Ventersdorp – Three men and two minors appeared in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges linked to the death of an initiate, said police.

The matter was postponed to August 30, Captain Pelonomi Makau said.

“They are expecting to be given a trial date when they appear again. They remain in custody, since they were denied bail the last time they applied,” said Makau.

Thapelo Poleng, 32, Johannes Yona, 21, Michael Montwedi, 18, and the two minors were arrested following the death of Lesego Goliath.

Goliath, 19, joined an initiation school on June 12. Between the time he joined the school and June 24, he was brutally assaulted and subsequently died.

His body was burnt and buried at a municipal dumping site. His remains were found on June 24.

Sapa

Pretoria – Traditional leaders apologised to the country on Friday for the recent spate of deaths among young men at initiation schools.

“We have been disturbed by the level of deaths during initiations. We want to apologise to the nation,” Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA general secretary Kgoshi Setlamorago Thobejane said.

He told reporters in Pretoria that initiations schools were responsible for 250 young men’s deaths throughout the country since 2004.

“We want to pass our condolences to the families who have lost children. We were supposed to have done things differently.”

There have been at least 30 deaths of initiates in the Eastern Cape since May, 30 in Mpumalanga, and seven in Limpopo.

Thobejane said the time had come for traditional leaders to go back to the drawing board and come up with ways to curb the death toll. One death was one too many.

“We have fallen and need everybody to help us in this journey,” Thobejane said.

Sapa

Johannesburg – Two people died when their car landed in front of a train in Krugersdorp, on the West Rand, on Friday morning, paramedics said.

The accident happened at 09:00 at the Tarlton railway crossing, said Netcare 911spokesperson Santi Steinmann.

The two occupants of the car died on the scene, she said.

Further details about the accident were not known.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Dennis Thokozani Dlomo has been appointed National Intelligence Co-ordination Committee (Nicoc) intelligence co-ordinator, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele announced on Friday.

“After a long, meaningful process of engagement, we are pleased to announce that we have successfully completed this phase of our work,” Cwele told journalists in Pretoria.

“We have successfully completed the restructuring process and passed the legislation that provides for a new dispensation of the State Security Agency (SSA).”

Dlomo is currently advisor to Cwele and also acting director general of the SSA. He is also a former deputy co-ordinator of Nicoc.

New appointments

Cwele also announced seven other new appointments:

– Ambassador to Egypt Gladys Sonto Kudjoe had been appointed SSA director general;

– Acting director in the foreign branch, Simon Ntombela, was appointed director of the domestic branch of the SSA; and

– Dr Batandwa Siswana was appointed director of the foreign branch of the SSA.

Siswana is currently chief operations officer in the presidency. He is also the deputy secretary of Cabinet.

Other appointments in the domestic branch of the SSA included Nozuko Bam and Thulani Dlomo as deputy directors general for domestic collection and counter-intelligence respectively.

In the foreign branch, Joyce Mashele was appointed deputy director general for collection, Africa, while Matshidiso Mhlambo was appointed deputy director general for the rest of the world.

Cwele said none of the new appointees had criminal records.

“All of them still have valid security clearance. All due processes and selection procedures were followed.”

The new appointments followed a transformation project of the country’s intelligence, announced in 2009, Cwele said.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The father of a 23-year-old Cape Town student has vowed to track down the driver of a vehicle which ran over his son and left him for dead.

Che Newman was celebrating his birthday with friends in Kalk Bay, Cape Town, on Sunday when a reckless driver ploughed into him, the Cape Argus reported on Friday.
For more http://www.news24.com

Harare – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s party claimed on Friday he is on course for a landslide win in an election branded a sham by his rivals, but which the African Union said was fair and credible.

Partial results of Wednesday’s poll have given the 89-year-old a commanding lead, with his Zanu-PF party garnering 87 seats out of 120 declared.

“Our opponents don’t know what hit them,” party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said. “It’s the prediction that the president might likely get 70 to 75%.”

