Taung man’s mysterious death leaves family dejected

July 29, 2014The Guardian NEWS Leave a comment

By Obakeng Maje
The family of Nkuyagae in Nhole village, near Taung is not happy about the service they received from Taung Police Station after the death of their brother Medupe Emmanuel Nkuyagae.

Nkuyagae was found lying in a pool of blood near the road by a good samaritan who took him to local police station. Cliff Tshefu who is a pastor at Seven Adventist church said he found Nkuyagae on the road lying in a pool of blood and he came to his rescue.

“I was driving home at around 21:00 on Saturday and saw a man lying on the road. I stopped and saw Nkuyagae bleeding profusely, but conscious. He was able to talk and walk and I dropped him at the police station” Pastor Cliff Tshefu said.

According to family member, Mokang Nkuyagae who is Medupe’s brother, he left home on Saturday morning and did not come back later on. We decided to go and look for him at hospital and police station on Sunday and we were told that he was dropped by a passerby on Saturday night.

Tshefu said he could not believe what he heard when told that Medupe is dead because he left him conscious in the hands of police. “I received a call from police at around 02:00am on Sunday morning police telling me Medupe is dead. He had back injuries and do not know what really happened to him” he said.

North West police spokesperson colonel Emelda Setlhako said a man was dropped off at police station by an unknown man and was transferred to Taung hospital for medical attention and said if the family is not happy with police competency can launch a case.

“A 52 year-old man was dropped at Taung police station at 21:15 on Saturday night and was transferred to the local hospital. He allegedly passed away at the hospital and police are waiting for post-martem results” she said.

Mokang Nkuyagae said if police reacted faster to help his brother, he would not have been dead by now.

“We believe if the police reacted swiftly without judging him that he is drunk I think he would’ve been alive.”

Nkuyagae family said they are saddened by the death of their brother and suspect there is a dark cloud hanging over the family after their sister died mysteriously too.

“Our sister went missing three years ago and found raped and killed with a rope around her neck. And a case was opened at Taung police station, but it was never dissolved until today” Mokang said.
-TDN
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Mantashe compares EFF, Nazis

July 29, 2014The Guardian NEWS Leave a comment

Johannesburg – ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday drew comparisons between the Nazis and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.

“[Adolf] Hitler used brown shirts to mobilise people,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.

“The Nazis didn’t start by killing Jews, they started by making promises.”

The EFF has started wearing red overalls and domestic worker attire in legislatures across the country.

This resulted in clashes between the party and the Gauteng legislature last week after they were told the workwear which included the word “Asijiki” (we won’t go back) on the back is not appropriate for the legislature.

Mantashe said the EFF was trying to sound revolutionary but its words were hollow.

The emerging trend was worrying and it could undermine democracy.

Mantashe was briefing media following an ANC national working committee meeting held on Monday.

– SAPA

DA to table motion on Nkandla

July 29, 2014The Guardian NEWS Leave a comment

Cape Town – The DA is set to table a motion in Parliament on Tuesday demanding a committee be set up urgently to probe the Nkandla controversy, failing which it will take the matter to court.

DA federal executive chairperson James Selfe said President Jacob Zuma was deliberately undermining the office of the public protector.

This was by failing to respond in full to her findings on the R246m upgrade of his private homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, for more than 130 days after she gave him two weeks to do so.

This, Selfe said, flew in the face of section 181 of the Constitution, on which the DA would base an eventual court application.

“The DA will consider launching a court application to compel the president to submit his full and comprehensive response, so as to end this unconstitutional undermining of the public protector.

“This will become necessary should our motion today to establish the Nkandla ad hoc committee not see immediate outcomes.”

Section 181 of the Constitution obliges organs of state to help and protect Chapter Nine institutions, like the public protector, to ensure their effectiveness.

In her report, titled “Secure in Comfort” and released in March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found Zuma had benefited unduly from the work at Nkandla and should pay back a portion of the money spent to the state.

At the weekend, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani said Parliament would reconstitute an ad hoc committee on Nkandla once the president made his written submission to Parliament to indicate how he planned to handle the matter.

But DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said this commitment lacked a clear timeframe. The opposition therefore feared the president was likely to delay his response further.

“It is very open-ended and in many ways gives the president an open cheque to do in this instance as he pleases. So in the absence of a deadline for the president to submit his reply, and his current trend for feet-dragging in other matters, we hold no confidence and no weight to the statement that was issued by the ANC.”

