Monthly Archives: March 2014

Sundowns take the lead in Q3


Mamelodi Sundowns are keeping the pressure on Kaizer Chiefs both for the League title as well as for Q3 following Tuesday’s win over Platinum Stars.

The Brazilians now sit on top of the Q3 table and have one match left to play (at home against Bloemfontein Celtic) but Chiefs have two matches left (both at home against Golden Arrows and Black Aces).

Bidvest Wits still have an outside chance of snatching the Q3 prize money if they manage to win all three of their remaining matches against Arrows (A), Platinum Stars (H) and Orlando Pirates (H).

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This weekend’s League fixtures are Q4 fixtures, with only one fixture counting towards Q3 – Arrows vs Wits tomorrow.

Remaining Q3 fixtures:

29/3 Golden Arrows   vs  Bidvest Wits        20:15
1/4  Platinum Stars    vs  Moroka Swallows 18:30
2/4  Kaizer Chiefs      vs  Golden Arrows     19:30
2/4  SuperSport Utd   vs  Maritzburg Utd    19:30
8/4  Univ. of Pretoria  vs  Moroka Swallows 19:30      
8/4  Free State Stars  vs  SuperSport Utd   19:30
9/4  Kaizer Chiefs       vs  Black Aces          19:30      
9/4  Sundowns           vs  Bloem Celtic        19:30          
9/4  Ajax Cape Town   vs  Golden Arrows    19:30
9/4  Bidvest Wits        vs  Platinum Stars    19:30    
9/4  Polokwane City    vs  Maritzburg Utd    19:30
30/4 Bidvest Wits       vs  Orlando Pirates   19:30
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Premier Modise welcomes former educator’s statutory rape sentence


North West Premier Thandi Modise has welcomed the four year imprisonment sentence given to a 39-year-old former Mahikeng High School female educator who was found guilty of statutory rape.

  

Premier Modise said that the sentence given to Geraldine Leonie Sheldon-Lakey by the Molopo Regional Court should sent an unequivocal message to adults who are betraying the trust of acting in loco-parentis by manipulating and taking advantage of vulnerable minors.

 

In welcoming the sentence, Premier Modise commented the parent of the learner for her vigilance that led to the discovery of voice recordings and pictures on her child’s cellphone that proved that the educator had an improper sexual and unprofessional relationship with the learner who was 15 year-old at the time.

 

“The support that the school and the parent gave the child has given him confidence to overcome the psychological pressure of dealing with the case and focus on his future,” Premier Modise said.  

 

The married mother of two was dismissed from employment by the Mafikeng High School Governing Body in December 2012 for conducting herself in a shameful and unbecoming manner and in violation of the South African Council of Educators Code of Professional Ethics.

 

Premier Modise appealed to parents to take interest in what is stored on their children’s cellphones and with whom they are chatting on social network platforms such as facebook, Mixit etc. 

According to National Prosecuting Authority Regional Spokesperson, Frank Lesenyego, Sheldon-Lakey had pleaded not guilty to the charges and after her sentencing, she successfully applied for leave of appeal.

 

“Her bail of R1000 has been extended pending the outcome of her appeal,” Lesenyego said.-TDN
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Premier Modise welcomes Blydeville rapist’s sentence


Blydeville-North West Premier Thandi Modise has welcomed the 20 year sentence given to Blydeville rapist Thabiso Mogale and called on communities to intensify united action against the scourge of rape and gender based violence.

“Women in Blydeville will be safer with the heartless Mogale removed from society. We applaud police for investigations that resulted in a successful prosecution. The sentence should encourage women to report rape incidents,” Premier Modise said.

According to police, 22 year-old Mogale was sentenced on Tuesday in the North West High Court after admitting and pleading guilty to charges.  

“Crimes were committed at Blydeville outside Lichtenburg in 2010 and 2011 respectively and they are 6 counts of rape, 1 attempted murder and 1assault Grevious bodily harm (GBH)” Captain Pelonomi Makau said.-TDN
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Taung men appear in court for stealing goats


By Obakeng Maje
Vryburg-Three suspects who were allegedly arrested for stealing goats and sheep in Choseng village, near Pudumoe appeared before Vryburg Magistrate Court on Thursday.

Sylvester Lecholo(32), Boitumelo Mofane(24) and Kabelo Leburu(40) were arrested by Vryburg police after they spotted a suspicious hearse travelling on N18.

Police allegedly spotted a car and stopped and searched it.

