Bhisho – An agreement was reached between an Eastern Cape pupil, her school and the basic education department over poor conditions at the institution, Equal Education (EE) said on Friday.

“A settlement agreement signed by the parties on the 12th of August 2013 and made into an order of the Bhisho High Court today (Friday), settles the matter,” it said in a statement.

EE said the Grade 11 pupil, Palesa Faith Manyokole, initiated legal proceedings against the Moshesh Senior Secondary School’s principal, its governing body, the provincial and national education departments, and Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

“Learners from the school first wrote to Equal Education in 2012 to ask for the organisation’s assistance,” it said.

EE visited the school and found that the principal had spent nine months out of school, an insufficient number of teachers, that some teachers did not come to school, a lack of textbooks, and “appalling conditions” at the hostel.

Eastern Cape education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the department was satisfied and relieved that “common ground” was found.

“A dedicated team was placed to focus on making these rather urgent improvements. We have a very able head of that district, and we are confident that indeed the issues will be dealt with.”

EE said that in June the department said it had probed financial mismanagement at the school. It said the principal was suspended, and an acting one was appointed to improve the school.

The department said the school was underperforming and it would try to address the issue. Two months later the agreement was reached.

One of the provisions was that a month after the order was signed the department had to submit a report on progress made at the school.

Sapa

Mbombela – A man convicted of killing two brothers was sentenced to in effect 50 years in prison by the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that Jabulani Elvis Maseko from KaNyamazane near Mbombela, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Jabulani and Mangaliso Mathabatha, from Zwelisha outside White River, on 7 August last year.

He was also sentenced to 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, two years for possession of ammunition and five years for possession of an unlicensed firearm.

The two life sentences would run consecutively. The other three counts would run concurrently.

Maseko was originally charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. The murder charges and a robbery charge were added in December.

He pleaded not guilty but admitted to owning the firearm used in the crime.

No remorse

In imposing the sentence on Friday, Judge Daisy Molefe said Maseko deserved a harsh sentence.

“There are no compelling circumstances for a lesser sentence, as you [Maseko] did not show any remorse,” she said.

“You should have shown something for the court to decide on a lesser sentence. From the onset, you showed no remorse. It only came from your defence.”

She said Maseko had walked the streets with an unlicensed firearm and had used it to rob people and to kill two people in cold blood in the safety of their own home.

“The brutality of murder is too regular in the country. It should come to an end.”

Molefe described the murders as shocking to the community and the Mathabatha family.

“As the father, Dumisa Mathabatha, has testified, the death has left the family in great shock,” she said.

“He said the family still feels unsafe even now, as Maseko has failed to disclose the full names of his friends who were with him during the commission of the crime.”

Molefe said three police officers testified that Maseko’s two accomplices in a gun possession case had told them the three firearms used in the crime were being kept at Maseko’s house.

One firearm recovered

On Thursday, Molefe said when the policemen went with Maseko to his home, he led them to a sangoma’s hut where they found only one firearm hidden inside a black plastic packet under a bowl.

“The police officers also found the firearm’s magazine with two bullets inside it. A third bullet was still in the firearm’s chamber and the serial number of the firearm had been rubbed off,” she said.

Molefe did not believe that Maseko was assaulted or influenced by the policemen to reveal the whereabouts of the weapon.

“According to evidence, the weapon was pointed [out] to the officers by yourself [Maseko] voluntarily,” she said.

“They said you admitted having only one firearm, not three as your accomplices had mentioned.”

The judge said ballistic tests confirmed that the gun was the one used to kill the Mathabatha brothers.

“Exhibits from the ballistic report revealed that the two deceased were shot with the same weapon,” said the judge.

“The tests revealed that the cartridges found at the crime scene were found to have been fired from the same 9mm Z88 pistol found in your [Maseko’s] possession.”

– SAPA

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has said that the judicial system and politics must be separated, the SABC reported on Friday.

For the judiciary to function independently and competently, it should be resourced to stand independently with no parliamentary representation, he reportedly said.

Mogoeng was addressing the North West University summer graduation ceremony in Mahikeng.

The university gave him a honorary doctorate of law for his contribution to the transformation of South Africa and the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) judicial systems, according to the national broadcaster.