– SAPA

NSPCA inspector used K-word – Modise farm manager

July 29, 2014The Guardian NEWS Leave a comment

Cape Town – National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise’s farm manager has denied threatening two NSPCA inspectors with violence, claiming he saved them from harm at the hands of farmworkers.

Speaking to Sapa by phone on Tuesday, Neo Moepi – who also acts as Modise’s farm spokesperson – accused the inspectors of saying to him: “‘n Kaffir kan nie ‘n plaas beheer nie [A kaffir cannot control a farm].”

The alleged remark has been firmly denied by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA).

Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that two NSPCA inspectors were expected to lay charges against Moepi and a farm manager after they allegedly threatened to kick the inspectors’ car and set it alight, and grabbed a cellphone and erased recordings.

The altercation allegedly happened last Friday, when the inspectors visited Modise’s farm Modderfontein, near Potchefstroom, to evaluate the animals.

Modise’s pigs reportedly began eating each other from hunger earlier this month. The NSPCA had to euthanase 117 of the animals, and confiscate 120 after 80 had died.

Moepi told Sapa he was driving to the farm from Potchefstroom on Friday and was about 10km away when a worker called to tell him there were two NSPCA inspectors on the farm.

“I was told they had jumped the fence and opened the gate, and were harassing everybody. I told [the worker who phoned] ‘Leave them, I’m coming’.”

When he arrived, “they were taking pictures of the cattle, and they had syringes in their hands”.

He told the inspectors to leave, saying they had no right to be there and that he was in charge.

“They wanted to know my name, but I told them that they should leave the property and once they were outside we could engage.”

He said they had been speaking in English, but one of the inspectors had switched to Afrikaans and told him “‘n Kaffir kan nie ‘n plaas beheer nie [A kaffir cannot control a farm]”.

Moepi claimed the inspectors had used the word “kaffir” while speaking to some of the farm workers, which had angered the workers.

Racist slur denied

Contacted for comment, NSPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith denied Moepi’s claim.

“We have black, Indian, and white members of our inspection units. None of them would make a remark like that… They are playing the race card.”

She confirmed the NSPCA was pursuing cruelty charges over the treatment of animals on the farm.

Meredith said charges would be laid concerning alleged threats of violence against the inspectors.

“We are definitely laying charges. The matter has been reported to the police,” she said.

Moepi said the two inspectors who had visited the farm on Friday had fled their vehicle for fear of the workers attacking them, and left it parked in the middle of the farm entrance. The keys were in the ignition.

He had then driven the car from the entrance gate to the edge of the tar road running past the farm, a distance of a few metres, to get it out of the way.

“I was intervening to stop a possible fight,” he said.

While he was doing this, the inspectors had taken photos with a mobile phone, and accused him of trying to steal the car. The police had been called.

No pictures

Moepi denied grabbing the phone, as reported, and deleting photos or recordings. He claimed the inspectors had deleted whatever was on the phone.

“No, no, they are not telling the truth. We agreed there would be no pictures… they deleted them.”

Moepi admitted to being very angry at the time but, given what had previously happened on the farm, said he was aware that “I need to be very cautious how I deal with people”.

He had subsequently reported the incident to an advocate who handled the farm’s business, and had been advised that if the inspectors went ahead and pressed charges “we should also open a case”.

Moepi expressed regret that “we still have whites who are racist”.

Modise’s office at Parliament declined to comment on the matter.

An official told Sapa it was not a parliamentary issue, and “there is no comment”.

– SAPA

Cops fire rubber bullets at MUT students

Durban – Police fired rubber bullets at protesting students at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in Durban on Tuesday.

The group of about 200 students threw bricks, rocks, and bottles at the police and used cupboard doors to shield themselves from the rubber bullets.

Earlier, security guards fired paintball guns loaded with pink plastic balls in an attempt to disperse protesters.

The students had set a palm tree alight and appeared to have occupied one of the residences on the campus.

Some protesters wore balaclavas over their faces and sang protest songs.

Lectures resume

Protests erupted at the MUT at around midday on Tuesday after lectures resumed earlier in the day, amid a heavy police and security presence.

Lectures were suspended on Monday following protests by students who owed the university money and demanded that they be registered.

MUT spokesperson Len Mzimela said on Monday an agreement had been reached with students owing more than R10 000 that they would be registered if they entered into negotiations on their outstanding debt.

