Johannesburg – Twenty-six people appeared in the Ngqamakhwe Magistrate’s Court on charges of public violence on Tuesday, Eastern Cape police said.

“They were not asked to plead and their case was postponed to 22 November for further investigation,” said police spokesperson Jackson Manatha.

The group was released on a warning.

The 18 women and eight men were arrested on Monday after violent protests broke out in the area.

Manatha said the area was quiet on Tuesday morning.

– SAPAJohannesburg – Twenty-six people appeared in the Ngqamakhwe Magistrate’s Court on charges of public violence on Tuesday, Eastern Cape police said.

“They were not asked to plead and their case was postponed to 22 November for further investigation,” said police spokesperson Jackson Manatha.

The group was released on a warning.

The 18 women and eight men were arrested on Monday after violent protests broke out in the area.

Manatha said the area was quiet on Tuesday morning.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Police operations in the Western Cape are unaffected by corruption allegations against provincial commissioner Arno Lamoer, Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said on Tuesday.

Plato met senior police managers on Tuesday.

Lamoer was not at the meeting.

“A delegation of deputy commissioners have assured me that policing is stable and continues unaffected,” Plato said in a statement.

The allegations relate to newspaper reports that national police commissioner Riah Phiyega told Lamoer on three occasions that she was aware he was under investigation.

According to the Sunday Independent, the telephone conversations were legally recorded by crime intelligence operatives monitoring Lamoer’s calls.

He was allegedly associated with a Cape Town drug-dealer and well-known businessman.

In the conversations Phiyega reportedly made Lamoer aware of similar allegations by Hawks’ boss Anwa Dramat.

According to the report, the disclosures outraged crime intelligence operatives, who had threatened to lay criminal charges against Phiyega.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate confirmed on Friday that it had received allegations of defeating the ends of justice against Phiyega.

Phiyega denied the allegations.

She said she had not been formally informed of the case of defeating the ends of justice against her, but was aware of the allegations.

– SAPA

A man was arrested for attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old was arrested on Monday afternoon after Pinetown residents called police about a silver VW Polo with no registration plates, police spokesperson Thulani Zwane said.

The police spotted the vehicle in New Germany and a high-speed chase ensued.

The man lost control of the car and it overturned.

He got out and fired two shots at the officers.

“The police managed to capture the man. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm,” said Zwane.

The unlicensed CZ 9mm pistol would be sent for ballistic tests to determine if it was used in other crimes.

The man was expected to appear in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court later on Tuesday.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Boeremag leader Tom Vorster and five members of its bomb squad which blew up numerous targets in 2002 were sentenced to in effect 25 years’ imprisonment by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Vorster shrugged and told reporters he had not expected such a severe sentence, as he had already been in prison for over a decade.

Bombers Herman van Rooyen, Johan and Wilhelm Pretorius, and Rudi Gouws received the same sentences as Vorster.

The third Pretorius brother, master bomb maker Kobus Pretorius, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, of which 10 years were suspended.

Remorse

This was because Pretorius had a change of heart during the trial, broke away from his past and expressed remorse for what he did.

The members of the bomb squad were sentenced to an additional 13 years imprisonment on charges of culpable homicide and conspiring to murder former president Nelson Mandela.

Soweto mother Claudia Mokone was killed when a piece of steel dislodged by a bomb the Boeremag planted on a railway landed in her shack.

Judge Eben Jordaan said Mandela would have been killed by a landmine planted by the Boeremag bomb squad if he had not arrived by helicopter to open a school in Bolobedu, Limpopo.

This would have caused chaos and bloodshed in the country. He said the Boeremag’s aim had been to destroy democracy in South Africa.

How dangerous they were was shown by the fact that they carried on committing violent crimes some had said were incapable of being carried out.

The bombers already had five large car bombs ready for targets in the city centres of Pretoria and Johannesburg and were planning further bomb attacks when they were caught.

Boeremag leaders Mike du Toit, Dirk Hanekom and the Pretorius brothers’ father, Dr Lets Pretorius, were each sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment, of which 10 years were conditionally suspended for five years.

Mike du Toit’s right-hand man, Andre du Toit, and Dion van den Heever were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment of which 10 years were suspended.

Rooikoos du Plessis and Jurie Vermeulen, who also played important roles in planning the coup, got 15 years’ imprisonment, of which 10 were suspended.

Suspended sentences

One of the Boeremag’s most active members and the Boeremag chaplain, 74-year-old Vis Visagie, was sentenced to five years of correctional supervision.

Five of the Boeremag members who played a lesser role, including the youngest member Jacques Jordaan, walked out of the court free men after being given suspended sentences.

They are the Boeremag “weakling” Adriaan van Wyk and former defence force officers Giel Burger, Jacques Olivier, and Pieter van Deventer.

The sentences were met with outrage by some, but acceptance by others.

Dr Lets Pretorius’s wife Minnie cried inconsolably. Friends shielded her from the cameras.

Van Wyk’s wife expressed relief that her husband would be coming home.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje

Potchefstroom-North West police are investigating a case of inquest after two learners from Berts Bricks Primary School drowned.

The atrocity took place on Monday after the kids were aallegedly dropped by their school bus.

“Three kids were allegedly walking home from school when the youngest girl aged 7 slipped and drown into an overflowing furrow at Haaskraal farm near Potchefstroom on Monday, 29 at about 15:00pm” captain Pelonomi Makau said.

Police said a canal was overflowing after severe storm with gusty winds, hail and heavy rain were experienced in Potchefstroom and nearby areas.

