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The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday said all unaccompanied minors at the Central Methodist Church in central Johannesburg have been moved to a shelter in Soweto or reunited with their families.

Eyewitness News uncovered sexual abuse at the church last year with church head reverend Paul Verryn being suspended. The suspension was lifted in May this year.

More than 50 children who used to live at the shelter are being looked after by caregivers at the Soweto Youth Centre.

The DA’s Jack Bloom said the number of foreigners at the centre has also decreased.
 

“We are very pleased that finally we have seen some progress," he said. 

North Korea said on Monday it was releasing the seven-man crew of a South Korean fishing boat, including three Chinese, a month after they illegally entered its waters.

State news agency KCNA said the crew would be sent back to South Korea "taking into consideration the fact that they admitted the seriousness of their act and gave assurances that they would never repeat such an act."

Tensions have mounted on the peninsula this year after the sinking of a South Korean warship -- Seoul says it was sunk by a North Korean torpedo -- and a series of military drills by the United States and South Korea.

Pyongyang said the boat was intercepted on August 8 while fishing in waters off its east coast.

The North’s Red Cross said the vessel and the crew would be handed over at 0700 GMT on Tuesday at a sea border off the east coast.

In June, Beijing took a public swipe at Pyongyang after North Korean border guards shot and killed three Chinese suspected of smuggling and wounded a fourth. North Korea apologised and told China it would punish those responsible.

China had voiced concern about the detention of its nationals by the North, which depends heavily on Beijing’s largesse to keep its impoverished economy afloat.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made a surprise visit to China last week to reassure Beijing, whose help and diplomatic muscle he needs as much as ever to support a dynastic succession.

The decision to release the crew comes as the North gears up for the biggest meeting of its ruling Workers’ Party in 30 years this week, possibly to anoint Kim’s youngest son as successor.

The North has not responded to an offer by the South to ship emergency relief in the aftermath of heavy rains that flooded farmland and homes.

Former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi is off to the Supreme Court of Appeal to challenge his conviction and fight to stay out of jail.

Judge Meyer Joffe on Monday morning granted Selebi leave to appeal against his corruption conviction. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in August.

However, Joffe has ruled Selebi would only be allowed to appeal one aspect of his conviction. He will dispute that he received bribes from self-confessed drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, who’s on trial for the murder of the mining magnate Brett Kebble.

Selebi’s claims of an unfair trial, a biased judge and a malicious prosecution were dismissed.

The former police chief’s trial dragged on for months and it remains to be seen how long the two sides will do battle for.

Selebi’s defence team will argue another court could reach a different verdict, sighting Agliotti and his ex-fiancée Dianne Muller as the weak links.

The state will contest this, saying the court’s ruling was conservative.

If Selebi wins, his application will be heard either by a full bench of judges at the same court or will move to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

If he fails, he will have to petition the Bloemfontein court.

Selebi’s claimed he had new revelations but these are not likely to be heard in court as they still need to be investigated.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

Amid widespread expectations of an interest rate cut later this week, some economists have warned against it.

It is predicted that the Reserve Bank will likely cut the repo rate by 50 basis points on Thursday.

Market analysts said the low inflation levels and low economic growth figures are two factors which could determine Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus’ decision.

Chief economist at the Efficient Group Dawie Roodt said he believes the interest rate should be left unchanged.

However, he added, “I think market expectations have gone so far already that if the Reserve Bank decides to leave the interest rate unchanged, the reaction on the financial markets would be negative.”

Roodt said inflation was still expected to rise, which could force the central bank to hike rates early next year adding, “…chances of an interest rate cut is good but I think that we all have to realise that as soon as inflation starts turning around, the Reserve Bank would have to start raising its [rates] again,” he said.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

Israeli researchers have developed a new treatment for HIV that kills human cells infected with the virus and could lead to a breakthrough in treating AIDS, the Haaretz newspaper said on Friday.

Whereas current treatments focus on inhibiting the replication of the HIV virus, the new treatment destroys infected cells without damaging healthy ones, the newspaper said.

