BY Obakeng Maje
Galeshewe Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences(FCS) unit are investigating a murder and rape of Agnes Kediemetse Phoku(59) which allegedly took place in Galeshewe on the evening of 30 June 2013.

“It is alleged that the victim was on her way home from work, at approximately 22:00pm. Three men allegedly accosted the victim, brutally assaulted and raped her. The half-naked body of a female was discovered under a tree the following morning by a passer-by, in a veld next to Ramatsela Cemetery in Galeshewe” lieutenant Sergio Kock said.

The Galeshewe FCS unit worked around the clock on gathering of clues with regard to the whereabouts of the suspects. The unit followed up on information received and arrested a male suspect in the early hours of Friday in connection with this heinous deed.

“The suspect known as Patrick Sekgoro (29) appeared in the Kimberley Magistrates’ Court and the case was remanded for 20 November 2013. The suspect will remain in custody” he said.

The police request information with regard to a man known as Ivan (aka Long) who could possibly assist with the investigation.

“The Galeshewe Cluster Commander, Maj Gen Kollie Matthys commended the FCS unit for their commitment which heeded the positive results. The community is applauded and humbly requested to keep on assisting the police with information pertaining to violent crimes committed against women and children, especially as we are approaching the 16 days for no violence against women and children.” Anyone with information regarding the man and the incident can call Det Capt Janet Ngobeza on 083 279 2939. All information will be treated with the strictest of confidence. The investigation continues.-TDN
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By Obakeng maje
Roodepan- Police followed up on information of drug dealing in the Lerato Park area on Friday at approximately 10:30am.

“The police searched the shanty and managed to confiscate 9 bags of dagga on the premises. The estimated street value of the dagga is R1 million” LIEUTENANT Sergio Kock said.

Kock said the suspect was not on the premises at the time of the raid hence no arrest could be affected at that stage.

The investigation continues.-TDN
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By Obakeng Maje
Kimberley-Northern Cape police are investigating a case of dealing in drugs after a male Nigerian National was arrested on Friday at approximately 12:00pm. The SAPS Crime Intelligence unit, the Galeshewe Drug Task team and the Tactical Response Team followed up on information of drug sales in Kimberley North.

“The team allegedly raided the premises and found 200g of cocaine and khat hidden in the cupboard in one of the bedrooms. The police also confiscated approximately R2500, 00 cash stashed inside the bedroom where the 28 year-old suspect reside” lieutenant Sergio Kock said.

The approximate street value for the drugs is R250 000,00. “The Kimberley Cluster Commander, Major General Jean Abrahams lauded the police members for the excellent arrest and thanked the community for the information they relayed to the Police. The success truly portrays partnership policing at its best. The raids and operations will continue in the aim of ensuring that drug dealers are behind bars where they belong, this festive season and beyond” Kock said.

The suspect will appear before the Kimberley Magistrates’ Court soon.
The investigation continues.-TDN
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BY Obakeng Maje
Pabello-The Police are investigating a case of culpable homicide, reckless and negligent driving. This follows an accident that took place in Paballelo, next to Upington on Friday.

“It is alleged that two taxis were travelling toward the same direction in King Street. The two taxis allegedly collided when the one in front turned to the right whilst the rear was busy overtaking” lieutenant Sergio Kock said.

Northern Cape police said during the time of the incident, it is alleged that there were people, including children, standing next to the road. A 9 year-old child died on the scene. Five people, including three children were injured” Kock said.

