Johannesburg – The Johannesburg metro police have been demanding bribes from inner city hawkers, the Workers and Socialist Party (Wasp) said on Monday.

“The Johannesburg metro police have been demanding bribes of R5 000 a week from the street traders,” party spokesperson Weizmann Hamilton told hawkers marching in the Johannesburg CBD.

He said the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) had been assaulting hawkers and confiscating their stock.

“The City of Johannesburg through JMPD have detained some of the hawkers in the council offices accusing them of being foreigners.”

The hawkers met in the Johannesburg CBD to march to the mayor’s office to hand over a memorandum of agreement.

The city has been conducting a process to register all legal traders on the streets.

The process was started after it was found that there were discrepancies between the allocated stalls on the city’s database and the number of stalls that were observed.

It was found that several traders were being allocated smaller areas, and that this was creating overcrowding. It was also found that some stands were being traded and leased illegally.

The process was initially meant to focus on seven streets, but it was later agreed to extend it to 17 streets.

Taking the city to court

The SA Informal Trader’s Forum (SAITF) announced plans on Sunday to take the city to court over the removal of informal traders in the CBD.

SAITF said the court action followed weeks of speaking to the city in order to find solutions to the evictions of traders.

SAITF said it participated in meetings with the city at which it was decided that a verification process be done at the beginning of November, with the relocation of traders from 11 November.

The Wasp, SAITF, the One Voice Hawkers Association, and the African Traders Committee, would take legal action through the Socio-Economic Rights Institute.

They had already served letters of demand on Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau and various other officials, giving them until Monday to respond.

SAPA

By Obakeng Maje

Zeerust-A 44- year old accused Japtha Ngcuka from Dinokana village, near Zeerust appeared before the Lehurutshe Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday last week on allegations of raping a 13-year-old school girl, police said. 

“The accused  is still in custody and will appear back in court on Tuesday for bail application.

Captain Pelonomi Makau said on 6 November 2013 at about 14:30, the accused who is a teacher at a local school, requested the victim to remain behind after school.

“It is further alleged that, the accused took the victim to the school toilets, where he allegedly raped her. According to the information, on arrival at home the victim informed her mother of the alleged ordeal” Makau said. 

The victim was taken to hospital where rape was confirmed.-TDN

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Potchefstroom- Three adults and a 3-year-old girl were transported to various hospitals after being attacked by a swarm of bees in Potchefstroom this morning.
A man was traveling along Mooibank road when he noticed a pedestrian stumbling on the road ahead. The pedestrian was struggling to swat swarm bees off his face.
“When the driver of the vehicle stopped to assist the pedestrian, the bees attacked him and his 3-year-old daughter who was sitting in the car” Er24 spokesperson Chris Venter said.
The driver ran into the dam of a nearby farm to rid him of the bees. A third adult who was working on the farm fell into bees’ path was also stung.
“When paramedics arrived on scene they resorted to using a fire extinguisher to keep the bees from the patients and themselves while they ensued with treatment” He said.
The first victim and the 3-year-old suffered serious injuries and were rushed along with the other patients to nearby hospitals for further treatment.-TDN
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JOHANNESBURG – Kwaito star ‘Brickz’ is believed to have lost an estimated R3 million in income since he was arrested for rape.

Brickz, whose real name is Sipho Ndlovu, is accused of raping his 16-year-old niece in March, but the rape was only reported last month.

He’s been in custody for three weeks and his advocate, Isaac Mokgobi, says the artist has lost a substantial amount of money due to missing corporate gigs and other performances because of his arrest.

Mokgobi says his client is pleading with the Roodepoort Magistrates Court to grant him bail of R2,000 because he’s been cash-strapped since his arrest.

“He’s been losing money and he doesn’t have money to pay anything.”

Mokgobi says Ndlovu lost a large amount of money after corporate gigs and other performers he was billed for were cancelled.

The City Press online reported that Ndlovu lost R500,000 after shows he’d been booked for by the education department and Nando’s were cancelled.

The artist will know on Monday morning whether or not he’ll get bail when he appears in court.
For more http://www.ewn.co.za

Pretoria – A former police officer has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a nine-year-old Lyttelton Manor schoolboy.

The former officer was arrested on Thursday in Johannesburg after the boy went missing from his primary school on Tuesday.
Source: http://www.iol.co.za

Amanzimtoti, KZN – Amanzimtoti has been rocked by the killing of a grandmother while her handicapped husband tried to call for help.

Although neighbours responded quickly, a call to the police hotline on 10111 was never radioed to police patrols.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

KwaZulu-Natal – A KwaZulu-Natal businessman was subjected to 22 days of terror at the hands of men who kidnapped him, repeatedly beat him and threatened to kill him while they kept him chained to a bedpost.

He was released after a ransom of a million rupees (R161 000) had been paid.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Durban – A Durban teacher, who had gained the trust of one of his pupils, lured her to a hotel with the promise of access to her maths paper and then raped her.

This was alleged by the girl, who says she fell pregnant. She claims further the man forced her to have an abortion which was only successful after three attempts, two at an illegal clinic.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

The arms deal commission’s hearing was halted because cross-examination transcripts were not available owing to a staff shortage. The commission announced this week that it would cut its staff complement.

The commission has also been dogged by allegations that some of its evidence leaders are yet to be paid for their work.

However, the unavailability of a document manager, whose contract was not renewed this week, has already affected the work of the commission. It is unclear whether the commission will employ another document manager before the public hearings continue next week.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

The cost of investigating and prosecuting 30 police officers accused of running the “Cato Manor death squad” is expected to rise to nearly R30 million as a protracted legal battle wears on.

The officers, who have been suspended indefinitely since their arrest more than a year ago, will appear in the Durban High Court on Monday.
For more http://www.iol.co.za