Wednesday 4 Novermber - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 1 – Bozwana: no record of accuseds’ contact on day of hit Page 1 – Hospital blamed for girl’s death
Page 5 – Lawmaker claims North Korea is building ballistic missile submarines
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – Job loss fears as Mandela House Museum to be liquidated Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za)
Page 1 – MPs urged to brace for extreme cuts Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 4 – New DA leader ignores rival
Bozwana: no record of
accuseds’ contact on day of hit
• Pretoria News
• 4 Nov 2020
• ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za
VUSI ‘Khekhe’
Mathibela consulting with his legal representative in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. He is on trial for the murder of billionaire Wandile Bozwana. | Thobile Mathonsi African News Agency (ANA)
MORE than five years ago, North West billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana died in a hail of bullets on the N1, at the Garsfontein off-ramp in Pretoria East.
However, the criminal trial of the four men said to be responsible for the “hit” is still dragging on.
The man feared by residents in Mamelodi, Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela, also known as Mamelodi’s No 1 Tsotsi, and co-accused Sipho Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and
Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo are pulling out all the stops to prove that they were not involved in Bozwana’s alleged assassination.
They all earlier pleaded not guilty to Bozwana’s murder and the attempted murder of his business partner Mpho Baloyi.
Bozwana was shot nine times after a lone gunman fired several times at him while he was a passenger in Baloyi’s car. Another gunman opened fire at Baloyi, but the wounded woman managed to drive off and get help at a nearby glass fitting outlet.
Bozwana died shortly afterwards in Unitas Hospital.
The trial resumed this week yet again in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, having been postponed about two months ago.
The State has called a police cellphone expert to present technical evidence as to whether the phones of the accused could in any manner be linked to the events of the day on which Bozwana was killed.
Warrant Officer Wynand Venter is still in the witness box, testifying about how the handset of a phone could be linked to cellphone towers to ascertain where the phone was at a
particular time.
He, however, did confirm that according to records, there was no communication on the day of the incident between the four accused.
Counsel for Hudla, advocate JP Marais, read out a “confession” which the SAPS claimed he made after his arrest.
According to the “confession”, Hudla said they were on their way to Pretoria, following the car in which Bozwana and Baloyi were travelling in, when Mathibela phoned them to say
“we must still carry out the job”.
Hudla has from the start denied that he knew anything about the killing and said he was forced by the police into making a confession.
Marais said this was proof that his client was telling the truth because according to Venter, cellphone records indicated that Hudla did not leave the Joburg area that day.
Another SAPS cellphone expert is expected to take the stand on behalf of the State.
The four accused, meanwhile, remain behind bars.
Hospital blamed for girl’s death
Family say daughter, 17, would still be alive had doctors not dithered operating on her
• Pretoria News
• 4 Nov 2020
• CHULUMANCO MAHAMBA
THE FAMILY of a 17-year-old girl believe their daughter would still be alive had the medical team at Dr George Mukhari Hospital Academic Hospital given her immediate appendix surgery.
The teenager had sent a heart emoji to her family from her hospital bed, just four hours before they received a call from the hospital informing them of her death.
The parents of Tshiamo Pearl Moeketsi (pictured) have lodged a formal complaint with the hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, after their teenage daughter died following two allegedly delayed surgeries for a ruptured appendix.
“I am asking myself what actually happened. We were told she had cancer in the stomach or that she had gastro but the main thing was the last thing to be dealt with,” Tshiamo’s father Simelane Moeketsi said.
The teenager had complained to her parents about severe stomach pain before she was transferred to the hospital on October 4 and the parents signed consent for a CT scan.
A senior specialist confirmed to the family on October 6 that Tshiamo’s appendix ruptured and recommended an urgent surgery procedure to drain the appendix fluid. The family was informed that if the medical team was unable to drain the fluid, then major surgery needed to be performed.
Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana confirmed that Tshiamo was admitted into the hospital’s surgical ward 4 on October 6.
“My daughter then sat in casualty for two days and communication between the doctors and us was very poor. We believe there is a case of negligence,” Moeketsi said.
The family said Tshiamo was eventually sent to surgery on the evening of October 9, where the teenager was drained of the fluid.
