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Mpumalanga Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Manamela, has welcomed the arrest of a 23-year-old man suspected to be behind rape and robbery incidents that recently occurred at Nkomazi area in the Ehlanzeni District.

In a statement, provincial SAPS spokesperson, Colonel Donald Mdhluli, said the suspect was cornered at Matsulu by members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) in Pienaar. He was also charged on immigration charges and appeared before the Kabokweni Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

He said: “According to the information at police disposal, defenceless women were allegedly raped as well as robbed of their personal belongings between April 2021 and August 2021 at both Matsulu and Kaapmuiden near Malelane. There were cases opened to that regard and the FCS Unit was assigned to probe as well as ensure that the perpetrator is swiftly brought to book”.

Mdhluli said the FCS team were hard at work to apprehend the suspect when it emerged about a suspicious illegal immigrant who was roaming around the streets of Matsulu.

The details were then followed up and the SAPS members arrested him in the early hours of Thursday, he said.

“During the tour of their investigation, the FCS team discovered that he is a suspect that they have been looking for, for quite some time. Then in the afternoon of yesterday, Saturday, 04 August 2021, he was charged on four counts of rape and three counts of robbery.

“At the place where the suspect was arrested, police also found some items belonging to females which they (police) now suspect that the items could be that of his victims. The SAPS cannot rule out possibility of linking the man to several cases reported where women became victims of violent crimes,” he said.

The suspect was today expected to appear before the Matsulu Periodical Court on charges relating to the said incidents of robberies and rapes.

Manamela in the statement further urged those who fell victims of violent crimes in the past but never reported such cases to come forward and report at their nearest police stations.

The General also appreciated the public for the information they provided as well as the swift reaction by members from FCS which led to the breakthrough and the suspect’s arrest.

She concluded by highlighting that her vision of working towards eradicating Gender-Based-Violence in the province is beginning to show some positive results.

The Department of Correctional Services has announced that former President Jacob Zuma has been placed on medical parole.

In a statement, the department said a medical report on the former President spurred on the decision to allow him medical parole.

“Medical parole’s eligibility for [the former President] is impelled by a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services. Apart from being terminally ill and physically incapacitated, inmates suffering from an illness that severely limits their daily activity or self-care can also be considered for medical parole,” said the department in a statement on Sunday.

Former President Zuma was serving a second month behind bars after the Constitutional Court sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment for contempt of court.

The department says he will now be under community corrections.

“Medical parole placement for [the former President] means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with [a] specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the statement said.

The department explained that decisions to grant medical parole are made through a legal framework.

“Section 75(7)(a) of the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 affords the National Commissioner a responsibility to place under correctional supervision or day parole, or grant parole or medical parole to a sentenced offender serving a sentence of incarceration for 24 months or less. The National Commissioner is also in terms of Section 52, empowered to prescribe conditions of parole.

“The risk of re-offending of released inmates must also be low and there must be appropriate arrangements for the inmate’s supervision, care and treatment within the community to which the inmate is to be released to. Medical parole can only be revoked if an offender does not comply with the placement conditions,” the statement read.

The department said all offenders can be placed medical parole if they meet the criteria.

“We want to reiterate that placement on medical parole is an option available to all sentenced offenders provided they meet all the requirements. We appeal to all South Africans to afford [former President] Zuma dignity as he continues to receive medical treatment,” it said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says concerted efforts are needed to overcome inequality and the material conditions that divide society along racial lines.

“Building social cohesion requires a concerted effort to overcome inequality and social depravation.

“It also requires that we overcome the unequal material conditions that divides society along race, gender and class lines,” the President said on Friday, when responding to oral questions at a hybrid sitting of the National Assembly.

ANC MP Tidimalo Legwase had asked what additional measures government will implement to advance social cohesion and nation building, in light of the recent unrest that exposed underlying racial tension in society.

The President said acts of violence and destruction in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July revealed many of the challenges in the path to building a united and cohesive society.

“We must build integrated communities with social infrastructure and services for all. We need to ensure that young people have equal access to quality education, sporting and recreational opportunities, social support and employment opportunities.”

