Durban – Chilling details of two Shongweni families’ night of terror at the hands of an armed gang who killed, raped and robbed, have emerged in the Durban High Court.

On trial is Sihle Sandile Ndlovu, 25, alleged to be the sole remaining member of the gang.

He pleaded not guilty on Monday to six counts of murder, rape, attempted murder and two counts of housebreaking.

All the crimes took place on the night of October 25, 2010 and early the following morning.

Ndlovu’s alleged accomplices, brothers Philani and Bhejane Nxele, were killed when police officers tried to arrest them in November 2010.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Bongani Thuswa was allegedly wounded by an off-duty detective. Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

A boys’ night out almost turned deadly for three friends as they tried to help a woman in distress on the R25 Modderfontein Road.

Bongani Thuswa, 32, was driving to Kempton Park with his two friends to pick up another friend on Friday night.

“We missed our turn at the robot and had to make a U-turn just after the Tembisa off-ramp.”

That U-turn probably saved Kgaugelo Rankapole’s life.

Rankapole, 25, lives in Kempton Park and was driving towards Greenstone at around 9.20pm to meet a friend when she saw a black Corsa bakkie shining its bright lights into her car.

“I thought he was in an emergency and so I moved from the fast lane to the left lane,” she said.

The bakkie’s driver (who is known to The Star) pursued her and tried to cut her off.

“I stopped my car and the driver stopped his car in the yellow lane,” said Rankapole.

“He was very hostile,” she said.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Photo: (File)

BY Obakeng Maje

The North West Province’s Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality is the first municipality in the country to be approved by National Treasury to pledge their conditional grants in order to bring forward implementation of water and sanitation projects within its area of jurisdiction.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa(DBSA)’s Divisional Executive for Communication, Marketing and Public Affairs, Rosemary Mangope announced  at the economic infrastructure colloquium gala dinner held at Sun City Resort on Monday evening that that future government grant transfers will be considered as an option to raise capital for the implementation of various projects and programmes.

Mangope said that the majority of local and district municipalities have little or no capacity to generate own revenue due to limited economic base, and are unable to raise normal debt and alternative sources of funding on their balance sheets.

 “The DBSA is ready to renew current partnership arrangements and take implementation to new heights .At provincial level, we will continue to interact with the Provincial Planning Commission  to identify infrastructure needs and funding mechanisms and explore long term solutions in support of the Strategic infrastructure Programme(SIP4),” she committed.

She said that the DBSA has committed, in principle, to establish a partnership arrangement which will assist in the development, project preparation, implementation support and Operations and maintenance.

“The DBSA is thus called to play its diverse role as financier, partner, advisor, integrator and implementer. We hope that together with other Development Finance institutions, sector departments and private sector, we’ll contribute towards the development of sustainable social and economic infrastructure geared towards job creation and brining about good quality of people’s lives,” she concluded.

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