Johannesburg – An amount of R1.2m belonging to suspected drug dealer Busisiwe Elizabeth Motsepe has been forfeited to the state, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Monday.

The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) brought the application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, even though the criminal case against Motsepe was withdrawn for lack of evidence, NPA spokesperson Medupi Simasiku said in a statement.

“The court agreed with the AFU that the money was the proceeds of criminal activity and forfeited it to the state,” he said.

In December 2010, police searched a house in KwaThema, Springs, after receiving information about drug trafficking.

They found R1.2m in cash hidden in a chest.

Next to it were 3kg of dagga.

Motsepe, who is unemployed, initially said she inherited the chest from her grandfather in 1991. She said it had contained R1.5m.

However, she later claimed to have won the money at a casino.

The AFU investigated the claim and found no record of such a win at any of the nearby casinos.

“She then reverted back to her initial version that she inherited the money from her grandfather,” said Simasiku.

“However, the AFU determined that the grandfather was a factory worker and that it is, therefore, unlikely that he could amass such a great fortune.”

Simasiku said Motsepe was charged with possession of drugs and drug trafficking, but the case was withdrawn because of insufficient evidence.

“Despite the withdrawal of the criminal case, the AFU applied to the court for the money to be forfeited,” he said.

– SAPA

Mbombela – A cellphone owned by a man who was shot dead in Mpumalanga three years ago, was sold to Cash Crusaders by one of his alleged killers, the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court heard on Monday.

Constable Ernest Vuma Mgwambi, from Lydenburg police station, testified that police recovered a Samsung cellphone from Derrick Fana Mbatha, who bought it from Cash Crusaders on 16 September 2010, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Mgwambi said Cash Crusaders’ records showed that the phone was sold to the shop by Calvin Tjatji, 24.

Tjatji, Isaac Sebokuboku Phala, 29, and Tshepo Seloane, 24, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, armed robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

They are accused of murdering Modikwe Mine worker Madingwana Max Matlou, on 22 August 2010.

“After we discovered the deceased’s body in the middle of the R37 road between Lydenburg and Burgersfort on the night of 22 August, we later recovered his vehicle, a gold Toyota Corolla about 20km from the scene,” Mgwambi testified.

He said Matlou had been shot in the head.

“After his wife identified the body and the vehicle, she gave me his cellphone number. I then traced the whereabouts of his cellphone as it was not found in his possession,” Mgwambi said.

“It led me to Cash Crusaders in Witbank.”

He testified that the store manager confirmed buying the phone on 16 September 2010.

“He then showed me the contract containing an ID copy of the person who sold it. The ID copy belonged to the accused, Calvin Tjatji, who is before court,” Mgwambi said.

“The store manager also gave us information of the buyer, Mr Derrick Fana Mbatha. I contacted Mbatha and he confirmed buying it from the store.”

Identifying the phone

Mgwambi testified that after Mbatha gave the police the phone, he found that its serial number matched that on the phone’s box.

Matlou’s widow, Violet Nomkulo Matlou, 44, testified that she had to move from Burgersfort to another area in Welkom because of the trauma of her husband’s death.

“My husband was killed just after he dropped our daughter at a boarding school at Lydenburg… When he left home that night, it was between 19:00 and 19:05 and he never returned ever since,” she said.

“I was called two days later by the police to come and identify the car at the police station. He was the only one employed in the family and I was left with four children to look after.”

She testified that she is still unemployed and relies on her mother’s pension to survive.

“My mother shares with us after getting paid. The children were in proper schools and I was forced to send them to lower schools,” she said.

The case continues.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) is challenging the constitutionality of a section of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) permitting only private people to become private prosecutors.

The legislation prevented juristic persons, including the NSPCA, from using the provisions of the act to pursue a private prosecution, its executive director Marcelle Meredith said in court papers.

It has sought an order declaring the relevant section of the CPA unconstitutional, and on Monday the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted an order giving Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and the National Director of Public Prosecutions 15 days to file answering affidavits.

