Johannesburg – Three men accused of killing a farmer in Newcastle were arrested on Tuesday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Police spokesperson Vincent Mdunge said the men would appear in the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

They faced charges of murder, housebreaking, theft and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Timothy Green, 44, was shot dead at his farm on Sunday night.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The so-called DNA bill was formally adopted by Parliament’s police portfolio committee on Tuesday.

The criminal law (forensic procedures) amendment bill provides, among other things, for the taking of DNA samples from certain people for use during criminal investigations.

However, MPs said they were concerned that police management had presented them with only an estimate of how much implementing the bill would cost.

Earlier, SA Police Service (SAPS) chief financial officer Stefan Schutte told the committee it would cost over R1.2bn to implement.

Diane Kohler-Barnard of the Democratic Alliance said there appeared to have been no preparation for implementation.

“It’s last-minute scrambling… you give this [costing] to us at the last minute… I’m quite horrified at what’s happening here,” she said.

The DA and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) declined to vote on the bill’s adoption, saying they first had to provide their respective caucuses with a copy of the cost implications.

Committee chairperson Annelize van Wyk said she was more concerned about where the money would come from.

“The reason I’m asking is that your expenditure… in the environment of FSL (Forensic Science Laboratories), you are already at 213% spent on consultants, and that’s only in the second quarter [of the financial year],” she said.

The committee nonetheless adopted the bill, saying it would be monitoring implementation very closely.

Amendments

The bill has seen significant changes since it was first introduced in Parliament about five years ago, when human rights and privacy issues were raised.

The original draft provided for storing DNA samples of persons charged with a crime, but this clause was removed because it was deemed unconstitutional.

The measure was also seen as being open to abuse by corrupt police officers, who could plant DNA at crime scenes.

The new bill will compel criminals or suspected criminals to provide police with a DNA sample.

The samples will then be destroyed, but the DNA profiles will be stored on a database.

Samples are taken – by specially-trained police officers – using a cotton-tipped swab, rubbed against the inner cheek. Epithelial (cheek) cells adhere to the swab.

Criminals in the country’s jails will be compelled to provide such DNA samples.

DNA will also be taken from arrested and charged people, and from volunteers, to eliminate them as suspects in a crime.

People can also volunteer to provide DNA samples for purposes of identifying bodies or missing people.

The bill will now be submitted to the National Assembly for debate and adoption.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The Democratic Alliance on Tuesday stripped Nelson Mandela Bay Metro councillor Stanford Slabbert of his party membership.

“The DA has concluded a comprehensive disciplinary process, whereby charges were laid against councillor Stanford Slabbert for the circulation of an offensive and racist e-mail,” DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said in a statement on Tuesday.

This followed a disciplinary hearing that found Slabbert guilty of circulating a racist e-mail about President Jacob Zuma.

Slabbert sent an e-mail saying Zuma had more wives than brain cells.

The e-mail also slammed the ANC for producing “dumb idiots who wait for handouts”.

The e-mail said Zuma had led a country where a quarter of schoolgirls were HIV-positive because South Africans had “spread the disease more than anyone else in the world”.

Trollip said the hearing was attended by Slabbert and the legal representative defending him, with the DA providing a prosecution and a disciplinary hearing panel.

The recommendation by the provincial disciplinary council was that Slabbert’s party membership be terminated, after he was found guilty of contravening certain clauses in the DA’s federal constitution.

According to the party’s federal constitution, any member including a public representative is guilty of misconduct if he or she fails to carry out his or her duties or responsibilities according to standards set by the federal council.

Trollip said: “The actions by Mr Slabbert are contrary to the values of the DA and are condemned in the strongest manner.”

The hearing panel found the content of the e-mail to be divisive, insensitive and containing statements that can be classified as racial stereotyping and racist by nature.

“The forwarding of the e-mail by Mr Slabbert brought the name of the party into disrepute and did not reflect it as being a non-racial party for all voters, who subscribe to its principles and values,” said Trollip.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Free State police are searching for a local soapie actress to assist them in a fraud investigation, police spokesperson Stephen Thakeng said on Tuesday.

Nomathemeba Mokeretla, who plays the role of a doctor in the soapie Muvhango, had been identified as a possible witness by the fraud victim, he said.

The victim lost R600 000 in September 2011.

“The complainant saw the… [actress] on the programme when it was televised during the end of July 2013 and the beginning of August 2013,” Thakeng said.

He could not give further details.

Thakeng asked anyone with information about the actress to contact the police.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The nine police officers implicated in the murder of Daveyton taxi driver Mido Macia were granted bail in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

The nine officers were re-applying for bail after their legal representatives told the court they had new evidence, which could see the court overturn its earlier decision to deny them bail.

Macia was filmed being tied to the back of a police van and dragged along a street in Daveyton on 26 February.

Police confronted him because his taxi was apparently blocking traffic.

A scuffle ensued and he was taken to the local police station, where he was found dead in the holding cells several hours later.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has signed into law a bill that aims to promote access to justice, the presidency said on Tuesday.