– SAPA

Cape Town – National police commissioner Riah Phiyega was told in Parliament on Friday to fire all her senior management staff if they failed to improve their performance.

The comment came from an exasperated Annelise van Wyk, chairperson of the police portfolio committee, as she interrogated a senior police delegation about glaring discrepancies in the SA Police Service’s 2012/13 annual report.

“It is time for this management to start earning their salaries and to start doing the jobs they are appointed for and, national commissioner, if it is not happening, fire them,” she said.

At issue was a claim in the annual report that the embattled crime intelligence division has a vacancy rate of 16.8%.

Repeated questions to SAPS general manager for corporate services Ottilia Moutlane finally revealed that in fact the embattled division was fully staffed with all 9 928 funded posts filled.

The vacancy rate related to the 1 601 positions that the police believed the branch was short of its “ideal” staff component of 10 777 members, Moutlane explained.

Van Wyk berated management for creating the impression that crime intelligence was understaffed and that this might be the cause for some of the division’s well publicised woes.

“It is creating confusion. The figure you are referring to is a wish list. You have got a 100% staff rate,” she said before ordering that the entry be fixed in an erratum to the annual report.

‘Fabrication’

DA police spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard went further and said this amounted to lying to oversight bodies.

“It is a fabrication that has gone to the auditor general, it is a very serious matter.”

Phiyega protested that the police had been entirely transparent with the auditor general, adding that it was “nowhere in our intentions” to misrepresent statistics.

Kohler-Barnard refused to withdraw her remark.

Management came in for a further rebuke when it transpired that it was battling to reduce a backlog in vetting staff, to the extent that at the moment the security clearance of five of crime intelligence’s nine provincial commanders had lapsed.

Moutlane conceded that the backlog stood at more than 7 000 officers, but since April the police had managed to vet only 127.

“It is bad,” she added.

Adopting fast-tracking vetting methods

Phiyega said she had held discussions with the SA Revenue Service (SARS) with a view to adopting fast-tracking vetting methods they had successfully implemented.

To this, Van Wyk said the national commissioner should not be micro-managing problems but be able to trust her senior managers to tackle them as a normal part of their duties.

MPs also expressed concern that the requests from other police departments to crime intelligence for assistance had decreased, suggesting that the rank and file was losing trust in the division.

The exchange came at the end of three days of briefings by the police to the committee amid speculation of a possible return by suspended crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli to his old post.

New national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana said this week he had appealed against a court decision ordering the SAPS to reinstate criminal charges of corruption, murder and kidnapping, and disciplinary steps, against Mdluli.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last month ordered the immediate reinstatement of the charges – which relate in part to the killing of a love rival of Mdluli and allegations that he looted the crime intelligence slush fund.

The murder charges had controversially been withdrawn in late 2011 but Judge John Murphy said the evidence presented a compelling prima facie case against Mdluli.

Phiyega this week said the police were anxious for the Mdluli matter to be finalised in the interest of “making this country safe and secure”.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The intimidation of voters by the ruling party, similar to that in Zimbabwe, will not be allowed in South Africa, Agang SA said on Friday.

“Since the launch of Agang SA as a political party in June, there has been a growing number of incidents of intimidation,” said the party’s women’s organiser Vanessa Hani.

“We have seen what happened in Zimbabwe, and Agang SA is determined that we shall not let the African National Congress [ANC] Zanufy South African politics… Keep your eyes wide-open citizens, because this government is doing it under your noses,” she said.

The ANC responded that it abhorred any political intolerance

“We diligently guard the right of each and every citizen of this country to their political opinions and political activity,” said ANC spokesperson Khusela Sangoni-Khawe.

“If any of our members, if there is any evidence of wrongdoing committed by members, the organisation would want that brought to its attention so it could deal with the matter.”

She said the ANC encouraged anyone involved, including ANC members, to also report the incidents to the police.

Speaking in Pretoria, where Agang SA handed a memorandum of concerns to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Hani claimed several incidents of ANC voter intimidation had taken place this year.

ANC disrupts meeting

Agang SA charged that in July, a community meeting it organised in Mokopane was disrupted by a local ANC councillor, who arrived unannounced at the event and told the crowd to follow him if they wanted candles, food parcels, and jobs.

