Orlando Pirates’ wing wizards, Tlou Segolela and Mark Mayambela, are expected to report for pre-season training next week, despite their futures remaining in doubt.

Segolela and Mayambela have both been linked with moves away from the Buccaneers during the upcoming transfer window, with the former yet to have a loose option on his contract extended and the latter due to see his deal expire at the end of June.

However, despite the fact that both players could well leave the club, their representative, Tim Sukazi, has confirmed to Soccer-Laduma that, for now, they are still contracted to Pirates and are therefore obliged to attend pre-season training when it begins on June 18th.

The crew recently revealed that Segolela has been invited for a trial with an unnamed English Championship club, though it remains to be seen whether he would get a permit to go there.

Meanwhile, Mayambela has struggled for game time at Pirates since joining from Bloemfontein Celtic and his future has been in doubt for a while now.
For more http://www.soccerladuma.com

Johannesburg – ANC branches in the Eastern Cape are in the midst of an intense leadership race as the province prepares to hold its elective conference later this month, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday.

Only the position of provincial chairperson looked likely not to be contested, according to the report.

Two line-ups had emerged with both groups wanting incumbent Phumulo Masualle to retain his position.

However, the position of deputy chairman could be contested by OR Tambo district mayor Dingaan Myolwa and Amathole regional chairperson Sakhumzi Somyo.

The position of provincial secretary was also reportedly hotly contested between African National Congress MPL Michael Peter and incumbent Oscar Mabuyane.

Helen Sauls-August and Ten-Ten Pikinini were likely to contest the position of deputy secretary.

Zukiswa Faku and MECs Pemmy Majodina and Thandiswa Marawu would contest the position of treasurer.

According to Dispatch Online, ANC Youth League Eastern Cape chairperson Ayanda Matiti’s ambition of leading the ANC in the province was dealt a blow at the weekend when the branch in his home town of Mdantsane did not nominate him for the provincial executive committee (PEC).

However, Raymond Mhlaba branch member Thembi Maseti reportedly said Matiti had been nominated.

During a meeting last week it was found that Matiti’s membership in the branch was not in good standing.

This was confirmed by Buffalo City regional secretary Phumlani Mkolo.

– SAPA

Durban – Two school pupils were seriously injured and 10 others sustained minor injuries when a taxi they were travelling in overturned on Wednesday morning in Gillitts, near Pinetown, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the accident happened on Stockville Road at about 07:00.

The cause of the accident was not known. The pupils had been taken to various hospitals in Durban.

In another accident, a 6-year-old pupil was in a critical condition at the Albert Luthuli Hospital after being hit by a vehicle.

Botha said the girl was hit while she was crossing Briardale Road in Newlands West, Durban, at around 07:00.

When paramedics arrived on the scene they placed her on a ventilator, he said.

– Were you there? Send us your eyewitness accounts

– SAPA

Pretoria – Numerous media houses remained outside a Pretoria hospital on Wednesday as former president Nelson Mandela spent his fifth day there being treated for a recurring lung infection.

More than ten outside broadcast vehicles were parked close to one of the hospital’s entrances.

Security remained tight at the facility, with six police officers manning each entrance. All cars entering the facility were searched.

By 08:00, no family members of the elder statesman had been seen entering or leaving the hospital.

Visitors

On Tuesday, Mandela’s ex-wife, African National Congress MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, left the hospital before 18:00.

She and her daughter Zindzi were driven off in a black Audi, escorted by a white Mercedes Benz. Both cars had flashing blue police lights.

Mandela’s other two daughters, Makaziwe and Zenani, who is South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina, were also seen at the hospital on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the presidency announced that the ailing icon had been admitted to hospital in the early hours of the morning and was in a “serious but stable” condition.

His condition had remained unchanged since then.

The presidency said on Tuesday that the doctors treating Mandela had given President Jacob Zuma a thorough briefing on Monday night.

“President Zuma has full confidence in the medical team, and is satisfied that they are doing their best to make Madiba better,” spokesperson Mac Maharaj said in a statement.

Mandela was still in a “serious but stable” condition.

This is the third time this year the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been hospitalised.

At the end of March and in April, he spent nine days in hospital receiving treatment for recurring lung problems.

Earlier in March, he was admitted to a Pretoria hospital for a scheduled check-up and was discharged the following day.

– SAPA

Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal government wanted a contract with Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi to be concluded quickly so he could make a donation to the ANC, the Mercury reported on Wednesday.

Former KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni allegedly told this to Kantha Padayachee, who is challenging her suspension from the provincial health department in the Labour Court.

Padayachee, who was the health department’s legal services general manager, told the court that Nkonyeni told her about the donation when she raised concerns about the contract for oxygen-generating plants.

“She told me she [Nkonyeni] had just become the treasurer of the ANC in the province and was under pressure to conclude the contract [with Intaka] so the ANC could receive the donation,” Padayachee was quoted as saying by the Mercury.

According to the paper, Padayachee was in court fighting her three-year suspension from the department.

She claims she was suspended after being interviewed by the Hawks in connection with a corruption case.

