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Cape Town - Former Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi could face a bill of almost R9m for allegedly authorising irregular spending on a jewellery-city project.

He could also face criminal charges, said mayoral committee member for finance Ian Nielson on Tuesday.

Nielson said that after a forensic audit and advice from a senior counsel, disciplinary hearings were initiated on Monday.

These were against the head of the city's executive management unit, Mthuthulezi Swartz, who approved payments, which were then authorised by Mgoqi.

He said the audit and the advocate found that Mqoqi's appointment of TOM Consulting as project managers for an African jewellery-city project planned for Cape Town's Waterfront was "fundamentally flawed".

They found that the payment of R8.5m to TOM, which is headed by former SA local government association chairperson Thabo Mokwena, plus additional advertising costs of at least R127 000, were unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless or wasteful spending.

Wait for the outcome

They also found that the city was obliged under the Municipal Finance Management Act to recover the money concerned from Mgoqi.

Nielson said the council would, however, wait for the outcome of Swartz's hearing before deciding on any further action.

Swartz has been suspended on full pay. His hearing is scheduled to start on September 13.

Nielson's announcement is the latest round in a series of spats between the city's new Democratic Alliance-led administration and its African National Congress predecessor, many of them about shaky contracts.

Mgoqi was appointed by the ANC, and when the DA and its allies came to power last year in March this year, he sought to cling to power through an irregular last-minute extension of his lucrative contract.

Nielson said that according to the minutes of a March 2005 mayoral committee meeting, the committee "approved and endorsed" the concept of establishing a jewellery city, and resolved that the viability of a Waterfront site be investigated.

It did not appoint Mokwena "or anything else". It would seem that Mgoqi then appointed TOM without any tender procedure.

This was totally contrary to the city's procurement policy at the time, under which Mgoqi was authorised to approve contracts of up to R350 000.

According to the auditors, the work done by TOM was worth at most R1.5m, and he, himself, would be very surprised if it was worth more than a million.

Appeals by tenderers

He said the city's audit team had been in close contact with the Scorpions for several months about the issue, and that the city's own investigations soon would be handed to "the appropriate authorities".

It was too early to make any decision on the future of the jewellery project itself.

This would be decided only after a number of appeals by other tenderers had been heard.


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Pretoria - Police helicopters are to be fitted with airborne surveillance systems from Denel, said the state-owned arms company on Tuesday.

"This virtual 'eye in the sky' system will allow the SAPS to deploy their helicopters for all-weather and day-and-night crime prevention, law enforcement and border surveillance operations," said Sam Basch, Denel's spokesman.

Basch said the Goshawk 350 gyro-stabilised system was fitted with a continuous zoom thermal imager, daylight TV camera and auto tracking.

Variants of the system are already in use with police and security force in 20 other countries in the world, said Basch.

He said Denel Optronics won the contract to provide the devices to the police against stiff foreign competition.


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San Francisco - Tapping the brakes on new-model launches may slow Toyota's pursuit of the coveted "world's biggest automaker" title, but some things, especially for a company that has staked its reputation on quality.

Besides, few doubt that Toyota will inevitably vanquish General Motors as top auto dog, regardless of the measures it takes to remedy recent glitches.

With its mantra ofkaizen, translated as continuous improvement, stained in the past year by a rash of recalls, Toyota is reportedly about to compromise its ferocious growth to make sure its new products live up to the company's sturdy reputation.

Toyota has recalled 628 000 vehicles in the US this year and may soon recall another 500 000, the Wall Street Journal reported. This comes on top of more than two million recalls in 2005. In fact, only Ford had more recalls last year per vehicle on the road than Toyota.

Not even the red-hot Prius hybrid has been spared.

But they keep selling ... and selling. Just like most Toyota and Lexus models. And that's because it'll take more than a rocky year to undo what Toyota has accomplished in the court of public opinion over the past few decades.

May hit profits

Of course, the notion of slowing growth never resonates well in the trading pits of New York, where Toyota's US-listed shares sank 2% to close the week at $106.12 on the report.

