Johannesburg – Lonmin could not criticise Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa for his role in events during the unprotected strike at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in August 2012, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Monday.

“I cannot criticise Mr Ramaphosa on what he did. He did what any responsible businessman would’ve done,” Schalk Burger, for Lonmin, told the commission in his final arguments.

Ramaphosa was a non-executive director of Lonmin at the time of the August 2012 wage-related strike.

He had been accused of using his political influence to get the police to act against the striking workers.

Burger argued that Ramaphosa’s motive was to “stabilise the situation and bring the violence to an end”.

Wage demand

He added that the commission’s evidence leaders had not suggested that Ramaphosa did not exercise his best endeavours.

Earlier, Burger argued that Lonmin could not breach the legal framework to negotiate with mineworkers.

He said that one of the problems they had was that none of the strikers could explain how they reached the figure of R12 500 for their wage demand.

“We haven’t heard that to this day. We don’t even know if a housing allowance was included in that. What we do know is that that was net… and that it was non-negotiable,” Burger said.

He referred to the testimony of striker Mzoxolo Magidiwana who testified that even if Lonmin had gone to the hill where the strikers had gathered and asked them to disarm themselves, go home, and then engage in talks with Lonmin, they would not have entertained that.

Unrealistic request

Burger said it was an unrealistic request to have expected Lonmin to engage with the strikers outside of structures given that they were armed, ignoring a court order, and running amok.

“What is the point of criticising Lonmin for not talking to the strikers?” Burger asked.

“If they had talked, it would’ve caused rippling into the mining industry which we would not have been able to unravel… it would not have prevented the tragedy on the 16th [of August].”

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations in Marikana, North West, in the strike-related unrest in August 2012.

Thirty-four people, mostly striking mineworkers, were shot dead in a clash with police on 16 August 2012.

More than 70 people were wounded and more than 200 were arrested. The police were apparently trying to disarm and disperse them.

In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – An inspection of the road used by Duduzane Zuma on the night he crashed into a minibus taxi will show whether it was possible for water to collect at the point he said it did, an inquest heard on Monday.

Prosecutor Yusuf Baba and Zuma disagreed on where the decline started between the M1 south, Woodmead, Marlboro, and the Grayston Drive, Sandton, off-ramp, the Randburg Magistrate’s Court heard.

“If there were to be a water build-up it would have to be between Woodmead and Marlboro,” Baba said.

“I disagree,” the president’s son replied.

“From Woodmead to Marlboro it is still relatively flat. The decline is between Marlboro and Grayston.

“So the point of water collection I believe would be more possible at the Grayston area as opposed to Marlboro,” Zuma said.

Zuma’s Porsche rear-ended Jabulani Vusi Dlamini’s minibus taxi in the rain on the M1 south Grayston Drive off-ramp on 1 February around 22:00. Minibus passenger Phumzile Dube was killed and three others were injured.

According to Zuma’s statement, he lost control of his Porsche after it hit a puddle. It spun and hit the back of the taxi, coming to a standstill facing oncoming traffic.

The Johannesburg metro police was asked to escort the legal teams on the route.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Comedian and ventriloquist Conrad Koch says he will challenge a gag order against his puppet.

Koch said on Monday he strongly denies allegations made by musician Steve Hofmeyr that tweets criticising the singer amounted to hate speech.

Hofmeyr said he had obtained a court order barring the satirist and his puppet, Chester Missing, from making any statements about him in public or on social media.

Hofmeyr was reacting to a series of tweets from the puppet criticizing the singer for what he described as racism.

Hofmeyr tweeted to about 121 000 followers that the ANC is victimising whites.

Koch and his popular puppet are known for controversial political commentary.

– AP

Johannesburg – An elderly man was killed in a robbery at his home in Bedelia in Welkom, Free State police said on Monday.

Two men dressed in black entered the couple’s home on Friday and demanded cash, said police spokesperson Stephen Thakeng.

“Mr Jack Smith, 73, was hit with an unknown object on his head and face until he died in his house. Mrs Aletta Johanna Smith, 72, was also hit with an unknown object and she sustained injuries on her head,” said Thakeng.

The men stole a safe with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot.

