Cape Town – Knysna businessman Adrian Wilson-Forbes was acquitted on all 79 charges against him in the Western Cape High Court sitting in Thembalethu, outside George, on Friday.

The charges had included statutory rape, abduction, indecent assault, trafficking persons for sexual purposes, and making child pornography.

“It’s been a very punishing and very gruelling time and I now have to try and rebuild my life,” Wilson-Forbes, 60, said when leaving court.

In her judgment, Judge Patricia Goliath slammed the primary witness’s evidence describing Wilson-Forbes as a pimp, saying the primary witness and the accused had clearly defined roles in their relationship.

“The accused made use of the sexual services offered by the primary witness and the primary witness offered the sexual services. Both of them were untruthful,” Goliath said.

Now 23, the primary witness said that when he was 11-years-old he was abducted and sexually assaulted by Wilson-Forbes, who then allegedly asked him to procure young girls for sexual purposes. He claimed he did this on three occasions.

Photographic evidence submitted by the State showed Wilson-Forbes in a compromising position with an eight-year-old girl during an incident on March 29 last year.

Wilson-Forbes claimed he was set up by the primary witness, who held him at knife-point and took photographs of him and the girl under duress.

He denied all allegations of sexually assaulting the primary witness and two other witnesses during incidents that allegedly took place in 2001/2002.

Goliath said “the court remained in the dark” as to what had really happened during the incident in March last year and neither version was corroborated by the eight-year-old girl.

She said the State had to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

“The version of the accused is improbable, but can the court find it is so improbable that it cannot be reasonably and possibly true? It would be improper for this court to reject the accused’s version and convict him.”

With regard to the earlier incidents, Goliath said there was no conclusive evidence as to the ages of the alleged victims at the times the alleged incidents took place.

Adjourning the case, Goliath said the request for indemnity for the primary witness was refused. – Sapa

Butterworth – A newspaper report on a police-assisted birth in the Eastern Cape led to the mother being arrested on Friday for an eight-year-old murder, police said.

Captain Jackson Manatha said the woman 32, allegedly killed Busisa Ntwanambi, 22, on Christmas day in 2005 at the Yako informal settlement outside Butterworth, apparently in a fight over a man.

The victim died on the scene and the attacker disappeared before the police arrived, said Manatha.

On Thursday, the investigating officer of the case read a newspaper report about a woman being assisted by police to give birth at the Philippi East police station in Cape Town.

“The detective warrant officer remembered the identity of his suspect and he contacted his counterparts in Cape Town who arrested  the woman and kept her in custody for murder,” said Manatha.

The woman was arrested on Friday morning and will appear in the Butterworth Magistrate’s Court on Monday. – Sapa

The ethics and integrity committee of the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Football says its former president and secretary general enriched themselves through fraud during their terms with the organization.

The committee presented an extensive report Friday on the activities of former President Jack Warner and former Secretary General Chuck Blazer at the CONCACAF congress in Panama City, also attended by FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Committee member David Anthony Cathcart Simmons said “our information shows that they committed fraud.”

      
-Sapa-AP

The High Court in Pretoria has granted a second urgent order halting the North West’s Madibeng municipality from cutting electricity without notice, AfriForum said on Friday.

The lobby group’s North West organiser, Ian Cameron, said the order prohibited the municipality from cutting electricity supply to any premises without a 14-day notice.

This was after the municipality disconnected electricity to residents in the Hartbeespoort area.

“To add insult to injury, the accounts of residents who had their electricity disconnected were actually current, and proof to this effect had been submitted,” Cameron said.

On March 15 the same court granted AfriForum an order to stop the municipality from disconnecting Hartbeespoort’s power supply without notice.

Cameron said AfriForum was also preparing for a possible contempt of court case against Madibeng’s municipal manager Monde Juta. He said if the municipality continued to cut electricity without notice, AfriForum would charge it with contempt of court and Juta could be arrested.

Madibeng spokeswoman Lebogang Tsogang said she was unaware of the second court order.

-Sapa

The bail application of a Zion Christian Church (ZCC) member accused of raping a woman was postponed by the Mankweng Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Limpopo police said.

Constable Moses Molepo said the accused fell sick during proceedings.

“He said he was not feeling well, and the court had no choice but to adjourn. He has now been admitted to Mankweng Hospital.”

The matter was postponed to April 25. It had been put off before because the investigating officer was ill.

The alleged rapist was arrested on March 3 after a 27-year-old woman claimed he held a knife to her throat and raped her during an all-night prayer session at the church’s headquarters in Moria, near Polokwane, on March 2.

It was initially reported the man was a prophet, but the church denied this, saying he was an ordinary member.

-Sapa

Nwest hosts SACCA Congress and Cooperatives Financial Institution IndabaThe North West Provincial government is to host the Savings and Credit Cooperatives Associations of Africa (SACCA) Congress and Cooperatives Financial Institutions Indaba to be held at Sun City outside Rustenburg later in the year in October.The Annual SACCA conference to be held over five days as from 21-25 October will brings together400 international from Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leona, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada and Cameroon to deliberate on issues affecting the SACCOs.

The purpose of the Indaba to involve the participation of 200 national delegates is to raise awareness around the International Year of the Cooperatives, contextualise financial cooperatives within the financial sector, provide network forum for financial cooperatives, provide financial cooperatives with technical skills and showcase financial cooperatives best practices.

Board members of Savings and credit Cooperatives, Cooperatives Financial Institutions (CFIs), CFI representative bodies, development agencies, banking associations including government department working with financial cooperatives are expected to participate in the Indaba hosted in partnership with the Cooperative Banks Development Agency, a parastatal of the National Treasury.