Johannesburg – The protection of state information bill needs a complete overhaul, according to the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac).

“The bill must be scrapped in its entirety because it is fatally flawed. The process must be started afresh to develop a piece of legislation that legitimately protects state secrets, [and does not]… unnecessarily infringe on rights of access to information that are protected by the Constitution,” chairperson Sipho Pityana said in a statement on Friday.

Casac believed other problems posed by the bill would not be placed under the microscope, as President Jacob Zuma only highlighted two sections that needed serious attention.

“Parliament will be limited to a review of the two clauses that the president has highlighted, clauses 45 and [42]. The rules of Parliament prevent a consideration of any other parts of the bill,” Pityana said.

Casac said Zuma’s silence on why he singled out the two clauses raised questions on whether he intended to weaken the limited protections offered by these clauses.

“Even if the intention is to strengthen these clauses, tinkering with them will not render the bill constitutionally compliant.”

Zuma referred the bill back to the national assembly on Thursday.

He said he would not sign it into law because it was incoherently drafted and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Zuma mentioned section 45, which in its current form criminalises the improper classification of state information and provides for prison sentences of five to 15 years, depending on the level of wrongful classification.

It notably makes it a crime to classify information to conceal corruption or influence a tender process.

Section 42 purports to deal with failure to report possession of a classified document but refers back to an earlier section that sets out the maximum classification period, as stipulated in the National Archives Act.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Convicted murderer Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye’s health came under the spotlight on Friday in the Protea Magistrate’s Court where his legal team is again trying to secure bail for the hip hop star.

Rudi Krause said his client had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and presented this as part of the appeal.

However, correctional services health officials dismissed the reports and said tests were conducted which gave him a clean bill of health.

This is Maarohanye’s third appeal for bail since his conviction last October.

He and co-accused Themba Tshabalala were drag-racing in Protea North on March 8, 2010, when they crashed into a group of schoolboys. Prince Mohube, Mlungisi Cwayi, Andile Mthombeni, and Phomello Masemola were killed. Frank Mlambo and Fumani Mushwana were left permanently brain damaged.

In December last year, Maarohanye and Tshabalala were each sentenced to 25 years in jail.

The two were each sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for murder and four years imprisonment for attempted murder.

For use of drugs, driving under the influence of drugs, and racing on a public road, they got a year for each count, to run concurrently.

On Friday, Johannesburg Prison chief nursing officer Vusi Mazibuko testified that tests did not indicate that Maarohanye was infected with TB.

“We ran a test through the laboratory and the results were negative.”

He said had there been doubt about Maarohanye’s health his cell mate would have been tested as well, and treatment would have been given to both of them.

During cross-examination, Krause asked why a nurse would cast doubt on a doctor’s diagnosis.

Mazibuko said the doctor never performed tests to prove whether he was indeed suffering from the disease.

Asked if there was a possibility Maarohanye could be suffering from something else, he maintained that tests would have revealed this.

Krause asked the head of the prison, Sam Mabothoma, why his client had not seen a doctor since February.

Mabothoma told the court he was still waiting to hear from the family after he had given them a quote to accompany Maarohanye to a doctor of his choice.

Krause asked why he had to be accompanied by 10 officials to a medical facility that was across the street from the prison, resulting in the quotation being R5 000.

“We got a classification that he was a maximum (security) prisoner and certain factors had to be considered. If I have to send him out, I need to look at security and that is how I got to the number of members,” he said.

Asked if he did not think charging the family such an amount to see a doctor amounted to refusal, Mabothoma defended his decision by saying the family failed to communicate with him to make arrangements. They had turned to their lawyers instead. – Sapa

Johannesburg – Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will challenge his suspension from the trade union federation in the High Court in Johannesburg.

“The papers, applying for me to be added as an interested party as an applicant in the case of Numsa versus Cosatu, were filed in court and served to all the attorneys of the relevant parties in the matter at noon today,” Vavi said in a statement on Friday.

“In addition to joining the case, albeit for different reasons to those advanced by Numsa, I’ve also asked for immediate relief in my papers.”

Vavi said he was asking the court to grant him an interim order interdicting and restraining the Congress of SA Trade Unions from enforcing any decision taken at its central executive committee last month. He also wanted final relief to review and set aside the decision to suspend him and institute disciplinary proceedings.

“Having spent the bulk of my life, 15 years in the congress movement and 12 of these as Cosatu general secretary, I have taken this extraordinary decision with a heavy heart,” Vavi said.

“Never did it cross my mind that one day I will be left with no choice but to use courts of law to defend my rights against an organisation I have dedicated my whole adult life building,” he said.

Last month, Cosatu announced that Vavi had been put on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing relating to an affair he had with a junior employee.

In July, the employee accused him of rape. He said he had a consensual affair with her. The woman subsequently withdrew a sexual harassment complaint against him.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), an ally of Vavi, is challenging his suspension in the high court.

The Food and Allied Workers’ Union and SA Football Players’ Union are co-applicants.

On Tuesday, Numsa’s application was postponed after the high court allowed an application by seven opposing unions to intervene.

The intervening unions are the National Union of Mineworkers, the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, the Finance Union, and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union.

The are all Cosatu affiliates, and are opposing Numsa’s application.

Numsa is expected to file an opposing affidavit by October 2. – Sapa

The High Court in Pretoria denied convicted killer Johan Kotze and his three co-accused leave to appeal on Friday.

Dismissing applications by Kotze, Andries Sithole, Pieta Mohlake and Sello Mphaka for leave to appeal against their convictions, Judge Bert Bam said there was no prospect of success on appeal.

Two months ago, Bam sentenced Kotze and Sithole to two life sentences each for murdering Kotze’s 19-year-old stepson Conrad Bonette and raping Kotze’s estranged wife Ina Bonette.

Mohlake and Mphaka were also sentenced to life imprisonment for gang raping Bonette.

Kotze was sentenced to an additional 25 years imprisonment and the other three to an extra 18 years imprisonment for kidnapping and seriously assaulting Bonette.

The attacks on Bonette and her son happened at Kotze’s house in Modimolle on January 3, 2012.

Piet Greyling, for Kotze, on Friday attacked Bonette’s evidence, saying that she had “exaggerated” what happened to her, had lied on the witness stand and was not a credible witness.

He said if her evidence fell away, Kotze’s evidence became more credible, which cleared the way for another court accepting clinical psychologist Tertia Spangenberg’s evidence.

He argued that the court should have accepted the evidence of Bonette’s former husband and an article in the magazine Huisgenoot as proof that Bonette had not told the full truth to the court, as her initial versions differed from her evidence under oath.

He argued that Kotze’s mental condition should have been taken into account as mitigation when it came to sentencing.

Jan van Rooyen, for Sithole, said the accused’s convictions stood and fell on the evidence of Bonette, who was a single witness and whose evidence was not supported by DNA or even the medical evidence.

He said Sithole had not even known Conrad Bonette, had no motive to kill him and that another court might conclude that Sithole should not have been convicted of the murder.

Francois van As, for Mohlake and Mphaka, argued that “red lights” should have flickered about the reliability of Bonette’s evidence, but Bam said he had never seen any red lights.

Van As said the fact that Bonette had begged his clients for help showed that she had not been afraid of them, which supported their version that they were not willing participants.

Van Rooyen and Van As both argued that there were factors which could lead another court to impose less sentences.

Bam said he was still convinced that the evidence against the accused was overwhelming and that there was no chance that another court would find that the accused’s versions were reasonably true.

He was also still of the opinion that the sentences were fitting under the circumstances and found that there was no reasonable prospect that another court would interfere.

Bam described Kotze as “inherently evil” when he convicted him and said he and the others had shown no remorse for what they did.

Bonette testified that Kotze had sexually tortured her and cut off her nipples while the other three looked on before they took turns to rape her.

While she lay helplessly gagged and tied to a bed, she was forced to listen to her son begging Kotze for his life before he was shot to death.

Kotze claimed he could not remember and could not be held accountable for his actions that day.

