Johannesburg – A man was arrested on Thursday after police found a vehicle fitted with blue lights in his garage in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng police said.

“Police acted on a tip-off that led them to an apartment where a vehicle with blue lights was found hidden in a garage,” said Captain Kabelo Marumo.

Marumo said the vehicle was apparently stolen in a house robbery in Roodepoort.

A 34-year-old man was arrested.

“On Tuesday, police raided another apartment and found a woman and a man, but the man fled the scene,” he said.

Marumo said the woman was found in possession of an unlicensed firearm, a hijacked vehicle, a metro police certificate, cash, credit cards and official documents.

Marumo did not rule out the possibility of the arrested people being linked to a blue light gang.

Police were searching for the man who fled the scene during the raid.

The man and the woman would appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of possession of stolen vehicle, impersonating a police officer and possession of unlicensed firearm.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The overwhelming majority of cases referred to the human settlements department by the anti-corruption hotline have not been dealt with, the DA said on Thursday.

“Only 1% of 268 cases of corruption referred to the department of human settlements by the national anti-corruption hotline to date have been closed,” DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa said.

This emerged during the Public Service Commission’s briefing to Parliament’s portfolio committee on human settlements this week.

“I will forward this new information to the public protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, and request that she include it in her current investigation into housing corruption,” Mokgalapa said.

He said the failure to finalise probes into corruption allegations was “nothing short of shameful complacency in the face of corruption”.

Drastic action was needed to address corruption in the department.

“South Africans who have had their rights to housing infringed by unscrupulous officials and contractors deserve to see these cases resolved and those responsible held accountable. We simply cannot allow this to continue,” he said.

– SAPA

Pietermaritzburg – Three men, who battered to death two women they suspected of practising witchcraft, were each jailed for 20 years by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.

Judge Rishi Seegobin said that in modern South Africa a person’s subjective belief that another practised witchcraft did not justify that person’s murder.

The sentences should reflect society’s indignation at the murders, he said.

Prosecutor Xolani Nkelane had asked for life sentences, but Seegobin decided on lesser sentences because the men had pleaded guilty and were first offenders.

Alice Dlamini and her daughter Nkhesikhona Xulu were murdered in August.

Thulani Xulu, 25, hit the women’s heads with a hammer. His brother Bongani Xulu, 28, used a bolted stick on them and Zakhele Nkosi, 26, speared them.

The women had skull fractures and other injuries.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – MPs who fail to disclose their business interests on time, should be disciplined beyond naming and shaming, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Thursday.

“It is obvious that several MPs don’t take their obligation to account seriously enough and have contravened the code of conduct,” it said in a statement.

“The PSAM calls upon the joint committee on ethics and members’ interests to recommend to Parliament that serious action [beyond a mere reprimand and publication of implicated MPs names] be taken, especially in instances where MPs have repeatedly failed to account on time.”

Parliament’s ethics committee said on Wednesday that 59 MPs, including at least one Cabinet member, had missed the 23 August deadline to disclose their business interests.

The 2013 Register of Members’ Interests was released during a committee meeting. It lists the business interests, sponsorships, gifts, property, travel, pensions and other financial interests of MPs.

Parliament’s members’ interests registrar Faziela Mahomed said a further three MPs had not handed in their disclosure forms at all.

They included two MPs who were ill, and former communications minister Dina Pule, who was suspended from Parliament before the deadline.

Mahomed recommended to the committee that the three be given an extension to complete their forms.

The PSAM said the code of conduct allowed for a reprimand, a fine not exceeding 30 days’ salary, a reduction of salary or allowance for not more than 15 days, and the suspension of privileges or a member’s right to a seat in parliamentary debate.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The Special Investigating Unit will use its extended powers to step up the recovery of stolen state funds and remove corrupt officials, its new head Vas Soni said on Thursday.

He told Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice that the unit would “reboot” itself in line with last year’s amendment to the SIU Act.

This gave it the power to litigate to reclaim lost resources, whereas before it could merely investigate and hand evidence to other entities.

“Prior to the amendment, for all practical purposes, the SIU was in effect nothing more than a handmaiden: investigating and collecting evidence for other state entities to use in civil cases, criminal prosecutions and/or disciplinary inquiries.”

He said he was confident the new law would mean more looted state resources were returned to the coffers.

“If there is gold out there, we must dig out and recover what we can,” Soni said.

