Category Archives: The Times

The Times: Protester beaten and shot to death

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1019541.ece/Protester-beaten-and-shot-to-death

Protester beaten and shot to death

Shocking images as police shown beating defenceless protester to death

Apr 13, 2011 10:19 PM | By CHANDRE PRINCE, SIPHO MASONDO and HARRIET MCLEA
Shocking images of police brutality were broadcast to the nation on television yesterday – they showed an unarmed man being beaten to death by a mob of policemen.

Pictures of the attack on the 33-year-old man by at least six policemen simultaneously, during a service delivery protest at Setsoto, in Ficksburg, eastern Free State, were shown on all SABC news bulletins last night.

The visuals show how the armed policemen cornered Andries Tatane, striking him with their batons and kicking him in an assault that lasted for a few minutes.

Tatane, from Masaleng township, Ficksburg, is seen holding his hand against his chest after the assault. He collapsed about 20 minutes later and died before an ambulance arrived.

As well as being beaten, he had been shot twice.

Last night Tatane’s brother, Lefu Tatane, told The Times of the “shocking murder” of his elder brother.

“We are very angry. I can’t even describe it. He was no danger to the police or anyone. Why did they have to kill him?” said Lefu.

Tatane was part of a group of about 4000 protesters who marched to the Setsoto municipal offices yesterday morning demanding a response to a memorandum of demands they had sent to the mayor, Mbothoma Maduna, and the municipal manager, Bafana Mthembu.

The people of Setsoto, like many others across the country, are fed-up with the lack of services in their area and demanded that Maduna and Mthembu speed up their provision.

According to Lefu, the demonstration had been peaceful until a rock was thrown into the crowd of protesters.

Police reinforcements were called in and, according to at least two eyewitnesses, chaos erupted when police water cannon were used against the protesters.

One eyewitness said that Tatane had jumped in front of an elderly man who was being sprayed by the water cannon.

“The only thing he did was to ask that they not spray the old man and then all hell broke loose. The next minute, police were all over Tatane. He was defenceless.”

According to his brother, Tatane sustained two bullet wounds, one to the chest and one in the back.

But the police claim that they were trying to arrest Tatane. They said they did not know who shot him.

Police spokesman Captain Phumelelo Dlamini said: “They were trying to arrest him. While he was being arrested, there was a gun shot so we don’t know who shot him but we’re going to investigate.”

Police also shot at the crowd, which, after witnessing the beating of Tatane, turned violent.

A number of witnesses said it was the police that shot Tatane.

Last night, Lefu said his brother’s wife was too distraught to talk and the family was taking her for medical treatment.

Tatane is also survived by a three-year-old child.

Maduna, the mayor of Setsoto, said: “It’s really unfortunate to have a person dying as a result [of the protests]. We regret it . it was not supposed to have happened. We will contribute towards the burial and show that we care.”

Free State Premier Ace Magashule said: “We will sit down and talk and work together [with the people of Setsoto]. We are sending condolences to the family.

Lefu said officials of the Independant Complaints Directorate visited the family home at about 3pm yesterday and would return today.

The ANC last night condemned the killing and called on Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to set up a commission of inquiry

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the police responsible for the killing should be brought to book.

“We are shocked and disgusted by what we saw on television. No reason can be raised about the behaviour of the police.

“Our people have a constitutional right to protest and the action by the police is reminiscent of the apartheid police force,” Mthembu said.

David Bruce, senior a researcher at The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said that there had been an increase in the number of people killed by the police in recent years.

The peak year was 2008-2009.

ICD statistics show a steady increase in complaints of serious non-fatal police violence, assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm and attempted murder.

The Times: ‘I don’t believe in voting anymore’

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1010864.ece/I-dont-believe-in-voting-any-more

‘I don’t believe in voting anymore’

Apr 10, 2011 2:25 AM | By BRENDAN BOYLE

Sarie Booi, better known as Ou Sis, is among many in Cape Town’s informal settlements who don’t intend voting on May 18 because they have given up on local government.