In the case, Cape Town-based Gaston Savoi and several senior KwaZulu-Natal government employees were charged with racketeering, fraud, and money laundering.

The Mercury reported that the State alleged Savoi made a R1m donation to the ANC to secure the contract to supply water purification and oxygen-generating plants to the provincial departments of local government and health.

Nkonyeni, who was now the speaker in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, was initially charged, but these charges were withdrawn in October. 

The health department said Padayachee was suspended after misconduct charges were brought against her. 

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje

Mahikeng-North West social development MEC Mosetsanagape Mokomele-Mothibi vows that she won’t pay even a cent on alleged misappropriate of funds she found herself in.

MEC Mokomele-Mothibi admitted using R174 000 of taxpayers’ money to attend the 2012 ANC elective conference in Mangaung, according to a report.

Mokomele-Mothibi admitted in a statement from the provincial legislature that she used the money to pay for her friend and officials to go to the conference and undertook to pay the money within a week, Business Day newspaper reported.

She and senior managers from her department appeared before the standing committee on provincial accounts on Tuesday, after it was claimed she attended the conference using taxpayers’ money.

Yesterday Mothibi changed her tune and said she won’t pay the money as the ministerial booklet allowed her to the benefit.

The committee decided to investigate Mokomele’s claim whether she was on an official trip or private.

“I will not pay back the money as I am entittled to those benefits. I do not know why only me being brought forward before the committe while there are other MECs who did the same, but they are not questioned” said furious Mokomele-Mothibi.

According to Chauke, the MECs are only covered if they on an official trip.

According to reports, a friend used a room meant for the department’s chief financial officer, who was unable to attend due to illness.

Committee chairman Hlomane Chauke said her admission had been welcomed, but that the committee would reconvene to make further recommendations to the legislature.

Democratic Alliance leader in the North West Chris Hattingh said the case should be referred to the police’s commercial crimes branch.

He said the DA would continue to demand full disclosure of all provincial government spending at the ANC conference, as Mokomele-Mothibi’s matter was unlikely to be an isolated incident.

According to other reports, other senior managers who were involved already paid their debts.

Additional reports http://www.timelive.co.za

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By Obakeng Maje

Mahikeng-SA National Council for the Blind’s Bureau on a mission of giving back the gift of sight to the North West communities.

The Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness, SA National Council for the Blind’s Eye Care Services Division has just celebrated 60 years of mobile outreach service to South Africa. 

“To mark this, Council and our Bureau are launching a dedicated eye care facility in the North West” National Executive Director Jace Nair said. 

Nair said due to the need for eye care services in this province, a special Parkhome is earmarked to become a permanent eye care facility in the North-West Province at Mafikeng Provincial Hospital. “This is where pre and post-operative care will be provided” said Nair.

The facility will be opened by the SA National Council for the Blind in association with the North West Provincial Department of Health and funded by the Allergan Foundation. 

“The launch will be held by North West Provincial Department of Health and the SA National Council for the Blind at the Mafikeng Provincial Hospital Complex” Department of Health spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said.

The department said 80% of blindness is avoidable either through prevention or through treatment. 

“We hope that this dedicated facility helps to meet the challenges of urgent eye care treatment for those in need” said Lekgethwane. 

Date    : 13 June 2013

Venue : Bophelong Mafikeng Provincial Hospital Complex, Recreational Hall.

Time   : 11:00 

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Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has sought to reassure an uneasy nation that Nelson Mandela, although in a “very serious” condition as he battles a recurrent lung infection, is receiving the best of care.

Zuma got a briefing on Tuesday from doctors on the condition of the frail former president, who has showed no sign of improvement after four days in hospital.

In a terse interview on Tuesday, Zuma said the 94-year-old father of modern South Africa was in a stable condition.

‘Fighter’

“We are all feeling it, that our president, the real father of democracy in South Africa, is in the hospital,” Zuma told public broadcaster SABC as Mandela was to spend a fifth day in hospital.

“We need him to be with us,” Zuma said. “And I’m sure, knowing him as I do, he’s a good fighter and he’ll be with us very soon.”

Zuma said he had full confidence in the medics attending to the former statesman, who was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Saturday.

“Whilst it is very serious… he’s stabilised and we are all praying for him really to recuperate quickly,” he said.

Zuma’s spokesperson Mac Maharaj earlier told AFP that “stable has not meant better or worse, what it means is that his condition is not changing.”

Mandela’s relatives streamed to the Medi Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria to be at his bedside as fears grew over his condition.

Security was tightened around the private facility, where a dozen armed police stood guard outside and incoming vehicles and pedestrians were searched amid a heavy media presence.

A police sergeant told AFP that the officers had been deployed at the hospital “to protect the members of his family who come to visit him”.

Mandela’s daughters Makaziwe and Zindzi, as well as former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were seen entering the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

His current wife, Graca Machel, called off a trip to London last week to be with her ailing husband.

Tuesday marked 49 years to the day since Mandela was convicted in 1964 for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government. A day later he was sentenced to life in prison.