His co-accused claimed Kotze had forced them at gunpoint to co-operate and that they had only pretended to rape Bonette because they could not get erections. – Sapa

Pretoria – Four members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) were charged before a military court on Friday, on charges relating to the landing of a private aircraft at the Waterkloof Air Force Base.

SA National Defence Union (Sandu) national secretary Pikkie Greeff, counsel for two of the soldiers, said the exact content of the charges was not yet clear.

“It seems that the military’s view of the matter is that these officers are guilty of some military offence for their role in the Gupta landing, but it’s not clear what that role is alleged to have been.

“They are being charged with charges ranging from disobeying written instructions to conduct prejudicial to military discipline. It will only be clear from the final charge sheet what exactly the charges are,” said Greeff.

The four – Colonel Nomsa Khumalo, Lieutenant Colonel Christo Van Zyl, Lieutenant Colonel Christine Anderson, and Warrant Officer Thabo Ntshisi – appeared in the court, which is located inside the vast Thaba Tshwane military base in Pretoria.

A fifth officer, identified as Colonel Nkosi, was scheduled to appear later on Friday.

The matter was postponed until 2 October for preliminary investigations.

In court, the soldiers were informed that they were charged with contravening different sections of the military defence code (MDC).

“In terms of the MDC and the Defence Act there are certain offences that a soldier can commit which are formulated in the MDC,” Greeff said.

“Charges that were mentioned in this court includes sections [of the MDC] on disobeying written orders or instructions, conduct prejudicial to military discipline, and the abuse or misuse of state vehicles, aircraft or facilities.”

Gupta wedding

Sandu was representing Van Zyl and Anderson, while the others had private attorneys and SANDF counsel, he said.

A chartered commercial aircraft, Jet Airways flight JAI 9900 from India, ferrying more than 200 guests for the wedding of Vega Gupta and Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia, landed at the base in April.

The passengers were then transported, either by light aircraft, helicopter or in police-escorted vehicles, to attend the lavish ceremony at Sun City’s Palace of the Lost City in North West.

The landing sparked widespread criticism and several investigations were launched.

A government investigation exonerated President Jacob Zuma and his ministers, and found that the landing was the result of “collusion by officials”.

In June, eight of the 11 Tshwane metro police officers accused of providing unofficial security for the Gupta wedding guests pleaded guilty at an internal disciplinary hearing by the city.

The municipality’s probe into the scandal examined the extent of the damage caused by the officers’ involvement in the fiasco, Tshwane metro police executive director Console Tleane said at the time.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Convicted murderer Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye’s application for bail was denied by the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Maarohanye was asking the court to grant him bail, pending the appeal against his murder conviction and sentence.

The petition to appeal was filed in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg in March.

Maarohanye and his co-accused Themba Tshabalala were each sentenced in December last year to 20 years imprisonment for murder and four years imprisonment for attempted murder.

For use of drugs, driving under the influence of drugs, and racing on a public road, they got a year for each count.

Maarohanye and Tshabalala were drag-racing in Protea North on 8 March 2010, when they crashed into a group of schoolboys.

Prince Mohube, Mlungisi Cwayi, Andile Mthombeni, and Phomello Masemola were killed.

Frank Mlambo and Fumani Mushwana were left permanently brain damaged.

– SAPA

Durban – The State sought a six week postponement in the case against Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane on Friday, saying it hoped to pursue fraud, forgery and uttering charges in a KwaZulu-Natal High Court.

Seeking the postponement in an application in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court, Prosecutor Wendy O’Brien said KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sophy Moipone Dinah Noko had authorised that the case against Mpisane should proceed in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban.

Mpisane faces 53 charges of fraud, forgery and uttering of a forged document.

O’Brien said the State was “99.5% certain” it would proceed with those charges in the high court.

Mpisane, who is out on R100 000 bail is accused of submitting forged documents to obtain Construction Industry Development Board gradings, which were then used to win five public works department tenders worth R140m.

However, Mpisane’s lawyer, Jimmy Howse, argued that the figure of R140m was incorrect as the value of three of the tenders amounted to R57.3m.

