Pietermaritzburg – Failure by a high court judge’s registrar to record that a man had been granted bail cost him three years in jail, the Pietermaritzburg High Court heard on Monday.

This mistake prompted Sivion Mkhize, 28, who was later set free after an appeal, to launch a R16 million claim, plus loss of earnings, against the minister of justice and constitutional development.

The minister’s counsel was opposing the claim on the basis that it was no longer valid as it was more than three years old.

Acting Judge Piet Bezuidenhout will decide on the claims and defence.

Mkhize, from Ladysmith, was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in the Dundee Circuit Court by Judge Leona Theron in February 2001. She sentenced him to jail for life for murder, plus 15 years for aggravated robbery at a garage near Ladysmith.

Two of his co-accused absconded, leaving Mkhize as the sole accused.

Theron granted him leave to appeal because part of the evidence against him rested on voice identification. She also granted him R5000 bail.

Mkhize’s leave to appeal was recorded but not his access to bail.

He was sent to Waterfall Prison in Utrecht where officials refused to release him on bail.

Eventually Mkhize wrote to the then Judge President of KwaZulu-Natal, Judge Vuka Tshabalala, who wrote back to him informing him that he had been granted leave to appeal, but not bail.

Despite efforts by Mkhize and his family to have the record set straight he stayed in jail until February 2004 when a full Bench set aside his conviction and freed him.

An emotional Mkhize told the court that he started doubting his mental condition while in prison as both he and his family knew he had been granted bail, but he was still in prison.

The matter continues.

Sapa

Pretoria – A senior policeman was unaware that mineworkers “lying around” after a clash with police at Marikana last year were dead, the Farlam Commission heard on Monday.

In a statement submitted to the commission, Brigadier Adriaan Calitz testified that due to the noise around the koppie, he had not heard the police tactical response team (TRT) firing live ammunition at the strikers.

“I contacted Lieutenant Colonel [Solomon] Vermaak on radio and inquired from him why the TRT was not following our dispersal action. He said he would go and check and later reported that the TRT were at the kraal and there were bodies lying around.

“I thought, given my experience and the absence of such a report to me, that the bodies referred to people who were injured by the dispersion action or lying down to be arrested,” Calitz said in his statement.

He detailed how he instructed officers to pursue protesters who were escaping in the northern and western directions. He urged the officers to arrest the fleeing protesters.

“I gave clear instructions over the radio to the dispersion group [police officers] ‘do not shoot unless the target engages you’. I repeated the instruction to ensure that members understood me clearly,” said Calitz.

“The shooting I was referring to [meant the use of] rubber rounds and not sharp ammunition. They were to use rubber only as a last resort if the armed strikers approached them with dangerous weapons.”

Calitz, one of the police commanders assigned to the operation during the labour unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West, was testifying in the commission’s public hearings in Centurion.

Naked miners

Last week, he testified that a large group of naked miners performed rituals behind a koppie the day before the shooting.

Calitz said a white Toyota bakkie off-loaded buckets at the koppie, near the Nkaneng informal settlement in Marikana on 15 August last year.

“A group of strikers went to the bakkie and surrounded it. I reported to the JOC [joint operations committee] that it was suggested to us by some members that the buckets contained muti,” he said.

After 16:00, a police helicopter patrolling the scene reported that about 800 naked strikers were behind the koppie “and a traditional healer was busy with them”.

The following day, 34 people, mostly striking miners, were shot dead in a clash with police who were trying to disperse and disarm them. Seventy eight were wounded.

Inquiry

The Farlam Commission of Inquiry was appointed later that month to investigate the circumstances around the shooting, as well as the deaths of 10 other people, including two policemen and two security guards, during the preceding week.

He said the white Toyota bakkie was seen bringing substances in buckets.

“The chopper reported that the 800 or so naked strikers were performing rituals.”

In March, the commission heard that the sangoma believed to have performed rituals on the protesting mineworkers had been shot dead.

Advocate Ishmael Semenya, for the police, announced the sangoma’s death at the public hearings.

At the time, he said police had been trying to bring the 69-year-old sangoma Alton “Ndzabe” Zikhuthele Joja to testify as a witness before the commission.

Joja was to have testified before the commission about his role, and that of his sons, in rituals performed on striking miners.

