By Siphiwe Sibeko

The Oscar Pistorius murder trial is one of the biggest stories South Africa has ever had. Covering it as a Reuters photographer was one of the most demanding and frustrating assignments I’ve ever had.

We were given strict orders by the court not to take photographs of anything or anyone while the magistrate was in the courtroom. This limited our access to Oscar and made it difficult to take good pictures.

On his first court appearance he stood in the dock and looked straight at the magistrate, avoiding looking at photographers and the people in the gallery. The magistrate read out that Oscar had been charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Oscar bowed his head and breathed heavily, struggling to contain his emotions and wept. I think this was when it hit him that it was not a dream but reality. At the end of the court proceedings on that first day I only managed to photograph Oscar from the side as he was avoiding photographers. Then he turned as quickly as he could and left the court.

On the second day we were allowed in the court during proceedings, but again we weren’t allowed to take any photographs. I sat in front of the dock, an arm’s length from Oscar. Because of the poor light in the courtroom I positioned myself in such a way that should I get a chance to photograph him I would make use of the available light.

I positioned myself to have him in the center and also get the people in the background to illustrate the atmosphere of the courtroom. It did not take long: the magistrate called for a short break and as he left the court I stood up as quickly as I could and took a few frames of Oscar standing and facing the direction of the magistrate. I then gave my camera card to a TV colleague to pass it on to my manager Mike Hutchings who was outside the court waiting to file the images.

As the bail hearing continued, the former Paralympic hero would arrive in the dock and bow his head avoiding eye contact with photographers. He would stay in that position as if he were praying. There were times when he continually clenched his jaw, as if the sound of the cameras had a negative effect on him. Whenever the cameras clicked, it reminded me that we weren’t taking pictures this time because he had won a medal in a competition, but because he was now involved in a murder case.

The strife has cost the industry 4.5 billion rand ($548
million) in lost output, President Jacob Zuma said, as two mines
reopened but there was still no end in sight to a deadly strike
at world No. 3 platinum producer Lonmin in which 45
people have died.

Strikers also said they would keep shut four mines run by
the world’s top producer, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats)
, which the company aims to reopen on Tuesday.

“There is no need to resort to violence. I believe we must
not encourage that,” Zuma told a conference of the Congress of
South African Trade Unions, a partner with the African National
Congress (ANC) in the governing alliance.

Malema, a rebel expelled from the ANC, has become Zuma’s
most strident critic and has urged strikers to make mines
“ungovernable”.

Following the government’s promise to get tough on strikers
and those inciting violence, police, some armed, surrounded
Malema as he arrived in Marikana, 100 kms (60 miles) northwest
of Johannesburg, where police shot dead 34 strikers last month.

Some of the miners gathered at a soccer pitch in the town to
hear Malema speak threw stones at a police car as officers
escorted him from the area.

Aquarius Platinum’s Kroondal mine and Xstrata’s
chrome operation near the platinum belt city of
Rustenburg reopened on Monday. But the situation on the ground
remained tense, with those miners choosing to return to work
subjected to intimidation by striking colleagues, Xstrata said.

The unrest has its roots in a bloody turf war for members
between an upstart union and the dominant National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM), a key political base for the ANC, but it is
now unclear who the strikers are taking their direction from.

One workers’ representative dismissed as a “joke” Amplats’
plan to reopen its Rustenburg mines.

“For us, the reality is that the general strike is on,”
Mametlwe Sebei, a self-styled Rustenburg community leader and
Marxist politician, told Reuters. “We are going to be
demonstrating in defiance. We will not be intimidated.”

Amplats management was “whistling in the dark” if it
believed the mines would reopen on Tuesday, he said.

“They can deploy the army, they can be shooting people,
shooting old men in their shacks, tear gassing young kids …
but let us be clear, there will be repercussions,” he said.

POLICE ARREST 42 STRIKERS

South Africa is home to 80 percent of known reserves of
platinum, the price of which has gained around 20 percent since
the Marikana shootings on Aug. 16.

Police raided a Lonmin hostel on Saturday and seized spears,
machetes and other weapons from strikers. They later used rubber
bullets and tear gas to disperse groups of protesters. The army
has also been brought in to help restore order.

On Monday, police arrested 42 people at a mine owned by
RBPlat and Amplats for an illegal strike.

Lonmin said mining activity at Marikana remained minimal and
lowered its full-year production guidance to between 685,000 and
700,000 saleable ounces from 750,000 ounces. Lonmin also said it
would temporarily close a shaft at its Karee mine, which had
been meant to boost output for the struggling company.