Number crunchers fear the impact the potential delays could have on the bottom line in the coming quarters, and maybe they're concerned that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Also, the stock is clearly priced for perfection, with Toyota's market capitalisation equaling that of all five of the other top automakers combined.

It's not like domestic manufacturers are immune to delays and production cuts. Earlier this week, Ford slashed its fourth-quarter production plans by a surprising 21%. But no bit of bad news coming from the Big Three would be considered shocking these days.

That's not the case with Toyota, which has emerged with a mostly bulletproof image.

Toyota loyalists

And the company is apparently prepared to preserve that image at all cost, even if it has to endure some short-term market pain. So far, the bruises are already fading as the company has performed as usual in closely-watched consumer studies.

Just this month, JD Power named the Lexus brand as the most dependable for the 12th consecutive year. Toyota cars and trucks were fifth. Broken down by segment, the two brands together dominated the results with four first-place nods apiece.

"Perceptions about dependability can have a tremendous impact on an owner's satisfaction with their vehicle, which is no small matter for manufacturers," said analyst Neil Oddes.

"In terms of retained value, recommendation and repurchase intent, and component replacement, vehicle dependability can have a direct impact on a manufacturer's bottom line."

And nobody plays the perception game better than Toyota.

While any sort of production delays may dent near-term growth prospects and give its beleaguered rivals cause for hope, Toyota loyalists are more likely to see a company devoted to setting the gold standard in reliability.


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Johannesburg - Seven people including a home affairs official have appeared in the Barberton magistrate's court for allegedly producing false identity documents, police said on Tuesday.

Komatipoort police spokesperson Michael Ngomani said a woman was arrested after police found 26 identity books in her handbag.

A list of 112 people awaiting identity documents was also found.

The documents were issued at the Komatipoort home affairs offices.

"She said she collected the IDs in her personal post box before she would distribute them," said Ngomani.

The seven suspects were arrested on August 25.

The Lowvelder reported that a man was arrested while collecting his documentation.

A computer, duplicate IDs and documentation used by Home Affairs were found and confiscated at a house of an immigration officer in Schoemansdal.

Six of the suspects made a brief appearance in court and were remanded while the home affairs official was granted bail of R4 000. The others would appear in court again on Wednesday.

More arrests were expected as it was clear that this was a syndicate, said Ngomani.


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Surrounded by rolling hills and on the banks of the enormous Hartbeespoort dam, this small town is a good stopover for a night or two. Water sports galore are great entertainment and there’s a huge craft market that will delight curio shop-aholics.
The De Wildt Cheetah Sanctuary is close to town, it’s a good opportunity to come face to face with one of these beautiful beasts.

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This small town is conveniently situated for access to the Northern Drakensberg and the Golden Gate National Park. It’s less than 300km from Jo’burg, so it’s a good overnight stop if you want to stay out of the city and have a plane to catch in the afternoon.

Harrismith Wildflower Gardens
Located around two dams fed by mountain springs these gardens contain about 20% of the Drakensberg region's flora. An Anglo-Boer War blockhouse overlooks the dams. It was built to protect the town's water during the war.

Platberg
The 2394m 'flat mountain' is Harrismith's landmark. The annual race to the top, along and down the mountain is claimed to be the toughest in South Africa, if not the world. The race was born when a British schoolteacher, stationed in Harrismith during the Anglo-Boer War disparagingly referred to the mountain as 'that small hill of yours'. Locals challenged him to reach the summit in under an hour. He did, but only just.


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Harare, once known as Salisbury, is the capital of Zimbabwe, home to Robert Mugabe (and his gun wielding henchmen) and a host of African curios that you must bargain hard for or else you’ll be ripped off. It’s an odd combination of the western world and Africa.
Psst. If you happen to venture past PM Rob’s house do so in the day - they get a little trigger happy at night and shoot on sight. Yikes...

