Pretoria – Judge Thokozile Mapisa granted a court order prohibiting the further media publication about Oscar Pistorius’s psychiatric reports, at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
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Cape Town – Justice Minister Michael Masutha on Wednesday called for an end to infighting at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and saw the first priority at the troubled body as resolving the fate of prosecuting chief Mxolisi Nxasana.

“We have identified the issues around the NDPP as the first priority in dealing with the whole broader issue of management in the NPA, which has been widely publicised,” Masutha told Parliament’s justice portfolio committee.

“I think it is only fair that we deal with one issue at a time,” he added.

“I am sure that once the issue has been resolved relating to the NDPP either way, and I do not want to give the impression here that the matter will be resolved in one direction or the other… all other matters relating to the management of the NPA will only be looked at.”

Masutha made clear that the decision on whether to retain Nxasana in his post as national director of public prosecutions lay with President Jacob Zuma, who appointed him in October last year.

It emerged last month that former justice minister Jeff Radebe had asked Nxasana to resign because he had failed to disclose that he was charged with murder and acquitted of murder in 1985.

SAPA

Mahikeng- Three years after the North West Department of Health took over control of the running of the province’s only medical depot, the availability of essential drugs like anti-retroviral and tuberculosis drugs has stabilised. 

The Mmabatho medical depot was established in 1999 with the main purpose of providing surgical and pharmaceutical products to primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities. Since its inception, it was outsourced until 2011 when MEC Magome Masike decided to in-source operations at the depot following inconsistent supply of medication in 2010 and early 2011.

Ms. Annah Bodibe (51) was diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes in 2007. Ms Bodibe says she has never experienced any trouble with her medication at the Bapong Community Health Centre.

“I have never missed a date for my follow up visits and always get my treatment, as a result I have never had serious health problems,” said Bodibe when asked about adherence to treatment. Bodibe adds that, though she agrees that patients suffering from other ailments may have experienced shortage of medication, she thinks people tend to exaggerate as they are given generic medication” departmental spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said.

When given generic medication, Bodibe says she asks the nurse to explain to her why her pills have changed. She admits to not knowing the exact names of the pills she takes and so recognizes them by their appearance.

The availability of essential drugs like anti-retroviral and tuberculosis drugs has stabilised at 96% – 100% since the department took control of the medical depot in 2011.

“We promised to turn around the situation by substantially increasing availability of drugs and medicine. I am happy to report that the situation has improved and continue to improve,” said MEC Masike during his recent visit to the depot.

“I need to emphasize that turning around the medical depot is work in progress. The expanded pharmacy at both Ganyesa Hospital and Bloemhof Community Health Centre will help with bulk storage of medication and other essential drugs to substantially add to our efforts of ensuring constant availability of medication in our facilities,” he said.

Medical depot manager, Sarah Mokgatlha said the depot now has weekly deliveries to hospitals.-TDN
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Johannesburg – The EFF national leadership has condemned what it calls the violent and undemocratic decision of the ANC Speaker to remove its members from the Gauteng legislature.

“During the debate on the State of the Province, the speaker of the Gauteng legislature, Ntombi Mekgwe, called police to remove Economic Freedom Fighters members from parliament because they were dressed in worker clothes,” spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In effect, a member of the legislature in the form of the Speaker has ordered other honourable members to be violated by the police because they were dressed in worker clothes as opposed to the elite suits.”

Ndlozi said Megkwe should be ashamed of herself as she was an embarrassment to the “democratic house of the people”.

EFF members were asked to leave the legislature for wearing red overalls with the word “Asijiki” (we will not go back) written on them.

The Times Live reported that Mekgwe said the EFF’s red overalls were deemed inappropriate because “Asijiki” was considered party insignia.

Police had to be called to escort the members out.

Ndlozi said the EFF convener of Gauteng had to be taken to a medical facility after being removed from the legislature by police.

“What the speaker forgets is that EFF is there not because she employed it, but because more than a million South Africans voted for it. EFF therefore deserves to be in parliament, for this is the will of the people,” he said.

Ndlozi added that the party would not be bossed around to abandon the worker overalls in parliaments across the country because that was who it represented.

“No amount of beating by the ANC police will ever submit the EFF into abandoning the red overalls and domestic workers’ dress codes,” Ndlozi said.

Interdict application

The party would make an urgent court application to interdict the Gauteng legislature not to dismiss EFF members on the basis that they wear overalls, he added.

Other parties strongly criticised the EFF’s behaviour.

The ANC in Gauteng accused the EFF of undermining the legislature.

“The ANC in the Gauteng provincial legislature… noted with disgust the unbecoming behaviour of the EFF members of the provincial legislature during the sitting of the House,” Chief Whip Brian Hlongwa said in a statement.

“The ANC emphasises that the members of the legislatures are expected to be the custodians of the democratic institutions like the legislature.”

Hlongwa said the behaviour of EFF members contravened rule 31 of the legislature’s standing rules. The rule deals with the appropriate dress code.

The SA Communist Party called the EFF an organisation battling with infantile disorder and left-wing childishness.

“The SACP wishes to emphasise that the conduct of the EFF represents an extremely backward, lumpen and chaotic tendency of anarchy with a mix of right-wing, populist and demagogic slant,” deputy provincial secretary Mpapa Kanyane said in a statement.

The Democratic Alliance expressed concern over comments made during the sitting.

The party claimed an EFF member said the country would “go up in flames” should the EFF be removed from the House.

“The fiasco caused in today’s sitting by the EFF, dressed in red overalls, is in contravention of the House rules of the legislature. It was nothing less than cheap politics,” DA legislature spokesperson John Moodey said.

Moodey cautioned the threats were not to be taken lightly.

“Such a statement would not be made by a rational person,” Moodey said.

The DA backed the legislature’s decision to “uphold the integrity and decorum of the House”.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Contraband cigarettes, with an estimated street value of nearly R3.5m, were seized in Limpopo on Tuesday, police said.

Contraband cigarettes worth more than R2.5m were found in a silver Volkswagen minibus in Hlanganani, police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said.

Police found the minibus parked in a bush.

“Investigations revealed that the car was rented in Cape Town and investigations are afoot to find the suspects.”

In a separate incident contraband cigarettes worth about R1m were seized in Giyani on Tuesday. Four Zimbabweans and a Malawian were arrested.

“Police again while on patrol noticed two vehicles, a Toyota Quantum and Hyundai sedan, speeding and immediately a car chase ensued,” said Mulaudzi.

“The suspects ignored police’s signal to stop and at a distance the minibus stopped and two suspects were seen dashing away on foot.”

The car, suspected to have been used as an escort vehicle, was stopped and three women and two men were arrested.

Two people, who escaped on foot, were still at large.

The cigarettes in the minibus were seized.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The State is expected to continue its cross-examination of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius’ agent Petrus van Zyl at the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel began his cross-examination on Tuesday but requested that court adjourn early so that he could better prepare himself.

Van Zyl testified on Tuesday that Pistorius had planned to take his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to two of his athletics meetings in Manchester and Brazil, which was the first time the athlete had asked a girlfriend to accompany him to sports meetings.

The travel plans were discussed on 7 February 2013 while he was visiting the athlete to plan their year. This was seven days before Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp.

Pistorius had also planned to take Steenkamp to an Andrea Bocelli concert in Tuscany, Italy, the court heard.

Nel completed his questioning of sound expert Ivan Lin’s report on ambient noise on the morning of the shooting.

Lin did not rule out the possibility that one of Pistorius’s neighbours, Michelle Burger, whose house is 177m from Pistorius’s, could have perceived what she heard that night as a woman’s screams.

Burger told the court in March she heard “blood-curdling screams” followed by four gunshots the morning Steenkamp was shot dead.

