Pretoria – A pathologist detailed on Monday the horrific injuries suffered by a 3-week old baby, whose stepfather is on trial in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for allegedly abusing and murdering the child.

Christiaan “Chris” Oldewage, 28, pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering his wife Juanita’s baby Christiaan “Stiaan” in December 2011.

The baby died of multiple injuries, including a fractured skull, 16 rib fractures, a bruised lung and bleeding kidney, hours after being admitted to the Montana Hospital, in the north of Pretoria.

Oldewage’s wife Juanita, who was charged with him, committed suicide in August by hanging herself in her boyfriend’s flat.

Pathologist Lorraine Prinsloo testified that the baby, which weighed 4kgs, had a severe skull fracture, a laceration to the lining of the brain and 14 fractured ribs, two of which had been fractured twice.

There was also blood in his abdominal cavity, and he had bruised lungs and haemorrhages in the area of the lung, intestines, adrenal gland, kidney, and between the layers that cover the brain.

Prinsloo said babies’ bones were soft and pliable and it took a lot of pressure to fracture the skull.

“Blunt force would cause a fracture like that, for example hitting the baby’s head against a surface or dropping the baby.

“It is possible to sustain this type of fracture in a fall off a bed, but in accidental falls like that, usually there is no other injury to the brain or haemorrhages.

“It’s improbable that the skull fracture was caused by a fall from a bed.

“Except for the injuries, he was an otherwise healthy baby,” she said.

Rib and skull fractures

Prinsloo testified that although the rib fractures were fresh and that the skull fracture was less than three days old, it was likely all the injuries were sustained at the same time.

She said a lot of pressure was needed to fracture the ribs, and that this could have been caused by squeezing the chest or applying any form of blunt force.

A blow to the abdomen, or forcing the baby down on a hard surface would have caused the injuries to his abdomen and kidney.

She said all the injuries, and blood loss, had caused the infant’s death.

Constable Marius Dege testified that Juanita Oldewage at one stage phoned him, complaining that her husband was assaulting her baby.

Both smelled of alcohol and Mr Oldewage was drunk.

He blamed their kitten for the scratches and complained that his wife was assaulting him because she thought he had assaulted the baby.

Dege saw scratch marks on the baby’s face and upper body and said they looked like human scratch marks.

He warned the couple he would take the baby away if they kept on fighting, but relented when Mrs Oldewage asked him not to take the child.

Judge Bert Bam wanted to know from Dege why he did not take the child or at least report the incident.

“I don’t understand your conduct. You thought it was reasonably serious. You didn’t think it was the cat. Why would you do nothing about it? What motivated you? The child was a tiny baby of 2-weeks-old.”

Family in tears

Dege said Oldewage had been aggressive and had not wanted to listen to reason, but later calmed down.

The mother had asked him not to take the child. The baby was in her arms and was not crying when he left, he said.

The baby’s great-grandmother Dorothea Engelbrecht and her daughter Karin Viviers were both in tears when they testified about his short life.

Engelbrecht said the couple rejected her help after Stiaan’s birth and that she was told Oldewage knew how to raise babies as he had raised his brother.

When she visited them early in December, she saw scratch marks on the baby’s face and head, but Oldewage had said the cat was in the baby’s crib.

He and Juanita were drinking and he was very aggressive.

The baby was well, but dirty when Engelbrecht and her daughter took him on a shopping trip two days before his death.

Engelbrecht told her daughter she wished she could raise the child herself, because Oldewage did not have a job.

Hospital

Engelbrecht and Juanita took the baby to hospital later that night because he would not stop crying, but they were sent home.

She later received a call from a boy who said the baby was no longer breathing and her daughter later phoned to say he had died.

Viviers testified that she had to pay money before the baby could be treated at hospital on the night before his death.

Juanita had prayed and been emotional while the baby was treated.

Oldewage was mostly outside and later left, saying he was tired.

When she phoned to say he should urgently go to the hospital, he said the baby was “not that ill”, although he did arrive later.

She said that when she saw the baby a few days before his death he was “not a clean, happy baby”.

The trial continues.

Johannesburg – A bail application by Czech fugitiveRadovan Krejcir and his three co-accused was postponed by the Palm Ridge Regional Court on Monday.

Magistrate Reginald Dama postponed the matter to Wednesday.

