Durban – A Margate landlord battling to get hold of a family renting his property was greeted by the horrific sight on Monday of a murdered mother and son, with her partner, 43, also found dead of gunshot wounds.

Margate police are now investigating two counts of murder and an inquest docket after the three people were found dead in their home in Bauhinia Road in Margate at about 18:00 on Monday.

The mother and son’s bodies were found in the bedroom, with that of the man in the kitchen. A gun was allegedly found next to his body.

Police spokesperson Captain Vincent Pandarum said their bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition.

“Their identities are being withheld until their next of kin have been informed of their deaths,” said Pandarum.

It is alleged that the landlord of the premises tried to contact the family last Thursday and found the gate locked.

Telephone calls went unanswered and on subsequent visits to the house on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he found the gate still locked.

“On Monday, he became concerned and entered the premises and made the terrible discovery. He immediately alerted the police,” Pandarum said.

Police recovered a .22 revolver at the scene.

The bodies were taken to the Port Shepstone state mortuary.

– The Witness

Johannesburg – A Hyde Park High School teacher accused of sending a naked picture of himself to a pupil appeared briefly in the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

His case was postponed to 22 January and he was released on R2 000 bail. He has been charged with exposure or display of pornography.

He was arrested in August following allegations that he sent a nude picture of himself to one of his 16-year-old pupils.

According to reports, the teacher engaged in a late-night WhatsApp chat with the boy’s mother on 30 July, thinking it was him.

The teacher allegedly sent numerous sexual images and made sexual suggestions.

It was alleged that in one of the pictures the man was sitting naked in a bathtub.

The boy’s mother laid a criminal charge against him.

When the allegations surfaced, the Gauteng education department reportedly said it had launched an independent investigation into the incident.

“The teacher is suspended,” education department spokesperson Gershwin Chuenyane said.

– SAPA

Cape Town – South African Jewish organisations have dismissed an “alarmist” call by a former Israeli foreign minister for South African Jews to emigrate to Israel.
For more http://www.news24.com

Port Elizabeth – A farmer was attacked and robbed on a farm near Uitenhage, Eastern Cape police said on Wednesday.

Three men armed with a shotgun and knives confronted the 28-year-old woman on the farm Welcome Home at about 19:00 on Tuesday, Warrant Officer Basil Seekoei said.

They forced her into the house and demanded cash and firearms. They then bound her hands with cable ties and demanded access to the safe.

The robbers stole five rifles, a revolver with ammunition, cash and a white Ford Ranger.

The woman managed to untie herself and went to seek help at
a neighbouring farm.
The bakkie was later recovered in the Motherwell area.

No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Judgment against Thandi Maqubela was adjourned on Wednesday morning when she collapsed in the dock of the Western Cape High Court.

Judge John Murphy had just resumed handing down his lengthy judgment and was two minutes into it, around 10:30, when Maqubela seemed to faint and collapsed on the bench next to her co-accused Vela Mabena. Murphy adjourned the matter.

She first collapsed five minutes before the judge entered and her lawyer Marius Broeksma helped her.

Police officials swarmed around Maqubela, dressed in a gold headdress, black and gold twinsuit, and high heels.

Her sister entered the dock, sat next to her, comforted her and spoke to someone on a cellphone.

People in the packed public gallery craned their necks to see what was going on. Broeksma entered the courtroom a few minutes later.

“We’re standing down until 14:00 for my client to attend the doctor,” he said.

The pair have pleaded not guilty to suffocating her husband, acting Judge Patrick Maqubela, with cling-wrap in his Sea Point, Cape Town, apartment on Friday 5 June 2009.

His body was discovered that Sunday afternoon.

She has also denied guilt on fraud and forgery charges related to a document she claims is her husband’s will.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Police have seized drugs with an estimated street value of R2.5m in Fourways, north of Johannesburg, Lieutenant General Solomon Makgale said on Wednesday.

He said the police’s national intervention unit and crime intelligence raided premises at Cedar Lakes, Fourways, on Monday.

“In a joint operation… members discovered an apparent drug laboratory in Fourways and seized narcotics with an estimated street value of R2.5m,” he said.

Police also seized firearms and ammunition.

He said two men were arrested for possession of drugs and the unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Three more people have been arrested and could be linked to the murder of Dustan Blom, the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday.

“Another matter related to this – three people have been arrested and another could be arrested soon,” prosecutor Yusuf Baba told the court.

“We are busy eliminating whether they will be part of this matter or not.”

The three were expected to appear in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. It was unclear on what charges or when they were arrested.

