By Obakeng Maje

Klerksdorp-The City of Matlosana is planning a Mayoral Soccer Challenge for the 28th July at a cost of R2.4 million while expecting an income of only R192 000-00 from the event DA said.

Free State Stars, Bloemfontein Celtics, Platinum Stars and Super Sport United are to participate at an appearance fee of R300 000-00 per team.

The Oppenheimer Stadium which is in a dilapidated state will be used as venue.

The Deputy Director for Sport, Arts and Culture wants to secure broadcasting rights, source funding and co-ordinate the hosting of the four teams.

“With so little time left and no evidence of willing sponsors, the DA is concerned that Council funds will eventually be used to finance the soccer challenge” DA provincial spokesperson Tiaan Kotze said.   

Democratic Alliance said this is especially a major concern while the financial situation at council is in such a precarious state.

In the previous years the Mayoral Cup was played as an inter-ward competition but the ANC is known to become very extravagant when elections are coming up with the hope to buy loyalty and secure votes Kotze said.  

“They should however rethink this strategy as their target market are seeking service delivery and houses not exuberant soccer matches which will benefit only a few financially” DA said.

The DA will investigate the sustainability of such an event and oppose it if it is found not in the best interests of the community.

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Mahikeng-Councillors of the ANC-run Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality in the North West have removed speaker Tebogo Ramashilabele.

“We are going to have a meeting with the councillors [on Friday] to get their side of the story so we can determine what the situation is,” ANC spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said on Friday.

The Democratic Alliance in the municipality, which has its seat in Mahikeng, said it walked out of a council meeting on Thursday because it was clear it was focusing on “ANC factional interests driven by power hungry individuals”.

“We will not assist the ANC in their disruptive internal battles,” DA councillor Jacqueline Theologo said.

“Due to the inquorate council all decisions made in council would be deemed unlawful.”

This is the second municipality in the North West where African National Congress councillors have unseated one of their own.

ANC councillors voted to unseat Tlokwe mayor Maphetle Maphetle last week. On 2 July, DA councillor Annette Combrink was voted in as the new mayor, for the second time since November, unseating Maphetle.

On 3 July, the North West ANC’s provincial disciplinary committee expelled 14 of its councillors who voted him out.

However, the ANC is adamant that Maphetle remains Tlokwe mayor because it claims the council meeting, where he was unseated, was unlawful.

The party had applied to the High Court in Pretoria for it to declare the meeting illegal. 

SAPA

Johannesburg – South African mining unions and gold companies started wage talks on Thursday billed as the toughest since the end of apartheid, with demands for a doubling of basic pay set against collapsing bullion prices and shrinking profit margins.

The two-yearly negotiations normally take two months but this year’s talks are expected to drag out because of a vicious union turf war that sparked strikes last year in which producers lost billions of rands of output and some workers were killed.

“For us it’s about finding the balance between what is affordable and what the employees want,” said Elize Strydom, a senior executive at the Chamber of Mines, which represents firms employing 120 000 of the gold sector’s 140 000 workers.

This year the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), which represents 17% of the gold workforce according to the chamber, will join more established unions such as the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for the first time.

Amcu’s clashes in the last 18 months with ANC ally NUM, historically South Africa’s most powerful union, have destabilised labour relations in the mines and across the economy.

Amcu has emerged as the dominant union in the platinum sector and its demands for gold mining companies to more than double the wages of entry-level workers forced NUM – normally a more conservative negotiator – to up the wage ante as well.

Coal industry wage talks will be conducted in parallel with those of gold but are likely to be far smoothe, with the Amcu-NUM rivalry not as evident in the sector.

Although nobody expects a settlement anywhere near Amcu or NUM’s demands, analysts doubt whether an industry in terminal decline can afford increases much above inflation, currently at a shade under 6%.

“They’re likely to settle about 3% above inflation but even 10% will hurt,” said David Davis, a gold analyst at SBG Securities in Johannesburg.

From its zenith in the 1970s, when South Africa was digging up 1 000 tonnes of gold a year, the country produced just 167 tonnes in 2012 – a consequence of the need to “chase the reef” ever deeper into the bowels of the earth.

South Africa’s mines operate at 4 km or more underground, a depth that imposes huge costs on companies that have also had to swallow a 25% fall in the bullion price since January as well as a sharp increase in the price of electricity.