On Friday, Lonmin workers dismissed an initial pay offer as
way below the 12,500 rand a month basic pay sought by members of
the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union
(AMCU), which is challenging the dominance of the NUM.

Lonmin, which is offering increases of between 9 and 21
percent, said 12,500 rand would put thousands of jobs at risk
and challenge the viability of the business. Basic pay for most
underground workers is currently around 5,400 rand.

Zuma on Monday said that aside from the losses to mining
companies, the stoppages had cost the Treasury 3.1 billion rand.

The ANC has criticised companies for paying lip service to
the mining charter, which seeks to give workers and communities
a bigger share of mineral wealth and rectify disparities of
white apartheid rule.

“Mining remains the bedrock of the South African economy,
and yet the abject poverty and squalor surrounding mining areas
remains a matter of deep concern,” it said in a statement.

“The current instability at Marikana thus poses challenges
to the growth of the sector and the international image of the
country,” the ANC said.

At the firm’s Bathopele shaft in the heart of the platinum belt, a column of 1,500 chanting marchers confronted riot police who were backed by armored vehicles. The protesters jeered at workers inside the plant, a repeat of action taken on Monday at rival Lonmin’s nearby Marikana mine, where police shot dead 34 protesters on August 16.

“We are here to say to the men that work here that you must join us in the strike. We are not here to fight,” one man, who said he was an employee of Anglo American Platinum, also known as Amplats, told Reuters. He declined to give his name.

The platinum price jumped as much as 3 percent to $1,654.49 an ounce, its highest since early April, amid fears of more disruption to supplies of the precious metal used in jewelry and vehicle catalytic converters.

South Africa is home to 80 percent of known reserves. The platinum price has gained nearly 20 percent since the police shootings at Marikana, the bloodiest security incident since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The “Marikana massacre” has poisoned industrial relations across the mining sector and become a potent symbol of the failure of the ruling African National Congress to deliver on promises to reduce poverty in the post-apartheid era.

The bloodshed and the government’s inability to resolve the unrest undermining already shaky growth in Africa’s biggest economy is also fuelling a campaign against President Jacob Zuma, who faces an internal ANC leadership battle in December.

Amplats said some operations had been halted by what it described as “widespread cases of intimidation”.

Police said the trouble started with a confrontation between 1,000 demonstrators and mine security on Tuesday night before spreading to other shafts in the heart of the platinum belt around Rustenburg, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

Four Amplats mines near Rustenburg represent almost 17 percent of total production by the company, which accounts for 40 percent of world platinum output.

They employ more than 19,000 people, but have come under pressure since a collapse in platinum prices in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Analysts expect them to be targeted as “restructuring candidates” by Amplats parent company Anglo American.

“LIVING WAGE”

The strikes, which stem from a challenge by the small but militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) to the dominance of the ANC-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), are also spreading into the gold sector.

The NUM said workers at the Beatrix mine, run by world No. 4 producer Gold Fields were set to strike this week, compounding wildcat industrial action already underway by 15,000 workers at the company’s KDC West mine west of Johannesburg.

ANC renegade Julius Malema – the de facto face of an unofficial “Anybody But Zuma” rebellion in the ANC – is also fanning the flames, appearing twice at KDC to speak to striking workers.

He called on Tuesday for a national mining strike, and reiterated the cry in a radio interview on Wednesday.

“We are calling for mine change in South Africa. We want the mines nationalized. We want the workers paid a living wage,” Malema said on Talk Radio 702, one of the country’s most popular private stations.

Ministers and NUM leaders have dismissed him as an irresponsible opportunist but the expelled Youth League leader is achieving rock star status among the legions of poor whose lives have changed little in the 18 years since apartheid ended.

Malema has tapped into widespread workers’ discontent with NUM bosses and ANC bigwigs who are accused of getting rich and cozying up to mine companies while ignoring the still harsh living conditions of many of South Africa’s poor majority.

“All they know is to put the money in their pockets,” said another Amplats protester, who called himself Mr. Anonymous, declining to give his name.

Shares in Amplats, which had largely avoided the labor unrest this year that had hit rivals Impala Platinum and Lonmin, fell 3.8 percent.

Anglo American, which owns 80 percent of Amplats, shed 3 percent in early trade although later recouped most of the losses.

(Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Peter Graff)

Regional police spokesman Joseph Mabusa said it appeared the
truck driver had miscalculated when crossing the track, leaving
his vehicle directly in the path of a freight train carrying
coal to neighbouring Mozambique.

“It is a very gruesome scene. Some bodies are without heads
and some without limbs. Forensic teams are still working on the
scene,” he said.

