Media wants Zuma meeting about Malema

9 April 2010, 20:06

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More complaints against Malema
ANC and Youth League to meet


South Africa's media will ask President Jacob Zuma for a meeting to discuss the behaviour of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, National Press Club chairman Yusuf Abramjee said on Friday.

"We will immediately write a letter to President Zuma, where we will express our concerns and appeal for the protection of the media," Abramjee said after an urgent meeting about Malema's treatment of a foreign reporter at a press conference.

"We will also raise media literacy issues. There will also be a request for a meeting," he said.

On Thursday, Malema called BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher a "bastard" and a "bloody agent", and accused him of having white tendencies when he interjected during a press conference on Malema's recent visit to Zimbabwe.

While Malema was criticising Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change for having offices in Sandton, Fisher remarked that Malema lived in Sandton.

Malema launched into a verbal attack which ended with Fisher being chased out of the press conference.

The ANC publicly rounded on Malema, and said it would urgently meet the ANCYL to discuss his behaviour.

"The aggressive and insultive (sic) behaviour to the said journalist that culminated with Mr Fisher walking out of the [ANC] Youth League press briefing cannot be condoned at all," spokesman Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

"The unfortunate outburst by Comrade Julius Malema did not only reflect negatively on him, but also reflected negatively on the ANCYL, the entire ANC family, our alliance partners as well as South Africa in the eyes of the international community."

The Congress of SA Trade Unions voiced its support for the ANC's stance and described its pronouncement on the matter a "bold" move.

The National Religious Leaders' Forum said it also wanted to talk to Zuma about Malema.

The Afrikanerbond apologised to the BBC and said it intended lodging a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission about the matter.

Editors, journalists and media organisations including the Foreign Correspondents' Association, the Professional Journalists' Association and the Freelance Writers' Association attended the "summit" in Sandton.

Input was also made by the SA National Editors' Forum.

"Discussions and debate were open and robust. The media fraternity is united on this issue," Abramjee said in a statement.

The press club believed that Malema's behaviour contradicted Zuma's recent undertaking at the club's Newsmaker of the Year banquet, where he said journalists should not be victimised under any circumstances.

Abramjee said it was decided at the meeting not to boycott ANC Youth League press conferences as "this would amount to irresponsible behaviour by the journalistic fraternity".

However, it was agreed that journalists could walk out of media briefings if they felt their journalistic ethics were being undermined.

At the talks, a steering committee was elected representing various media bodies and organisations.

"The media being treated with contempt must cease immediately, as well as the name calling. We will continue to address issues that infringe on media freedom," said Abramjee.

The ANCYL has threatened to expose journalists' private details in reaction to articles about Malema's directorship of a company awarded multi-million rand tenders in Limpopo.

It has alleged that journalists have sex with politicians for stories, get them drunk to get information from them, and accept "brown envelopes".

A group of political reporters has already lodged a complaint with the ANC over the allegations. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

We might as well invite Bob Mugabe to the same press meeting!

They are the ones receiving golden envelopes studded with blood diamonds!

Another Zuma prosecutor demoted

31 March 2010, 07:56

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By Botho Molosankwe

Another Gauteng High Court prosecutor tasked with the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma on charges of corruption has been demoted.

Advocate George Baloyi became the second senior prosecutor on a Zuma case to receive notice of his removal as Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.

On Tuesday, The Star reported that Advocate Mutuwa Nengovhela, also a member of the team that prosecuted Zuma in the Johannesburg High Court, had been given the responsibilities of a clerk at the Family Court.

Two colleagues at the Pretoria High Court, Advocate Retha Meintjies SC and Advocate Connie Erasmus, have also been demoted and told to take up their new positions as prosecutors at magistrate courts around Pretoria on April 5.

The orders have come from Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane.

Meintjies is going to the Mamelodi Magistrate's Court where she will work only on sexual offence cases, domestic violence and maintenance issues. Baloyi is to prosecute similar cases in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court.

Erasmus, who worked at the now disbanded Scorpions, will become a prosecutor at the Soshanguve Regional Court.

According to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke, the reason for the deployment was that most of the serious crimes that plagued the country were being heard in lower courts, mostly staffed by young and inexperienced prosecutors.

"The organisation has a wealth of experienced prosecutors, many of whom are in managerial positions at head office and in the DPP offices, mainly concerned with administration. How is this imbalance of resources benefiting the criminal justice system, especially our courts?

"The ever increasing case backlogs and less than satisfactory conviction rates are a clear sign that the manner in which our courts are resourced with prosecutors is not yielding the positive results that Government and the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster are aiming to achieve," she said.

