Pretoria – A senior Lonmin employee had to apologise at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry on Monday for describing Amcu’s president as a liar on national radio.

“I withdraw that, and I apologise to Joseph [Mathunjwa],” said Barnard Mokwena, who was Lonmin’s executive president of human capital and external affairs at the time of a strike in 2012.

Mokwena called Mathunjwa a liar on SAFM, when they appeared on Xolani Gwala’s morning programme on 15 August 2012.

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) president Senzeni Zokwana also participated in the radio interview.

“You accused him of lying before the South African people. You accused him of twisting the truth,” said the commission’s chairman, retired Judge Ian Farlam.

Mokwena told the commission: “On [the] Friday, I had two partners who were agreeing with me in principle that this was unprotected…. The three of us would run this interview together and workers should go back to work.

“I walked into the studio with the impression that he would reiterate that position,” he said.

Mokwena also accused Mathunjwa of calling the striking workers “sinister forces not to be engaged”.

Mokwena claimed to have recorded evidence that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) had spoken to strikers about wages at a hill near the mine.

However, he had to concede that this was not true.

“I retract that statement,” he said.

R12 500 wage demand

Mokwena also told North West police chief General Zukiswa Mbombo that it was Amcu which was making a R12 500 wage demand.

“Are you prepared to retract that as well Mr Mokwena?” asked Farlam.

“Yes, chair,” Mokwena said.

He continued: “I had honestly expected us to be a joint force in terms of what was going on. I just felt we were not in sync with Amcu: The way they approached the matter, the way they were discussing the matter with us.”

Farlam asked Mokwena if he had wanted Mbombo to arrest strikers and union leaders.

“I had no intention at any stage to get any union leader arrested. I was making an appeal that unless arrests were made, this may continue. I had absolutely no intention to influence her,” Mokwena replied.

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people during unrest near Lonmin’s Marikana mine.

Police opened fire on a group of mostly striking mineworkers, killing 34 of them on 16 August 2012. Around 70 people were injured and more than 200 were arrested. Police claimed they were trying to disperse and disarm them.

Ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane’s “buttocks” comment was a Sepedi idiom used to describe the extent she would go to in order to protect President Jacob Zuma.

Mokonyane was quoted in the Sowetan earlier as saying ANC members and Cabinet ministers would use their buttocks to defend Zuma.

“In our ethnic language, there are some idioms that you use to express a meaning like: Push until it happens, or do whatever it takes. That was an idiom, it was not a literal meaning,” said Mokonyane’s spokesperson Brenda Mpitsang.

“Someone who knows the language would understand the meaning. When she [Mokonyane] used that expression, she was trying to emphasise the extent she would go to counterattack the people who are attacking the president.”

“The attack is not on Zuma, but it is on the ANC. Re tlo thiba ka dibono [We will defend with our buttocks],” Mokonyane said at the launch of a water project in Marite, Mpumalanga, on Saturday.

“Like it or not, Zuma is ours. He will finish the term because we want water…”

Mokonyane said Zuma would finish his term in spite of the controversies surrounding him.

In March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Zuma had derived undue benefit from the R246m improvements made to his homestead in KwaZulu-Natal. She recommended that he pay back a portion of the money.

Zuma also came under the spotlight recently when the so-called “spy tapes” were released to the DA following a court order.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was warned in a wedding song at the weekend to leave President Jacob Zuma alone, The Star reported on Monday.

“Thuli Madonsela, akazi lutho ngaleyonto uZuma [Thuli Madonsela, Zuma does not know what you are accusing him of],” a Zulu regiment reportedly sang at the wedding of Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma at the weekend.

According to the newspaper, Sipho Mkhize, who was part of the regiment, said the song was composed recently, following controversy between Madonsela and Zuma.

“You cannot really say who composed that song. We all sing it now because we support Zuma and Madonsela must leave him alone,” he was quoted as saying.

Khulubuse married Swazi princess Fikisiwe Dlamini at the president’s home at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.

In March, Madonsela found that Zuma had derived undue benefit from R246m in improvements made to the homestead and recommended that he pay back a portion of the money.

The Special Investigating Unit has since blamed the architect Minenhle Makhanya for inflating the costs of the project and filed a civil claim for R155m against Makhanya in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court on 11 August. Makhanya has hired high profile lawyers to contest the case.

SAPA

A landscaped garden at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal cost R16-million, Beeld newspaper reported on Monday.

This included fully grown trees, that were planted at R7500 a tree.

Also, 12 protected cycads were planted at a cost of R5500 each.

The total tree bill for Nkandla was R1.6 million.

This information is contained in court papers in the R155 million civil claim against Nkandla architect Minenhle Makhanya, filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Source : Sapa

Polokwane – The ANC Youth League leader in Limpopo, Boy Mamabolo, was shot and wounded in a nightclub on Sunday evening, Capricorn FM reported on Monday.

Mamabolo and three friends were allegedly at a nightclub in Polokwane when the shooting happened.

Mamabolo was recovering in hospital, the Limpopo-based radio station reported, quoting eyewitnesses.

Several other people were injured.

Limpopo police were not immediately reachable to confirm the report.

Mamabolo is a former friend of ex-African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema, now the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Mamabolo is facing 72 fraud charges related to his chairmanship of the Limpopo Geographical Names Committee.

