Senior management within the police crime intelligence and protection services unit (Cips) in Mpumalanga have been accused of sexual harassment.

A Sapa correspondent reported on Tuesday that since 2011 the SA Police Union (Sapu) had been unsuccessfully trying to get provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Thulani Ntobela to probe the matter.

On December 1, Sapu sent a memorandum of grievances to Ntobela, detailing improper conduct by senior officers against their subordinates in the Cips unit’s offices in Nelspruit.

“A high ranking official summoned a female constable to his office, where he showed her pornographic films,” the memorandum reads.

“He further told the constable that the private parts in the pornographic film are the same as those of the female constable.”

According to the memorandum the same official, a lieutenant, told the female constable that he had seen her in a video having sex with her boyfriend.

“The high ranking officer brushed the constable and she ran out of his office. 1/8He 3/8 continuously phoned the constable, but she refused to go to the office again,” reads the memorandum.

The constable reported the matter to her union, Sapu, and said she was no longer comfortable working under the supervision of her senior.

The memorandum further stated that the same police officer and a brigadier harassed two female constables. It stated that both female constables refused their advances, but the brigadier continued demanding sexual favours.

The alleged victims told Sapu they were no longer comfortable working with their seniors.

The Cips unit falls under the national office of the SA Police Service and is responsible for the protection of VIPs, in particular politicians.

Sapu provincial chairman Isaac Magagula said the union had reported the allegations to the provincial police commissioner, but Sapu was kept in the dark about any developments.

“We reported the incidents to the provincial commissioner. He then appointed a task team to investigate the allegations,” said Magagula.

“Unfortunately as Sapu, we were not privy to the outcome of the investigation until we picked it up from the labour relations office.”

Union representatives were informed by officials from the police labour relations office that the implicated managers needed a workshop on management skills. Despite the workshop there were more allegations against the members of the Cips.

Magagula noted that neither the union nor the complainants were approached to provide evidence or verify the allegations during the internal investigation.

Comment could not be obtained from national police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo.

Sapa

Cape Town – The Western Cape High Court will sentence a man on Thursday for throwing his infant son to the floor of his home several times in a fit of rage because he had soiled his nappy.

John Hendricks, 25, of Atlantis near Cape Town, appeared on Tuesday before Judge Robert Henney, who said he needed time to consider an appropriate sentence.

The trial would have taken the form of a plea bargain agreement, but the judge said the suggested sentence of 18 years for murder was too lenient.

Defence counsel Ken Klopper told the court he had explained the implications of this to Hendricks, who had chosen to continue with the plea-bargaining proceedings, but would leave the sentencing to the court.

The other option had been to convert the proceedings into a fully-fledged trial.

The judge warned that he did not want Hendricks to later say that he had misunderstood his counsel’s advice, or that confusion or nervousness had led him to mistakenly decide to remain with the plea-bargain proceedings.

The circumstances of the case qualified Hendricks for a minimum sentence of 15 years, but Klopper himself pushed the sentence to 18 years, because of the gravity of the matter.

The judge said he had a sentence of 25 years in mind, but he needed to think about it.

Klopper said he had asked Hendricks why a young father of his age would behave in such a monstrous manner towards his own child.

Hendricks had explained that he was unemployed and had alcohol and drug problems.

The mother of the child, who lived with Hendricks as his “common law wife”, was employed, which meant that Hendricks had to care for the child in the day while the mother was at work.

Hendricks is to be sentenced on charges of murder, seriously assaulting the child’s mother and kidnapping her.

On the kidnapping charge, he kept the mother hostage in their home after assaulting her.

The judge said the toddler had suffered convulsions after being repeatedly thrown to the floor, and Hendricks and the mother had then left the boy to sleep.

The boy was left sleeping the whole of the next day, and was rushed to hospital only when the convulsions started again.

The judge said it worried him that it had taken the couple such a long time to take the baby for medical treatment, and also that they had decided to lie to the hospital authorities that the baby had fallen off a high bed.

State advocate Nadia Ajam told the court that both the child’s mother and her own mother, were in court attending the proceedings.

She said: “We have not yet gotten a full answer as to why a father would do this to his own child.”

Ajam said the condition of the toddler on arrival at the Red Cross Children’s Memorial Hospital had prompted the doctors to involve social workers.

The case continues on Thursday.

Sapa

Johannesburg – A woman was arrested for stabbing her boyfriend in Kagiso, Krugersdorp, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old was arrested on Monday after the fight at the weekend, Brigadier Sipho Ngubane said in a statement.

“It is alleged that the (boyfriend) was home with his girlfriend, when an argument ensued between them,” Ngubane said.

The woman was trying to stop the man from leaving when she stabbed him.

The man fainted and was taken to hospital with wounds to his head and nose.

