Category Archives: NEWS

Shock at death of top lawyer

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nm ngubane4

By Lungelo Mkamba and Kamini Padayachee

There are still questions over what might have pushed top Durban attorney Mvuseni Ngubane to commit suicide at his Kloof home at the weekend, with his family and friends in the legal fraternity saying that he had showed no signs of distress.

Ngubane, 55, was found dead in his Mercedes-Benz on Saturday afternoon. He had apparently shot himself in the mouth and a gun was found near his body.

He was appointed by President Jacob Zuma last year to act as secretary on the committee appointed to probe the arms deal.

Legal professionals were full of praise for Ngubane, who has handled several high-profile criminal cases, including the defence of Durban businessman and socialite Sifiso Zulu and Sheryl Cwele, the former wife of the State Security minister Siyabonga Cwele.

Ngubane was the managing director and founding partner of Durban-based law firm Ngubane and Partners Incorporated, and was said to have been in favour with the government.

He was chairman of the Durban branch of the Black Lawyers’ Association (BLA) and was previously the national president of the organisation for two years. He co-chaired the Law Society of South Africa in 2005.

IOL pics Top Lawyer Dead May 14

Top attorney Mvuseni Ngubane

SUPPLIED

Ngubane also served on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in 2009 and was one of the JSC members who was perceived to favour Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe during the controversy that surrounded his alleged attempt to influence the Constitutional Court in favour of Zuma.

Police initially suggested that Ngubane’s death might have been related to “work-related problems”, but later said this had not been confirmed.

Police sources said a bloodied suicide note found in the back seat of Ngubane’s car had been virtually unreadable and had to be sent to the forensics department to be reconstructed.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mdunge said that an inquest docket had been opened.

“His family found him in a pool of blood with the gun next to him,” he said.

It is also believed that security cameras at Ngubane’s home had captured footage of the suicide. Mdunge said of the footage: “It will assist our investigation. But we will not disclose information on that. It is not in the best interests of the family.”

Ngubane’s brother, Boy, told The Mercury that he had last seen his brother on Saturday morning in Clermont.

“We met and spoke and then he went home. I was shocked to receive a call after 3pm from police.”

Boy said his brother had apparently shot himself after his wife Mpume and 13-year-old daughter Sduduzo, had left the home.

When Mpume and Sduduzo returned, they found Ngubane dead in the car.

“Mpume and Sduduzo went to the car and saw what had happened.” he said.

 

“He appeared to be his normal self when we met in Clermont. He did not tell me about any problems. This has taken the family by surprise.”

Ngubane’s former client, Cwele, said that she was overwhelmed by the news of his death.

“I spoke to him three days ago and he did not show any signs to suggest he was distressed,” she said.

“I am shocked beyond belief. I could not sleep last night (Saturday), I was crying so much. Only God will know what he was dealing with that made him react this way.”

Cwele, who is out on bail after being sentenced to 12 years for drug dealing, said Ngubane was meant to represent her at her criminal appeal against her conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

Ngubane had told The Mercury last week that the 500-page appeal papers had been filed.

Thami Thembe, a director at Ngubane’s law firm, said:

“We are not sure what could have pushed him to do this… It had been business as usual and he was handling high-profile matters.”

The national president of the BLA Busani Mabunda, who visited the Ngubane home on Sunday, described the death as a “big loss for the legal profession in the SA

… He could have easily become a judge.”

JSC spokesman Dumisa Ntsebeza SC was equally shocked. “I had spoken to him a few weeks ago and I joked about when the arms deal commission was going to get off the ground and he laughed it off and said they were putting it together.”

He said Ngubane had been a “master reconciler” and good leader.

“He had the distinction of being the president of the BLA for two consecutive terms. In that position, he had to get lawyers… to work together and he seemed to do this with effortless ease. He was an unassuming person who led by example.”

KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize, speaking in Newcastle at the provincial ANC congress, said he was saddened to hear about the death of the “seasoned activist lawyer”.

Ngubane is survived by his wife, daughter and son, Smanga, 24, who is studying at Wits University. – The Mercury

Family wiped out in crash

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crime scene may 14

By Daneel Knoetze

A grandmother was mourning the loss of her daughter and three grandsons on Sunday, after they died in a car crash on the R27 outside Langebaan late on Saturday night.

Melicia Wilsnach, her fiancé Moegamat Miller, and their sons, Damian ,16, Callum, seven, and Marcus, one, were travelling from Cape Town with two family friends when the car collided with a truck and trailer.

All seven occupants of the car died. The names of the family friends – a child and man – have not yet been released. The driver of the truck was not hurt.

The group had been returning home to St Helena Bay, said Jasintha Huyshamen, Wilsnach’s mother.

“The night the accident happened I had a bad feeling, I couldn’t sleep. Then my neighbour came to me the next morning to say she had some bad news…” she said. “To lose a whole family just like that, it’s devastating.”

It was Callum’s seventh birthday on Saturday.

 

The truck, pulling two trailers, was travelling south on the R27 and was turning right towards the Engen 1-Stop at Langebaan Junction.

The Toyota Corolla collided with a wheel axle on the first trailer and became lodged underneath, said Rob Nel of SA Paramedics Services.

 

Six people were dead when paramedics arrived. They helped to remove a boy, who was alive, from the wreck.

 

“The boy was taken to the Vredenburg Provincial Hospital where he died shortly after being admitted.”

Keri Davids, spokeswoman for provincial Emergency Medical Services (EMS), said paramedics hadworked for almost two hours to remove the bodies. “The vehicle was very badly mangled and the Jaws of Life had to be used.”

 

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said the crash was being investigated.

 

Natie Lotz, the manager of the Langebaan Junction Engen 1-Stop, said the cause of the accident was a mystery to him.

“It’s not a particularly dangerous stretch of road or turnover,” he said. “In the six years that I’ve been here, I’ve only heard of two accidents.”

Cape Argus

Zille takes on Madonsela

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IOl zille may 14

By Deon de Lange

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille says she will not resign following reports that the Public Protector has provisionally found the province’s controversial communications tender was invalid.

Zille had earlier undertaken to resign if any “corruption” was found to have taken place in awarding the two- year branding and communications contract to leading marketing firm, TBWA Hunt Lascaris, in 2011.

But in her response on Sunday, Zille noted that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s “draft report” had found “no corruption whatsoever”.

She also disputed several “findings” in the interim report and threatened to challenge these in the High Court unless they were excised from Madonsela’s final report, due out at the end of the month.

“There are, of course, the inevitable calls for me to resign as a result of the Public Protector’s draft report.

“I had undertaken to resign if the tender was found to be corrupt. It is common cause that there was no corruption whatsoever and I regard these resignation calls as the normal political posturing that should be treated as such,” Zille wrote in her online newsletter on Sunday.

Madonsela’s spokeswoman, Kgalalelo Masibi, told the Cape Argus on Sunday that the Public Protector “does not comment on provisional reports, as they are confidential”.

“The Public Protector also does not make ‘findings’ in provisional reports, but ‘observations’, which are invitations to the relevant parties to comment (further) on the matters raised.

“The Public Protector has granted the extension for comments to May 18 and intends to release the final report on May 31,” she added.

The DA leader came under fire last year after the Sunday Times revealed that her own provincial treasury had raised concerns about the process followed in awarding the province-wide branding and communications contract, valued at between R50 million and R70m.

Concerns focused on the role that Zille’s special advisers, Ryan Coetzee and Gavin Davis, had played in the process after it came to light that they had assisted provincial communications chief, Nick Clelland-Stokes, in drafting the criteria for the tender.It was also revealed that they had served on the tender evaluation committee in alleged contravention of treasury rules.

At the time, critics accused Zille of practising “cadre deployment” – an ANC appointment policy she has frequently criticised – by allowing her political advisers to serve on the committee. But the DA leader said she had been unaware of Coetzee’s role in the process and that “someone with an axe to grind leaked one selected document out of a whole process to give the impression that there had been a breach of regulations or some sort of corruption where there was none”.

Quoting from a leaked copy of Madonsela’s interim report, newspapers reported that that Coetzee’s and Davis’s involvement in the process had constituted “improper conduct and maladministration”.

The report states that the process followed in awarding the deal was “unlawful”, thus rendering the “entire procurement process invalid”.

Madonsela suggested that the conduct of the director general in the premier’s office, Brent Gerber, who asked Coetzee and Davis to become involved, was “unlawful, improper” and amounted to “maladministration”. Gerber declined to comment on Sunday.

Significantly, Madonsela’s report is understood to exonerate Zille, but recommends that Gerber “immediately terminate the further execution of the invalid agreement”.

“No evidence or information was presented or found… indicating that the premier was in any manner involved in the procurement process,” the report is quoted as saying.

