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Dagga activists to host 4.20 celebration


Johannesburg – A party to raise funds for a legal challenge against dagga prohibition laws will be held in Johannesburg on Sunday, cannabis non-profit organisation Green Fields For All said on Saturday.
“This is the second year of our 4.20 party, a date ‘sacred’ to the worldwide cannabis culture,” spokesperson Julian Stobbs said.

According to Wikipedia, 20 April 20 or “4.20” has become a day of marijuana celebration, particularly in North America.

“We tap into a complete cross-section of South Africa, just as the plant does. It is truly a rainbow crowd of old young, black white, straight, gay, smoker and non-smoker alike.”

Stobbs said South Africa had a “huge, vibrant cannabis culture” with the plant being used for various purposes, including recreational and medical reasons.

“Easily half this country use dagga. Cannabis is cannabis, whatever you use it for,” he said. The fundraising party would be held in Johannesburg’s trendy Maboneng Precinct from 11:00 to 22:00 on Sunday.

Around 3 000 people attended the event last year, and Stobbs this year’s event was also expecting to be well attended, although a R50 entry fee had been introduced.

The 4.20 event would feature a restaurant and cash bar, DJs and graffiti artist tag teams creating a “legalise it” mural.

There would also be a small market selling “all things cannabis”, but not the drug itself.

Fundraiser

The event aimed to raise money for Stobbs’ and Myrtle Clarke’s, known as “the Dagga Couple”, legal challenge to South Africa’s dagga prohibition laws.

“The enforcement of dagga prohibition clogs our courts, creates unwarranted criminal records and costs SA taxpayers millions every year.

“The roots of prohibition lie in racism and it leads to organised crime, a fact supported by extensive international research,” Stobbs said.

The couple were arrested in August 2010 and faced a charge of drug dealing because they were in possession of more than 115g of dagga.

Their case was subsequently struck from the court roll, pending the outcome of their challenge to the legality of the dagga-prohibition legislation in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

“We have served summons on seven government departments to answer to our charge of unlawful legislation.”

The couple were seeking to call in eminent international experts on the matter at the next scheduled court appearance in March 2015.

“We will demonstrate to the court that it is possible to re-legalise dagga without causing any disruption to society whatsoever.”

“This is the next great civil movement,” he said.

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DA ad scores nearly half a millions hits on YouTube


Johannesburg – The DA’s “Ayisafani” (It’s not the same) election TV advert – originally pulled off the air by the SABC – had garnered nearly half a million views on YouTube by Saturday.
Over 491 000 people have viewed the advertisement on the social media site since it was posted on 8 April. It has 3 796 likes and 237 thumbs down.

The advert shows the DA’s Gauteng premier candidate and spokesperson, Mmusi Maimane, standing in front of a mirror talking about the current state of the country.

On the YouTube posting, the DA has added a caption below calling for supporters to “Help the DA fight corruption, e-tolls and Nkandla” – as well as providing a link for donations.

Under the video link, a variety of comments – some of them heated – weigh up the merits of the advertisement.

A more light-hearted batch are about the English automatic captions that YouTube has created for the advertisement. Maimane’s declaration that “there have been some great leaders”, has been reinterpreted by the captioning as him saying “there has been some crazy to see leaders”.

At one point in the advertisement, a mention of the ANC is subtitled as “Nancy” and Maimane’s final slogan line: “ANC Ayisafani, together we can bring hope”, is ‘translated’ as “ENC, I said fine to get weekend.”

This week, it was announced that the television advertisement, as well as five radio ads, would be aired by the SABC after the national broadcaster originally pulled them from the air after being flighted for two days on 8 and 9 April.

The party then laid a complaint with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

On Wednesday, a hearing by the Complaints and Compliance Committee at Icasa was postponed after the SABC hired a new legal team.

The DA accepted the postponement on condition that the party’s six adverts be aired with immediate effect.