The rituals were apparently supposed to make the miners believe they were invisible in the face of gunfire.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Security will be tight at the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane for EFF leader Julius Malema’s court appearance this week, Limpopo police said on Monday.

“[Police] will be monitoring and patrolling the area in and around the court, as well as the city centre and identified areas in Seshego, with the aim to ensure peace and stability,” police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said.

“No lawlessness will be tolerated and those who break the law will be arrested immediately.”

Last week, the corruption case against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader was postponed to next year.

He will make representations to a judge on Thursday and Friday on why the matter should not go to trial.

The former ANC Youth League leader allegedly made nearly R4m from corrupt activities.

He is out on bail of R10 000 and faces charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and racketeering.

Malema’s co-accused are his business associates Kagisho Dichabe, Lesiba Gwangwa, Helen Moreroa, and Makgetsi Manthata. They are out on bail of R40 000 each.

The State alleges Malema and the others misrepresented themselves to the Limpopo roads and transport department, leading to a R52m contract being awarded to On-Point Engineering.

According to court papers, Malema had business ties with Gwangwa, a director of On-Point Engineering.

Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust was an indirect shareholder in On-Point.

The department paid the company R43m. According to the charge sheet, Malema substantially benefited from this payment, using it to buy a farm and a Mercedes-Benz.

Tight control

Mulaudzi said: “Tight control will be enforced by members of the private security company at the court, as well as members of the SA Police Service.

“No dangerous weapons, such as fire-arms, knives, pangas or knobkerries will be allowed onto the court premises as well as surrounding areas.

A night vigil was expected to be held for Malema at the Oasis Lodge in Polokwane on Wednesday.

Mulaudzi said police would also be monitoring the vigil, as well as a motorcade and march into the city centre on Thursday morning.

A number of streets around the court will be closed on Thursday.

These were Schoeman Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein streets, Landdros Mare Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein Street and Hans van Rensburg Street from Thabo Mbeki to Bodenstein Street.

The march was scheduled to start on Oost Street down to Bodenstein Street.

– SAPA

Durban – Two men made a brief appearance in the Pinetown Magistrate’s court on Monday in connection with the killing of a policeman.

The case against Mthozi Ngcobo and Khulekani Vilikazi was postponed to 2 December for a formal bail application.

The two are accused of being involved in the killing of a 32-year-old police officer last week.

Four others appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with the officer’s death.

Police spokesperson Thulani Zwane said last week the officer was on his way to meet an acquaintance when he came across the men on 15 November.

“On his arrival at Mpola he was approached by the suspects who overpowered him and fired two fatal shots at him,” Zwane said.

He said the men, between the ages of 17 and 34, allegedly took the officer’s wallet, cellphones, bag, and his service pistol before burying him in a shallow grave in the area.

His car was found abandoned at Lindelani in Ntuzuma on Tuesday.

“One of the men was found in a house with two shovels, the deceased’s bag, firearm retainer, a blood-stained curtain, and muddied shoes,” he said.

Further investigation led to the arrest of three more men.

Magistrate Chris Annamalai refused an application from the media to be allowed to photograph the men.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Four illegal miners trapped in a mine near Robertville on the West Rand were rescued on Monday afternoon, paramedics said.

“Rescue workers managed to reach them safely and they were removed from where they were trapped for the past three days in the old mine,” ER24 spokesperson Christo Venter said.

“Fortunately none of the men sustained any injury and they were removed from the scene after being taken into custody.”

The miners were trapped when a mine shaft apparently collapsed.

The name of the mine was not known.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Mpumalanga health department is in disarray and needs to be investigated, DA provincial leader James Masango said on Monday.

“We read in a local newspaper this morning [Monday] that patients were fed rotten meat at Embhuleni Hospital near Badplaas,” he said in a statement.

The health department had promised to investigate the claims but the DA remained doubtful.

“There has been a lot of cases of negligence and poor management reported and the department has always promised to investigate but at the end we don’t see the reports.”

Masango said claims included patients having to sleep in corridors and a lack of food in some hospitals, with patients having to bring their own food.

He said Premier David Mabuza had visited a few health facilities last year but conditions had not improved.

“Nothing has come of any of his promises, and the entire exercise was aimed purely to get rid of his political opponent and former health MEC Dr Clifford Mkasi,” Masango said.