A 26-year-old man believed to be the driver of one of the taxis, was arrested with the help of the community as he attempted to escape from the accident scene.
Police investigations continue.-TDN
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By Obakeng Maje
Matlosana-The North West Democratic Alliance wishes all South Africans and in particular NW residents the best for this registration weekend.
“After receiving complaints we call on all money lenders, Spaza shop owners and businesses who keep Voters Identity Documents in their possession, due to debt and or any other reason, to release those immediately to enable voters to register” DA North West Chris Hattingh said
The DA is consolidating its 2014 election efforts by focusing all our energy on taking our Know Your DA message of hope, history and success into people’s living rooms, asking them to go out and register to win.
“The North-West is the Province with the fastest and most DA growth in South-Africa. Our focus is on the Born-frees, who is the first generation born after 1994 to vote, where we have launched a series of videos on the importance of Registration and the Feeling of voting for the First Time” Hattingh said.
According to DA, the Youth are mostly affected when it comes to unemployment, poor Education, lack of decent healthcare, skills development and opportunities to succeed in life.
“Today our Provincial Office is inundated with calls from people who want information on the weekend. We encourage all North West Youth to register over this weekend’s (09 and 10 November 2013) IEC registration drive at their nearest voting station” condludes DA.-TDN
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Cape Town – ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Friday he was keen to read the provisional report on President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead, unaware that government was interdicting its release.

He was asked at an ANC lunch in Cape Town what he thought of the security cluster going to court to interdict Public Protector Thuli Madonsela from releasing her provisional report to certain parties.

Seemingly unaware of the urgent application on Friday afternoon, he said he was waiting as patiently as anyone else for the report.

“That’s why I always come up very strong against casting aspersions before the report is out because when you do that, you are psyching society,” he told reporters.

“That’s my stand. Issue the report. Let’s see it. Let’s read it. Once we have the report, we can talk to issues that come out of the report.”

When reporters informed him of the application that was heard in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, he said he could not speak for government.

“I’m here now. I don’t know. It may be something different because one of the issues that came out of a court process was the unsustainability of all the time having two state institutions reporting on the same issue because it caused confusion in society.

“I was asking them: ‘There is this report coming. You had your own report, which one should we read?’ I think if they are sorting that themselves. I will wait and see what comes out of it.”

Mantashe said the reality of the matter was that it was not right to have one institution shooting down others, whether that was the Independent Electoral Commission, the presidency, or government.

“It can’t be correct that you have only one institution that is correct. Then it means the crisis is bigger. That would be the issue.”

He was speaking after a two-day visit to the Cape Flats.

Application postponed

On Friday afternoon, Advocate William Mokhari, for the security cluster, argued that an interdict was necessary to allow for comments on security issues arising from the report.

The application was postponed until 15 November to allow Madonsela time to file an answering affidavit and for the parties to file heads of argument.

Madonsela undertook not to release the provisional report pending the outcome of the application.

Madonsela’s office said earlier that she was due to receive comments on the report from organs of state within the security cluster on Friday.

This followed a special request made by the organs of state in question to have access to the report ahead of all other parties, to establish if the contents of the report would compromise Zuma’s security.

“The report was shared with the said parties on 1 November, with a return date of Wednesday. The deadline was subsequently extended to Friday, following a request from the organs of state concerned,” it said.

Nkandla has been at the centre of controversy after it emerged that the public works department had approved upgrades to the KwaZulu-Natal homestead costing R206m.

When questions were raised about these upgrades, a task team of the public works department was set up. It later found irregularities in the procurement process for the upgrade.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Kirsty Theologo’s brother on Friday told the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, sitting in Palm Ridge, he wished he could have saved his sister.

“I am not angry with you, I am not angry with God, but I feel angry that I couldn’t help her,” Alex Noble told the two men convicted of his sister’s murder.

“I wake up in cold flashes, thinking it’s a bad dream… I wake from it over and over again,” he said in pre-sentencing proceedings.

He recounted how he went looking for his sister on 21 October 2011, the night she was struck on the head with a rock, doused with petrol and set alight by her friends in a Satanic soul-selling ritual on a hill in Linmeyer, south of Johannesburg.

Several hours later, Theologo, 18, arrived home severely burnt. She died from her injuries in hospital a week later.

Her friend, who was 14 at the time, survived the attack.