Earlier, Jean-Pierre Malan and Maruschka Robinson appeared briefly in the court.

State wants matter postponed

Malan and Robinson were called and stood in the dock away from each other. Robinson, dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, looked at the public gallery briefly during proceedings. Malan stood looking straight ahead.

Baba asked for the matter to be postponed to January for further investigation.

The court heard that the State received the post mortem report but that the toxicology report and some forensic evidence were still outstanding.

Shaun Hamilton, for Malan, requested that the postponement be the final postponement because he wanted to get his client out of jail.

However, Baba argued that it would be premature to mark the postponement as final.

“The State has been going through a wealth of evidence that links these two directly,” he told the court.
“And there is still a lot to go through.”

He said the evidence included cellphones and various downloads and information.

Body found in boot

The State needed to go back as far as 18 September to gather evidence, he said.

Malan is the boyfriend of Robinson, believed to be a former stripper. She was arrested on 24 September, after Blom’s decomposing body was found in the boot of his own car at Montecasino, Fourways.

Security guards noticed a bad smell coming from it. Malan was arrested on 26 September.

Robinson had allegedly rented a room from Blom, the widowed father of infant twins.

The case was postponed to 16 January for further investigation. Both Malan and Robinson remain in police custody.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The killing of a 10-year-old boy in the Ramaphosa informal settlement, on the East Rand, is devastating, Ekurhuleni Mayor Mondli Gungubele said on Wednesday.

“This is shocking,” Gungubele said in a statement.

“As a parent myself, I cannot even begin to think what the parents are going through right now,” he said.

“In fact, as I got the gory details of the incident, I felt shivers going down my spine wondering how another person can carry out such a brutal attack on a helpless boy.”

He urged parents to be more vigilant about their children’s whereabouts and said the community should help the police to find those responsible.

Siphamandla Madikane was reported missing on Monday at the Reiger Park police station.

His body was discovered that afternoon by a passer-by in a field in Ramaphosa.

He was last seen on Sunday evening with friends.

“The boy was found dead with socks stuffed in his mouth and a used condom was found next to his body,” said police spokesperson Tsekiso Mofokeng.

“The body matched the description of the boy, who was reported missing earlier on Monday.”

A case of rape and murder had been opened. No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

A former National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) shop steward at Lonmin has died in hospital after he was shot seven times, the union said on Wednesday.

“The NUM is again outraged at the cold-blooded murder of one of its former shop stewards at Lonmin, Percy Letanang, 45, who was shot on Sunday by unknown gunmen,” said Mxhasi Sithethi, Rustenburg regional co-ordinator.

Letanang was shot when he arrived home in Segwaelane near Marikana on Sunday evening.

“He got out of the car to open the gate and gunmen shot him. His brothers took him to a hospital. Unfortunately he passed away last night [Tuesday].”

He said Letanang was employed at Lonmin’s Eastern Platinum mine, and took a voluntary severance package (VSP) after Lonmin de-recognised the NUM, after the number of its members fell below the required threshold.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) had since become the majority union at Lonmin.

Several killings of union members are believed to be due to rivalry between the two unions.

“After Lonmin decided to de-recognise us, most comrades took their VSPs fearing for their safety at the mine, and comrade Letanang was one of them.”

Sithethi said the NUM was worried about the increasing murders of its shop stewards in Marikana and the greater Rustenburg area.

“In less than three months four of our members have been killed… How long is blood going to have to flow in Marikana?

“It is impossible not to feel heavy-hearted when our shop stewards are brutally killed…”

North West police said he was shot around 21:00 as he arrived home from work.

“The wife heard gunshots… He was taken to a clinic in Bapong and he was transferred to George Mukhari Hospital,” police spokesperson Pelonomi Makau said.

No arrests had been made.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – There are four Facebook profiles impersonating Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, his department said on Wednesday.

“The department wishes to put it on record that these accounts do not belong to the minister and any content uploaded on these accounts should not be attributed to Minister Blade Nzimande,” spokesperson Manana Makhanya said in a statement.

“In the social media space, it is only the department of higher education and training’s Facebook and Twitter accounts that should be deemed genuine and any information emanating from these accounts can be attributed to the minister.”

He said Nzimande was aware of the essential role social media played and was committed to engaging with the public through these genuine and credible platforms.

Other ministers have also been impersonated on social media networks.

Last month, Women, Children, and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana’s department said a Facebook user was impersonating the minister and asking for funds in her name.

In August, a person pretending to be Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe on social media tried to solicit bribes from members of the public. 

SAPA