Mbombela – Two men accused of murdering a Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA) employee with a hammer three years ago were found guilty by the Nelspruit circuit of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Justin Fanyana Malambe, 41, also a KMIA employee, was found guilty of robbing and murdering Nonkululeko Thandi Khoza at her home in Dwaleni Trust outside White River on 21 May 2010.

His co-accused Sibusiso Wonder Phelembe, 29, was convicted of the robbery, the murder and of raping Khoza.

Justice Daisy Molefe postponed the case to Thursday for arguments in mitigation of sentencing.

The court heard on Monday that Khoza’s half-naked body, with injuries to the head and chest, was discovered by relatives in her bedroom.

On Wednesday, Molefe said Malambe’s defence had applied for him to be acquitted on all counts, arguing that the State had failed to prove its case.

“The court has decided against this application,” she said.

“The report from the DNA laboratory has found that the sweat found by the experts on the hammer handle used in the murder, has positively implicated the accused in the murder.”.

Molefe found that Malambe was linked only to the robbery and murder charges.

“The court has found that there is no evidence linking the accused with the rape charge. The accused did give his blood for the DNA tests, but no evidence has positively linked him.

“He is therefore acquitted only on the rape charge, but is found guilty on the robbery and murder charges,” Molefe said.

She said Khoza’s cellphone had led the police to Phelembe.

“The accused was also linked to the rape charge after the DNA tests came back positive. There is no evidence on how the cellphone was taken from the deceased.

“There is also no evidence on whether the sex between the accused and the deceased was on agreement,” the judge said.

Molefe said she was satisfied with the argument of prosecutor Kenneth Mashile that there was a prima facie case against Phelembe.

“The court has not heard the version of the accused. I am satisfied there is a prima facie case against him. All evidence including DNA results from the laboratory have linked him positively in all three counts and he is therefore found guilty as charged,” she said.

– SAPA

Cape Town – MPs, including at least one Cabinet minister, are to be named and shamed for failing to disclose their business interests on time, Parliament’s ethics committee said on Wednesday.

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.

During the meeting, it emerged that 59 MPs had missed the 23 August deadline.

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

They included two MPs who were ill, and disgraced 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 other 59 politicians would not be given any grace, with MPs from all parties wanting them to be sanctioned for the late disclosures.

The African National Congress’s Gerhard Koornhof said all MPs had been sent letters and text messages reminding them to submit their disclosure forms before the deadline.

“The 59 that did not submit in time, I propose that their names be published in the ATC,” Koornhof said.

The ATC (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports) is a parliamentary document published daily.

Democratic Alliance MP Anchen Dreyer agreed and said the ethics committee had to flex its muscles in dealing with non-compliant MPs.

“I’m taking a tougher line… in the case of ex-minister Pule. She was suspended three days before the deadline, but she’s known all along the deadline is coming,” Dreyer said.

“It’s ironic that the very case for which she appeared [before the committee on misconduct charges] had dealt with her wrongful submission on members’ interests.”

Truth

On Pule’s non-submission, committee chair Ben Turok said he was not as focused on her missing the deadline.

“The issue for us is, is she going to comply honestly? Whether it’s a week later or a week earlier is of little interest. What interests me is, is she going to tell us the truth?” Turok said.

Pule was suspended from Parliament in August after the ethics committee found she had failed to declare that her romantic partner Phosane Mngqibisa materially benefited from the sponsorship of last year’s information and communications technology event, the ICT Indaba, which her department hosted in Cape Town.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Koos van der Merwe defended Pule, saying the matter was “buried” and that words like dishonesty should not be used as she was an “honourable member and we must accept her integrity”.

He was not so kind when it came to the MPs who missed the disclosure deadline.

“I think the chair of the committee should write to each one of the 59 reading them the riot act,” Van der Merwe said.

Reprimand

Turok’s co-chair, Lemias Mashile, said that instead of writing to the MPs, he would insist that Parliament’s presiding officers reprimand them.

Mahomed told the committee she had heard from a male Cabinet minister who was among those who had sent in their disclosure form late. She did not name him.