A must is the snake and lion/cheetah park which is about 23km from the city. Check out the 250 year old tortoise which is unbelievably huge and like something out of the Never Ending Story. A great place to camp is the National Park at Lake Chivero, which we thought was great.

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Pretoria - Having dispensed with the Boks at Loftus, the All Blacks are up against much-more-determined opponents - Sun City's monkeys.

The Kiwis are staying in the luxury Palace Hotel ahead of Saturday's Tri-Nations re-match against South Africa in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.

Their motto before last week's Test against the Boks was "Stop the Boks"."

Now it's "Stop the monkeys."

The All Blacks - like all hotel guests - received a brochure in the room, saying how to prevent a monkey from becoming your roommate.

One of the golden rules is to keep your windows and doors closed when you're not in the room.

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Anchorage - An adventurous Alaskan pilot was taking no chances when his home-made plane's engine started acting up - after all, his mom from Kimberley, Northern Cape, was on board.

Kenneth McLeod made a safe emergency landing on the Seward highway when the plane he had built himself from a kit started giving trouble.

Kenneth said he was flying on Sunday afternoon near Whittier, about 128km southeast of Anchorage, when the engine began to surge.

He told his mother, Joy McLeod, to "buckle up".

"Is it OK?" she asked.

"No, it isn't OK," he said.

Alaska state troopers said Kenneth had planned to land at Girdwood Airport, but couldn't make contact with anyone there.

He found a break in traffic on a straight stretch of the Seward highway, which runs through Alaska and on down through Canada to connect to the United States mainland.

Traffic was not interrupted, said trooper Timothy Lewis, who was there.

"It's blue skies, sunshine. There're a lot of people on the highway," Lewis said.

Car pulled over

"It's amazing that he was able to land without injuring himself or any of the public."

The driver of a car that was ahead of the plane saw the aircraft and pulled over, said Kenneth.

Lewis said the pilot pushed the plane off the road before troopers arrived.

Kenneth is an experienced pilot with about 360 hours of flying under his belt.

This was his first emergency landing and he thought maybe there was some water in the fuel, he said.

No one was injured in the emergency landing.


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Cape Town - Lifeguard Achmat Hassiem bears no grudge against the Great White shark that chomped off his right foot in a deep-sea struggle off South Africa's Western Cape coast two weeks ago.

"He got my foot, I got his tooth. It's only fair, we're even," quips the bulky 24-year-old, holding up the broken point of a ragged-edged incisor doctors removed from his mangled lower-leg.

Hassiem appears bemused by renewed calls for shark culling following his near-death encounter with a Great White off Sunrise Beach on August 13.

However, he is undeterred about going back into the water: "eventually, I'll be out there again.

"You can't kill something for just doing what it does," he said from his home in Strandfontein in the Western Cape.

"You can't blame them for what they are. They are a top predator. They don't have hands to feel. They use their mouths to feel, and, unluckily, as humans we bleed."

Hassiem is one of seven people to have been bitten by sharks off the greater Cape Town coast in the past five years.

More people in water

Three people died, including 77-year old Tyna Webb who was killed by a shark while swimming at Fish Hoek, also in False Bay, in November 2004.

Shark experts say there has been a rise in the number of attacks, but this must be seen against the background of more people venturing into the water.

From an average 0.1 incidents a year in the 1960s of people or their personal craft being bitten by sharks off the Cape coast, the rate increased to 0.3 in the 1970s, 0.6 in the 1980's and 0.7 in the 1990s, said Natal Shark Board research department head Geremy Cliff.

He said: "Thousands of people are killed on the road, but nobody stops driving."

Putting up shark nets was not an option, he said, as they were very expensive, difficult to maintain, and indiscriminately killed sea animals.

No reason for hysteria

Culling was also not a solution, as Great Whites were a protected species.

Shark Working Group spokesperson Gregg Oelofse said culling would have little impact on human safety in any event.

Oelofse said there was no reason for hysteria or for people to stop swimming and surfing.

"I can relate to people feeling under threat. But we need to recognise that for as long as we use the sea for recreation, there will on occasion be an attack."

