Johannesburg – Former president Nelson Mandela is showing “sustained improvement”, the presidency said on Monday, his 44th day in hospital.

“Former President Mandela is still in a critical condition in hospital, but shows sustained improvement,” spokesperson Mac Maharaj said.

He said President Jacob Zuma had visited Mandela at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital earlier on Monday, and assured him of the “love and support of all South Africans”.

He also conveyed a message from the family of former African National Congress president Chief Albert Luthuli, who led the ANC during the period Mandela was arrested.

“On my behalf and Luthuli family as a whole, I wish you an enjoyable happy birthday. I am encouraged by the reports that have come through recently from the presidency and Mandela family pointing on the direction of some recovery in your physical condition,” wrote Luthuli’s daughter Albertina Luthuli, from Groutville, in KwaZulu-Natal.

“I pray that it be sustainable each day as time takes you forward,” she wrote.

“I shall forever cherish some of those moments when you came to my father’s home on the business of the ANC and we had to make tea and scones and host you.

“That laid the basis to regard you as my father after the death of my own biological father, Chief Albert Luthuli, and one has to admit that you always acted in the manner that consolidated that acknowledgement. May God Be With You.”

Zuma asked that people keep up their prayers for Mandela, who was admitted to hospital on 8 June with a recurring lung infection, and spent his 95th birthday there.

On Monday, it was quiet outside the hospital, except for a handful of people arriving through the day to take pictures of a wall covered with tributes.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has received more information in her probe into the upgrading of President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home, her office said on Monday.

“[She] on Friday gained access to outstanding information regarding the investigation. A draft report will be released to the concerned parties for comment as soon as all information is analysed and the investigation completed,” said spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi.

Masibi declined to reveal the source of the latest information.

“We cannot reveal who forwarded the information as it would undermine and jeopardise the investigation.”

In January this year, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi announced that government had spent R206m on security upgrades and consultants at Zuma’s private home in KwaZulu-Natal.

Last month, it was reported that Nxesi told Parliament that State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele had classified the report, which was drawn up by a presidential task team, in terms of the Minimum Information Security Standards (Miss).

This meant that not even Auditor General Terence Nombembe or Madonsela would be able to see the report.

However, Nxesi’s department issued a statement earlier this month denying the minister said Cwele had classified the report, and repeating that “the minister of public works classified the report in terms of the minimum information security standard [Miss]”.

Two weeks ago, Madonsela confirmed that she received the classified Nkandla report from Nxesi.

Masibi said she did not know how long the investigation would take.

“I cannot put a deadline on that, it is up to the Public Protector. The draft report has not even been done yet.”

– SAPA

Pretoria – Lawyers representing the wounded and arrested Marikana miners at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry sought a three-week postponement of its public hearings on Monday.

Advocate Dali Mpofu, for the miners, said he wanted time to approach the Constitutional Court in his quest to have the State fund the workers’ legal representation.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria turned down his application for funding last week.

“The intention was to appeal directly to appeal to the Constitutional Court,” Mpofu said in Pretoria on Monday.

“Unfortunately, the [high court] judge was not prepared to hand down his written judgment [last week]. He said he still wanted to edit a few parts.”

Judge Joseph Raulinga’s ruling would form part of his appeal.

“We tried to put some subtle pressure, on the basis that we have to attach the judgment [to] the application. The best we got is that he would do it on Tuesday. By tomorrow we will have the judgment,” Mpofu said.

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people during labour unrest at Lonmin’s platinum in Marikana, North West, last August.

Postponement application

On Monday, Mpofu asked retired Judge Ian Farlam, who chairs the commission, to postpone the public hearings until 19 August.

“What we are asking the commission is not something that is easy. We would rather have a situation of where the power of what happens is taken back to the hands of the commission [than] to have this drama of people walking out,” he said.

“We ask the commission to hear our plea. We would like to shorten the time within which we will, under pressure, draft the papers to the Constitutional Court and appeal to the Chief Justice to hear this matter expeditiously.”

Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, for the families of the miners killed in Marikana, supported Mpofu’s postponement application.

He would be part of the Constitutional Court appeal process.

On 21 June, Mpofu told the commission it could be his last day representing the miners because of financial constraints.

He then brought the urgent high court application asking for President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to approve payment for the mineworkers’ legal team.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A recent report that R12m was unaccounted for in the Limpopo ANC’s books was wrong, a spokesperson for ANC’s task team has said.

“The provincial task team (PTT) of the African National Congress in Limpopo categorically denies media reports that an amount of R12m is unaccounted for in its books,” Sello Lediga said in a statement on Sunday.

“We have no idea where this figure comes from.”

Last week it was reported that the PTT, which dissolved the party’s provincial leadership and was restructuring its representation there, found only R700 in its account, and that the larger amount was unaccounted for.

Lediga said following its appointment in March this year, the PTT had received numerous claims for payment from suppliers.

