Category Archives: South African News

eNCA | Arrest of Krejcir bouncer a blow to underground world: Hawks

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JOHANNESBURG – The Hawks say the arrest of a bouncer linked to convicted criminal, Radovan Krejcir, is a big blow to the underground world.

The detainee is alleged to have been been involved in the distribution of illegal drugs, among other crimes.

READ: ‘I believe you stay in Bedfordview’ – Krejcir to Judge Lamont

Three suspects, including the former bouncer of convicted criminal Radovan Krejcir, will appear in court on Friday.

They were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday during an undercover operation.

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eNCA | Journalists pay tribute to veteran photographer Sam Nzima

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JOHANNESBURG – Young journalists were urged to embody the courage of the late Sam Nzima at a memorial service held by colleagues and friends in Parktown on Thursday. 

The veteran photographer died at the age of 83 in Nelspruit on Saturday.

Nzima captured the iconic photograph of a dying Hector Pieterson during the 1976 uprisings.

While the rest of his family was not able to attend the memorial, his son was there and paid tribute to his father. 

Veteran journalists, like Pearl Luthuli and Joe Latakgomo, as well as friends like Unisa professor Somadoda Fikeni paid tribute to him. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a Special Provincial Official Funeral for the respected lensman.

The South African flag will be flown at half-mast at every flag station in Mpumalanga on 26 May, the day of the funeral.

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eNCA | KZN police on high alert amid tensions between local and foreign businessmen

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JOHANNESBURG – KwaZulu-Natal police are on high alert as tensions heighten between local and foreign businessmen.

The Northern Region Business Association is giving foreign nationals until Thursday to close shop and leave the area.

The townships include include Inanda, KwaMashu and Ntuzuma.

READ: Shut your shops and leave, foreign nationals in KZN told

The association is accusing foreign nationals of unfair practices saying they are suffocating township economies.

But foreigners are dismissing this, saying the move is based on jealousy.

KZN Premier Willies Mchunu met with affected communities and is calling for calm.

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eNCA | Mduduzi Manana wants day in court

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JOHANNESBURG – ANC member of Parliament Mduduzi Manana wants to have his day in court to clear his name, said his lawyer Michael Motsoeneng.

Last week, his domestic worker Christine Wiro opened an assault case against him, but later withdrew the charges.

READ: DA to lay extortion and corruption charges against Manana

Manana has since denied the claims, threatening to open a case of extortion against Wiro.

But, a day after denying the claims, an audio recording of Manana offering to pay off Wiro surfaced.

In 2017, Manana was convicted on three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after he assaulted a woman at a nightclub.

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News24.com | ‘We are relying on the KZN government for protection’ – foreign shop owners following ultimatum

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Foreign shop owners in suburbs north of Durban have said they will rely on the KwaZulu-Natal government for protection should local businessmen attack their shops on Thursday.

The foreign nationals, mostly Somalis, received letters from the North Region Business Association last week telling them to shut down their businesses in Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu by Thursday.

“We have no security measures in place but we’re relying on government for protection,” Jamal Mohamed told News24 on Wednesday night.

Mohamed spoke on behalf of Somali shop owners operating in the three townships.

READ: Police on high alert as ‘deadline’ looms for foreign shop owners to close unlicensed shops in Durban

“The government, and the premier [Willies Mchunu] are aware [of the matter]. We will wait and see if they let this violence and crime take place on their watch,” said Mohamed.

Mohamed said high-ranking police officials from the area were also aware of the “threat”.

Support from the community

“The premier knows who gave the letter to the shops. So, if anything happens to us then that would mean the government did not want to protect us, that I believe,” he said.

Even though Mohamed explained that he was not certain about what to expect on Thursday, he said: “We’re pleading with provincial government to provide us with protection by deploying SAPS in the area in case the attack is carried out tomorrow [Thursday].”

He said foreign business owners had different views on closing their shops after the ultimatum they got from local businessmen.

