Johannesburg – France’s First Lady Valerie Trierweiler met with South African gay rights groups on Monday to assess the grim reality for homosexuals in the country, despite some of the world’s best legal protection.

As French President Francois Hollande signed business deals on the first of a two-day state visit, his partner held talks with a lesbian couple after having lunch with campaign groups, according to activist Anthony Manion, who attended the group talks.

She wanted “to talk about the daily lives and experience of gay or bisexual women in South Africa who are married or in a relationship”, said Manion, director of rights group Gala (Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action).

The meeting was closed to the media and the couple was not identified.

Activists said they want Trierweiler, who spearheaded France’s legalisation of same-sex marriage in May, to put pressure on South African authorities to better implement liberal laws that do not reflect an often conservative society.

In May last year traditional leaders asked parliament to delete a clause in the constitution that guarantees equal rights to homosexuals.

“We need those international pressures in our country,” said Phindi Malaza from the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, referring to lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI).

“As LGBTI people living in a township we are really not enjoying those rights and privileges in the constitution,” she told AFP, referring to low income areas in South Africa where the black majority live.

“It’s beautiful on paper, but the daily lives say something different.”

Homophobic attacks

An Amnesty International report this year pointed to at least seven murders in what appeared to be homophobic attacks between June and November last year. Five of the victims were lesbians.

Media and rights groups also often decry the practice of “corrective rape” of lesbian women to turn them “straight”, though no official figures are available.

In June, the abandoned body of a lesbian woman was found in a township east of Johannesburg, left half-naked after she was raped and murdered.

“Our government representatives, when they’re on international stages, they say all these beautiful things about ending violence perpetrated against LGBTI people,” said Malaza.

Gays wanted to see stronger implementation of the laws and policies, said Steve Letsike, who heads the civil society arm of the country’s national Aids council.

“From talk to action, that’s what I’m calling for,” said Letsike before meeting Trierweiler.

South Africa set up a task team to address homophobic violence in 2011, but progress has been slow.

– AFP

Johannesburg – A truck driver was burned when he was hit by a petrol bomb while making a delivery at a supermarket in Durban on Monday, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

“Truck drivers, who were on strike, allegedly threw a petrol bomb at the truck in Smith Street,” said police spokesperson Jay Naicker.

The 40-year-old driver was taken to hospital where he was in a stable condition.

Police were investigating a case of attempted murder and arson.

No arrests had been made, said Naicker.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A Coin Security guard was shot dead while on duty outside the First National Bank in Bushbuckridge on Monday morning, Mpumalanga police said.

The guard was standing outside the bank while two of his colleagues were inside collecting money when he was approached by an unknown number of men, police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi said.

“After he was shot, he ran inside the bank and fell and died inside.”

The men who attacked the guard continued to fire at random as they fled the scene, said Hlathi.

Six vehicles were damaged and some shop windows were broken.

“After the gruesome act, the suspects fled the scene in two white cars, a Mercedes-Benz sedan and a Nissan Tiida, with an empty bag.”

No arrests had been made, Hlathi said.

– SAPA

Durban – About 20 shots were fired by a security guard at a group of IFP supporters, the manager of a security company told the Durban Regional Court on Monday.

Themba Mkhwanazi, a manager for Globetech Security, told the court he received a rifle and a pistol from Skhumbuzo Nxumalo on the evening of 6 October 2012.

“I think 13 rounds had been fired from the rifle and seven from the pistol,” he said.

Mkhwanazi was giving evidence in the trial of National Freedom Party [NFP] councillor Mgezeni “Bhungu” Gwala, his son Celimpilo “Mjabelelwa” Gwala, and Nxumalo.

They are accused of shooting dead Cebisile Shezi on 6 October, after IFP supporters converged on his house near the Thembalihle railway station, in KwaMashu.

IFP supporters converged on Gwala’s house shortly after Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa addressed IFP supporters at a sports field in A-section, KwaMashu, that day. Shezi was wearing an IFP T-shirt at the time.

Mthethwa had been speaking to IFP supporters in an attempt to reduce tension in the area, after the abduction of IFP councillor Themba Xulu. Xulu was out on bail after being arrested for allegedly trying to burn down Bhungu Gwala’s house.

Xulu’s body was found the next day. He had been shot.

Originally another son, Bonginhlanhla Gwala, and another security guard, Sibusiso Ncengwa, were also charged with the shooting.

Charges against them were withdrawn after it emerged that closed circuit television showed Bonginhlanhla Gwala was at his apartment in Umhlanga and Ncengwa was working in Umbilo, Durban, on the day of the shooting.