Lin said the perception of what one heard was not reliable.

He said it was common sense that more often than not a woman’s voice could be distinguished from a man’s, but that one could not be 100% certain.
SAPA

Durban – KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu has received a report from the commission of inquiry into the deaths of eight applicants for traffic officer jobs.

“I will study the report and I will also ensure that it is tabled before the provincial executive council and acted upon,” Mchunu said in a statement on Tuesday.

The commission probed the deaths of eight people who took part in a four-kilometre run at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg in December last year.

This formed part of a fitness test for job applicants. More than 40 000 people qualified to apply for 90 advertised Road Traffic Inspectorate trainee posts.

Of these, 20 000 applicants attended the test on 27 December and a similar number on 28 December.

Mchunu said this was to keep the promise he made during his state of the province address on Thursday.

“In my address last week I pointed out that we are glad that the commission has finally finished its work after delays caused by requests from commissioners who wanted to interrogate more evidence,” he said.

He said the report was conducted thoroughly and dismissed claims that the inquiry was deliberately prolonged.

“Some in other quarters used our attention to detail to create the impression that we were deliberately prolonging the anguish of the families of the victims.”

In December, the Sunday Times reported that the commission was expected to cost about R14.2 million.

The newspaper reported that providing a meal of curry and rice and cooldrinks for the approximately 50 people attending the commission cost R494 962.

Other expenses include R424 164 for audiovisual services and R230 000 for travel costs.

SAPA

Johannesburg – A woman was handed 12 life sentences for sexual offences against her own children, North West police said on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old woman received six life sentences for rape, six for compelled rape and 20 years imprisonment for four other offences, Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said in a statement.

The sentences were handed out by the Rustenburg Regional Court on Monday.

“The offences include six counts of sexual assault, four counts of compelled sexual assault and six of compelling or forcing children to witness sexual acts,” Mokgwabone said.

She was also sentenced on six counts of abuse and child neglect.

Mokgwabone said the woman and her 51-year-old husband abused their three children aged 7, 8 and 15, in Zeerust until the matter was brought to the attention of social workers.

The trial was set for 1 March 2013, but the husband was reported to be sick on the set date and the case was postponed to June.

The pair failed to appear in court and warrants for their arrest were issued. They were traced and arrested three months later.

The matter was then set for 18-30 June 2014.

“It was during the trial that the accused changed her plea which was accepted by the State. The court then ordered a separation of trials and the case against the father was postponed until 5 September 2014 to allow him to undergo a 30-days observation at a psychiatric facility,” Mokgwabone said.
SAPA

North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management Gaoage Molapisi warned the newly recruited examiners to stay away from fraud and corruption while executing their duties of examining learner and driver’s licenses at testing centres in province.

“Fraud and corruption will take you out of the system before you get into it. If you are found in such activities you would be blacklisted and never appointed anywhere in the country as examiner because we are putting you into a national system. Don’t allow yourself to be used whenever you are.

Your compromise would be compromising the department, and always keep in mind that fraud and corruption will never be tolerated at any licensing centre of the province. All we need from you is to demonstrate ability and seriousness in your work,” said Molapisi.

The MEC said the department will establish a provincial intervention team which will assist where there is crisis in all testing centres of the province.

“We are faced with a huge challenge on shortage of examiners, in this regard the department is going to establish an intervention team that will assist in all driver license testing centres and vehicle testing stations including municipalities to ensure that services are rendered efficiently and effectively to our communities,” he said.

The seven examiners were recruited by the Department through learnership programme in partnership with the South African Safety and Security Training Authority (SASSETA) to address the shortage of examiners in the province.

The learners have completed a course in examination of driver license and vehicle testing with the Tshwane Metropolitan Traffic College. Meanwhile, the department has sent the second group of new recruits to the college to complete the course. The learners would be placed in testing centres across the province for practical experience upon completion.

Molapisi said the department intends to recruit about 150 examiners in a period of three years.-TDN
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