A woman’s surprise request to address the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on athlete Oscar Pistorius’ “mental state” was quickly turned down on Thursday.

The woman, who said she was an attorney, described herself in her application as: “Annamarie, last name uncertain, previously Riethmiller… ex-wife of Oscar Pistorius’ orthopaedic surgeon Dr Gerald Versfeld.”

She said it was a Constitutional matter, but Magistrate Desmond Nair quickly dismissed the application.

She said she would appeal, which Nair said she could do if she wanted to.

Pistorius is charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, which he has denied in an affidavit.

According to the document “Annamarie” handed to lawyers for the State and defence, the “urgent” motion: “is to have accused, Oscar Pistorius, examined for 60 days under observation by a panel of independent psychiatrist, for such psychiatrist to determine Pistorius’ sanity at the time of (by own admission) causing the death of Reeva Steenkamp, and for such panel of independent psychiatrists to provide this court with their reports and opinions as to whether or not Oscar Pistorius [has] the mental capacity to understand his conduct in respect to the victim herein, Reeva Steenkamp, instruct attorneys and advocates, and to be a reliable witness.”

She also wanted Nair removed.

She was of the opinion Pistorius was “acting outside his natural character” and was “mentally insane” when Steenkamp entered his home on February 13, the night before the shooting.

The court had to consider a motion for the case to be heard in camera, and for the media to stop making “a circus” of the judicial system, she said in the document. – Sapa

Rustenburg – A two-year-old boy died in hospital in Rustenburg after his father allegedly gave him poison, North West police said on Thursday.

Colonel Emelda Setlhako said the father allegedly locked himself and the boy in a toilet at their home in Sunrise near Rustenburg and drank the poison on Tuesday.

“The mother found them vomiting and rushed them to the hospital. The boy died on arrival,” she said.

She said the man was under police guard in hospital and would be charged with murder once he was discharged. – Sapa

Johannesburg – They were just a few kilometres from their school when they were killed.

Hours later, a sponsor would pledge to fund their school fees so they could continue to receive an education that their family could not afford, unaware that the two girls had been killed in a horrific crash.

Cousins Celiwe and Lerato Msimango died in a pile-up in the south of Joburg on Tuesday afternoon when a truck ploughed into the car they were in, as well as three other vehicles, about 3.5km from their school.

They were being driven home by their grandmother, who also died in the crash.

Meanwhile, the driver of the truck has been arrested and charged with five counts of culpable homicide and reckless driving, according to Joburg metro police department (JMPD) spokesman Wayne Minnaar.

The cousins, as well as a third girl, had been in Grade 8 at Covenant College since the beginning of the year with the help of a sponsor. The sponsorship was organised by their former teacher as their families could not afford the school fees. But their place there had been cast in doubt after the funding was recently withdrawn.

A teacher from the girls’ school had managed to find another sponsor to keep the girls at their current school by appealing to listeners of a Talk Radio 702 show on Tuesday night.

She was unaware that the girls had been killed at that point and was informed of the crash only at 1am on Wednesday.

“At last, when we think there is light at the end of the tunnel (for them), and now this happens,” said their former headmaster at Spectrum Primary School, Sam Nenngwekhulu.

He said the girls were from a “really remote area that is poverty stricken”, near Ennerdale. 

The crash happened in Kibler Park, at the corner of Main and Peggy Vera roads, when an 18-wheeler truck ploughed into four cars.

For molre details go to www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – The lead detective investigating murder charges against Oscar Pistorius has been dropped from the case after it emerged he himself faces seven attempted murder charges, local media reported.

Hilton Botha “cannot continue with this case,” a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority told Eyewitness News.

On Thursday morning police confirmed Botha has seven charges of attempted murder against him.

“Yes. It is one case with seven charges of attempted murder,” said Gauteng police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila.

He said Botha was first charged back in 2009 but the charges were then provisionally withdrawn. The matter was then referred to the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

“It was only yesterday [Wednesday] that we were informed by the DPP that he is being charged,” he said.

“If we have an (investigating officer) that’s facing such serious charges it cannot happen that he continues with this case, the NPA was quoted as saying.

Police have yet to confirm whether or not Botha has been dropped from the case.

According to Eyewitness News, the charges are related to a shooting incident which occurred while Botha was allegedly drunk.

It is alleged that three policemen, including Botha, were drunk while driving a state vehicle when they opened fire on a minibus taxi loaded with passengers.

The EWN report quoted Malila as saying: “There was a decision taken by the DPP’s office to charge the members, each one of them with seven counts of attempted murder. That was the number of people that were in the taxi.”

The detective and two other officers are due to appear in court in May, EWN said. – Sapa, IOL, AFP

Potchefstroom – Two women distracted a Potchefstroom supermarket guard with conversation and possibly a drugged soft drink, before they robbed the shop with the help of two men, Beeld reported on Thursday.

North West police spokeswoman Captain Adele Myburgh said the robbery, at the Spar in Baillie Park, happened on Tuesday night after closing time.