He was also embroiled in a court battle with Malema last year after he allegedly sent a threatening text message to Malema. He allegedly wrote in the SMS he would exhume Malema’s mother’s body and take her remains to Malema’s grandmother’s home in Seshego.

This was apparently in retaliation for Malema allegedly sending his allies to seduce Mamabolo’s girlfriend.

But the crimen injuria case against Mambolo was provisionally struck off the court roll last year.

#ANCYL member #BoyMamabolo shot and injured, allegedly by former #ANCYL office bearer. Tune in as details unfold. @CapricornFM

— CapricornFM News (@CapricornFMNews) September 15, 2014

SAPA

Durban – The case against three minors implicated in the murder of a woman who was decapitated was expected to continue in the Durban Regional Court on Monday.

On Friday, the court postoned the case so that their pleas could be typed out.

Falakhe Khumalo, aged 18, pleaded guilty on Thursday and was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the death of Desiree Murugan, whose headless body was found by municipal workers at Shallcross Stadium, in Durban, on 18 August.

He said he and his three co-accused lured Murugan, aged 39, to the stadium, where he paid her R100 for sex.

Khumalo said one of the minors stabbed her several times.

The body was dragged to another part of the sports field, where the head was chopped off.

Khumalo said he was promised R2m for the head of a white, Indian or coloured woman.

Traditional healer Sivonkaliso Mbili and his assistant Vusumuzi Gumede, aged 30, who were linked to the murder, have not pleaded and are expected to apply for bail on 22 September.

In an explanation of plea, Khumalo detailed how he plotted for more than a year to get the head to pay Mbili, who had cured him of a sexually transmitted disease.

Khumalo and the minors took the head to Mbili, the fourth accused in the trial.

Mbili allegedly ordered Gumede to bury the tins in which Murugan’s body parts were placed.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A 13-year-old boy drowned in a quarry dam in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, on Sunday, paramedics said.

“Paramedics received an emergency call from the Saps about a child that had apparently drowned in the nearby lake,” said ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring in a statement.

“Once on scene, paramedics discovered the lifeless body of the young body. Unfortunately there was nothing more the paramedics could do for the child and he was later declared dead.”

The boy was apparently pulled out of the dam by a passer-by.

Police were investigating.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A 13-year-old boy drowned in a quarry dam in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, on Sunday, paramedics said.

“Paramedics received an emergency call from the Saps about a child that had apparently drowned in the nearby lake,” said ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring in a statement.

“Once on scene, paramedics discovered the lifeless body of the young body. Unfortunately there was nothing more the paramedics could do for the child and he was later declared dead.”

The boy was apparently pulled out of the dam by a passer-by.

Police were investigating.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The fate of a Botswana man who was illegally deported – despite facing the death penalty – will be raised at the North Gauteng High Court.

Lawyers for Human Rights are seeking to compel the department of home affairs to locate Edwin Samotse after he was illegally sent back to his country last month.

The organisation also wants an assurance from the Botswana government that Samotse – who is wanted for murder in his home country – will not face the death penalty if convicted.

At the time of his illegal transfer, Samotse was in custody at the Polokwane police station while the Botswana government sought his extradition.

However, after the Botswana government refused to give assurances that, if extradited, Samotse would not face the death penalty, a South African court order was issued to ensure he was not deported.

In two previous cases, South African courts have ruled to ensure that the country’s government and its officials do not deport people to countries where capital punishment is used; unless assurances are given that they will not face the death penalty.

Meanwhile, two home affairs officials have been suspended for allegedly arranging Samotse’s unauthorised deportation, which apparently took place on 13 August.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Of the two men who allegedly opened fire in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court last month, wounding two people, one has been killed and the other arrested, Gauteng police said on Sunday.

The one man, 28, was shot dead and the other man, 26, was shot and injured during a shoot-out with police at the men’s hideout on Dunber Street in Yeoville on Saturday night, said Lieutenant Colonel Khensani Magoai.

“When the police arrived at the house, the suspects pointed at them with a firearm and one suspect was shot and killed,” said Magoai.

“The injured suspect was taken to hospital where he is under police guard.”

A firearm was also confiscated at the house.

On 19 August, a court orderly sustained a slight wound, and a police officer was seriously wounded in the head when the two awaiting-trial prisoners opened fire in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

On 20 August, The Times named them as Constable Eddie Ngobeni and Sergeant Theopilus Mogafe, the court orderly. Ngobeni was apparently trying to save Mogafe when he was shot.

The two prisoners, robbery accused Lucky Segwape, 28, and Nthabeleng Matlatfi, 26, were due to appear in court on charges of house robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms, The Times reported.

They emerged from the holding cells and opened fire in the courtroom.

Ngobeni was due to testify in their case. It was unclear how they got the weapon.

The two fled the court and hijacked a car outside. The vehicle was abandoned in Atteridgeville, where they hijacked another car, a red VW Polo.

Police were also searching for a third person who had escaped from custody when the two men opened fire in court.

He had appeared in court on the day of the shooting on a charge of armed robbery, had been ordered to stay in custody until his next appearance on 8 September.

On 20 August, Magoai said: “It was discovered that he [the third man] was not on the list of the awaiting-trial prisoners that were taken to correctional services.

“It is unknown how he escaped and an investigation is being conducted.”

The 26-year old faces charges of attempted murder, hijacking, escaping from lawful custody, the illegal possession of firearm and ammunition and pointing of firearm.

He would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon.

SAPA