Political Bureau


‘Two cops hijacked me’

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cops hijacked him

BY SHAIN GERMANER

His head was shoved between his legs, a handgun was jabbed into his ribs and another stuck against his temple – Ryan Pickford was convinced he was going to die.

The most recent victim of a blue-light gang, Pickford was held at gunpoint on Friday night for two hours by men claiming to be police officers – in full police uniform.

Pickford had just visited his wife and three-week-old son, who is in high care at the Morningside clinic, on Friday evening when the terrifying experience began that would see him lose his Porsche, his dignity and his trust in the police.

Driving past Leeuwkop Prison on Main Road in Bryanston just before 8pm, Pickford noticed a white Golf GTI following him. The vehicle’s blue lights began flashing, signalling him to pull over.

Two men dressed in police uniforms, wearing bullet-proof vests and wielding R5 rifles insisted on searching his car. During what the men called a “routine search”, another man wearing a police bib approached Pickford’s car from the side of the road.

Pickford, 35, then called his sister to tell her that the police were threatening to arrest him if he did not accompany them to the nearest roadblock for a breathalyser test.

When he agreed, but said he would drive his own car, Pickford was told he was going to be arrested. When he asked why, one of the “officers” handcuffed him and pushed him into the back seat of the Golf.

He watched helplessly as the man in the police bib climbed into his Porsche and drove off. Seated between two other men, who were not in police uniform but wielding handguns, his captors informed him that he was being hijacked. While the two men in the back seat pushed his head down with black-gloved hands, the two uniformed hijackers sat in the front. One started the car and began driving.

Pickford pleaded for his life, saying they could have his car. “I told them about my two kids and wife, and how I needed to be with them.”

At first, the men were reassuring, telling him he wouldn’t be hurt if he didn’t “f*** up”, and that their own children needed to survive as well. But when his sister began calling on his cellphone, the two handguns were pointed at his head and heart. He was told to tell his sister that he was with the police and that nothing was wrong.

After 30 minutes of driving, being interrogated about the cars he drove and his banking details, Pickford began to get anxious. The men were getting increasingly hostile, telling him he would be shoved into the car’s boot, dropped off in the centre of Alexandra, or killed, if he did not co-operate.

“I felt a strange calmness, and I just felt like this was going to be the end,” he said.

He asked why police officers would do this. Pickford remembers saying how he said they were meant to “serve and protect”, a statement that offended his hijackers.

“Who do you think we are? Your servants?” the driver asked.

At around 10pm, the men pulled over in the veld in Centurion, took his watch and cellphone, and told him to run deep into the veld and lie down. Pickford said he thought this would be the moment he would be killed, having seen his hijackers’ faces. But after lying down for several minutes, the men sped off.

Exhausted and trembling, Pickford made his way to a nearby warehouse, where he found security guards, who did their best to help him. It was after midnight by the time he had filed his case with the Midrand SAPS.

A traumatised Pickford is convinced it was police officers who committed the crime – not impersonators. Pickford said he recognised the face of one as a policeman at another roadblock.

“I swore to myself I wouldn’t just lie down and take this… If I can help to save another life (by reporting the case to police), then I will keep pushing this.

“You’re meant to trust them, like doctors or teachers. How will I ever stop at a roadblock again?”

Tracker investigators think a syndicate is at work in the northern suburbs targeting expensive cars. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an investigator said there had been eight high-end vehicle hijackings in the past three weeks.

Police spokesman Katlego Mogale was not available for comment.

* If you have been the victim of a blue-light gang – police impersonators or otherwise – please contact The Star.

Famous Mandela trial to be digitised

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Records of the 1964 trial where Nelson Mandela got a life sentence are to be digitised as part of archives of the life of South Africa’s first black president, his foundation said on Thursday.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Internet giant Google in March created online digital archives of Mandela’s life, comprising thousands of handwritten documents, photographs and videos of Mandela.

These will soon include the Rivonia Trial of 10 anti-apartheid activists and members of the African National Congress that took place between 1963 and 1964.

“One of the key projects we will soon be embarking on is the digitisation of the Rivonia Trial trial records,” Sello Hatang, spokesman of the centre told AFP.

“Once digitised, it will ensure records are available to a greater number of people and form part of the Nelson Mandela greater archives.”

Though this digitisation will increase the records’ accessibility, very few original documents are available, according to Verne Harris, head of the memory programme at the centre.

“Most of the Rivonia trial records are lost,” he told the centre’s donors on Thursday night.

Mandela was captured by police and sentenced in 1964 to life in prison during the Rivonia trial where he delivered a speech that was to become the manifesto of the anti-apartheid movement.

