By Obakeng Maje

Klerksdorp-North West police are investigating a culpable homicide after a woman died in a horrific accident yesterday.

The driver of a delivery bakkie,allegedly died after she lost control of her vehicle. 

“The driver and Gonsalves Angelique,18 was allegedly travelling along Parend Street /Pienaarsdorp, Klerksdorp  on Saturday afternoon at about 17:15” colonel Lesego Metsi said.

She allegedly failed to negotiate a curve and lost control of the bakkie that overturned. 

A driver was taken to a hospital and was certified dead on her arrival Tshepong Hospital, Klerksdorp. 

A case of Culpable Homicide is being investigated.

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By Obakeng Maje

Lehurutshe-A girl died at Mosweu village, near Zeerust after she was allegedly knocked by a truck.

A 11 year-old girl was allegedly playing and the truck driver allegedly knocked her down while reversing.

“A 26 year-old woman was delivering water to the village and she allegedly knocked down Reneilwe Motlasedi” colonel Lesego Metsi said.

Motlasedi was allegedly rushed to a local hospital for medical attention. The driver met an ambulance on her way to hospital and Motlasedi was allegedly handed over to the medical team.

“A 11 year-old girl was confirmed dead on her arrival at hospital and police are investigating a culpable homicide case against truck driver” Metsi said.

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North West Premier Thandi Modise has expressed sadness and shock at the horrific accident that claimed 15 lives and left 28 injured. Premier Modise has described the accident that occurred on the R510 Mogwase-Thabazimbi road at around 2:30pm as the worst the province has experienced in recent years.

“In condemning speeding, irresponsible and inconsiderate driving that puts the lives of other road user at risk and undermine efforts to reduce road crashes and fatalities on public roads, we wish to convey our condolences to the families that lost their loved ones in the crash and wish those injured a speedy recovery,” said Premier Modise.

It is alleged that the driver of an overloaded panel van carrying 14 passengers tried to overtake three vehicles and collided head on with the oncoming bus which was carrying 29 people including the driver.

All the passenger who were in the van, 10 males, two females and three children aged between 8 and 12  and the driver reportedly died instantly while the bus driver and his 28 passengers were taken to Moses Kotane Provincial Hospital near Sun City with minor injuries.The Premier said that though intensified law enforcement has assisted to reduce road accidents and fatalities, every road users should support the Decade of Action for Road Safety Campaign and accept that road safety is everybody’s business.

“One death on our roads is a death too many. Despite leaving many widowed and orphaned, road accidents put a strain on our health care system, leave behind untold miseries and many crippled,” added Modise.

She said that the provincial government will do everything to ensure that the families who lost their loved ones received the support and assistance towards the burial of their loved ones.

North West Premier Thandi Modise has called on provincial authorities to clamp down on initiation schools that operate outside the law. This follows the death of a 17-year old at an initiation school at Majemantsho village in Mahikeng over the weekend. 

“Chancers and those who commit atrocities at initiation schools undermine our tradition and culture and should be brought to book. We call on traditional leaders as custodians of our tradition and culture to monitor initiation schools within their areas of jurisdiction and report ill-treatment and illegal operations to authorities,” stressed Premier Modise.     

According to police, two people aged 28 were arrested after preliminary investigations found he had been assaulted, all over his body and head, with a sjambok. SAPS NWest Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Lesego Metsi says that the deceased was found by another initiate lying dead outside their kraal and he called their principal.

The teenager’s family called the police after they were notified of his death on Saturday. The arrested suspects are expected to appear in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Earlier in the week on Wednesday 5 people were also arrested in connection with the death of 19-year-old an initiate whose burnt body was found in a shallow grave at Doorenpan in the Ventersdorp District.

According to police, Lesego Cassias Goliath had joined an initiation school on June 12 and between then and the June 24, the deceased was brutally assaulted by the initiation school’s principal and he subsequently died.

It is alleged that the principal and four boys burnt Goliath’s body and buried it at a municipal dumping side.

His remains were found by police with the help of sniffer dogs in a field not far from the initiation school.

The principal, aged 32, and his four accomplices, aged between 17 and 21, were expected to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court soon on murder charges.

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Cape Town – US President Barack Obama called on young Africans to rise to the challenge of shoring up progress on the continent that rests on a “fragile foundation”, summoning them to fulfill the legacy of South Africa’s beloved former leader Nelson Mandela.

In his own effort to carve out a piece of that legacy, Obama announced a new US-led initiative to double access to electric power across Africa, vowing to help bring “light where there is currently darkness”.

“Nelson Mandela showed us that one man’s courage can move the world,” Obama said during an evening speech on Sunday at the University of Cape Town.

Obama’s remarks capped an emotional day that included a visit to the Robben Island prison where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero has been in hospital for most of this month and is said to be in critical condition.

In deeply personal remarks, the US president spoke of standing in Mandela’s cramped prison cell with his two young daughters, Malia and Sasha.

“Seeing them stand within the walls that once surrounded Nelson Mandela, I knew this was an experience they would never forget,” he said. 

“I knew they now appreciated a little bit more that Madiba and other had made for freedom,” Obama added, referring to Mandela by his clan name.

‘Ripple of hope’

Obama address came nearly 50 years after Robert F Kennedy delivered his famous “Ripple of Hope” speech at the same university, an address that Obama aides said helped inspire the president’s remarks. 

Kennedy’s speech, delivered soon after Mandela was sentenced to prison, called on young people to launch a fight against injustice, creating ripples of hope that would “build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”.

