Mickeys

Pretoria – With only 93 days to go before the start of the 2010 World Cup, residents of Mamelodi-East near Pretoria during violent protests on Tuesday threatened to disrupt the tournament.

They are demanding that the government immediately supply them with houses, electricity, running water and flushing toilets.

“If the government could spend millions of rands and prepare for the World Cup so quickly, it’s a disgrace that people are still living in squalor in squatter camps,” Vusi Nkosi, a resident, said on Tuesday.

A schoolgirl armed with stones walks towards a police vehicle in Tsamayaweg, Mamelodi-East.

“The soccer means nothing to us because we won’t be able to watch it anyway, since we don’t have electricity.

“This time we will fight and toyi-toyi like the ANC taught us.”

Over 6 000 people live in seven squatter camps in close proximity to each other in Mamelodi-East.

Riotous residents have been blockading Tsamaya Road, Hector Peterson Street and Hans Strijdom Avenue with burning tyres and rubbish since 20:00 on Monday.

On Tuesday the police repeatedly tried to disperse the crowd by firing rubber bullets at them and firing live rounds in the air.

Several people were hit by rubber bullets.

Johannes Maheso, police spokesperson, said four men were arrested.

This protest followed similar demonstrations in Hammanskraal, Soshanguve and Brits.

Veronica Mphahlele, a community leader, said the government promised in 2000 that they would be given permanent houses and land of their own.

“It’s 10 years later and we’re still in the same position. All they do is send police to come and shoot at us.”

The residents are accusing council members, the police and the metro police of illegally selling land and houses intended for the poor to enrich themselves.

(continue reading…)

At least 11 people have been killed and more than 60 injured – including women and children on their way to school – in a suicide car bombing in Pakistan.

The target was a police building in the eastern city of Lahore where “important” suspects are interrogated.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, although it is thought to have been the work of the Taliban or an allied miltant group.

More than 600 people have died in a wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan that began last October.

The latest attack comes amid reports of a crackdown on the Taliban and al Qaeda in the country.

TV footage showed a huge crater in front of the police building where the bomb went off.

“This place was used to interrogate important suspects. Presently there was none such suspect, but more then 40 staff were manning the place,” said Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore.

Noorul Huda, a student at a nearby religious school who suffered a head wound in the explosion, told reporters: “Blocks and pieces of the roof fell upon us and six of us were injured.

“It was total chaos outside and people were running and crying for help.”

A Lahore government official said 11 people had died and a number of those injured were in critical condition.

A hospital spokesman said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl, apparently part of a group heading to a school.

“People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs,” he said.

Other nearby buildings, including a mosque, also were damaged by the blast.

story from SkyNews

The SABC was on Sunday tight-lipped over a newspaper report that it has suspended its popular 19:00 newsreader, Mahendra Raghunath.

Mahendra Raghunath

“I refuse to discuss staff issues. It doesn’t help anyone,” said spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

“It’s a matter between employer and employee,” he said. Kganyago said he did not see how SABC employee disputes were matters of public interest.

The Sunday Independent reported that Raghunath was suspended in an apparent witch-hunt.

Television news head Amrit Manga reportedly suspected Raghunath of speaking to the media about problems in the news department.

SABC head of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa) Themba Gasa told the newspaper that Raghunath was told to “go home and write a letter explaining why he should not be suspended”.

This happened after the Sunday Independent published an article detailing how the public broadcaster’s budget cuts negatively affected its newsroom. Manga allegedly played favourites in the newsroom, given prime time slots to preferred newsreaders, paying some more than others and crushing criticism, the newspaper reported.

Kganyago denied this. “People want to make this a Mahendra versus Amrit issue. It is not,” he told Sapa.

He also denied that financial problems affected the newsroom.

There is nothing wrong with our news,” he said.

Meanwhile, Newsreaders Thembisa Marele and Isabelle de Taisser want to take the SABC to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after they refused to sign contracts in December when their salaries were cut by 60%, the newspaper further reported.

Kganyago said SABC employees who did several jobs within the broadcaster were asked to give up some of their contracts during the budget cuts, which resulted in lower salaries.

“People earned extra in work time for which they were already paid. We told them you’ve got jobs. Let’s cut the additional work, which corresponds to no more overtime work allowed,” he said.

