Johannesburg – I have always considered language an important medium of self-expression for all people. In fact, my personal experience has persuaded me to accept that our ability to reason and to argue logically and even our very ability to think, rests upon qualities that first evolved as part of our use of language.
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Cape Town – Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chair Pansy Tlakula is off the hook for now, after technical mistakes by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, an ad hoc Parliamentary committee decided on Thursday.

The committee was tasked with considering Madonsela’s report, which found Tlakula had played a “grossly irregular” role in procuring the Riverside Office Park building in Centurion, Pretoria.

A legal opinion tabled in the committee found Madonsela had made several procedural mistakes – a position accepted by all political parties represented on the committee.

Committee chair Luwellyn Landers said the opinion meant it would be illegal for the committee to take any action based on Madonsela’s report.

Both the public protector’s office and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) are chapter nine institutions.

MPs said Parliament could not be seen to be impeding the independence of the bodies.

“We are going to draft a report that says it is not within our competency to take any action; that any remedial action proposed in her [Madonsela’s] report will be dealt with in our report,” Landers said.

“It will simply say something to the effect that Treasury, the IEC and home affairs need to tighten up any procurement processes in the IEC and that’s it.”

Parliament could not do anything more because of the constitutional principle of separation of powers.

Overstepped mandate

Landers and Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe were tasked by the committee to draft a report, which would more than likely be formally adopted by MPs next week.

Selfe said Madonsela had followed the wrong processes, creating the impression that she had overstepped her mandate.

“We think that it is illegal in terms of the way the Electoral Act is written, read with the relevant provisions of the Constitution…. It is impossible for Parliament to do what the public protector is asking it to do,” Selfe said.

The public protector made two requests when submitting her report to Parliament, Selfe said.

One was to ask the National Assembly Speaker to meet the electoral commission, with the exception of the chairperson, to look at Tlakula’s allegation that the report was in some way defective or biased.

The second, that the report be referred to the Electoral Court, was branded as bizarre by MPs in the committee because of the constitutional principle of separation of powers.

Selfe said Madonsela had dealt with matters the wrong way around.

“If it had been her [Madonsela’s] intention to refer the matter to the Electoral Court, she should have, on finding evidence of prima facie misconduct, referred the matter directly to the court,” Selfe said.

“If the Electoral Court, after investigation, found that to be the case, then the court would have produced a report for the National Assembly which would have set up an ad hoc committee to consider that report, and then, if it was found she had indeed committed misconduct, to recommend to the president that she be dismissed.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A man convicted of several rapes was handed two life sentences and 25 years by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.

Sokhela Gida, 20, of Port Shepstone, pleaded guilty to three rapes and other crimes.

Judge Rishi Seegobin handed down two life sentences for raping a paralysed woman and her 15-year-old daughter in January 2011.

He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for breaking into their house, 10 years for raping a 22-year-old woman in August 2010, and five years for assaulting one of the women.

All the sentences would run concurrently with the life sentences.

Seegobin said Gida was well on the way to becoming a serial rapist and it was only a matter of time before he resorted to murder.

In passing sentence the judge said the actions of men who committed depraved sexual acts to satisfy their wanton lust would not be tolerated.

The raped mother and daughter still suffered severe psychological trauma and had to undergo preventive treatment for possible HIV infection.

The girl’s schoolwork suffered after her ordeal and she had emotional problems, such as being afraid of men, including members of her family.

– SAPA

Cape Town – A former Old Mutual team leader, who was jailed for four years on 62 counts of fraud, abandoned an application for leave to appeal against her sentence on Thursday.

Fairuz Terblanche, 49, of Mitchell’s Plain, appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.

On Monday, Sonnenberg jailed her for four years, under legislation empowering prison authorities to release her after eight months to serve the rest of the sentence under house arrest.

Under house arrest, she would be permitted to leave home in the day to earn a living, but would be required to perform community service in her spare time. This would be in the form of cleaning or maintenance, usually at a police station.

Terblanche was brought into the court room wearing leg-irons, which were removed by a prison official before her case was called.

Legal Aid attorney Hailey Lawrence, for Terblanche, told the court she no longer wished to appeal against her sentence.

Terblanche was the administrator of the Old Mutual Retirement Fund.

During the absence of subordinates, she used their user-codes to access Old Mutual’s computer system to capture, authorise and approve payments from unclaimed retirement funds.

