North West University’s chief financial officer Prof IJ Rost has been placed on special leave following the controversial payment of R10m from the institution’s coffers to an apparently dubious trust fund.
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Johannesburg- Sentencing of a Rustenburg man who solicited nude photographs from young daughters of divorced mothers is expected in the Rustenburg Regional Court on Monday.

Construction worker Anthony Louw pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. The sexually enticing or explicit images were of young girls, some in early puberty.

One girl was reportedly 12. Using the names “Shivon”, “Chivonne” or “Chevonne”, he befriended divorced women and then their daughters on BBM and WhatsApp, police said.

He flattered them and the girls later sent him photos of themselves posing naked — some in front of the name signs of Rustenburg schools. He was arrested after a tip-off.

-Sapa

Johannesburg- Sentencing of a Rustenburg man who solicited nude photographs from young daughters of divorced mothers is expected in the Rustenburg Regional Court on Monday.

Construction worker Anthony Louw pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. The sexually enticing or explicit images were of young girls, some in early puberty.

One girl was reportedly 12. Using the names “Shivon”, “Chivonne” or “Chevonne”, he befriended divorced women and then their daughters on BBM and WhatsApp, police said.

He flattered them and the girls later sent him photos of themselves posing naked — some in front of the name signs of Rustenburg schools. He was arrested after a tip-off.

-Sapa

Mahikeng- About 40 pupils from three schools in Mahikeng have been given new shoes by women members of St Henry’s Catholic Church.

The church is based in the Montshioa township and its leaders said they saw it necessary to better the lives of the needy and bring hope to the country’s future leaders.
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Pretoria- Where others might see a house of horror, Louwtjie Louwrens — the man who bought Oscar Pistorius’s home — thinks he got the deal of a lifetime and a secure residence, even if his wife isn’t so sure.

Louwrens bought the Paralympic Gold medallist’s villa where Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead in the bathroom for a bargain $420,000 (4.5 million rand).

In 2011 Pistorius had tried to sell the house, tucked away in a prestigious gated community in the capital Pretoria, for nearly double that amount.

“I would say at the end of the day it will be a good buy,” Louwrens told AFP. “I’m sure the property value will increase going forward.”

Despite the bargain price, his idea to purchase the property met resistance from his family, who balked at the idea of living at the now world famous scene of Steenkamp’s alleged murder at the hands of Pistorius.

“For starters my wife wasn’t that happy,” Louwrens said.

Pistorius admits having shot and killed his girlfriend Steenkamp in the house on February 14, 2013, but says he mistook her for an intruder.

His trial on charges of premeditated murder began in March this year and will climax Thursday when Judge Thokozile Masipa begins her verdict.

The 27-year-old star sprinter, who is free on bail, has not lived in the house since the killing.

Louwrens, a mining consultant, said the house caught his attention when he was watching the Pistorius trial on his television.

“I saw a photo of this house on TV,” said the 57-year-old, “it was a nice looking house.”

Since then it has been cleaned and Louwrens said his wife was warming up to the move, which will take place in a couple of years when he retires.

“Now that they’ve started working, I could sense that she’s feeling a bit better about the place,” he said.

Ironically, Louwrens, a resident of Boksburg, a city an hour’s drive outside Johannesburg, said he bought the Pistorius house in the pursuit of safety.

South Africa is plagued by sky-high rates of crime, including hijackings and burglaries.

“I’ve been around there, you see the kids playing in the streets, some of the people mentioned to me that when they go out they don’t even lock,” he said, adding “you know my family is very important to me.”

Silver Woods Estate is “enclosed with a solid, electrified security wall” and regards safety as a “high priority,” according to the developers.

– Exceptional security –

“I remember the day that we came to look at stands (plots), I wanted to just come in here and look at the estate, they just flatly refused to let me in,” said Tracy, a 38-year-old woman who lives on Pistorius’s former street.

“I said ‘geez I just want to have a drive,’ they were friendly about it, but they refused,” said Tracy, who declined to give her last name.

Tracy said she bought her house in the estate because it offered such exceptional security services.

“They do patrols on foot, they do patrols in a vehicle,” she said, “there’s an electric fence, there’s a big wall.”

“Everyone has an opinion,” said Tracy, “but I don’t feel scared.”

Khalil Goga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, an independent policy think tank in South Africa, said that South Africans continue to shield themselves behind walls and fences even as their safety improves.

“In terms of crime, we’ve seen a reduction over the years since the highs in the early 2000’s,” said Goga.

He added that gated communities like the one Pistorius lived in are the choice for people with the means.

“In South Africa gated communities are becoming more commonplace with security measures becoming more strict and more sophisticated,” he said.

Still, the situation is not ideal, said Goga.

“If your neighbour can see your yard and it’s well lit, and people are walking on the streets, it’s actually a safer neighbourhood than in one that you can’t see behind the walls.”

-AFP

Pretoria- Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius appears in court on Thursday to face judgement over the killing of his model girlfriend, ending a six-month trial that turned the amputee’s private life into a global spectacle.

The 27-year-old celebrity athlete faces life behind bars — and notoriety that would eclipse his athletic achievements — if found guilty of deliberately killing lover Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Judge Thokozile Masipa’s ruling, on charges of murder and three firearms offenses, will likely be laid out in two days of careful legal argument and then a final verdict, perhaps on Friday.

The high-drama, half-year trial has fed intense media interest worldwide, with live broadcasts veering into the realm of TV reality shows.

Nearly 40 witnesses testified, including Pistorius, who broke down, weeping and at times vomiting as he heard how the 29-year-old blonde’s head “exploded” like a watermelon under the impact of his hollow-point bullet.

Prosecutors described him as an egotistical liar obsessed with guns, fast cars and beautiful women, who was not prepared to take responsibility for his actions.

The court heard transcripts of phone messages in which the pair argued, Steenkamp texting: “I’m scared of you sometimes, of how you snap at me.”

Defence lawyers sought to explain there are “two Oscars” — a world-class athlete and a highly vulnerable individual with a serious disability who acted out of fear, not anger, when he fired the fatal shots.

All the while his supportive sister and the implacable mother of the woman he killed looked on from the packed public gallery.

At its heart, the trial is simple.

Pistorius killed the law graduate when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his upmarket Pretoria home.

The double-amputee athlete doesn’t deny this. The only question is why he did it.

He says he thought he was shooting at an intruder and that Steenkamp was safely in bed.

The prosecution says he killed her in a fit of rage after an argument.

The trial featured neighbours who testified to hearing female screams then gunshots, as well as defence experts who said this was impossible.

– The verdict –

Judge Masipa will begin proceedings by evaluating the evidence of each of the witnesses in turn, all the while careful to evoke strong case law and limit cause for appeal.

She will then turn to her judgement.

Unlike trial of US football hero OJ Simpson trial, who was controversially acquitted by a jury, Masipa is assisted only by two assessors.

She may decide that Pistorius is innocent, or that the state has not done enough to prove its case, resulting in an acquittal.

But if she decides Pistorius deliberately murdered Steenkamp, he could face a life sentence, which in South Africa means 25 years in jail.

Masipa could also decide that Pistorius did not kill her intentionally, but did act recklessly, opening the door to a lesser charge of culpable homicide, which could still carry a prison term.

Any guilty verdict is unlikely to be end of the matter.

There will be more courtroom arguments before a sentence is handed down and, most likely, an appeal to a higher court.

Whatever happens, his glittering sporting career is likely to be over.

Once a poster boy for disabled sport, Pistorius has been stripped of lucrative endorsement deals by global brands and has withdrawn from all competition.

-AFP