“The two women initially asked the guard if they could use the toilet. They then chatted him up, and offered him a soft drink.”

The guard reportedly started feeling drowsy a short while later, and told police that two men had joined the women.

They tied up the guard and knocked him over the head, after which he lost consciousness.

“The robbers gained access to the shop through the ceiling and took an undisclosed amount of money from the safe. The owners still have to assess their stock to see if anything else was stolen,” Myburgh said.

The incapacitated guard was discovered by a colleague who arrived to relieve him the next morning.

No arrests have been made.

Sapa

The provincial ANC leadership has indicated that all those arrested in connection with party regional secretary, Obuti Chika’s murder should face the full might of the law regardless of their standing in the organisation.

This came after three of the six arrested suspects being confirmed as ANC leaders with positions of influence in communities.

One of them, Papiki Baboile, 27, is provincial chairperson of one of the ANCYL factions. The other two are party ward secretary in Klerksdorp, Paul Molomonyane, 33, and councillor Itumeleng Nolabatsi, 50.

Together with other suspects, the three face a charge of premeditated murder and speculation is rife that some more senior party members would be arrested in connection with the case.

They would appear for bail application February 27.

Meanwhile, the Hawks continue to dangle a R200000 reward for anyone who would come up with information that would lead to the successful arrest and prosecution of the suspect(s).

Provincial ANC spokesperson, Kenny Morolong, said that no one was above the law and the party would want to see justice done on the matter.

“Chika was a devoted activist and a distinguished leader of our movement whose passion for justice was inspiring. Those who assassinated him have robbed this country of great potential and his loss is still deeply felt within structures of our movement,” Morolong said.

He indicated that while due space should be given to those investigating the case, the party remained disturbed by the murder of Chika.

“While we believe in the principle of presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, we are equally of a view that no one is above the law, and whoever is responsible for death of our comrade must face the full might of the law, regardless of the social standing or even position in the ANC,” Morolong said.

“Chika’s family needs to see justice prevailing for they have lost someone who meant everything to them, a child, brother, husband and father.”

Chika, 33, died on December 14 last year after he was shot at point-blank range in the driveway of his home in Alabama, Klerksdorp.

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

Human settlements MEC Nono Maloyi expressed satisfaction that housing backlogs could soon be a thing of the past if his department performed like it did during this financial year.

This comes after 11500 housing units were built against the 10900 mark that had been set for the 2012-13 financial year.

Maloyi said that if this pace of delivery was maintained, the department would be able to eradicate informal settlements and clear backlogs.

Addressing a departmental management meeting, Maloyi said the performance meant that the conditional grant, often rolled back to treasury had been well spent in the North West.

“I am pleased by the manner in which we have performed in this ending financial year. We should however continue to deliver habitable quality houses to all deserving legible beneficiaries,” he said.

The MEC further emphasised that human settlement was not just about building houses as it used to be in the past.

“Our role is about transforming cities and towns and building cohesive, sustainable and caring communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities. Through this affirmation, it has become increasingly important for us to ensure that the paradigm shift from the provision of housing to the creation of sustainable human settlements is attained.

“The concept ensures that there should be a serious integration within deferent spheres of government,” he said.

Maloyi said his department was further excited by the progress made on the eradication of informal settlements in the province, despite what he called pockets of “continuous mushrooming of such settlements”.

He said that the department would work together with various mining houses in the province to make sure that informal settlements were completely eradicated.

He added that it was important that entities like municipalities monitored and strengthened their by-laws to curb the ever recurring problem of informal settlements.

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

Johannesburg – By midday, Oscar Pistorius’s bid for freedom looked all over. Police detective Hilton Botha had painted a damning picture of a man injecting testosterone, and shooting his girlfriend as she sought refuge behind a locked bathroom door.

Pistorius, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, was a flight risk with a house in Italy, secret foreign bank accounts and a number of cellphones that had never been used.

But by Wednesday afternoon, advocate Barry Roux SC had punched holes in Botha’s testimony, forcing the veteran warrant officer to backtrack and concede that his version might not have been as open and shut as he would have liked.

The bail hearing, which has almost become a trial-within-a-trial, ended inconclusively on Wednesday.

All parties were due back on Thursday to present closing arguments to chief magistrate Desmond Nair.

Taking the stand at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, Botha described Pistorius’s actions on the night his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was killed as not consistent with what a reasonable man would do under those circumstances.

Pistorius faces a charge of premeditated murder.

“I find it difficult to believe that when you hear a noise in your house, you don’t go find your girlfriend to make sure she’s safe and that you decide to face something without knowing where she is,” Botha said.

In his affidavit, read out by Roux on Tuesday, Pistorius alleged he had heard a noise around 3am while bringing a fan in from the balcony of his bedroom. He had then grabbed his gun before going to the bathroom and fired shots at the toilet door. He said he did not know Steenkamp was not in bed as he was too scared to turn on the lights.

Without his prosthetic legs on, Pistorius said, he had felt vulnerable.