Noble stood in the witness stand and said he accepted the apology of his sister’s killers, cousins Robin Harwood and Lindon Wagner.

They were convicted of assault, murder, and attempted murder on Thursday.

Harwood and Wagner’s mothers took the stand and pleaded with the Theologos to forgive them and their sons.

Harwood’s mother Deidre Moses and Vanessa Arendse, Wagner’s mother, said they understood the Theologo’s pain.

“I would like to say to Sylvia [Kirsty Theologo’s mother] that as a mother, I am sorry for the loss of your daughter. Be strong for your children’s sake,” Moses said.

Arendse said: “I can understand what she [Sylvia Theologo] is going through. I hope she can forgive us and our children.”

Sylvia Theologo sobbed and rested her head on her mother’s shoulder as she listened to proceedings.

Earlier, she took the stand and told the court her family had changed.

“My children blame me because I am her mother and I was supposed to protect her.”

She said her son Alex had become disrespectful and aggressive. She would never forgive Wagner and Harwood, adding that if they wanted forgiveness they would get it from God.

“I thought these were good Christian boys.”

She said she had since turned to drugs but was receiving help.

Theologo’s teenage friend, who survived the attack, also took to the stand.

“I forgive you ’cause one day when I get to heaven I will want my Father to forgive me,” she said.

She wore a black T-shirt and had used a black scarf to cover the burn scars on her neck and chest.

“From the top to the bottom of my heart, I forgive you. I miss the moments we had.”

Life changing

Gail Sidwell, for Harwood, told the girl her client intended to get a job one day and send all his earnings to her, probably for her plastic surgery.

“He can send it to the person behind me,” she said, indicating that she was not interested.

She said she would never be able to be intimate with a man because of the burn scars.

Her life had changed and her relationship with her mother had broken down. She was living with a family that she met through a church camp.

Judge Geraldine Borchers on Friday said she was scheduled for an operation and could only continue with the sentencing on 11 February 2014.

Sylvia Theologo burst into tears on hearing this.

“No, I can’t do this anymore… I’m finished, I want it to end,” she cried.

Family members comforted her. Outside court she told reporters she rejoiced on Thursday when the verdict was handed down, thinking it would all be over soon.

Dressed in tracksuit pants and a striped blue, black and white T-shirt Wagner was led back to the cells, cuffed by the feet.

Harwood, who wore a white jersey over a blue shirt, followed behind.

Initially six people had been charged for Theologo’s killing and the attempted murder of her friend.

Harvey Isha was acquitted of all the charges on Thursday.

The only woman in the group, Courtney Daniels, 18, was convicted of common assault for lacing the victims’ drinks with brake fluid prior to the attack. She was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for five years.

Two other men, Lester Moody and Jeremy King, earlier confessed to the killing and were sentenced to 17 years behind bars, five of which were suspended.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma’s safety will be compromised if Public Protector Thuli Madonsela releases a report on his Nkandla homestead without state comment, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said in court papers.

“If the report is released in its current form as intended by the respondent [Madonsela] on [Saturday]… the applicants [the state’s security cluster] will suffer irreparable harm and the security of the state and the safety of the president will be severely compromised,” he said in a founding affidavit.

The urgent application by the security cluster to prevent Madonsela from releasing her provisional report was postponed in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday. It would be heard next Friday.

Mthethwa said in the affidavit that Madonsela initially released the report to the security cluster because she was aware it contained “classified, top secret and confidential matters which may impact on the security of the state and president”.

Mthethwa said releasing the report to other affected, implicated and interested parties before the cluster commented was therefore unlawful.

Advocate William Mokhari, for the security cluster, told the court Madonsela was served an application for the interdict on Friday morning.

“We understand that the respondent [Madonsela] needs some time to file opposing papers and we have no objection to that.”

He said the parties came to an agreement.

“The first item [of the agreement] is that the matter be postponed to 15 November 2013,” he said.