The impact, at a rural rail crossing 400 km (250 miles) east
of Johannesburg, dragged the truck 200 metres (660 feet) down
the track, dismembering its occupants and making it hard for
forensic experts to say exactly how many people had been killed.

The truck driver survived the accident and was taken to
hospital along with at least 20 other victims, some of whom were
in a critical condition. He was expected to be charged with
culpable homicide, or even murder, local media reported.

State rail operator Transnet said the train was carrying
coal for export to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, but that
there was no derailment. South Africa is one of the world’s
biggest coal exporters, and the line is a major transit route.

Nearly twelve hours after the incident, police investigators
were still combing the area for clues as workmen prepared to tow
away the mangled wreckage of the truck.

South Africa’s government has announced plans to spend
billions of dollars on revamping the creaking railways in what
is the continent’s biggest economy, although human error is
often to blame for the sporadic accidents that do occur.

Last year, a Cape Town minibus taxi driver was sentenced to
20 years in jail for killing 10 children in his vehicle when it
was hit by a train as he drove over railway lines while taking a
shortcut on the way to school.

(Additional reporting by Peroshni Govender; Writing by Ed
Cropley and Mark Heinrich)

The African National Congress expelled Malema from the party
in February for violating party rules, causing rifts in the
group and bringing the movement into disrepute.

“I said I would not go to court, but now I have decided to
do so,” Malema, the leader of ANC’s youth wing told thousands of
supporters at a rally at Nkowankowa stadium in his home province
of Limpopo, according to the South African Press Association.

“I need no mandate and act as an individual whose rights
have been violated.”

Malema was joined on stage by his friend an ally, provincial
premier Cassel Mathale, and South African Deputy President
Kgalema Motlanthe.

The gathering of the three men could be seen as a direct
challenge to President Jacob Zuma who faces a re-election race
for the head of the ANC at the end of this year.

Several members of the crowd wore t-shirts bearing
Motlanthe’s face and the slogan “Kgalema for President” although
Motlanthe has asked his supporters not to idolise him.

The ANC also frowns upon open campaigning for party posts
well ahead of the election.

So far Motlanthe has not said whether he will challenge Zuma
for the job, but he has been backed by the Youth League and
other heavyweights as a potential challenger.

The winner of the ANC race is almost certain to be nominated
by the party for the 2014 presidential race, and given the ANC’s
stranglehold over politics, is likely to be South Africa’s next
president.

However, the ANC race is being drawn increasingly along
geographic and tribal lines.

Zuma has strong support in the eastern province of
KwaZulu-Natal and among Zulu, one of the country’s biggest
tribal groups. Motlanthe, Malema and Mathale have strong support
in the central Limpopo province and among the Bapedi, a smaller
tribal group.

Malema, one of the party’s most powerful orators whose calls
for radical transformation of Africa’s biggest economy resonated
with poor blacks, has been increasingly critical of Zuma and his
removal would help clear a path for Zuma to win a second term as
ANC leader.

(Reporting by Siphiwe Sibeko; Writing by Agnieszka Flak)

The group of rebel officers proclaimed their plans from the
barracks on Wednesday as the country was voting in a referendum
on a new constitution and they called on other soldiers to join
their cause.

But the rebel officers remained isolated and army chiefs
held talks with them on Friday to try and resolve the standoff
without resorting to force — despite earlier government vows to
crush any rebellion.

Political analysts said the longer the stand-off endured,
the more damaging it would be to Rajoelina and his
administration as it was starting to look as though the army was
reluctant to carry out orders.

Witnesses said there were sustained bursts of gunfire and
sporadic shots for more than 20 minutes following the assault on
Saturday by about 100 men. Soon after the shooting stopped, a
convoy of more than a dozen vehicles left the barracks, located
on the outskirts of the capital Antananarivo.

SURRENDER

“(The rebel officers) were ready to give themselves up but
lower-ranking soldiers opened fire,” Colonel Julien
Ravelomihary, who was at the camp, told Reuters.

Another soldier who took part in the assault said the
officers eventually surrendered.

The unrest in Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island
and biggest producer of vanilla, underscores the depth of
internal rifts plaguing the army since Rajoelina drove
predecessor Marc Ravalomanana into exile last year.

Rajoelina, the former mayor of Antananarivo, rode to power
on the back of protests against Ravalomanana’s increasingly
autocratic rule. But Rajoelina’s failure to deliver on populist
pledges has cut into his popularity.

