Cape Town – Western Cape Community Police Forum ex-chairman Hanif Loonat has charged that senior police officers conspired to engineer his ousting after he was told his suspension was lifted on Wednesday – but discovered he had already been voted off the board in absentia
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Johannesburg – A mob killed a Soweto man accused of housebreaking on Thursday morning, police said.

“The man was allegedly caught by the owner of the house while breaking into the house and he called community members,” said Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela.

The man was severely beaten and died on the way to hospital, he said.

The homeowner was arrested when he went to the police to open a case of housebreaking, and would appear soon in the Protea Magistrate’s Court. – Sapa

Johannesburg – Former Gauteng MEC Humphrey Mmemezi’s driver Joseph Semitjie and his colleague and work partner failed to help Thomas Ferreira when he was knocked down in an accident, the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.

Semitjie’s work partner Nomakhosi Onica Mashifane was being cross-examined by prosecutor Mickey Thesna.

“The motorists from different directions came to a stop because of the siren, and we realised that it was safe for us to proceed driving,” Mashifane said.

However, when they continued driving they heard a noise coming from the left side of the vehicle.

“We had already passed the intersection when we heard the noise and it turned out that our vehicle was hit on the rear left side,” said Mashifane.

Thesna asked Mashifane what she did on realising the vehicle had been hit.

Mashifane said she was concerned about Semitjie’s condition.

“I paid attention to Semitjie at that time, as he appeared to be dizzy and confused,” she said.

Thesna put it to Mashifane that Semitjie had no visible injuries.

“There was a boy who was laying in the middle of the road with serious injuries, not far from where you were. Why did you not try to assist him?” he asked.

Mashifane told the court she could not attend to both Semitjie and Ferreira at the same time.

Thesna said that as police officers, both Mashifane and Semitjie had a responsibility to assist Ferreira.

“Semitjie was taken to hospital and given some tablets for shock and headache, while Thomas Ferreira is likely to face a permanent brain damage,” he said.

Earlier, the court heard that former MEC Mmemezi ordered that the car’s blue lights be switched on before it left his house on the day of the accident in November 2011.

Semitjie faces charges of reckless or negligent driving, and of failing to assist an injured person.

His lawyer Moses Rankoe asked that the matter to be postponed as his client recently underwent surgery and needed medical attention.

Magistrate Abdul Khan postponed the case to September 23. – Sapa

Cape Town – A 37-year-old man received a five-year suspended sentence for fraud in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.

Dean Langeveld had pleaded guilty to 84 counts of fraud and one contravention of the Identification Act.

Prosecutor Ezmarelda Johnson told the court Langeveld opened an FNB savings account with a false identity document, and falsely stated that he was a floor manager with a packaging company, earning a net salary of R14 535.

According to the charge sheet, he used the bank cards supplied with his savings account for purchases totalling R21 166 at supermarkets, petrol stations, cellphone companies and Spur restaurants in 2006.

He told magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg that he had turned over a new leaf, and had not been involved in another crime.

He said he and a partner were now running a business supplying casual labour to the farming industry.

He said serious financial problems he experienced while unemployed had forced him into crime.

“I am truly sorry for what I did. When I think back, I cannot believe that I did this,” he told the court.

He said he was now earning enough to repay the bank in monthly instalments of R2 000.

Sonnenberg said she hoped he would run his business in an honest manner, and that the community expected him to behave and think in a responsible manner.

She warned him that he now had a criminal record, and that if he was convicted of theft or fraud again during the period of suspension, the suspended sentence would be put into operation. – Sapa

Cape Town – A bookkeeper was jailed for eight years by the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville on Thursday.

Barbara Aletta Kuhn, 47, was sentenced on 91 counts of theft involving R1.4 million.

According to the charge sheet, she was engaged as bookkeeper by two companies owned by Ivar Kvale.

Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg agreed with prosecutor Jannie Knipe that Kuhn had abused a position of trust, which called for a prison sentence.

She also agreed with Knipe that white collar crime was difficult to expose, as it was perpetrated by intelligent people who devised schemes to cover their tracks.

The magistrate said prison sentences were not reserved for the punishment of violent crime, and that the message to the community had to be that offenders involved in white collar crime also went to jail.

Kuhn manipulated the electronic accounting system connecting both businesses between December 2006 and February 2007, and was arrested in Gauteng in November 2007.

Her attorney Hailey Lawrence told the court Kuhn was a gambling addict, and had resorted to theft because her salary could not support her gambling habits.

Kuhn qualified for the minimum sentence of 15 years, as a first-time offender found guilty of fraud involving more than R500,000.

The magistrate rejected her gambling addiction as a reason to deviate from the prescribed sentence, but said Kuhn had shown remorse by admitting to the 91 counts.

The fact that she was a first-time offender, and had been honest with the court, were accepted as substantial and compelling factors to deviate from the prescribed sentence, she said.

The magistrate said a suspended prison sentence was too lenient, as was a sentence involving an early release and house arrest. – Sapa

Pretoria – It was important to convince strikers to disarm during the strike-related unrest at Marikana last year, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.

“To defuse the situation, I said that dialogue should be initiated and police negotiators be brought in to convince the strikers to surrender their pangas and spears… emotions were high on both sides,” Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott said.

He had arrived at Marikana on 13 August at the request of a Brigadier Fritz, who told him that two police officers had been killed and others wounded at Marikana.

Tactical response towards the strikers was ill-advised as it would have seemed police were retaliating, given the deaths of the officers, Scott said.

National police commissioner Riah Phiyega had been concerned about the lack of information regarding the strike at a meeting later in the evening on 13 August.

“She was concerned with the lack of intelligence and answers as to why there had been so much violence,” he said.

Scott was central in drafting the police plan that was to be used in an attempt to disperse the striking mineworkers.

Several police officials who were part of the operation had referred to the plan as the “Scott plan”.

Scott joined the police service in 1986 and has since undergone training for various operations.

The commission, chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the circumstances that led to the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West last year.

On 16 August 2012, police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers as they attempted to disperse and disarm them.

Ten other people, including two police officials and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

– SAPA

Cape Town – A man accused of raping and killing teenager Anene Booysen will appear in the Western Cape High Court to make sure his trial can go ahead, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday.

“The pre-trial conference will be to check whether all parties are ready to go to trial,” said NPA Western Cape spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.

“It’s to make sure the evidence is available, [and] whether financial instructions have been given, for example.”

Johannes Kana, 21, last appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court in July, when his trial was transferred to the high court.

His trial will start on 7 October in the Swellendam Circuit Court.

“It is taken to the circuit court in Swellendam because it is the only facility in the area that has all the equipment for a high court case, and it is bigger than the magistrate’s court rooms in Bredasdorp,” Ntabazalila said.

Kana would remain in custody.

The State alleges Kana unlawfully and deliberately sexually penetrated Booysen with his penis or with another object not known to the State, between 1 and 2 February this year, near Kleinbegin, Bredasdorp.

It alleges that Kana then used his hand or another object to disembowel her, which resulted in her death at Tygerberg Hospital on Saturday, 2 February.

In May, the State dropped charges against Kana’s co-accused, 22-year-old Jonathan Davids.

At the time, Ntabazalila said an investigation had revealed there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction.

“We understand the sense of shock and outrage that was induced by the incident. However, as the prosecution we can only prosecute successfully on sufficient evidence,” he said.

Before she died, Booysen said from her hospital bed that five or six men were involved in the attack.

She named “Zwai”, which was both the nickname of Davids and another man said to live in Zwelitsha.

Davids and Kana confirmed they were at the same pub as Booysen that night.

– SAPA

A 53-year-old councillor accused of corruption was arrested in Brits, North West police said.

William Sello Molefe was arrested after he allegedly defrauded a local businessman, said police spokesperson Pelonomi Makau.

Molefe worked as the chairperson of the housing and planning portfolio committee in the Madibeng Municipality.

Molefe allegedly asked a local businessman for R2 500 in exchange for business rights in the municipality.

The businessman lodged a complaint and the councillor was arrested.

Makau said the case was postponed to Monday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has been registered as a political party with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

“The registration of EFF… is a historic moment and the beginning of real radical, militant and [a] decisive political programme, which will lead to real emancipation of the people of South Africa, Africa, and the world,” EFF leader Julius Malema said on Thursday.

The approval meant the party would contest the general elections in 2014, and win, said Malema.

“[The] EFF will be contesting elections in order to be government, not in order to be [a] toothless opposition party in various parliaments and legislatures.”

“The democratic space is now open for real political and ideological contestation…”

IEC spokesperson Lydia Young confirmed the registration.

“Yes, they have been registered,” she said in an e-mail.

Malema said South Africans could now breathe a “sigh of relief” as his “giant movement” was an option.

Other political parties, he claimed, had failed to transform the country.

“The people of Africa should appreciate that now a movement of the people, which will champion the interests of the African people, including through leading an aggressive economic decolonisation programme through massive development and industrialisation, will soon be [the] government of South Africa.

“The oppressed and exploited people of the world should now expect real anti-imperialist actions and political programme, which will practically and programmatically undermine neo-liberalism and global capitalism.”

‘Military precision’

Malema said the EFF was aware of its obligations and responsibilities and would carry them out with “military precision”.

“These are obligations and the responsibility to equally redistribute South Africa and Africa’s wealth to the people as a whole,” he said.

“Land will be shared equitably among the people, mines will be nationalised, free quality education, healthcare, and sanitation will be provided.”

He said the African economy would be developed, South Africa would be industrialised, and corruption would be eliminated under the EFF’s rule.

Malema himself faces corruption charges in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court for allegedly making nearly R4m from corrupt activities. He is out on bail of R10 000.

The former ANC Youth League leader promised to never neglect the people on the ground.

“[The] EFF will never neglect the ground and will continue to find expression on the ground with the people and fighting their battles and struggles on a permanent basis.”

The party planned to organise sections of the working class into “militant, uncompromising trade unions and workers’ movements”.

The controversial leader called on “fighters” to be at the forefront of every protest movement in all communities, workplaces, and institutions.

“Victory is certain! No surrender! No retreat!” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A Durban man accused of housebreaking appeared in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, police said.

Security guards arrested Adolpheus Popo Mzimela, 31, in Pennington on Wednesday morning, said police spokesperson Thulani Zwane.

In his possession were two laptops, a pair of takkies, a cosmetic case and headphones, allegedly stolen from a house in Oyster Drive, a few hundred metres away.

Mzimela was also wanted by the Durban police for skipping bail, Zwane said.

He would appear again on 10 September.

– SAPA