February 11 marks a significant date on the South African calendar, more-so to those who were close to the late charismatic Nelson Mandela, like Desmond Tutu and Trevor Manuel.

It is the day on which the late statesman walked out of the Victor Verster prison as a free man, after serving 27 years behind bars.

Mandela, tall, dignified and known to be debonair in his days, as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu recalls, held his fist in the air, holding hands and walking side-by-side with his wife at the time, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

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Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane has condemned the attack on his two bodyguards, and passed condolences to the family of the private security guard killed in attacks on February 1, 2015.

Spokesperson for Lesotho’s Prime Minister, Thabo Thakalekoala, says Thabane will do everything in his power to protect the integrity of King Letsie III, who is being sued by the Attorney General for appointing President of the Court of Appeal.

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Cape Town – Eskom on Wednesday announced that it will move from stage 1 to stage 2 load shedding from 18:00 to help alleviate pressure on the grid.

It said the power system remains severely constrained as temperatures hit new highs the past few days and as it struggles to meet demand amid planned and unplanned outages.

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DA parliamentary leader, Mmusi Maimane, speaks to Jerusha Sukhdeo-Raath in studio, giving his opinion on the EFF’s plans to disrupt the State of the Nation address.

Maimane says that the EFF’s threat of disruption will only give the EFF theatrical power and benefit President Jacob Zuma; as he will get to walk away without taking responsibility.

Maimane says the DA has requested four dates for the scheduled question session. One session will be a catch-up for last year’s State of the Nation Address so the president cannot use the excuse of diary conflicts to avoid being accountable to the people.

He expects The State of the Nation address to lay a platform to hold the president accountable to the country.

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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.