The support of now-army chief of staff General Andre
Ndriarijoana and other officers was the turning point in
Rajoelina’s struggle to oust Ravalomanana.

But some of those officers who backed Rajoelina’s power grab
were the ones calling for him to quit this week.

Any hopes Rajoelina had that his takeover would at least be
tolerated by the international community were dashed. The United
States froze development aid and the African Union slapped
sanctions on Rajoelina and 100 of his supporters.

Internationally-brokered power-sharing deals between
Rajoelina and three opposition parties headed by former
presidents all floundered amid bickering between the bitter
rivals over top government posts.

Recurring political ructions over the past year have
battered the economy in Madagascar, where foreign firms are
developing oil, nickel, cobalt and uranium deposits.

(Writing by David Clarke; editing Mark Heinrich)

(For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the
top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/)

The 2010 World Cup has been a memorable and momentous occasion not only for me, but for South Africa, the African continent and the rest of the world.

It has indeed been incredible. It has been a unifying factor, with people beginning to appreciate the importance of their national symbols such as flags.

As a photographer for an institution such as Reuters, one can say that I have been privileged to be a part of this historic occasion. It was indeed a privilege to be among hordes of international media covering the event. I was here during the Confederations Cup, but the feeling of covering the World Cup is enormous – it is part of history.

This has changed the perception of those who doubted that South Africa, or Africa as a whole, could stage such a magnificent tournament. Everywhere, people have been consumed by the World Cup. Cars have been decorated with flags, houses and shops – many with the South African flag.

For me, the opening ceremony will forever be etched in my mind and engraved in my heart. The feeling inside the full-packed Soccer City Stadium was awesome. It was incredible seeing people shedding a tear during the national anthem. They were moved and all I could think of was the sacrifices made by the Class of ’76, those who sacrificed their lives so that we have a united, non-racial, non-sexist South Africa. As the ceremony unfolded, I said to myself: “We are reaping the fruits of June 16, 1976.”

It was indeed a moving ceremony. It was amazing to see all South Africans and those from the African diaspora united in their diversity. I realized that the hour had arrived, there was no turning back. Africa’s time had arrived and South Africa was ready.

Being among the masses of photographers, mainly sports photographers, who came for the tournament has been a great learning curve as most of them are specialists in their field. Some had a different perception of South Africa and we had a lot to prove and we proved them wrong.

Despite being branded a noise maker, which it most certainly is, the vuvuzela added some spice to the World Cup. Despite calls for it to be banned, I bet that this gadget will characterize soccer throughout the world. This piece of plastic has been exported from South Africa to the world.

We could not be more proud to host this fantastic tournament, meeting people from different cultures and background from us.

Borrowing from FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s words:

“It was Nelson “Madiba” Mandela’s dream to see the World Cup final in South Africa. That dream has now come true. It was done in honor of this great man who has done so much for his country since he was released from jail in 1992. It was Madiba who brought the World Cup to Africa and South Africa and I was delighted when he was able to attend the final. It was a fitting climax to the World Cup.”

Multiple marriages are allowed in South Africa and form part of Zulu culture but the practice has drawn criticism from HIV/AIDS activists in a country with one of the highest infection rates in the world.

The ceremony took place at Zuma’s traditional home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal province, where the 68-year-old president, in Zulu tribal dress, married Tobeka Madiba, 37, according to clan custom.

“This is a traditional affair and there is a lot of dancing and celebrating. Later we will slaughter some animals and have a feast with the guests,” Mike Zuma, the president’s brother, told Reuters.

“It is a very happy day for the president and the Zuma family.”

Madiba and Zuma have three children together and were married according to South African law ahead of Monday’s traditional ceremony.

A statement issued by the presidency on Sunday said the wedding was a private affair. The media were barred from the village.

A Reuters photographer in Nkandla said hundreds of people were bused into the village early on Monday, while cabinet ministers and other politicians also attended the ceremony.

A large marquee to accommodate around 500 people was erected in the village and several goats and cows were slaughtered for the feast, witnesses said.

Zuma, whose tribe is South Africa’s biggest, has repeatedly defended his decision to take many wives.

“There are plenty of politicians who have mistresses and children that they hide so as to pretend they are monogamous. I prefer to be open. I love my wives and I am proud of my children,” Zuma once said in a television interview.

Zuma is already married to Sizakele Zuma, 67, his first wife whom he wed in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma who he married in 2007. Both women live in Nkandla.

He was previously married to Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma whom he divorced in 1998 and Kate Mantsho-Zuma who committed suicide in 2000.

He has 19 children, according to his official biography on the presidency website, and is also engaged to at least one other woman.