A 30-year-old domestic worker was found dead at her workplace in Glenvista south of Johannesburg, police said on Friday.

It is alleged that she was killed during a house break in on Biggersberg Road.

Residents returned home from work at 18:00 to find the home broken into and their domestic servant, who had been home alone, tied and gagged dead in a cupboard. It seems she died of suffocation.

Constable Michael Kgatla said the woman’s body was found in a cupboard on Thursday evening.

“The woman is from Lesotho. Her employer left her at the house in the morning and found her dead at 6pm.”

A murder docket has been opened.
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Classes continue to be disrupted at two schools near Verulam in Durban. A dispute is raging over an access road leading to the schools. The schools are situated on private land.

The Sheme siblings haven’t attended school for a week. The gates to nine year-old S’bonelo’s primary school remain locked. Schooling at the Sacred Heart Secondary school, which his sister attends, has also been halted.

Learner Zizipho Sheme says: “ This thing is affecting us because we have two months left now to write our exam, so we have no school to go to because it’s late now, if we go to other schools, they won’t accept us.”

Land owner Marius Maritz says he shut the gates to Oakford primary this week in accordance with an arbitration order that a newly-constructed access road be used by parents and pupils. The order followed an environmental impact assessment by the Department of Water Affairs which found the existing road was under a flood line.

A new gravel road was built to accommodate pupils. The parents claim the new road is dangerous.

School Governing Body’s Mfanje Mbango says: “We are appealing to all the stakeholders to come together and speed up the process at least of expropriation, so that we will know exactly where the future of the school is.”

The Provincial Department of Education says negotiations are continuing to resolve the problem.

Department of Education HOD Dr Nkosinathi Sishi says: “If the owner of the land insists that he would like to shift the gates, we have no legal basis to stop him. We have to then re-build another school for the community.”

It’s unclear whether schooling will resume on Monday.
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Nelson Mandela’s close friend and comrade, Andrew Mlangeni says he will say very little about the former president’s health moving forward out of respect for the families wishes.

The struggle stalwart and former Robben Island prisoner was speaking on the side-lines of the observance of Nelson Mandela International Day in New York, after he made a call in a newspaper interview last month for Madiba’s family to release him.

Family members criticized the calls and Mlangeni says he’s learned his lesson.

“Let me be frank with you, a few weeks ago, the Mandela family requested everybody to say very little about Madiba, they are going through a very difficult period, all of them and the more comment we give to the media about Madiba, they say it’s not good for them, so I’m strictly trying to respect that,” explains Mlangeni.

He says he’s been close friends with Madiba since the 1950s and added that, although he respects the family’s wishes, people on the outside are understandably also concerned.

“His illness does affect even us, who are not members or relatives, he was my president of the ANC, president of the state of SA, my co-prisoner for more than a quarter of a century, more than 25 years we’ve been together in prison. Every time he opens his mouth to say something, just one word, second word you know already the entire story, that’s how close we were on Robben Island some of us. The moment I open my mouth I just say one word, people can know that this is the story he’s going to tell me,” he says.

It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for

Mlangeni, who will later on Friday ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in honour of Madiba’s 95th birthday and the 4th Nelson Mandela International Day , says it’s gratifying to see the world and not just South African’s rally around Madiba’s legacy.

“It’s an important day to us as South Africans, it is an important day because here you have the entire international community supporting the causes for which Madiba stood for, he was representing all those good values, Madiba has always been saying, children must go to school, we must fight poverty, make sure that people are employed,” says Mlangeni.

At 88 years-old, Andrew Mlangeni’s no spring chicken but he says age allows him to speak his mind even though he’s a little more cautious after his earlier remarks were repudiated by some Mandela family members.
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Lawyers for the victims of the Marikana tragedy will appeal the North Gauteng High Court ruling dismissing their application for State funding.

The victims are seeking State support to fund their legal representation.

Their lawyers temporarily withdrew from the Marikana hearings , three more legal representatives also withdrew in support of the victims.

They respectively represent injured miners, the families of the miners killed, the Legal Resources Centre and union AMCU.

The application for State funding was spearheaded by Dali Mpofu, on behalf of injured miners.

“We will continue, but in the event that they don’t want to participate in the commission, we have a right by law to subpoena them to come and testify at the commission,” says Commission spokesperson Tshepo Mahlangu.

But the appeal could stall the commission’s work, it has until October to conclude hearings.

The withdrawal of the victims’ legal team has led to some uncertainty in the proceedings at the Marikana inquiry.

