Pretoria – Senior counsel William Mokhari on Friday vowed to lay a complaint of misconduct against Judge John Murphy after they clashed in the High Court in Pretoria.

Mokhari said he would approach the Judicial Conduct Committee about Murphy’s conduct in court and also in his chambers.

“I will make further comment when I have filed the complaint early next week,” he said.

The two argued on Thursday over whether former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli should return to work.

Murphy was hearing an application by the SA Police Service (SAPS) and the National Director of Public Prosecutions for leave to appeal against an earlier ruling in favour of lobby group Freedom Under Law (FUL).

The ruling set aside a decision to reinstate Mdluli and withdraw criminal and disciplinary charges against him.

FUL did not oppose the application for leave to appeal provided that the judge ordered that Mdluli not be reinstated pending the outcome of the appeal.

Mokhari, for the SAPS, argued on Thursday that the proviso amounted to an application, which meant FUL did not follow court process.

Such an application needed to be filed correctly with the court, he said.

“I have never heard of an application, which is a substantial application like this… where a judge is already chosen,” Mokhari said.

“This is an application which relates not to the order which has been granted by your lordship. It is an application which relates to an order granted by your brother (Judge Makhoba in 2012).”

Murphy asked if the national police commissioner was opposed to the interdict being kept in place.

“Does the commissioner want General Mdluli to go back to work?” Murphy asked.

Mokhari replied: “That is presumptuous and I will not respond to the question.”

Murphy then asked: “How dare you say that to me Mr Mokhari? You are obliged to respond to me.”

“It is presumptuous because it puts the carts before the horses. It will be improper for me to respond to that question,” Mokhari said.

Murphy told Mokhari to “take a seat” and that he did not wish to hear him anymore. Mokhari refused. Murphy adjourned the court.

About an hour later, Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba came in and postponed the matter indefinitely.

Mdluli was suspended amid charges of fraud and corruption, and charges relating to the murder of his ex-lover’s husband. An inquest cleared him of any involvement in the murder. The charges of fraud and corruption were also later withdrawn.

He was reinstated, but was again suspended in 2012 pending the court application to review the withdrawal of the criminal and disciplinary charges against him.

Sapa

Johannesburg – A joint initiative to curb rhino poaching was launched on Friday by SA National Parks (SANParks), Bavaria 0.0% and five South African retailers.

SANParks CEO David Mabunda said: “We are in a crisis situation that requires funding for expert human and technical resources”.

SANParks was working with Bavaria 0.0%, a non-alcoholic beverage, and Woolworths, Spar, Shoprite Checkers, Massmart and PicknPay to raise funds through the “Adopt So Our Rhinos Don’t Die” campaign.

From every purchase of any six-pack of Bavaria regular or fruit-flavoured malt drinks, the retailers and Bavaria would donate money for the “adoption” of a rhino.

“All money will be held in a ring-fenced trust fund that is managed by Rand Merchant Bank under the audit of the National Treasury,” Mabunda said.

“The trust fund will also be made available to any rhino conservancy that applies for assistance to ensure that we are able to help as many rhino as possible.”

SANParks is the custodian of 80 percent of Africa’s rhinos and home to 91 percent of the world rhino population.

Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa endorsed the campaign.

She said that over 500 rhino had been killed through illegal poaching since the beginning of the year.

“I brim with jubilation to know that help is at hand and that at last South Africans across the land will unite and stand together to make a difference, and protect the world’s natural heritage for generations to come,” she said.

Sapa

Pietermaritzburg – An off-duty Road Traffic Inspectorate officer gave the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court his impression on Friday of the night Maj-Gen Bethuel Mondli Zuma was arrested.

Essop Abubaker was testifying in the case of Zuma, who was to have become Gauteng’s new provincial police commissioner.

Zuma faces charges of failing to stop when ordered to, drunk driving, attempting to escape from custody and defeating the ends of justice.

Abubaker said he was watching television with his wife at their home in Pelham on the night of December 2008, when he heard sirens and went outside to investigate.

He said one of the officers, who he knew, told him they were chasing a suspect who had entered the premises, which they had surrounded.

Another witness, police member Bonginkosi Magwaza, told the court the officers asked for his help catching the man. At the time, he was attending to a complaint in the area.

Magwaza said two women emerged from the house. One of them told the officers it was her house and that the man they were looking for was there to visit her husband.

