Julius Assures Supporters of Win

13 April 2011

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema assured supporters outside the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday that he was going to win the hate speech case against him.

JOHANNESBURG - ANC Youth League president Julius Malema assured supporters outside the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday that he was going to win the hate speech case against him.
 

"We are going to win, because we are children of winners," Malema, flanked by bodyguards and ANC MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, told the crowd.

"We are doing well, our lawyers are doing very well... you are real friends, real comrades," he said before thanking Madikizela-Mandela, referring to her as "his mother".

He also told them not to give the "mickey mouses" standing behind him, reason to make a noise. He was referring to some Afriforum members standing behind the court gates. The civil rights organisation had brought the case against him.

"Peacefully sing, you must not allow people to provoke you."

Malema then began singing "shoot to kill, shoot to kill... kiss the boer, kiss the boer, kiss the farmer".

Eagerly awaiting the song, the crowd joined in. 

Madikizela-Mandela also spoke to the gathering, referring to Malema as "her son", and the supporters as "her children and grandchildren".

"Time will come when they know who we are... You must come back tomorrow," she said after shouting "amandla" repeatedly.  a Xhosa and Zulu word meaning "power"

Supporters chanted Malema's name, some carrying placards reading "leave. our president alone" and "Criminals are Afriforum, by stealing our fathers land".

http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/local-news?oid=187523&sn=Detail&pid=40&Malema-assurers-supporters-he-ll-win-case 

Hate Speech

Julius Malema's Body Guards

ANCYL Takes Aim at Judges

April 13 2011 

The ANC Youth League has again taken aim at judges, saying that those on the Bench should keep out of politics and stick to law. 

The league’s secretary-general, Vuyiswa Tulelo, referring to the Equality Court’s hearing of AfriForum’s hate speech allegations against league leader Julius Malema for singing Dubul’ Ibhunu (Shoot the Boer), told journalists in Johannesburg “the problem with judges is that they are supposed to preside over the law and not politics”. 

                                                                       Vuyiswa Tulelo

She said many judges were now expected to rule in political matters, such as who was the legitimate leader of an organisation. 

She was referring to the multitude of court cases Cope members had brought against each other over whether Mosiuoa Lekota or Mbhazima Shilowa was the legitimate leader. 

She said Malema’s hearing in the Johannesburg Equality Court this week before Judge Colin Lamont should be used to educate people about the ANC’s Struggle songs. 

“The question we should ask ourselves, and I hope that is what the judge would ask, is whether we are a racial or a non-racial society,” she said. 

She said the race issue emerged “at the slightest provocation”, but South Africans should identify themselves as South Africans first, not as white or black. 

The case was an attempt to “erode the history of the ANC” by attacking its Struggle songs and not about Malema. 

Tulelo was speaking at a briefing on the league’s discussion documents before its elective conference in June. - Political Bureau

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/ancyl-judges-must-keep-out-of-politics-1.1056091 

No Cash to Fly Gripens

No cash for SA air force to fly Gripens

Apr 13, 2011 

The air force cannot afford to put its new Gripen jet fighters into flight for the required number of hours, Lieutenant General Carlo Gagiano conceded on Wednesday. 

 No, we are not going to fly the required number of hours," the air force chief told a media briefing in Cape Town ahead of Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu's budget vote in the National Assembly.

"But the hours that we will fly will ensure that the people and the aircraft are safe and that we do the correct training." 

Gagiano said the air force was getting around the problem by having the cockpits of its fleet of 24 Hawk jet trainers "Gripenised" to make for a smoother transition for pilots from one to the other. 

"We have a few mitigating strategies. First of all as a design principle, we have decided to Gripenise the cockpit of the Hawk so that means that the transition from Hawk to Gripen is almost seemless and very quick. 

"People adapt to the new environment. It is basically just higher performance but they are totally used to the systems. We are also in the process of upgrading the PC-7's cockpits which is enhancing this process and we intend to pull down work from Gripen to Hawk to PC-7 to do the same kind of training but at a much lower cost." 

He said the air force was also using Gripen simulators extensively and this was working very well. 

Gagiano said so far 15 Gripen have been delivered from Sweden. The rest would be stored there free of cost until there was a full consignment ready to be flown out to South Africa. 