She is one of the original residents of Masincedane, a windswept settlement of some 70 shacks among the dunes of Strandfontein on the False Bay coast. It was started by her late father nearly 20 years ago, when he worked as a janitor in a children’s holiday camp.

There are enough toilets, there are a few taps and the rubbish is collected most weeks from a fly-infested skip, but the high-mast light hasn’t worked for two years, drugs are a problem even among pre-teen children and the promise of new houses has become a standing joke.

Irma Jackson, the DA councillor, says the cables powering the light are repeatedly stolen and she’s not sure the people want to move. “I’ve done my bit to assist them, but I get despondent because these people don’t seem to want to change their lifestyle,” she said.

That is not enough for Booi. “We don’t want to vote again. The people come for the election and they talk to us, but they never come back.”

In Joe Slovo, a highly politicised informal settlement on the edge of Cape Town’s flagship N2 Gateway housing project, the focus is on water and sanitation. Talking to Songezo Mjongile, the ANC’s Western Cape secretary, at her front door, Nosiphelo Ndlela, says things have improved during the past five years, but not enough to get her out to vote either for the DA, which she concedes is delivering something, or for the ANC, which is promising everything.

Ndlela says the council cleans the untarred road, fixes the lights within days and keeps the water flowing.

But what she wants is a house, and that seems no nearer than the last unkept promise, she says.

Anna-Magdalena Welcome is a pensioner in a small, neatly kept two-storey house in Mitchells Plain.

She has run up a R1600 water bill and is behind on the agreed R160-a-month payment, so, for the past five months, her supply has been cut to 350 litres a day – an amount that the council allows to everyone, regardless of whether they pay or not.

Mjongile believes Welcome illustrates the DA’s disregard for the plight of the poor.

The city government says cases like hers demonstrate its fair application of a R1.2-billion-a-year indigent policy that ensures everyone gets the basic services they need to survive.

In Thabo Mbeki, a settlement of about 500 shacks, the issue is sanitation.

Every shack has a numbered white plastic portable toilet, and the council sends a truck once a week to empty the 20-litre holding tanks. ANC ward councillor Thobile Gqola says the system is degrading. “Some people who can afford it have made an enclosure outside, but in most shacks you will find that somebody is cooking while somebody else is relieving himself on the porta-potty in the same room.”

The Times: Scandal of the low-cost housing settlements

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article989006.ece/Scandal-of-the-low-cost-housing-settlements

Scandal of the low-cost housing settlements
Overcrowding leads to pollution and disease
Mar 26, 2011 11:42 PM | By BOBBY JORDAN

She is one of millions of South Africans who must use polluted water because of overcrowding.

These conditions are turning government’s low-cost housing settlements into death-traps, according to shock findings in a study by the University of Stellenbosch.

The research reveals that overcrowding in state-subsidised housing projects is leading to water pollution and serious health risks to residents.

The findings conclude that the government’s housing policy may be doing more harm than good by placing too many people in too small a space.

The research report, published in international journal Habitat, says the problem stems from the unregulated growth of “back-yard shacks” which home owners erect to earn rent. The number of “back-yarders” has effectively doubled the population inside housing developments and the plumbing cannot cope.

Researchers analysed the water quality at four low-cost housing developments in and around Cape Town – Driftsand, Greenfields, Masiphumelele and Tafelsig.

The report highlighted a worrying build-up of human waste clogging up toilets and storm-water drains. Some of the more shocking findings include:

Only two state-subsidised homes did not have a back-yard dwelling (shack) attached on the property;

Less than half the toilets are still working;

Drains were dirty, with sewage-laden water spilling over in 92% of the houses;

40% of main households reported one or more cases of diarrhoea in the two weeks preceding the survey;

48% of households reported at least two structural problems with their houses such as cracks or water leaks; and,

99% said they were unable to afford repairs.

Ironically, residents inside the house are more at risk than tenants living outside as the inside tap area was most infected with harmful bacteria.