A while later, Zuma emerged from the house.

Magwaza will be cross-examined when the case resumes on Monday.

Sapa

Johannesburg – The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) confirmed on Friday, that it has received allegations of defeating the ends of justice against national police commissioner Riah Phiyega.

“The matter does not fall under the matters investigated by the IPID. So the executive director of the IPID will assess it and make a decision on whether it must be investigated by the IPID,” spokesperson Moses Dlamini said.

The case was reported on Wednesday. Phiyega said the allegations against her “will not stick”.

“You can try as much as you like, but you will not succeed. No mud thrown at me will stick,” she said in a statement on Friday morning in response to a report in The Star.

“I remain determined to ensure that nothing, absolutely nothing, deters me and my leadership team from the new journey of rebuilding the SAPS [SA Police Service], especially the crime intelligence division.”

The Star reported on Friday that Phiyega allegedly tipped off a senior police officer, who allegedly accepted a bribe from a criminal, that crime intelligence was investigating him.

But Phiyega denied tipping off the officer, saying he had become aware of the investigation after the DA asked a question about it in Parliament.

Calls for investigation

DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said because the allegations against Phiyega were serious it was important for her actions to be investigated.

“If commissioner Phiyega is innocent, she should not oppose an investigation. Indeed she should encourage one.”

Kohler-Barnard said the reputation of the police could not continue to be battered by “dodgy and corrupt officials”.

Phiyega said it was “interesting” that the allegations surfaced from “faceless people” shortly after her decision to put former acting crime intelligence boss Major General Chris Ngcobo on special leave. A vetting process found discrepancies in Ngcobo’s qualifications.

Phiyega said she was not formally informed of the case of defeating the ends of justice against her, but was aware of the allegations.

They were from people who wanted to discredit her. She said it came as no surprise given some of the “mischievous activities conducted by crime intelligence in the past”, Phiyega’s office said in the statement.

“It is clear that this is a lame attempt by certain individuals within crime intelligence to discredit her and derail the process of flushing out those within the SAPS, who have no integrity and have no interest in taking the SAPS forward,” her office said.

Ngcobo on special leave

Phiyega placed Ngcobo on special leave on Monday, instructing that criminal investigations and disciplinary action against him be initiated.

Major General Bongiwe Zulu assumed Ngcobo’s role until further notice.

The Star, quoting “highly placed sources”, said Ngcobo instructed crime intelligence officers to open the case against Phiyega on 19 October.

Explaining the alleged tip-off she gave, Phiyega said a question was received in Parliament and during the process of gathering information to enable the police to prepare a response, the DA enquiry ended up in a provincial commissioner’s office after passing through various officials.

At that point the commissioner called Phiyega to ask about the investigation, so it could not be argued that she alerted the commissioner about the investigation, her office said.

“Simply put, the national commissioner committed no crime,” the statement read.

Kohler-Barnard said she would write to the police ministry to ascertain what steps were being taken to gain clarity. She would also follow up on her original question in Parliament.

The SA Police Union (Sapu) called on President Jacob Zuma to relieve Phiyega of her duties.

“The latest controversy around General Phiyega adds to the many costly blunders the national commissioner has committed since taking office,” spokesperson Solly Bulala said in a statement.

“Sapu calls upon President Jacob Zuma to convene a board of inquiry into the fitness of General Phiyega to hold office. The SAPS can ill afford to have such a character at its helm. It is clear that the general is a liability.”

Sapu called on Phiyega to take a leave of absence to avoid dragging the police’s name through the mud.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – ANC heavyweight Malusi Gigaba criticised opposition parties and NGOs on Friday for telling foreign countries South Africa has failed since achieving democracy.

“All around us, the opportunists, the pessimists, the opposition and the counter-revolutionists are telling us what we have achieved in the last 19 years has been nothing and this revolution faces its inevitable doom,” he told the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in Kempton Park.

“If you go to raise money overseas, why use the name of [former ANC president] OR Tambo? Why speak ill of our country and demean the progress we have made?”

He said certain opposition leaders went to countries like the US and spoke ill of development in South Africa so they could get money from them.

“They do so because they seek funding to pursue their agenda,” said Gigaba, an ANC national executive committee member who is also public enterprises minister.

“[Since 1994]… We have given children more access to education than the apartheid government ever did,” he said.

Working together

Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele is on record as having said the South African education system was better under apartheid.