The process makes use of peptides, or short protein segments, which vastly increase the replications of the virus once it enters a cell, causing the cell’s self-destruction, Haaretz said, citing one of the researchers.

"The usual medications kill the virus that has entered the body during infection and the (peptide) treatment allows cells infected with the genetic load of the virus to be killed," Abraham Loyter, who carried out the study, was quoted as saying.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed British journal "AIDS Research and Therapy" in August and was co-authored by Loyter, Aviad Levin, Zvi Hayouka, and Assaf Friedler.

The researchers could not be reached on Friday, a day off in Israel.

They have registered an Israeli patent but the treatment must still be tested on animals and humans, Haaretz said.

Around 33.4 million people suffer from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS. The vast majority, more than 30 million, live in low and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organisation.

Some Khayelitsha residents on Monday said there would be no housing development in their community if they were not properly consulted.

Community members in Mandela Park have blocked the construction of houses in the area for nearly two weeks.

They are demanding that 50 percent of all homes built in the area should be allocated to people .

They have called on Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela to launch an independent probe into the allocation of some government houses in the area.

Community leader Luyolo Mfuku said the MEC has been ignoring them.

“They are building 100 units for people coming from outside of Mandela Park. This is after several complaints or protests that we have been doing in Mandela Park trying to get the Minister’s attention to actually hear our cries as well,” he said.

Madikizela has dismissed the claims and said he has other priorities too.

“People from Mandela Park must understand that I’m not the MEC of Mandela Park only. I have a number of other areas that I am dealing with that are facing similar challenges, even more. And I must say that we have been engaging with the people of Mandela Park regularly,” he added.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

Motorists can expect unmanned fuel pumps this week after workers confirmed they were embarking on an indefinite strike on Monday morning. 

National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) members are demanding a 15 percent wage increase, a 4.3 percent increase in annual bonuses and the outlawing of labour brokers.

An estimated 70,000 automotive industry workers across the country are expected to join in the industrial action.

The Retail Motor Industry (RMI) had until midnight on Sunday to make an acceptable wage offer after workers handed over a memorandum of their demands last week.

Numsa spokesperson Roger Piedt said they worked well into the night to inform members to stay away on Monday.

“The workers are on strike but we encourage our members to come to the office so that we will then arrange pickets in certain areas,” he added.

The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year has reached at least 500, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to an independent monitoring site on Monday and a tally compiled by Reuters.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said an ISAF service member was killed in an insurgent attack in the east on Sunday. No other details were immediately available.

There has been a sharp increase in foreign military deaths, many of them American, as foreign troops launch more operations to counter a growing Taliban-led insurgency that has spread out of traditional strongholds in the south and east.

At least five ISAF troops have been killed since Friday, including the first Georgian killed in the conflict.

Violence across Afghanistan has hit its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. Military and civilian casualties are at record levels, with U.S. and NATO commanders warning of more tough fighting ahead.

The spiralling death tolls come despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and will be another worrying statistic when U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a strategy review of the war in December.

Public support for the war is flagging, with a recent opinion poll by NBC television and the Wall Street Journal showing as many as seven in 10 Americans saying they did not believe the war would end successfully.

The traditional summer fighting period has taken a heavy toll on foreign troops this year. A total of 102 were killed in June, the deadliest month of the war, followed by 88 in July and another 80 in August, according to independent monitor www.iCasualties.org.

The latest casualties take to 2,068 the number killed since 2001, almost half of them in 2009 and 2010. Roughly 60 percent of those killed were Americans.

Despite the heavy military toll, ordinary Afghans continue to bear the brunt of the war.

A United Nations report released last month showed that civilian casualties had risen by 31 percent in the first six months of 2010, compared with the same period last year, with more than three-quarters of the casualties caused by insurgents.

The Western Cape Education Department on Monday said it would organise examination camps for matric learners affected by the ongoing public servants strike.