These had strained the organisation’s limited resources, causing the PTT to verify its debtors’ book in order to authenticate the correctness of the claims.

Provincial depts under admin

Lediga said it was correct that there was R700 in the account when the team arrived.

“To conduct a proper and credible verification process, the organisation decided to put one official on leave until such time that the verification was concluded. The official has since resigned,” he said.

The process was still underway.

According to a report in The Star, the money came from the legislature and was given to each party represented there. 

The amounts varied according to the size of the party’s representation, and were meant for party political work.

In December 2011, five provincial government departments were placed under administration because of allegations of corruption and violations of the Public Finance Management Act.

Apart from dissolving structures, other changes in the province since the PTT arrived included premier Cassel Mathale resigning after being “recalled”, new premier Stanley Mathabatha being sworn in, and a reshuffle of MECs. 

SAPA

Johannesburg – Former president Nelson Mandela is getting stronger, his grandson Mandla Mandela said on Monday after a weekend visit.

“The visit left me with a warm feeling, because my grandfather is getting stronger and stronger every day,” he said.

The improvement “is particularly heartening, because it flies in the face of those who have been busy spreading lies that Madiba is in a ‘vegetative state’ and just waiting for his [life] support machines to be switched off.

“Madiba has defied these hurtful statements and continues to prove his fighting spirit that has defined him over the many years of his life,” Mandela said in a statement released on his grandfather’s 44th day in hospital.

He visited his grandfather at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital, in Pretoria, on Sunday. Nelson Mandela’s daughter Zenani Mandela also visited on Sunday.

The anti-apartheid icon was critically ill with a lung infection when he was admitted to hospital early on 8 June, after his ambulance broke down on the way there. He spent his 95th birthday in hospital last week.

A steady stream of support has been kept up for the anti-apartheid icon and his family, by visitors who leave flowers, cards and candles at the entrance to the hospital, and at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.

The presidency, which provides updates from time to time, has also said he is steadily improving.

Mandla Mandela said he attended a prayer service arranged by the AbaThembu in Kwa-Zulu Natal at the Ethekwini Community Church on Sunday.

He said he was grateful for the overwhelming messages of support from South Africans and around the world.

“We continue to be grateful to the South African government, the African National Congress… and the doctors in charge of Madiba’s health during this period.”

He and some of Nelson Mandela’s descendants are in a court dispute over the reburial of the remains of some of the anti-apartheid icon’s children and grandchildren. 

SAPA

Former Orlando Pirates striker Takesure Chinyama is set to sign for Wits, where he has been on trial for close to a month, after being released by Bucs.

It was reported last week by Soccer-Laduma that Mpumalanga Black Aces had requested for Chinyama to come train with the team, with a view of adding him to their new-look roster under the guidance of head coach Clive Barker.

For more http://www.soccerladuma.com

Mutare – Zimbabwe’s sole television station, state-owned and tightly controlled by President Robert Mugabe, is targeting the private life of his arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai with “attack ads” aimed at discrediting him before 31 July elections.

In the adverts, three former lovers reveal how they were dumped by Tsvangirai, 61, before Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party chimes in to tell voters that the prime minister is unfit for office.

While there are many questions about the tone and taste of the adverts in the socially conservative southern African nation, the message is rubbing off on even die-hard Tsvangirai supporters, who say he has only himself to blame.

“Five years ago, I would have risked my life for Tsvangirai. I would have assaulted anyone who insulted him,” said Gerald Mlambo in the eastern city of Mutare, a Tsvangirai stronghold.

Now Mlambo is sufficiently racked by doubts to stay away from a nearby stadium where deafening music and a huge crowd chanting anti-Mugabe slogans are revving up for a campaign rally appearance by his one-time idol.

Tsvangirai’s sex scandals, along with his failure to deliver on key promises while in government, have steadily eroded the almost messianic support he once enjoyed among many of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people for daring to challenge the three-decade rule of the ruthless and cunning Mugabe.

Since the death of Tsvangirai’s wife Susan in a car crash in 2009 – the year after he and Mugabe sealed a power sharing deal – the prime minister has fathered a child with a 22-year-old woman and been locked in a court battle with another lover.

The Harare media also feasted on the claims of a South African woman who said Tsvangirai ditched her by SMS after a two-year affair studded with expensive, exotic holidays.

Gift to propagandists

Tsvangirai’s supporters point out that Mugabe, 89, has also been no angel in his personal life, having fathered two children out of wedlock with Grace Mugabe, a secretary 41 years his junior whom he married after the death of his first wife, Sally.

But Tsvangirai’s troubled private life has been a gift to propagandists working to ensure Mugabe carries on as president, a post he has held since independence from Britain in 1980.

For the prime minister’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the campaign ads merely serve as proof that Mugabe and Zanu-PF have nothing to offer the country.

“They are desperate,” MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said. “Thank God, no one is listening and people are going to dump them come July 31 because our country needs politicians and leaders who focus on policies.”