As part of its response, eThekwini Metro is focused on various programmes aimed at youth, including psycho-social support in school, a food security programme, youth employment initiatives and unity games in Phoenix, KwaMashu, Inanda, Tongaat and Newlands.

“The achievement of social cohesion and nation building is closely tied to the work government is undertaking to drive economic growth, create employment and transform the economy,” said President Ramaphosa.

Police Minister Bheki Cele on Thursday said so far, 56 suspects have been arrested by the detective team deployed in Phoenix to investigate the brutal murder of 36 people in that area during the unrest .

President Ramaphosa said part of the work that must be done is to critically examine the preparedness for and response of security and law enforcement services to unrest.

In August, the President appointed a panel of experts to investigate the issues around the unrest, which will guide the measures that need to be taken to prevent the recurrence of such events.

“Another critical part of the work that government must do is to address the social and economic factors that also contributed to the violence and destruction that we saw.

“A deeply disturbing aspect of the unrest was the emergence of the racial tension in parts of Ethekwini, particularly between African and Indian communities. This was occasioned by terrible scenes of violence and killings in Phoenix.”

He said law enforcement agencies have made significant progress in arresting individuals alleged to have been involved in this violence and the law must take its course.

The President said there is the broader task of addressing both the underlying racial tensions that may have contributed to these events, and the further tensions that these events have given rise to.

He welcomed the investigation by the Human Rights Commission into these incidents, saying government supports the ongoing work by the religious fraternity and civil society in promoting racial integration and co-existing in affected areas.

The President said the Social Cohesion Advocates, a group of eminent persons and experts, has been particularly active in this regard. The body was established after the 2012 national cohesion and nation building summit to assist government to fight discrimination.

He said the group, in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture and civil society, has conducted numerous social cohesion engagements to ascertain the root causes of the discord that occurred and the killings that ensued.

At least 80% of African countries are expected to miss the global target of vaccinating at least 10% of their populations against COVID-19 by the end of September.

This was revealed by World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.

She was speaking during a press briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout on the continent on Thursday.

“Although Africa’s third wave peaked in July, the decline in new cases is at a glacial pace — far slower than in previous waves. The pandemic is still raging in Africa and we must not let our guard down. Every hour, 26 Africans die of COVID-19. As long as vaccination rates are low, severe illness and death risk are staying high,” she said.

According to Moeti, only nine of Africa’s 54 countries have already met the 10% target, including South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia.

“[T]hese countries are in the upper middle or high income brackets and have procured vaccines directly from manufacturers as well as receiving various vaccine supplies. For lower income countries that are receiving mainly vaccine donations, the situation is more dire (sic),” she said.

Dr Moeti told the briefing that less than 3% of Africa’s entire population have been fully vaccinated as opposed to Europe and the United States’ 50%.

She said this is due to vaccine inequality.

“Vaccine hoarding has held Africa back and we urgently need more vaccines, but as more doses arrive, African countries must zero in and drive forward precise plans to rapidly vaccinate the millions of people that still face a grave threat from COVID-19.

“Equally concerning is a continuing inequity in the distribution of doses. Africa counts for just 2% over the over five billion doses given globally. This percentage…hasn’t shifted in months. It is encouraging though that in the past month over 21 million doses have arrived on the continent through COVAX, that’s equal to the entire four previous months,” Dr Moeti said.

Two weeks after launching the Athlone Vaccination Centre of Hope, the site has now officially opened as the Western Cape’s first drive-through centre that will start welcoming the public from today.

The site is said to be ideally situated to enable public transport access.

“In showcasing the ease of access to the site, I cycled along with 20 cyclists to it. On arrival, we were met by 11 motorists in vehicles waiting to be vaccinated,” said Premier Alan Winde.

The Premier hopes that the centre will see the provincial government, the City of Cape and local public transport operators work together to ensure it attracts as many people as possible to come to receive their vaccination.

“We need to ensure we have maximum protection against a possible fourth wave, which is predicted to hit at the end of the year,” Winde said.

Residents will now be able to get vaccinated without leaving their cars, while continuing to remain safe.

The drive-through offers five lanes to motorists.

The province said since opening its doors on 16 August, the site has already administered 9 722 vaccines and aims to immunise 4 000 people per day.