In doing so, she used the names of beneficiaries of the retirement funds Evergreen, NBS, BOE and Progressor, but changed their banking details in order to channel the money into her personal bank account.

At times, she instructed subordinates to process false requests from beneficiaries for the urgent payment of funds.

The embezzlement, totalling R914 918 happened between May 2007 and March 2010.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A South African soldier has been jailed for 15 years by the Bethlehem Circuit Court for double murder, Free State police said on Thursday.

Mpumelelo Hlubi was sentenced to 15 years for the murder of Lieutenant Thabiso Seithati, 28, and to 10 years for the murder of Gunner Zakhe Khumalo, 26, said Sergeant Majang Skalkie. The sentences would run concurrently.

In February, Hlubi shot Seithati and Khumalo while driving from the Fouriesburg military base to the Kromdraai temporary base, near the Lesotho border, in a military vehicle.

Hlubi dumped their bodies beside the Kromdraai farm gravel road.

An R4 rifle and a cellphone were taken from the men and were later found with Hlubi.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Police shot rubber bullets at violent protesters in Bekkersdal on Thursday, said police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini.

“There were sporadic incidents of violence in Bekkersdal, where the protesters were throwing stones at the police,” Dlamini said.

He said tension in the township was heightened following the shootings and that police were on high alert.

He said seven people were arrested after the community centre was burnt down in the afternoon. They would appear in court soon on charges of public violence.

Fire engines were deployed and police were stationed everywhere in the area after protesters set the building alight at 14:00.

A group of Bekkersdal residents marched to the nearby Simunye township earlier in the day.

Police said the group was peaceful.

– SAPA

Mbombela – Two men, who killed a man and injured another in a tavern brawl, were each sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Nelspruit Regional Court on Thursday.

Magistrate Andre Geldenhuys found no substantial and compelling circumstances for the court to impose lesser sentences, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Mxolisi Ngomane, 29, and Mandros Chauke, 25, both from Nyongane Trust outside White River, were arrested on 23 August 2009, in connection with the murder of Ntokozo Mngomezulu and the attempted murder of Moses Malinga.

The men were involved in a fight at the National Tavern in Nyongane Trust.

Ngomane was also sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the attempted murder of Malinga, to run concurrently with the murder sentence.

Ngomane and Chauke pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Geldenhuys said Chauke had started the fight.

“Liquor and Ngomane also played a role in fuelling the fight,” he said.

“Ngomane joined in the fight trying to protect his friend. He broke bottles and threw crates around. He then stabbed the deceased with a broken beer bottle.”

Geldenhuys said that when Malinga separated Chauke and Mngomezulu, Ngomane stabbed him in the back.

“When he turned to flee, he again stabbed him twice in his back.”

Chauke stabbed Mngomezulu in the neck with a broken beer bottle.

The two ran away, and were arrested at Ngomane’s home.

Geldenhuys said taverns were meant to be places for entertainment, but that fights always broke out.

“If courts do not impose proper sentences for such offenders, the community will take the law into their own hands,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Nine men were arrested on Thursday for the abduction, torture and assault of two youths in Kwaggafontein, outside Bloemfontein, Free State police said.

The youths, aged 15 and 16, told police on Tuesday that they were kidnapped on 17 October and held against their will for 22-hours, said police spokesperson Chaka Marope.

The police believed an employee of a company which sold concrete suspected that the two had stolen his cellphone and clothing.

“On Thursday, 17 October, at approximately 09:00, he mobilised his co-workers and apprehended [them] at their parental home.”

The youths claimed they were taken to the company’s premises, where they were punched, beaten and forced to smoke dagga and drink beer.

They told the police the men hit their heads with a hammer, poured ice-cold water on them and gave them electric shocks.

“They were given a bottle of Vaseline and forced to have sexual intercourse with each other in the full view of the suspects,” Marope said, adding that some of them filmed the crime with their cellphones.

“The victim’s ordeal and degrading inhumane punishment lasted until the following day, when they were released at around 11:00,” Marope said.

“Due to the grievous bodily injuries they suffered, they spent three days under medical treatment at home.”

Marope said members of the Family Violence, Sexual Offences and Child Protection Unit had worked tirelessly to secure the arrests.

The men, aged between 22 and 47, would appear soon in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on charges including kidnapping and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

– SAPA