vJohannesburg – Public interest law centre Section 27 backed Equal Education’s (EE) campaign for minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure on Thursday.

“We believe that failure to adopt these norms and standards over more than five years is a violation of the right to basic education,” Section 27 said in a statement.

It also condemned Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s response to EE’s protest on Tuesday.

“This reminds us of the dark days when the discredited former minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, resorted to similar tactics in order to cloud the real issues surrounding HIV/Aids in South Africa,” it said.

On Tuesday Motshekga said a re-draft of the norms and standards for school infrastructure would take at least six months to complete.

It would not be done at EE’s whim, she said.

After an EE-organised march in protest over the delay she commented: “… To suddenly see a group of white adults organising black African children with half-truths can only be opportunistic, patronising and simply dishonest to say the least.”

Section 27 said the department had to embrace non-racialism and focus on the state of the country’s schools.

Deadlines

EE denied it was imposing impossible deadlines, saying the deadlines were proposed by Motshekga’s legal team, agreed to by her and noted in the high court.

The timeline required the minister to consult the public and promulgate final and binding norms and standards by 15 May.

EE said Motshekga asked for an extension for publication of the norms and standards on 9 May.

“EE granted a one month extension. Now the minister requests ‘at least’ another six months. EE cannot agree to this.”

The norms and standards campaign is to get the minister to define what makes a school a school and to set the basic level of infrastructure – such as toilets, running water, electricity, libraries, classrooms – required for it to function.

– SAPA

North West – Two police officers who allegedly turned a blind eye to a mob killing in North West could lose their jobs, The New Age newspaper reported on Thursday.

The policemen, whose names had been withheld, were filmed on a cellphone driving past a mob justice scene in Majemantsho village near Mafikeng where Boikie Molefe, 34, was being attacked.

Molefe had allegedly stabbed his ex-lover Motlalepula Matlala to death, before being caught and stoned to death.

The New Age reported that a preliminary internal investigation found that the officers should be charged with contravening regulation 20 of the Police Disciplinary Act, which was a dismissable offence.

A report on the matter was given to provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Zukiswa Mbombo on Wednesday.

It found the two officers had failed to protect the victim and prevent the attack.

North West police spokesman Lesego Metsi confirmed the findings and said Mbombo would study the report. – Sapa

Rustenburg – The families who participated in a cleansing ceremony in Marikana this week were thanked for their role in the ritual, the North West legislature said on Thursday.

Police and security guards who participated in Monday’s ceremony should be thanked, speaker Supra Mahumapelo’s spokesman Mongezi Tsenca said in a statement.

“The speaker is happy that our communities and institutions are adding their effort to find closure to the tragedy… .”

On August 16, police shot dead 34 striking Lonmin miners at Marikana. Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed during the violent strike in the preceding week.

President Jacob Zuma established the Farlam Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deaths.

The Bojanala Platinum district municipality said on Monday that the ceremony was successful and that 40 families attended. Spokesman Archie Babeile said the ceremony involved the slaughter of sheep at the site where the miners were killed. – Sapa

Pietermaritzburg – KwaZulu-Natal spent R15m in renovating Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s palaces in 2012/13 financial year, Premier Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.

He revealed the figure when tabling a budget of R63m for the department of the royal household, in the provincial legislature.

He said R20m of the new budget was allocated for “the overall maintenance of the royal household infrastructure, including the refurbishment of palaces.

“The real challenge is that most of the palaces may require major reconstruction due to the age of these structures.”

Mkhize said the allocation would also be responsible for providing domestic services to the palaces.

Construction at Ingwavuma Palace had been delayed due to poor performance by the contractor. This led to the appointment of a new contractor and the project would resume in the 2013/14 financial year.

Renovations at the royal residences included the construction of two double-storey rondavels, a single floor rondavel, a garage with living quarters and a cool room at Dlamahlahla Palace.

There were also renovations to the king’s main house, of the king’s first house and water reticulation at KwaKhetha Palace and the upgrading of the security fence at Linduzulu Palace.