Originally, the SABC said it could not broadcast the advertisements on grounds related to incitement of violence, publication of false information about election candidates and parties, the perceived personal nature of the attack on Zuma and advertising standards that did not allow the discrediting of one product to promote another.-Sapa

Dangerous start to Easter long weekend


Johannesburg – The Easter weekend has had a dangerous start on the roads as a number of accidents have been reported.

A woman was critically injured after a hit and run on Friday on Longmore Drive in Crystal Park, Benoni, paramedics said.

The woman was hit by the car when she tried to cross the road, ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said.

According to people who witnessed the accident the car sped off after it hit her.

“Bystanders pulled the woman from the middle of the road shortly after the incident,” Vermaak said.

Critical head injuries

When paramedics arrived on the scene they found the woman lying on the pavement.

The woman sustained critical head injuries. She was treated on the scene and taken to a nearby hospital.

Two children and three adults were injured in an accident on the N1 near Bloemfontein on Friday, paramedics said.

A car was travelling on the N1 highway when it was hit by truck from behind, said Vermaak.

“Paramedics treated two children, aged eight and [two], for moderate injuries. Three adults were also treated for moderate injuries,” Vermaak said.

The occupants of the car were transported a nearby Bloemfontein hospital for further treatment.

The driver of the truck was not injured.

Six children and two adults were injured in an accident near Harrismith in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, paramedics said.

The family of 10 was travelling toward Durban when their vehicle overturned 5km outside of Harrismith, said Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha.

Eight people including six children aged between one and 14 sustained serious to minor injuries.

Two people who were in the car were not injured. SAPA

Mbete: Foreigners bidding to topple ANC


Johannesburg – ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete has accused foreign networks of funding opposition parties in a bid to topple the ANC.

Speaking at a gathering of the Progressive Professionals Forum in Cape Town today, Mbete said there was a “narrative coming from outside the borders, or sponsored from there” that said the world, or “knowledgeable people”, had to “do everything they can, to put every bit of energy they can, to unseat former liberation governments”.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Twitter’s new mobile-app to reach 1bn


San Francisco – Twitter said its new mobile-advertising product will be able to reach more than 1 billion devices, rivalling the number of users on Facebook.

The ads, aimed at software makers seeking to encourage downloads of their applications, will be carried both on Twitter and outside the microblogging service, the company said in a blog post today.

The initiative marks the first time marketers will be able to buy ads via Twitter and take advantage of MoPub, a mobile-advertising exchange that Twitter bought in October.

Combined with Twitter’s 241 million users, advertisers will be able to reach an audience similar in scale to Facebook, which has 1.2 billion users.

The promotions for mobile-app installs are among several features being developing with MoPub, according to Kevin Weil, vice president of revenue products at Twitter.

“This is the first connection between Twitter and MoPub and we are eager for other opportunities in the future,” he said.

“MoPub has some serious scale.”

With the app-install ads, Twitter will be able to attract customers in the e-commerce and gaming industries.

MoPub, which can display ads to more than 1 billion mobile devices, handles over 130 billion ad requests in Android and iOS applications every 30 days, the company said.

The company has been testing the app-download ads with developers including Spotify, HotelTonight and Kabam.

A user clicking on an app-install ad will be redirected to the advertiser’s page in a mobile-app store to download the program.

Facebook introduced the ads in October 2012, driving 245 million app downloads last year, the company has said.

Mobile is a key piece of Twitter’s business and generates more than 75 percent of advertising revenue.

The company will report first-quarter earnings on April 29. – Bloomberg News

Holomisa: IEC chair must resign


Johannesburg – Opposition parties filed an urgent application in the Electoral Court on Thursday over their demand that IEC chairwoman Pansy Tlakula must resign, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said.

“The papers have been served with the Electoral Court at 3.15pm this afternoon according to our lawyers,” he said.

“Everything from the side of the opposition parties was finalised earlier and we signed the documents.”

Holomisa said he did not have more information at the time.

Opposition parties had given Tlakula until the close of business on Monday to respond to their call for her to step down.

On Tuesday, Holomisa said she had not responded to them, which showed “how arrogant” she was.