Surfing events administrator Paul Botha disagrees. "Something needs to be done. There has been enough talking."

He claims to have seen a huge increase in shark numbers in False Bay, something he blames on the Great White's protected status combined with a food imbalance caused by over-fishing.

"We have created a problem. We have an over-population of sharks with not enough to eat."

As solutions, he cited the introduction of a sonar system to alert swimmers of shark activity, or a "shark flying squad" to keep the fish under surveillance and kill aggressive ones.

Eager to get back in the water

Surfing South Africa general manager Robin de Kock said there was no evidence of the existence of rogue, man-eating sharks.

"If sharks were really out to kill people, they would be having a great feast."

As for Hassiem, he is eager to get back in the water.

"I won't lie, I am a bit scared. It's going to take a while to get used to, but eventually I'll be out there again."


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Johannesburg - Archbishop Desmond Tutu should provide his sexual history before speaking as an expert on Jacob Zuma's sexual behaviour, said the Congress of SA Students (Cosas) on Sunday.

"We cannot allow Tutu to undermine decisions that are taken within constitutional structures of the ANC on the support to be given to Zuma," said Cosas president Kenny Motshegoa.

The students condemned Tutu's attacks on the ANC deputy president.

Motshegoa said: "His malicious statements to declare that comrade Zuma should withdraw from the race for presidency are illusions without significance or impact to sober South Africans."

'Not sure of his mental status'

He labelled Tutu an "empty populist who just utters statements to score minor political points, not caring whether they are disgraceful to his offices".

"We are now not sure of his mental status as it leaves much to taste. His public behaviour is reckless and he is a scandalous man who cannot impose his moral views."

Motshegoa said to label the support given to Zuma as one that is not principled is an insult by the archbishop.

"Howling voices like Tutu, which are not founded on principles cannot mislead us.

"Does Tutu think he is higher than the court that cleared Zuma, or does he think he has a better moral base than others?"

Last week, Tutu, while delivering the Harold Wolpe Memorial lecture in Cape Town, called on Zuma not to pursue the race to become the ANC president.

Tutu said: "I pray that someone will be able to counsel him that the most-dignified, most-selfless thing, the best thing he could do for a land he loves deeply is to declare his decision not to take further part in the succession race of his party."

Tutu's allegations that there was an ANC race, from which the ANC deputy president should withdraw, were uninformed, criminal and full of self-interest, said Motshegoa.

"We do not need any bishop, businessman or any self-proclaimed principal to tell us who the ANC must elect to the presidency, as the delegates to the national congress will decide on the party's leadership in 2007".

Cosas also said that it was not amazed by Penuell Maduna's response and high interest in the matter.

"He is directly implicated together with Bulelani Ngcuka in the plot to deal with comrade Zuma to fulfil their personal interests by manipulating institutional structures of government to further their ambition," said Motshegoa.

Support for Yengeni family

"We will meet fire with fire to ensure that the deputy president of the revolutionary organisation enjoys his rights like everyone else".

To conspirators like Maduna, Ngcuka and national director of public prosecution Vusi Pikoli, who thought they could decide the future of the country in pubs and bars, Cosas said: "Things done in the dark ultimately come to light".

The students also declared their support for jailed ANC fraudster Tony Yengeni's family.


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Cape Town - South Africa is not about to descend into a state of lawlessness, despite the country's high crime levels, said President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday.

However, something had to be done about the "entrenched" level of violence in the country, he told a media briefing in Cape Town, after a meeting of the African National Congress's provincial executive committee on Sunday.

The Rapport newspaper reported on Sunday that business magnate Johann Rupert, in a meeting with the president last week, had told Mbeki crime in South Africa had reached a crisis point.

The newspaper quoted Rupert as saying there was great danger that rising crime could see the country descend into general lawlessness, as had happened in Colombia.

Denies SA sinking into lawlessness

Mbeki said what Rupert had told him at the meeting was: "President, I agree with you, (when you say) there is something in this society, which entrenches a level of violence... that is unacceptable."

