Johannesburg – A woman who alleges former tennis star Bob Hewitt raped her revealed on Tuesday that her mother rejected her claims as “rubbish”.

Suellen Sheehan told the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, that she told her mother how Hewitt lowered her underwear and penetrated her on a day he fetched her from school and took her to tennis practice.

The Australian-born Hewitt is facing two charges of rape and one of indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

“I started telling her about it and she dismissed it with ‘rubbish’,” she said. She was being cross-examined by Terry Price, for Hewitt.

She and her mother did not have a good relationship and her parents had since retired to the coast. She had no contact with them.

‘I never used that word’

Sheehan said she mentioned the incident to a few people when she was in her early 20s, as well as her then boyfriend, Ryk Cloete, in 1990. He had handed in an affidavit.

According to Price, Cloete never mentioned the words rape or sexual assault.

“I never use that word (rape),” Sheehan responded.

Price said Sheehan’s parents had dismissed her claims as lies.

“My mom was lying when she said she never asked Mr Hewitt to fetch me from school,” Sheehan said.

“My parents support abuse… They accepted that he abused me.”

Sheehan was the second witness to testify in the case following testimony on Monday from Theresa Tolken, who also claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Hewitt.

Delivering her evidence-in-chief earlier, Sheehan said Hewitt assaulted her under some trees before tennis practice in Boksburg one day in 1982, when she was 12.

“On this day, the groundsman Themba was not around,” she said to questions from her lawyer Carina Coetzee.

Witness remembers Hewitt’s car

She testified that Hewitt lowered the passenger seat of his car, which had a soft roof and black leather seats.

He told her to lower her underwear.

“I’m not sure whether this was an instruction,” she said.

“He climbed on top of me,” she said, before choking on her words.

“He put his penis inside me. I remember exquisite pain,” Sheehan said.
“I don’t remember how long it lasted, whether it lasted 20 seconds or 20 minutes.

“I remember looking for Themba,” Sheehan said.

Hewitt then told her to go and clean herself up.

“I didn’t object. I was told this was something I was to do and I did it,” she said, adding that she respected Hewitt.

“I needed to listen to him in order to grow up and mature.

“I didn’t actively say this is what I didn’t want. I didn’t put up any resistance. I accepted it,” she said.

Sheehan said certain smells and sounds took her back to that day.

She never saw a doctor on the day of her rape.

“I’ve broken my arms at times and never told my parents for days,” Sheehan said.

The white-haired Hewitt sat in the dock alongside his wife Delaille, looking at Sheehan as she testified.

Occasionally, Delaille Hewitt looked down and appeared to be writing something.

Johannesburg – Julius Malema says he isn’t worried about a new open letter from former convict Gayton McKenzie in which he accuses the Economic Freedom Fighters leader of involvement in a murder plot.

In a letter titled ‘Thug to thug: An open letter to Malema’, McKenzie made claims about Malema’s alleged involvement in a murder conspiracy.

He also accuses Malema of bankrupting the party through alleged abuse of party credit cards while claiming the EFF can no longer pay staff salaries or for water and electricity.

Following the letter, Malema told The Star newspaper that he doesn’t want to get involved in mudslinging and shouldn’t be worried about it.

He said he wasn’t going to do anything about McKenzie’s letter.

McKenzie’s letter comes as Malema continues to be plagued by internal party strife.

On Monday City Press reported that it had learned that the party was working on removing Mpho Ramakatsa as an MP.

However, the party has adopted a different approach with its former land commissar Andile Mngxitama, who it called to a meeting to assure him that he would not be kicked out.

However, Mngxitama regards the move as “a bribe” and has accelerated his public displeasure about EFF decisions, including the one of keeping Papiki Baboile as North West leader, despite his conviction for murder.

This is McKenzie’s second open letter to Malema. Last year before the elections, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance leader wrote Malema was “the biggest thief I have ever met”.

Polokwane – A shop was set alight in a village outside Malamulele on Tuesday by people who had attempted to break in, Limpopo police said.

“An unknown number of suspects attempted to break in and were disturbed by a security guard. The guard was stabbed with a knife and the shop was set on fire allegedly by the suspects,” said Colonel Ronel Otto.

One person was arrested.

Protests

She said although the village was next to Malamulele, the incident was not believed to have any links with protests in Malamulele.

The shutdown of Malamulele has entered its fifth week as residents remained defiant in demanding their own municipality.

Protests erupted in the area last year before the May general elections, and re-ignited a month ago with residents demanding their own municipality.

Since January, four schools have been set alight.

On Friday last week, roads were blocked and tyres set alight after the Municipal Demarcation Board announced that Malamulele did not qualify for its own municipality. The area calmed down later that day, with no serious incidents reported.

Residents claim the Thulamela municipality has been channelling services to Tshivenda-speaking areas, rather than their own, which is dominated by Xitsonga speakers.

Johannesburg – Three stolen vehicles were found at the home of a police officer in Eldorado Park, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

The vehicles, a Volkswagen Golf 6 and two Volkswagen Polos, were discovered around 09:00, police spokesperson Katlego Mogale said.

The officer was not home at the time.

