The Pan Africanist Congress Youth League wants a committee to accompany President Jacob Zuma on house visits “because we have realised that he cannot control himself and we do not want to hear other apologies”.

The PACYL on Tuesday rejected Zuma’s apology for his infidelity as “unwelcome” and “dangerous”. “The PACYL of Azania unwelcome[s] President Zuma’s apology on his prostitution or polygamy,” its president Pitso Mphasha said in a statement. “Our stance to unwelcome the president’s apology is not political,” he said. The decision was informed by the fact that Zuma’s polygamous practices undermined efforts to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic. His practices also destroyed South Africa’s image. “Above all, just [a] few years back he had unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman and he... apologised. “We cannot always accept dangerous apologies.

"A leader always inspires his followers, in particular young people, so Zuma dangerously inspires young people to be prostitutes, a licence to HIV/Aids,” Mphasha said.

FROM YALO'S PEN

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“In the oath or solemn affirmation of the president as enshrined in our South African constitution... it indicates that ’I solemnly and sincerely promise that I will always promote all that will advance the republic, and oppose all that may harm it’. “Now the president has violated the constitution, he has harmed the efforts by the nation to fight HIV/Aids. He is now a liability to the country. “We further call for a committee to be established which will accompany Jacob Zuma when he will be embarking on his house visit as the president, because we have realised that he cannot control himself and we do not want to hear other apologies. "Enough is enough with dangerous apologies,” Mphasha said. The revelation that Zuma had a love-child out of wedlock with Sonono Khoza, the daughter of soccer boss Irvin Khoza, has caused a furore ahead of the opening of Parliament. After issuing a statement confirming the reports and slamming the media for its insensitivity, Zuma on Saturday apologised to South Africans. “I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC, the alliance and South Africans in general,” he said in a statement. He “acknowledged” and “understood” the reaction of South Africans. Sapa

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9 February 2010

Fifteen people - including at least 8 children - were burnt to death at an orphanage outside Newcastle this morning. Another 9 children were hospitalised.

It was believed the children burnt were aged between 2 and 15.

“The number of people burnt to death has risen to 15,” said Mandla Ngema, spokesman for social development MEC Meshack Radebe. “The person in charge of the home and her four children were burnt to death and eight other children’s bodies were found dead.” Ngema said a search and rescue team found two more bodies later in the morning. It is not yet clear how many of those dead were children. Superintendent Jay Naicker said the police were called to the Hope in Christ Home at eNgogo around 6am on Tuesday. “The MEC is going today to the scene of the accident to asses the situation,” said Ngema. Two vehicles outside the house were also burnt. “We have arranged social workers to counsel those that survived in this accident,” Ngema said. Naicker said fire investigators from Pretoria were on their way to investigate the cause of the fire. Ngema said Hope in Christ Home was an orphanage administered by the department of social development. Sapa

9 February 2010

Any business missing the deadline faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in jail. Read more...

White business executives in Zimbabwe will be forced to ensure that blacks have a 51% controlling interest in their companies within the next five years, according to a new law published today.

The so-called “Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment” regulations say that by mid-April, all businesses have to submit a form detailing the racial composition of their current shareholding to the government. Based on the declaration, the government would assess how much of the company’s shareholding had to be “ceded” to “indigenous Zimbabweans”. Any business missing the deadline faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in jail, according to the regulations. A yet-to-be-named “minister of indigenisation” would keep a list of candidates to whom shares could be ceded. White businesses that appoint black employees as a “front” to avoid being taken over would face going to jail to five years, the law said. “It’s going to put a stop to any possibility of new investment,” said economic commentator John Robertson. “For existing businesses it will bring a complete stop to replacement investment. It’s very grim.” The law came within a week of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai saying at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that “confidence has returned” to Zimbabwe following a decade of economic collapse. “This is the time to look at the country in a more positive light,” he said. Last year President Robert Mugabe declared that there would be “no nationalisation” of business in Zimbabwe. The law includes a let-out clause that allows for a lesser black shareholding “in order to achieve other socially or economically desirable objectives”. The regulations take effect on March 1 and companies have 45 days in which to complete and submit to the government a form that gives the names, nationality and identity details of their shareholders, and whether they are “indigenous” or “non-indigenous” Zimbabweans. Economists say that Zimbabwe’s racial profile has fundamentally changed since independence from white British rule nearly 30 years ago, when the economy was heavily dominated by whites. Since then, the white population has fallen from 200,000 to about 30,000. Most major businesses are now run by black Zimbabweans. Multinational mining companies, like South Africa’s Impala Platinum and Rio Tinto, are seen as most at risk by the new law. Hundreds of small white family businesses, like butcheries, restaurants and garages, are also threatened, executives said. At Davos last week, Rio Tinto diamonds and minerals chief executive Harry Kenyon-Slaney, said that “the only threat to our operations are indigenisation programmes”. Some political analysts say that the law is a political strategy of Mugabe’s to try and bolster his support by distributing patronage to voters, in the way he allowed party loyalists seize white-owned land over the past decade. The government passed an indigenisation act in 2008, but held off on passing the regulations that would formally put it into effect, leading many to mistakenly believe the law had been shelved. Sapa-dpa

9 February 2010

Life is difficult for a Gamokgwathi village, Limpopo, woman Bonani Nkuna, 21, whose application for an identity document was turned down by the department of home affairs because she is “a man.”