“We did not get post-operation information. We had to fight to get information on how the operation went but instead of getting answers, we had more questions,” Moeketsi said.
Following Tshiamo’s surgery, they were reassured that she was recovering well. However, the teenager’s condition deteriorated.
On October 16, Tshiamo’s parents were called into the hospital to sign another consent form for a CT scan to determine the extent of infection caused by the appendix rupture. The family was told that Tshiamo needed the major surgery the specialist mentioned the following day, before she was admitted to ICU.
On October 18, while still in ICU, Tshiamo complained to her parents on the phone that she could not breathe and that she was not feeling well. The parents said they advised her to shout
for a nurse. However, the teenager could not raise her voice because she had a nasogastric tube inserted in her nose.
The family said they called the ward twice to ask a nurse to attend to the child. The following day, the family woke up to a WhatsApp message from Tshiamo saying good morning with a heart emoji at around 5am. At 8.45am, the hospital called the parents to tell them their daughter had died.
Following Tshiamo’s burial on October 23, the parents returned to the hospital for answers.
The family added that after lodging a formal complaint, they have attended meetings with the hospital’s grievance management team. However, they still haven’t been provided with the answers.
Lawmaker claims North Korea is building ballistic missile
submarines
• Pretoria News
• 4 Nov 2020
•
NORTH Korea is building two new submarines, including one capable of firing ballistic missiles, a South Korean lawmaker said yesterday, following a closed-door briefing by the South’s National Intelligence Service.
North Korea has a large submarine fleet but only one known experimental submarine capable of carrying a ballistic missile.
“One of the submarines North Korea is building can carry a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM),” Ha Tae-keung, an opposition party lawmaker on parliament’s intelligence committee, told Reuters. “One is a modified Romeo Class and the other is a new medium- large size one.”
North Korea has been subject to UN Security Council sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump have met three times since 2018, but failed to make progress on US calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and North Korea’s demands for an end to sanctions.
In July, 2019, state media showed Kim inspecting a large, newly built submarine. While North Korea did not describe the submarine’s weapons systems, analysts said the apparent size of the vessel indicated it was designed to carry missiles.
Later last year North Korea said it had successfully test-fired a new SLBM from the sea, and last month it showcased a new SLBM design during a military parade in Pyongyang.
Kim’s vow to unveil new strategic weapons this year also led to speculation that North Korea could soon deploy an operational ballistic missile submarine.
North Korea unveiled a total of 76 intercontinental ballistic missiles in nine different types at a military parade on October 10 that showcased the country’s long-range weapons for the first time in two years, Yonhap news agency reported, citing Ha.
The weapons showcased this year were the largest of all past military parades in scale, he said.
The lawmaker also said there was circumstantial evidence indicating that Kim had ordered an investigation into the North Korean troops who shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who went missing in late September, Yonhap reported.
North Korea last week said the shooting of the South Korean man in its waters last month was a self-defensive measure amid concerns about the coronavirus.
Job loss fears as Mandela House Museum to be
liquidated
• The Star Early Edition
• 4 Nov 2020
• TEBOGO MONAMA tebogo.monama@inl.co.za
| SIMPHIWE MBOKAZI African News Agency (ANA)NELSON Mandela’s house in Vilakazi Street, Soweto. The contents of the house, now a museum run by the Soweto Heritage Trust, will be sold and the proceeds paid to debtors.
“We never knew the house was in debt, it’s a popular attraction Staff MANDELA HOUSE MUSEUM, SOWETO
WORKERS at the Mandela House Museum in Soweto are worried about job losses as management have announced that the tourist site will be liquidated to pay off debt.
The house, which is a major tourist attraction on Vilakazi Street in Orlando West, Soweto, is due to be liquidated and the assets sold to pay off debtors.
Mandela left the house to the Soweto Heritage Trust, of which he was also a founder. The trust restored the house in 2008 to preserve its history through fund-raising events.
Yesterday, staff at the house-turned-museum said they were surprised to learn that it was going to be liquidated and the furniture sold off to pay off debts incurred by the Soweto Heritage Trust.
