A number of businessmen believed to be part of a syndicate dealing in diamonds were arrested in Kimberley, Northern Cape on Friday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.

“In a sting operation carried out by a multi-disciplinary project team of law enforcement agencies, a number of senior businessmen were arrested in Kimberley on charges of contravening the Diamonds Act, that is illegal diamond dealing, possession and sale of unpolished diamonds and money laundering,” spokesman Nathi Mncube said.

He said the team was set up in October 2011, and through the use of undercover agents it was discovered that various unlawful transactions in dealing in unwrought diamonds took place in the Northern Cape.

He said the Northern Cape High Court on Friday, granted the NPA 10 preservation orders in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act effectively freezing property in the sum of approximately R50 million.

“The freezing orders were made up of R43 million in cash being proceeds from criminal activity, five fixed properties and four vehicles that were used to commit illegal diamond transactions.”

He said the order takes place with immediate effect pending the filing of forfeiture applications against the cash and other property in due course.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the 19 were arrested in different provinces. They were arrested in Kimberley, in Vryburg in the North West, Bloemfontein in the Free State and Johannesburg in Gauteng.

“Some of them appeared in court and were granted bail of between R50,000 and R500,000,” he said.

Ramaloko said more people were expected to be arrested.

– Sapa

One person died and 18 other people were injured when a taxi and a car collided head-on on Saturday, on the N18 in Hartswater, Northern Cape, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha said when paramedics arrived, the car and taxi were scattered across the highway.

“After triaging they established that one person had tragically died, one was in a critical condition and seventeen others sustained injuries ranging from serious to minor,” he said in a statement.

The injured were stabilised on the scene before they were taken to hospital.

Botha said the cause of the accident was not known.

       
-Sapa

Three newspapers on Friday identified the teenager convicted of a triple murder in Griekwastad in the Northern Cape on the day of his 18th birthday.

The Star printed a photo of Don Steenkamp sitting in court, above the story headlined “This is boy who raped sister, killed parents”.

According to the newspaper, a court order preventing the media from revealing the teenager’s identity because he was a minor was lifted when he turned 18.

Beeld carried a photo of Steenkamp on the front page with the caption “Griekwastad. Hier is Don [here is Don]”.

Beeld’s sister paper Volksblad had the photo and story on its front page.

Steenkamp was found guilty of murdering his father, Griekwastad farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his mother Christel, 43, and his sister Marthella, 14.

Previously most media reports did not state the family connection as this would have identified him while he was under the age of 18.

They were shot dead on their farm Naauwhoek on April 6, 2012.

He was also found guilty on charges of raping the girl and lying to the police.

On Wednesday, Northern Cape Judge President Frans Kgomo sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment on each of the three murder counts, 12 years on the rape count, and four years for defeating the ends of justice. All sentences would run concurrently.

Friday was Steenkamp’s second day in jail.

Media lawyer Dario Milo said South African law was unclear on the issue of identifying a child who was the subject of a court case and who turned 18. However, he believed the newspapers were justified in identifying him.

“The automatic lapsing of the protection… makes sense because the right to freedom of expression and the principle of open justice require that statutory restrictions on court reporting are interpreted as narrowly as possible.

“Those newspapers who have decided today [Friday] to name the Griekwastad convicted murderer will therefore, in our view, have a solid basis to argue that this decision was justifiable,” he said in his blog Musings on Media.

However, statutory interpretation was complex.

The position on this in South African law was governed by the Criminal Procedure Act read together with the Child Justice Act.

Section 63(6) of the Child Justice Act provided that section 154(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act “applies with the changes required by the context regarding the publication of information”.

He said section 154(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act protected an accused person under the age of 18 during criminal proceedings, while the Child Justice Act applied to someone who was over 18 during criminal proceedings but was under that age at the time he or she was arrested.

In certain circumstances, the act also applied to someone who was over 18 but under the age of 21.

“Thus, one reading of the Child Justice Act is that the phrase… means that once the Child Justice Act is deemed to apply to a particular person then the reporting restrictions in the Criminal Procedure Act will apply until the completion of those proceedings, even if the accused is now well over 18,” he said.

This could also apply to any appeal.

But when minors turned 18 they gained various freedoms they did not have before and lost certain special protections reserved for children.

Responding to a request from a newspaper to identify Steenkamp, Kgomo said what happened after judgment was none of his concern.