In August, in Bela Bela’s Section 28, the local ANC mayor apparently demanded to be given an audience at an Agang SA-organised community meeting, and the police had to be called in to remove him.

ANC councillors had also attended Agang SA functions in the Western Cape, where they had tried “to make a nuisance of themselves”, said Hani.

She claimed the people who hired a Bloemfontein hall to the party in September were intimidated into not opening it for Agang SA, and ANC members were taken there as part of its “intimidation tactics”.

Hani said party member Nyako Masenya was killed during the launch of an Agang SA branch in Uitkyk, Bochum, Limpopo.

However, Limpopo police refused to confirm that a man killed in Uitkyk was a member of Agang SA.

“Away from the attention of the media, a pattern of systematic corruption of the political process has emerged,” Hani said.

“Enough is enough. Our people did not fight and die in the struggle so that nearly 20 years after freedom we are still not free to exercise freedom of association and political rights protected under the Constitution.”

Corruption

After 20 years of ANC government, corruption was affecting every sphere of South African public life, she charged.

Agang SA was determined that corruption would not spread to the conduct of free and fair elections.

“The foundations of our constitutional democracy are being systematically attacked; the judicial system, the freedom of the press, accountability of government and the human rights of all citizens,” she said.

“So, we will not let citizen Masenya die in vain. In his honour we are inspired to launch today Agang SA’s ‘Free and Fair’ campaign.”

The party urged the IEC to be vigilant in fulfilling its obligations to ensure the 2014 elections were free and fair, in accordance with South African and international law.

– SAPA

Cape Town – An elderly man, who has appeared in court for sexual offences involving young girls, has died in prison, a correctional services official said on Friday.

Western Cape correctional services spokesperson Simphiwe Xako said Roger Haupt, 77, died in Goodwood Prison two weeks ago.

“He was admitted at the Karl Bremer Hospital and returned back to Goodwood Prison. He died at 11:00 that Saturday [28 September].”

He refused to divulge the cause of death.

Haupt was to have appeared in the Goodwood District Court on Friday, after a failed bail application in August.

He faced 22 charges involving sexual offences.

At his last appearance, the court heard the investigation began when one of Haupt’s neighbours reported that for years, he had seen young girls entering his home at all hours.

Police spokesperson Johan Kotzé stated that Haupt recently tested HIV-positive.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is on the verge of a “new dawn”, newly-appointed national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana said on Friday.

Addressing the National Press Club in Pretoria on his vision for the NPA, Nxasana said he would ensure justice for all victims of crime.

“I appreciate the enormous task at hand and the expectations of citizens,” he said.

“I would want to assure victims of crime that this is a new dawn for the NPA. I pledge my commitment to prosecute all cases without fear, favour or prejudice.”

On Friday, Nxasana said the NPA was going ahead with its appeal against high court Judge John Murphy’s ruling on former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.

Last month, Murphy set aside a decision to withdraw fraud and corruption charges and murder and kidnapping charges against Mdluli.

President Jacob Zuma appointed Nxasana to lead the NPA at the end of August.

Nxasana, from the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, started his new role on 1 October.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is on the verge of a “new dawn”, newly-appointed national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana said on Friday.

Addressing the National Press Club in Pretoria on his vision for the NPA, Nxasana conceded that public perception of the NPA was generally negative.

“In my view, what is at the heart of the problems of the NPA at present, is those few so-called high profile cases.

“Obviously, there is a perception that has been created that the NPA is somehow trying to protect some high-ranking people,” he said.

“I will be looking into those [cases] with the help of my deputies and try to improve the integrity and credibility of the NPA.

“Where harsh decisions have to be made, they will be made with a view to improve the image of the organisation.”

Nxasana said he was up to the task of leading the organisation and would need communities’ help to combat runaway crime levels.

“I would want to assure all members of society, especially those who have been victims of crime, that this is a new dawn for the NPA,” he said.

“I pledge my commitment to prosecute all cases, where there is sufficient and admissible evidence, without fear, favour or prejudice.”

Appeal against Mdluli

Nxasana said the NPA was going ahead with its appeal against high court Judge John Murphy’s ruling on controversial former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.

“At [the] NPA we hold the view that if this judgment is left unchallenged, it will have serious legal and practical consequences for the NPA.