Staff at the house yesterday said: “We have just been told that the house is going to be liquidated and everything will be sold to pay off debt. We never knew the house was in debt because it is a popular tourist attraction. The whole thing is being done in secret and we are not told anything. We don’t even know when the liquidation will happen.”
The workers, who declined to be named for fear of intimidation, said it was unclear how much the museum owed and to whom, as it has been managed by the Apartheid Museum and not the Soweto Heritage Trust since 2010.
Yesterday, the Apartheid Museum and the interim trustees promised to respond to questions but in the evening said they would release a press statement later in the week. Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, also said he was unaware of the liquidation process.
Mandela first moved into the house in 1946 with his first wife Evelyn Ntoko Mase. Eleven years later, after his divorce, his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, moved into the house with him. This is also the house Mandela returned to after being released from years of prison in 1990. The house was left with the furniture and other belongings the Mandela family.
One of the attractions of Vilakazi Street is that it is the only street in the world that has two Nobel Laureates; Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. While the Mandela home might also cease being a museum, the government has also not been able to fulfil the promise to turn the Brandfort home Winnie stayed in during her banishment into a museum. Winnie and her youngest daughter Zindzi were banished to Brandfort, Free State, in 1977.
After years of neglect, the government finally started appointing a new contractor for R2.9 million who would start renovations in May last year. Work was supposed to be completed in November but is still under way.
MPs urged to brace for extreme cuts
• 'Eye-watering contractions may hurt critical programmes ’ • Plan now, says Michael Sachs
• Business Day
• 4 Nov 2020
• Linda Ensor Parliamentary Writer
Michael Sachs
Cuts to government services in the 2021 budget will be “eyewatering ” and could damage programmes of critical importance, such as schooling, a body that is charged with making recommendations on the fiscal framework told parliamentary committees on Tuesday.
Deputy chair of the Financial and Fiscal Commission Michael Sachs, the former head of the Treasury ’ s budget office, said there must be an underlying plan for each department to ensure the cuts did not undermine government priorities.
The commission and the parliamentary budget office on Tuesday presented their views on the medium-term budget policy statement, tabled in parliament by finance minister Tito
Mboweni last week, to parliament ’ s two finance and two appropriations committees.
The medium-term budget policy statement proposes a 2.8% cut in noninterest government expenditure in 2021 as part of a bid to stabilise mounting levels of debt. This burden will be borne by departments, provinces and local governments, but most significantly by public sector employees.
Sachs said 2021’s budget cuts would be unprecedented and could pose real challenges across the government. He urged MPs to focus on 2021’s budget rather than the uncertain medium term, saying the budget tabled by Mboweni in February will be critical.
For instance, the department of home affairs would have its budget cut by 13.5% next year;
the department of defence by 9.3%; and legislative and executive services, which includes parliament, by 3.8%.
The social development budget will decline by 1%, the peace and security budget by 2.8%, and the agriculture and rural development budget by 3.1%.
UNPRECEDENTED
Sachs stressed that if there were no policies to underpin these fiscal choices, it was likely that the burden of the adjustments would fall on those who depend on public services and were least able to resist them, such as schoolchildren.
“These kind of cuts where you see the nominal level of expenditure drop are unprecedented.
They have never happened before in SA.”
Basic education, for example, would not have a cut in its budget, but on a consolidated basis will have no increase next year while costs for items such as
electricity, school maintenance and stationery will increase.
“There is a real danger that the quality of education provided to schoolchildren will fall as a result of this 0% increase,” Sachs said.
A real erosion in the quality of services would result if the government and labour agreed on a wage increase instead of the wage freeze for public sector workers for which the Treasury is planning. This would require a reduction in the number of teachers and staff in schools to accommodate the above-zero wage increase.
Sachs noted two forces that would impose extreme pressure on budgets next fiscal year. The first would be the overall cap on expenditure in a bid to achieve fiscal consolidation, and the second would be the drive to shift spending from consumption to capital expenditure.
Consumption expenditure covers the core social services that the government provides, such as education, health care and policing and includes salaries of public servants.
EXTREME PRESSURE
So we are seeing those departments which provide core government services placed under a double burden,” Sachs said.