He however refused to say whether this applied to Marele and De Taisser directly, saying that internal and external processes, including the CCMA, would decide on disputes with employees.

taken from News24

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s lavish lifestyle is being bankrolled by lucrative government contracts awarded to his companies, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

Julius Malema

Some of the multi-million rand tenders awarded to Malema’s companies were from Limpopo, his home province, the paper reported.

Citing official tender and government documents, the paper reported that Malema’s companies were awarded more than 20 contracts, each worth between R500 000 and R39m between 2007 and 2008.

One of the companies, a small engineering firm, profited from more than R130m worth of tenders in just two years.

SGL Engineering Projects, which Malema co-owns with Lesiba Gwangwa, was awarded projects ranging from road and pavement construction to bulk water supply and upgrading cemeteries.

While public documents reveal that some of the projects were completed on schedule, the majority of them were not, the paper reported.

Malema is believed to have used his share of the profits to finance two luxury homes worth about R4.6m.

Contacted for comment regarding the tenders by the Sunday Times, Malema said: “What gives you the power to ask me that question? Let me tell you, I do not owe you any answer, to be honest. I am not accountable to you… I am accountable to the ANCYL and ANC. My organisations have never raised any concerns about those things”.

Malema went on to say “there is no law that says politicians can’t be businessmen”.

ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu declined to comment on the story, saying he hasn’t seen the paper yet.

“I can’t comment on things I haven’t seen even if you can explain (the story). Call me on Sunday when I have seen the story,” Shivambu said.

taken from News24

The Speaker of the National Assembly on Wednesday suspended Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard for swearing in Parliament during a walkout of the DA and Cope.

Speaker Max Sisulu said he had decided to invoke the provisions of Rule 52 of the Rules of the National Assembly and suspended Kohler-Barnard for the maximum of five parliamentary working days allowed in terms of the rules.

Sisulu said: “Since the DA had left the Chamber at that stage, there was no opportunity for the chair to express itself on the matter.”

“Ms Kohler-Barnard has since admitted to the media and to her party that she did indeed use the distasteful phrase.”

Kohler-Barnard used the word “fuck” during the walkout of the DA and Cope in support of Cope MP Mluleki George, after he was sent out of the National Assembly after refusing to withdraw his statement that the government was steering the country into lawlessness.

Earlier on Wednesday she was suspended for five days by her own party’s Chief Whip, Ian Davidson. This, shortly after ANC Chief Whip Mathole Motshekga called on the DA and Parliament to take action against Kohler-Barnard.

Sisulu said Kohler-Barnard’s behaviour had been unparliamentary, unbecoming and offensive in the extreme.

Her suspension came into effect immediately.

taken from News24

Hartbeespoort – A “crazy” man destroyed a young woman’s “life’s dream” on Monday when he shot her Siberian husky in the head.

Twenty-year-old Allecia Eastes’ fiancé, David Alkers, gave her the ten-month-old husky about eight months ago.

“All my life I’ve dreamed of having a husky.”

The couple moved into a flat on a smallholding at Bokfontein, between Mooinooi and Hartbeespoort, about three weeks ago. There are also six cottages and the owner’s house on the smallholding.

Eastes, who is 11 weeks pregnant, was sleeping when the man started shooting at her dogs with a revolver at about 11:30.

“Workers had put up a fence around the property. There’s a small fenced-off area behind the flat where Montego [the husky] and Kiara, a pit bull cross, were enclosed and from which they escaped. Mini-Me [the Daschund] was inside the house.”

“According to the workers the man first started shooting at the dogs near one of the cottages.”

“They [the dogs] ran home and apparently he walked over here, called Montego to the fence and shot him in the head. I was woken up by the shot.”

“Then he came into the fenced-off area, threw Montego over the fence so that it would look as if he’d been shot outside the yard, and with the revolver still in his hand, he started rattling at our flat’s doors.”

According to him, the dog had caught and eaten one of his parrots, but apparently there’s no sign of that.

Eastes had never met the man, so it was quite traumatic for her when a strange man with a revolver started rattling their doors.

Captain Aafje Botma, police spokesperson in the North West, confirmed that a docket was opened in terms of the Animal Protection Act. Further charges could possibly be added.

Apparently the man hasn’t been back to his cottage, so the police haven’t been able to take a statement or inspect his firearm.

taken from News24

The self-proclaimed “winner” of the R91m PowerBall jackpot interviewed by newspapers over the weekend is a phoney, the company which operates the national lottery said on Tuesday.