In Soweto, the removal of Nthabiseng Motsau, the head of sexual offences cases at the Protea Magistrate's Court, could result in delay in the prosecution of a Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital doctor facing 13 cases of sexual assault.

None of the prosecutors would talk to the media.


•This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on March 31, 2010

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Take off the blinkers.

We are heading for a one party state.

Under the stateless ANC!

Menzi Simelane is a Zuma puppet!

No wonder Malema is studying Zimbabwe violence!

Song ‘a constitutional issue’

CEDRIC MBOYISA

JOHANNESBURG - The ANC is heading to the highest court in the land to defend the singing of the liberation song “shoot the boer”.

“It is an incompetent judgment.

“There is so much injustice that emanates from the judgment,” said ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu in Johannesburg yesterday.

He and ANC secretary- general Gwede Mantashe addressed the media on the party’s unhappiness with the South Gauteng High Court ruling which banned the singing of the controversial song.

Mantashe said: “The struggle for our freedom was declared as just by the entire world, it is apartheid that was declared evil against humanity.

“That song was not sung under normal circumstances. This is a constitutional matter.”

The controversial song recently shot to prominence again after being sung by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema while addressing his supporters.

As a result, the likes of the Freedom Front Plus, AfriForum and the Afrikanerbond lodged official complaints against him.

But Mthembu and Mantashe argued that the song was taken out of context and slammed the acting judge for not according the ANC an opportunity to explain its case before making a judgment.

“It is not dubul’ ibhunu (“shoot the boer”) that came from nowhere.

“People want to fuel fears which are not there. We did not ban the stem when we took over.

“No judge, except this one, would have considered the matter to be urgent,” said Mthembu.

Mantashe said the judgment could not be enforced and implemented.

“Easy legal victories by any grouping in society will further polarise our society.

Mthembu denied there was any correlation between the “shoot the boer” song and the actual killing of farmers.

cedricm@citizen.co.za

CITIZEN

Comments by Sonny

ANC Corruption and abuse of power should become a Constitutional issue!

Freedom of sceech has become an issue too!

Promote white cop, SAPS told

26 February 2010, 11:40

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'Cop would have been promoted if black'


In a landmark affirmative action case on Friday the Labour Court ruled that the South African Police Service should promote captain Renate Barnard to superintendent.

Trade union Solidarity, on behalf of Barnard, approached the Labour Court to ensure Barnard's promotion.

The court found in favour of Solidarity and Barnard and ordered the SA Police Service to pay the applicant's costs.

Solidarity general secretary Dirk Hermann said the judgment was a victory for all South Africans.

"We are absolutely delighted. The judgment brought about a new direction in affirmative action," he said after the judgment was handed down.

"This means for the police service that merit is also critical for affirmative action."

Barnard, at the time of the dispute, was responsible for investigating priority and ordinary complaints against the SA Police service.

In 2005 a superintendent level position was created by the police to improve service to the public in view of handling complaints.

In that year Barnard and six other applicants applied for the position.

An interview panel gave her 86,7 percent for the interview and recommended her unanimously.

"Captain Barnard was 17,5 percent better than the next applicant from the designated group. In view of this fact the interview panel recommended that should she not get the position, it will adversely affect service delivery," Hermann said.

However the SAPS divisional commissioner recommended that the position not be filled saying that her appointment would not promote representation.

This, said Hermann, was despite the fact that Barnard was a woman and therefore part of the designated group in terms of the Employment Equity Act.

After pursuing internal grievance procedures without success the case was referred to the Labour Court.

Barnard, on Friday, wearing a teal ankle length dress told reporters outside the court how happy the ruling had made her.

"It was not an easy road, but I am so relieved," she said.

"Thank you to my father in heaven and to Solidarity."

The judgment stipulated that she would be promoted to the post of superintendent with effect from July 2006. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Long live justice in SA!

Affirmative Active is the work of Lucifer!

We shall overcome racism!

Nyanda Inc makes millions from govt

ADRIAAN BASSON | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jan 29 2010 06:00

Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda -- South Africa’s former defence force chief -- owns a 50% stake in a company that has at least five contracts with government agencies, bringing it millions of rands in government business, the Mail & Guardian has established.

GNS [General Nyanda Security] Risk Advisory Services (Pty) Ltd, Nyanda’s company, has been in the news since last year when it was revealed that Transnet Freight Rail, on suspended chief executive Siyabonga Gama’s watch, had awarded GNS a R55-million tender without proper tender processes being ­followed.

However, an M&G investigation has established that GNS has also benefited from security contracts with at least four other government entities.

