Cape Town – Fourteen schools in Manenberg, Cape Town, will be closed the next two days because of gang violence threats, Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant said on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the safety of our learners and educators has continued to be threatened in Manenberg. Some of our educators have reported to [the] metro central district office for duty instead of their schools,” he said in a statement.

Grant said the decision to close the schools was made after consulting teachers.

Provincial government leaders would meet on Thursday with a representative group of these teachers to discuss a way forward.

Grant said his department had directed a great deal of resources and support to Manenberg since the outbreak of gang violence.

“The department is doing all it can to protect learners and educators in school, but it is unfortunately unable to ensure peace and safety within the community,” he said.

“Our officials and educators are not law enforcers. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the SA Police Service [SAPS].”

Grant said schools and the department relied on the police to maintain order.

“Our learners’ and educators’ safety remains our primary concern, along with the longer term loss of teaching and learning time.

– SAPA

Pietermaritzburg – A Verulam man stabbed his mother to death after she scolded him for drinking and reneged on a promise to give him money, he told the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.

Thandaxolo Khumalo, 27, said he was angry, went to his mother’s kitchen and fetched a knife, which he used to stab her several times on a day in July this year.

He left his fatally injured mother, Thokozile Khumalo, 70, on the floor of her house and fled when he realised what he had done, he said.

She died later.

He tried to hide clues to his actions by burning his bloodied clothes.

Khumalo said he acted out of anger.

According to the post-mortem report she was stabbed in both lungs, her liver, face, and upper arm. She also had bruises on her face.

Acting Judge Enthias Xolo convicted him of the murder.

Sentencing procedures start on Thursday.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Zwelinzima Vavi has been suspended on Wednesday evening as Cosatu general secretary according to unconfirmed Twitter reports. But official word is “neither confirm nor deny”.

It would appear that he has been given a “leave absence”.

City Press tweeted: “Unconfirmed reports that Vavi has been suspended. More to follow Cosatu”

Hajra Omarjee said: “Zwelinzima Vavi has been suspended as Cosatu general secretary. “Leave of absence” will be in official statement tomorrow Vavi”

Steven Groote tweeted: “@StephenGrootes: #Vavi We’re told that an official statement will be issued tonight or tomorrow. SG”

Carien du Plessis of City Press reports “there has been no official confirmation, but sources with close information about the special Cosatu central executive committee meeting at Cosatu House today confirmed this.”

The special meeting was called to discuss Vavi’s future after he admitted to having an affair with a woman he appointed.

The meeting went on for almost 10 hours and ended just before 21:00.

This could signal the end of the 50-year-old labour federation leader’s 14-year stint in his current position, or at least a significant weakening of his position according to City Press.

It is understood that an official statement will follow either overnight or tomorrow.
For more http://www.news24.com

Johannesburg – American R&B singer R Kelly will no longer be performing at the Nelson Mandela Sport and Culture Day, the arts and culture department said on Wednesday.

“We apologise to R Kelly’s many South African fans for this unfortunate situation, but remain confident that our current line-up will do justice to Madiba’s legacy of peace, unity, and reconciliation,” the department said in a statement.

The day will see Bafana Bafana play against Burkina Faso in a friendly match, while the Springboks open their Rugby Championship campaign against Argentina on Saturday afternoon.

The department said it had entered negotiations with the promoter of the R&B singer’s recent tour to South Africa. It was subsequently announced that the star was on the bill for the music concert that would follow the day’s sport events.

“Soon afterwards, however, the department learned that R Kelly’s management had not been made aware of this agreement, and that he had departed the country as planned,” the statement read.

“We are taking legal advice on this matter.”

The rest of the line-up for the concert includes DJ Black Coffee, Zahara, Toya Delazy, Mafikizolo, Kurt Darren, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Salif Keita, and Elvis Blue.

Sapa

Pietermaritzburg – A Verulam man stabbed his mother to death after she scolded him for drinking and reneged on a promise to give him money, he told the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday.

Thandaxolo Khumalo, 27, said he was angry, went to his mother’s kitchen and fetched a knife which he used to stab her several times on a day in July this year.

He left his fatally injured mother, Thokozile Khumalo, 70, on the floor of her house and fled when he realised what he had done, he said. She died later. He tried to hide clues to his actions by burning his bloodied clothes.

Khumalo said he acted out of anger. According to the post-mortem report she was stabbed in both lungs, her liver, face, and upper arm. She also had bruises on her face.

Acting Judge Enthias Xolo convicted him of the murder.

Sentencing procedures start on Thursday.

Sapa

Johannesburg – Thirty-five people were arrested during unrest in the Vaal Triangle, Gauteng police said on Wednesday.

“The protesters were arrested for public violence when they barricaded the R59 freeway after they were dismissed by a local company,” Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said.

Those arrested would appear in the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of public violence.

Sapa

Parliament, Cape Town – Several high-ranking police officials are on a list of officers with criminal records, Parliament’s police portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.

An audit, which only covered the period prior to January 2010, found 1448 officers had criminal offences, SA Police Service acting deputy national commissioner for human resource development Nkrumah Mazibuko told MPs.

