By Staff Reporter

Orkney-North West Premier Thandi Modise has expressed shock and called for justice following the rape of a three-year-old girl at Umzomhle in Orkney.

Premier Modise expressed concern that the mother of the little girl had allegedly not taken the appropriate action of reporting the incident to the police or presented her for medical examination soon after the incident.

“We hope that the omission to report the matter to the police before she purportedly went to the clinic and ultimately walked away before her daughter was examined

  had nothing to do with protecting the perpetrator responsible for the ghastly act who should be behind bars. Though we sympathise with her for the ordeal that her daughter experienced, a person of her age should have known better and acted so as not to jeopardise the case,” stressed the Premier.

Modise called on parents in the light of infants and minors affected by the scourge of rape to be vigilant, not to leave their children with strangers even if it’s for a short period and to check them for injuries or strange behaviour particularly when they return from crèches, day care centres and other home care arrangements.

She called for counselling and other psychological services to be provided to the child to assist her deal with the trauma. 

 According to police the mother of the minor alleged that she left the victim at her neighbour’s house and went to work over five weeks ago, on Thursday 21 February 2013.

On her return from work, the girl reportedly told her mother that her genitals were painful.

The mother is said to have noticed a white substance and Vaseline on the private parts of the victim when she was bathing her and took the child to a local clinic but left before the nurses could attend to them because there were many people in the queue.

Sergeant Kelebogile Moiloa of the North West Police confirmed that Social Workers would investigate and determine if the 28-year-old mother should be charged with child neglect as the case was only reported this past Sunday. 

 Moiloa said that though no one has been arrested at this stage, police took the child to the clinic for medical examination and they are still waiting for the results.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

Women in a Phoenix housing complex are keeping a close eye on their delicates since the well-dressed prowler began snatching underwear left overnight on washing lines.

A CHEEKY thief has gone on a panty-raiding spree in a township north of Durban.

Women in a Phoenix housing complex are keeping a close eye on their delicates since the well-dressed prowler began snatching underwear left overnight on washing lines. But last week, he became braver.

“I looked out of the window, and in broad daylight a man dressed in formal clothes walked up to my clothes horse and took two panties. He shoved them into his pocket,” a resident said.

The woman shouted for her husband. “When he realised that I saw him, he started to run. My husband put on his shoes and ran out of the house, but the man was gone.”

The woman has lost seven panties to the thief.

Another woman said the thief stole her panties but left behind her mother-in-law’s full briefs. “It is obvious that he is getting some sort of sexual pleasure from this because he only steals sexy lingerie. It’s sickening. It is theft but I don’t think the police will waste their time looking for him, so I have not laid a complaint,” she said.

Durban clinical psychologist Dr Cathrin Venter explained that stealing panties was part of a sexual fetish linked to observing or handling underwear worn by others. She said simply buying panties would not be as pleasurable as stealing them for those with the fetish.

“I have many patients who come for counselling when they have been caught. They do it because they want a signed document to say that they are seeking counselling to lessen their penalty.”

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

Klerksdorp – A man was killed when his car veered off the road and hit two trees between Stilfontein and Klerksdorp in the North West, paramedics said on Sunday.

“Upon their arrival on scene they found that a motor vehicle had left the roadway, uprooted a tree and came to a standstill against another tree,” said Netcare 911 spokeswoman Santi Steinmann.

The man was declared dead on the scene on Saturday after 11pm.

The details of the accident were subject to police investigation, said Steimann. – Sapa

Premier Modise calls for suspension of driver licenses of drunk drivers involved in road deaths.

Road Traffic law enforcement authorities should consider immediate suspension of driver licenses of drunk motorists involved in road crashes in which lives are lost, North West Premier Thandi Modise said in reaction to the arrest of a 35-year-old driver 

 for drunken driving following a crash that claimed five lives on Monday in Ledig near Sun City.

“Driver behaviour still accounts for most crashes and road fatalities and should be dealt with harsher because one death on our road is a death too many,” highlighted Premier Modise.

“We wish to convey our condolences to the families of the 16 road users who lost their lives across the province over the Easter Long weekend and appeal for motorists to support the Decade of Action for Road Safety by sharing the road responsibly with other road users,” added Modise. 

 Five road users said to be between the ages of 21 and 30 were reportedly certified dead at the scene of the accident which occurred around 4 am.

The arrested motorist is expected to appear in the Mogwase Magistrates Court on Tuesday on charges of culpable homicide and drunken driving.

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma is expected to attend a memorial service on Tuesday for the 13 SANDF soldiers killed in the Central African Republic.

The SANDF was expected to hold a second memorial service at 11am at the Thaba Tshwane City Hall. The service Zuma was scheduled to attend would take place at the Swartkop Air Force Base, also at 11am.

The soldiers were killed on Saturday, March 23, during a clash with Seleka rebel forces at the SANDF base outside Bangui. Twenty-seven others were wounded.

Two days after the attack, Zuma said about 200 South African soldiers fought off almost 1 000 rebels. The SANDF was in the CAR as part of a military co-operation agreement signed in 2007.

The SANDF was tasked with building the capacity of the CAR’s army and helping the country plan and implement a process to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate rebel forces into the CAR’s defence force.

Rebels, however, accused President Francois Bozize of failing to keep promises he made, the Associated Press reported. They demanded he send home the South African troops.

Bozize fled the CAR on Sunday, March 24, before rebels overran the city and seized the presidential palace.