“We emphasise that we only had one winner and that winner’s description does not go anywhere close to what has been communicated in those media that ran the story,” Gidani chair and chief executive Bongani Khumalo said at a briefing in Midrand.

Over the past few days, several newspapers have reported that a deaf and mute cleaner named Stanley Philander, from Cape Town, won the PowerBall jackpot.

The articles were accompanied by a photo of a smiling Philander with his family holding up what purported to be the winning ticket.

“The information we obtained this morning (Tuesday)  is that the coupon supposed to be the Philanders’ winning ticket was actually bought on Saturday, February 13, the day following the PowerBall draw on the 12th,” said Khumalo.

Gidani has not had any contact with Philander, who reportedly left his home with his family over the weekend after being harassed with requests for money.

“We are concerned that claims have been made that the ticket was checked and found to be authentic before breaking the story,” said Khumalo.

Gidani spokesperson Thembi Tulwana said the company would contact Die Son, the newspaper which broke the news of Philander’s “win”, and try to find more about the circumstances surrounding the ticket.

“We advised that all involved in the Philander story should do all they can to work with the Philander family to deal with the implications of the apparent prank,” said Khumalo.

Khumalo said the real winner, who was playing for the first time, was a 43-year-old wife and mother of two teenagers who ran a medium-sized business with her husband and wished to remain anonymous.

“She and her husband were oblivious of the media attention the phoney winner was getting, the couple said they had not told anyone about their fortune,” said Khumalo.

“The winner, who hails from Western Cape, did not want to take any chances. With the winning ticket safely secured in her husband’s wallet, the couple quietly booked themselves into a hotel.

“They said: ‘We are not even going to tell our children about it’.”

Khumalo said they did not plan to drastically change their lives. (continue reading…)

Port Elizabeth – Speedsters need not beware in the Nelson Mandela Bay area – their traffic officers issued less than a fine a day in the last financial year, reported The Herald Online on Wednesday.

They're probably claiming for sleeping overtime!

This is compared to the national standard of 10 fines a day.

Metro police task team leader Trish Armstrong revealed in a briefing to the budget and treasury committee on Tuesday that the 93 traffic officers in the city issued less than one fine a day.

Traffic wardens issued fewer than two fines a day – the second lowest in the country, said Armstrong.

This while traffic officers seemed to clock overtime full-time – several had claimed that they worked 18 hours a day for 30 consecutive days.

Armstrong told the committee this was “biologically impossible”.

Only 28% of speed cameras were operational, she added.

The municipality was also grappling with R99m in outstanding traffic fines.

taken from News24

Durban – A woman and four schoolchildren were injured when a minibus taxi hit them while they were waiting for a lift on Adams Mission road, south of Durban, on Monday morning, KwaZulu-Natal paramedics said.

“A woman and four schoolchildren were seriously injured when they were struck by a minibus taxi,” said Netcare 911’s Jeff Wicks.

They were waiting on the curb for a lift when the taxi driver lost control of the vehicle.

Wicks said the injured were taken to hospital, while the taxi driver and his passengers were uninjured.

taken from News24

Durban – A six-year-old-boy was found chained by his hands and legs and locked up with chickens in Osizweni township in Newcastle, The Mercury newspaper reported on Monday.

Chicken coop

A concerned neighbour alerted police after he heard the boy’s cry for help.

Inspector Sydney Mtshali of Osizweni police station said he broke the door down and found the boy chained by his hands and legs. He said the boy was kept with chickens.

“I heard the hysterical cry for help from the boy, who was locked up and chained in the house by his foster mother who had left home to queue for her pension grant,” the neighbour told the paper.

Mtshali said the boy was scared, shaking and dirty. A social worker took him to hospital.

He had never been to school and had been in an orphanage before he was taken in by the foster mother, Mtshali said.

“I have just seen some boys and girls my age in their nice uniforms on their way to school. Gogo has always been promising to take me to school but I don’t [know] why she has chained me like this today,” the boy was quoted as saying.

The boy said his foster mother had beaten him with a pipe or a big stick but had never chained him up before.

The paper wrote that when the 72-year-old woman was asked why she had chained the boy, she said; “This child is very troublesome. I decided to lock him up because I did not want him to leave.”

The boy’s foster mother appeared before the Madadeni Magistrate’s Court on charges of child abuse on Friday and was out on bail.

taken from News24

Johannesburg – What would have been only a R500 spot fine, became five charges against a woman who allegedly refused to stop when Johannesburg metro police wanted to pull her over because she was talking on her cellphone.

