Cape Town – A Durban company’s former managing director appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town on Monday to face charges of fraud.

Lynette Bruce was arrested on Sunday.

Prosecutor Juan Agulhas told the court she had been brought to court on a warrant for her arrest, and that she would appear later in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Durban.

Bruce worked for the Durban company, Metro Automation RSA, first as an accountant and later as managing director in charge of administration.

The State alleges that she misappropriated R1 085 089 in 2008.

Agulhas said the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit in Durban had no objection to Bruce’s release on bail.

He told the court she had come from Durban to Cape Town, and was in the process of relocating to Bloemfontein when she was arrested on Sunday.

He said he needed to verify her address in Bloemfontein before her release on bail.

At his request, the case was postponed until Wednesday, when legal aid attorney Hailey Lawrence is expected to launch a bail application on Bruce’s behalf.

Durban – Five men accused of killing a police officer can apply for bail once they all have legal representation, the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court ruled on Monday.

Mthozi Ngcobo, 25, Khulekani Vilikazi, 20, Lungani Mayiwa, 25, Anele Gumbi, 20, and Siyabonga Hlophe, 22, had been expected to apply for bail on Monday.

Their court-appointed lawyer, however, told the court she could not represent all of them due to a conflict of interest.

It was not explained what this conflict was.

Magistrate Ravi Pillay adjourned the matter to 17 December to allow four of the men to get new legal representation.

They are accused of being involved in the killing of Thabo Mlotshwa, 32, of the police’s national intervention unit, on 15 November.

He was buried in a shallow grave after the murder.

Standerton – Six Mpumalanga primary school teachers accused of stealing food meant to feed poor children will appear in the Standerton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

The teachers, of Gugulabasha Primary School in Sakhile near Standerton, were arrested at the school on Wednesday.

The arrests followed a tip-off about the theft of groceries used in the school nutrition programme, a Sapa correspondent reported.

“Structures were put in place to observe and verify the allegations which were found to be true. The police applied for a search warrant from the local magistrate’s court and went to the school to do a search,” said police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi.

“During the search, police found groceries from six vehicles belonging to the suspects, and they were arrested and warned to appear before the Standerton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of theft.”

Hlathi said the charges against the teachers, aged between 40 and 45, were disturbing.

“These schools were even declared non-fee schools because most parents of pupils are not working and poor. For a teacher to be accused of stealing such food is a disgrace to the society,” Hlathi said.

Cape Town – A former pastor with the New Apostolic Church in Durbanville, Cape Town, was jailed for in effect four years on Monday.

Craig Vernon Freeman appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, who also declared him unfit to possess a firearm.

Freeman pleaded guilty to falsely informing two members of his congregation that he was engaged in the development of the farm Rhebokskloof, near Paarl.

By offering them returns of between 28% and 38%, they were duped into investing in the non-existent development.

Richard Williams-Sims invested R3 350 000, and Deon Scritten R200 000, between July 2006 and January 2007.

Neither received their returns, or their money back.

The magistrate said Freeman, a high income earner, had been driven by greed.

She found the sentence suggested by defence attorney William Booth – a fine and a suspended prison sentence, or correctional supervision not involving incarceration – was too lenient.

She agreed with prosecutor Jannie Knipe that either option would send out the incorrect message to the community that prison sentences were reserved for violent crime, but not “white collar” crime.

She said the interests of the community far outweighed Freeman’s interests.

She sentenced him to eight years, of which four were conditionally suspended for five years.

She said Freeman had to repay both victims in full within five years of his release from prison as a condition of the suspended sentence.

The sentence would be put into operation if he failed to repay the money as ordered, she warned.

Pretoria – A pathologist detailed on Monday the horrific injuries suffered by a 3-week old baby, whose stepfather is on trial in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for allegedly abusing and murdering the child.

Christiaan “Chris” Oldewage, 28, pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering his wife Juanita’s baby Christiaan “Stiaan” in December 2011.

The baby died of multiple injuries, including a fractured skull, 16 rib fractures, a bruised lung and bleeding kidney, hours after being admitted to the Montana Hospital, in the north of Pretoria.

Oldewage’s wife Juanita, who was charged with him, committed suicide in August by hanging herself in her boyfriend’s flat.

Pathologist Lorraine Prinsloo testified that the baby, which weighed 4kgs, had a severe skull fracture, a laceration to the lining of the brain and 14 fractured ribs, two of which had been fractured twice.

There was also blood in his abdominal cavity, and he had bruised lungs and haemorrhages in the area of the lung, intestines, adrenal gland, kidney, and between the layers that cover the brain.

Prinsloo said babies’ bones were soft and pliable and it took a lot of pressure to fracture the skull.

“Blunt force would cause a fracture like that, for example hitting the baby’s head against a surface or dropping the baby.

“It is possible to sustain this type of fracture in a fall off a bed, but in accidental falls like that, usually there is no other injury to the brain or haemorrhages.

“It’s improbable that the skull fracture was caused by a fall from a bed.

“Except for the injuries, he was an otherwise healthy baby,” she said.

Rib and skull fractures

Prinsloo testified that although the rib fractures were fresh and that the skull fracture was less than three days old, it was likely all the injuries were sustained at the same time.

She said a lot of pressure was needed to fracture the ribs, and that this could have been caused by squeezing the chest or applying any form of blunt force.

A blow to the abdomen, or forcing the baby down on a hard surface would have caused the injuries to his abdomen and kidney.

She said all the injuries, and blood loss, had caused the infant’s death.

Constable Marius Dege testified that Juanita Oldewage at one stage phoned him, complaining that her husband was assaulting her baby.

Both smelled of alcohol and Mr Oldewage was drunk.

He blamed their kitten for the scratches and complained that his wife was assaulting him because she thought he had assaulted the baby.

Dege saw scratch marks on the baby’s face and upper body and said they looked like human scratch marks.

He warned the couple he would take the baby away if they kept on fighting, but relented when Mrs Oldewage asked him not to take the child.

Judge Bert Bam wanted to know from Dege why he did not take the child or at least report the incident.

“I don’t understand your conduct. You thought it was reasonably serious. You didn’t think it was the cat. Why would you do nothing about it? What motivated you? The child was a tiny baby of 2-weeks-old.”

Family in tears

Dege said Oldewage had been aggressive and had not wanted to listen to reason, but later calmed down.

The mother had asked him not to take the child. The baby was in her arms and was not crying when he left, he said.

The baby’s great-grandmother Dorothea Engelbrecht and her daughter Karin Viviers were both in tears when they testified about his short life.

Engelbrecht said the couple rejected her help after Stiaan’s birth and that she was told Oldewage knew how to raise babies as he had raised his brother.

When she visited them early in December, she saw scratch marks on the baby’s face and head, but Oldewage had said the cat was in the baby’s crib.

He and Juanita were drinking and he was very aggressive.

The baby was well, but dirty when Engelbrecht and her daughter took him on a shopping trip two days before his death.

Engelbrecht told her daughter she wished she could raise the child herself, because Oldewage did not have a job.

Hospital

Engelbrecht and Juanita took the baby to hospital later that night because he would not stop crying, but they were sent home.

She later received a call from a boy who said the baby was no longer breathing and her daughter later phoned to say he had died.

Viviers testified that she had to pay money before the baby could be treated at hospital on the night before his death.

Juanita had prayed and been emotional while the baby was treated.

Oldewage was mostly outside and later left, saying he was tired.

When she phoned to say he should urgently go to the hospital, he said the baby was “not that ill”, although he did arrive later.

She said that when she saw the baby a few days before his death he was “not a clean, happy baby”.

The trial continues.