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Lonmin CEO sees no end to Amcu strike


Johannesburg – The chief executive of platinum producer Lonmin has told staff to take voluntary leave because a wage strike at its South African operations by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) looks set to continue.

“Given the reality of a prolonged strike and Amcu’s unrealistic demands, we have to make tough decisions to preserve and protect the business by reducing costs and conserving cash,” Ben Magara said in a March 25 memo seen by Reuters.

Meanwhile the government mediator said it will meet with Amcu on Wednesday to restart talks aimed at ending the strike now entering its tenth week.

The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) also said in a statement it would meet separately with companies Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin this week.

Cosatu

Amcu is being irresponsible, according to Cosatu.

Cosatu is SA’s largest labour grouping and includes Amcu’s archrival the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Cosatu said it supported the call for a “living wage”, but accused Amcu of not acting in a responsible manner.

The mining companies have repeatedly stated they cannot afford the demand for a R12 500 monthly “living wage”, saying many steps have already been taken to remedy historical inequalities in the sector.

Striking miners in the platinum industry have already lost an estimated R4.4bn in earnings due to the mining strike by Amcu, mining bosses said on Tuesday.

It is SA’s biggest post-apartheid mine strike and has hit 40% of global production of the precious metal.

An estimated R10bn in revenue has also been lost due to the strike and the impact of the extended strike on employees, local businesses, suppliers and communities is described as “irreparable”, a joint statement by the CEOs of Impala Platinum (Implats), Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), and Lonmin Platinum said.-SAPA

Chiefs wary of minnows FC Buffalo in Nedbank Cup clash


Memories of Maluti FET College knocking out Orlando Pirates in last year’s Nedbank Cup will be fresh in Kaizer Chiefs players’ minds when they take on minnows, FC Buffalo, this evening.

Chiefs were also similar victims when amateur club, Baroka FC, sent them packing a few seasons ago in the same tournament.

Amakhosi, still smarting from their 3-0 defeat by DRC side AS Vita in the Caf Champions League, will want to quickly erase the weekend memories and advance to the quarterfinals of this competition.

The defending Nedbank champions will be without some of their key players, notably Knowledge Musona and defender Tefu Mashamaite, who have been suspended for the game.

But it won’t be smooth sailing for Chiefs as the Eastern Cape team has nothing to lose coming into this game.

Buffalo, the only remaining amateur side in the tournament, will be looking to upset Chiefs in their own backyard.

In another match tonight, Moroka Swallows welcome SuperSport United at Dobsonville Stadium. Swallows have been blowing hot and cold and this is their last chance of winning silverware this season.

United have also experienced mixed fortunes and will go to the game on the back of a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Tunisian side, Etoile du Sahel, in the Caf Confederations Cup.
For more http://www.citypress.co.za

Premier Modise to open 2 nd North West Annual BRICS Expo and International Trade and Tourism Conference


North West Premier Thandi Modise is to deliver the keynote address for the official opening of the 2nd Annual North West BRICS Expo and International Trade and Tourism Conference that is to commence at the Mmabatho Convention Centre in Mahikeng as from 12:00 this afternoon.

“Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa will give an overview of the South African Tourism on the first day of the conference which is aimed at providing international and local business with valuable insight and exposure on how to leverage South Africa’s inclusion in the BRIC grouping, while showcasing the North West Province’s attractiveness as an investment destination” Lesiba Kgwele said.

The economic and investment advantages of South Africa and the North West Province being part of the BRICS Group, trade and investment opportunities, evaluation of progress made since last year’s North West BRICS event,industrialization projects that the currently implementing in growing the economy of the province will feature prominently throughout conference which ends on Saturday.

The conference has attracted international, national and local businesses across all the sectors including small, medium and micro enterprises, national and provincial government departments, investment promotion agencies, tourism agencies, companies in transportation, financial institutions, academia and the media.-TDN
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ANC to march over Cape service delivery


Cape Town – Township residents will be marching to the Western Cape legislature in Cape Town to demand a response on land and housing issues, a provincial ANC official said on Tuesday.