Legal Aid SA says its financial support is determined by the country’s Legal Aid Act.

“We are funded to do civil cases and criminal cases which are in the judicial sphere, commissions of inquiry fall within the executive sphere of government and are appointed by the executive. We can only do that if we are authorised to do both in terms of the legal aid act and guide, we can’t work outside that,” says Legal Aid’s Patrick Hundermark.

A prominent religious leader and mediator during the Marikana unrest says the developments are unfortunate.

“It was almost rubbing salt to a wound, these people are wounded, still suffering and have not recovered and are not out of mourning their brothers, cousins and are told you have no place in our new democracy,” says a concerned Bishop Jo Seoka.

The commission has adjourned until Monday where further instructions from victims’ lawyers are expected.
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Bloemfontein – One of four rightwingers accused of plotting to murder senior ANC leaders is not fit to stand trial, his lawyer said on Friday.

Martin Keevy, 49, of Bloemfontein appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on charges of treason and conspiracy to plan acts of terrorism.

Marius Bruwer, for Keevy, said a unanimous psychiatric report from the Free State Psychiatric Complex found he lacked criminal accountability and was unfit to stand trial.

Prosecutor Torie Pretorius told magistrate Andries Schoeman the State disputed the contents of the report and asked for a further 30-day postponement for a re-evaluation.

“The State does not agree with the conclusions of the report,” Pretorius said.

Bruwer did not oppose the application.

Keevy was admitted to the complex again on Friday, where the State’s experts would re-evaluate him. He would be back in court on 16 August .

The State alleges that Keevy, Mark Trollip, Johan Prinsloo, and Hein Boonzaaier were part of a group who plotted to kill African National Congress leaders at the party’s Mangaung elective conference in December 2012. They allegedly called this “Die Slag van Mangaung” (The Battle of Mangaung).

Keevy, Trollip, and Prinsloo were denied bail, while Boonzaaier was granted R80 000 bail.

Trollip, Prinsloo, and Boonzaaier were expected to appear in court again on 23 August.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A police captain was arrested in Worcester for allegedly raping a 46-year-old woman in his official car, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said on Friday.

“The complainant alleges that on 20 June at about 23.30 she was raped by the suspect who was driving a marked SAPS vehicle while he was on duty,” spokesperson Moses Dlamini said.

“The suspect allegedly threatened to shoot the victim and her son if she reported the matter to anyone which resulted in her not reporting it immediately after the incident.”

He said the 46-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after the woman opened a case against him.

“The Ipid conducted an investigation and decided to arrest the suspect on the same day based on the evidence uncovered.”

The man would appear in the Worcester Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of rape, Dlamini said.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – Two men were caught stealing biltong worth over R900 from a Petrusburg butchery, Free State police said on Friday.

The men were loitering behind a butchery in town when two passing policemen noticed them on Thursday afternoon, Sergeant Thabo Litabe said.

“As the two suspects are known for committing crime in the area, the two officers became suspicious and decided to monitor their actions.”

Eventually, the men entered the butchery and the police officers decided to wait outside. The men appeared with two plastic bags containing 33 pieces of unprocessed meat worth R980.

Litabe said the men could not provide proof of payment for the meat and were arrested. The men were expected to appear in court on Monday facing a theft charge.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu visited former president Nelson Mandela in the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria on Friday.

Afterwards, he spoke of how the ailing elder statesman had united the nation.

“We have a special gift in a man who can unite not only South Africa but the world, even from his sick bed.”

Tutu visited a wall featuring messages of support for Mandela before speaking to media gathered outside.

He said the country needed to give thanks to God for the gift of an incredible man like Madiba who inspired a nation.

“He inspired us to become a great country and the world to become compassionate,” he said.

He said the iconic leader who was spending his 41st day in hospital due to a recurring lung infection was asleep but he managed to touch him and hold his hand.

Tutu praised Mandela’s current and ex-wives.

“I am humbled by the relationship and give thanks to a wonderful Graça in giving him joy in later years. I also salute Winnie for being extraordinary during hard times. I salute her and she knows,” said Tutu.

He described the Mandela family as wonderful. Speaking about Mandela’s 67 minutes, Tutu said the country could give one gift to Madiba.

“The gift is to stop littering for the entire year,” he said as he chuckled.

Speaking about Mandela, he said Friday was not as busy other days outside the hospital.

The large media contingent that has come to be associated with the area has decreased. A few pupils visited the wall to read messages from well-wishers.

Celliers Street which was a hive of activity the previous day was relatively empty.

– SAPA