Earlier this month, the parties said they were worried about the credibility of the May 7 elections.

The parties met IEC management.

Parties calling for her resignation were the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the Congress of the People, Agang SA and the Economic Freedom Fighters.

The Inkatha Freedom Party was originally named on the list of opposition parties but on Monday it said it was not part of the group.

The Azanian People’s Organisation and the United Christian Democratic Party were also initially part of the group but were not listed as applicants on the court papers.

Agang SA and the EFF had both indicated on Monday that they were still supporting the call for Tlakula to resign.

Last month, a forensic investigation by auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the National Treasury on the procurement of the IEC’s Riverside Office Park building in Centurion, Pretoria found that the process was neither fair, transparent, or cost-effective.

It also found that Tlakula did not give guidance or formally inform various people what was expected of them in the process.

Tlakula has maintained that the report did not accuse her of corruption.

The Treasury report followed a recommendation from Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in her own report into the matter, released in August 2013.

Madonsela found Tlakula had played a “grossly irregular” role in procuring the premises.

She recommended that Parliament consider taking action against Tlakula.

The complaint against Tlakula to Madonsela was lodged by Holomisa.

Tlakula was chief executive at the time the complaint was lodged.

The African National Congress on Tuesday said the call for Tlakula to resign was not genuine and based on the desire by some parties to delegitimise the elections. – Sapa

Patel rejects DA’s Western Cape claims


Cape Town – Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has rejected the DA’s claim that the Western Cape, where it governs, is the best-performing province.

Speaking in Cape Town today at a gathering of the Progressive Professionals Forum, Patel said he could demonstrate “on any metric” these claims were false.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Mbete using culture to defend corruption – DA


Johannesburg – ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete is protecting President Jacob Zuma by using culture to defend corruption behind the security upgrades in Nkandla, DA MP Lindiwe Mazibuko said on Thursday.
“Her words are nothing more than another failed attempt at excusing the inexcusable and hiding Nkandla behind cultural practices,” Mazibuko said in a statement.
For more http://www.news24.com

Zille wants to empower fishing communities


Cape Town – The DA has a plan for harbours and small-scale fishing communities, leader Helen Zille said in Cape Town on Thursday.
“The first step is to empower, and listen to the local community where the harbour is located. Each community should be consulted about the management and branding of its harbour,” she said in a speech prepared for a picket over related job losses in Hout Bay.
For more http://www.news24.com

24 die in SA roads


Johannesburg – Twenty-four people have died and 34 others sustained injuries on South Africa’s roads since the start of the Easter weekend, according to traffic reports and the Road Traffic Management Corporation on Friday.

“High level investigation teams are being instituted to unearth the causal factors of these crashes,” spokesperson Thato Mosena said.

Eight people died after a driver lost control of his vehicle and it caught fire on Punda Maria road near the N1 between Makhado and Thohoyandou. Ten people died and five others were injured when a truck collided with a minibus on the R707 between Petrus Steyn and Lyndley in the Free-State.

“Furthermore on the R34 [Newcastle] in Kwazulu-Natal, a truck driver lost control of his vehicle and it overturned resulting in 17 injuries,” Mosena said.

Mosena said unroadworthy vehicles would be removed and impounded.

“If you don’t have a valid drivers licence, you will spend time in jail.”

Mini-bus accident

Five people died and 12 others were seriously injured on Friday morning in a mini-bus accident on a road between Muden and Weenen near Greytown, Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Robert McKenzie said.

Patients were treated on the scene and transported to Greytown Hospital.

“The circumstances resulting in the accident are at this stage not clear and are being investigated by the police,” McKenzie said.

The taxi is thought to have been travelling from Johannesburg to Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.

A biker died in a collision with a car at the intersection of Bluff Road and Whitehouse Road in Durban at about 5am, Rescue Care spokesperson Garrith Jamieson said.

When paramedics arrived on the scene they found the 47-year-old man lying on the road.

“The driver of the other vehicle was not injured in the collision,” Jamieson said.
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