The 13 SANDF soldiers have been named: Corporals Mokgadi Darius Seakamela and Ntebaleng Andrew Mogorosi; Lance Corporals Daniel Sello Molara and Lukas Mohapi Tsheke; and riflemen Lesego Maxwell Hertzog, Zamani Jim Mxhosana, Xolani Dlamini, Vusumzi Joseph Ngaleka, Karabo Edwin Matsheka, Khomotso Paul Msenga, Maleisane Samuel Thulo, Motsamai William Bojane, and Thabiso Anthon Phirimana.

All were members of One Parachute Battalion, from Bloemfontein. – Sapa

A Rastafarian and two trainee sangomas who were fired from Pollsmoor Prison for wearing dreadlocks have won a case of unfair dismissal against their employer.

The Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) has ruled that the Department of Correctional Services had in 2007 erred in ordering six prison warders to cut their hair and later dismissed them when they refused to do so.

Eganamang Lebatlang, Thamsanqa Ngqula, Lucky Kamlana, Cohen Jacobs and Mduduzi Kubheka were charged by the department for contravening the dress code policy that says hair may not be cut in any punk style, including a “dreadlocks” hairstyle and that it may not be longer than the collar of the shirt when folded down or cover more than half of the ear.

Lebatlang, Jacobs and Kubheka explained that they could not cut their dreadlocks because they practiced the Rastafarian religion while Ngqula said he wore his dreadlocks to obey his ancestors’ call – given through dreams – to become a sangoma in accordance with his Xhosa culture. Kamlana was also in the process of becoming a sangoma and could not cut his hair until he graduated.

The department however, according to the judgement, argued that the risk posed by dreadlocks was that they rendered Rasta officials conspicuous and susceptible to manipulation by Rastas and other inmates to smuggle dagga into correctional centres.

The five warders took the matter to the labour court, arguing that they were being discriminated against on grounds of religion, cultural beliefs and gender as female warders were allowed to have dreadlocks.

In 2010, the Labour Court ruled in their favour and ordered that they be reinstated or compensated, but the department took the matter to the SCA, which led to Thursday’s judgement.

In her ruling on Thursday, SCA judge Mandisi Maya said: “A policy is not justified if it restricts a practice of religious belief and by necessary extension, a cultural belief that does not affect an employee’s ability to perform his duties, nor jeopardise the safety of the public or other employees, nor cause undue hardship to the employer in a practical sense.”

Maya went on to say that without question a policy that effectively punished the practice of a religion and culture degraded and devalued the followers of that religion and culture in society.

“It is a palpable invasion of their dignity which says their religion or culture is not worthy of protection and the impact of the limitation is profound. That impact here was devastating because the respondents’ refusal to yield to an instruction at odds with their sincerely held beliefs cost them their employment,” she said.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Rastafarian schoolboy Sikhokhele Diniso is fighting to be allowed back to Siphamandla High School in Khayelitsha after he was asked to cut his dreadlocks or leave school.

The HRC will this week also release its findings on a complaint brought by a Free State pupil who was expelled from school for wearing dreadlocks.

Courtesy  of http://www.thenewage.co.za

Kimberley-At around 5am this morning, paramedics in the Northern Cape responded to two separate serious collisions.

The first happened on the N12 outside of Kimberley, where approximately fourty kilometers outside of town in the direction of Johannesburg, a taxi collided into the back of a bakkie. The bakkie is believed to have been abandoned and stationary at the side of the highway.

“The taxi collided with such force that the front of the taxi was left extensively crushed and the driver was trapped in his seat” Er24 spokesperson said. “He had been the only occupant of the taxi at the time, and upon arrival of paramedics he needed immediate treatment” Vanessa Jackson said.

Paramedics said the left side of his body and especially his leg, had been crushed by the dashboard and steering wheel being pushes forward and into the drivers compartment by the impact. 

“Although awake and talking to paramedics, he was in a lot of pain and he was bleeding from his injuries” Paramedics said.

While the Kimberley Fire Department team used the Jaws of Life to remove the wreckage from around him, paramedics continued his treatment where he sat. 

After a long battle to remove the man, he was safely in the back of an ambulance and he was taken to hospital for further care.

“Around the same time, two vehicles collided on the N14 outside of Upington”.

“Approximately five kilometers outside of town, a VW Polo which is believed to have been travelling towards Upington, collided with a Toyota Verso which was travelling in the direction of Keimoes” Vanessa Jackson said.

Upon arrival, paramedics found the Polo had appeared to have collided into the side of the Verso and then overturned into a tree. 

The four young adults in the Polo, two men and two women appearing to be around the age of 22, did not survive their injuries and the four were trapped in the wreckage said Jackson. 

“There were no signs of life and they were declared dead” she said.

There had been a family of six adults in the Verso and they had fortunately been left with minor or moderate injuries following the impact. 

They were treated on scene an transported to the nearby Mediclinic for further care.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

A man has been left with critical injuries and a woman with moderate injuries after they allegedly collided with a kudu while travelling on their motorbike.

“We believe that the collision took place some time last night, but due to poor signal in the area, help was unable to be called immediately” Vanessa Jackson said.

“The two were travelling on a dirt road (T3441) which is off the N14 between Kuruman and Kathu, where the collision with the animal happened about 40 kilometers from the main road” Er24 spokesperson said. Paramedics were called this morning when it is believed that the woman who was on the motorbike managed to walk several hundred meters from the original scene of the crash to obtain signal on her mobile phone. They arrived to find the woman had suffered moderate injuries but was in a state of shock and hyperthermia, he was taken to a local hospital by the Provincial ambulance service said Jackson.

The man who had been on the bike was found lying close to where the crash had happened. He was in an extremely critical condition and was unresponsive. “The paramedics quickly initiated treatment and loaded the injured man into the ambulance after which they rushed through to Mediclinic Kathu” she said.

The details surrounding this collision are still being investigated.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews