A former City Bowl Armed Response paramedic overheard a conversation in which her ex-boss, Grant Smith, allegedly confirmed that money had been arranged to kill his then-partner, Alan Kusevitsky, the Cape Town Regional Court has heard.
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Put up or shut up.
This was the challenge set by The Star’s deputy editor, Kevin Ritchie, in an interview on Talk Radio 702 today – a day after Gauteng Local Government and Housing MEC Humphrey Mmemezi went on air to deny allegations of fraud, nepotism and bad management.
Ritchie and journalist Baldwin Ndaba, who is behind the investigation of Mmemezi’s alleged corrupt activities, were invited to put forward their side of the story on air after Mmemezi’s interview yesterday, when the MEC threatened to sue The Star, claiming ongoing reports were a “smear campaign” against him.
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Pic: Chris Collingridge
Pippie’s “day daddy”, paediatric ICU nurse Simphiwe Mabaso, spooned chocolate custard into the toddler’s mouth. He lovingly wiped the excess from around the lips of the little burn victim, coaxing her when she wouldn’t open wide.
Mabaso, Pippie Kruger’s favourite day nurse, was among a host of Netcare Garden City Hospital staff members who needed to say goodbye to Pippie today as she left the hospital after seven months. She was taken to the Netcare rehabilitation centre in Auckland Park.
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Independent Newspapers
The Prevention and Combating of Torture of Persons Bill could see all public officials – including teachers, nurses and prison warders – liable to be charged with torture.
Several civil society groups held a seminar about the bill on Tuesday.
The bill refers to torture as “any act or omission by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by a public official or any person acting on behalf of a public official”.
Valdi van Reenen-Le Roux, Trauma Centre director, said the fact that the bill applied to all public officials was significant.
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Pic:INLSA
President Jacob Zuma recently abandoned his motorcade and boarded a packed Metrorail train in Pretoria before he changed to the Gautrain to Joburg and then via Rea Vaya to Soweto.
As usual, Zuma was in a buoyant mood, flashing his trademark wide, toothy grin as he mingled easily with the admiring masses and some bemused commuters as he switched from one public transport mode to another.
He showed his common touch as he expressed his empathy for the plight of passengers relying on overloaded trains and Rea Vaya buses to and from their workplaces.
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Independents Newspapers
Potchefstroom – A four-year-old toddler’s hand was burnt when he put it into a street electricity box in Potchefstroom, in the North West, on Tuesday, paramedics said.
ER24 spokeswoman Vanessa Jackson said the boy was with his parents at a business when he wandered off to play on the pavement.
“He somehow managed to get his little hand into a nearby electricity box,” said Jackson.
His thumb, the palm of his hand and his forearm were extensively burnt, she said.
Paramedics treated him on the scene before he was taken to the Potchefstroom provincial hospital. – Sapa
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Klerksdorp – North West police arrested three people and seized ecstacy tablets with a street value of more than R1 million on Tuesday.
“The police were working on a tip-off received on drugs trafficked from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to South Africa,” said Brigadier Thulani Ngubane in a statement.
“According to the information, suspects send the drugs (via) post. The post would then be collected and handed over to the drug dealers.”
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Accomplices in the killing of fashion designer Richard Bloom and budding actor Brett Goldin will make another bid on Wednesday to be set free.
The pair’s families have been advised that convicts Jade Wyngaard and Nurshad Davids have served six years of their 12-year sentences, but stand to benefit from an amendment to the Correctional Services Act and President Jacob Zuma’s special prisoner remission.
Davids and Wyngaard were initially sentenced to 15 years each for robbery, kidnapping and possession of an unlicensed firearm, but three years were taken off because they agreed to testify for the State at the trial – which never happened because a plea bargain took place.
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“I can confirm that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory,” said John Womersley, chief executive of Britain’s Science & Technology Facilities Council, at an event in London
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By Obakeng Maje
Deputy Minister for the Department of Performance Monitoring in the Presidency, Obed Bapela concluded his unannounced Front Service Delivery Monitoring (FSDM) visit at Mahikeng South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Montshioa Clinic, Mahikeng Local Municipality Drivers & Learners Testing Centre and Customer Service Centre in Mahikeng, North West Province on Tuesday.
Deputy Minister Bapela also engaged with management at the service delivery sites. Although the FSDM visits take the form of surprise visits to monitor the quality of service delivery rendered at the targeted sites, engagements with the management provided useful management information resulting from the visits, which could be used to improve service delivery
Meanwhile, The Deputy Minister is to present to the special sitting of the Provincial Executive Council (Exco) a report highlighting best practices, challenges and interventions required as per performance monitoring visits to schools, Health facilities, Police stations and SASSA Offices conducted earlier in March.
The Guardian 