“We now have a vulnerable person without his legs, a harmful person in the house, a harmless girlfriend and he wants to protect himself and his girlfriend,” said Roux.

But Botha questioned this.

“You say he was scared, yet he walked towards danger?” the police officer asked.

It was this seesawing between the State and Pistorius’s defence that characterised much of the second day of the athlete’s bail application.

Of particular interest were arguments around reasons why Steenkamp had locked herself in a bathroom at 3am. The defence’s version is that the model locked herself in upon hearing Pistorius shouting that there was an intruder in the house. But the State implied the couple had fought, forcing Steenkamp to lock herself in for safety.

“What do you think she should do? Run into the house where the danger is or safeguard herself in the toilet? Would you lock yourself in the toilet if you were a woman?” asked Roux.

Botha just nodded.

But when re-examined by Nel, Botha said he found it strange that Steenkamp would lock herself up.

“If she was in the toilet and heard her boyfriend shouting, do you think she would have answered?” Nel wondered. In the gallery, the family scoffed at the question, but Botha said “yes”.

In his affidavit, Pistorius said he had been a victim of violence and burglaries. He had also received death threats, prompting him to sleep with a gun under his bed, despite living in a security complex.

But the State disputed his theory of his being a vulnerable crime victim, with Botha saying “he was never a complainant in the police system”.

Nel also questioned how a man supposedly so paranoid of crime could sleep with a sliding door left open less than 2 metres from his bed.

The alleged burglar had also ignored the open sliding door and had gone to the side with a small bathroom window and two dogs.

“Even if you are too small to get through that small window, you’ll have trouble climbing in,” Nel said.

Pistorius has not given evidence to indicate whether the dogs had barked. Neither did a statement by a neighbour who told the police he had heard a woman’s screams and gunshots.

“We got statements from someone who said they saw that lights were on, and went to bed as they didn’t see anything wrong… and thought they had been dreaming. He then heard a woman screaming… then two or three more shots,” said Botha.

This also appeared to cast doubt on Pistorius’s version that when he grabbed his gun, he was not aware his girlfriend was not in bed as it was dark.

But Roux responded sarcastically: “We have a witness who for the whole hour couldn’t sleep… who heard talking and screaming. Where does this person live?”

Botha responded “about 600 metres” away, to rousing laughter.

The police said they had found Steenkamp’s overnight bag and ladies’ slippers on the left side of the bed, and it was on that side that the holster for the gun was also found.

This led the State to question how Pistorius could not have seen his girlfriend when he grabbed the gun.

But the defence, after conceding that Pistorius usually slept on the right side of the bed, said that on that particular night he slept on the left side as he had a shoulder injury.

Inside the bedroom, there were needles and bottles of what police believed to have been testosterone. But Roux grilled Botha on this, saying the stuff confiscated was herbal medication Pistorius was taking, not a banned substance.

Roux also tore apart Botha’s evidence that Pistorius should be denied bail as he had a property in Italy and an offshore account, making him a flight risk.

He stuck to his statement even when Nair had asked: “The accused, using a prosthesis to get around, familiar as he is, will flee the country after getting bail?”

With the kind of money Pistorius has, it was possible for him to get anywhere, responded Botha.

But he failed to substantiate his claims that Pistorius had a house in Italy when Roux confirmed the opposite, only saying: “That’s what I was told.”

Case for bail to be granted

* There is no substance to say there was a deliberate firing of shots at the toilet.

* Offshore account is actually a corporate account and Pistorius can’t simply withdraw money from it.

* He’s an internationally acclaimed athlete and easily recognisable.

State’s reasons against

* He could be a flight risk.

* He has offshore accounts and a house in Italy, and “if you have the kind of financing he has, it is possible to get anywhere”.

* If found guilty, he faces 15 years to life imprisonment.

* If he skipped the country, it would be difficult to extradite him to South Africa.

The Star

By Obakeng Maje

Mogwase-Yet another brutal murder of a woman has been registered in the North West. Mogwase Police are investigating a murder case after the discovery of a burnt body of a woman at Lerome village at Thabeng Section. 

The body was discovered Tuesday at about 10:30am. 

“A body was discovered by community members at an abandoned house. Allegations further states that the neighbours saw a fire burning on sunday night at abandoned house, but they thought maybe children are just playing with fire” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

“On Tuesday morning the neighbours sensed a bad smell coming from the house and went to investigate” he adds. 

Police were alerted and summoned to the scene.

They found a body covered with corrugated iron. 

“It is alleged that there were signs next to the body showing that the deceased has been burnt to death” police said. 

Police discovered a bottle of beer next to the body, which suggests that the deceased was drinking with other people before she was killed. Police believe that the woman is between the age of 25 and 30.

“Foul play is suspected and at this stage no one has been arrested” Brigadier Ngubane said. 

The badly burnt body of a woman was burnt beyond recognition on the face and other body parts. 

Police identified her sexuality through her breasts and toes as there were only parts not burnt to ashes. 

“It is not known at this stage if the woman was raped and her body was taken in for further forensic investigation” Ngubane said. 

A case of murder is been investigated.