Accusations of lying

On Monday, State witness Zamokwakhe Luthuli denied under cross examination that he was lying to the court.

During cross examination it emerged that in his statement made to police three days after the shooting he had claimed Bonginhlanlha Gwala was one of the gunmen.

“You have no interest in telling the truth, even if it means lying to the court,” Simphiwe Moloi, who represents the Gwalas, told Luthuli.

The court heard that it was Luthuli who had picked out Nxumalo in police identity parade as one of the three men, who allegedly shot at the crowd of IFP supporters.

Magistrate Trevor Levitt warned Luthuli that “you can’t give two versions” of what happened on the day Shezi died.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

– SAPA

Nelspruit – A self-proclaimed Mpumalanga pastor who bludgeoned a suspected thief to death was jailed for 15 years by the Nelspruit Regional Court on Monday.

Mandla Esau Dube, from Mganduzweni Trust outside Hazyview, was found guilty of killing Sabelo Mlombo, 27, on 11 September 2011, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Mlombo, also from Mganduzweni Trust, was beaten to death after being accused of stealing Dube’s 7 000 litre water tank.

Dube, who was 46-years-old when he committed the murder, was a pastor for the General Church of God at Chochocho Trust.

At the time of his arrest, he was also a technical manager for community projects in the Mpumalanga co-operative governance department.

Magistrate Willie Wilkens said on Monday that Dube was not a true pastor.

“It is hard to believe you are a pastor in the way you act. You are not a true pastor, in terms of the Bible.

“You took the law into your own hands. There are no compelling and substantial circumstances for a lesser sentence. You acted as a judge and executor. You found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Jungle justice will not be accepted,” said Wilkens.

The magistrate said Dube was a violent man with a previous conviction for assault, for which he was fined R3500 or 90 days in jail.

“That sentence was never a deterrent as you are now faced with another assault case which is more serious than the previous one.

Pick handle

“What is more aggravating in this present case is that you showed no remorse. You never played opened cards for the court and you tried to conceal what exactly happened on that day,” Wilkens told Dube.

He said murder was a serious offence and there was a minimum sentence of 15 years, unless there were compelling and substantial circumstances.

“When you heard of the theft of your tank, you just lost temper and chased the deceased, took him to your home. In your version, you said you used a broomstick to beat him up on his knees to stop him from escaping.

“An eye-witness and the deceased’s uncle told the court it was your son who gave you the pick handle. You used it to beat the deceased until his uncle could not bear to look. That was inhumane and cruel,” Wilkens said.

The magistrate said there was no room for calling the murder an accident.

“You were so outraged that you even did not listen to your brother-in-law when he asked you to stop. You were so aggressive that even the deceased’s uncle Samson Mthembu could not stop you.

Tied up

“When the deceased was taken to the police station, despite the injuries, you still deemed it necessary to tie him up. That was totally unnecessary,” Wilkens said.

Wilkens said that when Dube took Mlombo to the police, he was in a state of paralysis.

“You tied him up only to conceal your brutal assault. You tell the court the deceased sustained injuries after he jumped into a two-metre donga and want the court to believe that? You have taken a wrong path,” he said.

Wilkens said there was no proof that Mlombo did steal the tank.

He said Dube, after suspecting Mlombo, could have taken him to the police and let the courts decide whether he was a thief.

Dube’s defence will appeal the sentence on Tuesday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A 20-year-old man was arrested on Monday, after confessing to killing three elderly women and a teenager in Hazyview, Mpumalanga police said.

“The man broke the silence and explicitly explained to the police that he was the one who killed all four victims,” said police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi.

The man had been handed over to the police by his uncle.

On Saturday, a 16-year-old girl was found dead in the street after she was last seen at a local tavern.

A 58-year-old woman was found killed in her house last month.

She was raped, strangled and her head was beaten with a hammer.

Earlier last month, two women aged between 75 and 82 were found hacked to death at their house in Mkhuhlu township near Hazyview.

The man would appear in the Calcutta Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, said Hlathi.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Eastern Cape Health Crisis Action Coalition will approach the premier to intervene in its call for drastic action to improve the province’s health care system, it announced on Monday.

“We are going to approach the Premier [Noxolo Kievit] and hand to her the memo that we gave the [health] MEC [Sicelo Gqobana], which he still has not responded to,” spokesperson Kwazi Mbatha said.

The coalition tabled and presented a memorandum of grievances to Gqobana’s office and gave him 30 days to respond. That was during a march held on 13 September.

“The deadline passed on Friday already and we still have not received word from his office if that will happen,” Mbatha said.