Ill health

Mandela’s latest health scare has been met with a growing acceptance among South Africans that their hero, who became the first black leader of the country after historic all-race elections in 1994, may be nearing the end of his life.

He has a long history of lung problems since being diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis in 1988. This is his fourth hospital stay since December.

Two months ago the Nobel peace laureate, who turns 95 next month, was discharged after treatment for pneumonia.

In December he underwent surgery to remove gallstones as he recovered from a lung infection. Then in March he was admitted for a scheduled overnight check-up before returning to hospital later that month for 10 days.

“Pneumonia is a killer disease,” said Keertan Dheda, the head of pulmonology at the University of Cape Town.

“In Mr Mandela’s case, besides age, we know that he has previously had tuberculosis and that can weaken the lung defences and make one more prone to infections.”

ANC visit

In late April, Zuma and top officials in the African National Congress were photographed with an unsmiling Mandela looking exceedingly frail at his Johannesburg home.

The visit prompted allegations that the embattled party was exploiting Mandela for political gain.

The ANC, facing 2014 elections, has lost much of its Mandela shine amid widespread corruption, poverty and poor public services.

Mandela has not been seen in public since the World Cup final in South Africa in July 2010, and has not been politically active for years.

“I think there will be concerns from outside South Africa that Mandela is seen as the glue that holds South Africa together,” analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

“But I think that this is something long gone, frankly.”

After serving just one term as president, Mandela turned his energy to the battle against Aids and to conflict resolution, before stepping out of the public eye at age 85.

Ordinary people, young and old, on Tuesday left messages of support outside his home in northern Johannesburg.

A couple wearing T-shirts bearing the words “We love you Papa Mandela” placed a teddy bear in a similar shirt outside the gate.

Others wrote messages of support on small stones outside the high security walls, while a group of schoolchildren stopped by to sing for him to “get well”.

AFP

Two of the police officers deployed to Marikana in August have committed suicide, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said on Tuesday.

“From the Marikana lot we had something like two suicides that come out of members who were involved,” she told the Farlam Commission of Inquiry in Centurion.

“Looking at the raw numbers… I am aware that in 2010 we had 97 suicides, in 2011 we had 85, and in 2012 we had 116 suicides.”

Phiyega was being cross-examined by Louis Gumbi, for the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union.

He is also acting for the family of Warrant Officer Sello Lepaku. Striking Lonmin miners hacked him to death on August 13 last year.

Gumbi said low-ranking police officers had high levels of stress and often turned to alcohol. Officers were also inclined to commit suicide.

Phiyega responded: “I note that and this is why our employee health and well-being also focuses on things such as emotional competence and development.”

Reading from a speech by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Gumbi said 10,636 officers suffered from depression, and 2763 from post-traumatic stress disorder. There had also been many attempted suicides.

“So, given those figures, national commissioner, would you agree with me that you cannot exclude the possibility that some of the police officers that were deployed at Marikana… some of them, it’s possible that they were suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, given these figures?” Gumbi asked Phiyega.

“I wouldn’t be able to attest or not attest to that because we didn’t make that assessment,” she replied.

Phiyega said the police had a number of psychologists and other professionals on hand to attend to officers in debriefings.

The current police-to-population ratio is one to 306.

Gumbi said most of the police officers who shot at Marikana miners on August 16 were low-ranking officers, leading to their high levels of stress.

Thirty-four striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 wounded when police fired on them while trying to disperse a group which had gathered on a hill near the mine. In the preceding week, 10 people, including two police officers and security guards, were killed.

Earlier, Phiyega said she was worried about the number of police officers killed on duty.

“We recognise the fact that policing is not an easy task… especially when you have to confront criminals,” she said.

Gumbi focused on the killing of officers and the fact that 82 officers were killed in the country in the last financial year.

She said as a result of confrontations with criminals, officers experienced “a lot of trauma”. Steps had been taken to counsel officers and train them to be better equipped for such situations.

The hearing continues. – Sapa

By Obakeng Maje

The police in Vioolsdrift are investigating a case of three counts of attempted murder after a 35 year old husband and father was arrested on Sunday at 13:31 at his residence in Tambo Street, Vioolsdrift. 

“It is alleged that the man fed his two children aged 4 and 9 years old and his wife poison earlier in the day” colonel Priscilla Naidu said.

Colonel Naidu further alleged that the father took blue poison that is used by farmers to kill worms and mixed it with tea. The potion was given to his wife and the two children to drink.

“The unsuspecting victims drank the poisoned tea. The community found the victims writhing in pain and alerted police who found them to be in a serious condition” said Naidu. 

They were immediately taken to hospital for medical treatment. The mother and 9 year old boy are in a critical but stable condition in the Springbok Hospital and were discharged. 

A 4 year-old daughter was transported via an emergency medical helicopter from Springbok hospital to Kimberley Hospital in a critical condition.

“The suspect was arrested and will appear in the Springbok Magistrate court today. The reason for poisoning his family is not yet known” said police. Police have seized the poison containers and other exhibits which will be sent for analysis. 

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