New air conditioners, the installation of geysers, the replacement of broken doors and windows, the upgrading of security lights and plumbing work at the Nyokeni Palace would be done in 2013/14 financial year.

– SAPA

Rustenburg – A miner wounded at Marikana on 16 August denied being on the koppie where protesters gathered the previous day, the Farlam commission of inquiry heard on Tuesday.

Mzoxolo Magidiwana repeatedly said he could not recall being on the koppie in the days leading up to the 16 August shooting of 34 striking Lonmin workers.

Advocate Vuyani Ngalwana, for the police, showed him a photograph he claimed was taken on the koppie on 16 August, and asked if he denied being in the picture.

Magidiwana said: “This person is that one you showed me [on Monday]… not me.”

Magidiwana was unable to tell the commission where police were stationed when the group of miners he was with moved in the direction of the Nkaneng informal settlement.

After repeating the question many times, and requesting a tea adjournment for Magidiwana to consider it, Ngalwana gave up, saying it seemed insurmountable.

Ngalwana showed the commission photographs of two groups of protesters on the koppie on 16 August. He said one group was dressed in layers of clothing, and the other group was less warmly dressed.

The heavily dressed group, of which Ngalwana claimed Magidiwana was a part, also appeared to be carrying more weapons than the other group.

Ngalwana said around the time the photo was taken, the temperature at Marikana was more than 20°C.

Asked why the second group was wearing fewer clothes, Magidiwana replied: “If there at home he doesn’t have anything to wear, that’s not my baby.”

The commission previously heard suggestions that some of the protesters dressed in layers of heavy clothing to protect themselves from rubber bullets.

We only wanted money

Earlier, Magidiwana was repeatedly asked why his group did not disperse from the police line, as many other protesters did. He acknowledged that police aerial photographs, taken of the scene on 16 August, showed no police blocking the main road to Nkaneng.

He also acknowledged that the picture showed others walking unimpeded on that road.

Asked why his group did not disperse along the same path, Magidiwana said: “The question you are asking is self-explanatory. We wanted to walk that way but found it blocked.”

Ngalwana said: “I thought we agreed, no one was blocking that path.”

After repeated the question a number of times, including in Xhosa, Ngalwana said: “I take it you are refusing to answer my question?”

Magidiwana said: “What do you want me to say?”

Looking again at the aerial photograph, Ngalwana asked why his group did not disperse like others visible in the picture.

“We were singing… we did nothing to anyone so we walked, not ran.

“We only wanted money… after that, the road was blocked, the only way we could run was blocked,” Magidiwana said.

He raised his voice in frustration, and commission chairperson, retired judge Ian Farlam, asked him to behave himself.

Magidiwana previously told the commission the police repeatedly shot and beat him on 16 August.

He was arrested for possession of a firearm, but could not be detained because of the severity of his injuries.

He has denied police claims that he carried a firearm and that he shot at a police Nyala vehicle.

The commission is holding hearings in Rustenburg, North West, as part of its inquiry into the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana last year.

On 16 August, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when the police opened fire while allegedly trying to disperse a group which had gathered on a hill near the mine.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

– SAPA

A worker was shot dead at a Lonmin mine, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Monday, in the latest unrest to hit the troubled platinum belt.

“One of our members was attacked with a gun in our office at Lonmin’s Western Platinum mine,” spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said, adding the worker later died.

Police confirmed the shooting, EWN reported.

The man was expected to testify at the Marikana hearings into the deaths of more than 40 people at the mine last year.

– Reuters

Johannesburg – The DA will make a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) application to get a forensic report relating to the Lepelle-Nkumpi municipality in Limpopo.

The application would be to the Mayor Ivy Phaahla to access the outcome of a Gobodo forensic investigation, conducted between 2009 to 2010, into alleged tender irregularities worth over R50m DA Councillor Fani Tsela said on Thursday.

“We have been asking for the report to be debated in council and made public, but all our efforts have up to so far been barred and fruitless,” Tsela said.

He said the investigation cost over R1.5m.

In terms of Paia the mayor had 30 days to respond to the DA’s request.