“We appeal to clarify the parameters of the courts’ inherent jurisdiction to review prosecutorial decisions and the discretionary powers of the NPA to institute and conduct criminal proceedings as contemplated in the NPA Act.”

Nxasana denied that the appeal was an attempt to protect Mdluli.

The NPA had lodged the appeal with a “clear conscience” to preserve its principle of taking decisions independently and impartially, he said.

“I plead with the public to have confidence and trust in our word that our intentions are pure. I will work tirelessly to change the negative perceptions about the integrity and credibility of the NPA,” Nxasana said.

“It is indeed unfortunate that the excellent work of many dedicated prosecutors is overshadowed by the few cases that have occupied the media space recently.”

Charges withdrawn

In September, Murphy overturned an NPA decision to withdraw fraud and corruption charges against Mdluli.

The former spy boss allegedly used state coffers to pay for his private BMW. He allegedly registered his relatives, girlfriends, and their families as covert intelligence operatives and paid them as such.

Murphy also criticised the decision by the director of public prosecutions for south Gauteng, Andrew Chauke, to withdraw murder charges against Mdluli.

The court censured Chauke’s decision to send the matter of Oupa Ramogibe’s death for an inquest, instead of a prosecution.

Ramogibe died in February 1999 after marrying Tshidi Buthelezi, the mother of Mdluli’s child.

The Ramogibe family has accused Mdluli of killing him.

However, Mdluli claimed there was a plot to implicate him in the crime and that the Ramogibe family was working with the police.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The alleged mastermind of a deadly satanic ritual expected Satan to appear after calling on him in a chant, the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, sitting in Palm Ridge, heard on Friday.

“I expected something to happen,” said Linden Wagner, who wrote the poem that he and his accomplices chanted after he assaulted and set alight his friend Kirsty Theologo, 18, and throttled her 14-year-old friend.

“In American films, people who sold their souls died physically and then came back to life,” he said.

On Wednesday, Wagner testified that he had wanted to sell his soul so he could gain power.

“When you sell your soul, you gain something. You can gain money, power and fame,” he said.

The attack on Theologo and her friend occurred at a hill in Linmeyer, in Johannesburg south, in October 2011.

Theologo died of her injuries a week later, but her friend survived.

Wagner, Courtney Daniels, Harvey Isha, and Robin Harwood are currently on trial for the murder and attempted murder. All have pleaded not guilty.

Two other accused, Jeremy King and Lester Moody, confessed to the crime and were each sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment, five of them suspended.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Mahikeng- It is almost comical to watch Mahikeng Municipality’s Acting Executive Mayor, Cllr Pontsho Tabane, attempts to spin himself out of the Nando’s scandal, says DA Chris Hattingh.
According to DA, initially during the SCOPA public hearing on Tuesday, Mr Tabane had no explanation for the R132 585 of public money spent on buying food from Nandos over 35 days between March 15 and April 18 this year.
“The Mayor has now attempted to justify it by saying that Nando’s meals were bought for 2,700 children who volunteered to clean up the city. If this is true, we are perplexed as to why the municipality is using children to do the work that public officials are paid to do” said Hattingh.
DA said they challenge Mr Tabane to come up with auditable evidence of what really happened. The absence of audit documentation is one of the main reasons why the Mahikeng municipality received its 4th consecutive Disclaimer from the Auditor General.
“Mr Tabane has now accused me of stealing municipal documents containing evidence of the money spent at Nando’s. He has also threatened to lay a charge against me for “spying” said Hattingh.
DA said this is absurd because the irregular Nandos expenditure is contained in a public document that was tabled at a Mahikeng Council meeting.
“It was at that meeting that the Council was requested to condone this expenditure with long lists of other irregular, unauthorized, fruitless and wasteful expenditure”.
Mr Tabane has allegedly admitted that Mahikeng municipality was unable to provide a paper trail for auditing purposes, that the municipal bank account was hacked, that an undisclosed amount of money was stolen and that the council is investigating about R38million of wasteful expenditure.
The sad state of the municipality can only be corrected by an independent skills audit and a turn-around plan.
“We will continue to push for this so that we can ensure service delivery to all the people of Mahikeng” concludes DA Hattingh.-TDN
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