He said the shortage of funding for the Gripen was part of the shortage of funds felt by the defence force, which is a getting a scant additional R1.3 billion this year. 

"Gripen is part of this under-funding, perhaps because of the cause of this capability it is perhaps more visible there." 

The air force's budget comes to around R6 billion of the total defence budget of just over R34 billion, which Sisulu described as totally inadequate. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article1018530.ece/No-cash-for-SA-air-force-to-fly-Gripens 

 

Police Parties - R66m

Police parties cost public almost R66m

2011-04-13 12:31

Two national police day events in the past 15 months have cost the taxpayer nearly R66m, Beeld newspaper reported on Tuesday.

This information came out in a written answer to Parliament's portfolio committee on police.

The national police day festivities in Bloemfontein last January 2010 cost R29.2m.

The police on Monday refused to disclose the budget for the annual Police Day to be celebrated in Soweto on Friday.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer said an exact explanation of how much taxpayers’ money was spent and what it was spent on, will be given at Orlando Stadium on Friday.

DA police spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard said she doubts whether this will be done, as she has been trying in vain since January 2010 to see last year’s budget, and the same event in Soweto this January 2011 cost R36.4m.


Some 37 000 police officials attended the Soweto event. About 1 800 of them were transported by train from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

A police band marched across the field before the introduction of the provincial police teams, dressed in the colours of the South African flag.

Various provincial teams were introduced shortly after a DVD showing what to expect during the celebrations was played on big screens set up next to the stage.

The Gauteng police team led officers from eight other provinces across the field, dressed in sporty outfits and displaying mountain bikes, while the 2010 World Cup anthem Waka Waka by Shakira and Freshly Ground blared from huge speakers around the stadium.

The portfolio committee received the information in an answer to complaints from a police trade union that a "culture of entitlement" was developing in the SA Police Service.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had, until now, declined to say how much the two events cost.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Police-parties-cost-public-almost-R66m-20110413



http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Police-celebrate-in-Soweto-20110128

Morale

She said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa repeatedly refused to answer questions about the costs for that day.

“This kind of expenditure has to be seen in the context of backlogs in our forensic laboratories, lost and stolen dossiers and the delays at our 10111 phone-in centres.”

She feels that the celebration of good work by members of the police and the promotion of morale should form a central part of the police’s strategy to fight crime and corruption.

“It is disappointing that individual officers cannot be honoured at local and provincial police day functions but that, instead, they are bussed to Johannesburg in their thousands from all over the country,” Kohler Barnard said.

According to her, sources in the police told the DA that more than 30 000 officers are expected at the festival on Friday. That means one in every five officers will not be on duty, she said.

During last year’s festival in Bloemfontein police officers allegedly flouted the prohibition on drinking in public and crowded around bottle stores in the town.

“If the outcome of the celebrations would mean a safer South Africa, then it would be a good thing, but ironically enough, it’s going to be an unsafe day for all South Africans,” said Solidarity’s deputy CEO, Dirk Hermann.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Thousands-of-cops-to-celebrate-Police-Day-20110124 

"They're not in uniform, but they are police"

Juju's guards cause chaos

Judge says firearms will not be tolerated in court precinct

Apr 12, 2011

A defiant Julius Malema yesterday greeted hundreds of supporters, some of whom, just hours earlier, had sung the controversial "Shoot the Boer" struggle song outside the Johannesburg High Court, where the ANC Youth League leader is being sued for hate speech.

Using a megaphone to address the crowd from the steps of the court, Malema, who was surrounded by heavily armed bodyguards, said: "It is not me on trial, the revolution is on trial." 

Tensions in the hate speech case against Malema - brought by civil rights group Afriforum - sky-rocketed yesterday morning after Judge Collin Lamont said it had been "brought to his attention that there may be people bearing arms in this court. 

"I will not tolerate firearms within the precincts of this court," he said.

At both his court appearances Malema has been guarded at all times by at least five bodyguards armed with assault rifles. 

It is understood that ANC MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was again in court to support Malema, also had a cohort of bodyguards. 

On Monday, Department of Justice spokesman Tlali Tlali said that Malema's bodyguards "were police officers".  