“Around 2000 to 3000 people will be coming from the Cape town townships of Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Strand, Delft, Gugulethu, Manenberg, Langa, Hout Bay, Atlantis and Kraaifontein,” said provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile.

The purpose of the African National Congress march on Wednesday morning was to get a response from premier Helen Zille.

Mjongile said a memorandum of demands was delivered after a march on February 5. He complained that no response had been forthcoming.

Mayor Patricia de Lille had responded to the demands on February 27, according to a scanned document seen by Sapa.

The ANC responded to De Lille’s letter on March 19, criticising her responses and the way she had “cherry-picked” certain issues to respond to.

Among the ANC’s demands were that land be made available for religious and cultural purposes, that houses be given to “backyarders” and that the bucket and portable toilet system be immediately eradicated.

Zille’s spokesman Zak Mbhele said on Tuesday that the issues raised during the march and in the memorandum last month related entirely to local and national competencies.

“The city has responded to matters relating to municipal delivery and the Western Cape government cannot comment on others for which it is not responsible,” he said.

“It is ironic that the ANC laments not having received a response from the premier’s office when the ANC and Congress of SA Trade Union leaders of the march denied her the opportunity to speak on that occasion.”

Mbhele said Zille would have directed their grievances appropriately had she been given the chance to speak.

“The Western Cape ANC has no leg to stand on in their protestations when the matters in their memo, like policing, recognition of Khoisan traditional leadership and land reform rest principally in the national government’s jurisdiction.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Zille expressed concern that the planned march might not be peaceful because of the recent reinstatement of the ringleaders of last year’s so-called “poo protests”.

Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili were welcomed back into the ANC on Monday following a successful appeal process with the provincial disciplinary committee.

They led protesters in dumping faeces on, among others, the steps of the Western Cape legislature and at Cape Town International Airport last year.

“The ANC is set to march to the provincial legislature tomorrow and Mr Lili and Mr Nkohla, now full members of the ANC again, have been making repeated threats of ungovernability against the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government,” Zille said.

She said their reinstatement showed how disingenuous the ANC had been all along in trying to avoid blame for the rhetoric inciting violence and destructive riots that Lili and Nkohla were behind for months.

Mjongile reassured that the march would be peaceful.

“All ANC marches are peaceful. Don’t worry about that. They must sort their issues with their nemesis.”

Mjongile said it was not appropriate to ask him whether Lili and Nkohla would be attending the march.

“That’s not important to us. The leadership of the ANC will be marching.”

The Cape Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday said that protesters who damaged property and disrupted business should be held accountable.

“We already have court judgments making union organisers responsible for the damage to property caused by their undisciplined members on protest marches and the same principle should apply to other demonstrations,” said chamber president Janine Myburgh.

People had a constitutional right to protest but this right did not include throwing stones at cars or blocking national roads, she said.

While it was difficult to sometimes identify individuals who had overstepped the mark, the police and City of Cape Town should look for “more imaginative ways” to deal with unruly protesters.

“There are usually organisers involved and I would like to see some of them in court and possibly being sentenced to perform community service,” Myburgh said.

“A bit of community service might give them a better insight into the problems of service delivery.”

The march would start in Keizersgracht Street in Cape Town at 10am.

Sapa

Date set for Griquatown judgement


Kimberley – Judment in the Steenkamp murder trial will be handed down in the Northern Cape High Court on Thursday morning. This follows closing arguments in court on Tuesday.

A 17-year-old boy is accused of killing Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife Christel, 43, and their daughter, Marthella, 14, on their farm Naauwhoek near Griquatown.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Prosecutors wrap their case against Oscar


Pretoria – State prosecutors on Tuesday wrapped up their case against South African track star Oscar Pistorius, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day last year.

Prosecutors are seeking to prove that the Olympic and Paralympic athlete tried to kill Steenkamp deliberately by firing four rounds from a 9mm pistol through a locked toilet door after a heated argument.

Pistorius, nicknamed the “Blade Runner” due to his carbon-fibre prosthetic limbs, has pleaded not guilty, saying he was deeply in love with 29-year-old Steenkamp and that he mistook her for an intruder hiding in a toilet at his luxury Pretoria home.