Gigaba said foreign powers were responsible for two world wars, centuries of colonialism, and the world financial crisis, which ruined the lives of millions.

“You don’t see Americans come to us and say ‘we are bad people’.”

He said mistakes would happen in the struggle to make South Africa a better country.

“We must be the first to admit our mistakes and correct them,” he said.

“We can’t allow for our opposition to gain an upper hand on our movement by the mistakes we have made.”

Gigaba said the tripartite alliance’s members needed to work together to prevent opposition parties from gaining a foothold in next year’s elections.

“In the coming election there is a choice between the movement for liberation, and on the other hand, right-wing opportunist riff-raff.

“We must put aside everything else and focus on the overwhelming victory of our movement. The ANC and the people are one,” he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Due process must be followed by officials suspended from Cosatu and its affiliates, SA Communist Party (SACP) deputy chair Thulas Nxesi said on Friday.

“We don’t want to hear that there are splits [in Cosatu], we are begging you, as the communist party,” he said at the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) national general council in Kempton Park.

“Even when comrades are found guilty of charges we require that they maintain discipline… Whenever there are due processes, we request people to observe the internal processes.”

In August, Cosatu put its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing after he admitted to having an affair with a colleague.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has brought a high court application to have the suspension overturned. The union has also reportedly threatened to break away from the Cosatu.

Nxesi criticised unions and members that wanted to break away.

“It is opportunistic and completely unacceptable when we hear some comrades, who are threatening to break away from the union and form splinter groups for their own vested gains,” he said.

Nxesi, who is also the public works minister, said he previously mentioned “to the displeasure of some” that South Africa could learn something from Zimbabwe’s land reform process.

“Essentially it is about breaking down large scale farms and promoting intensive small scale farming,” he said.

“This is not a call for illegal land grabs. In South Africa we have a Constitution which recognises… the process of land distribution.”

– SAPA

A man was found guilty of theft and possession of 525 unpolished diamonds worth R1.4m in the Northern Cape High Court, the Star reported on Friday.

Kimberley resident Michael van Rensburg, a former Harry Oppenheimer House (HOH) employee, was convicted by Judge Mpho Mamosebo on Thursday.

During the trial, Van Rensburg pleaded not guilty to the theft of the 525 6/5 grainer unpolished diamonds that disappeared from a box at HOH in May 2010 and belonged to the Diamond Trading Company.

The collective weight of the diamonds was 741.09 carats.

Mamosebo said the State proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and no other person but Van Rensburg stole the diamonds, according to the report.

On 3 and 4 May, 2010, Van Rensburg was caught on CCTV footage shuffling and rearranging boxes from a trolley, and making suspicious movements, including moving in a zig-zag manner to avoid being captured by the camera.

Sentencing will take place on 28 November.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A Bloemfontein man who set alight his wedding venue was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in the Bloemfontein Regional Court on Friday.

Jean Greyling, 28, earlier admitted to setting alight a conference venue at the Emoya Estate outside Bloemfontein in July.

He had booked it as his wedding venue, but the owner cancelled the arrangement a day before the nuptials were to take place after Greyling reportedly failed to pay the deposit.

He eventually got married. His wife supported him in court on Friday.

– SAPA

Durban – The ANC is set to challenge the exclusion of three votes from a by-election in Nongoma on Wednesday.

Provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said on Friday three ballots had been excluded in Nongoma’s ward 10 by-election because they were not stamped by the Independent Electoral Commission officials.

He asked how a vote could be cast without the IEC officials stamping the voting slip, adding that he did not see why the voter should lose his or her vote because of an IEC official’s error.

“We will be engaging with the IEC,” Zikalala told reporters in Durban.

The National Freedom Party candidate received 34.41% of the vote winning by three votes over the ANC in a close contest.

The NFP received 906 votes, the African National Congress 903, and the Inkatha Freedom Party 824 votes. There were 26 spoilt ballots.

ANC spokesperson Senzo Mkhize said the ballots in question were three special votes.

– SAPA

Cape Town – Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters were arrested in Cape Town on Friday for throwing faeces at the Sanlam head office in Bellville.

Sanlam’s spokesperson Ainsley Moos told News24 between 20 and 30 protesters wearing red EFF berets gathered outside the company’s head office in Bellville, Cape Town, at about 10:30 with three tyres and containers containing faeces.
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