“The ultimate purpose is to maximise recoveries and minimise the benefits and freedoms that are retained by those who have unscrupulously exploited shortcomings in our state institutions.”

Soni said in future the modus operandi would be “identifying from the outset who the real culprits are, locating where the ill-gotten proceeds are, and taking prompt action to recover and institute claims and other legal processes”.

Soni was appointed as the new head of the SIU a fortnight ago.

It is the first permanent appointment to the post since the departure more than two years ago of Willie Hofmeyr, who estimated the amount lost by the state to corruption per year to be between R25bn and R30bn.

Earlier this year – during the rocky tenure of SIU head Nomvula Mokhatla – the SIU came under fire from MPs for setting low targets in terms of taking on corruption cases and recovering stolen state funds.

According to its strategic plan, the unit, which proceeds on the basis of proclamation by the president, aimed to deal with cases involving R100m in potential cash recoveries of misspent state funds and to reclaim an actual R32m in the 2013/2014 financial year.

Soni told Sapa he could not give a long-term numerical target for recoveries precisely because the unit did not select its own cases and relied on proclamations.

“We do not know what we are going to get. Only once we do receive a proclamation can we then say, quite quickly, how much we aim to recover.”

The unit’s annual report for the last financial year shows that it uncovered suspect transactions of R1.4bn – a figure Democratic Alliance MP Debbie Schafer termed “low given the levels of corruption”.

Soni sought to ensure MPs that the unit had stabilised after a series of high-profile labour disputes, and said he was happy to comply with lawmakers’ request for more regular briefings from the SIU.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday rejected claims that racist white policemen had framed two black men for the murder of a Pretoria businessman.

Judge Tshifiwa Maumela found lawyer Marabe Talane, 39, and Rodney Katang Masemola, 35, guilty of the May 2008 murders of Murrayfield businessman Dawie Maree and their accomplice Seporo Martin Tshebesebe.

Maree, 27, was fatally wounded during a struggle with an armed assailant in his house, in front of his wife Elana and his two young children. He died after being shot in the back. The bullet entered his chest and left through his throat.

Masemola was shot in the stomach and Tshebesebe was shot dead during the attack.

Maumela said it was not clear from the evidence who had shot who, but it was clear that the shooting had been prompted by Masemola and Tshebesebe illegally entering the Maree property.

He said the accused knew someone might be hurt and die, including one of them and were criminally liable for both men’s deaths.

Masemola’s evidence that he and Tshebesebe were standing under a tree when Maree stormed out and shot them, whereafter Elana Maree emerged and fired a shot that killed her husband was also rejected.

Maumela said it was improbable that Maree’s wife, who had a small build, could have carried or dragged her injured husband and the body of Tshebesebe to the bedroom, where a neighbour found them shortly afterwards.

There was no evidence of drag marks or blood outside the house.

He rejected as improbable the accused’s claim that white policemen had conspired against them and helped construct the scene. This theory entailed that the police would have had to carry a bolt cutter with them for months while waiting for Masemola to recover from his injuries so they could later plant it in his room, he said.

Convicted

Both accused were convicted on charges of housebreaking and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Their advocate, Paul Shapiro, said his clients would apply for leave to appeal against their convictions. He argued that the two must be “the most stupid housebreakers in the history of South Africa” because they had broken open the house and the safe, but only walked away with a cellphone, a watch, and earrings.

“I am not minimising the seriousness of the offence, but on the spectrum of offences there are much worse. There can be little doubt that the two accused qualify as the worst social outcasts and as marginalised people in our society,” he said.

The trial was postponed to 24 March next year for pre-sentencing reports.

Maree’s wife Elana van Breda (she has since remarried) cried throughout Thursday’s proceedings.

She said she felt relieved that her husband’s murderers had at last been convicted, but their wanting to appeal rubbed more salt into the wound.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The DA is consulting its legal team about possible action against ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani, MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard said on Thursday.

Kohler-Barnard was cleared on Wednesday of breaching confidentiality related to misconduct hearings against former communications minister Dina Pule.

The investigation, by Parliament’s ethics committee, followed public statements by Sizani that the DA MP violated her oath of confidentiality by posting updates on Facebook during the hearings.

The parliamentary code of conduct enjoins all MPs and staff serving on the committee to take an oath of confidentiality.

“The Democratic Alliance is today discussing with legal representatives what legal action should be taken against Mr Sizani for this defamatory attack on my character,” Kohler-Barnard said.

The ANC said the information was published in The Post in August, an allegation the newspaper later denied.

