carried over into the next financial year because they could not be closed.”

It said the battle against the abuse of pupils would not be won “until such time that parents take the responsibility to protect their children and to support the Sace cause”.

SAPA

By TDN

Mahikeng-The process towards the development of a Provincial Teacher Development

Institute to provide continous professional development to teachers has commenced in earnest and is expected to gain momentum with the recent

endorsement it has received from the Provincial Executive Council (Exco).

A R7million project for the renovation of the former Tlhabane College of Education to serve as a site for the establishment of the institute to be supported by 33 District Teachers Centres to serve as local support sites for teachers across the province is in the pipeline.

The site was identified by the Provincial Department of Education as the most suitable as it has enough space for future developments. In addition,the existing buildings used by the former college has hundred and twenty rooms for residence and a number of offices that will as residential facilities and house offices of professional teacher development officials and other relevant staff for the envisaged institute.

The other contributing factor that makes the site ideal is that it is a government property and therefore no cost will be incurred to purchase the property.

“The contribution of all stakeholders in the education sector and the role that the institute and the district centres will play towards meeting the development needs of our teachers through qualification based programmes will go a long way towards improving the quality of our public education system and overall performance that should translate into excellence” said Premier Thandi Modise.

The move to establish the institute follows the Teacher Development Summit that was held in June-July 2009 which laid the basis for a new,

strengthened, and integrated National Plan for teacher development.

The summit itself was inspired by the move to improve the ailing teacher development and training that the post 1994 democratic government

inherited.

The inherited system was characterised by poor teacher education Development and limited or lack of opportunities for quality teacher education, mismatch between demand and production, fragmented approach to

teacher education, and inefficient and poorly monitored funding mechanisms.-TDN

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North West-The Provincial Planning Commission in the Office of the Premier of the North West will kick start its series of workshops throughout the province on capacity building and population integration  for implementation of the National Development Plan with a two-day workshop that commences at the

Rustenburg Civic Centre today.

The purpose of the workshops coordinated by the Provincial Population Unit within the Planning Commission and the National Population Unit in the Department of Social Development is to support Departments and Municipalities to integrate population factors into their policies and strategic plan as part of implementation of the National Development Plan

(NDP).

“It is critical for stakeholders to have a comprehensive understanding of the salient features of the NDP for them to integrate their plans as it constitutes the new fundamental basis to reconstruct our society and improve the quality of services to the people. It is a strategic framework to build capacity in the state to address the triple challenges of poverty,

inequality and unemployment in South Africa in general and in our province in particular. With the NDP we intend to create an inclusive society,

consolidate democracy and ensure sustainable development,” says Premier Thandi Modise.

Premier Modise said that the province will intensify its effort to involve civil society in the roll out of the implementation plan and has thus far engaged traditional leaders and the business sector in its extensive

consultation programme.

Stakeholders invited for the workshop aimed at also addressing demographic

gaps in government plans and programmes include Heads of provincial government Departments, municipal managers, public participation officers and faith based organizations.-TDN

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By Obakeng Maje

Galeshewe-Northern Cape police are investigating a business robbery case, following

an incident whereby a business was robbed on Tuesday morning. “It is alleged that the complainant was busy opening the shop for business in Kelotlhoko Street and Africa in Galeshewe when more than three suspects attacked” lieutenant Donald Mdhluli said. 

Mdhluli said it is alleged that these suspects were having

knives and firearm(s). 

Reports also indicate that the suspects fled with undisclosed amount of money, cell phones, as well as meat (as the owner has a butchery section in his business). No arrests were made yet.-TDN

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Efforts to improve Doctor patient contact in the North West Province received a major potential boost with announcement by Health MEC Dr. Magome Masike that the province will this year send 180 students to study medicine in CUBA.  This is a drastic improvement from 100 that was recruited in 2012. 

The Province has 72 medical students from poor backgrounds who successfully completed their medical studies and are now serving their communities since inception of South Africa Cuba Medical programme in 1995.

The recruitment process of 180 students who departs for Cuba in October was highly competitive. Candidates were selected on the basis of academic excellence and commitment to serve the poorest communities upon completion of their studies.

Other criteria included a history of active involvement in their communities, and the potential to be a dedicated and caring doctor.  Priority was given to students from disadvantaged communities.

Bursary recipients had undergone a week long orientation at health facilities to familiarize themselves with medical practice and to get perspective of Cuba from those who studied medicine in Cuba before boarding a flight to Cuba.

The province continues to see steady progress in addressing related challenges of scares skills and training of health professionals. “Through the South African and Cuban Medical Programme more and more medical professionals become available. The availability of extra doctors means more and more communities especially in rural areas where most of them come from are able to be seen and treated by doctors,” says MEC Masike

 “Shortage of medical professionals is a national problem but affects the poor and rural population the most. Through the South Africa and Cuba Medical Programme more and more medical professionals become available and this slowly but surely reduces doctor patient contact in health facilities mainly serving rural communities,” MEC Masike said.

MEC Masike will bid farewell to bursary recipients at Mmabatho Convention Centre tomorrow at 12h00. Members of the media are invited.