The DA wrote to the SA Human Rights Commission last year asking for an investigation and was still waiting for the report.

Allegations

Mpumalanga health department spokesperson Ronnie Masilela confirmed there had been rotten meat at Embhuleni Hospital.

“The department came to know about these serious allegations late yesterday [Sunday] from the SABC. Upon verifying with the CEO, it was confirmed that the coolroom had problems.”

He said the hospital had extra fresh meat in its freezers.

“We are, therefore, not in a position to confirm whether our patients were served rotten meat. We are awaiting a comprehensive report which will assist in this regard.”

Masilela said the department had experienced food shortages in the past, but the problem lay with the service provider and had long been solved.

“We are passionately working on improving on staff attitude in some facilities. It, therefore, remains grossly incorrect to suggest that the state of health in Mpumalanga is in disarray,” he said.

– SAPA

Durban – A case in which Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane is accused of interfering with witnesses was postponed to next year in the Pinetown Regional Court on Monday.

Mpisane, who is out on R50 000 bail, will now have to wait until 31 January to see if the State will proceed with the case against her.

It is one of three cases against her.

Mpisane, who is charged with defeating the ends of justice, is accused of contacting one of the witnesses expected to testify in her fraud trial in the Durban Regional Court.

Fraud case

The postponement was granted to await the outcome of representations made to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) in the matter of her fraud case.

Last month the Durban Regional Court granted the State a postponement to 31 January in that matter to allow newly appointed NDPP Mxolisi Nxasana time to consider representations made by Mpisane.

Mpisane is accused of inflating the invoices of her close corporation, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance, and Transport, by R4.7m in an attempt to cut her tax bill.

She is also accused of violating the Close Corporations Act by remaining Zikhulise’s sole member when she had a previous fraud conviction.

In July, Rafik Bhana SC, for Mpisane, accused the State of suppressing evidence and questioned prosecutor Meera Naidu’s conduct.

Bhana was granted permission and a postponement to make representations to then acting NDPP Nomgcobo Jiba.

Shortly afterwards Naidu was dropped from the case as well as the case in the Pinetown Regional Court.

Naidu had tried unsuccessfully to have the two cases joined.

Separate case

In a separate case before the Durban Commercial Crime Court, Mpisane faces 53 charges of fraud, forgery, and uttering of a forged document.

She is accused of submitting forged documents to obtain Construction Industry Development Board gradings which were then used to win five public works department tenders worth R140m.

That trial is set to start on 21 January.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Violence and abuse against women and children knows no class, race, or geographic divide, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

“No woman or child should be sexually harassed, beaten, raped, stabbed, shot, or attacked in any manner, anywhere in our country,” Zuma said in a statement to mark the launch of government’s campaign: 16 Days of No Violence against Women and Children.

“Those who commit such horrendous crimes have no place in our communities. They belong in jail.”

Zuma launched the campaign in Johannesburg and said this year violence against those with disabilities had been added.

Violence included sexual harassment, assault, rape and so-called corrective rape, domestic violence, and cultural practices harmful to women.

“Violence of this nature is barbaric, ferocious, and inhumane. It must be uprooted from our society. Let us use our laws to put an end to this scourge,” he said.

“Let us also use our human values of ubuntu as our weapon, and also our common resolve to build a caring society based on a strong human rights culture.”

Zuma said government was also sending a strong message to men in the country to isolate those who gave them a bad name and to join campaigns.

Violent attacks

Recent days, weeks, and months have been rife with examples of violence against women and children.

On Monday, a 17-year-old boy was arrested for the rape of a 4-year-old boy in Itsoseng near Lichtenburg, North West.

In other reports, a teacher accused of raping a 10-year-old pupil at a primary school in Mapetla, Soweto, appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

On 12 November, the mother of a 7-month-old baby who was found dead and mutilated in a shack in Diepsloot, and her boyfriend, were arrested.

In October, the bodies of 2-year-old Yonelisa Mali and her cousin Zandile Mali, 3, were found in a toilet cubicle. Five men were arrested and charged with rape and murder.

Sex courts

Meanwhile, convicted rapist and murderer Johannes Kana was handed two life sentences by the Swellendam Circuit Court on 1 November for the rape and murder of Anene Booysen in Bredasdorp.