No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Seventeen people arrested for human trafficking appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday, said KwaZulu-Natal police.

Their case was postponed to Tuesday for the court to get an interpreter, said police spokesperson Thulani Zwane.

The group was arrested on Thursday when police raided a house in Grosvenor Crescent in Greenwood Park, north of Durban.

Fourteen Thai women aged between 20 and 26, who were allegedly being used for the sex trade, were found in the house, said Zwane.

“It was discovered that 12 of the women are in South Africa illegally. However, it is still yet to be determined if they were being kept here against their will,” Zwane said.

Three South African men also found in the house were arrested.

Two of them were believed to have been clients while the other, a 62-year-old, was alleged to have been running the business.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Hotel receptionist Monde Mbolombo cannot remember why he spoke on the phone about five people involved in an alleged plot to kill honeymooner Anni Hindochi, the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.

Mbolombo, 35, was asked in cross-examination why he told accomplice shuttle taxi driver Zola Tongo on the phone: “There is five of us remember.”

This was during a call at 18:38 on 13 November 2010, the same day Anni was shot dead in an alleged fake hijacking in Gugulethu.

“I don’t want to lie. I have been trying to think for a long time [about] what is it that I was talking about but I just cannot remember,” Mbolombo replied.

In the same phone call, Tongo told him there were three people who would do the job. Mbolombo told him he was only aware of two people.

He then phoned accomplice Mziwamadoda Qwabe who confirmed two people would do the job.

Francois van Zyl, for Anni’s husband Shrien Dewani, did not seem to be satisfied with Mbolombo’s answer.

“The question is Mr Mbolombo, was there not indeed a fifth person who has not yet been named or who is being protected?”

Mbolombo replied there was not.

Dewani is on trial for allegedly plotting with Tongo and others to kill Anni while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping, murder, and defeating the ends of justice.

He claims the couple were hijacked as Tongo was driving them through Gugulethu in his minibus on Saturday, 13 November.

He was released unharmed and Anni was driven away. She was found shot dead in the abandoned minibus in Khayelitsha the next morning.

Staged hijacking

The State alleges he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15 000.

He maintains that Tongo helped him organise a surprise helicopter trip for Anni for R15 000.

Tongo is serving an 18-year jail term and Qwabe, a 25-year jail term.

Xolile Mngeni was serving life in jail for firing the shot that killed Anni, but died in prison from a brain tumour on 18 October.

On Monday, Mbolombo told the court that all he knew by 10:30 on the day of the murder was that the two hitmen needed gloves so they would not leave their fingerprints on the car.

Van Zyl asked whether he knew which car they were talking about but he said he did not know then.

Mbolombo said that Tongo later told him his car needed to be washed after the incident.

The receptionist did not know whether they were going to kill her in the car and who was going to wash the car.

At first, he presumed Tongo would take the car to be washed since he was the owner but later said he was guessing and it could have been Tongo or Qwabe.

“Did you tell Qwabe that the car must be washed?” the lawyer asked.

The witness replied that he never instructed Qwabe to do that.

The only instructions he ever gave to the hitmen was for them not to get lost in Gugulethu that night.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The DA wants National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to order Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to answer questions on SANDF chief Solly Shoke’s travel expenses.

This follows the minister failing to answer a parliamentary question relating to the travel expenses on time.

“The questions probed, inter alia, possible excessive expenditure on General Shoke’s trip to attend the Defence Service Asia Exhibition in Malaysia between 12 April 2014 and 18 April 2014, and excessive expenditure on General Solly Shoke’s international travel between 2011 and 2014,” DA MP David Maynier said on Monday.

“The minister’s failure to reply is a clear breach of National Assembly Rule 114, which required her to provide written replies by 12:00 on Thursday 6 November 2014.”

The question stems from allegations that the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) spent R100 000 on a first-class flight for Shoke to attend the exhibition.

“General Solly Shoke should be leading belt-tightening measures in the defence force. However, all the evidence suggests that he is resisting belt-tightening measures in the defence force,” Maynier said.

“In the end, it’s simply wrong, for General Solly Shoke to spend a fortune in international travel when ordinary soldiers, serving on the frontline, do not have the equipment they require to properly execute their mission because of budget constraints.”

– SAPA