He would face charges of possession of suspected stolen property upon his arrest, Mogale said.

The provincial flying squad team had followed a signal which led them to the officer’s home in Alley Street, Eldorado Park.

“It is alleged that when the members knocked and screamed for the gate to be opened, no one answered. They proceeded to take the gate off the rail and gained entrance.”

Mogale said the Golf 6 had been chopped up. It was reported hijacked in Dawn Park in the East Rand last month.

The other two Polos had their chassis numbers tampered with, Mogale said.

Cape Town – National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete and National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise will apply parliamentary rules and conventions strictly during President Jacob Zuma‘s State of the Nation address on Thursday.

“We will strictly be following the rules and we will confine ourselves to the rules,” Modise told a media briefing by Parliament’s presiding officers on Tuesday ahead of the official opening of Parliament.

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Rustenburg- Bokone Bophirima is the third province after Kwa-Zulu Natal and Limpopo to benefit from the German Development Bank funding initiative, MEC for Social Development Fenny Gaolaolwe said on Tuesday.

“The German Development Bank has set aside R35 million for the establishment of six community care centres for orphans, vulnerable children across the four districts. After many negotiations and rigorous technical assessment processes, the partnership between the German Development Bank and the Department of Social Development is finally yielding much anticipated results,” Gaolaolwe said.

Earlier this year, Gaolaolwe said team comprised of a project coordinator, social service point managers and the departmental management team had already concluded an organizational capacity assessment that would determine the state of readiness of the centres to implement the programme.

“These organizations include Ikitsing home based care at Rustenburg service point, Ikageng Basha at Moses Kotane service point, Tshireletsego care and support at Ventersdorp service point, St Abram orphanage centre at Mamusa service point and lastly Malebogo home based care at Taung service point,” she said, adding that she had appointed additional social workers and auxiliary workers to provide comprehensive social services to community care centres.

The news about a multi-million fund from the German Development bank brought a sigh of relief to Deborah Mosito, the founder of Ikitsing home based care at Lethabong outside Rustenburg.

Mosito said she established a small centre in 2004 to address the plight of orphans and vulnerable children at Lethabong.

“Since these years we have struggled to get funding. We are grateful that our organization will also benefit from the German bank donations,” Mosito said.

Ealier, German development bank representative Busso Von Alvensleben said that Lethabong village is one of the beneficiaries of the community care centres.

“We have, since 1994, focused on HIV-Aids prevention programmes. This funding is generated from the German taxpayers to make a difference in distressed communities,” Von Alvensleben said.

The construction of the centres will start soon in the identified service points.

Cape Town – The net is reportedly closing in on the person believed to be responsible for the gruesome attack on a family in Stellenbosch, according to a report.

Die Son reported on Tuesday that police are searching for the shop where the murder weapon – an axe – was bought. It is believed the axe was then sharpened before the incident.

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Durban – A South African police officer has been arrested in Hong Kong for allegedly trafficking drugs, it was reported on Tuesday.

Sergeant Busisiwe Zungu was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport, reported The Mercury.

Zungu’s arrest came as a shock to her family and friends who described her as a law-abiding citizen who “was very proud of her clean record”.

Her police partner also described her as a hard worker.

Zungu has been suspended from the Saps who are also conducting their own investigation into the alleged trafficking.

Patricia Gerber, head of Locked Up, an organisation that assists South Africans arrested overseas for drug smuggling, says China unfortunately has the death penalty for drug-related offences.

Last month, a Johannesburg father was sentenced to death in Malaysia after he was found guilty of drug smuggling.

Deon Cornelius was found guilty of smuggling 2kg of methamphetamine into Malaysia when he landed at Penang International Airport on 4 October 2013, News24 reported.

Gerber says many of those who get arrested are decoys and not mules.

“They [the mules] travel all over the world and are protected by corrupt police and airport authorities,” Gerber said in an email to News24.

“The decoy on the other hand is a person who is recruited by means of manipulation, coercion and are threatened at times.

“They are recruited for the sole purpose [of being] arrested so that the drug mules can walk through with the larger amounts, this is done unbeknown to the decoy.

“Before the arrival of the decoy the airport receives a tip off… The mules do have a hassle-free passage.”

In 2011, South African woman, Janice Linden was executed in China for drug smuggling, reported Sapa.

She was arrested in Guangzhou in November 2008 after she was caught with 3kg of crystal methamphetamine (tik) in her luggage. She was convicted of drug smuggling in 2009.

Bloemfontein – A 17-year-old boy stabbed his stepfather to death with a kitchen knife on Sunday night, apparently in self-defence.

Netwerk24 reported on Tuesday that the boy and his stepfather were arguing when the stepfather apparently threatened to shoot him.

He then stabbed the 59-year-old man five times.

The cause of the argument is unknown, but no gun was found in the home, according to Free State police.

The boy’s mother was at their Fichardt Park, Bloemfontein, home at the time of the incident, and cradled her dying husband, Netwerk24 reported.

A neighbour said the teenager was in a state after the stabbing, and hovered over his stepfather, repeatedly urging him not to die.

OFM reported that the man died at the scene and the boy was arrested for murder. He will appear in court on Tuesday.