KwaZulu-Natal – The body of a prominent KwaZulu-Natal businessman has been found floating in the Tugela River, police said on Thursday.

Residents saw the corpse and called the police, Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge said.

“(We) found that it was the body of a 63-year-old man. He had suffered multiple stab wounds.”

Eyewitness News named him as Nhlanhla Gasa, an associate to President Jacob Zuma, and the father of South African TV personality Noni Gasa.

Police found his vehicle, a Jaguar, burnt beyond recognition several metres away.

“Officers then went to his home in Umhlanga and there they found blood around the house. This confirms that the attack started at his house and he was then taken to the river.”

No valuables were taken from the house. A case of murder with aggravating circumstances and malicious damage to property was opened with the Durban North police.

No arrests had been made. – Sapa

Johannesburg – The ANC is not in the diamond business and does not know why South African troops were sent to the Central African Republic (CAR), the party said on Thursday morning.

“We are not in the business of business; we are in business of politics, and our business of politics has been done in South Africa,” spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

“We are not in the business of diamonds, we are in the business of politics.”

Mthembu was responding to an article in the Mail & Guardian, according to which the South African military’s involvement in the CAR had been entwined with ANC-linked deals.

It reported that Didier Pereira, a special adviser to ousted CAR president Francois Bozize, partnered with “ANC hard man” Joshua Nxumalo and the ANC’s funding arm, Chancellor House, to secure a diamond export monopoly from in the CAR.

In 2006 Pereira signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the CAR mining ministry. It was intended to create a public-private partnership, Inala Centrafrique. A South African company, Serengeti Group, which was majority-owned by Nxumalo, had a 65 percent stake in it.

Inala’s attempts to control diamond mining in the CAR failed by March 2008, the M&G said.

Mthembu said the ANC was not a signatory to the MOU.

“This matter started in 2006… To my knowledge, the ANC is not a signatory,” he said.

“Secondly the ANC has no interest in the CAR… We don’t know what was uploaded in the MOU. The ANC cannot comment on why troops were deployed to the CAR, only government can comment on that.”

He said the MOU was signed long before Jacob Zuma became president.

“That was under comrade Thabo Mbeki’s time. We think people who can explain why our troops were there [in the CAR] is our government and the SA National Defence Force.”

Mthembu said the ANC did not get involved in government matters.

“We don’t interfere on issues of government. As the ANC we have no business interests. It is very disingenuous for the ANC’s name to be dragged [into this].”

Last weekend, 13 SANDF soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in the CAR during an attack by rebels.

Bozize came to power in 2003 when he toppled his predecessor, Ange-Felix Patasse, in a coup. – Sapa

Kimberley – The Steenkamp murder and rape trial has been postponed and will resume in September this year.

Only 16 out of the 91 witnesses have so far been ticked off the list. The defence has yet to cross examine the investigating officer, Colonel Dick de Waal. De Waal testified for a second day yesterday.

The state has indicated that the witness list is subject to change.

The legal representatives of the 16-year-old accused are still deciding whether to call their own set of witnesses and have predicted that court proceedings could continue until next year.

Northern Cape High Court Judge President Frans Kgomo yesterday booked September 2 to 13 for the trial to resume and provisionally another four weeks from October 21 until November 15.

The accused will remain in the care of his guardians.

Kgomo yesterday warned the media not to “cross the red line” by approaching witnesses or potential witnesses.

This follows a Sunday newspaper article where Deon Steenkamp’s sister, Marianne Smith, was interviewed before she had testified in court.

Kgomo stated that media interference would “complicate matters”.

“If it persists, I will prevent the media from attending the trial. Family members participated in various media interviews while one newspaper published a story after speaking to the accused.”

Potchefstroom – The North West University is unaware of any new evidence regarding the drowning death of a student at its Potchefstroom campus last year, it said on Wednesday.

“The university is not aware of any new, concrete evidence or information that has been verified by an independent arbitrator. If  there is, the university will greatly appreciate it if such information is made available to us,” said vice-chancellor Theuns Eloff.