“The NSPCA, manifestly not a ‘private person’, is frustrated in its efforts to perform its statutory tasks as a consequence of it being precluded from enjoying the benefits of section 7(1)(c),” said Meredith.

“It has a ‘policing function’, but is unable to carry this out effectively where, for example, the State refuses to prosecute,” she said.

Meredith said there had, in the past, been a number of instances where the NSPCA would have liked to privately prosecute an offender and there would probably be more in the future.

“The NSPCA challenges the constitutionality of section 7(1)(a) on the basis that it arbitrarily differentiates between private persons on the one hand and juristic persons on the other without any apparent rational basis for doing so,” she said.

“The distinction created between private and juristic persons does not comply with the requirements of the rule of law because the ‘differentiation’ seems to be no more than a ‘naked preference’ that serves no legitimate governmental purpose.”

She contended that the differentiation produced inequality in that the two classes of “persons” were not equal before the law nor did they enjoy equal benefit of the law.

Meredith said the NSPCA had, in the past few years, tried on several occasions to privately prosecute individuals in circumstances where the State declined to do so.

As the law currently stood, a private prosecution could only follow the issuing by the prosecutor of a certificate declaring that the case had been dropped.

Issuing of certificates

However, the NSPCA had time and again been told the prosecutor could not issue the certificate because, according to the act, only a private person could institute a private prosecution and not a juristic entity.

Meredith said this happened last year in a case where an NSPCA inspector was forced to shoot a camel, which was being slaughtered in a religious ritual in Lenasia, to put it out of its misery.

“The inspector witnessed the cruel and inhumane treatment of the animal by certain of the worshippers in a manner not befitting their religion, and which caused the camel undue and extended pain and suffering.

“The incident was caught on film by the inspector. In the opinion of the inspector the treatment of the animal by certain of the worshippers constituted an offence in terms of the Animal Protection Act.”

Meredith said the NSPCA referred the matter to the prosecuting authorities, but despite the evidence they declined to prosecute.

“It is precisely in instances where there is official inaction in prosecuting an offence, be it on the basis of policy or a lack of resources or whatever, that a person’s right to privately proceed with a prosecution is triggered,” she said.

“The right to bring a private prosecution ought to be capable of enforcement by any person, not only a private person,” she said.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Stun grenades were thrown at protesting Lonmin mineworkers in an attempt to make them run, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Monday.

This made it easier for the police to ascertain whether they were carrying weapons, said Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott.

“What I have picked up from colleagues [police officers who were near the Marikana koppies] is that the strikers that were moving off, regrouped and then started walking again,” he told the commission.

“The explanation I was given was that stun grenades were used to break up the groups and hopefully to get them to start running. It is [more] difficult to conceal weapons when running than just walking away.”

The commission viewed footage of police officers throwing stun grenades from a helicopter.

Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson said there was little resemblance between what was shown on the video, and what a policewoman who threw the grenades had told the commission in a statement.

According to her statement, a group of protesters armed with knobkerries, pangas and guns stormed the police.

“What I would say is that this is what she is saying. We can’t see what she was seeing and it would be very wrong of me to think on her behalf,” Scott responded.

“Obviously, she would need to testify and tell the commission why she was throwing those grenades.”

Chaskalson asked whether Scott had been informed about the incident in which the strikers had “stormed members of the SA Police Service [SAPS]”.

He replied that he had not heard about it.

Scott helped draft the police plan, which was to be used to try and disperse and disarm the striking mineworkers. The plan was referred to as the “Scott plan”.

Postponement denied

Earlier, the commission’s chair, retired Judge Ian Farlam, turned down an application to postpone the public hearings.

Farlam ruled that the continuation of the public hearings would not be prejudicial to the miners, who were wounded and arrested during strike-related unrest at Marikana last year.

“Their legal representatives will return to the commission. They will be able to see from the daily transcripts of the evidence led at the commission whether there are questions which they would have asked the witnesses in cross-examination if they had been here,” he said.