BUT 2 DAYS BEFORE FLOYD SHIVAMBU SAID:

“It’s none of your business who is paying for it, but it is not government,” Shivambu said outside court during a recess, when asked about the guards. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article1014268.ece/Malema-warned-AfriForum-marchers 

"They're not in uniform, but they are police," said Tlali. 

SO WE AS TAX PAYERS ARE PAYING FOR THESE BODY GUARDS

Digest the above comments, are they or are they not police ? This is the mind set of these people.

But the police's Colonel Vishnu Naidoo yesterday said that was "not true" and that the guards were not linked to the police. 

Security was dramatically tightened after the lunch break, which saw Afriforum's lawyer Willie Spies and Afriforum deputy president Ernst Roets struggling to walk through a 30-strong group of ANC Youth League supporters singing the Dhubul' ibhunu song outside the court. 

Both Afriforum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union, the second complainant in the case, complained that members of their legal teams were barred from the court by bodyguards who were neither police nor official court security.

Lamont said he had "no idea" where the increased security had come from, but said it was "more than slightly unusual".

Roets was yesterday cross-examined by Malema's lawyer, Vincent Maleka, who asked if Afriforum had convened "a meeting of Afrikaners . to get a mandate?"

Roets replied that he "didn't think it was necessary for [Afriforum] to get a mandate".

The case continues today. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1016881.ece/Jujus-guards-cause-chaos 

Govt: Pirates bigger threat than Zim

Apr 12 2011

Cape Town - South Africa believes Somali pirates, and not political instability in Zimbabwe, pose the biggest threat to security in southern Africa, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday.

The pirates, spurred on by multi-million-dollar ransoms paid to release hijacked vessels along a key oil shipping route, have struck further south, threatening regional commerce and trade from Africa's largest economy, Sisulu told Reuters.

"At the moment, we think that the issue of piracy is beginning to be a serious problem to us ... We have defined maritime security as a threat to the region," Sisulu said in an interview.

South Africa, which operates the continent's most sophisticated navy, has already deployed the German-built frigate SAS Mendi to patrol the Mozambique channel in the Indian Ocean as a deterrent following a pirate incursion close to South African territorial waters late last year.

                                                                    SAS Mendi
"A great deal of our trade takes place on the sea and we've got to make sure we protect that," Sisulu said.

Analysts say more than 40% of the world's seaborne oil supply passes through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea and is at risk from pirate gangs.

Southern Africa is a major supplier of raw materials for the world and a vital source of the commodities that help power China's economic engine. Sisulu said a military strategy, which would flesh out the operational and funding requirements to deal with piracy, would be presented to cabinet within a month, following mounting pressure from the European Union to boost the global fight.

"We are responding first and foremost in our national interest and secondly in support of international effort."

Rented aircraft

South Africa, one of Africa's largest peace-keeping contributors on the continent with troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic, intends to go the market next year to tender for urgently needed military transport aircraft, Sisulu said.

Its current airlift capacity is constrained after it cancelled a $5.2bn contract to buy eight Airbus A400M aircraft due to rising costs and delivery delays. "We don't have one and we depend on renting the aircraft," she said.

Sisulu did not rule out humanitarian or peace-keeping assistance to Ivory Coast, as the west African nation sought to rebuild in the aftermath of a violent power struggle following a disputed election.

South Africa's dispatch of a naval vessel to waters off the Ivory Coast worried some African leaders, who saw it as an unwarranted projection of force. The ship has returned to South Africa.

"Should at any point we be asked to contribute to creating any stability in Cote d'Ivoire we would be happy to do that," Sisulu said. 

Metro OfficerTaking Bribe

2011-04-12

Johannesburg - A metro police officer has been arrested for accepting a bribe along Main Road, metro police say. 

Spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said the officer was caught "red handed" accepting a R50.00 bribe from a taxi driver on Monday.

                                                          48 children caught in one taxi


Both men were arrested.

The JMPD's internal affairs unit stopped "because the officer and the taxi driver displayed suspicious behaviour".

Minnaar said the bribe was so the officer would not issue a discontinuation notice as the taxi was unroadworthy.

"It was discovered that the taxi had a defective handbrake as well as a steering mechanism. The driver seat and front doors were also defective."

The men appeared in the Booysens Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and the case was postponed to a later date.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Metro-officer-arrested-for-taking-bribe-20110412