The M&G has also learnt that Nyanda’s business partner and chief executive of GNS is embattled Johannesburg lawyer Sylvester ­Sithole, fingered for alleged fraudulent dealings with the SABC in a 2007 draft forensic report.

After Nyanda was appointed a minister in May last year, he told the M&G that his interest in GNS posed no conflict of interest with his official duties and that the company’s area of business was “security risk”.

What he failed to declare was GNS’s clients -- Transnet Freight Rail; passenger train company Metrorail; state bus company Autopax; and two contracts with the Gauteng provincial government.

At least three of these entities fall under the political leadership of two of his Cabinet colleagues -- Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele (Metrorail and Autopax) and Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan (Transnet Freight Rail).

This week Nyanda defended himself by saying he had declared his interest in GNS to Parliament and “has not been active in the affairs of the entity”.

He declined to clarify his role in the company’s affairs, his involvement in obtaining government business or his relationship with Sithole.

Nyanda, the country’s defence force chief from June 1998 to June 2005, was appointed a director of GNS on June 29 1998. He resigned from the board on August 13 last year but keeps his shares.

In the 2009 register of members’ interests, he told Parliament that GNS provides him with a “driver for household and children transportation”.

GNS, which is based in an office park in Rosebank, Johannesburg, also refused to answer the M&G’s questions about its business with government, requesting through its lawyers a copy of the article before publication to “properly comment”.

The M&G declined to provide them with the unpublished story.

Transnet
It was revealed last year that GNS was awarded a R19-million contract in December 2007 on Gama’s watch to provide surveillance and investigation services for the parastatal’s goods trains. Gama is currently ­facing a disciplinary hearing for allegedly signing off the tender, worth more than the R10-million he was allowed to award.

In response to a parliamentary question last year, Hogan revealed that GNS “has been paid approximately R55-million in a 20-month period since the conclusion of the contract in December 2007”.

The M&G this week established that the contract was jointly awarded to GNS and Johannesburg-based Nayle Outsourcing, which provided investigation services to Transnet.

According to Nayle’s Jaco van Wyk, the tender was up for renewal last year and advertised by Transnet three times. “Every time something went wrong with the advert.”

GNS and Nayle’s contract finally comes to an end on Sunday -- 25 months after signing a 20-month contract with Transnet.

Nyanda has publicly come out in support of Gama and likened his case to President Jacob Zuma’s graft trial. “The challenge is that some people out there are really bent on ensuring that he is destroyed. What happened to JZ is happening in this case. People vilify and cast aspersions on you,” Nyanda told Business Times in September.

Metrorail and Autopax
According to Tiro Holele, spokesperson for the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), Metrorail awarded GNS a contract to provide “various security risk-related functions” in October 2008 for two years.

Metrorail and Autopax, which manages the Translux and City-to-City buses, were incorporated into Prasa last year.

According to a former GNS employee, the company was contracted to do surveillance on Metrorail’s passenger trains and on ­Translux and City-to-City buses. “We had to ride on them and write reports on what we saw.”

According to Holele, Metrorail has paid GNS R15,1-million to date, or little more than R1-million a month.

Gauteng
The M&G has established from two inside sources that the Gauteng government paid GNS to investigate and protect the provincial government garage, with a fleet of more than 5 000 vehicles.

Nyanda’s company was also contracted by Impophoma, a provincial entity that manages ­Gauteng’s construction equipment, to provide security services.

It is not clear whether these contracts have expired and how much GNS was paid. Gauteng failed to respond to questions.

Nyanda responds
Nyanda’s office gave the following response to the Mail & Guardian’s questions: Upon accepting appointment to public office, the Minister of Communications General (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda made a declaration to Parliament with regard to his interests in the entity in question, GNS, as required by law.

It is worth noting as well that the minister has not been active in the affairs of the entity in question since his appointment to public office.

Any other question regarding GNS should therefore be directed to GNS itself and not to the office of the minister of communications.

The minister has no other protection services other than those provided by the South African Police Service as ­prescribed by law.

Mail & Guardian

Comments by Sonny

No wonder the SAPS will never be effective.

Ministers make more money out of crime!

Does Nyanda want to run his own Executive Outcomes?

South African 'thief' stuffed chicken with gold

A South African jewellery firm says it has foiled a bizarre attempt by one of its staff to steal gold by stuffing a cooked chicken with the precious metal.

The illicit stuffing was apparently uncovered when the worker went through metal detectors at Browns Jewellers offices in Johannesburg.

A suspect has been arrested and charged with attempted theft.

The firm recently tightened security and reportedly banned female workers from wearing underwire bras.

The employee was allegedly caught with the gold-filled bird at the firm's office in Dunkeld, Johannesburg, on Monday.