“Everyone has different opinions. Some have already closed their business, and some would hopefully be operating tomorrow. As much as I know, we won’t close our businesses just like that,” Mohamed said.

He said there were many community members who were against the association’s ultimatum.

“There’s a lot of them who told us that they need us in the community. They even promised us that nothing would happen to our property. They promised to protect our property, but that can’t be a guarantee for our lives,” he said.

Security measures in place, say police

Earlier on Wednesday KwaZulu-Natal police said they were on high alert as the “deadline” for foreign shop owners to shut down their unlicensed businesses loomed.

They said they had beefed up security to try and prevent a recurrence of xenophobic attacks in the area.

“Security measures are in place in all the affected areas. Police are continuing with constant patrols in all identified areas,” said Captain Nqobile Gwala.

A resolution was taken at a meeting in KwaMashu on Tuesday night that unlicensed spaza shops and small businesses in the area would have to register their businesses or face being shut down.

The meeting was attended by Premier Willies Mchunu, the association and foreign business owners.

The association on Tuesday told News24 that it was not optimistic about resolutions taken to address the issue of unregulated spaza shops and small businesses.

Too many spaza shops

Association head Mlungisi Mncube said that while there had been a meeting with the premier’s office, matters were still complex. He insisted that the association’s motives were not xenophobic.

Mncube said the main issue was that too many businesses and spaza shops were popping up in the same area.

“In a way, someone has to close. As it is, the situation is untenable. You will go on a street and see three shops, one after another. Where are we going to get customers?” he asked.

Spokesperson for Mchunu, Thami Ngidi, said unlicensed businesses would now be closed.

“A process will start to register them properly. There is a process of regularising that will take place,” he said.

He concurred that there was a “mushrooming of too many spaza shops in one area”.

Follow-up meeting

In May 2017, foreign national shopkeepers were targeted by KwaMashu locals.

At the time social media posts, claiming that foreign nationals were behind the abductions of young children, appeared to have spurred on the locals to attack foreigners.

In January 2015, a foreign business owner was shot dead in Nhlungwane, Inanda.

In December 2014, there were two petrol bomb attacks on shipping containers from which Somali nationals operated their businesses, in KwaMashu’s C section.

A follow-up meeting with all relevant stakeholders has been scheduled for May 24, Ngidi said.

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News24.com | Zuma’s presidency was a total disaster – Trevor Manuel

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The presidency of Jacob Zuma was a total disaster for South Africa, former finance minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday night.

“I make no apologies for sharing my view that the presidency of Jacob Zuma was a total disaster for South Africa,” said Manuel.

Manuel delivered the keynote address at the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Development Trust Public Lecture at the University of the Western Cape.

Although Manuel spoke about a wide range of issues, he also addressed his tenure under Zuma.

“Many are aware that I served in his Cabinet until May 2014, charged with the responsibility to draft the National Development Plan (NDP). Granted, president Zuma did not interfere with the work of the planning commission, nor did he seek to amend any of the recommendations.”

Manuel said Zuma “did not even attempt to soften our recommendations in a whole chapter devoted to fighting corruption or the very critical chapter on building a capable and developmental state”.

ANC ‘a mere shadow of what it once was’

He said many people would argue that Zuma merely ignored the NDP, while paying lip service to having initiated the process.

“It’s clear his attention and priorities lie elsewhere,” he said.  

He said in September 2008, Thabo Mbeki’s removal from office led to a rapid change of South Africa’s fortunes.

“The ANC would become a mere shadow of what it once was.”

He said Zuma had left the country with the biggest challenge yet since democracy and the challenges would continue to arise.

“One only has to assess the extent of destruction of key state institutions, especially in the criminal justice and state security institutions.

“In addition, virtually all of the state-owned corporations (SOCs) have been bankrupted by the awful combination of corruption and mismanagement. Given the vast sums of money that will be needed to support the SOCs, the delivery of basic services to address inequality will be compromised.”

Manuel said it was already evident that the spending available per capita in both education and healthcare had fallen quite rapidly.