“The university awaits a formal response from  1/8Higher Education and Training 3/8 Minister  1/8Blade 3/8 Nzimande regarding this new investigation, and again we pledge our full co-operation and assistance to him and the Hawks.”

A first-year Bachelor of Engineering student, Thabang Makhoang, drowned in the swimming pool of the university in January 2012.

Makhoang, from Wolmaransstad, was with 76 other students when he  drowned after they participated in a fruit festival.

His body was found at the bottom of the pool by another group of  students who went for a swim later.

Eloff said that in 2012, Nzimande asked for an inquiry into Makhoang’s death and that the university pledged its full support and co-operation.

“It also gave its full support to the police in their investigation, and the university launched its own investigation that was headed by two senior independent advocates Vusi Pikoli SC and Lourens de Koning SC.”

The outcome of the independent investigation and the subsequent report was given to the deputy director general at the department of higher education, he said.

According to a report on the university’s website, the independent investigators concluded that no foul play was involved in Makhoang’s death, and no person or entity could be held accountable for causing the death through negligence or otherwise. – Sapa

Johannesburg – The nature of Communications Minister Dina Pule’s relationship with businessman Phosane Mngqibisa will be investigated by a nine-member panel, The Times reported on Thursday.

Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests appointed the panel, to be chaired by ANC veteran Ben Turok. It would hold hearings towards the end of next month. Matters to be investigated would include whether she declared her relationship with Mngqibisa to Parliament, and whether she made any financial gains through the alleged romance.

Mngqibisa earned millions from co-ordinating the 2012 ICT Indaba, organised by Pule’s department.

The Times reported the panel was appointed after the Democratic Alliance laid a complaint and asked the committee to probe Pule’s alleged romantic links to Mngqibisa.

The committee’s co-chairman Lemias Mashile said on Wednesday that while the initial complaint came from the DA, they could start  investigations based on media reports.

“The complaint initially was that a minister’s boyfriend was employed to facilitate last year’s ICT Indaba.

“The first thing that the committee will probe is whether there is a (romantic) relationship between the minister and the man. We will also be checking whether the minister did declare that relationship,” he said. – Sapa

South Africa has one of the worst road death records in the world and is second-worst in Africa. This is according to a World Health Organisation survey that found that South Africa ranked 177th out of 182 countries investigated.

The study measured deaths per 100 000 and South Africa ranked along with Iran, Nigeria, Thailand and Venezuela.

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

Johannesburg – A police sergeant was on Wednesday convicted of culpable homicide for shooting a handcuffed man in the back when he was fleeing after being arrested at a Boksburg nightclub.

Sergeant Raymond le Roux was found guilty of culpable homicide by the Palm Ridge High Court for shooting Rean Ramdin last year. He will be sentenced on April 19.

“We’re not happy at all,” said Ramdin’s sister, Melody Perumal.

The family believed that Le Roux should have been convicted of murder, not the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

“He was in handcuffs, running away,” said Perumal, questioning how Ramdin could have been a threat to police officers.

Ramdin’s hands were handcuffed behind his back.

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

Johannesburg – Former president Nelson Mandela has been re-admitted to an undisclosed hospital, the presidency said on Thursday morning.

He was hospitalised on Wednesday before midnight due to a recurrence of his lung infection, spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.

“Doctors are attending to him, ensuring that he has the best possible expert medical treatment and comfort,” he said.

President Jacob Zuma wished him a speedy recovery.

“We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts,” Zuma said in a statement.

“We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery.”

Maharaj appealed for “understanding and privacy in order to allow space to the doctors to do their work”. – Sapa

Bangui – Rebel forces and international peacekeepers mopped up pockets of resistance on Wednesday in the Central African Republic after a weekend coup, but life in the capital was mostly returning to normal after three days of looting.