He was jailed on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and later to Victor Verster prison in nearby Paarl.-SAPA-AFP

Mother of Soweto video teen returns home from women’s centre

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The mother of a Soweto teenager filmed being gang raped has returned to her Bramfisherville, Soweto home from an abused women’s centre, an official said on Friday.

She was welcomed back by Gauteng social development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza and the Bramfisherville residents on Thursday, said social development spokesman Sello Mokoena.

The mother was admitted to a centre for abused women shortly after news of the rape surfaced on April 18. She received trauma counselling, was treated for stress and given a full medical examination.

“[We] will continue rendering counselling and [the] services of a psychologist to the entire family of seven,” said Mokoena

The family would be given a transport allowance to attend counselling sessions.

The teenage girl was still staying in a place of safety, where she was moved shortly after the gang rape was reported.

“We… urge you as the community of Bramfisherville to unite against crime and also to unite in supporting this family during this trying time,” said Mayathula-Khoza.

She said the department was determined to fight abuse, in partnership with NGOs, business and churches.

“We urge communities to participate in our parenting and prevention of sexual abuse skills programmes, as well as to take part in our education and awareness creation campaigns,” said Mayathula-Khoza.

Gautrain completion date still unknown

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Gautrain completion date is still unknown

Gia Nicolaides

JOHANNESBURG – There is still no indication as to when the final leg of the Gautrain system will be open to the public, as disputes over water seepage continue.

The Bombela Concession Company maintains the train is ready to operate between Rosebank and Park Station, while the Gautrain Management Agency said it cannot provide assurances that the water will not cause long-term damage to the underground tunnel.

In April, Gautrain commuters were given a glimmer of hope when Bombela announced it was ready to operate between Rosebank and Park Station, the final phase of the project.

The Gautrain Management Agency hit back, saying according to its contract it needs assurance that the amount of water being pumped out of the tunnel will not cause damage to the railway track or affect long term operations.

Bombela insists the drainage system in place is working well.

The agency is considering approaching the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa to help sort out the dispute if it is not resolved soon.

(Edited by Clare Matthes) 

Dewani case postponed again

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Dewani In Focus

Regan Thaw 

CAPE TOWN – The case against two men accused of playing a role in Anni Dewani’s murder was postponed yet again on Friday.

Xolile Mngeni and Mziwamadoda Qwabe appeared in the Western Cape High Court for another pre-trail conference.

The prosecution team was surprised when Judge André le Grange postponed the matter to next Friday.

Qwabe’s lawyer told the court he needed time to consult with his client, as his previous defence counsel had to withdraw for financial reasons.

Mngeni’s legal representative was not in court because he was stuck in traffic, the state explained.

The judge enquired as to whether the third accused, Shrien Dewani, would in fact be part of the trial.

It was explained to him he would only come back to South Africa once he is declared mentally fit.

It was reiterated the matter would go to trial on 30 July.

Anni was shot dead during a hijacking in Cape Town in 2010.

Following the murder, Dewani was accused of masterminding the murder.

South African authorities have been fighting to get him extradited to face the charges against him.

However earlier in 2012, a London court halted the extradition on mental health grounds. 

(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)

Mantashe unimpressed with de Klerk

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Gwede Mantashe. Picture: EWN

Stephen Grootes

JOHANNESBURG – African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe on Friday said former President FW de Klerk’s refusal to apologise for the homeland system shows he is nostalgic for South Africa’s apartheid past.

On Thursday night during an interview, De Klerk alluded that the National Party Policy of separate development was not wrong.

He told CNN he had not changed his mind about the homelands.

“What I haven’t apologised for is the original concept of seeking to bring justice to all South Africans through the concept of nation states,” said de Klerk.

Mantashe in response argued that the policy still affects our provinces.

“You will see that everywhere [where] there were Bantustans, [is] a problem we’ll always battle with,” Mantashe responded.

(Edited by Clare Matthes)

A MAN STILL AT LARGE!!!

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Colonel Mothusiemang Kgwenyape standing next to a canal

BY Obakeng Maje

Taung,Chiefscourt- The residents of Taung in chiefscourt woke up to the bad news when an unknown suspect found a woman making fire in the early hour of the morning.

According to the reports, the perpetrator forced a woman back into her own house and rape her.

After the ordeal the suspect flee the scene and he is still at large.

“The police are asking for your help and anyone who have information that can lead us to the arrest of the suspect must please call us on 086 10111” Ngubane said..