“Hospitals are not functioning properly, school feeding programmes in many districts have been discontinued, and we still have children relieving themselves in the veld outside the school because there are no toilets.

“We have seen incompetent ministers appoint unqualified DGs (directors-general) in many departments, happy that competent and dedicated professional public servants had been driven out.”

Gift of patience ‘withdrawn’ by South Africans

He said even with a new and determined president (Cyril Ramaphosa) who was committed to reversing the destruction of the state, the problem would not disappear.

“Rebuilding the capability of the state is going to prove much more difficult than what it was the first time, because the gift of patience granted by the people since 1994 has been withdrawn and the state has been corroded by poor governance and maladministration.

“It will take considerably longer to rebuild than it took to destroy its inner workings. The commitment to build and persevere is no longer there – the cadre elected to serve the public under the Mandela administration has been replaced by a pack of self-serving politicians focused mostly on their own political survival.”

Now, he said, Ramaphosa had an exceedingly difficult task.

“His victory was on a slender margin in December, and he has a compromised national executive committee made up of too many individuals who will try and throw concrete into the mechanisms to prevent the wheels of justice from turning.

“Why? Because they have much to fear and too much to lose in their quest for personal enrichment. It is for this reason that we must all commit to supporting him in his endeavors for leadership against the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. We need to understand the enormity of the challenge, if only to root out corruption.”

News24.com | Land necessary for the poor to accumulate wealth – experts

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Can land and agriculture be the silver bullet that lifts South Africans out of poverty? And how does the agriculture sector help tackle the increasing decay of rural towns?

These were the big questions a panel of experts and business leaders in agriculture tackled at the opening of this year’s Nation in Conversation series at Nampo Harvest Day, South Africa’s biggest annual agriculture fair.

“Agricultural production only makes up 2.5% of the GDP. If you want to solve poverty through agriculture, you’re going to have problems,” said Tommie van Zyl, CEO of ZZ2.

The ability of land ownership to allow poor South Africans to accumulate wealth can, however, not be disputed, the experts agreed.

“Black people in rural parts of the country have for generations lived without the ability to generate wealth,” said Vito Rugani, who started a small vegetable farm 26 years ago and grew it into Greenway Farms, which is one of South Africa’s largest carrot producers today.

“Imagine what people could do if they could sell their land to buy a house and get a bond on that house to educate their children?”

Read: Land reform is no place for shacks

While South Africa’s income inequality is said to be the highest in the world with a Gini coefficient (measure of income inequality) of 0.7, the wealth inequality when calculated comes in at 0.9 – even higher.

“We have to be more nuanced when discussing inequality. Incomes change, but wealth creates its own income over time. Without it, inequality is entrenched over generations,” said political analyst Nompumelelo Rundi.

‘Focus on the education of young people’

Rundi believes the answer lies in education.

“The fact that 60% of the youth have never held a job and, when you look at the poor social mobility between generations, it tells us that the problem is structural. There is the inability of the economy to grow and create jobs. We will have to focus on the education of young people.”

According to political analyst and author Prince Mashele, it is worthwhile to look at history to see how, first the British in South Africa and later the Afrikaners, solved the problem of poverty among their people.

Read more: Mthethwa withdraws ‘fake news’ response to British land claims

He pointed out three tools the respective governments used to create wealth for their people, namely the state, private enterprise in either the mines of factories, and education.

“If the blacks want to solve poverty they must use the same tools. The state must back its people. Black people haven’t built factories. They just got sucked into the boardrooms of white people in the name of BEE,” he said.

“Black people have been abandoned by their own people. The reason why the Afrikaners could solve their problem of poverty is because the elite didn’t separate itself from the people. The black government is so corrupt, they only take care of themselves.”

Political analyst Mpumelelo Mkhabela said that the government of today was in an even better position to empower black people, because of the free and open society, and abundance of resources and skills it could draw from. It hasn’t, however, up to now, done this properly.