Defence lawyers spent much of Tuesday going through some of the thousands of text messages the pair sent each other in the weeks before Steenkamp’s death to focus on their “loving relationship”.

A day earlier, police expert Francois Moller read out a series of retrieved messages that painted a picture of a volatile, stormy relationship, with Steenkamp accusing Pistorius of continual jealousy and outbursts of anger.

“I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me,” said one message sent by Steenkamp on January 27, 2013.

Moller said despite the arguments, 90 percent of the messages were normal, often loving, interactions.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux pointed to an exchange on January 19 in which Steenkamp sent Pistorius a photo of herself blowing a kiss into the camera, followed by the question: “You like it?”

“I love it,” Pistorius replied.

Roux also showed CCTV footage from nine days before Steenkamp’s death that showed the couple kissing in a convenience store, followed by another text exchange between them.

“I miss you one more than you miss me,” the message from Pistorius read.

Pistorius’ lower legs were amputated as a baby, but he went on to achieve global fame as the “fastest man on no legs”, winning gold medals at the Beijing and London Paralympics.

He also won a battle against athletics authorities for the right to compete against able-bodied men, becoming the first amputee runner at an Olympics when he reached the 400m semi-finals in London 2012.

The court adjourned until Friday, when the defence will start revealing its own argument and evidence in support of Pistorius’ innocence.

The 27-year-old is expected to take the stand in his own defence – a high-stakes gamble that could backfire if holes start to emerge in the version of events he submitted in sworn testimony at his bail hearing a year ago.

If found guilty of murder, he faces at least 25 years in prison. – Reuters

SANDF’s mandate at DRC extended


Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday prolonged the mandate of over 1 300 SANDF members as part of a UN peacekeeping force in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deployment “has been extended from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015”, Pretoria said in a statement on the same day regional leaders met to discuss the conflict.

South African soldiers are part of a UN intervention brigade in the conflict-torn region, which has an unprecedented mandate to battle the armed movements long active in eastern Congo.

Zuma also increased the force by six to 1 345.

Meanwhile, Great Lakes leaders at a mini-summit in Angola condemned the actions of rebels in the DRC’s mineral-rich North Kivu province.

“These harmful incidents have to be controlled by the relevant authorities… to prevent them from becoming a threat to regional stability,” Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said in the capital Luanda.

He urged the neutralisation of “negative forces” from especially two rebel groupings, the ADF-Nalu, a Ugandan Islamist group, and the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu militia that includes some the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

Leaders from the Congo, the DRC, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda also attended the summit.

AFP

‘Downs close gap to the top


Rustenburg – Goals from Surprise Moriri, Anthony Laffor and Lebohang Mokoena powered Mamelodi Sundowns to a 3-1 win over Platinum Stars at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Tuesday evening.
 
The result sees the Brazilians close to within three points of PSL leaders Kaizer Chiefs (who have now played a game less), while Dikwena drop to eighth on the log after suffering just their second home defeat of the season.
 
Sundowns opened the scoring just before the midway point of the first half. Overlapping left-back Mzikayise Mashaba beat several challenges before playing a hard, low cross to the near post and Surprise Moriri provided a sharp finish from close range that went in via the underside of the crossbar.
 
The visitors doubled their lead four minutes into the second half, with Lebohang Mokoena providing a cutback from the left by-line and Anthony Laffor easily finished from close range to make it 2-0.
 
With just under 20 minutes to play, Laffor sprinted free on goal and tried to round Siyabonga Mpontshane, but the goalkeeper brilliantly stuck out his right hand and cleanly won the ball to keep his side within two goals.
 
However, the ‘keeper was beaten by Mokoena in the 78th minute. The Sundowns attacker charged down a clearance from a defender before firing a low, long-range drive into the back of the net to make it 3-0.
 
Stars gave themselves a glimmer of hope with a goal in the 81st minute. Sandilands, who had a while earlier injured his ankle, came for a cross from a corner kick but got nowhere near the ball, allowing Robert Ng’ambi a free header to make it 3-1.
 