As of 2 September 2021, the province administered 43 150 vaccinations, bringing the total to 2 139 886, while over 858 812 people have been fully vaccinated and 617 923 are getting ready for their second dose.

According to data, the province is currently leading in terms of the number of vaccines that have been distributed in the country.

“The measure of success for our vaccine programme will be in its ability to reach those who are most vulnerable, living in remote areas, and who may otherwise have accessibility issues.

“Ensuring that each resident has the opportunity to be vaccinated in a safe and conveniently located setting is the cornerstone of our vaccination programme, which we committed to when launching. We must ensure that no person is left behind,” said Winde.

He has since thanked everyone who made the drive-through a reality including the Provincial Department of Health and the City of Cape Town.

“We have lost more than 18 300 of our family members and friends – let us not lose anymore.

“These vaccines will enable us to have a Christmas, New Year and celebrate each other’s achievements. It will also allow us to save our summer, and the many jobs created during this time. However, we can only do this if we have maximum protection within communities and the vaccine offers it,” the Premier said.

One of the main challenges to undoing backlogs in licence renewals and applications is corruption at Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTC) around the country.

This is according to Transport Department Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga who was briefing the Portfolio Committee on Transport about plans to improve the online licence booking system.

It was revealed during the briefing that the country is losing billions of Rands to corruption at DLTCs with corruption in Mpumalanga costing the state about R2 billion.

The deputy minister said collusion between driver’s license operators and officials working at testing centres results in a lack of booking slots, particularly in Gauteng.

“If corruption was not as endemic, entrenched and systemic, most of the challenges would not be here. The issue is mainly about corruption. We have syndicates operating in our centres, from the security at the gate to the most senior official of the licencing station, and we are trying by all means to fight this corruption. Our interventions and the action plan on the renewal of licences seek to overhaul the current system, which is plagued with inefficiencies and corruption,” Chikunga said.

The deputy minister was joined in the briefing by Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) chief executive officer Advocate Makhosini Msibi.

He told the committee that corrupt activities are hampering progress at DLTCs.

“In Mpumalanga alone we are losing about R2 billion to fraudulent activities by officials. It is a very lucrative deal to work at a DTLC. Most make, on average, no less than R22 000 per day. We arrested officials who were making about R140 000 in two days,” he said.

Msibi told the committee that the RTMC will be upgrading its National Traffic Information System (NaTIS), moving towards the digitisation of mobile booking centres, introducing online eye tests and bringing more provinces onto the online booking system in order to counter corruption.

“With the online booking system, a driver will do bookings online and only go for eye tests at the station, and also have the option of having their licence delivered at home, to avoid queuing. The new system of smart services speaks to all the elements of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the harmonisation with Home Affairs to establish validity of identity documents will all deal with the problem of fake driving licences,” Advocate Msibi said.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has announced that it will be a third party in the appeal matter between 800m runner Caster Semenya and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court which will be heard at the European Court of Human Rights.

Semenya is seeking to overturn a ruling by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court which upheld a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling to maintain World Athletics’ (previously known as International Association of Athletics Federation) change in competition eligibility rules for females in certain races.

The regulations, known as the Difference of Sex Developement (DSD) rules, bar female athletes who have what the athletics body calls “high levels of endogenous testosterone” from competing on the international stage in certain races – including Semenya’s favoured 800m competition – unless they reduce and maintain low blood testosterone levels.

Semenya has refused to do this and was effectively barred from defending her 2016 Rio Olympic title in Tokyo and her 2018 world championship after the rules came into effect in 2018.

The SAHRC said it had applied to be part of the proceedings because the regulations have an impact specifically on Southern African athletes.

“The Commission sought leave to intervene in the matter so as to elucidate the adverse impacts of World Athletics’…regulations on women from the Global South. In particular, the Commission wishes to make submissions to the [court] which demonstrate the discriminatory effect of the regulations on the intersecting grounds of race and gender, and which further show how the impugned regulations breach Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and/or Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the [European court],” the commission said.

The regulations apply to the women’s 400m, 400m hurdles, 800m races and 1500m.

The commission said it will make written submissions to the European court by 12 October 2021.