“According to the information, the youngest girl slipped and fell in an overflowing furrow. It is alleged that a 12 year-old girl attempted to rescue her and also drowned” Makau said.

The third girl who experienced the ordeal managed to go home and reported the incident.

“The Rescue Police were alerted and a search was conducted after missing girls until Monday midnight without any success. On Tuesday, at about 05:00am, police continued with a search and the two bodies were recovered three kilometres away from where they alleged drowning” she continues.

The South African Police Service is appealing to motorists as well as pedestrians not to cross overflowing rivers and dams during these times of rains.-TDN

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Pretoria – Twenty Boeremag members convicted of high treason were given jail terms of between five and 30 years in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, according to reports from the court. 

The charge arose from a rightwing plot in the late 1990s and early 2000s to violently overthrow the African National Congress government and chase all black, coloured and Indian people out of the country.

The first of the Boeremag members was arrested before others commenced a bombing spree, attacking among others the police air wing at the Grand Central Airport, and blowing up railway lines, bridges and a Buddhist temple.

Members of the Boeremag’s bomb squad, Herman van Rooyen, Rudi Gouws and brothers Johan, Kobus and Wilhelm Pretorius, were also convicted of culpable homicide and conspiring to murder former president Nelson Mandela.

Soweto mother Claudia Mokome was killed when the bomb squad blew up a railway line and a piece of steel landed on her shack.

The men also planted a bomb on the road Mandela he was supposed to use on his way to open a rural school, but the plan was thwarted when he arrived by helicopter instead.

The decade-long trial has been one of the most expensive in South African history.

Legal Aid SA said it had spent just over R36m on the accused’s legal costs to date.

On Monday, Judge Eben Jordaan described the personal circumstances of each accused in detail, stressing that their involvement in the case had caused financial ruin, the end of promising careers and also the end of marriages for many of them.

He said Pretorius had ignored warnings that he was busy with unlawful activities and had bullied underlings to become part of the coup plan.

Jordaan rejected Prestorius’s claim that the others had misled him, and said he must have understood the consequences of being complicit in the plot.

– Sapa and News24

Johannesburg – Two children were found dead in a car in Zwide, Port Elizabeth, on Tuesday morning, Eastern Cape police said.

The two boys, aged 3 and 4, were discovered in Scheepers Street just after 01:00, said Warrant Officer Thembi Gwe.

They were found after a search by residents and police.

Gwe said the grandmother of one of the boys visited a house in the area with them on Monday.

“They wanted to play with vehicles that were parked outside. She ordered them to go back home,” said Gwe.

When she arrived home a few hours later the boys were not there.

A search was initiated and the boys were found in a vehicle parked in a yard in the street near the house they went to visit.

“The vehicle has been standing there for two months as it had mechanical problems. It is not clear how the children got into the vehicle.”

It was not known how the children died. Police were waiting for post-mortem results, she said.

SAPA

East London – ANC president Jacob Zuma launched a thinly veiled attack against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the Eastern Cape at the weekend, the Daily Dispatch reported on Tuesday.

“Some say they are fighting for economic freedom. Who is oppressing them economically? Who do they want economic freedom from?

“It is only the ANC that brought South Africa freedom. When it was time to fight, it was us who died for freedom. We were arrested and went to Robben Island and we are the only party that will change our people’s situation in South Africa,” Zuma said.

He was speaking to about 500 people at the Mdantsane’s Nonzwakazi Primary School before delivering the Organisation of African Unity/African Union anniversary lecture in East London in his capacity as ruling party leader.

Zuma told residents not to waste their votes on opposition parties, saying this would be as futile as “throwing your vote in the ocean”.

“There will be many who will come and say nothing has changed since 1994. They will criticise the ANC and yet they have not done one thing for you and will never do anything because they are not in government.”

The EFF was created by former African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema after being expelled from the ruling party.

SAPA

North West Premier Thandi Modise has welcomed that no bail was granted to the two suspects arrested in connection of abduction and rape of two women during their court appearances in Mmabatho and Lehurutshe Magistrates Court on Monday.

In commending police for the arrests over the weekend, Premier Modise has called on women to avoid walking alone along isolated spots even during the day.

“Escalating incidents of abduction and rape of women suggest that perpetrators target women are walking alone in isolated spots. Thought it might be advisable for women to start carrying whistles to draw attention in the event they are attacked. We call on communities not to ignore pleas for help from women who might desperately need help,” said Premier Modise.  

A 38-year-old suspect was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 38-year-old victim from 24 October 2013 until 26 October 2013 during an incident that police said took place at about 16:00 in Imperial Resort, Mahikeng.

According to police the victim was allegedly crossing the road between Imperial resort and Ramosadi village when she was confronted by the suspect who grabbed her from behind, assaulted her and forced her to his residential place where he raped her.

The victim reportedly managed to escape from the suspect’s place on 26 October 2013 and went straight to the police station to report the matter and the suspect was arrested.

A 21-year-old suspect was also arrested for allegedly raping a 28-year-old victim on Saturday, at about 19:00 in Ntswelentsoku, Lehurutshe.

According to police, the victim was allegedly on her way to the shop when she was confronted by the suspect who forcefully took the complainant to the nearby bushes and raped her.

It is further alleged that after the incident the suspect took the victim to a nearby tavern from where she managed to run away whoever, the suspect  reportedly followed her and took her back to the bushes and threatened her with a knife before he raped her again and robbed her undisclosed amount of cash.

Charges of rape and common robbery were laid against him.-TDN

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