Researcher Jo Barnes said the results showed the state must urgently reconsider its housing guidelines.

“The government has inherited a very large problem, but, just plonking boxes on the ground and stuffing people into them is not the answer. We are causing massive water pollution,” Barnes said.

Barnes said government had “tied themselves in a knot” by failing to act against back-yard shacks as the state is obliged to find alternative accommodation for back-yard dwellers before evicting them.

She said research showed many homeowners did not understand basic hygiene or plumbing principles and did not have the means to repair blocked or broken drains. “According to them (the new home-owners), that toilet lever is like a delete button – it takes things away. Those who have toilets are using them to flush away dirty water with peels and things from the kitchen.”

Cape Town metropolitan council spokesman Kylie Hatton said housing development was restricted by budget and national housing guidelines.

Human Settlements director general Thabane Zulu said while municipalities were ultimately responsible for enforcing regulations relating to building standards and conditions, homeowners also needed to take responsibility for maintaining their homes. Zulu said: “It is not just water infrastructure, but the department is concerned with general maintenance of the homes. On Wednesday at a handover of a new social housing project in Cape Town one of the things the Minister emphasised was the responsibility the home owners have to their property, especially with regards to maintenance.”

The Times: ‘Tell me why I should vote?’

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http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article973469.ece/Tell-me-why-I-should-vote

‘Tell me why I should vote?’
Eastern Cape villagers in despair about their future
Mar 17, 2011 10:51 PM | By SIPHO MASONDO

He is a far cry from the man that was first in the queue in the country’s first democratic election on April 27 1994.

Forcibly removed from Coega in 1979 and “dumped” in Glenmore about 30km off the N2, near Peddie, in Eastern Cape, Mafani, 60, says the area has not changed and is still as much a “civic prison” as it was 32 years ago.

With successive post-apartheid governments failing Glenmore, Mafani says voting in the upcoming local government elections will be a waste of time.

“Tell me why I should vote? I voted with such excitement in 1994, thinking that finally a government for the people, by the people, will give us hope. But now it’s 2011 and we are still wasting away.

“Jacob Zuma doesn’t know us, Thabo Mbeki didn’t know us, former premiers Ray Mhlaba, Makhenkesi Stofile, Nosimo Balindlela and Noxolo Kiviet don’t know us.

“No MEC has ever been here.”

In 1979, police, on the orders of the Department of Co-operation and Development, forcibly removed residents of Coega, Colchester, Klipfontein, Kenton-on-Sea, Alexandria, Greenbushes and Kinkelbos in Eastern Cape and trucked them to Glenmore, in the former Ciskei, on the banks of the Fish River.

Within a few months,cattle died after eating poisonous plants and more than 23 children died of disease and malnutrition.

In 1984, Mafani said, a tornado and a severe thunderstorm swept across Glenmore, killing about 140 people, including his wife, Mavis, and two children.

The people of Glenmore, who had been booted out of South Africa, were also not wanted in Ciskei, which was under the leadership of Lennox Sebe.

“Lennox went to Pretoria and told apartheid leaders that he didn’t want us on his land. They softened him by giving him R45-million to develop the area. But that money disappeared,” Mafani said.

“The apartheid government later removed us from the banks of the river to where we are now, a kilometre away.”

Thirty years down the line, Mafani and his 15000 neighbours still live in dire poverty.

Most of the low-cost houses built by the apartheid regime have two rooms – a kitchen that doubles as a living room, and a bedroom.

The only health facility in the area is a makeshift clinic, with three nurses and no doctor.

Said nurse Joyce Ntutu: “There are no ambulances and the people struggle. They have to hire cars but people don’t work. It takes more than 24 hours for an ambulance to arrive here.”

Mafani said there are no libraries or sports centres.

“Matriculants are as illiterate as people who have never been to school. How on earth are they ever going to get jobs?” he asks.

Mafani, whose furniture-less living room – decorated with newspaper clippings of stories written about Glenmore – says justice will be served only when the people are relocated to a new area “that will help them forget their past”.

