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Cape Town – The South African Football Association (SAFA) has confirmed that Bafana Bafana’s friendly international against Lesotho will not be moved to Bloemfontein.

The game will now be played on June 2, a day later than initially scheduled, but will stay in Maseru.

Officials were negotiating to have the match moved from the Lesotho capital to Bloemfontein to make logistics easier for Bafana Bafana, who travel to Cameroon afterwards.

SAFA spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi confirmed to the KickOff.com website that the game was delayed by a day but it won’t be moved. It will also take place during the day, and not under floodlights as initially planned.

The friendly serves as a warm up for both countries ahead of Soccer World Cup qualifiers in June.

Bafana Bafana have two away matches in Group B against the Central African Republic on June 8 in Yaounde, Cameroon and Ethiopia on June 16 in Addis Ababa.

Lesotho play Zambia on June 8 and then host Ghana in Maseru a week later.
For more http://www.news24.com

Rustenburg – National police commissioner Riah Phiyega was misrepresented in a Sowetan newspaper article shortly after the Marikana shootings, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.

Under cross-examination by Dali Mpofu, for the wounded and arrested miners, Phiyega denied quotes attributed to her in the newspaper.

According to the article, Phiyega said police should not be sorry about shooting dead 34 miners on 16 August during the wage-related strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine last year.

She had been speaking at the funeral of Warrant Officer Sello Ronnie Lepaku on 20 August.

Striking mineworkers killed Lepaku during the unrest. Another officer was also killed and one was injured.

“[The] safety of the public is not negotiable. Take into account the reasons why we did what we did,” Phiyega was quoted as saying.

Misrepresentation

On Thursday, Phiyega denied she said any of this. It was a serious misrepresentation of what she had actually said at the funeral.

“I hold no authority on the words written by a journalist,” she said.

Everything she said at the funeral had been scripted, and her script from the funeral did not contain any of the things the Sowetan reported on.

“If you look at other newspaper reports, not one of the others say this,” said Phiyega.

Mpofu said merely because those words were not printed in her scripted speech, it did not necessarily mean she had not said them.

Commission chairperson, retired Judge Ian Farlam, enquired whether there was any video footage or audio available from the funeral.

Ishmael Semenya, for the police, said he was not sure and would look into it.

Mpofu also questioned why Phiyega had not followed up with the newspaper.

If the content was untrue, it would have had a damaging effect on herself and the SA Police Service (SAPS), he said.

“I didn’t dispute it, because we were not responding to any statements at the time. We wanted to give this process [the commission] a chance,” Phiyega responded.

“I was hopeful that we would get the opportunity to correct it.”

Addressing the issue

Mpofu said Phiyega’s lawyers had failed to raise the misrepresentation of her speech during her evidence-in-chief.

Phiyega said she believed that in taking part in the commission and answering the questions posed to her, she felt they were addressing it.

“I’m happy for this opportunity to address the commission. If they [Sowetan] have an appetite to correct it, they can do so. If they do not, I am doing it here,” she said.

The commission, sitting in Rustenburg, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people during the Marikana unrest.

Police shot dead 34 striking Lonmin mineworkers on 16 August. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.

– SAPA

Cape Town – South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) governor Gill Marcus on Thursday announced that the repo rate will remain at 5%.

The repo rate is the interest rate at which the Sarb lends money to commercial banks.

Growth prospects remain fragile amid low consumer confidence, said Marcus.

She said growth is expected to accelerate to 3.8% in 2015.

The Reserve Bank also expects a breach of the inflation target in Q3 of 2013.

On Thursday, data from Statistics South Africa showed inflation standing unchanged at 5.9% year-on-year in April.

On a month-on-month basis, inflation slowed to 0.4% compared with 1.2% in March.

The Monetary Policy Committee is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating outlook for the country, Marcus said.

The outlook for mining sector remains bleak with threats of job losses, high wage demands and strike action, she added.
For more http://www.news24.com

Mahikeng-Africans have from time immemorial upheld appreciable moral standards and their moral standing chiselled in their culture and traditions have punctuated the heartbeat of every part of their social and economic lives, North West Premier Thandi Modise declared in Mahikeng on Friday.

Delivering her 2013/2014 Departmental Policy Statement and Budget Speech in the Provincial legislature, Premier Modise said that the 50th Anniversary of the Organisation of Africa and celebration of the African Union’s 10th year of existence to be celebrated on Saturday 25 May 2013 are a celebration of Africa’s potential and intentions and a celebration of its march to equality, justice and progress on the continent.

“We are proud of this heritage, a heritage that has engendered in many amongst us, a sense of selflessness and giving. It has nurtured the spirit and enhanced our sense of collective coexistence, without which we remain disunited entities with a reduced sense of self,” underlined Modise.

The Premier further said that the province joins millions of Africans in the continent and in the Diaspora in the march for African Renaissance to reaffirm themselves and future generations of Africa that all efforts are steps geared to demonstrate the awakening of Africa as a self reliant economic giant.

“We know that our mother continent has gone through waves of democratisation after being colonised and brutalised for centuries, we know our determination, despite all the political and economic challenges we face as a continent, to make true the jubilee celebration of Pan Africanism,” highlighted Modise.

She said that South Africa has been given the responsibility for infrastructure development and that the establishment of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee could be seen as a model for the Africa infrastructure build.

Modise asserted that the African Union recognises that development that development, democracy and good governance, security and peace are the prerequisites for growth in Africa.
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Kimberley – The replacement of thousands of prepaid electricity meters to curb electricity income losses of about R3 million a month has started in Kimberley, a Sol Plaatje municipality spokesman said on Thursday.

“The municipality was experiencing a high incidence of tampering and by-passing of meters,” said spokesman Sello Matsie.

He said the number of known meters being by-passed stood at about 1200, while the total number of meters tampered with was estimated at 5 000.

“This was costing the council in excess of R3m a month,” he said

Matsie said the new meters contained technology which could help stop the proliferation of by-passed and tampered-with meters.

The project had started in the informal settlements of Kutlwanong, Beaconsfield, and Southridge. – Sapa

Durban – Vagrants living in stormwater culverts under the M4 southern freeway returned defiantly to their hideout just minutes after police left the area after a raid on Wednesday.

The operation was meant to catch criminals and illegal immigrants.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Cape Town – South African President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday labour strikes could cause major problems and job losses in Africa’s biggest economy.

“We are likely to run the economy of the country into a serious problem and therefore there will be more people unemployed and there will be therefore an extension of poverty,” Zuma said during an address to traditional leaders in parliament. – Reuters