Allegations of R4m waste irk gender activist

FINGERED: Former gender boss Nomboniso Gasa

Gender activist Nomboniso Gasa is up in arms over a damning public protector report accusing her of maladministration and mismanagement. 

The report relates to her tenure as head of the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), and accuses her of "fruitless and wasteful" spending of R4-million.
This was for a contract awarded to a consultancy owned by political analyst Mohau Pheko to help turn around the under-performing Chapter 9 institution.
An angry and "shocked" Gasa said this week that public protector Thuli Madonsela's report, now before parliament, was "disturbing" and "unsubstantiated". She was never given an opportunity to give her side of the story.
Madonsela reported that Gasa's commissioning of an organisation diagnosis process at the commission was a waste of taxpayers' money as it did not yield the desired results. She called on the national Treasury to investigate and act against those involved.
But Gasa says Madonsela's report "peddles rumours of the most malicious kind, without any substance or evidence being given.
"It is disappointing that an esteemed office which is supposed to protect the public actually publishes a report of this nature without due regard to the harm that may be caused," said Gasa.

Read more:  http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article723515.ece/Allegations-of-R4m-waste-irk-gender-activist

 

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Disgraced - Mugabe's wife has affair with his best friend

Mugabe hopes the embarrassing secret of his wife's infidelity with one of his right-hand men is safely buried with the body of the hapless Chademana
But it may well have been more than the death of his beloved sister that shattered Mugabe and sent his health into what is reported to be further decline.
According to one of Mugabe's most trusted bodyguards who was present at the time, Sabina Mugabe, 75, warned her brother before she died that he was being betrayed by two of the most important people in his personal and political life: his wife and his personal banker, a pivotal member of his regime.
Sabina told the president that Grace and Gideon Gono, the powerful head of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Mugabe's confidant, were secret lovers.
Grace, 41 years Mugabe's junior, has taken lovers before. One lover, Peter Pamire, died in a mysterious car accident. James Makamba, one of Zimbabwe's richest businessmen and a top-ranking Zanu-PF official, enjoyed her favours but their affair ended in tears, too, when a furious and sexually jealous Mugabe ran him out of town in fear of his life.
But never before has Grace been romantically involved with a politician in Mugabe's inner circle. And never before has a man so close to the president risked allowing it to happen.
The dangers from discovery are high. Zimbabwe state intelligence officials made it known that Mugabe's detection of the affair had already led to the murder of the bodyguard present at Sabina's bedside and more trouble would almost certainly follow.
"Once he hears something like that, I think someone will go and meet God," said one intelligence official.

Read more: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article723480.ece/Disgraced---Mugabes-wife-has-affair-with-his-best-friend Read more...

T.I sued for not playing at jail release party

Rapper T.I. during the game between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena

Carl Davis has filed a lawsuit in Alabama District Court claiming he lost his life savings when he agreed to put up money for a Birmingham comeback performance by T.I. (a.k.a. Clifford Joseph Harris Jr.), who was in prison on a weapons charge.
According to the complaint, Davis allegedly entered into an agreement for T.I.'s performance with Jervon Morgan, who represented himself as T.I.'s first cousin, liaison and agent.
Morgan is then said to have introduced Davis to Jason Geter, the CEO of Grand Hustle LLC, who presented a written agreement whereby the concert promoter would pay $50,000 to a bank account controlled by T.I.
Davis says he made the payments even though the defendants, including T.I., Morgan, and Geter, "concealed the fact from Davis that artist T.I. was on probation, on three years of supervised release and under home confinement as a condition of his plea agreement."

Read more: http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/music/article722557.ece/T.I-sued-for-not-playing-at-jail-release-party Read more...

Wagons & wigs

WORKING IN HEELS: Pietie, Willem and Rollie, dressed down for work, below, and in front of the gabled homestead
Pietie Klaasen is a farm worker on Hazendal, a historic wine farm outside Stellenbosch. He is wearing high-heeled silver sandals, a tinkling charm bracelet and green eye shadow. His two front teeth are missing which puts a crack in his smile.
"Please call me Melanie," he says.
Pietie is an expert on pesticides but his real interest is dressing like a girl and gardening. "Oh, my roses, I love my roses.
"I like wearing jeans with a little makeup during the day but in the evening and over weekends, I go right over the top. If I am doing shopping, I only buy things that are 100% female. When I was little we played farm/farm and I would always want to be the farmer's wife."
Pietie says his stepmother accepts it but his father can't get used to the idea.
Rollie Steenkamp, is tiny in pink trousers, teetering heels and a tartan scarf draped artfully round his shoulders. He prefers to be called Natalie.

Read more :  http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/article719936.ece/Wagons--amp--wigs Read more...

Miss SA Teen 2009 crowned Miss Teenager Universe

CASHING IN: Miss Teen South Africa, Chante Jantjies and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

Miss Teen South Africa 2009, Chante Jantjies, returned from South America to a welcome from ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. 

Jantjies, 16, a matric pupil from Centurion, was crowned Miss Teenager Universe on Sunday. Malema said the league would give Jantjies R150, 000 - more than three times what athlete Caster Semenya received from the league after winning the 800m at the IAAF world championships in Berlin.
Malema said: 'If we see a potential in one of us, we must support that person, we must not suffer from jealousy and pulling-down syndrome and you think 'if it was me and not her'. The youth league is providing the R150, 000 to make sure Jantjies can 'continue her schoolwork and be successful'.

Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/article721636.ece/Miss-SA-Teen-2009-crowned-Miss-Teenager-Universe

 

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