This would also result in a big reduction in the equitable share to provincial and local governments and a big increase in conditional grants, which finance capital spending.
The provincial equitable share will be slashed by R60bn next year and the local government equitable share will decline by R14.5bn. The Treasury projects that across government payments for capital assets will grow by 13.4% in 2021/2022.
Local government is already under extreme pressure and in 2020/2021 will have much higher salary costs as most
THESE KIND OF CUTS WHERE YOU SEE THE NOMINAL LEVEL OF
EXPENDITURE DROP ARE UNPRECEDENTED. THEY HAVE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE
municipalities have agreed to a 6.5% wage increase.
Financial and Fiscal Commission head of research Mkhululi Ncube emphasised that the government could not abandon its core mandate of consumption spending on basic services such as health, education, water and sanitation at local level. The nominal decline of 9% in the local government equitable share next year was of concern, Ncube said, especially given the distress many municipalities face. Service delivery would be affected.
New DA leader ignores rival
‘UNFORTUNATE’: NO MESSAGE OR PHONE CALL FROM STEENHUISEN TO DEFEATED NTULI
• The Citizen (Gauteng)
• 4 Nov 2020
• Brian Sokutu – brians@citizen.co.za
Picture: Nigel SibandaRESILIENT. DA MPL Mbali Ntuli says she will continue to do the job she was elected to do and was not
disappointed she didn’t become the party’s new leader.
‘I am going to be doing my job that I was elected to do in serving the people of KZN and playing a role in the legislature.’
No hugs, phone call or message from newly elected Democratic Alliance ( DA) leader John Steenhuisen, has seemingly left DA MPL Mbali Ntuli dejected.
Having lost the political contest against Steenhuisen for party head at DA’s weekend elective congress, Ntuli confirmed to The Citizen that the new leader has not reached out to her.
Putting on a brave face amid signs of being evidently unsettled after a bruising battle that saw her rival voted into the party’s highest office by 80%, Ntuli yesterday only said: “I feel fi ne… happy.
“I can confirm that he (Steenhuisen) has not yet reached out to me. I think he is very busy.
“He could be getting on with the work that needs to happen between now and the 2021 local government elections,” said Ntuli, steering away from giving detailed answers.
She added: “I was running against somebody who was an incumbent in an acting capacity – a nine-months-long campaign.
“It did not come as a disappointment that I did not get the position.
“It was also the first time that the DA has had an electronic voting system and a virtual congress.
“I am very proud of myself and my campaign team.”
Steenhuisen was not available for comment.
Having endured criticism in the run-up to the elective congress from former DA chief whip Douglas Gibson, who said Ntuli was “young”, she said she preferred not to respond to her critics.
Gibson, who made public his support for the “matured” and “experienced” Steenhuisen, said in a radio interview: “You don’t send in your third team to go into a rugby test – you put your first team in.
“I think Mbali, nice as she is, clever as she is, good as she is, she is a litt le early.”
Gibson referred to the previous tenures of former DA leader Mmusi Maimane and former parliamentary head Lindiwe Mazibuko as having “flopped”.
Asked about her future, Ntuli said: “Nobody knows what the future holds, but I feel fine. I am fine with everyone.
“I am going to be doing my job that I was elected to do in serving the people of KZN (KwaZulu-Natal) and playing a role in the legislature.”
Commenting on Steenhuisen’s failure to acknowledge Ntuli after the party leadership race, Dr Mazwe Majola of the Worldwide Institute of Leadership and Development said great leaders were “not scared of competition and collaboration”.
“They respect and embrace diversity and inclusion – learning from their supporters and rivals.
“They have a rare ability to handle pressure and vituperation. It is very unfortunate and deplorable that John Steenhuisen has not acknowledged or reached out to his rival, Mbali Ntuli,” Majola said.
He described the current atmosphere between Steenhuisen and Ntuli as “ruinous and disastrous for the DA”.
“This is super self-destructive. It cements and consolidates divisions and factionalism within the party.
“Steenhuisen must grow up. As a party leader, he is expected to build, maintain and sustain unity and cohesion.
“Great leadership requires the ability to read, interpret and understand times and situations.
Leadership is about adaptability and change,” Majola said.