Dalene Fordham is arrested on the M1 highway in Johannesburg.

Dalene Fordham, 46, on Thursday appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on charges of reckless or negligent driving, resisting arrest, crimen injuria, assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and intentional injury to property.

According to Wayne Minnaar, spokesperson for the Johannesburg metro police, a female official tried to pull Fordham over on the M1 south near the Empire read off-ramp because she was talking on her cellphone while driving.

Fordham refused to stop and started swearing at officials, even reportedly calling them kaffir.

“One of the officials stood in front of the woman’s car and tried to stop her, but she drove directly towards her. The official had to jump on her bonnet so she wouldn’t run her over,” said Minnaar.

The woman then tried to drive away, but another official shot out the left rear tyre of her red Honda.

Minnaar said Fordham was taken to their Drager alcohol testing centre in the CBD, but she refused to be tested. The officials then took her to have her blood tested.

The charge sheet doesn’t contain a charge of drunken driving.

The case was postponed to Friday and she remains in detention.

taken from News24

Hong Kong – An acid attacker who injured 30 people in Hong Kong’s Temple Street night market at the weekend was still at large on Monday after police reportedly picked up the wrong man.

A suspect in his 30s was arrested early on Sunday on a rooftop near the scene of Saturday night’s attack in which victims were splashed with acid from plastic bottles thrown onto the crowded market.

Victims of the attack – the latest in a series of unsolved acid attacks in Hong Kong over the past 13 months – included nine tourists and a seven-year-old child. No one was seriously hurt.

After more than 24 hours of questioning, however, the suspect turned out to be an undocumented migrant working at the market who was hiding from police, Monday’s Hong Kong Standard reported.

Police said they believe one person may have been responsible for the Temple Street attack and five similar incidents since December 2008, according to the newspaper.

An award of $38 000 has been offered by police for information leading to the arrest of the culprit.

More than 100 people have been injured in the acid attacks in which bottles of sulphuric acid were thrown from high buildings onto busy shopping or pedestrian areas in the city of 7 million.

taken from News24

Cape Town – Springbok rugby has been hit by a new drugs shock.

Pedrie Wannenburg

Flanker Pedrie Wannenburg has admitted that he had used cocaine and ecstasy, and also abused alcohol.

This time there is also reference to a video, as there was in the case of former Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen.

Wannenburg’s drug and alcohol abuse nearly cost him his rugby career. Bulls coach Frans Ludeke even warned him: “I think you should find something else to do.”

This was after a video was sent to the Blue Bulls Rugby Union ((BBRU). That coupled with his mother finding a straw with which he snorted cocaine in his bedroom, led Wannenburg to reconsider his lifestyle.

He is now tested by the Bulls’ team doctor on a weekly basis for alcohol and drug abuse.

Wannenburg, who has played several Tests for the Springboks and can play lock, flank and No 8, tells his story in the latest issue of the magazine Finesse, which is available at shops on Monday.

This follows Joost van der Westhuizen’s recent admission regarding the so-called Joost sex video and the fact that he had abused drugs and alcohol.

Wannenburg, who has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons – including his stormy love-life – on a number of occasions in recent years, told Beeld on Sunday that it is best to be honest – “no matter how difficult it is”.

“It is, and remains, difficult to talk in public about deeds you are ashamed of. I’m grateful for the people that are standing by me and supporting me. This motivates me to work hard at being the old Pedrie of which I can be proud,” he said.

He said that his big ambition was to again pull the Bok jersey over his head.

According to the article, the video was made in a night club where Wannenburg had used drugs. It was sent to the BBRU and led to Ludeke’s warning.

“I often drank myself into a stupor but I was always with other people. It’s probably easy for others to label me an alcoholic, but I’m not addicted.

“The cocaine and ecstasy goes hand in hand with the drinking. If you drink too much and the drugs are there, then you give into temptation.

“It did not happen every day – just at parties for some added energy. After a while alcohol simply does not give you the same kick. You need something extra.”

He said he had tried to stop on a number of occasions.

“I am human. I wanted to, but could not get myself focused the first time. When I did not get what I wanted … I turned to alcohol and drugs.”

taken from Sport24

A father has murdered his young daughter, shot his estranged girlfriend and then killed himself after a violent row at the former family home.