“The respondent is to file the answering affidavit by Tuesday… and the applicants shall deliver replying affidavits by 17:00 on Wednesday.”

The parties would file heads of argument by noon on Thursday.

“[There is also]… an undertaking by the respondent [Madonsela] not to release the provisional report pending the finalisation of the application.”

– SAPA

Durban – The ANC’s reaction to three T-shirts designed by pupils of a Durban high school was hysterical, the DA said on Friday.

“The ANC’s response to the T-shirts produced by Westville pupils as part of an art exhibition is excessive, hysterical, and not in line with our Constitution,” DA provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu said.

“These learners have the right to express themselves in whatever way they want to. This right is enshrined in our Constitution as the right to freedom of expression,” he said in a statement.

T-shirts bearing the faces of President Jacob Zuma, former president Nelson Mandela and ANC national executive committee member and former police commissioner Bheki Cele, with derogatory captions, were displayed at the Westville Village Market Mall in Durban on Tuesday.

The provincial ANC on Wednesday expressed shock at the T-shirts made by Westville Boys High pupils.

On Thursday, ANC MPL in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature Siboniso Duma reportedly moved a motion demanding that Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni launch an investigation.

Duma told the legislature the T-shirts smacked of a “DA tendency of promoting white supremacy by demonising the ANC government”.

He was quoted by The Witness newspaper as saying that the DA was “a cancer to the society whose sole mandate is to destroy our society by promoting white supremacy and neo-liberalism”.

“Public schools must serve our interests not the opposition. An investigation by the MEC must be done,” he said.

Social commentary

The T-shirts were removed as soon as a complaint was received.

According to school principal Trevor Hall they had been produced as part of the visual arts curriculum, part of which focused on social commentary.

One of the T-shirts labelled ANC leaders as “fakers since 1994”.

Hall told The Witness earlier this week that “the three artworks in question were created by free-thinking learners as part of their art portfolio for examination”.

He said the work was not intended to offend and apologised for any offence caused.

Mchunu denied that the DA had anything to do with the T-shirts and said the pupils should be able to express their opinions without fear of retribution.

“The DA does not necessarily endorse the message produced by the pupils at Westville Boys High, and we certainly had nothing to do with producing or encouraging the art as the ANC has suggested,” said Mchunu.

Had the pupils expressed a negative opinion about the DA, the party would not have complained about it.

“The ANC seems to have developed a hyper-sensitivity about being criticised. It is frankly laughable that the ANC feels this threatened by the handiwork of a few teenagers,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg-South African Under-20 Women’s National team (Basetsana) coach Sheryl Botes believes the stage is set for the second leg qualifier and that her players are ready for the challenge against Botswana.

Basetsana face their neighbouring counterparts in the return-leg of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup qualifier at the Bidvest Wits Stadium on Saturday, 9 November.

Kick-off is at 15h00. 

The hosts go into the second leg clash with a 5-2 lead over Botswana. A win or even a draw for the South Africans will send them into the next round of the World Cup qualifiers to be played next month.

Botes said she was happy with the output at training throughout the week and that the players were positive and confident ahead of this crucial match.

“We worked on different formations and the practice match against the boys yesterday was a good exercise ahead of this match. We are aware that it is not going to be an easy encounter.

“We expect Botswana to be aggressive in attack but we should be able to absorb the pressure. I am happy with what I have seen in training this week and will be in a position to select my starting eleven tonight,” said Botes.

Bloemfontein-based striker Shiwe Nogwana whose second half hat-trick sealed victory for the South Africans in Botswana said she was confident the team would secure qualification to the next round.

“It is not going to be an easy encounter as Botswana has gauged our style of play. We as a team will need to go there and give it all we’ve got if we are to progress to the second round of the qualifiers,” said Nogwana.

The Botswana Women’s National team has arrived in the country and will train at the match venue this afternoon (Friday).

The two African nations that qualify for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 will be decided after the third qualification round in January next year.-TDN

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