He said the coalition’s way forward would include presenting the same memorandum to provincial leaders of the ANC and Parliament’s portfolio committee on health.

“If this call for intervention from the [above-mentioned] structures proves futile, [we] would consider litigation, but only as the last resort,” Mbatha said.

However, Gqobana has agreed to meet the coalition next month on other matters related to health care improvement.

“We have a meeting with him in November, on the 22nd. It is far away.”

The province’s health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo was not immediately available for comment.

Rebuilding the system

The coalition, which includes Section 27 and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), has advocated for drastic action to rebuild the province’s health care system.

It compiled a report titled “Death and Dying. An Investigation into the collapse of a healthcare system”, which sparked an investigation by the national health department.

Last month, Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced findings and recommendations from the probe, which included plans for millions of rand in infrastructural development.

The suspensions of the Holy Cross Hospital CEO and its nursing manager were also announced.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Sondag newspaper was sanctioned by Press Ombudsman Johan Retief on Monday, about an article it published on former television presenter Darren Scott.

The article was published on 2 June, headlined “Ex-Friend claiming R4.3 million loss”, and was largely based on comments by Anthony Duke.

Parts of the story related to a case pending in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town between Scott and Duke.

This meant the Press Ombudsman could not take into account complaints about these sections and was limited to aspects of the story that would not influence court proceedings.

Sondag reported, based on Duke’s unverified account, that Scott fraudulently took sound equipment worth R120 000 and used drugs and alcohol,

Scott complained that the story was one-sided, defamatory and an attack on his dignity and reputation, and that it was not in the public interest.

The reporter apparently asked Scott for comment, but did not give adequate detail about Duke’s allegations against him.

Being unaware of the extent of the allegations, Scott replied that he was busy with a radio interview and that the dispute between himself and Duke was a matter for the court to decide.

“He argues that, had he known the extent of the defamatory allegations, he would have responded other than merely saying that the matter was for the courts to decide,” Retief said.

One-sided

He found that the story was in the public interest, as Scott was a public figure, but he had “little doubt” that the story was one-sided and an unfair attack on Scott’s dignity and reputation.

The fact that the story was based on only one source was a concern, particularly because Scott and Duke were embroiled in a legal battle.

“The publication should, therefore, have been sensitive as to this source’s possible motives, which should have made it doubly cautious to publish the serious allegations that it did.

“Taking the above into consideration, the mere use of the word ‘alleged’ is not nearly enough to soften the blows that the story unfairly dealt Scott,” Retief found.

Sondag was ordered to apologise to Scott and publish a text detailing Retief’s criticism of the original story and the journalistic practices that led to the complaint.

Sondag was also given a “space fine”, meaning the newspaper had to publish the full Press Code on page six and not allow any other text on that page.

The Sondag has seven days to appeal the ruling to Judge Bernard Ngoepe, chairperson of the SA Press Adjudication Panel.

– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Klerksdorp- One female passenger died following a head-on-collision between two sedan vehicles traveling on the R503 between Klerksdorp and Hartebeest on Monday, says MEC for Human Settlement and Public Works Nono Maloyi.
“According to traffic officials the two vehicles were overtaking, unfortunately the second car collided head on with the oncoming vehicle” he said.
The two drivers and another passenger escaped with minor injuries, but they were however taken to hospital for further check-up and observation.
MEC for Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison Nono Maloyi called on motorists to overtake when it safe to do so, and adhere to road rules.
He said that it’s unfortunate that people continue to loss lives even during a month declared to be transport month, where traffic and transport issues have been put on high alert.-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

Johannesburg – A ruling that the state must pay the legal costs of the survivors of the Marikana shooting and those of the bereaved families was welcomed by the DA on Monday.

“The judgment presents an opportunity for the victims’ families to pursue justice through the commission investigating this horrific tragedy,” DA Gauteng premier candidate Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

“Today our Constitution and rule of law have been affirmed.”

Earlier on Monday, the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ruled the state had to pay the legal expenses at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry for those who survived the Marikana shooting last year and the families of those who died.

The application was brought by Dali Mpofu, representing the miners wounded at Marikana.

The miners and family members have not been represented at the commission recently because of a lack of funding.

Maimane said the matter should not have had to go to court.

“More than anyone else, these families deserve the opportunity to know the truth about what happened at Marikana.”

The inquiry is investigating the circumstances of the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin Platinum’s operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in North West last year.

The police shot dead 34 people, mostly striking workers, wounded 70, and arrested 250 on 16 August 2012. In the preceding week, 10 people died, including two policemen and two security guards.

SAPA