“We received a letter saying that he had not received the form… He was just very furious and he wanted us to prove [that we sent him the disclosure form],” Mahomed said.

ANC MP Modjadji Mangena said this was no excuse for making a late disclosure.

“Every year, Sars [SA Revenue Service] doesn’t write letters, but you know you are suppose to submit those [tax return] forms. Why can’t they [MPs] learn without being told that we are supposed to do this? Even that minister, I’m sorry to say that, he is lying.”

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Police are following up clues in connection with the weekend murder of a man in Bedfordview, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“Since Saturday, the police have received information from many members of the public, including from possible witnesses,” Brigadier Neville Malila said in a statement.

Bassam Boutrous Issa, 49, was shot dead in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg, on Saturday.

He was waiting at a traffic light in his Audi Q7 when a white Ford Ranger with an ND number plate pulled up next to him. Its occupants opened fire at him.

“Mr Issa drove over the red light before it turned green to avoid being shot at. He also reversed in an attempt to evade the shots, but was fired at with [an] AK-47 and an R5 rifle. His bullet-riddled car came to a standstill on the curb on Smith Street,” Malila said.

More than 30 spent cartridges were found on the scene, he said.

Malila said there were allegations that the suspects used police-issued firearms, and put on blue lights when they fled the scene. This was being investigated.

A .38 revolver, 9mm rounds, a silencer, and four cellphones were found in Issa’s car.

According to reports on Saturday, Issa was an associate of Czech fugitive and businessman Radovan Krejcir.

However Krejcir denied this, and said he knew Issa only as a resident of Bedfordview.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – People have a right to protest, but should do so peacefully and not damage property, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said on Wednesday.

“Everybody has the right to protest, but there is a way of doing it: do it peacefully, do not damage property, do not carry weapons,” she said.

“Violent protests take away from those who are peacefully protesting.”

Phiyega described as unacceptable a protest in Malamulele, Limpopo, where residents burnt down a government building and shops.

“By all measures and standard that was crime. It was criminal,” she said.

“To burn property you cause a lot of havoc to the economy and a lot of jobs are being affected. The retailers that were there have lost their income.”

She said violent protests also affected insurance companies.

Malamulele residents held a violent demarcation protest on Tuesday.

They looted shops and the Malamulele crossing complex. The home affairs office and shops at the Mala plaza were burnt down.

Forty people were arrested for public violence. They were expected to appear in the Malamulele Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele has expressed shock at the murder of two toddlers in Zonkizizwe, Katlehong.

“Yesterday the country woke up to news of a similar nature in Diepsloot. Before we can even recover from that, we now have to deal with a similar traumatic incident in our backyard,” he said.

The toddlers, aged one and three, and their mother, were discovered by a person in the area.

Their mother was taken to hospital for treatment.

“Such barbaric acts against the most vulnerable and defenceless in our societies cannot continue unchallenged,” said Gungubele.

Gungubele said the country needed to intensify its campaign against the abuse of women and children.

According to an SABC report, the toddlers’ mother alleged that her husband dropped them at the field on their way from Witbank, in Mpumalanga, and that they had not known where they were.

They had slept in an abandoned house with half-built walls, the mother reportedly said.

She said her husband left them with a bottle of cool drink, which they drank on Tuesday night.

Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a post mortem would confirm the cause of the children’s deaths.

“We suspect that they died of poisoning,” Dlamini said.

– SAPA

Durban – Murder charges will not stand against the driver in a KwaZulu-Natal runaway truck accident that claimed 24 lives, the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court heard on Wednesday.

“One only needs to look at the Humphreys matter to know that he will not be convicted of murder,” Louis Barnard, for driver Sanele Goodness May, told the court.

May faces 24 murder charges after his truck ploughed into four minibus taxis and two cars at an intersection in Pinetown on 5 September.

That night, 22 people were killed. Two more died later.

Barnard was referring to the case of Western Cape taxi driver Jacob Humphreys.

He was charged with 10 counts of murder after jumping a queue of cars and trying to drive through a railway boom in August 2010. Ten children in his taxi died.