The strike is now in its 16th day and unions have rejected government’s 7.5 percent wage offer and held firm to their demand for an 8.6 percent wage increase.

Seventy-seven of the province’s schools were closed last week due to the strike and this affected hundreds of matric learners who were preparing for the upcoming preliminary exams.

Education MEC Donald Grant said all Grade 12 learners in the Western Cape would write their preliminary exams by the end of September.

“We are making plans for those learners to be able to write their exams before the end of the term. If they are unable to do so we will insure that they have that opportunity. We will arrange certain school camps at various venues,” he added.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

Former police commissioner Jackie Selebi was on Monday granted leave to appeal his conviction by the South Gauteng High Court.

 

Judge Meyer Joffe ruled that Selebi could try to convince the Supreme Court of Appeal that he did not receive any bribes from Glen Agliotti.

 

Selebi’s other grounds for appeal, including an unfair trial, a bias judge and a malicious prosecution, were dismissed.

 

Last month, he was sentenced by the South Gauteng High Court to 15 years in jail for having a corrupt relationship with Agliotti.

 

Selebi’s counsel Jaap Cilliers argued there was a reasonable prospect that a higher court would reach a different verdict.

 

Cilliers attacked the credibility of Agliotti and Dianne Muller, saying another court could see them as unreliable witnesses.

 

He also questioned why, if Selebi and Agliotti had a corrupt relationship, were Agliotti’s tenders with the police turned down.

 

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel chose not to address the court, saying he was content with his heads of argument.

 

Selebi’s bail was extended.

Kraaifontein police were monitoring a group of National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) members who allegedly intimidated non-striking workers to join a strike on Monday.

Numsa members working at filling stations and vehicle component manufacturers have embarked on an indefinite strike and are demanding a 15 percent wage increase.

The workers allegedly demanded non-striking petrol attendants to down tools before they moved to other service stations in the area.

Kraaifontein police spokesperson Gerhard Niemand said there have been no reports of violence.

“There are about 20 people walking around from garage to garage in Brighton Road but there were no claims made that there was violence used. We as the police are monitoring the situation and we are prepared to deal with it,” he said.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

Newly-appointed Western Cape Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz on Monday said he intended adopting a holistic approach to tackling issues of safety and security in the province.

Fritz is expected to be sworn into office this week after a cabinet reshuffle by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.

He took over the reigns from Lennit Max, who has been moved to the national assembly.

Fritz said he is excited about his new position and believes gangsterism and child abuse should be prioritised.

“Unless you see the importance of interventionist programmes, unless you see the importance of giving young children in townships alternatives like educational outreach programmes, you are going to continue to fight the cycle of crime,” he said.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

The Cape Town City Council on Monday said they would consider making jay-walking an offence to try and curb the amount of pedestrian deaths.

Currently the Streets and Public Places by-law does not make it an offence to cross a street away from an intersection or where there is no pedestrian crossing.

Mayoral committee member for Safety and Security JP Smith said they hoped to make a change as far as jay-walking was concerned.

“We do have a lot of incidents of people getting hurt crossing roads without doing so at formal intersections and more problematically crossing the road diagonally with their back to the traffic. It may be worthwhile bringing the jaywalking provision in the current traffic bylaw,” he said.

Smith said changes to the relevant bylaw were up for discussion.

"We are tying to see what comment we solicit from the public. If it is reasonably favourable we will include the provision in the by-law in the end and it will say that you are not allowed to cross the road at a point where there is an available pedestrian crossing,” he added.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

Sixty-four people are to appear in court on Monday after a police operation in a Cape Town informal settlement this past weekend.

Police executed the operation after receiving information of wanted criminals and illegal immigrants who used the Woodstock informal settlement as a hideout and a place to conduct drug trafficking activities.

Police arrested 56 illegal immigrants, five suspects for outstanding warrants of arrest and three suspects for possession of drugs.

Woodstock police spokesperson Hilton Malila said they seized a large amount of drugs.

“We confiscated 14 bags of dagga and 15 pieces of heroine. The estimated street value of the drugs confiscated is plus minus R7,000,” he said.

Malila said they accosted a murder suspect during the bust.

“A 26-year-old female wanted for a murder case in Langa in April 2008 was amongst the suspects that were arrested for outstanding warrants,” he added.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

At a centre for disadvantaged children in Kabul, shy young girls step up to recite their duties as fasting Muslims for the visiting U.S. ambassador.

Teachers look on with pride at young Afghans who were once left at the mercy of the street.

Yet the disturbing reality in this war-torn nation -- where Western powers battle Islamist forces to maintain a friendly government in power -- is that at least 600,000 street children have no safety net to catch them.

The problem, experts say, is getting worse because of the deepening war and the scourge of corruption, despite the inflow of more than $35 billion from foreign donors since the Taliban were removed from power in 2001.

The dangers for children are many, they say: from drugs to the insurgency, from criminal gangs to sexual abuse.

"Poverty is getting worse in Afghanistan and children are forced to find work," said Shafiqa Zaher, a social worker with Aschiana, the group receiving U.S. aid for its work.

Zaher regularly trawls Kabul streets and parks where street children hang out and approaches them to see if they would be interested in an education.

"We take the children and show them what we do here and if they agree we go to the family and talk to them," she said.

Some 7,000 in the main cities of Afghanistan are attending Aschiana schools, where food and stationery costs are taken care of and some families are assigned sponsors.

Most have a home to go to, even if it is the shell of a building struck in the country’s unending wars, Zaher says, but their guardians are often disabled and cannot work.

WAR AND CORRUPTION

A study by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in 2008 found around 60,000 minors involved in child labour in Kabul alone.

Nader Nadery, a senior commissioner at the AIHRC, says it’s a consequence of Afghanistan’s decades of conflict.

"In the last three to four years an increasing number of displaced from the war affected areas -- Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni -- have poured into Kabul city to seek refuge," he said.

A community of refugees mainly from Sangin in Helmand, where U.S. forces led an operation against insurgents last year, relies on Aschiana help in a Kabul slum quarter of plastic awnings.

In three decades of war the country’s population has doubled to more than 30 million and the dusty mountain capital has swelled to a city of four million, much of it pot-holed and crumbling, with chronic traffic.

"Historically Kabul and Afghanistan have never had this crisis of people not having a ceiling or a roof. They’re all poor but at least they had a home," Nadery said.

He says corruption, the subject of an ongoing diplomatic scuffle between Karzai and Washington and a major issue in parliamentary elections this month, makes a bad situation worse.

A United Nations report said in March that entrenched corruption was leaving the poor at the mercy of the powerful while security-obsessed foreign forces turn a blind eye.

"The direct link between poverty and corruption is always there," Nadery said. "Most development projects are halted or don’t reach areas where it would affect the life of the poor because of the corruption involved."

TV SHOW BRINGS IT HOME

Afghans have been given a rude awakening to the extent of social problems through Omid (Hope), a daring television show that has been running on Saba TV for the past two years.

Investigating dozens of cases around the country, producer and researcher Zainab Rahimy found children whose parents were addicted to opium, boy soldiers drafted into fighting for the Taliban and an alarming frequency of sexual abuse.

She explains one recent case of a 13-year-old who worked two days a week as an office cleaner. His boss was abusing him.

"We found out because he started doing drawings that suggested there was something. He was crying when he told me the story," Rahimy said. "But it’s rare that we do sex abuse on TV. We might follow 10 cases but only one we can film."

Deprivation and abuse pushes some teenagers to join the insurgents, she says. "The worst was children who the Taliban were forcing to go with them for an amount of money. They were from 7 to 18 years old, with guns and regular training."

Touring Aschiana in Kabul last week, the U.S. ambassador’s entourage viewed an impressive display of child artwork that seemed to encompass modern Afghanistan’s cycle of suffering.

