Cape Town – An advertisement showing a child being fed scraps like a dog has sparked huge controversy, the Cape Argus reported on Friday.
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Johannesburg – The media plays a big role in holding authorities accountable in a constitutional democracy, the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) said on Friday.

“These latest comments infringe on freedom of speech,” said FF Plus communications spokesperson Anton Alberts.

“It is an over-reaction on the side of government because the media in South Africa plays a big role as watchdog for the public and to call authority structures to order.”

On Thursday, acting SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng proposed that journalists have a licence to practise like those in the medical and law professions.

He said journalists who acted unprofessionally should be stripped of their licences.

“You know when you are a journalist, you are a professional journalist. If you don’t have ethics and principles and you mislead on your reporting, like lawyers… if you commit any mistake they take your licence,” he was quoted as saying by the SABC.

“We should do the same thing with journalists. That is what we need to do if we want to build South Africa.”

He was speaking at the annual Joburg Radio Days at Wits University in Johannesburg.

Press ombudsman

Alberts said a press ombudsman was established, as part of self-regulation, to prevent unfair and unreasonable journalism.

The ombudsman can be used instead of regulating the media externally.

“There are various examples in just the past couple of weeks alone about the effectiveness of the press ombudsman,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, the SA National Editors’ Forum said Motsoeneng’s statement revealed his ignorance about journalistic practice in a democracy.

“It is unfortunate that the remarks come from a high-ranking official of the public broadcaster, one of the biggest media houses in the country. The proposal is at odds with freedom of speech which is enshrined in the Constitution,” Sanef said in a statement.

In February, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released a report “When governance and ethics fail” which found Motsoeneng’s SABC appointment irregular. Among other things, his salary increased from R1.5m to R2.4m in one year.

She found he had misrepresented his qualifications – that he passed matric – to the SABC, and recommended that he be replaced.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Twenty-six boys have died since the start of the winter initiation season because of botched circumcisions, the traditional affairs department said on Friday.

“The total number of young boys that have lost their lives since the start of the initiation season has risen to 26,” said Deputy Traditional Affairs Minister Obed Bapela.

“Twenty-one initiates are from the Eastern Cape, four from Mpumalanga, and one from the Western Cape.”

On Thursday, 104 boys were admitted for dehydration, septic circumcision, gangrene, and other related injuries.

Bapela will visit the Eastern Cape next week to assess the areas that have recorded a high number of deaths.

Seven people have been arrested for operating illegal initiation schools in the Eastern Cape.

“The government cannot watch as our children are dying in numbers. This must come to an end,” Bapela said.

SAPA

Cape Town – ANC MPs on Parliament’s justice portfolio committee on Friday accused the public protector of political posturing and suggested her powers should be reviewed.

“We have seen the office of the public protector taking certain postures, both in the media and in the country and even outside the country, about government when she herself is part of government,” Bongani Bonga said.

“So we will not promote as the portfolio committee a situation where the public protector will make political views,” he added.

“I think we should warn the public protector to desist from making certain views that are political in nature because of the integrity of the office she is leading… That office takes postures that seems to be taking a political party line.”

The comment drew support from several ANC colleagues and firm objections from the opposition, with the African Christian Democratic Party’s Steve Swart asking chairperson Mathole Motshekga to rule it out of order.

“Broad allegations like this are totally unacceptable and I would ask you to rule that it is unparliamentary,” he said.

Motshekga suggested that the details of what Bonga implied were “public knowledge” and dismissed a call by the DA’s Marius Redelinghuys that Bonga be made to withdraw the remark as the committee could issue no warning to Madonsela unless it had resolved to do so by vote.

Madonsela later described Bonga’s remarks as “worrying”.

She was briefing the committee on her office’s R199m budget and asked for its backing for an increase, noting that it had originally asked Treasury for R300m for the current financial year.

Madonsela said her staff’s caseload was such that investigators had initially refused to sign performance agreements, citing impossible targets, and only did so after threats of disciplinary action from management and further pleas from her.

Last year 333 employers handled 35 029 cases.

Madonsela said the “undue litigious approach” of some government offices was eroding funding, with some R10m going on legal costs in cases where her findings were taken on review by the state.

“We need money for legal fees,” she said.

In later comments to the media, she voiced her frustration at widespread refusal by the government to implement her recommendations.