He was convicted of murder, but the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside the murder charges in March and replaced them with 10 counts of culpable homicide and cut his 20-year sentence to one of eight years.

Barnard said that, to find May guilty, the court would have to find he was suicidal on the night of the crash.

Arguing that May be granted bail, he told the court there was no evidence linking his client to murder.

Barnard questioned the logic of May wanting to be a fugitive for life.

He submitted that May was unlikely to get a more severe sentence than that imposed on Humphreys.

Barnard argued that May should also be allowed to return home to Swaziland.

The fact that there was an extradition treaty between the two countries and a written commitment from the Swaziland High Commission to ensure that May attended court should allay any fears of his being a flight risk.

Magistrate Wendolyn Robinson queried this assertion.

“You do know about the [Shrien] Dewani case? It could take years [to extradite May],” she said.

Fake driving permit

Earlier, the court heard that May had a fake public driving permit.

Detective Warrant Officer Sanjeev Singh said officials from Swaziland’s transport department had confirmed that May’s public driving permit, which allowed him to drive trucks and is recognised in South Africa, was a fake.

Singh said though May did have a valid Swazi driver’s licence, he would have been legally allowed to apply for his Swazi public driving permit only in February next year.

“I have confirmed his public driving permit is false,” he said.

Singh said May had a fake South African traffic register certificate, which he obtained on the basis of his fake Swazi public driving permit.

According to Singh, the certificate in May’s possession and bearing his name belonged to another person – Nkosinathi Dladla.

“This means that this document has been falsified.”

Singh was giving evidence at May’s formal bail application. The State has opposed bail.

Barnard said May had no idea that his documents were fake because he had used an agent to obtain them.

May initially faced culpable homicide charges, but these were later changed to murder and a charge of reckless or negligent driving.

May’s supporters packed the court on Wednesday.

He had a colourful, quilted blanket over his head when he entered the court. Scores of press photographers took pictures of him and filmed his entrance.

The court was also told that May was illegally in the country and did not have a work permit.

Robinson said she would hand down her decision on 22 October.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The NYDA has denied withholding information from the Public Protector in her probe into a 2010 youth festival.

Media reports citing Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s frustration with the lack of co-operation from the NYDA had taken him by surprise, National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) chair Yershen Pillay said on Wednesday.

“We’ve never closed doors with the Public Protector. We’ve provided all information as required by the Public Protector on the festival,” he told Parliament’s appropriations committee.

The NYDA had heard through the media that Madonsela had accused it of withholding information, delaying the completion of the probe.

“We have it in black and white that the report is ready to be tabled, so we don’t understand why it comes to the media that information is missing,” Pillay said.

He said the probe was a “cloud hanging over the institution”.

“It’s an event that took place in 2010. Can we close that chapter and move on? The sooner, the better for us,” Pillay said.

Madonsela is probing the World Federation of Democratic Youth festival which cost the taxpayer over R100 million.

The nine-day event was dubbed the “kissing festival” after delegates were seen playing kissing games while waiting for sessions to begin.

It was plagued by disorganisation, and millions of rand were spent on balloons, confetti, musicians, poets, backpacks, caps, golf shirts, bottled water, and even a tombstone for the event.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The SA Police Service has received papers in an urgent Labour Court application challenging a decision to change reporting lines, it said on Wednesday.

The application was brought by the SA Police Union (Sapu) after national police commissioner Riah Phiyega decide to streamline how officials reported to her, Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said in a statement.

The decision was announced on 31 August.

Sapu argued that the changes constituted a restructuring, which was subject to consultation under a safety and security sectoral bargaining council agreement.

Makgale said the police had met the union to discuss the matter and had told the union it was mistaken.

“They effectively want to encroach on the legal mandate of the national commissioner to organise her office in such a way that she is able to deliver on the constitutional mandate of the SA Police Service,” said Makgale.

He said all Phiyega was required to do prior to making the decision was to discuss it with the individuals concerned.

Sapu general secretary Oscar Skommere said on Wednesday that the union had filed an application with the court. The matter would be heard on 24 October.

He said nothing had come of talks with the police.

“We are saying restructuring, in terms of the agreement, is a consultation matter and they were supposed to consult with us and they did not do that.”