Please e-mail or upload your stories and photos.

Zanu-PF also predicted it would win a two-thirds majority in parliament, enough to amend the new constitution that introduced term limits and curbed presidential powers.

Mugabe’s bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected the vote as a “huge farce” and “null and void”.

“It’s a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people,” he said, pointing to a litany of alleged irregularities with the voters’ roll.

The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network reported up to one million voters were prevented from voting in Tsvangirai strongholds.

But Mugabe won an endorsement from the African Union on Friday, with former Nigerian president and military leader Olusegun Obasanjo saying the vote was basically free and fair.

“There are incidences that could have been avoided, but all in all we do not believe that these incidents will amount to the results not reflecting the will of the people,” he said.

Much now rides on the verdict of observers from the 15-member southern African SADC bloc, which negotiated the creation of a power-sharing government in the wake of 2008’s bloody poll.

Deep misgivings

With 600 observers on the ground, SADC’s verdict will be closely watched by western nations blocked from monitoring the poll themselves.

The bloc said it will deliver its initial verdict later on Friday.

Foreign diplomats have expressed deep misgivings about a poll they have described privately as non-violent but fundamentally flawed.

Jeffrey Smith, from the Washington-based Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, said it would be wrong to disregard the final results but “we must also not be blind to potential irregularities both leading up to the vote and on the day”.

So far Tsvangirai has limited his comments to condemnation of the poll, but already there are calls for mass protests, and warnings that may prompt a bloodbath.

The top brass from his Movement for Democratic Change will meet on Saturday to decide their response.

Ahead of the meeting top MDC official Roy Bennett called for a campaign of “passive resistance”.

“I’m talking about people completely shutting the country down — don’t pay any bills, don’t attend work, just bring the country to a standstill.”

“There needs to be resistance against this theft and the people of Zimbabwe need to speak out strongly.”

The disputed outcome risks plunging Zimbabwe – which battled a decade-long downturn marked by galloping inflation and mass migration – back into deep crisis.

Extreme volatility

“If certain people feel their choice was not accepted, they may resort to violence,” said Sean O’Leary a spokesperson for a 3 000-strong group of poll monitors from the Catholic church.

Investors also expressed fears about the impact of a Mugabe victory, which could roll back the power-sharing government’s efforts to stabilising the economy after crippling hyperinflation and joblessness.

“It’s back to extreme volatility,” Iraj Abedian the CEO of Pan African Investments told AFP from Johannesburg. “We can expect fairly radical positions that will have populist support, but which will have huge implications.”

Abedian predicted banks and financial firms could become the targets of a new Mugabe government seeking to extend its programme of indigenisation, after agriculture and mining.

“The land grabs caused chaos in the agricultural sector and it took ten years for it to settle down.

“The financial sector would have a similar impact. It would cause chaos, but Zanu-PF and Mugabe seem to like that.”

Mugabe – Africa’s oldest leader – is a former guerrilla leader hailed as a hero of Africa’s liberation movement, guiding Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 from Britain and white minority rule.

But his military-backed rule has been marked by controversial land reforms, a series of violent crackdowns, economic crises and suspect elections that have brought international sanctions and made him a pariah in the West.

Bread basket

As the economy in southern Africa’s former bread basket recovers from crisis, Mugabe loyalists insist their hero is “tried and tested” and dismiss concerns about his age and rumoured health problems.

Former union boss Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in 2008, but was forced out of the race after 200 of his supporters were killed and thousands more injured in suspected state-backed intimidation and attacks.

This time around he announced plans to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services in a bid to secure a long-awaited victory.

But some Western analysts said this could be Tsvangirai’s last bid at the top job if the MDC fails to prevent Mugabe sweeping to a seventh term.

For all Zimbabwe election stories please visit our Zimbabwe Special Report Page.

AFP

Cape Town – The car used in the kidnapping of a University of Johannesburg student has been retrieved in Eldorado Park, according to a university spokesperson.