The judge president said when he was approached on Tuesday about publishing the boy’s identity before judgment was delivered his answer was an “emphatic no”.

“The horse has now bolted… What happens after I had given judgment, as of now, is none of my concern as presiding judicial officer in the case.

“I am functus officio.”

This meant that an official’s mandate on the matter had expired.

Kgomo could not deal with any queries once he had pronounced on the matter.

“Judges do not dispense legal advice. They speak through their judgments,” he said.

During sentencing, Kgomo told the teenager to face the consequences of his deeds.

“In two days you are a man. Now, be a man,” he told the teenager on Wednesday before sentencing him.

-Sapa

A man appeared in the Bafokeng Magistrate’s Court for allegedly killing his girlfriend, North West police said on Tuesday.

The case against Daniel Boikanyo, 49, was postponed on Monday to August 25 for further investigation, Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

Boikanyo was arrested on Friday after his girlfriend’s clothes, including a pair of jeans and underpants, were found at his house.

Residents found the woman’s decomposing body in Chachalaza, near Rustenburg, on Thursday. She had multiple stab wounds. The motive for the killing was not known.

-Sapa

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Orkney- The 5.5 magnitude earthquake in North West earlier this month was possibly linked to mining in the area, a University of Pretoria academic said on Monday.

“What might happen, after enough mining, we are creating stresses, more and more stresses and they are propagating deeper and deeper,” said Prof Andrezj Kijko, the director of the university’s Natural Hazard Centre.”

We are adding stresses to already existing stresses, tectonic components… and then we are triggering [an] earthquake.

“We are talking about accelerating earthquakes, just by mining,” Kijko said.

A 31-year-old man was killed in a mining village near Orkney when the 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region.

At least 34 miners were injured and more than 600 houses damaged.  

-Sapa

A woman from Mzamo in the Eastern Cape has won the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) Female Entrepreneur of 2014 award, the department said on Saturday.

Ivy Nokwanele was crowned the winner at the annual award ceremony, in partnership with Total South Africa, in Mafikeng, North West on Friday night.

“Let us be proud of women and recognise them for their ability to feed, not only their families but the world,” Minister Senzeni Zokwana said in a statement.

Zokwana said one of the major objectives of the awards was to open export market opportunities for female farmers.

“It is about time we highlight the contribution made by women in the sector that is often regarded as the terrain of men,” said Zokwana. Linah Mahlangu from Mpumalanga won the minister’s special award during the ceremony.

“This award offers an opportunity for the [minister] to acknowledge the contribution of young women and women living with disabilities who are entrepreneurs,” department spokeswoman Makenosi Maroo said in a statement.

Total South Africa General Manager Pansy Mekwa said in a statement that although female farmers produce more than 70 percent of Africa’s food, their efforts and ability were often overlooked.

“The Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award seeks to change all that, highlighting the stories of successful emergent female farmers across the country,” said Mekwa.

“They [female farmer] stand as inspiration to their communities, who benefit from their farming activities, either through food security or the creation of jobs,¨ she said.

The DAFF Female Entrepreneur Awards is an empowerment programme which was in its 14th year. It was conceptualised “to encourage and increase the participation of women, youth and people living with disabilities in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors,” said Maroo.

The awards, themed ‘Africa’s Agriculture and Food Security,’ starts at a provincial level and them culminates to the national awards.

– Sapa

Johannesburg – Eighteen people were injured in a head-on collision between a taxi and car in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg on Saturday, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 paramedics found some of them trapped in the wreckage’s, spokesperson Chris Botha said in a statement.

“After all the injured were treated at the scene, paramedics transported them to various hospitals in the area for the care that they required,” said Botha.

The cause of the accident was unclear.

SAPA

Johannesburg – As part of commemorating women’s month, female police officers arrested 60 drunk drivers during roadblocks around Johannesburg, metro police said on Saturday.

The roadblocks were held by 94 female metro police officers on Friday night, Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said.

The roadblocks were held along Chris Hani road in Soweto, Bree and Mooi streets in the CBD, Jan Smuts drive and Seventh avenue in Parktown, as well as the M1 and Corlett drive offramp.

“The drunk drivers were given bail ranging from R1 000 to R1 500,” said Minnaar.

They were expected to appear at different courts around Johannesburg next week.

SAPA