Makgale said the police would oppose the matter.

“Management is comfortable with the fact that the definition of what constitutes restructuring is going to be tested before the court.

“The reason for this is because similar changes were done many times in the past and those changes were never consulted upon with the unions and were never challenged in court,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and two taxi associations in Delft, Cape Town have committed to end industry-related violence in the area, the minister’s office said on Wednesday.

“Taxi associations operating around Delft, vowed to hold regular meetings, involve police and ensure that the violence which had engulfed the area is ended,” spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement.

Mnisi said the tensions had been ongoing for about five months, resulting in a number of murders over the period.

“Due to experience of violence in this industry in the past, a coordinating structure was set up by the two associations in an effort to prevent violence in the future in the industry. Yet the violence continued,” he said.

The Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) and the Convention for Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) raised concerns that some cases were reported to the police, but were not investigated. The cases included murder, attempted murder and malicious damage to property.

Mthethwa met Cata and Codeta leaders and a delegation from the transport department in Cape Town.

“The meeting resolved to provide the police management with a two-week period to look at each of the 64 cases and provide regular feedback to the associations.”

The efficiency and capacity of the Delft police station was among other issues to be investigated.

“Over and above we need to look at why people withdraw cases because that hampers progress. We need those who have information to come forward and press charges. Failure to come forward makes the work of the police very difficult,” Mthethwa was quoted as saying after the meeting.

He also commended the role-players for the conciliatory approach to resolving the tensions.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The alleged murderers of a Pretoria businessman will hear on Thursday if a Gauteng North High Court (in Pretoria) judge believes their claims that a racist, white police officer framed them for a murder they did not commit.

Judge Tshifiwa Maumela started delivering his judgment on Wednesday in the trial of lawyer Marabe Talane and Rodney Katang Masemola, who are on trial for the May 2008 murder of Murrayfield business person Dawie Maree.

Maree, 27, was fatally wounded during a struggle with an armed assailant at his house in front of his wife Elana and his two young children.

Talane and Masemola pleaded not guilty to charges of robbing and murdering Maree, and murdering their alleged accomplice Seporo Martin Tshebesebe.

Tshebesebe was shot dead during the struggle with Maree.

Maree’s wife Elana (now Van Breda) testified more than three years ago that she and her husband woke to find an armed assailant standing over their bed and another armed man at the door.

She grabbed their two children from their cots, pushed them onto the floor and threw herself over them while her husband struggled on the bed with one of the men.

She heard shots and saw that her husband had been wounded and was struggling to breathe.

She told the court she prayed out loud for her husband with the attacker groaning in the background while waiting for help to arrive.

A neighbour who later took Maree to hospital, testified that he found him in his bedroom, bleeding from his ears and mouth.

A pathologist testified that Maree had three bullet wounds in his right leg, but died of a bullet wound in his back which entered his chest and exited through his throat.

Framed

Police witnesses testified that Talane’s fingerprint was found on a window sill where entry had been gained into the house, and that a bolt cutter used to force open the burglar bars was later found in Masemola’s room.

The accused admitted to being at Maree’s house that day, but claimed they went there because Masemola wanted to borrow money from the Maree’s domestic worker.

Talane testified that he waited outside in a vehicle while Masemola and Tshebesebe went inside. He heard shots and saw a wounded Masemola running towards him.

He claimed the police framed him by forcing him to lean on a window sill at the house after his arrest.

However, a fingerprint expert testified that he lifted the fingerprint from the scene before Talane’s arrest.

Masemola testified that he and Tshebesebe were standing under a tree outside the house when a dog started barking, Maree came out and shot at both of them.

He said Maree’s wife came out while he was struggling with Maree and also fired a shot, which hit her husband.

Masemola spent two months in hospital after being shot in the stomach.

Maumela said the accused’s version meant that Mrs Maree must somehow have carried or dragged the wounded men back to the bedroom, but that no blood was found outside.

Masemola’s version also meant that Mrs Maree must have been “full of ideas” on how to “construct” the scene for later explanation.

Judgment continues.

– SAPA