Rigorous and urgent steps were needed to ensure that justice did not remain the privilege of the rich, but was a fundamental human right enjoyed by all, Zuma said in a statement.

“The Superior Courts Act is a step in this direction.”

The act provided for the re-organisation and rationalisation of high courts and their jurisdictional areas.

Currently, superior courts were structured in accordance with the Supreme Court Act.

With the implementation of the new act, the current 13 high courts, which included high courts inherited from the former self-governing apartheid homelands, would be rationalised into a single high court with a functional division of the court established in each province.

“The communities who live in the now Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces have endured the hardship of accessing the high court in north Gauteng and the high court in Pretoria, since the formation of the Union of South Africa, for a period of more than a century,” Zuma said.

“Legally they can now have the benefit of having their own division of the high court right at their doorstep. This will happen as soon as the construction of the two high court divisions in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces has been completed.”

The construction of the Limpopo seat of the high court would be completed by June 2014, while the construction of the Mpumalanga seat was expected to start before the end of this year, Zuma said.

The act would also place magistrates in every division of the high court under the control of the judge president of the division concerned.

– SAPA

Pretoria – Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was admitted to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on Tuesday, his ministry said.

“Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has this morning [Tuesday] checked into Steve Biko Academic Hospital for a surgical procedure and is likely to be out-of-office for at least a week,” health ministry spokesperson Joe Maila said.

Deputy Health Minister Gwen Ramokgopa wished Motsoaledi a speedy recovery.

“All of us wish you well minister, and a speedy recovery. It is our wish that you recover soon,” she said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A taxi marshal’s account of what happened the day Daveyton taxi driver Mido Macia died is untrue, the Benoni Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday.

Police Warrant Officer Meshack Malele disputed the testimony of Julius Skhosana.

Malele and eight other officers implicated in Macia’s death are re-applying for bail after their legal representatives told the court they had new evidence which could see the court overturn its earlier decision to deny them bail.

Malele, 46, denied Skhosana’s claim that police assaulted Macia at the scene.

“The witness does not even mention that ‘General’ tried to take my firearm,” said Malele.
General was Macia’s nickname.

“He doesn’t even mention that I was assaulted at the scene. Other police officers intervened. I nearly died [from the assault],” said Malele.

Macia was filmed being tied to the back of a police van and dragged along a street in Daveyton on 26 February.

Police confronted him because his taxi was apparently blocking traffic.

A scuffle ensued and he was taken to the local police station, where he was found dead in the holding cells several hours later.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Gauteng lawmaker Mxolisi Eric Xayiya has been appointed MEC for economic development in the province, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday.

He would replace Nkosiphendule Kholisile, who was recently killed in a car accident.

Xayiya would take office immediately, Mokonyane said.

He was previously chair of the Road and Transport sub-committee in the Gauteng legislature and is currently a member of the Oversight Committee on the Office of the Premier in the Legislature (OCPOL).

The African National Congress in Gauteng welcomed his appointment.

“He has a lot to offer both in terms of his experience and commitment. He is hard working and dedicated cadre of the movement,” spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said in a statement.

The Democratic Alliance described the appointment as a puzzling choice.

“He does not have a strong economics background, unlike his predecessor Nkosiphendule Kolisile,” DA Gauteng leader Jack Bloom said in statement.

“There are better qualified people in the ANC for this position, so it is a political appointment dictated by the balance of power between Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and Gauteng ANC chairperson Paul Mashatile.”

Bloom said Xayiya had a daunting task ahead of him as the department’s job creation efforts had mostly failed.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Some people are bent on tarnishing the reputation and image of Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, Samwu in the Eastern Cape said on Tuesday.

“The SA Municipal Workers’ Union [Samwu] in the Eastern Cape is disturbed by the continuous discrediting of [Vavi] in the media and by other sources,” spokesperson Siphiwo Ndunyana said in statement.

“The agenda of the factionalists was defeated at the last Cosatu congress, when the general secretary received overwhelming support. Now some of the same people are trying to remove the general secretary via the ‘back door’.”

Ndunyana accused factions within the Congress of SA Trade Unions of being behind attempts to remove Vavi from the country’s most powerful trade union federation.

“They tried to use rape accusations, which have now been withdrawn by the woman involved. Over the next period these forces will undoubtedly try other dirty tricks,” he said.

“Our view in the Eastern Cape expressed by our provincial executive committee is that the Cosatu CEC [central executive committee] should constructively deal with the matter and act responsibly,” he said.

He said Vavi was persecuted for being outspoken about the situation facing ordinary people.

“Our people are suffering; the only crime that comrade Vavi committed is he is prepared to tell the truth about the day to day reality of our people.”

Vavi made headlines last month after a junior employee at Cosatu accused him of rape.

He subsequently admitted to having a sexual affair with the woman but said it was consensual. The woman subsequently withdrew her sexual harassment complaint against him.

– SAPA