Scorers:
Platinum Stars: (0) 1 (Ng’ambi 81’)
Mamelodi Sundowns: (1) 3 (Moriri 21’, Laffor 49’, Mokoena 78’)
 
Teams:

Platinum Stars: Mpontshane, Mere, Gumede, Semenya, Mpeta, Sarr (T. Mthembu 64’), Mhlongo, Malokase (Ngele 42’), Ng’ambi, Hadebe, (Makudubela 61’) S. Mthembu
 
Mamelodi Sundowns: Sandilands, Mphahlele, Schut, Nthethe, Mashaba, Modise, Kekana, Moriri (Nyandoro 63’), Mokoena (Malajila 81’), Wome (Zungu 63’), Laffor
Backpagemedia

W Cape polce hopefuls to be paraded


Cape Town – Those applying to the police in the Western Cape will this year be paraded before residents as part of the selection process, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry heard on Tuesday.

This was the testimony of deputy Western Cape police commissioner Hendrik Burger, who is  responsible for human resource management.

He said stricter measures would be applied to select officers.

In addition to fingerprint testing and interviews to determine whether potential constables had criminal records, communities would also get a chance to have their say.

“We are now going to include public meetings where we are going to parade these possible recruits in front of communities,” Burger said.

Over 600 posts have been allocated to the province, which currently has the lowest police staff complement in the country.

Burger said the community involvement was to ensure members of the public could point out possible criminal activity or conflicts of interest on the part of applicants.

“It could be that community members see them [potential recruits] at shebeens or even running shebeens,” Burger testified.

Boot camp

Burger said another new requirement would be a boot camp to ensure the fitness levels of possible recruits were tested over a period of two weeks, instead of one day.

Burger said there were a number of reasons for the high vacancy rate.

While the number of officers retiring earlier and resigning was not as high as in previous years, there was a concerted effort to rid the force of ill-disciplined officers.

“We are getting rid of those people. It is impacting on our vacancy rate.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Brigadier Leon Rabie, an organisational design practitioner at police headquarters in Pretoria, testified that a recruitment drive was underway to increase the number of officers in the three most understaffed provinces in the country, including the Western Cape.

“Out of 1 070 posts, the decision was taken to allocate 60% of the posts to the Western Cape… because it’s one of the provinces that are the worst off,” Rabie said.

The other two understaffed provinces were the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

The reason the Western Cape lagged behind was because of historical practices, he said.

The SA Police Service was currently enlisting 663 constables to be trained and deployed in the province after a budget allocation was made during the current financial year.

Rabie testified in week five of the commission’s public hearings, which have been extended by nine days due to testimony running over the scheduled time.

The commission was established by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille after NGO the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) complained of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha.

The SJC also insisted that police inefficiency was responsible for an apparent increase in mob justice killings.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa tried to halt the commission from being set up, but lost his legal bid to do so in the Constitutional Court last year.

SAPA

Oscar, Malaysian Airlines plane share media space


Johannesburg – Paralympian Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial and a missing Malaysian flight shared the media spotlight over the past 24 hours, figures from media monitoring group DDI revealed on Tuesday.
“The two stories are neck-and-neck on worldwide news sites,” Data Driven Insight (DDI) said.

The Pistorius trial – prominent in focus since it began on 3 March – claimed 50.94% of media space.

The Malaysian aeroplane had 49.06%.

The star athlete has been charged with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and contravening the Firearms Control Act.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Monday, authorities in Malaysia announced that the missing Boeing 777 flight had gone down in the sea with no survivors.

The survey showed that the Pistorius trial generated the most press on the first day, followed by 10 March, the date the graphic pictures of Steenkamp were presented by Professor Gert Saayman.

“The third highest media yielding day was yesterday [Tuesday] largely due to the messages being read out from cellphone conversations on WhatsApp,” the survey indicates.

The survey found that countries such as the US, Germany, the UK, and Australia covered the Pistorius trial more than South African media.

The data was compiled from 6.2 million social media platforms including blogs, forums, social networks and commentary, 60 000 global online newspapers, 2 000 South African print publications, and 66 radio and television stations.

SAPA