Meanwhile, one of the studies provided by the world athletics body to justify the regulations has been corrected by scientists.

According to reports, the study’s assertion that the “pivotal” relationship between high testosterone levels and enhanced athletic performance in female athletes “could have been misleading by implying a casual inference”.

Department of Employment and Labour inspectors have issued a prohibition notice to Coega Steel in Gqeberha after the company was found to have flouted various health and safety regulations.

The discovery of non compliance came to effect after an Occupational Health and Safety Inspector received anonymous pictures of a Coega Steel employee with burns on the hands and face due to an explosion that took place at the employer’s furnace department.

“The life threatening incident which left employees traumatised revealed that a total of five employees were injured on the day. All these employees sustained multiple burns all over their bodies from face, neck, chest, head, hands, ankle due to the explosion,” said the department in a statement on Thursday.

It is alleged that the incident happened on 22 August 2021, during a night shift and was not reported to the department in terms of legislation.

“The employer continued with production on the same day without conducting an internal investigation in order to get to the root cause of the incident and concluded that the incident was due to human error.”

Employment and Labour inspectors handed over prohibition notice to stop all operations at the furnace department where the explosion took place, as there were no steps or action taken by the employer to prevent the re-occurrence of such an incident.

“The employer was further instructed to attend to the traumatised employees. To-date the employer has not yet reported the incident as prescribed.

“The is a high rate of fatal incidents in the sectors such as agriculture, chemicals, iron and steel as well as construction and investigations regarding the incident is underway. As the custodians of the Occupational Safety Act (OHSA), the department will make sure that employee rights are protected and employers who contravene the law are brought to book,” said the department.

The Department of Employment and Labour in the Free State has cautioned the public against scammers posing as recruitment officials from the department.

In a statement, it said it had noted with concern reports of scammers who were contacting aspirant work seekers and offering them fraudulent employment positions at a fee of R2 000.

“The fraudsters are targeting desperate job seekers and pretending to be recruitment officials working for the Department of Employment and Labour.

“The scammers are taking advantage of the dire unemployment rate in the country and are luring scores of people who are in desperate need of jobs to parting with their last funds and the Department is appealing to everyone to be on the lookout,” reads the statement.

The Department reiterated that all recruitment was done in line with recruitment policies, in a fair and impartial manner.

“Under no circumstances are departmental officials selling job positions to the public. Such acts in the name of the department are condemned.”

The public was encouraged to report such acts by contacting the nearest Department of Employment and Labour offices, or report on Department’s fraud hotline on 0860 022 194 or email – fraud@labour.gov.za

Police Minister Bheki Cele has called on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to intensify and conclude the investigation into the killing of 11 people in Umlazi this week.

The township in KwaZulu-Natal was this week rocked by a double mass murder that saw six people slain on Sunday and a further five on Tuesday evening.

Cele went to the province on Thursday to visit the scenes and get a report from provincial police management.

On Sunday, 29 August 2021, six people were shot and killed at the U Section of Umlazi. Two days later, three gunmen opened fire inside a house in the W Section of the township, killing five people, with three others sustaining serious injuries.

Cele in a statement said while police are yet to make arrests on both cases, they are following up on a strong lead in the one incident, which is set to shed more light into the motive and whether or not the shootings are linked.

“Most of those killed in both these incidents, including the 14-year-old boy, were sadly people at the wrong place at the wrong time, but some were unsavoury characters who were linked to criminality taking place in surrounding areas.

“A profile of one of the deceased shows he was a convicted criminal, who was arrested and handed a 12-year suspended sentence for very serious crimes, including counts of armed robbery and possession of an illegal firearm. However, police must find the killers of these 11 people, regardless of who they were and what they did.”

Meanwhile, Cele commended the progress in investigations into the brutal murder of 36 people in Phoenix during the July civil unrest that rocked the KZN and Gauteng.

In total, 56 suspects have so far been arrested by the detective team deployed to the area to investigate the murders.

Further, the Minister noted the developments in the investigations into the killing of Gauteng Health department whistleblower, Babita Deokaran. Announcing the arrest of an additional two suspects, Cele commended the speed with which the team has been able to crack the case.