Krejcir, Desai Luphondo and two members of the Hawks, warrant officers Samuel Modise Maropeng and George Jeff Nthoroane, applied for bail.

The State opposed bail and said Krejcir was a flight risk and that he and his co-accused posed a danger to witnesses because they knew where they and their relatives stayed.

Earlier Krejcir’s lawyer told the court he had no intention of leaving South Africa.

“He is bound to stay and has no intentions to leave this country whatsoever,” his lawyer Willie Vermeulen said.

In an affidavit presented as part of his bail application, Krejcir alleged the police assaulted and tortured him before his arrest. He had laid charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, kidnapping and attempted murder against the police, the court heard.

Maropeng and Nthoroane denied the charges against them and, through their lawyer Francois Roets, said a statement by Krejcir implicating them was a lie.

Prosecutor Louis Mashiane submitted that the four were involved in the kidnapping and assault of a man whose brother was charged with making sure that a 25kg shipment of crystal meth, also known as tik, went through OR Tambo International Airport, to Australia.

The man’s brother, who was known as Doctor, and who was employed at OR Tambo International Airport, disappeared after handing airport clearance receipts to Luphondo. The consignment did not reach Australia.

Luphondo was Krejcir’s drug pusher, Mashiane contended, and said he, Maropeng and Nthoroane were instructed by Krejcir to look for Doctor, and if they did not find him, to kidnap any of his relatives.

Krejcir demanded that Doctor be found or that he be paid R24m for the tik. The brother, who is the complainant in the case, was kidnapped and assaulted at the premises of Krejcir’s company Money Point, in Bedfordview, on the East Rand, for more than four days.

Afterwards, he was left in Thokoza on the East Rand, after having been severely assaulted, Mashiane said.

Krejcir’s wife Katerina Krejcirova testified that her family did not possess false passports as Mashiane stated. She arrived in the country in 2007 on a Seychelles passport.

Johannesburg – Articles published in The Star and The Pretoria News on Monday about the future of the houses occupied by President Jacob’s Zuma’s support staff at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal, are false, the rural development and public works departments said.

“The ministers of public works [Thulas Nxesi] and rural development and land reform [Gugile Nkwinti] would like to place on record that their offices had never issued a statement in which Nxesi stated that the Nkandla houses occupied by support staff would be sold once President Jacob Zuma’s term ended in about five years’ time,” they said in a joint statement.

The Star reported that it spoke to Vuyo Bavuma, Nxesi’s spokesperson.

However, Nxesi denied that Bavuma was his spokesperson.

“Media enquiries regarding these two separate ministries should be addressed to their respective media liaison officers whose details are available in the two departments’ websites,” they said.

Part of Zuma’s multi-million rand homestead is built on state-owned land managed by the Ingonyama Trust Board.

The Star reported that Nkwinti apparently contradicted Nxesi and said houses on Ingonyama Trust Board land could not be sold as the trust only leased land.

Johannesburg – Katerina Krejcirova, wife of Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, on Monday denied that she and her family had several false passports.

“I arrived in this country using my Seychelles passport,” she told the Palm Ridge Regional Court in Alberton.

“I travelled to Mauritius with my two sons, Daniel and Dennis, using that passport.”

Prosecutor Louis Mashiane asked Krejcirova why her surname differed from that of her husband, but was not reflected as such in her ID book.

She said when she arrived in the country in 2007 she explained to officials when she applied for an ID that the suffix “ova” had to be added, but was told that was not how things were done in the country.

Czech women typically take their husband’s surname when they marry and add the suffix “ova”, which means “belong to the family of”.

“I left the Krejcir name as it is because I gave up after trying to rectify it twice,” she said.

Krejcir and his co-accused Desai Luphondo, and Hawks warrant officers Samuel Modise Maropeng and George Jeff Nthoroane were applying for bail. They were arrested last month and face charges of assault, kidnapping and attempted murder.

False passports

Mashiane told Krejcirova on Monday that according to her Czech passport her name was Matilda Savi.

She denied this. Krejcir also carried the names Julius Egbet Savi on his passport when he first arrived in the country, Mashiane said.

When Krejcir opposed his extradition application in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court, he indicated in his affidavit that he had arranged false passports for his wife and one son, Mashiane added.

Krejcirova said she did not know anything about that. She said she and her husband married in the Czech Republic in 1990.

She and her two sons flew directly to Mauritius on 21 November, and did not fly to Nigeria as stated by Mashiane earlier, she told the court.