Metal detectors flagged up the precious cargo as the worker tried to make his way out of the building.

The underwire bra ban was to stop women using them to confuse metal detectors.

'Dubious dealers'

The man appeared at Hillbrow Magistrate's court on Tuesday charged with attempted theft and the possession of suspected stolen goods.

Police spokesman Thandi Mkhize told the BBC the man is still in police custody and will appear in court again on 8 December.

The company's boss Larry Brown says he has been trying his best to stop illegal traders from buying stolen goods.

"The very nature of the jewellery industry makes it a target for criminals," he said.

"Part of our procedures are to routinely visit dubious dealers who trade in fine metals, diamonds and gold.

"These dealers are known to buy stolen jewellery, often at enormous cost to lives."

BBC News

Comments by Sonny

If International terrorists and drug smugglers can fill baby corpses with hand grenades and drugs, then jewellers can stuff cooked chickens with stolen jewellery!

Thank God for metal and lie detectors.

We will shoot you dead, cops tell mom

7 November 2009, 09:52

A Joburg mother has been left wary of trigger-happy police after being warned that she could be shot dead if she drove her car.

Aadielah Maker's car was stolen from her Kensington driveway a month ago. On the same day, it was recovered in Jabulani, Soweto.

It had been with the insurance company for the past four weeks. When it was returned to her eight days ago, police had still not removed her car from the stolen list.

The Kensington resident said police had told her they would not be held responsible if they found her driving her car.

Maker's concerns come as the Independent Complaints Directorate investigates at least four cases of murder and three cases of attempted murder by police who implemented the "shoot to kill" directive by police bosses.

In the latest case, Atteridgeville police allegedly shot dead 21-year-old Kgothatso Ndobe when they went to his house to question him.

In Mpumalanga, the Matsulu community alleged that two people were shot dead by police officers during a weekend raid that turned violent.

And in October, 28-year-old Olga Kekana was shot dead and three occupants were wounded when Tshwane police shot at their vehicle, which they had mistaken for a stolen car.

In Maker's case, police allowed her to drive her car for two days last week before warning her that, if found in her car, she would be shot.

Officers at Jabulani police station in Soweto, where the car was found, handed the car over to the insurance company but never took it off the stolen list. It was only this week, four weeks after the incident, when Maker went to Cleveland police station to delist the car, that they issued the warning.

"No one tells me 'Don't drive your car'. My kids and everyone are in the car. What if I just drove and I never did the clearance? Would the cops have shot me with all the kids in the car?" she said.

"The first thing they say when I get to the station is 'You can't drive your car. Any policeman can shoot you and we won't take responsibility if you are shot'."

Maker then became caught up in the red tape of trying to track down the policeman who could delist the car. It was only on Wednesday this week that she managed to have her car removed from the list.

But Maker is not yet out of the woods, as she needs to do a final vehicle clearance at the police's centre in Roodepoort.

And to add insult to injury, the theft of her car had come just two weeks after her car window had been smashed in Hillbrow - and officers in four police cars had ignored her on that occasion, she said.

"I was crying, and I drove past four police cars and no one stopped to ask me what was wrong and if they could help.

"You could clearly see that something had happened.

"Eventually, when the cops in one of the cars saw me at a robot, they asked me what had happened.

"It has been two weeks in a row that I have had a bad experience with the police. I don't hold them in very high regard right now.

"I felt like 'what's the point of getting the car back?' I have to go through all the insurance issues and the secondary trauma of getting it back.

"Police don't explain anything. Most people get a fright when they get stopped by cops. I don't know what they would have done. It was a bit freaky and scary.

"We try to be moral citizens and we believe we need to do whatever we need so that the system works, but when it fails you, what is the message you send? It is confirmation that the system doesn't work," Maker said.

Provincial police spokesman Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said he could not comment on the statements made by the police unless they were a complaint, made under oath in writing.

Dlamini said it was usual practice for the insurance company to remove the vehicle from the stolen vehicle register.

Independent Complaints Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said they were not able to tell if the cases seen at the directorate were as a result of political "shoot to kill" statements.

"It is highly speculative at the moment. Everyone wants to link the statements to the deaths. There has been an increase in the past two to four years, so how can you only blame the statements?

"In the future we will investigate the causes of these cases, and the statements are one aspect we will look into."


•This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on November 07, 2009

Saturday Star

Comments by Sonny

How can the SAPS release a 'stolen car' before cancelling it off their system?

Once the owner signed for the car the SAPS are liable for what happens to the owner on the road.

It's similar to all these 'cloned' cars with the same police stamps on them!

Who is responsible for this dysfunctional attitude towards their jobs!

When will this corruption end?