The audit was conducted to find out how many officers with criminal records remained in the service’s employ.

MPs shook their heads in disbelief after Mazibuko was pushed to list the ranks of the convicted officers. They included a major-general, 10 brigadiers, 21 colonels, 10 majors, 43 lieutenant-colonels, 163 captains, 84 lieutenants, 716 warrant officers, 267 sergeants, 129 constables, and two personnel officers.

Most of the officers were convicted after joining the service, and none had been dismissed as yet.

“These people are subjected to disciplinary process and then they take the matter up on appeal, and we get an order to reinstate the person,” Mazibuko said.

Police members convicted and jailed were automatically fired.

“If that person appeals the sentence… and he gets the sentence reduced maybe to a suspended one by a criminal court, then in terms of our own (police) act such a person is entitled to apply for reinstatement.”

MPS said it was unacceptable that police disciplinary procedures were “a mess”.

“I thought the requirement of employment is that you should be criminal record free. You are now getting involved with whether a person is sentenced to jail or fined and that’s not the issue,” Cope MP Mluleki George said.

“The issue is if a person is found guilty in a court of law it means he has a criminal record. So why are they keeping you in the service if that’s what your employment criteria says?”

Mazibuko conceded the police’s capacity to deal with convicts in their own ranks was not what it should be. Police management was trying to overhaul the disciplinary regime to deal with the problem.

It intended establishing a board of fitness to determine if officers with criminal records should remain on duty.

MPs were not happy with the responses. Some insisted on immediate action against the 1448 officers.

“I share the committee’s concerns that we are expected to, and South Africa is expected to, sit back and accept that 1448 identified criminals must still be paid for another year with taxpayer’s money, must still carry a firearm, and must still wear the blue which should be worn with pride,” committee chairwoman Annelize van Wyk said.

Sapa

Pietermaritzburg – A Verulam man stabbed his mother to death after she scolded him for drinking and reneged on a promise to give him money, he told the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday.

Thandaxolo Khumalo, 27, said he was angry, went to his mother’s kitchen and fetched a knife which he used to stab her several times on a day in July this year.

He left his fatally injured mother, Thokozile Khumalo, 70, on the floor of her house and fled when he realised what he had done, he said. She died later. He tried to hide clues to his actions by burning his bloodied clothes.

Khumalo said he acted out of anger. According to the post-mortem report she was stabbed in both lungs, her liver, face, and upper arm. She also had bruises on her face.

Acting Judge Enthias Xolo convicted him of the murder.

Sentencing procedures start on Thursday.

Sapa

Johannesburg – The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) Youth will join a ceremony commemorating the 16 August Marikana shootings, it said on Wednesday.

Friday marks the first anniversary of the shootings at the Lonmin platinum mine, outside Rustenburg in the North West, where 34 people, almost all striking miners, were killed in a clash with police.

Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in strike-related unrest the preceding week.

Azapo Youth leader Amukelani Ngobeni said the organisation believed the incident signalled a time for change.

“Just like the killings of Andries Tatane, Emido [Mido] Macia, and [many] other victims of our anti-black police brutality, the killings of black workers in Marikana by the [African National Congress’s] police is more than sufficient evidence for our people to rise up and work together, intensify our struggle for the removal of this ruthless and careless ANC government,” said Ngobeni.

Tatane died after being shot with rubber bullets during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg in 2011.

Macia, a Mozambican national, died in February in police cells in Daveyton. Before that, he was filmed tied to the back of a police van and dragged along the street.

Ngobeni called on the country to support Azapo Youth’s call to have 16 August declared “national anti-police brutality day”.

– SAPA

Pietermaritzburg – An Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) manager tried to stop a deadly KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) fitness test, an inquiry in Pietermaritzburg heard on Wednesday.

“She [transport department official Sindi Zwane] said they do not take orders from doctors,” EMRS sub-district manager Sibusiso Dlamini said.

“She said she would consult the MEC, everything that was going on was in their hands.”

He was testifying before a commission of inquiry probing the deaths of eight people, who took part in a 4km run at the city’s Harry Gwala Stadium. He became emotional while giving evidence and cried when talking about what happened at the meeting.

Dlamini said he tried to stop the fitness test on the first day, 27 December, at a meeting between EMRS and transport department officials at 14:30. This was because many of the participants had collapsed and local hospitals were overflowing.

The test formed part of a fitness test for RTI job applicants. More than 34 000 people qualified to apply for 90 advertised RTI trainee posts.

Of these, 15 600 attended a fitness test on 27 December, and a similar number on 28 December.

“After the meeting I left, went to sit down next to the gate and cried,” Dlamini said.

“What was painful is that most of the runners were black, our people.”

At the meeting, some people agreed the test should be stopped, but others disagreed as they felt that the process had already started, he said.

Dlamini said an argument in favour of continuing was that some people had come from afar. He said things were chaotic when the test resumed.

“When groups had to take off at the gate, some people fell because they were pushing each other.”

He described the participants as being dehydrated, deluded, and hysterical.

“Others were doing things that were not understandable. They were pulling their hair and taking off their clothes,” Dlamini said.

– SAPA