Laying out his own vision for development on the continent where his father was born, Obama said the US seeks “a partnership that empowers Africans to access greater opportunity in their own lives”.

He dismissed the notion that the US sought to meddle in Africa’s affairs, saying his country would benefit from the continent’s ability to manage its own affairs – economically, politically and militarily.

“Ultimately I believe Africans should make up their own minds about what serves African interests,” he said. 

“We trust your judgment, the judgment of ordinary people. We believe that when you control your destiny – if you got a handle on your governments – then governments will promote freedom and opportunity, because that will serve you.”

The White House says Obama’s electricity initiative, dubbed “Power Africa,” symbolises the type of cross-continent ventures the president seeks. 

Backed by $7bn in US investment, the power programme will focus on expanding access to electricity in six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Private companies – including General Electric and Symbion Power – will make an additional $9bn in commitments. 

However, those contributions fall well short of the $300bn the International Energy Agency says would be required to achieve universal electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

The funds are aimed at expanding the reach of power grids and developing geothermal, hydro, wind and solar power.

AP

Fifteen people were killed when a bakkie and bus collided on the R510 on Sunday, the North West public safety department said.

Department spokesperson Simon Mmope said paramedics confirmed that 10 men, two women and three children, aged between 8  and 12 were killed in the crash, which occurred between Northem and Rustenburg.

“According to traffic authorities the bakkie was overtaking when it collided head on with a bus. All people in the bakkie died on the scene,” said Mmope.

A number of the bus passengers were injured. They were transported to a local hospital.

The road linking the North West to Limpopo was closed for several hours after the crash but it had since been re-opened.

SAPA

Harare – President Robert Mugabe has become Zimbabwe’s sole law-making authority until the next elections are held following the automatic dissolution of parliament, his justice minister told state media on Sunday.

The country’s legislature was dissolved on Saturday after completing its five-year term.

According to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa this left veteran leader Mugabe as the only law-making power until new elections, for which no clear date has been set yet.

“There is no authority with the power to make legislation except the president,” the Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Chinamasa as saying.

“The executive will be left legally limping because it needs the legislature for it to be fully functional,” he added.

Mugabe and his long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai disagree over the date for upcoming polls that would end their power-sharing government.

Mugabe unilaterally proclaimed 31 July for a presidential and parliamentary vote, but mediators have since pressured him to apply for a two-week delay.

Tsvangirai has filed an appeal, arguing that the proposed delay was too short to implement key reforms in media and the security forces.

This will be the longest time since 1980 independence that the country is run under presidential decree after the dissolution of parliament, according to Chinamasa.

“Normally parliament is dissolved the midnight before elections,” he said.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government four years ago to pull the country back from the brink of conflict.

New elections were due 18 months after the formation of the government, but disagreements over the reforms have derailed the vote preparations.

AFP

Cape Town – US President Barack Obama warned on Sunday that Africa could only fulfil its rising potential with leaders who serve their people, not tyrants who enrich themselves.

In a strident call for democratic change and good governance, Obama used the political legacy of ailing Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s emergence from grim years of apartheid as proof that freedom will ultimately prevail.

“In too many countries, the actions of thugs and warlords and human traffickers hold back the promise of Africa,” Obama said at a speech at the University of Cape Town.

“America cannot put a stop to these tragedies alone, and you don’t expect us to. That is a job for Africans. But we can help you and we will help you,” he said, announcing major new US programmes to boost electricity and health care.

“History shows us that progress is only possible where governments exist to serve their people and not the other way around,” said Obama, in a line that drew loud and prolonged cheers from his audience of more than 1 000 people.

The speech was delivered from the same spot where American political icon Robert F Kennedy delivered his famous “ripple of hope” speech in 1966, which called on students to decry the “racial inequality of apartheid”.

Obama’s goal was to inspire a new generation of Africans with the belief that they could ignite political change and the potential of their continent.

He slammed leaders who “steal or kill or disenfranchise voters”, saying that the ultimate lesson of South Africa was that such brutal tactics will not work.

“So long as parts of Africa continue to be ravaged by war and mayhem, opportunity and democracy cannot take root,” said Obama.

“Across the continent, there are places where still, fear often prevails,” Obama said, warning of “senseless terrorism” from Mali to Mogadishu.

“From Congo to Sudan, conflicts fester,” Obama said, hitting out at those who argue that American calls for democracy and freedom are “intrusive” or “meddling”.

He also condemned the rule of Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where he said the “promise of liberation gave way to the corruption of power and the collapse of the economy”.

Like the rest of Obama’s trip to South Africa, the speech was rich in emotion when he mentioned his hero Mandela, who lies critically ill in a Pretoria hospital.

“You have shown us how a prisoner can become president,” Obama said. AFP

Kimberley – A Kimberley diamond trader and owner of Florio-Poone Diamonds CC, was on Thursday held at gunpoint in her Monument Height’s home by two men who robbed her of her family’s jewellery and diamonds worth more than R1 million.

The incident comes after a recent spate of attacks and robberies on local diamond traders, including the owner of Pikwane Diamonds, Trevor Pikwane, who was shot in the chest during an apparent armed robbery in April.
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Kimberley – The Independent Community of Kimberley (ICOK) has called on residents to rally against illegal tuck-shop owners by littering and throwing faeces at the entrances of government buildings as well as the homes of councillors on July 2.

The ICOK on Thursday said it had requested the Public Protector to investigate fraudulent leases where bribes of goods, money and airtime was allegedly being given to a local attorney, law enforcement authorities, municipal and South African Security Agency (Sassa) officials in exchange for securing business premises for foreign nationals.
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