A weaker rand, which lowers local costs, has given them a temporary lifeline but the industry argues that an overly generous wage settlement is unaffordable and will only result in job losses – something the ANC is loath to see less than a year before an election.

“Affordability is key because if we do not take that into account in the long run it will jeopardise work security,” Strydom said.

“It will jeopardise the life of the mines and it will be bad for the country because mining is still a key industry in South Africa.”

Despite steadily declining output, gold remains an important element of South Africa’s economy, accounting for 10% of all exports in 2012.

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Legendary South African marksman Calvin Petersen was suitably impressed by the talent on show at the SAB League National Champs.

The tournament is currently taking place in Stellenbosch, with the semi-finals underway on Friday (12 July 2013)– both kick off at 10h00 at the Idas Valley Stadium as Western Cape take on KwaZulu Natal, while Mpumalanga will clash with Limpopo.

Former Moroka Swallows and Durban Bush Bucks striker Petersen is at the tournament as part of the Castle Lager SuperStars XI scouting and talent identification project which has been ongoing for around eight months now.

This has seen an all-star team of professionals including Neil Tovey, Phil Masinga, John Tlale, John “Shoes” Moshoeu, David Nyathi and Petersen seeking to identify the cream of the crop in terms of young players shining in the SAB Leagues across the country.

In January this year a select group spent time together in camp in Stellenbosch (at the Stellenbosch sports Academy) and the High Performance Centre in Pretoria.

Friendly matches were played against Ajax Cape Town, Vasco da Gama, University of Pretoria, Cosmos and SuperSport United, with PSL and NFD coaches there to hunt for talent.

Petersen and the rest of his team are now hoping to uncover a few additional gems at the 2013 SAB League National Championships, and he is pleased with what he has seen over the last three days.

“I’m very excited – it’s a great initiative by SAB, where young players get exposure and where they have an opportunity to be seen by scouts, to maybe go on and play in a professional set-up in the PSL or the NFD.

“It has been very impressive, there have been quite a few players I think are good enough to go and play in one of the top divisions, because from what I have seen the standard is quite high this year,” he said.

As a respected and successful front man in his own playing days, Petersen has being paying special attention to the strikers on display at Idas Valley and has some advice for the youngsters.

“There are quite a few strikers here that I think could be goal scorers at the highest levels. But some of them are quite raw. They need to learn where to make their runs from, how to run off the ball, how to position themselves, their composure, getting into the box, allowing the midfielders to do their job.”

Johannesburg – The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has instituted a defamation claim of R21.1 million against sports journalist Graeme Joffe in the High Court in Johannesburg, Beeld reported on Friday.

The court documents, filed on July 3, argued that 23 of Joffe’s sports columns, written for, among others, Media24, were defamatory, and that Joffe had accused the organisation of unethical and illegal conduct.

According to the court papers, Joffe wrote that Sascoc had behaved “contrary to the interest of South Africa, engaged in corrupt activities, and wasted money”.

Eight of Sascoc’s board members, including the organisation’s president Gideon Sam, and chief executive Tubby Reddy, lodged the claim.

The plaintiffs said they would argue in court that what Joffe wrote was inaccurate and that he intended to harm their reputation.

The eight had also demanded that Joffe withdraw his statements and apologise.

Joffe said in response that as a sports journalist, he had an obligation to tell the truth about Sascoc, that the organisation bullied many people, and that this was in all likelihood an attempt to silence him.

“I will definitely oppose the claim.”

He stood by everything he had written, and he had all the facts to substantiate his claims, Joffe said.

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje

Potchefstroom-Former ANC Youth League president and now a leader of Economic Freedom Fighter(EFF), Julius Malema will join the Anti-Corruption March and Protest Action in Tlokwe on Friday.

The protest action will start at the Tlokwe Stadium and proceed to the Tlokwe Municipality at 10H00. 

“The protest action is amongst other things inspired by the fact that the Zuma African National Congress (ZANC) has expelled from the ANC and Council, 14 hard-working, disciplined and honest Councillors who refused to be led by a questionable Mayor” EFF spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said in a statement. 

Tlokwe residents are engaging in a protest against corruption in the embattled city.

Tlokwe has been in the news lately for all wrong reasons.

African National Congress(ANC) and opposition political party, Democratic Alliance(DA) are fighting for prominence.ANC and DA are taking each other to court after ANC led mayor Maphetle Maphetle was ousted by the party’s own councillors.

