Johannesburg – All the people, who were missing after an explosion in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, have been accounted for, police said on Monday.

“A manager of the company [Rolfe pharmaceutical laboratories] tells me that all people who were missing were accounted for,” police spokesperson Stefanie Smith said.

An arson investigation would continue.

“We will send out a canine unit to sniff out the building tomorrow [Tuesday] as we had to wait for the building to be stabilised first,” Smith said.

Earlier in the day, an explosion sparked a fire, which resulted in the evacuation of the building.

Thirty-five people sustained burn wounds in the incident and were taken to the Wilhelm Stahl Hospital for treatment.

The blast also damaged a part of the building.

The estimated damage has not yet been determined.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Katlehong police were searching on Monday for the family of an unknown boy whose body was dumped near a house in Katlehong, on the East Rand.

The remains of the boy, aged between 4 and 6, were found in August in Hlongwane Section, said police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini.

“The boy was assaulted and burned. [The] forensic science laboratory reconstructed his face in order to assist with a possible identification.”

Police could not find any case of a missing person, even around neighbouring police stations.

Dlamini urged anyone, who might be able to help identify him or knew anything about his death, to contact them.

Police were investigating a murder case.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment in a case in which businessman Hugh Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) are challenging the SAPS Amendment Act.

The SA Police Service Amendment Act was the government’s response to a Constitutional Court judgment that found invalid sections of the legislation which established the Hawks crime-busting unit.

Glenister and the HSF argued that the amendments were not sufficient to insulate the Hawks from political interference.

They argued that the powers given to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to hire and fire the Hawks head opened up the unit to “undue influence”.

“It’s not all right for the minister to have control,” Paul Hoffman told the court on Monday.

Referring to the Amendment Act, which is meant to addresses the Constitutional Court’s concerns regarding the security of tenure for the Hawks head, Hoffman said: “The deck chairs have been moved around… but the Titanic is still not an independent entity.”

While the Constitutional Court found that it was not problematic for the Hawks to fall under the SAPS, Hoffman said the court did not mean for the unit to be under “executive control”.

Mthethwa’s control

Earlier in the day, Advocate Renata Williams, for the government, said Mthethwa needed to have an element of control over the Hawks.

Williams said that even if the Hawks were told not to investigate a certain matter, there were other institutions such as the public protector, which could “fill that gap” and help root out corruption.

The amendments to the act were drafted following a previous Constitutional Court victory by Glenister, in which the executive was ordered to change the legislation to provide the Hawks with independence from political interference, among other things.

Glenister brought his suit following the dissolution in 2008 of the Scorpions, which was an investigative unit which fell under the jurisdiction of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The Scorpions, or the Directorate of Special Operations, was replaced by the Hawks, which falls under the police.

– SAPA

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