But Vuyisile Lloyd, who was a teenager when his family was moved to Glenmore from Coega, has lost hope.

“It appears to me that we will die here. We will die a slow, sad, lonely and painful death,” he said.

Forensic audit of Sutcliffe, Mlaba et al

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http://www.citypress.co.za/SouthAfrica/News/KZN-launches-probe-into-city-administration-20110317

KZN launches probe into city administration
2011-03-17 11:50

Paddy Harper

A wide-ranging forensic investigation into the embattled eThekwini Municipality after months of allegations of corruption and maladministration levelled against city manager Mike Sutcliffe, his administrative team and councillors, has been launched by KwaZulu-Natal’s Local Government Ministry.

The probe comes in the wake of a city appointed audit being suppressed by city officials and a damning auditor general’s report nailing Sutcliffe’s team for using emergency funding regulations to pay out more than R500 million in irregular expenditure for sub-standard low cost housing projects around the city.

Local government MEC Nomusa Dube said yesterday the earlier audits had provided prima facie evidence of maladministration and failure to abide by regulations around supply chain management and tender procedures and that her ministry had decided to step in and get to the bottom of the matter.

The new probe, which will be carried out by an experienced company of independent forensic auditors and would dovetail with separate investigations by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and other state agencies, would cover:

» Irregular expenditure caused by poor budget controls;

» Failure by city officials to follow supply chain management procedures around key infrastructure and housing projects;

» The failure of city official and councillors – including mayor Obed Mlaba – to disclose their financial interests;

Irregular tender procedures and awards;

» The illegal rental and sale of RDP houses;

» Irregularities in staff appointments and abuse of travel and other allowances;

» Fraudulent practices in the Durban Metropolitan Police; and

» Irregularities in the city’s development and planning department.

Dube said the probe would also take in any other information which came to light from the public and officials and said “serious steps’’ would be taken against any city official or councillor who refused to cooperate.

Earlier probes have been hampered by the refusal of key city officials to both cooperate and hand over documentation to investigators.

Dube said that while the city was “not collapsing’’ it was clear that “something wrong is taking place in the city’’.

She said when the probe was completed the city would be forced to take “decisive action and corrective measures’’.

Criminal charges would be laid against any official or councillor found guilty of corruption, fraud or maladministration, while civil action would be taken to recover city funds paid out illegally.She was unable to provide an exact timeframe for the probe to be completed, saying it would be retrospective and would “go as deep as it needs to go.”

– City Press

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article973466.ece/Mayor-and-city-boss-to-be-probed

Mayor and city boss to be probed
Mar 17, 2011 10:11 PM | By NIVASHNI NAIR

Durban mayor Obed Mlaba and city manager Mike Sutcliffe are to be investigated as part of a wider probe into alleged fraud and corruption in the eThekwini Municipality.

KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance MEC Nomusa Dube said yesterday: “There is something wrong in this municipality and we believe that we need to investigate.

“We have been monitoring the latest developments in the municipality with keen interest and utmost concern.”

The ANC called on Dube to order a forensic investigation after the auditor-general found that the city had irregularly spent R535-million and the Ngubane audit implicated Sutcliffe and three officials in irregular housing contracts of R3.5-billion over the past 10 years.

Mlaba allegedly had shares in a company that nearly landed a R3-billion tender to convert the city’s waste to energy.

Dube said yesterday the investigation would cover:

*Irregular expenditure resulting from inadequate controls over the budget and payment processes;

*Non-disclosure of interests by councillors and officials;

*Irregularities in the awarding of contracts, payments and performance management of telecommunications;

*The alleged illegal rental and sale of RDP houses;

*Irregularities in travel and overtime allowances and appointment of staff; and

*Alleged fraudulent practices in the metro police.

The outcome of the investigation would compel the municipality to take decisive action and corrective measures and would lead to criminal and civil prosecutions if unlawful activities were unearthed, Dube said.

The forensic probe would begin immediately.

