Johannesburg – Pay TV channel M-Net is pulling campaign adverts featuring “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius off air with immediate effect, a company official said on Thursday.

Pistorius was due to appear on Thursday, but the court appearance was later moved to Friday.

The man known as the ‘Blade Runner’ will spend the night in jail, police confirmed.

This was after the shooting at his home of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

“We are at this stage as the SA Police Services not able to disclose why are we opposing the bail,” said Beukes.

Pistorius was held at the Boschkop police station on Thursday morning, then taken to the Mamelodi Day Clinic for forensic tests.

Pistorius was co-operating with police, she said.

Beukes said there had been other incidents of domestic violence at his place.

“I confirm there had been previous incidents of a domestic nature at his place but this will form part of the investigation,” she said.

She said there was no sign of forced entry into Pretorius’ house and reports that the woman was shot after she was mistaken for an intruder were not coming from the police.

“As SA Police Services we do not have a report based on those allegations. We only heard over the radio that the woman was shot after she was mistaken for an intruder.”

Beukes said forensic detectives were busy collecting evidence from the crime scene and journalists would not be allowed in until the police handed over the scene to the estate’s security company. – Sapa, Reuters, AFP

THREE policemen who are alleged to have been part of a long-running car theft
and hijacking syndicate were arrested in a series ofpre-dawn raids on their
homes in Soweto

The arrests, led by the Hawks, come after 14 months of investigations and sting operations where investigators bought eight stolen vehicles from the syndicate to strengthen their case.

The policemen were arrested in Protea, White City Jabavu and Jabulani. One of them is believed to be a ring leader and the other kingpin is a civilian.

When officers arrived at his home, his children were preparing for school.

The man’s youngest daughter broke into tears as police searched the home.

“The cells are cold, can I take a jacket?” the suspected rogue cop pleaded with his colleagues before being frog-marched out of the house.

The other officer was not at his home and police had to detain his sister, who led them to another property where he was arrested.

The third officer was due to be arrested at Protea police station just before he knocked off at 6am. But he had left work earlier.

He was nabbed elsewhere later in the morning. The operation netted nine of 10 targeted gang members.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the officers, who faced charges of defeating the ends of justice and corruption, would trace stolen vehicles and instead of registering the recovery with the SAPS, they passed them on to vehicle thieves who would sell them.

The rest of the syndicate will face charges of hijacking, vehicle theft and housebreaking.

Ramaloko said many of the vehicles were stolen from yards at night and others were hijacked.

He said in one incident the officers recovered a stolen vehicle and then sold it back to the legitimate owner.

One other suspected stolen vehicle was recovered.

Ramaloko said the gang was expected to appear in the Protea Magistrate’s court tomorrow.

For more details go to www.sowetanlive.co.za

The president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) returned to the stand at the Farlam commission of inquiry in Rustenburg on Thursday.

Senzeni Zokwana did so because Karel Tip, for the NUM, sought clarity on a strike by rock drill operators in the North West in June.

The inquiry heard that the rock drill operators at Lonmin platinum’s Marikana mine met with rock drill operators from another mine who indicated they could not get a wage increase.

The morning’s procedures started with Dali Mpofu, for the injured and arrested miners, seeking clarity from Zokwana on the songs union members sung at protests.

Zokwana earlier testified they were threatening. However, on Thursday he said not all the songs should be taken literally.

Zokwana was finished by the tea break and Mpofu indicated he would call a new witness, one of the miners shot and injured in August.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s Marikana mine. On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when police opened fire while trying to disperse a group that 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.

The inquiry continues.
      
Sapa

Pretoria – The woman shot dead at Paralympian Oscar Pistorius’s home early on Thursday has been identified as model Reeva Steenkamp, 30.

Shiri Reouveni, of Steenkamp’s PR agency, said they had been told it was Steenkamp who had been shot, but did not want to say more.

Asked if she could confirm if it was Steenkamp who was shot, she said: “Yes”.

They would issue a statement later.

Steenkamp was reportedly shot in the head and upper body in Pistorius’s home in the Silver Lakes Golf Estate in Boschkop.

A convoy of about 10 police cars arrived at the Boschkop police station in Pretoria following the shooting.

Oscar’s sister, Aimee, was among those arriving at the station.

Police said a case of murder has been opened.

“I can confirm to you that a 26-year-old suspect will be appearing in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court this afternoon following a shooting at Oscar Pistorius’ house,” Mogale said.

Police would not confirm who the suspect was as he had not yet appeared in court but Beeld newspaper earlier reported on its website that Pistorius had allegedly accidentally shot dead his girlfriend after mistaking her for a robber.

Police spokeswoman Captain Sarah Mcira confirmed this to Beeld. – Sapa

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt says only one team went out to play football at the Orlando Stadium last night, and it wasn’t Orlando Pirates.

Rustenburg – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) intends visiting the families of Marikana miners killed last year, union president Senzeni Zokwana said on Wednesday.

“I will go visit the families of dead mines after the commission,” he told the Farlam commission of inquiry in Rustenburg.

“I am avoiding going to a place and saying something while I am under oath…. We care about the people.”

Tshepiso Ramphile, representing families of murdered security guards at the mine, concluded his cross-examination of Zokwana late  on Wednesday afternoon.

He said the NUM could have done more to protect miners and to avoid the deaths of 44 people during a violent strike in August.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, Zokwana defended the NUM’s decision, at the time of the strike, to tell its members to go to work to avoid losing their jobs.

During the cross-examination, he did not dispute calling Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s office for an additional deployment of police.

He said the reason for a police presence was to ensure law and order, and not to negotiate.

The commission heard that the situation at Marikana had been volatile and that workers had needed protection.

“NUM doesn’t have an army to go in when people are violent,” Zokwana said.

He said rumours and reports that the NUM was working with the mine had added to the NUM’s loss of control of its members.

“All the stories that the NUM was colluding with the employer added to us losing control,” Zokwana said.

“When violence was used it was difficult for us to call on shop stewards to return to work…. We did not only lose control, we lost lives.”

Ramphile wanted to establish whether the conduct of the NUM, its  members and officials was in the best interest of resolving the issues at the mine, and the nature of the NUM’s role in the strike violence.

The NUM had done a lot of good for miners, but the commission had been established to find out if weaknesses in the union had led  to the deaths of mineworkers, he said.

Ramphile asked Zokwana about the grades used to determine the wages of rockdrill operators.

Zokwana said the NUM was in talks with the Chamber of Mines to negotiate better wages for the rockdrill operators.

“We can deal with the industry. We have been engaging on the issue of grades,” he said.

Ramphile responded: “Could it be that the rockdrillers lost confidence?”

Zokwana said that before the union agreed to wage increases it consulted with its members, and rockdrill operators had agreed to the previous increase.

“I understand if rockdrillers were angry about these wages, but there should be ways of dealing with it. Violence is not the way to  deal with it,” Zokwana said.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s Marikana mine.

On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 were injured when police opened fire while trying to disperse a group which had gathered on a hill near Lonmin’s Platinum mine in Marikana.

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

Dali Mpofu, representing the miners injured and arrested during the strike, is expected to call his first witness to testify on Thursday.

Mpofu indicated that he would call a miner who was shot and injured on August 11.

Karel Tip, for the NUM, asked to re-examine Zokwana for clarity on one matter on Thursday morning. The commission was adjourned until 9.30am on Thursday. – Sapa