According to its website, the municipality is the Capricorn region in a predominantly rural area south of Polokwane.

Comment was not immediately available from the municipality.

– SAPA

Cape Town – ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe has denied that former ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga had been demoted, following the announcement of his replacement on Thursday.

Motshekga was replaced as chief whip by Phumelele Stone Sizani.

Mantashe said the reason was that Motshekga was not a member of the ruling party’s national executive committee (NEC) – a pre-condition for being chief whip, which the ANC set in 2008.

“The reason for that is that we have always viewed it as correct to have the chief whip sitting in the NEC as part of the decision-making structures,” Mantashe told a media briefing at Parliament.

He said it was essential to keep a direct line of communication between top party structures and Parliament to resolve problems that arose in the legislature as soon as possible.

Motshekga – the ANC’s longest serving chief whip to date – failed to make it onto the NEC at the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane in December.

Asked why the decision to replace him came only six months later, Mantashe responded: “One thing that we don’t do when we run an organisation is to take decisions in a rush.”

Motshekga to remain MP

Motshekga was not at the news briefing, but said afterwards he would remain an ordinary MP.

“I will be here,” he told reporters, and later congratulated his successor during the sitting.

In a statement, the ANC thanked Motshekga for his work and credited him with resolving the ANC caucus’s financial problems.

“Since 2009, caucus has achieved four consecutive unqualified audit opinions. He leaves a caucus that is stable, both financially and politically.”

Sizani served on the NEC and was chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on rural development and land reform.

He would be replaced in that post by ANC MP Jerry Thibedi.

The ANC said the new deputy chief whip would be Doris Dlakude, who replaces Nkensani Kubayi.

Mantashe also announced the ANC had confirmed the appointment of Annelize van Wyk as chairperson of the portfolio committee on police.

– SAPA

Pretoria – A witnesses set to testify about the Marikana shootings has received death threats, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.

“It has come to our attention that one of the witnesses, who has filed a statement, has received anonymous death threats,” Vuyani Ngalwana, for the police, told the commission sitting in Centurion.

“[The] SA Police Service[SAPS] has no intention to call this person as a witness, as we know that people have been murdered. Police have been asked to investigate.”

The witness’s statement was summarised before the commission on Friday.

He received the death threats on Tuesday through e-mails and cellphone text messages, Ngalwana said.

Commission chairperson, retired Judge Ian Farlam, said the matter was “distressing”.

“We have already had a number of deaths in relation to people supposed to give evidence. As the commission we will not insist on the witness to give evidence.

“Anyone foolish enough to consider killing a person because he was about to testify can expect the full wrath of the law to be applied against them.”

Ngalwana would not reveal the witness’s name.

Since the commission was established several individuals involved in the strike at Marikana in August had been murdered.

Witnesses killed

In March, Alton Zikhuthele, 69, a sangoma, was killed at his home at Ludeke Holt village in Mbizana, Eastern Cape.

He had been expected to testify about his role in the rituals that made protesters believe they would be invisible in the face of gunfire.

Last month, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) shop steward was shot dead and his colleague wounded in an attack at Lonmin’s Wonderkop hostel.

Also in March, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) regional chairperson Mawethu Steven was shot dead.

The commission is probing the circumstances that led to the deaths of 44 people during the unrest in Marikana, North West, last year.

Police shot dead 34 striking miners near Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana on 16 August.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed during the preceding week.

– SAPA

Veteran defender Matthew Booth has decided against taking up the offer of an contract extension at Ajax Cape Town.

“We are disappointed to lose the services of Matthew Booth,” club CEO George Comitis tells the club’s official site. “He played a crucial role in ensuring our survival in the relegation battle.”

Booth, who scooped the Player of the Year award at Ajax Cape Town’s end-of-season awards, has informed Urban Warriors management that because of family commitments he will be moving to Johannesburg.

His contract comes to an end in June.

A statement on the club’s website thanks the defender for his service: “We would like to thank Matthew for his effort and commitment to the club and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”

For more http://www.kickoff.com