Those protesting had refused to negotiate with the university.

SAPA

Pupil who shot bully to be tried

Johannesburg – The Vosloorus pupil who allegedly shot and killed a school bully will appear in court in October on a charge of premeditated murder, The Star reported on Tuesday.

The decision to go ahead with the trial followed a request by the pupil’s lawyer to have the case diverted and not go through the court process, which was turned down by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

Advocate William Karam applied to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for his client to be placed in one of the diversion programmes aimed at young people accused of a crime, rather than being prosecuted.

Appeal

The DPP turned down the application and Karam appealed the decision and approached the NDPP. The application was also turned down and he was informed that the pupil would be tried.

He was informed that the matter did not meet the requirements for a diversion programme.

“I’m very disappointed because when you clearly look at the facts of the case, the accused was young and the deceased was recognised by everyone as a problem child, a delinquent,” he told the paper.

The pupil allegedly used his mother’s police issue gun to shoot the alleged bully in the head.

He also faces a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition.

SAPA

Man bashed to death, court hears

Pretoria – A self-confessed drug addict admitted in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday that he had beaten a friend to death with a knobkerrie after losing his temper because of the man’s sexual advances.

Juda Joseph Plekenpol, 31, was convicted by Judge Tshifiwa Maumela on charges of murder and robbery after the State accepted his guilty plea.

Plekenpol admitted he had murdered 45-year-old Louis Eksteen in his house in Garsfontein, Pretoria, in April last year and that he had robbed his victim of his car, cash and other items.

Eksteen’s mother Adri discovered his bloodied body in the bathroom three days later. He had been bludgeoned to death, gagged and tied up.

A panel of experts who observed Plekenpol at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital found him fit to stand trial and not suffering any mental disorder that affected his ability to distinguish between right and wrong and act accordingly.

He was, however, diagnosed as suffering from substance dependence, an antisocial personality disorder and a borderline (emotionally unstable) disorder.

Plekenpol said in a statement he had met Eksteen through a mutual friend, Eddie Polland, in March last year.

He had accompanied Polland, who stayed with Eksteen, and spent a night there. He subsequently also befriended Eksteen.

Plekenpol had a sexual relationship with Polland, who he said offered to pay him to stay another night, but he decided to go home.

About a week later he again visited Eksteen at his home because he had previously lost his keys and cellphone.

Eksteen had meanwhile asked Polland to move out, but Plekenpol spent the night there and agreed to paint some rooms at Eksteen’s house.

On 9 April he again visited Eksteen and they spent the night together consuming vodka while Eksteen told him about his ex-wife and their marital problems, which she alleged was due to his (Eksteen’s) alcohol addiction.

He accompanied Eksteen, who had his own business selling wood, to Johannesburg the next day. They later used the drug CAT, had dinner together and consumed alcohol until the early hours of the morning.

Sexual advances

“At one stage during the evening and whilst we were just having a good time, the deceased made a sexual comment which upset me.

“I tried to ignore this and we continued to converse… The deceased grabbed me by my arm and said we should go to his room.

“In view of his earlier comment, this action shocked and humiliated me again, as I was convinced he wanted me to go with him for sexual purposes,” he said.

Plekenpol said he fell over the couch when he retreated from Eksteen, which angered him.

“I saw the deceased approaching me and I lost my temper and self-control.

“I picked up one of the canes or knobkierie… and struck the deceased.

“The deceased had fallen down at one stage and again stood up. In the emotional state that I was in, I again struck him with the knobkierie. I thought he still wanted me to go to his bedroom.

“Due to the fact that I had lost my temper, I cannot recall how many times I struck the deceased… it was multiple times all over his upper body and head,” he said.

When Plekenpol realised that he had seriously injured Eksteen and he might possibly die, he “impulsively” decided to steal some of Eksteen’s property so that he could sell it to feed his drug addiction.

He tied Eksteen’s hands with great force to subdue him, demanded the pin code for his bank card and then put a cloth around his mouth and dragged him to the bathroom.

He left the scene in Eksteen’s bakkie and later withdrew money from his bank account.

He also sold Eksteen’s golf clubs at a pawn shop, but was arrested four days later when he tried to sell his victim’s CDs.

Plekenpol said his drug and alcohol abuse, as well as depression and suicidal tendencies became worse after the incident.

The trial resumes on Wednesday.