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/03/18/leave-no-stone-unturned

‘Leave no stone unturned’
18 Mar 2011 | Mhlaba Memela

KWAZULU-Natal MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs Nomusa Dube has appointed a forensic auditing firm to probe fraud, corruption and maladministration allegations in the eThekwini metro

Manase and Associates will lead an investigation into the affairs of the ANC-led municipality. This latest investigation will supersede all previous probes that were conducted into the affairs of the municipality.

The audit firm is tasked with unearthing any irregularities and maladministration concerning the awarding of tenders.

The municipality has hogged the headlines in the past few months following auditor-general Terrence Nombembe’s report indicating that R532million had been spent irregularly by the council.

Recently it also surfaced that mayor Obed Mlaba is part of a company that nearly landed a R3billion deal with the city to convert waste to energy.

The MEC said she had received representations and reports concerning allegations of maladministration, fraud and corruption.

“The documents include reports on an investigation requested by the accounting officer of the municipality undertaken by Ngubane and Company, the management letter of the auditor-general and an internal audit report,” Dube said.

She said it would appear from the findings of these reports that there is prima facie evidence of maladministration and a failure to comply with procedures and legislation.

“There is currently no evidence of any fraud and corruption,” Dube said. “The scope of these reports was, however, limited and it appeared to be additional areas of concern and further allegations, which have not been investigated.”

The forensic firm’s scope of investigation comprises allegations of illegal rentals and sale of RDP houses, non-disclosure of interests by councillors and officials, irregularities in the supply chain management in the awarding of tenders, payments and performance management in respect of telecommunications, human resource irregularities when recruiting, selecting and appointing staff.

Other allegations are the abuse of travel claims, overtime, allowances, development and planning offices, and non-compliance with street traders’ by-laws.

Dube said any other consequential matters that may arise will form part of the investigation.

“The eThekwini municipality still has a healthy balance,” she said.

Cosatu applauded Dube’s decision to institute a comprehensive forensic investigation into the affairs of the eThekwini municipality.

Secretary Zet Luzipho said the move is long overdue and appealed to Dube to “leave no stone unturned”.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/firm-to-probe-ethekwini-1.1043484

Firm to probe eThekwini

March 17 2011 at 09:38pm

A forensic auditing firm has been appointed to probe fraud, corruption and maladministration allegations in the eThekwini municipality, KwaZulu-Natal’s co-operative governance MEC said on Thursday.

“There is something wrong in the municipality and we believe there is a need to investigate,” Nomusa Dube told reporters in Durban.

The allegations relate to the awarding of tenders.

Auditor General Terrence Nombembe’s 2009/10 report indicated R532-million had been spent irregularly in the municipality, which runs the city of Durban.

The Mercury newspaper recently reported that mayor Obed Mlaba was part of a company that nearly landed a R3-billion deal with the city to convert waste to energy.

Dube said she had received representation and reports on claims of corruption, fraud and maladministration. Documents she received included a report following a probe by accountants Ngubane & Co, an eThekwini municipality internal report and the AG’s report.

“It would appear from the findings of these reports that there is prima facie evidence of maladministration and failure to comply with procedures and legislative provisions.

“In view of the seriousness of the allegations, we have deemed it appropriate to institute a forensic investigation.”

Dube however said the municipality would not be put under administration because it was not falling apart. “The municipality is not collapsing. It’s finances are okay.”

She invited whistle blowers to help the department get to the bottom of the problems. Dube said auditing firm Manase and Associates had been appointed to conduct the investigation, which would cover:

– Irregular expenditure resulting from inadequate budgetary controls, controls over payment processes and weak checks and balances.

– Non compliance with supply chain management policies for infrastructure and housing projects.

– Non disclosure of interests by councillors and officials.

– Irregularities in the awarding of contracts, payments and performance management of telecommunications.

– The illegal rental and sale of RDP houses.

– Abuse of overtime and travel allowances.

– Alleged fraudulent practices at the Durban metro police.- Sapa