The problem started in 2000 after Nkuna had applied for a birth certificate at home affairs in Gamokgwathi village, near Bolobedu. The birth certificate came back stating that Nkuna was a male. She said because she was very young in 2008, she did not realise that her gender had been wrongly captured.

Nkuna then went to home affairs in Tzaneen to apply for an identity document, but it never came back. According to home affairs, this was because the information on her birth certificate and on her application forms was contradictory. Nkuna said after failing to get the identity document, she went to home affairs again last week to re-apply but was told to bring along an affidavit from her local police and a letter from a doctor confirming that she was not a man.

She said when she applied for an identity document at her local home affairs, the officials there turned her back because the information on her birth certificate was that she was a man.

“I dropped out of school because when the authorities needed my identity document I could not produce it. “I became the laughing stock of my peers and schoolmates,” Nkuna said.

She said she could not search for work because she had no identity document.

Sam Moremi, home affairs spokesperson in Limpopo, said the matter would be given urgent attention but advised Nkuna that it might take one or two months to rectify the mistake.

Michael Sakuneka

A MAGISTRATE facing 42 charges of misconduct has failed in her attempt to replace her all-white tribunal with an all-black one.

Ndileka Ndamase, a Pretoria magistrate, had demanded an all-black panel because “black magistrates are discriminated against” and she would therefore not get a fair hearing. “I am convinced that I will not get a fair hearing because all the complainants are white and the presiding officers are all white.” The panel dismissed her application, saying it had no basis and the panelists were a competent and legal entity fit to hear the case against her.

Ndamase said she has been discriminated against since she arrived at the court in 1992. “I started working in the criminal section but I was discriminated against when I asked to be rotated to the civil section because I specialised in labour law. I was shocked when I was told that I am not suitable to work in that section because I could not speak Afrikaans. After numerous attempts I joined the section in 2006 but I was discriminated against,” she said. Ndamase is facing: - 12 counts of refusing to obey her seniors, - 12 counts of neglecting her work, - 8 counts of failing to execute a lawful order, - 6 counts of insulting her colleagues, - 2 counts of being absent from duty without a valid reason and - 2 counts of disrespecting her seniors. According to the charge sheet the magistrate is facing charges that include: * neglecting her duties by sleeping in court, * not following evidence, * showing no interest in the case and failing to make notes, * not conducting herself with dignity when she told her colleague that “God is watching over me and He will triumph”. She allegedly screamed at a senior magistrate while attorneys were outside her office and the door was open; had been rude, abusive and insulting to a senior magistrate and had been absent from duty without a valid reason. The hearing continues today.

Pertunia Ratsatsi

Residents demand mine jobs ANGRY residents of Siyathemba near Balfour in Mpumalanga have threatened to throw themselves into the shaft of the Burnstone mine, a local wing of Canadian mining giant Great Basin Gold.

Residents yesterday barricaded streets with burning tyres and rocks during the protest in which they accused the company of failing to honour an agreement to employ them. They also allegedly set alight shops operated by foreigners, most of whom are Pakistanis . Local youth leader Zakhele Maya said the community had resolved on Sunday to stage a protest, and if needs be “they would throw themselves into the mine shaft”. Maya said: “The company conducted a skills audit when they first came here in 2005, and established that the area was historically not a mining community and mining skills were not available. “It was then resolved that they would establish a trust to manage a skills development centre which would equip local people with mining skills.” He said the company has been talking to people who did not represent the community. He also called on local mayor Lefty Tsotetsi to resign, because “ he was not helping the community”. Siyathemba made headlines last year when residents embarked on a violent service delivery protest which lasted for about a week. The situation calmed after President Jacob Zuma visited the area. A woman who asked not to be named said her home was attacked by a mob at about 2am yesterday. “They first came at about 10pm (on Sunday). They were targeting Pakistanis who are renting out a garage to sell vegetables. They looted their stock. We were surprised when they returned yesterday morning and set our garage on fire,” she said. Fighting was intense between police and local people, mostly children, who were throwing stones at police, who retaliated with rubber bullets. No casualties were reported. Police spokesperson Sergeant Sam Tshabalala said 21 people had been arrested by late yesterday. “We are expecting to make more arrests. Those arrested have been charged with public violence. ” Mine spokesperson Dawie Mostert said more than 50 percent of their workforce was from the local community. He said while they had employed big companies, they had also employed 108 workers directly and more than 584 people from contractors. “We are currently working through a process to fill in 90 posts, of which 50 percent would be filled by local people,” he said.

Vusi Xaba