These had been completed, he said, and the Department of Public Works had not complained in relation to the work carried out by Mpisane and her company, Zikhulise Cleaning Maintenance and Transport.

He said that in relation to the fourth project – a clinic that was being built in Inanda – the department had refused to terminate the contract and work was continuing.

State accused of buying time

The tender, or the fifth contract upon which some of the charges were based, had been withdrawn by the department and no work had been done and no payment had been made.

Howse accused the State of attempting to buy time to strengthen its case.

An order restraining R70m of his clients assets was based upon a National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) application that the matter would be heard in the regional court.

He said that a trial date should be set in the regional court, or the case should be struck from the roll.

The State should not be entitled to a six week postponement, he submitted.

O’Brien said the time was needed to obtain a forensic report and the DPP needed to examine the case, which consisted of nine lever arch files of documentation.

Magistrate Nalini Govender was expected to make a decision later on Friday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Government denied on Friday reports that Tlokwe in the North West is receiving food parcels because of upcoming by-elections.

“There is nothing untoward with Tlokwe being one of the recipients of government services,” acting government spokesperson Phumla Williams said in a statement.

“The imbizo at Tlokwe forms part of Project Mikondzo, which is a service delivery improvement initiative aimed at improving access to the department and its entities.”

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini visited Tlokwe on Friday.

Earlier this week her office said the visit was part a service delivery improvement initiative and a follow-up to her visit to the area last month.

Williams said: “Minister Dlamini is currently doing a follow-up in the Tlokwe area, as she promised during her last visit to the area.

“Handing out food parcels is in-line with attending to the concerns raised during the general household survey of 2010, and is a small initiative to assist in the alleviation of poverty in the area.”

After Dlamini’s last visit the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) and the DA accused the minister of trying to buy votes in Tlokwe with food parcels.

Her visit came a few days before a by-election in Tlokwe’s Ward 9.

At the time, Dlamini denied that this was the motivation behind the relief efforts and said there were more than 17 000 child-headed households in Tlokwe.

The DA on Friday said it had written to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela asking her to investigate the distribution of food parcels in Tlokwe by Dlamini.

“The minister’s conduct is at the very least, unethical, and a violation of the executive ethics code of conduct,” DA MP Mike Waters said in a statement.

“The distribution of food parcels just before nine by-elections can only be construed as the dishonest use of public office to further a party-political agenda,” he said.

By-elections will be held on 18 September in Tlokwe, in Wards 1, 4, 6 11, 12, 13, 18, 20 and 26.

Power struggle

Tlokwe’s ANC mayor Maphetle Maphetle was unseated twice when ANC councillors voted to replace him with DA councillor Annette Combrink.

The ANC’s North West provincial disciplinary committee expelled the 14 councillors concerned, resulting in them losing their seats. Their expulsion was however overturned by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee.

Despite this, eight of the councillors reportedly registered as independent candidates for the by-elections.

Members of the ANC’s national working committee were deployed to wards in Tlokwe on Monday to campaign ahead of the by-elections.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, party leader in the North West Chris Hattingh, and constituency head Juanita Terblanche will be campaigning in Wards 4, 6, 12 and 13 ahead of next week’s by-elections.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Orlando Pirates coach Roger de Sa is confident that his charges will put up a brave fight against AC Leopards tomorrow afternoon in Congo Brazzaville when the two teams meet in a crucial CAF Champions League Group A match in Dolisie.

According to Orlando Pirates’ official website, De Sa had one final motivational session with the squad in their final training session before departing for the Republic of Congo.

“You have two teams desperately fighting for maximum points.

“I had a chat with the guys and we all know what is expected from us in this match,” said De Sa.

“I am pretty sure that this match will be very tough, but if we approach it with the right attitude we stand a good chance of getting a win.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Tlou Segolela said that the team wil have to play for their lives and take the game to the opposition.

“We have nothing to lose – we have to go all out and win the match.

“It is an away match and we can’t wait for them to come to us.

“We prepared well and let us hope God will be on our side on match day,” said Segolela.

Kick-off is at 15.30.
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