ANC spokesperson Kenny Morolong said the party is going to court because the former councillors conspire against the party and that was violation of constitution.

However DA spokesperson Mmusi Maine said residents of Tlokwe welcome the decision and are elated by DA being in power.

“Tlokwe residents are sick and tired of corruption, so they are very happy and believe DA is the future” he said.

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Bloemfontein – The Eastern Cape High Court in Bhisho made an order-by-consent on Thursday compelling the basic education minister to publish the norms and standards for school infrastructure, Equal Education (EE) said.

It said the court held that Minister Angie Motshekga should prescribe “minimum uniform norms and standards” by the promulgation of regulations for school infrastructure by 30 November.

The regulations should also have compliance time-frames.

EE describes itself as a movement of pupils, parents, teachers, and community members working for quality and equality in South African education.

It said on Thursday it would continue keeping an eye on developments in the case to ensure the court order was complied with.

This included EE continuing to communicate with the minister during the drafting process.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The police launched an anti-corruption unit on Thursday to fight fraud and corruption in the service.

It would start operating during the current financial year, national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega said in a statement.

“If we are to successfully fight crime in the country, we must first get our house in order. We will therefore not shy away from taking action against our own,” Phiyega said.

Between June last year and June this year, 525 police officers were dismissed for crimes including corruption and fraud. – Sapa

London – Ipswich Town are contemplating a loan deal for Tottenham Hotspur and Bafana Bafana defender Bongani Khumalo.

According to SkySports’ website, Khumalo has been training with the Championship club and ran out for the side in a recent friendly against Crawley Town.

Ipswich boss, Mick McCarthy is poised to make a decision on whether he would like to keep the 26-year-old and says that if he does, it will more than likely be a loan move. 

“I was pleased with Bongani. 

“I thought he did alright. He’s very quick and athletic. I thought he did okay. I’m pleased with him.

“We’re not looking to buy or sign him, we’re looking at a possible loan deal,” said McCarthy.

Sport24

Pretoria – There was no evidence that Johan Kotzé knew that his co-accused was HIV positive, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.

“Modimolle Monster” Kotzé should be convicted of attempting to murder his ex-wife because one of her rapists was HIV positive, the State argued in court.

Although there was no evidence that Kotzé knew that his co-accused Andries Sithole was HIV positive, the possibility of HIV transmission was very real, prosecutor Retha Meintjes argued.

“He [Kotzé] had the direct intention and in fact hoped she would contract HIV, although there was no evidence that he knew of Sithole’s HIV status.

“There was also evidence that Mrs [Ina] Bonnette could have died from shock,” Meintjes said.

Meintjes argued Kotzé and Sithole should be convicted of premeditated murder, and kidnapping, raping, attempting to murder, assaulting, and sexually assaulting Bonnette.

She said Kotzé carefully planned and executed the 3 January 2012 attack on his then wife Bonnette and her 19-year-old son Conrad.

Bonnette earlier testified how Kotzé sexually and physically tortured her and cut off her nipples before Sithole, Pieta Mohlake, and Sello Mphaka raped her.

She was forced to listen to her son pleading for his life before Kotzé shot him three times while she lay gagged and tied to a bed.

Meintjes conceded the State had not proved that Mohlake and Mphaka were aware of Kotzé’s plans to murder Conrad.

She, however, asked for their conviction on the charges of kidnapping, repeatedly raping, attempting to murder, assaulting, and sexually assaulting Bonnette.

She said Mohlake and Mphaka knew well in advance that she would be raped and were willing participants.

‘Caravan washing’

The term “caravan washing” was in fact a way of describing their plans to rape Bonnette, she said. Kotzé had apparently hired the three to wash his caravan at his home in Modimolle, where the crimes were committed.

“There was indeed a conspiracy between all of the accused to commit the deeds with Mrs Bonnette and they all had a common purpose.”

Meintjes said the defence psychologist who testified that Kotzé could not be held accountable for his actions, because of a state of dissociation was subjective and based her findings on Kotzé’s version of events.

She argued that the psychologist’s evidence should be rejected in favour of the State psychologist’s evidence, who testified that Kotzé was fit to stand trial.

“He planned it carefully in advance and executed deliberate and planned actions,” she said.

“They were in the circumstances reckless in the sense that they did not care if she contracted the virus or not… In Kotzé’s case, where he harboured particular ideas of revenge against Bonnette and went to the trouble of getting people to rape her, he was totally reckless.”

The trial continues.

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