“The police found goats carcasses in a hearse and the suspects could not explained where they get the goats. Police arrested them and they burged and took the police to Vryburg-Taung road near Choseng village where they stole the goats” colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

Police allegedly found the skin and head of one of goats.

The suspects appeared before court and were granted a bail of R500 each.

They will be back in court on the 16 May 2014.-TDN
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Oscar likely to take the stand


Johannesburg –  Legal experts agreed that murder accused Oscar Pistorius was “very likely” to take the stand on Friday in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to shed light on the night he fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp.
“It is very, very, very likely that he will testify based on the nature of the defence that he is relying on,” University of Cape Town law lecturer Kelly Phelps said on the eve of the resumption of the trial.

It was common practice in South Africa for the defence to call the accused first, she said.

Pistorius needed to testify to prove that he mistakenly believed Steenkamp was an intruder.

“The only way to suggest some evidence is for the accused to take the stand. How else would his subjective state of mind be tested,” said Phelps.

Wits School of Law Professor Stephen Tuson said Pistorius risked conviction if he did not testify.

“If he does testify, he should testify first to prevent an accusation that he tailored his evidence,” said Tuson.

“The defence do not want the prosecution to say the evidence of the accused was tailored to match the evidence of the witnesses.”

Criminal law expert William Booth said it was important to remember the defence had no burden of proof.

“We know that Oscar shot four times into a toilet – he thought it was an intruder. That was what he said during bail,” said Booth.

“Looking at all the evidence the State presented, he is going to have to give evidence and be subjected to cross examination.”

Premeditated murder

The State closed its case on Tuesday after it called 21 of the 107 witnesses on its witness list.

The witnesses included Pistorius’s neighbours, a security guard at his estate, the pathologist, ballistic expert, cellphone expert, Pistorius’s ex-girlfriend and former friends.

Pistorius is on trial for the murder of Steenkamp, who was shot through the locked toilet door of his Pretoria home on 14 February last year.

He said he had mistaken her for an intruder.

However, the State said the murder was premeditated.

He has pleaded not guilty and in his plea statement denied they had argued shortly before the shooting.

He also faces two charges related to contraventions of the Firearms Control Act.

On Tuesday his legal team said he would testify in his own defence.

“I don’t think we have a choice. The question is when,” a member of Pistorius’s legal team, Brian Webber, at the time.

After prosecutor Gerrie Nel indicated on Tuesday that the State closed its case Advocate Barry Roux for Pistorius asked for the adjournment to see which witnessed the defence could possibly call.

Tuson said Pistorius’s defence team had various options including applying for an acquittal in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

“If the defence feels that the prosecution has not succeeded in bringing sufficient evidence in conviction of the accused they can bring an application,” he said.

SAPA

Key points of Oscar’s Defence


Pretoria – The defence in Oscar Pistorius’s trial will open its case on Friday and may first put the double-amputee Olympian accused of murder on the witness stand.

Pistorius claims he fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was an intruder in his home. But because he has admitted to killing her, legal experts say Pistorius needs to explain why in court.

Some key parts of the defence’s case:

Pistorius’s testimony

Pistorius testifying will be crucial to his defence against the murder charge because it allows the judge to determine his credibility. They will have to convince Judge Thokozile Masipa and her two assessors that he did not intend to kill his girlfriend, and is not guilty of murder.

However, Pistorius testifying opens him up to cross-examination by prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who will likely ask the Paralympian uncomfortable questions about why he shot four times from close range through a locked toilet door, hitting Steenkamp in the hip, right arm and head, killing her. Prosecutors say Pistorius argued with Steenkamp before he shot her with his 9mm pistol.

Asked if Pistorius would take the stand, defence lawyer Brian Webber said: “I don’t think we have a choice, it’s a question of when.”

Screaming

One of the foundations of the prosecution’s case is that Steenkamp screamed before and during the gunshots.

The prosecution’s first witness was a neighbour who testified to hearing a woman screaming on the night Steenkamp died.

Several neighbours say they heard a woman’s screams that night, and a pathologist and police ballistics expert say it’s possible and likely.

Pistorius’s defence needs to cast doubt on the screaming because it suggests the couple were fighting and that Pistorius knew where Steenkamp was when he shot her, contrasting his version of events.

The defence says that Pistorius was the only person to scream, sometimes in a high-pitched voice, and will use noise tests to show neighbours are mistaken about a woman’s voice.

They will also fight the prosecution’s claim that Steenkamp screamed during the shots through ballistic evidence.