The bail hearing continues.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela seems to be leaking reports to the media, the ANC Youth League said on Monday.

“Her modus operandi must be investigated by relevant law enforcement agencies, since she is not above the law,” said ANCYL spokesperson Bandile Masuku.

He said the way Madonsela had handled the investigation into President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, home compromised the outcome.

“It is not enough for her to distance herself from the leaked reports without taking any appropriate action against the media houses that continue to be the source of leaks.”

The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that a leaked provisional report by Madonsela revealed Zuma had received substantial personal benefits from the multi-million rand upgrade to Nkandla.

While the government had stated that the upgrades were essential for Zuma’s security, the newspaper reported that the upgrade was found by Madonsela to include a swimming pool, visitors’ centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives.

Madonsela’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said on Friday it was unethical and unlawful to publish the public protector’s provisional reports.

“It violates section 7(2) of the Public Protector Act 23, 1994,” she said in a statement.

“As a rule, we do not comment on whatever purports to be a provisional report of the public protector, as those are not reports of the public protector.”

Masuku said Madonsela had compromised the office of the public protector.

“We, therefore, call for decisive action against her conduct, which leaves much to be desired,” he said.

He said the ANCYL wanted the outcome of the joint standing committee on intelligence committee (JSCI) to be implemented, particularly further investigation by the auditor general, the Special Investigating Unit and the police.

“We insist that recommendations of the JSCI were sufficient in dealing with corruption and any act of criminality that may have been found, mainly pointing to contractors that inflated prices for the security upgrade of Nkandla.”

The JSCI found, among other things, no evidence that the public works department paid for the construction of Zuma’s private houses.

– SAPA

The SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) expressed concern on Monday over the arrest of the editor of The Informer community newspaper in the Eastern Cape.

Andile Nomabhunga, 45, who edits the publication in the Alfred Nzo district, was arrested for trespassing on 28 November and released the same day on a warning, Sanef said in a statement.

He would appear in the Matatiele Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Sanef chairperson Mpumelelo Mkhabela said Nomabhunga wrote a story about municipal manager Nontsikelelo Matubatuba’s alleged abuse of the municipal budget.

“The story claimed that Matubatuba had used funds from the municipal budget allocated for music talent development, to build a music studio in her home,” said Mkhabela.

Mkhabela said Nomabhunga went to Matubatuba’s house and took pictures in the studio and interviewed her before publishing the story.

“At no stage was there any suggestion that he was trespassing,” he said.

He was arrested in his office six days later.

Mkhabela said police were acting on a complaint which had no substance, and this appeared to be an attempt to harass and intimidate Nomabhunga for publishing a story that was in the public’s interest.

– SAPA

Five family members were found dead and two children were hospitalised after being poisoned on a farm near Bothaville on Monday, Free State police said.

A husband, two children, the wife and her sister were found lying in the house after a neighbour alerted police about their non-stop vomiting, police spokesperson Stephen Thakeng said.

“Poison was found inside pots with food.”

Two children were taken to Nala Hospital in Bothaville.

The mother and father apparently had a fight on Friday when the 30-year-old man wanted to sleep with his wife’s 16-year-old sister.

Police opened a murder docket, said Thakeng.

– SAPA

The South African Men’s Under 20 National Team, Amajita, has arrived safely in Maseru where they will take part in the 2013 COSAFA Under 20 Youth Championships.

Amajita arrived in the Mountain Kingdom on Sunday afternoon (01 December 2013) to continue with preparations for the tournament.

In their opening match, South Africa will face Seychelles on Wednesday (4 December) at the Mafeteng Stadium.

Kick-off is at 14h00.

Amajita have been in camp for over a week where they played a few practice matches to get ready for the event. They defeated neighbours Botswana 2-1 in the last match before departing for Lesotho.

On their arrival, former Bafana Bafana captain and legend Lucas “Rhoo” Radebe greeted the South African youngsters.

The team was address by the Head of Delegation of South Africa Abel Ramoka and Radebe.

Radebe urged the players to dream big and give hundred percent commitment to the tournament.

“You have the world at your feet and this is an opportunity for you to shine,” said Radebe. “Nothing is impossible if you set your minds to achieving your goals.”

Amajita had their first official training session on Monday (02 December).

South Africa is in Group C along with the Seychelles, Zambia and Namibia.