The detrimental effects of bullying are a harsh reality and urgent action is needed, writes Retha Kruger.

Cape Town – Bullying is rife in today’s school culture, with devastating consequences which negatively affect not only pupils and staff, but the broader neighbourhood community, the general school climate and the overall functioning of the school. Research shows that bullying can be a precursor to aggression, and if not addressed may lead to more serious acts of violence.

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The remains of a man found in a shallow grave at a house in Riversdale, Ermelo will be exhumed on Friday, Mpumalanga police said.

It was discovered when a 26-year-old man went to police with information about a murder he committed in April, police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi said.

He told police that he murdered a man and buried him behind his house.

“They [police] set off to the scene on Thursday as directed by the man and on arrival, he pointed [out] to them the area where he claimed to have buried the victim.”

Officers started digging and, within an hour, found the corpse.

Residents told police the body could be that of the 26-year-old man’s friend who they believed had gone back to KwaZulu-Natal.

The man was arrested and expected to appear in the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

SAPA

The Department of Human Settlements,Public Safety and Liaison obtained an unqualified report for the financial year 2012/2013. 

This is according to the Auditor General’s report, which was officially released this morning in Mafikeng.

The two branches of Human Settlements and Public Safety and Liaison, are said to have leaped from qualified reports and disclaimer in the past years to an unqualified report, which the AG’s office described as a strategic and good move towards the 2014 target of a clean audit among government departments.

MEC Nono Maloyi, congratulated Departmental officials for the positive move and further appealed for an improvement and hard work towards a clean audit in this financial year. 

He said that his department should adopt a winning culture which will ensures compliance and adherence to legislations, governing Public Service. 

“The report simply says we are doing something right. I therefore appeal to you to keep the spirit and ensure compliance as you work towards delivering services to the North West communities,” said MEC Maloyi.

Handing over the report to the acting heads of department, the provincial Auditor General, Mr Liaquath Ally congratulated the department and called on others to work on those elements that lead to their qualification. 

“The Auditor General is committed to work with government departments and other entities in correcting the challenges facing them. My special message goes to the Department of Human Settlements Public Safety and Liaison for moving from qualified reports to unqualified” Ally said. Ally said that shows commitment and adherence to legislation.

Meanwhile MEC Maloyi assured the AG, that his department will pay attention on areas such as Human Resource Management, Supply Chain processes, and also avoid Unauthorized, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. 

He said they will continue and frequent engagement with the AG will greatly assist in achieving a clean audit in the current financial year 2013/2014.-TDN

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Pretoria – Two of four men accused of killing police Major General Tirhani Maswanganyi had different versions about the purchase of a firearm before the murder, a Pretoria court heard on Thursday.

This emerged during the evidence of Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe, 39, in the Pretoria North District Court in the four men’s bail application.

He said the purchase of a gun for R600 from co-accused Roger Godfrey Moseki, 33, and Tshepo Mosai, 30, was part of a “knocking game” involving the fourth accused, Ndaedzo Isaac Vele, 29.

He said the idea was to take R600 from Vele with the aim of giving it back to him at the end of the month.

The four men allegedly met on 12 June in Roodepoort, first at a petrol station, then at Moseki’s home.

Nefolovhodwe described a “knocking game” as a kind of joke they had played amongst themselves before, with Vele wanting the weapon due to unhappiness at work and possibly to “kill himself”.

He said he believed Vele was joking.

However, the defence for Moseki said he disagreed with Nefolovhodwe’s version of events, stating Moseki believed the transaction was of a serious nature.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Lucas Moseki, Nefolovhodwe indicated that a “knocking game” was also a means of stealing from a person through false promises.

Maswanganyi’s body was found on 17 June in a field near Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, with his hands and feet bound. This followed a search, launched after a police patrol found his Isuzu bakkie abandoned next to the R101.

A police uniform and police identification card were in the car.

Torture claims

The State opposed bail for all four accused. They face charges of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and driving a vehicle without the owner’s permission.

Nefolovhodwe, Moseki and Vele are members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF). Nefolovhodwe knew Moseki as a member of the infantry.

When asked by the State, Nefolovhodwe denied knowing Maswanganyi, the circumstances surrounding his death, or his home address.

Nditsheni earlier told the court police tortured him for six hours when he was arrested on 24 June. He was suffocated with a plastic bag, beaten, tied up and forced to urinate on himself.

He said the same thing happened again after being taken to a building in Germiston on either 28 or 29 June. His legs were tied to his hands behind his back, causing him much pain. He said he was throttled with a plastic tube.

“I felt at that stage I was going to die,” he told the full courtroom.

He said he was not read his rights during his detention and would plead not guilty to the charges.

In an affidavit Vele submitted police tortured him.

“I’ve been brutally assaulted by [the SA Police Service]…[and] tortured severely.”

He said that were he not to get bail, he would lose his income, and believed the State did not have any evidence linking him to the crime scene.

The matter was postponed to 14 August.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Eastern Cape police are searching for a man accused of murder and armed robbery.

Zimasa Diniso, 30, also known as Camel, disappeared after he was granted bail, police spokesperson Marinda Mills said on Thursday.

The Elliotdale Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant for his arrest on 14 June.

Diniso, believed to be in Mthatha or Mqanduli, was described as armed and dangerous.

He was being sought for several crimes in Mthatha and East London.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The parents of 3-year-old Olivia van Voeght have been arrested for child neglect, Western Cape police said on Thursday.

Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana told Eyewitness News that Olivia’s parents were arrested after they were taken in for questioning following her death.

She disappeared on Tuesday after her mother left her at home for two hours.

He said the arrests were made on suspicion of neglect. Western Cape Social Development MEC Albert Fritz said he was saddened, and at the same time angered, by the discovery of Olivia’s body.