Sapa

Malamulele – Residents of Malamulele in Limpopo burnt down a government building and shops during a violent demarcation protest on Tuesday, the provincial police said.

“Almost 20 000 residents went on a rampage after a meeting to demand their own municipality was not acceded to by the demarcation board this morning,” said Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi.

“The residents ran amok, looting shops. The Malamulele crossing complex, and the home affairs office, and shops at the Mala plaza were burnt down.”

Stones and burning tyres were used to block roads. Forty people were arrested for public violence. They were expected to appear in the Malamulele Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

Limpopo provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Fannie Masemola warned residents not to take the law into their own hands.

“When community members have complaints, they must not resort to any violent means and destroying of property. We will not hesitate to take action to bring the perpetrators to book,” he said.

Sapa

Johannesburg – A driver accused of killing 23 people when his truck crashed into four minibus taxis and two cars will apply for bail in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Sanele Goodness May’s bail application was postponed earlier this month after his lawyer Louis Barnard said the defence “wanted some preliminary issues ironed out”.

On September 6, the truck May was driving hit four fully laden minibus taxis and two cars on the corner of Field’s Hill (M13) and Richmond Road in Pinetown shortly before 7pm.

Twenty-two people died on the scene, and another person died in hospital.

May was initially charged with culpable homicide, but this was later changed to 23 counts of murder and a charge of reckless or negligent driving. – Sapa

Kimberley – The triple murder trial of the Steenkamp family from Griquatown will proceed in the Northern High Court on October 21 after an amount of R500 000 of an inheritance was released to enable the 17-year-old accused to pay his legal fees.

Up until May, the bill for an instructing attorney and two defence advocates have run into the region of R1.2 million plus R130 000 for the use of forensic, ballistic and other experts.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

The outcomes of Auditor General Terence Nombembe’s audit of the Northern Cape government was welcomed by the ANC in the province on Monday.

African National Congress provincial whip Dave Molusi said his party encouraged the executive and accounting authorities to redouble their efforts in achieving clean audits.

“These outcomes demonstrate an emphatic improvement, with several departments and government entities close to achieving the ‘clean audit opinions’ advocated by the ANC-led government.”

Nombembe presented his findings to the provincial legislature and members of the Northern Cape executive last week.

Molusi said in a statement the highlight of Nombembe’s findings was the clean audit opinion, meaning unqualified with no matters of emphasis, which the social development department received.

During his presentation, Nombembe said consistent performance was an important benchmark of good governance.

Molusi said: “It is with pride in the ethic of hard work and dedication to service delivery that we can announce that none of the departments received a disclaimer opinion during the 2012/13 financial year’s audit.”

A disclaimer report is issued when an auditor is unable to complete the audit for a variety of reasons and therefore does not issue an opinion.

The Northern Cape Economic Development Agency and Trade and Investment Promotion Agency received disclaimer opinions.

Molusi said that the provincial health department had received a qualified opinion report, an improvement from its recent history of disclaimer opinions.

“The AG also highlighted that this improvement was encouraging given the complex challenges faced by this department,” Molusi said.

“It is significant to note that Mr Nombembe was encouraged by the Northern Cape’s service delivery reporting on the whole.”

Sapa

Rustenburg – The case of a man accused of murdering a woman at a mine in Rustenburg was postponed by the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, North West police said.

The case against Kabelo Arthur Moseki, 29, was postponed to Friday, said Brigadier Thulani Ngubane.

Moseki faces a charge of murder after his arrest on Wednesday following the discovery of the woman’s body underground at Aquarius platinum mine’s Kwezi shaft.

Sapa

The ANC will be a very different animal if it hopes to stay in power in 2019, says Max du Preez.

Durban – If the ANC’s support dropped to below 60 percent of the vote in next year’s election and the trend continues, the ANC could lose power in 2019, right?

The second question in the minds of the chattering classes is: would the ANC accept a defeat at the polls and hand over power?
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – Children are likely to achieve higher levels of literacy when using a home language in schools, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday.

“Research shows that children are likely to achieve higher levels of literacy when using a home language in school, in our case, African languages like isiZulu, isiXhosa, Setswana and others,” she said at the 10th international language and development conference in Cape Town.

Developing and speaking the languages of the land and the languages acquired as part of the colonial enterprise would bring to speed the realisation of a united and integrated Africa.

“South Africa’s experience will assist the conference to deeply appreciate the importance of language in society and how it is critical to liberating the mind,” said Motshekga.

She said that even beyond apartheid and its discourses of difference, language still affected on relations and opportunities in life.

“This conference is of importance as it gets us thinking and reflecting on an important review of the Millennium Development Goals.”

The conference promised to provide a useful lens through which everyone could interrogate critically the extent to which countries had performed in pursuance of the Millennium Development Goals, she said.

The Millennium Development Goals are set targets to be reached in eight areas, including poverty, unemployment, and education, by 2015.

– SAPA