Police said they were met with a "very traumatic" scene in Aldershot

Forty-year-old mother Julie Harrison has been left fighting for her life after she was shot in the head during the dispute in Aldershot, Hampshire.

A violent argument is understood to have broken out as the recently split couple traded access to their four-year-old daughter, Maisie.

Police discovered the girl’s body alongside that of her 56-year-old father, Andrew Copland, at the terraced house in Church Hill.

Officers said the deaths were the result of a “domestic incident” and confirmed they were not looking for another suspect.

Ms Harrison was airlifted to a central London hospital, where her condition has been described as “serious and critical”.

Officers were called to the terraced property when a neighbour dialled 999 to report a row shortly after 10am on Tuesday morning.

Det Insp Darren Rawlings said they were met with a “very traumatic” scene.

Attempts to resuscitate the girl failed and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

It is understood the couple split up around four weeks ago. Police said they were still working towards establishing a motive.

“We need to find out why this has happened and exactly what happened in the premises,” Mr Rawlings said.

taken from SkyNews

UPDATE:

Mother Of Gun Tragedy Girl Dies Of Wounds:

The mother of a four-year-old girl shot dead in Aldershot has died in hospital from wounds suffered in the same incident.

Julie Harrison on her wedding day

Julie Harrison, 40, died at 9.30am at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, Hampshire Police said.

Officers believe her estranged partner Andy Copland, 56, killed their four-year-old daughter Maisie then shot Ms Harrison before killing himself at their house in Aldershot, Hampshire.

The shootings took place as Maisie was dropped off for an access visit on Tuesday morning.

Ms Harrison’s ex-husband described her as a bubbly personality with lots of friends.

Kevin Moody, 47, a print production manager from Farnborough, Hants, said he was married to Ms Harrison from 1992 to 1996, when they split amicably.

“She was a good laugh and we had an awful lot of fun when we were together. She was a bubbly personality and had a lot of friends,” he said.

Police stand guard outside the house where the shootings occurred

“We didn’t have any children and basically we split because she wanted to do the things that a single woman wanted to do and I didn’t.”

Mr Moody said he last saw his ex-wife in 2006 at the funeral of his mother Margaret.

“She seemed happy. She showed me loads of pictures of Maisie on her phone – she was well proud of her,” he said.

“She didn’t tell me about her partner and I didn’t ask. I met him once years ago but I didn’t know him.”

Mr Moody said his wife worked as a care assistant before they married and then she looked after mother Betty, who had multiple sclerosis and later died.

He said Copland’s ex-wife ran a care business but he could not remember if Ms Harrison had worked for it when they were married.

Flowers are laid at the scene

“I’m really in shock. It was all a long time ago for me now. At the end of the day she was a woman I loved,” he added.

Earlier a neighbour told how police reacted when Copland apparently shot Maisie and Ms Harrison before turning the gun on himself.

Rachael Bryan was at home next door when a friend, Robert Wood, was prevented from parking his car by Ms Harrison’s red Renault, which was parked in the road.

“She had dropped the child off and kept the engine running so Robert was kept waiting and he started tooting his horn,” Mrs Bryan explained.

“Then a neighbour came up to him and tearfully said he (Copland) had locked his wife in the house and the police have been called.

“We went upstairs to my bedroom window and a police car with lights flashing came and a policeman knocked on the door.

“I suppose he must have seen something through the letterbox because he then started kicking in the door.

“Later we saw the mother coming out. She had her head strapped across the stretcher and she was put into an ambulance.”

She said that Ms Harrison had left the house on November 6.

“When I moved in I was told he came home from work one day and his wife had left with their child,” she said.

“I used to see him putting the bins out but I kept my distance. He seemed angry and depressed. People said he used to be OK but his wife had left him.”

taken from SkyNews

A 30-year-old man is due to appear in court charged with murdering a toddler in Northern Ireland.

Relatives of Millie say they are 'numb with pain' following her death

Millie Martin, who was 15 months old, died in Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital on Friday.

She had been attacked and badly beaten at a house in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, the day before.

The accused will appear at Omagh Magistrates Court charged with murder, police said.

Millie was taken with her mother Rachel to the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen on Thursday before being transfered to the Royal.

She was kept on a life support machine until members of her family arrived to say goodbye.

Her grief-stricken relatives said they were numb with pain after her death.

Senior social workers at the Western Health Trust have been helping police with their inquiries.

taken from SkyNews