“I have the maximum 5 000 friends on Facebook, many of whom are journalists, and as there was never a word about the hearings on my page, nothing was ever published or broadcast on radio or television,” Kohler-Barnard said.

“I consider Mr Sizani’s comments to have been libellous and a vicious personal attack on my integrity and ethical behaviour.”

Sizani ‘unapologetic’

In a statement issued later on Thursday, Sizani said he remained “unapologetic” about reporting the allegations to the committee.

“Despite the committee’s decision not to find her guilty, we remain firm in our view that the assertions made in the [Post] article suggested possible misconduct worthy of an investigation by the committee,” Sizani said.

He also dismissed Kohler-Barnard’s “bizarre threat” of legal action.

“We will never be intimidated by irrational legal actions from reporting anything we deem improper to the relevant authorities,” Sizani said.

“We are more than ready to meet her in court whenever she decides to pursue the matter.”

In its ruling on Wednesday, the ethics committee said: “[We] considered the matter and dismissed the allegations against Ms Kohler-Barnard.”

The DA MP was on the committee which recommended that Pule be suspended by Parliament for a scandal in which her boyfriend benefited from state funding.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The ANC is a dying party, DA leader Helen Zille said on Thursday.

Zille was speaking at a gala event hosted by the SA Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg.

“There is a lot of tension and divergence in the ruling party. The ANC cannot save itself from the ANC,” Zille said.

“The ANC is a dying party. A wounded animal is always the most dangerous. In the next 10 years we’ll see just how vicious it can be.”

She said there was a series of catalytic moments currently in the political landscape that would contribute to the fundamental realignment of politics in the country.

Zille noted “many missed moments” for the realignment.

“The DA will be at the centre if this realignment, and the DA will do well in South Africa,” she said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The mother of two toddlers found dead in the veld near Zonkizizwe, Katlehong, on the East Rand, was discharged from hospital on Thursday, police said.

“She will be charged with double murder when she appears at the Heidelberg Magistrate’s Court [on Friday],” police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini said.

Earlier, he said the woman was under police guard at the Natalspruit Hospital after investigations linked her to the children’s deaths. Residents found the children dead on Wednesday.

The woman initially told police her husband left her and the children in the veld on Tuesday, while on their way from Witbank to Johannesburg.

She claimed they slept in a small, abandoned house overnight and that her husband left them with cooldrink, which they drank on Tuesday night.

She said she found the children dead when she woke on Wednesday morning.

“It has been established that an initial statement submitted by her to the police was false,” Dlamini said.

“Police interviewed several witnesses who confirmed that she had not been in Witbank and her family is in Zonkizizwe,” he said.

“The father of the two little children was traced and submitted a statement to the police. It is suspected that the girls died of poisoning.”

The woman was taken to hospital on Wednesday in a critical, but stable condition.

The motive for the killing was thought to relate to domestic issues between the father and the mother.

Post mortems were conducted on Thursday, but the results were not yet available, Dlamini said.

– SAPA

The Eastern Cape government has spent over R87m on catering, with certain departments spending more on catering than staff development, the DA said on Thursday.

DA spokesperson Bobby Stevenson said in a statement the provincial government spent R87.2m on catering in the 2012/13 financial year.

“In contrast, the amount spent on staff development was R95.9m, according to a DA analysis of the latest annual reports of departments,” he said.

“In a province where departments consistently blame capacity problems for poor service delivery, it is scandalous that almost the same amount is spent on catering as on staff development… We should be developing minds, not stomachs.”

Premier Noxolo Kiviet’s office was not immediately available for comment.

Less spent of staff development

Stevenson said certain departments spent more on catering than on staff development. These included local government (R3.3m on catering versus R1.8m on staff development), social development (R7m versus R3.5m), the premier’s office (R4.9m versus R1.1m), and the provincial legislature (R6.9m versus R1.4m).

“The department of education spent a whopping R39.4m on catering and R40.2m on staff development,” he said.

“All these figures illustrate that provincial departments have got their priorities wrong. This province requires a highly capacitated civil service that can deliver quality services.”

Stevenson said he would ask the departments follow-up questions to establish the nature of their catering spending.

The DA would also ask how much money the Eastern Cape spent at franchised fast food outlets and restaurants.

This followed reports that Northern Cape Premier Sylvia Lucas used her official credit card to spend R53,159 on fast food during her first 10 weeks in office.

– SAPA