Up to 5 000 rebels swept into the riverside town on Sunday, killing at least 13 South African soldiers in intense fighting and forcing President Francois Bozize to flee in the latest conflict to destabilise the landlocked former French colony.

The Seleka rebel coalition struggled to stamp out the chaos that ensued and was forced to appeal to peacekeepers from neighbouring central African states to help control gunmen looting houses, business, United Nations offices and even hospitals.

“Security is okay but it is not perfect. There are still some pockets of resistance,” said a senior United Nations official, adding there were still the dregs of pro-Bozize militias.

“Arms were distributed to youth in certain neighbourhoods by the outgoing president,” the official said.

He said conditions were slowly improving in the sprawling capital, easing fears of a major humanitarian crisis.

“Things are starting to pick up,” he told Reuters. “We need doctors and nurses to come back to work, and supplies of power and drugs. I hope it will only take a few days to sort out.”

A senior source with the FOMAC regional peacekeeping force said 100 government troops were holed up at a military base at Berengo, 60km from the capital, refusing to surrender to rebel forces.

“They don’t want to fight, just surrender and go home to their families. We will organise their evacuation,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Keeping his promise to honour a power-sharing deal signed in January, self-proclaimed president Michel Djotodia officially re-appointed Nicolas Tiangaye, a civilian opposition figure, as prime minister tasked with leading a transitional government.

The United States, France and regional powers have insisted the rebels must honour the Libreville accord, signed in January in the Gabonese capital, which called for a transitional unity government until elections in 2016.

Businesses re-opened and traffic took to the streets of Bangui. A Reuters correspondent in Bangui said markets were open on Wednesday but many lacked food.

Electricity, cut off since Saturday when rebels struck a hydroelectric power station in a nearby town, had been restored in most neighbourhoods but there was still no running water in many parts of the city, he said.

“The security situation is beginning to improve,” Jean-Pierre Sandou, a sergeant with the roughly 1 000-strong five-FOMAC force, patrolling the crumbling city of 600 000 people.

South African soldiers battled the rebels for hours but troops from the FOMAC force did not try to prevent their advance, which came a decade to the month after Bozize himself seized power in a coup.

France’s troops in the country also refused to intervene, saying they would only protect French citizens, as Paris steps away from its traditional role as Africa’s policeman.

The United Nations and the African Union condemned the takeover, which came after a collapse in the January peace deal signed after a previous rebel advance to the gates of the capital in December.

The Central African Republic has rich deposits of gold, diamonds and uranium but it remains one of the world’s least developed and most unstable nations. – Reuters

By Obakeng Maje

Taung-Yesterday police, Department of Social Development, Community Policing Forum and Public works kickstarted a Operation Paseka in Taung Complex.

The provincial visible policing unit, tactical response team, public order policing unit and the flying squad were out in full force to enforce law and order.

Police said the operation comprised stop and searches, vehicle patrols, foot patrols, visits to taverns and liquor outlets to ensure they were operating within their licence conditions.

“We must make sure that we stay observant and when doing our shopping let’s make sure we do not leave expensive items lying around” Police said.

The operations are executed to prevent and combat crime in order to ensure a safe and secure environment for all inhabitants, especially as we are approaching the Easter holidays.

“The operational team will work hand in hand with the community and we will visit liquor outlets and issued fines where they were found to be in contravention of the law” CPF chairperson mme Karaboeng Gaoboihe said.

“The problem is that the police vehicles are not enough,so let’s work together with police. If you see any crime being commissioned make sure you provide police with necessary information” Gaoboihe said.

The police said to curb robberies, murders and other contact related crimes is their priority.

Smash and Grab has been rife in Taung complex and because criminals see that other members of the community are doing nothing, they now commit a crime in front of them.

The leader of Batlhaping ba-ga Phuduhuchwana Kgosi Motlhabane graced the campaign.

“Through the extensive visibility of police vehicles in the area we will manage to curb the occurrence of rapes and murders.” Police said.

The municipal traffic will continue with roadblocks in support of the Arrive Alive Campaign.