The president said Rupert had been referring to something he (Mbeki) had said last week, when he had spoken on crime at a meeting of the national house of traditional leaders (NHTL) in Cape Town.

At the time, Mbeki told the NHTL almost 80% of murders in South Africa were committed by people who knew their victim, and most occurred at weekends in situations where people had been drinking.

Mbeki denied the country was sinking into lawlessness.

"There wasn't any suggestion the country's about to drop into the Atlantic Ocean because of crime," he said.


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Johannesburg - Just days after President Thabo Mbeki asked South Africans what they were doing to fight crime, shoppers at a busy Johannesburg shopping mall gave a crystal-clear answer.

Four members of a seven-man armed gang were captured by shoppers, a security company and the police, just moments after a bloody battle in a Bryanston mall.

Mbeki asked South Africans in a speech before the national house of traditional leaders in Cape Town last week to ask themselves what they were doing to counter crime, rather than always asking what the government and police were doing.

Shoppers ran in all directions trying to avoid bullets when an armed gang started firing at Coin security guards about 10:30 on Sunday.

Guard wounded twice

Police spokesperson Sanku Tsunke said a 35-year-old guard and a colleague were on their way to their van with a cash box from Checkers when the robbers opened fire.

Tsunke said: "The guard was wounded twice in the left leg and he returned fire. Some of the gang also were wounded and they ran away."

A Coin spokesperson said the guard ran further into the mall, with the gang members following him, shooting continuously.

"It was like a small war zone, but the guard was determined the robbers were not going to get the cash box from him.

"With the cash box clutched under his arm, he lent against a wall and holding his firearm, he stood waiting for them."

A row of police cones and blood stains against a wall bore testimony to the shootings.

A shopper, Kobus van Deventer, heard the shots and grabbed his firearm.

"I saw a few robbers running past me and followed them. Some of them ran into the nearby bush, while others jumped into a taxi.

"I had one of them in the firearm's crosshairs, but couldn't fire a shot because he was surrounded by people."

Van Deventer said police and Coin reaction officials were on the scene a few moments later.

"We (he and other shoppers) showed them where the guys were hiding in the bush and suggested that the roads be closed.

"I joined them in the search for the robbers."

Still hunting for three robbers

Tsunke said four men, aged between 24 and 53, were arrested and the police confiscated two firearms buried in the veld.

"The Johannesburg police unit against serious crime is searching for the other three. The injured guard is in a stable condition in hospital."

A security guard at Checkers also fled to safety: "I didn't realise anything was happening until they started shooting. I saw people running to safety."


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Unlike the many holiday resorts that line the coastline, it still offers miles of unspoilt, wild beach and a twinkling Milky Way that traffic-jams the sky at night.

Places to Stay
Oyster Lodge and Backpackers
Discovering Oyster Lodge is like stumbling across a perfect pearl in an oyster…

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Principal city of the midlands area, Gweru lies on the main road between Harare and Bulawayo. Its name is derived from the Gweru (dry) River which occasionally surprises everyone by flowing.
Summer sees spectacular thunderstorms, winter days are blissfully sunny and warm and almost every month of the year is accompanied by flowers – whether the purple canopy of jacarandas, spiky red of poinsettias, cascades of bougainvillea, flamboyants or roses…
In spring the msasa trees flood the countryside with a scarlet and orange display of vivid glory before turning summer green.
There is an army and air force training centre in the town, a military museum and a variety of industries.

What to do
Antelope Park
Walk on the wild side with the king of the jungle!


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Spend some time in this charming village and add to your collection of picture postcard moments. Click. Thatched cottages, donkey carts, tumbling roses. Shy new oak leaves, heavy acorns. Click. Undulating mountains tower against the sky while peaceful fields dream in the sun. Click. Test drive a few restaurants, breathe in fresh country air or try the overnight hike to McGregor.

Places to Stay
Uitkyk
A holiday house in a country village.


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