Pistorius fired four times with two quick “double-tap” bursts, chief defence lawyer Barry Roux says, and Steenkamp didn’t have time to yell out.

Marks on the door

Defence experts say police forensic investigators missed two marks on the toilet door through which Pistorius fired the fatal shots.

Defence says one is a mark from one of Pistorius’s prosthetic legs and the other is from a cricket bat. Although those marks may not deal directly with the killing, defence lawyers will use them to attempt to show that Pistorius’s story is true that he tried to kick down the locked door with his prosthetics and then battered it with the bat to try to help Steenkamp.

Through it, the defence will argue that Pistorius’s entire story is consistent and truthful.

Character questions

At the start of the trial, the defence objected to part of the prosecution’s evidence against Pistorius on the grounds that it was character assassination.

The evidence in question largely related to the two firearm charges Pistorius also faces for shooting guns in public.

If the defence can show Pistorius was not at fault for the two incidents – and he has pleaded not guilty to both – then maybe it can start breaking down some of the prosecution’s damaging suggestions that Pistorius was angry and trigger happy.

The unexplained

The defence may discuss so far unexplained pieces of evidence introduced by the prosecution. Prosecutors have shown through crime scene photographs that there was damage to Pistorius’s bedroom door, to bathroom tiles and to a metal panel in the bathroom where Steenkamp was shot, inferring that there was a fight and that is why he killed her.

Also, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Steenkamp’s body says she ate no more than two hours before she died, so not before 01:00.

Pistorius’s story is that they were both in the bedroom and ready for bed at 22:00 and does not match the pathologist’s finding.

Pistorius may have to explain those things in his testimony and his defence may have to offer alternative explanations.

AP

Cops seeking prosecutor for Nkandla case- DA


Johannesburg – Police were seeking a prosecutor for the Nkandla case, the DA said on Thursday.

“As a sign of confidence in our case, the police are seeking the appointment of a prosecutor to the matter, who may even expand the charges against [President] Jacob Zuma beyond those laid by the DA,” spokesperson Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

Maimane said he and DA parliamentary candidate, Glynnis Breytenbach, met police officers assigned to the Nkandla case on Thursday.

Last week, Maimane opened a corruption case against Zuma at Nkandla police station near the president’s private homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

The laying of charges followed the release of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s final report on the upgrades to Zuma’s homestead.

In her report, Madonsela found Zuma “unduly benefited from the enormous capital investment” in the Nkandla upgrades, totalling R246m.

SAPA

Calls for Zuma to resign


Cape Town – The Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa has urged the ANC to ask President Jacob Zuma to resign or recall him as presidential candidate for the May elections.
In a letter to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, the institute said the public protector’s findings that Zuma had unduly benefited from state-funded work on his private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal, and the shadow of corruption charges linked to the 1999 arms deal, made Zuma unfit for the post.

“We would urge you and your colleagues on the national executive committee [NEC] of the ANC to reconsider the implications of persisting with JZ [Jacob Zuma] as your presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections and to give serious attention to recalling him as presidential candidate if he does not opt to voluntarily resign,” the institute’s director Paul Hoffman wrote.

He said this would be the best way for the ANC to convince voters that it remained committed to the rule of law and the Constitution.

He warned the ruling party faced the risk that corruption charges against Zuma could be reinstated in the next five years, if the DA’s court review of the withdrawal of the charges shortly before the last elections succeeded.

Given this, and Zuma’s track record in office, Hoffman said it would be irrational to have him run for a second term.

“The problem is that JZ [Zuma] is so compromised and in such an unmanageable conflict of interest position that he is effectively incapable of properly fulfilling his obligations, duties and functions as president of the country.”

The NEC is due to meet this weekend.

– SAPA

Marikana widow demands justice


Pretoria – The wife of Warrant Officer Sello Leepaku, who was killed during a confrontation with Marikana miners in 2012, and critically wounded Lieutenant Shitumo Solomon Baloyi await justice, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.
Louis Gumbi, for Leepaku’s family and Baloyi, cross-examined North West police air wing commander Lieutenant Colonel Salmon Vermaak at the commission’s public hearings in Pretoria on Thursday.

“The client I represent in this commission, when he was killed, had 23 years of experience as a public order policing [POP] member. He did not have disciplinary action against him and he had two loyalty medals.

“My second client, Lieutenant Baloyi, had around 23 years as a POP member and was mobilised that day from Pretoria. My mandate from the family of Leepaku, especially his wife, is that we leave no stone unturned around the death of Warrant Officer Leepaku,” said Gumbi.