“We are increasingly spending a fortune on litigation, and our view is a lot of that litigation is not necessary because the Constitution provides for co-operative governance.”

Court application

Madonsela and her chief executive officer, Themba Mthethwa, revealed that an urgent court application brought in November by the ministers of the security cluster to secure more time to comment on the interim Nkandla report, and then subsequently withdrawn, cost the public protector’s office an initial R1.2m, of which only half was recovered from the state.

She confirmed that she had reluctantly accepted funding from German development institution GIZ for training courses, which drew a protest from Bonga.

“The issue of sourcing out funds from the Germans and the Americans… I think it is a problem. You can’t detect when a counter-revolution is started, because you don’t know those funders, what is their interest,” he said.

Speaking to the media after the briefing, Madonsela said she would not use donor funding for internal processes but matters had reached a “crisis point” and she had reasoned that “it is just a question of allowing the institution to fall apart or to get funding”.

Madonsela’s relationship with the justice portfolio committee has been increasingly fraught in the past 18 months, but appeared to reach a new low on Friday when Motshekga called for her powers to be reviewed.

He veiled it in a suggestion that Chapter 9 institutions were duplicating each other’s work, and that this was adding to her office’s excessive caseload.

“I think the powers of these institutions, including yours, should be reviewed to avoid this costly duplication.”

Madonsela swiftly pointed out that her powers could only be changed by changing the Constitution.

To this Motshekga responded that he had not intended a Constitution change.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Free State Premier Ace Magashule should immediately fire the province’s health MEC Benny Malakoane, the DA said on Friday.

“It is alleged that MEC Malakoane interfered with ICU admission procedures at the Dihlabeng Hospital in Bethlehem,” DA spokesperson in the Free State Roy Jankielsohn said in a statement.

“He abused his power and privilege to force the hospital to make an ICU bed immediately available in order to admit an ANC-connected individual.”

Jankielsohn was referring to an article published in the Mail & Guardian which stated that other patients waiting to be admitted to the ICU were dropped in order to make space for the ANC man.

An unnamed doctor quoted in the article claimed that hospital staff were told to make space for the ailing man because Malakoane had promised the man’s family that he would admitted to ICU.

The ANC man was admitted to the unit, despite the fact that he did not qualify as he was in the last stages of a chronic condition and unlikely to recover.

Jankielsohn said this was unacceptable, especially because the province’s health facilities were struggling to feed, operate, medicate or properly attend to its patients.

“We reported the provincial department of health and MEC Malakoane to the SA Human Rights Commission last week, requesting it to investigate human rights violations perpetuated against the people of the Free State,” Jankielsohn said.

The provincial health department could not immediately be reached for comment.

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Rustenburg- North West police confirmed that 16 accused who were arrested during protest on the 13 May 2014 were released after paying admission of guilty fee.

Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said 16 suspects consist of 14 women and 2 men were arrested during protest and they barricaded roads with burning tyres and rubble in venting their anger.

“We arrested 16 suspects during the protest and charged them for public violence. The protest took place at Mmaditlhokwe village, near Rustenburg” Mokgwabone said.

They appeared before Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court and were found guilty. The magistrate ordered them to pay a fine of R100 each and were released.

The suspects said the blasts from Tharisa mine damages their houses and their children are affected by highly compressed air spreading outward from the explosion.

““We are thankful about the hard work done by our members.  This will hopefully serve as a lesson to those who disregard the laws of the country that police will deal harshly with them”, said the Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Zukiswa Mbombo.-TDN
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By Obakeng Maje
Kimbeley- The Galeshewe Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit are investigating a housebreaking with the intention to rape and theft which allegedly took place at Ivory Park, Roodepan on 5 February 2014 at approximately 20:45.

The 27 year-old victim alleges she was sleeping when woken up by an unknown man pulling her legs. The suspect threatened to hurt her children, which were sleeping in the other room if she screams.

“He raped her and also stole a kettle, toaster, clothing iron and a bed lamp before fleeing the scene. The suspect is alleged to be a coloured male between the age of 28 and 30, approximately 1.7metre tall, medium build, dark in complexion and speaks Afrikaans” lieutenant Sergio Kock said.

The police request that anyone with information please call Detective Warrant Officer Dupie Duplessis on 082 359 9230 or 08600 10 111 or sms anonymously to 32211.

All information will be treated with the strictest of confidence. The investigation continues.-TDN
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