“The mere fact that their cross-examination will take place later than it would have done if they had been here all the time can scarcely cause prejudice,” he said.

Farlam said their legal representatives would be given a chance to apply to the commission for certain witnesses to be recalled for further cross-examination if the questions they wished to ask were relevant.

Funding

Dali Mpofu, for the miners wounded and arrested during the labour unrest, filed an application for the postponement while he seeks funding for himself and his team.

He has already approached the high court and the Constitutional Court in an attempt to obtain State funding.

Both courts have dismissed his application.

Mpofu will appeal the matter in the high court later this month.

The commission, which is sitting in Centurion, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest around Lonmin Platinum’s Marikana operations last year.

Thirty-four people were shot dead, almost all of them striking mineworkers, on 16 August 2012, while the police were trying to disperse them.

Ten people, including two policemen and two security officers, were killed in the preceding week.

The public hearings continue.

– SAPA

Durban – KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu has accused the DA of “political point-scoring” over the Field’s Hill crash, which claimed 22 lives.

Mchunu was reacting to a statement by DA provincial spokesperson Radley Keys in which he claimed the party had, for the past eight years, sought to draw attention to the dangers of heavy vehicles using Field’s Hill instead of the N3 toll route.

On Thursday, 22 people died when an articulated truck’s brakes failed on Field’s Hill.

The vehicle careened down the M13 and smashed into four minibus taxis and a car at an intersection at the bottom of the hill.

“Even during this difficult time when the province is in mourning, the DA, true to its form, could not resist temptation to use this unfortunate moment for political breast-beating and political point-scoring,” said Mchunu.

He said the accident was not an opportunity for politics, but a time to set aside differences to resolve the carnage on the country’s roads.

Keys said that apart from raising the dangers of heavy duty traffic at a provincial level, a number of Durban councillors had been campaigning for a ban on trucks using the hill.

“We have also sent expert traffic studies, numerous different proposals and letters to the MEC regarding this issue. We have never received any feedback,” said Keys.

He said that the head of the province’s transport portfolio committee should summon Mchunu to appear before the committee.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A metro police officer was rushed to hospital after he was shot by robbers at a shopping centre, Johannesburg metro police said on Monday.

“He is stable but in a very serious condition at Milpark Hospital,” said police spokesperson Ednah Mamonyane.

The officer and his colleagues had gone to investigate the source of gunshots at The Bridge shopping centre in the Johannesburg CBD when three men opened fire on them.

The three had robbed a jewellery store and later shot and injured a security guard while they tried to get away.

“When the officers approached them, they opened fire at them, the officers returned fire and one of them was shot at by the robbers.”

It was not yet established whether any robbers were injured, Mamonyane said.

The three men managed to get away.

No arrests have been made.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Klerksdorp-Police in Klerksdorp registered a case of murder after a headless body of a male was recovered by a passer-by in a veld at Oudorp Township near Klerksdorp on Sunday at 10:00.
“According to the information, the unknown body which had no private parts was about to decompose when it was recovered. Police could not determine the deceased age” captain Pelonomi Makau said.
Police request anybody with information regarding a missing person to contact Lt.Col. Veldschoen on 082 856 0912 or 018 464 5006
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

Kimberley – A 35-year-old Roodepan tuck shop owner was killed while another 21-year-old man from Lerato Park is in a coma after he was shot in the head, allegedly by the same group of men at the weekend.

Five men from Galeshewe will appear in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of murder and attempted murder.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Cape Town – ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman has accused “certain racist lobby groups” of using the media to discredit the organisation that has helped 18-year-old double amputee Flippie Engelbrecht with mechanical hands and his two court cases.

He said on Sunday that these groups were trying to “dig dirt on” The Freedom Trust and its secretary, Carina Papenfus.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

A five-year-old girl was found dead beneath a pile of rubble in Diepsloot, northern Johannesburg, on Monday, police said.

She was thought to have been suffocated with a plastic bag, said Colonel Lungelo Dlamini.

“She was found by community members in extension five,” he said.

The girl went missing on Saturday. – Sapa