“Freedom is the ability to amass wealth. If political freedom doesn’t end with the ability to amass wealth, it’s not worth it,” said Rugani.

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News24.com | EFF demands Israeli ambassador leaves SA as Palestinian death toll climbs to 58

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The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has welcomed the government’s decision to pull the South African ambassador from Israel, following the death of close to 60 Palestinians by Israeli armed forces.

The party has also called on the Israeli ambassador in South Africa to leave.

It was reported earlier on Tuesday that Gaza health officials said the Palestinian death toll stood at 58, which includes 57 people killed by Israeli fire and a baby who died from tear gas inhalation.

ALSO READ: SA pulls ambassador out of Israel over Gaza violence

Labelling Israel a racist aggression on Palestine, the EFF lashed out at governments that associated with Israel.

“To this day, many freedom-loving governments of the world have associated with Israel, despite its racist policies on Palestine. As a result, Israel has not only hardened its oppression on Palestinians, [but] it has expanded its occupation in the West Bank, through forceful removals of Palestinians from their lands.”

The party said South Africa “must expel Israel’s ambassadors with immediate effect” until Israel ends its illegal occupation of Palestine.

‘International isolation of Israel’

The EFF added that the South African government was a key beneficiary of international boycotts and “must take the lead”.

“The expulsion of the Israeli mission must form part of the first move towards an international isolation of Israel by the whole world. The boycotts and isolation of Israel by the world is the most efficient, and yet peaceful way, of forcing the apartheid Israeli government to respect human rights of Palestinians.”

Earlier, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya said the South African government had taken a decision to recall ambassador Sisa Ngombane from Israel “with immediate effect”.

ALSO READ: LATEST: Palestinians to bury their dead after 58 killed

Mabaya said the attack on Palestinians also resulted in scores of citizens reportedly injured.

He said the government condemned “in the strongest terms possible, the latest act of violent aggression carried out by Israeli armed forces along the Gaza border”.

Mabaya said South Africa reiterated its view that the Israeli defence force “must withdraw from the Gaza Strip and bring to an end the violent and destructive incursions into Palestinian territories”.

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eNCA | Long wait in store for Jali after drunk-driving arrest

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PRETORIA – Former Orlando Pirates ace and Bafana Bafana midfielder Andile Jali could wait a full year before appearing in court to answer to charges of drunk driving after he was arrested by the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) at the weekend.

Jali, 28, was released on Sunday, after spending the night behind bars at the Brooklyn police station.

READ: Bafana Bafana star arrested

TMPD spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba declined to name the suspect, instead referring to him only as “a 28-year-old former Orlando Pirates player currently playing for the national soccer team”.

“He was released on R1,000 bail and the court date is  for 15 May 2019,” said Mahamba.

He explained the reason for the long wait before the soccer player’s court appearance.

“When we arrest you, firstly we breathalyse you, which gives us a reading. The reading tells us there is a possibility of alcohol in your system. Then we go and draw blood. After drawing that blood, we take it to the laboratory for evidence in court. The results may take up to a year.

“There is a possibility that the results may come earlier than that. If the results are out early, we might subpoena him so that he can appear in court and we will present that evidence in court. We need those results for us to go ahead with the court case.”

READ: Limpopo soccer player nabbed for rape

The Belgium-based Jali was pulled over  in his personalised “Jali 15 GP” white Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT in Hatfield, east of the Pretoria CBD. He was with a male friend.

On Sunday, Mahamba announced that the national soccer team player was one of 15 people detained in an extensive operation against drunk driving.

Mahamba said drunk driving was one of the major causes of fatal accidents on the capital city’s roads.

“Any person found driving while intoxicated will be arrested. TMPD will continue to intensify these drunk-driving operations; endangering innocent lives on our roads will not be tolerated,” said Mahamba.

“Motorists are encouraged rather to find alternative means of transport than to drink and drive. Well done to the officers for the outstanding arrests. No one is above the law.”

African News Agency