“…saddened by her untimely and unnecessary death and angered by the fact that there now seems to be an alleged situation of child neglect,” he said.

He said he learned that police had arrested the parents on allegations of child neglect. Fritz said he assigned social workers to the matter.

“Too often children fall prey to criminals in our society, because the very people who must love, care for and protect them, have abandoned their responsibilities,” said Fritz.

He promised to investigate the full circumstances around her death and would co-operate with police and the department of justice to ensure that, if found guilty, the parents and perpetrators were brought to book.

“Let this be a lesson to all parents. The safety and protection of your child is firstly your responsibility and parents whose negligence places their children’s lives in danger, will have to face the full force of the law,” he said.

SAPA

Pietermaritzburg – A doctor at Pietermaritzburg’s Edendale Hospital on Thursday said staff tried their best to save a man admitted, after a fitness test for Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) job applicants.

“We try our best to get good care for patients with the resources we have. Health care is always limited by resources. There’s always more we’d like to do that we can’t do,” head of internal medicine Dr Douglas Wilson, told an inquiry into the deaths of eight people following the test.

Advocate Ravenda Padayachee, for the transport department, asked Wilson if he was suggesting the hospital’s lack of capacity was being used as an excuse for the man’s death.

Wilson was testifying in Pietermaritzburg before a commission probing the deaths of the eight, who took part in a 4km run at the city’s Harry Gwala Stadium in December.

More than 34 000 people qualified to apply.

A total of 15 600 applicants attended a fitness test on 27 December and a similar number on 28 December.

Wilson was being questioned about the treatment of Xolani Gumede, who died in the hospital five days after he took part in the test.

According to Gumede’s blood tests, conducted on 27 and 28 December, his potassium levels were low. Potassium levels that are too high or low could affect the heart rate.

On 31 December, a doctor prescribed potassium for Gumede without having the results of his blood analysis. Padayachee said this was a mistake.

Blood tests were only done again on 31 December but doctors did not check the results because of staff constraints.

Gumede died on 1 January.

Emergency

Padayachee asked Wilson why the hospital’s laboratory did not call the ward to raise the alarm that his potassium levels were too high.

Wilson said he did not know if the hospital had the capacity to phone the ward in an emergency.

If the hospital’s ward had the results on 31 December, it would have detected that Gumede’s potassium had gone up and treated him.

“We tried our best to help him with the team we had. Gumede’s kidney failed, his potassium went up. The pace of the illness exceeded capacity to respond,” Wilson said.

Padayachee said if the hospital had taken blood tests on 29 and 30 December it would have also have picked up that Gumede had renal failure.

Wilson said the hospital was aware of the renal failure and tried its best to help him.

Wilson said Gumede’s death could have been caused by his left thigh being swollen.

The swelling was caused by blood clots which went into his lungs.

Another likely cause was the fluctuation of potassium levels which may have caused cardiac arrest.

The inquiry continues on Monday.

SAPA

Harare – The first results from Zimbabwe’s legislative races show President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party taking an early lead and even making some inroads into districts previously held by candidates of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The first batch of district results from officials with the Zimbabwe Election Committee showed the Zanu-PF claiming 25 of the first 28 constituencies for which results were available, out of a total of 210.

The remaining three were claimed by the MDC.

SAPA

Brussels – The European Union, which has eased sanctions on Zimbabwe to encourage reforms, praised Zimbabweans on Thursday for turning out in large numbers to vote peacefully but said it was too early to assess the election’s fairness.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the election as a “farce” after his rival President Robert Mugabe’s party claimed a landslide victory that would secure another five years in power for Africa’s oldest head of state.

The EU’s verdict on the elections will decide whether it continues to ease sanctions on Zimbabwe or extends them.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton “commends the people of Zimbabwe for turning out in large numbers to cast their votes, in what were broadly peaceful elections”, a spokesperson said.

“She calls upon on all parties to maintain calm and order as the results of the poll become known,” he said.

The EU will await the assessment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) on the elections and reported irregularities, as well as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s official announcement of the results, before announcing its own assessment, he said.

Western election observers were barred from entering the southern African country. Regional grouping SADC and the AU had teams monitoring the voting.

One Western diplomat said that, although the elections had been peaceful, there had been some major failings in the electoral process and EU governments would have to reach a consensus on whether the vote was credible.

One EU government, former colonial ruler Britain, said it was concerned that Zimbabwe had not enacted important electoral reform before the vote and by reports that large numbers of voters had been turned away.

The EU imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2002 in protest at human rights abuses and violations of democracy.

In February, EU foreign ministers eased sanctions to reward Zimbabwe for political reforms and agreed to lift sanctions on a state-run diamond mining company, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, within a month of the elections provided they were judged peaceful and credible.

A month later, the EU suspended most remaining sanctions on Zimbabwe after voters approved a new constitution.

Reuters

By Obakeng Maje

Hartswater-The Police are investigating a case of shoplifting after three persons, two females(28 and 30) and one male(20) were arrested on Tuesday at approximately 15:00pm. 

“It is alleged that one of the women grabbed some clothing in a retail store and jumped into a getaway vehicle. A patrolling police vehicle spotted the suspects and stopped them in their tracks” Lieutenant Sergio Kock said. 

Kock said police found stolen clothes, cosmetics, baby milk and liquor with price tags inside the vehicle. 

Another female suspect who accompanied the first female into the premises was arrested inside the shop with some stolen goods in her possession. 

“It is alleged that this was the fifth shop targeted by the three suspects on that same day” he said. 

The value of the stolen goods is approximately R17 000,00 and white Honda Ballade used as an alleged get-away vehicle was also confiscated by the police. 

The suspects will appear in the Hartswater Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. 

The investigations continue.-TDN

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