He said Baloyi, who sustained almost nine stab wounds during a confrontation with protesters at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in North West, on 13 August 2012, wanted the truth.

“He says we must leave no stone unturned surrounding his injury. We are going to do that and since the beginning of this commission we have stuck to that mandate,” said Gumbi.

He said Baloyi would testify at the inquiry, but senior SA Police Service officers had attempted to thwart his testimony.

“He will also testify, as you [Vermaak] testified in this commission, how you were intimidated by senior management of the SAPS to adduce evidence in this commission.

“He will testify about how he was intimidated by senior police officers in the SAPS when he wanted to present his own independent evidence about what transpired on the 13th.”

Intimidation claims

At that stage, commission chairperson, retired Judge Ian Farlam, told Gumbi to file supplementary affidavits before dealing with Baloyi’s intimidation claims.

Gumbi said Baloyi contended there was a lack of intelligence gathering when police officers were deployed to manage the crowd of miners armed with traditional weapons.

“The version of Lieutenant Baloyi is that information that General [William] Mpembe had regarding the group of strikers who had performed rituals with a sangoma, such information was supposed to be conveyed to officers.

“Such information was supposed to be conveyed to members in advance but on that day it was never conveyed. That information was important so that members, especially from Pretoria, [would] know the group they were going to confront.”

Vermaak said critical information should have been relayed to the intervening officers.

Mpembe is North West deputy provincial police commissioner. He was in charge of the intervention at the Marikana strike.

Leepaku was one of two policemen hacked to death when miners attacked police on 13 August 2012. Warrant Officer Tsietsi Monene was shot and also hacked to death that day. Baloyi was repeatedly stabbed.

Three days later, on 16 August, police shot dead 34 people, mostly protesting miners, at the mine.

At least 78 miners were wounded when police fired on a group gathered at a hill near the mine while allegedly trying to disarm and disperse them.

In the preceding week, 10 people, including Leepaku and Monene, and two security guards, were killed in the strike-related violence.

The commission is probing the 44 deaths.

SAPA

DA spreading malicious lies about Zuma- ANC


Cape Town – The ANC is set to take the DA to court for “spreading malicious lies” about President Jacob Zuma and his Nkandla homestead.
The ruling party said on Thursday the DA was guilty of violating electoral codes and laws.

“In recent weeks, the DA has been engaging in spreading malicious lies about the president, deliberately distorting the findings in the public protector’s report,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

The ANC had, therefore, launched an urgent application in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to stop the DA from “violating” the Electoral Act and Electoral Code of Conduct.

These prohibited electioneering based on false information.

“On 20 March, the ANC learnt of a bulk SMS, distributed by or on behalf of the DA, falsely accusing the president of having stolen public money to build his private residence in Nkandla.”

Mthembu said the bulk SMS contained the message: “The Nkandla report shows how Zuma stole your money to build his R246m home. Vote DA on 7 May to beat corruption. Together for change.”

This, he said, demonstrated a “flagrant disregard” of the election pledge, and was a violation of the Code of Conduct and the Electoral Act.

“These false accusations are designed to influence voters to perceive the ANC negatively and to distort public discourse.”

Mthembu said the court application followed a letter of demand, sent to the DA on 24 March, “wherein we demanded the DA… retract and apologise for the false and vindictive text messages”.

Calls for impeachment

However, the main opposition party had “arrogantly refused to retract and apologise”. Further, the DA had used these “deliberately fabricated false accusations” to call for Zuma’s impeachment.

“These false accusations unduly prejudice the person of the president [and] the ANC, and poison the electoral atmosphere. In this way they have undermined the fact that Parliament has not received and considered the report of the public protector.”

It was the view of the ANC that Chapter Nine institutions, including that of the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, should report to Parliament in writing on the outcome of their work which required Parliament’s attention.

“We agree with the chief whip of the ANC [Stone Sizani] that such work assists Parliament with its oversight role and holding the executive and other state institutions accountable.

“The public protector’s response to the ANC chief whip’s assertion on the impeachment said that her office had not submitted its report to Parliament, and that secondly she has not requested Parliament to act on the report.”

This emphasised the view that there was no basis for impeachment arising out of her report.

Contacted on Thursday afternoon, DA federal council chair James Selfe said he could not immediately say anything on the court application.

“I can’t [say anything] at the moment… I need to discuss this with our attorney.”

Selfe said the DA would issue a statement on the matter later.

– SAPA