The 23-year-old student, who chose to remain anonymous, was allegedly grabbed from the Kingsway Campus and held hostage for an hour. 

She told EWN that the man cable tied her hands and put her in the boot of her car before driving out of the university to draw cash from all her accounts.

The deputy vice chancellor for strategic services, Prof Derek van der Merwe, said the South African Police Service was investigating and had retrieved the car from Eldorado Park, which is close to where the student was dropped off.

“The university is trying to obtain CCTV information and also checking the university entrance and exit data,” he told News24.

The case is under investigation by the Booysens hijacking unit.

The university is scheduled to meet with the student on Friday.

  News24

Pretoria – Former president Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel on Friday arrived at the Pretoria hospital where the ailing icon is being treated.

Activity outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital was minimal.

Tshwane metro police continued manning the cordoned-off section of the Celliers Street entrance, but there was little traffic.

A few local and international journalists remained outside both entrances to the facility.

Members of the public occasionally visited the hospital to take pictures of a wall covered with messages and flowers for Mandela, who was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

Friday was his 56th day in the hospital.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi apologised on Friday to its members and the country following recent allegations that he raped a colleague.

“I have erred and in the process embarrassed my family and disappointed many South Africans who looked to me to provide moral leadership,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery at an SA Democratic Teachers’ Union biennial general meeting in Port Elizabeth.

He said he regretted making headlines for the wrong reasons.

“I have decided to come to your meeting to apologise to each one of you and through you, to all Cosatu members and every South African, for letting them down,” said Vavi.

News of the alleged rape surfaced last week in reports that Vavi was being accused by a 26-year-old married woman, whom he claimed had tried to extort R2m from him.

Vavi denied raping the woman, but admitted to having consensual sex with her.

The Congress of SA Trade Unions held a hearing about the matter on Monday and it ended when the woman withdrew her grievance.

On Friday, Vavi said he had no one but himself to blame for the incident.

“I am only human and not a perfect saint. I have learnt so much from the mistake and I commit to never repeat the same, and in the process hand over to the enemies of the working class a victory on a silver platter.”

He said he would work hard to regain the lost trust of both his family and the nation.

“I am back on my feet. I have a mandate to fulfil,” he said.

After the hearing on Monday, Vavi said he would consult with his lawyers to consider action against the woman.

SAPA

Harare – Zimbabwe’s election was credible and fair, the chief of the African Union observer mission said Friday, but the bloc’s report noted some problems with the voters’ roll and of people being turned away from polling booths.

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF appeared confident of a sweeping victory, while the rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said the “sham” polls would plunge the country into crisis.

“We are very happy this morning. We are very confident and excited. We think there is a sense of victory for us,” Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said.

He said the party expected to get between 130 and 140 seats in the 210-member parliament.

Results from about 30% of seats in parliament showed Zanu-PF taking a strong early lead, with 52 to the MDC’s 10.

Mugabe’s party managed to wrest control of some urban constituencies previously held by the rival MDC.

The final results of Wednesday’s election must be announced by Monday.

Local elections observers noted there were serious problems with the voters’ roll in urban areas – long considered MDC strongholds.

Vote rigging

Tsvangirai has declared the elections to be “null and void” because of allegations of vote rigging.

Zanu-PF insists the polls were conducted in a “free and fair” manner, as does the Zimbabwe Election Commission.

In the 2008 election that was marred by violence, Tsvangirai won the first round but did not get enough votes to avoid a run-off. Widespread intimidation, including the deaths of some 200 of his supporters, forced him to pull out of the runoff.

The presidential poll results are only expected in the coming days. If no candidate gets at least 50% of the vote, a second round will be held September 11.

The 89-year-old Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since 1980, has vowed to step down if he loses.

Africa’s oldest head of state presided over a decade-long economic collapse, in part blamed on his policy of grabbing white-owned farms without compensation and fuelling hyper inflation.

SAPA