One referred to the bombardment of Kabul by militias in the 1990s. The ambassador paused at another, a copy of an 1879 canvas of the lone survivor of Britain’s 1842 retreat from Kabul.

"Those at Aschiana have an opportunity but most have no protection and serious problems," said Rahimy.

"It’s a danger for the future because it’s not a small group of people in this situation."

Police have urged the public to help them catch those responsible for beating a Soweto nurse.

 

They believe Lynette Dube was attacked by striking public servants, as she made her way to work on Friday afternoon.

 

Dube suffered major injuries to her head and neck and is in a critical condition at Milpark Hospital.

 

On Sunday, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, hospital CEO Johanna More and new Gauteng Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros visited Dube.

 

“We are currently investigating and we would like to appeal to the community to assist us,” said the police’s Dimakatso Ndaba.

This is the third attack on a nurse following a stabbing in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.

A nurse was also attacked in Germiston soon after the strike started.

The African National Congress on Monday said Helen Zille should give the public valid reasons for reshuffling the Western Cape cabinet.

Last week Zille announced three changes to her cabinet.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille stepped in as Social Development MEC and Ivan Meyer took over at the Cultural Affairs and Sport Department.

Outgoing Community Safety MEC Lennit Max has been reassigned to the national assembly.

Zille said there was no need to explain her decisions but the ANC’s Lynne Brown believes she should.

“Because now we’re are all speculating about why she has made this change she owes us an explanation; she doesn’t govern at her beheft. She governs at the behest of the people of the Western Cape. And she has been given a mandate by the people of the Western Cape to govern,” she said.

The DA’s Albert Fritz is set to replace Max.

Max said he was proud of the work he had done in the portfolio.

“I really motivated the Department of Community Safety, re-energised traffic department, provincial traffic and the police service who actually knew what I was looking for…I did my bit to the best of my ability to serve the people of the Western Cape,” he added.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

A man will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning charged with stealing Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux’s credit card.

It is understood the man picked up the card at the scene where Roux allegedly beat Tshwane metro police officer Ntshimane Mogale to death.

The theft was revealed at Roux’s bail application where his lawyer Rudi Krause said the rugby player was the victim of a robbery.

Krause told the court Roux’s credit card was used at a local McDonalds while the Blue Bulls player was in police custody.

The police’s Daniel Manganye said at this stage there was nothing to suggest that the credit card theft was linked to the attack.

 

“Our investigation so far does not indicate whether this man can be linked to the murder of the metro police,” said Manganye.

 

The man was arrested at his workplace on Friday. Manganye said more arrests are expected soon.

Police are investigated the cause of four separate fires in Cape Town over the past weekend.

Six people died after a fire broke out in Khayelitsha on Saturday.

The locations of the other fires included Witsand, Fisantekraal and Overcome Heights informal settlements.

Disaster management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the displaced families have been assisted.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

The Tshwane metro police have called in The Hawks to help them tackle corruption a week after Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux allegedly beat to death Sergeant Ntshimane Mogale.

Mogale, who was buried on Saturday, was driving Roux’s car in Hatfield in the early hours of Friday morning when an altercation took place.

It is understood Mogale may have tried to blackmail an intoxicated Roux to either pay the police to drive him home or end up behind bars.

The rugby player’s lawyer will argue he was acting in self-defence.

 

The Tshwane metro police started investigating officers preying on drunk drivers for bribes about three years ago but they have been unable to crack the problem because of a lack of resources.

 

A senior metro investigator said his department only has eight investigators, half of what they are supposed to have.

 

He said they will meet with The Hawks this week.

 

The police’s Lindela Mashigo could not confirm the meeting but because of the seriousness of this crime said The Hawks will be involved in the investigation.

 

“If indeed it is proven as part of the investigation that there has been any other element of corruption,m that will form part of the probe,” said Mashigo.

 

In May, the Democratic Allaince called for an audit of the metro police after it emerged that one in five officers are facing internal disciplinary charges, including fraud, corruption and bribery.