But Tsvangirai faces criticism over his track record too, after five years as prime minister in the South Africa-brokered unity government under Mugabe that followed the bloody and disputed 2008 election.

His first promise was to end an economic crisis that had triggered inflation of 500 billion percent, unemployment of 80% and a stream of economic refugees into South Africa, Zimbabwe’s larger southern neighbour.

On that front, he has largely delivered: scrapping the worthless Zimbabwe dollar in early 2009 stabilised prices and since then the economy has bounced back strongly.

But as memories of the economic meltdown have faded and the grind of day-to-day government has set in, the former trade unionist has lost some of his shine.

MDC-headed ministries have struggled to deliver promised dams and electricity plants and to overhaul dilapidated water and sewage systems, while the questions have mounted about Tsvangirai’s character and ability to govern.

Woolly on policy

“They promised so much and delivered so little. I don’t buy the nonsense that Zanu-PF is to blame for our condition,” said John Cheukai, a 40-year-old labourer at a Mutare timber firm.

“Tsvangirai has a responsibility to manage his life in an exemplary manner. Based on some of the things we have seen from the MDC, people are not so hopeful anymore.”

While there are no formal opinion polls, surveys conducted by Freedom House, a US political think tank, and African research group Afro-Barometer give Mugabe a narrow lead.

Critics say Tsvangirai is woolly on policy and weak on principles, pointing to how readily he dropped opposition to Mugabe’s homophobia and seizure of white-owned farms, and how he took up the fight for media and security reform only weeks before the election.

His lieutenants argue Tsvangirai has taken the strategic view of pushing through a new constitution that balances power between the president and parliament, while parking other issues on the sidelines until the MDC comes to power.

The path to power remains far from assured.

“The MDC ran most of the local councils very badly,” said 50-year-old financial analyst Boniface Chirandu in the town of Chimanimani on the Mozambican border.

“That, coupled with issues over Tsvangirai’s private life, has persuaded me – and I’m sure others too – that the MDC cannot take our vote for granted.”

Reuters

By Obakeng Maje

Mahikeng-Molopo Magistrate Court is expected to sanction a woman who robbed unsuspecting clients at Absa bank in Mahikeng.

Dineo Molete is due to appear before court after she was arrested a month ago. Molete went through into Absa bank wearing a t-shirt depicted with a bank logo and pretend to be for the bank.

Police said Molete only targeted clients who deposited bulk cash.

“Molete allegedly took a man who came to deposit money to her “office” and pretend as if she is helping him” police said.

She allegedly left office with cash and ran out of the bank. The victim started to suspects something is wrong after the latter fails to return.

He stormed out of the bank and noticed the perpetrator. The businessman chased her and discover his cash from Molete.

Molete was subsequently arrested and according to police’s preliminary investigations, Molete was found in possession of 13 IDs.

Molete is connected to other fraud cases in Gauteng and is expected to be sanctioned by Molopo Magistrate Court.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

The triple medals that Stephen “Tshipi-Tshipi” Mokoka’s scooped at the 27

th Summer Universiade / World University Games in Kazan, Russia is a great achievement that should boost his morale and confidence for yet another sterling performance at the Commonwealth Games, North West Premier Thandi Modise said on Monday.

“Tshipi Tshipi is maturing with each race, is a worthy champion and our ambassador who continues to prove that with determination, aspirant athletes from rural communities can rise to dominate the international marathon platform. He is an inspiration and a role model for our youth,” said Premier Modise.

The Premier said that the provincial government joins the Mokoka family and the community of Ramatlabama village outside Mahikeng in the North West Province in congratulating Tshipi Tshipi who scooped the men’s 10 000m final in Kazan, and grabbed individual silver and team gold in the half-marathon recently.. 

The 27-year-old Mokoka ran away with title in 28:45.97 after toying with the Rybakov brothers (Anatoly and Evgeny) from Russia throughout the race.Mokoka  had also finished in eighth position at the World Half-Marathon Championship held in Kayama, Bulgaria in October last year and  at the global half-marathon  championship in Birmingham ,England in 2009. 

The incident in which a teenager allegedly stabbed his father to death and wounded his 8-year-old sister is stark reminder of the extend to which drugs are destroying families and calls for intensified united action against drugs, North West Premier Thandi Modise said in expressing shock on Sunday.

“We are saddened by the incident and call on our communities to blow the whistle on those who are destroying our youth and families, support collaborative efforts of crime prevention structures and police to uproot drug dealers and to reclaim their schools, streets and neighbourhoods from criminals,” emphasised Premier Modise in condemning the incident.

According to police, the 17-year-old arrived late at home in Hartbeespoortdam and when his father questioned him about this, an argument ensued between the two before the suspect who was allegedly under the influence of drugs stabbed his father on his back and chest. The victim reportedly died on the scene. 

The suspect who was later arrested and is police custody pending his appearance in the Brits Magistrates Court tomorrow reportedly also stabbed his 8-year-old sibling on the throat and waist when she tried to intervene.

She was rushed to hospital.