Booysen was raped and disembowelled and died in Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, on the afternoon of Saturday, 2 February.

Launching the campaign, Zuma said the first phase of upgrading 57 regional courts into Sexual Offences Courts had begun.

He said progress had also been made in implementing the National Register for Sex Offenders.

The number of convicted sexual offenders increased from 2 792 in March 2013 to 11 418 names on 31 October.

The abuse of women and children was in some instances entrenched by the dire economic situation of most women, and it was important for women to obtain appropriate skills and opportunities to obtain jobs, Zuma said.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Former Nigerian olympic athlete Ambrose Monye and businessman Andre Gouws were found guilty by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday of the contract murder of Chanelle Henning.

Henning had just dropped her son off at his crèche in Faerie Glen, Pretoria, when she was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle on 8 November 2011.

She was at the time involved in a custody battle with her former husband, Nico, who was a close friend of Gouws.

Former police member Gerhardus du Plessis and his friend Willem Pieterse are serving 18-year prison sentences after confessing to the murder.

Judge Johan Kruger accepted their evidence that Monye and Gouws had arranged the murder.

He said Monye and Gouws’s claim that Du Plessis and Pieterse had acted on their own was not reasonably possibly true.

Kruger said their versions that the two killers had been employed either as bouncers or to do surveillance on Henning in an attempt to catch her with drugs were “concocted afterthoughts” designed to hide their own complicity in the murder.

He said Henning’s murder was a “classic contract killing” with Du Plessis and Pieterse as instruments who carried out the hit on the instructions of Monye and Gouws.

He found that Gouws wanted Henning killed and had asked Monye to obtain the services of two men willing to do the job.

Gouws had agreed to pay Monye, who in turn obtained the services of Pieterse and later Du Plessis.

Gouws was the instigator of the murder and Monye supplied the people to do the job.

Monye had informed Du Plessis and Pieterse of the job and Gouws had provided the information about the victim that was necessary to complete it.

Do the job

Monye’s conduct up to the murder was that of a person who was not only aware of the plan, but of someone who had actively participated in the plot to kill.

Kruger said without Gouws’s involvement, Monye would have had no reason, motive or even the necessary information to arrange the murder.

All the participants were aware of the purpose of Du Plessis and Pieterse’s introduction to Gouws, who showed the two killers where the murder had to be committed.

After a failed attempt on 3 November because the killers lacked the necessary information, Monye had arranged a meeting between them and Gouws so that Gouws could give them more information.

Monye had urged the two killers to “go and do the job”, which confirmed that he had fully associated himself with their objective.

At this meeting Gouws spoke to Nico Henning and found out that Chanelle’s child would be with her for the weekend, which was why the murder was arranged for the Monday as Gouws did not want her killed in front of her child.

Pieterse left to do the job alone on the morning of 7 November after Du Plessis withdrew, but Du Plessis changed his mind after Monye threatened to kill his family and even his dog.

Immediately after the murder on 8 November, Pieterse had informed Monye, who in turn informed Gouws.

Kruger found that Monye referred to Du Plessis after the murder as “killer boy” and roped in the services of one of his security guards to pay part of the payment he received from Gouws into his bank account.

He said despite Monye and Gouws’s knowledge of the murder, both failed to inform the police due to their own complicity in planning and executing the murder.

Charges merged

“If ever there had been a case where direct intent existed, this is such a case,” said Kruger.

He said it would be wrong to find the two guilty of conspiracy to murder as well, as the charges of conspiracy and murder merged.

He also found Gouws and Monye not guilty of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition as the State could not prove that either had ever been in possession of the murder weapon.

Kruger made it clear that he did not want to comment on Nico Henning’s possible involvement in the murder.

“Nico Henning was not an accused, nor did he testify… He had no opportunity to respond to or to explain any of the allegations against him.

“Fairness dictates that I shall not try a man in his absence,” he said.

Chanelle’s mother Sharon Saincic said the matter was not over as “the man behind the whole thing” was not in front of court.

“Andre Gouws did not act on his own. We know that,” she said.

Saincic said she was satisfied that two huge criminals had been removed from the street and that a lot of other people’s lives would at least be spared, even if it would not bring back her daughter.

Sentencing proceedings will start on Wednesday.

– SAPA