Cape Town – Voice recordings in which slain teenager Charmaine Mare repeatedly turned down sexual advances from Johannes Christiaan de Jager were played in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Barkhuizen played recordings on Mare’s BlackBerry phone while testifying in De Jager’s trial.
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Pretoria – A Diepsloot couple accused of murdering the woman’s 7-month-old baby appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The case against Nokuthula Gumede, 23, and her Mozambican boyfriend Fernanado Sidanvo, 35, was postponed to 21 January for further investigation.
Gumede and Sidanvo remained in custody. Sidanvo told the court he lost his residence permit when Diepsloot residents ransacked his shack.
The baby was found dead and mutilated earlier this month.
Police spokesperson Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said rats gnawed off the baby’s foot while the child was left alone in a shack.
Gumede was arrested in a Randburg, Johannesburg, tavern two weeks ago, and Sidanvo the following day in Diepsloot.
– SAPA
Johannesburg – A police officer accused of dealing in dagga appeared in the George Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Western Cape police said.
Sammy Stroebel, 45, was granted bail of R1 000, police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said on Tuesday.
Pojie was not immediately able to provide Stroebel’s rank.
He said Stroebel was allegedly caught red-handed as he sold a bag with 29.45kg of dagga to a buyer in Lawaaikamp, near George.
He was on duty when he was arrested.
Stroebel would be back in court on 20 January.
– SAPA
Cape Town – Johannes Christiaan de Jager pointed out the drain where he hid the torso of teenager Charmaine Mare, a police officer told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Barkhuizen said he conducted the pointing out with De Jager after he consulted a lawyer.
Barkhuizen is a leader of a detective group in the Hawks which investigates high priority murders.
De Jager has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of prostitute Hiltina Alexander in May 2008, and the murder of 18-year-old Mare, an Mpumalanga resident, on 11 January this year.
He previously told the court that Mare had been taking her time to get ready and he had grabbed her arm in the bathroom.
He said she slipped on the bath mat, or lost her balance, and hit the rim of the bath. She never regained consciousness. He panicked and tried to get rid of her body.
‘You said she slipped here?’
Barkhuizen said De Jager led him to a house in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, on 16 January, where he had been staying with his girlfriend, her daughter and his son. Mare had been staying at the house during a holiday and to visit the daughter.
“There he pointed out certain things to me and made certain reports to me,” he said.
A portion of the recorded pointing out was shown to the court. In the video De Jager is seen walking to the house with handcuffs and chains on his ankles and wrists. The first stop is a purple bedroom, which has posters on the walls, items scattered on the floor, and an unmade bed.
De Jager indicates this is where Mare slept, but that it looks different. He then takes Barkhuizen to a small bathroom and says this is where Mare changed into her clothes that morning.
“You said she slipped here?” Barkhuizen asks in the video.
“That’s correct, yes,” De Jager replies, showing where her body lay. The next scene shows De Jager walking through the garage to a paved courtyard outside, where he points at a square drain hole in the middle, about 40cm wide.
Barkhuizen told the court the accused also led him to a deserted plot near the Kraaifontein shooting range.
Legs found in dog food bags
“I later established this is where the deceased’s body had been discarded previously,” he testified.
“Lastly, later that afternoon, the accused took me to a spot on the N2 highway near Macassar where he pointed out a spot on the left hand side of the road.”
He said two objects were found, wrapped in dog food bags, in a Mr Price plastic bag.
“These bags contained the legs of the deceased… These two objects were lying partially concealed in the grass next to the tree.”
Barkhuizen said when De Jager led them to that spot, he exclaimed: “Daar le hulle nog” [They are still lying there]”.
– SAPA
Pietermaritzburg – Two of the KwaZulu-Natal health department’s most senior officials have been suspended, Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo announced on Tuesday.
They are the department’s chief financial officer Mashaka Ravhura, and its head of supply chain management Andile Zondo, Dhlomo told reporters at the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg.
He would not give the reasons for the suspensions.
“All I can say is that there were irregularities in the execution of their duties,” he said.
“Before suspending people we usually look at the situation carefully and we are confident that this move was a correct one and it will help in carrying out the investigation.”
Dhlomo said a team was being appointed to conduct a forensic investigation. This is the second time Zondo has been suspended in her seven years in office. The first time was in November 2007, when she raised concerns about the purchase of a mammogram machine without a quote.
The now disbanded Scorpions opened a case against then health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni and others, but charges were later dropped because of a lack of evidence, and Zondo returned to work.
Ravhura has held his position for little more than a year.
– SAPA
Pretoria – Judgment will be delivered on Wednesday in the trial of Sibusiso Langa, accused of crashing his car into a group of joggers in Midrand, killing five people.
The State has asked for Langa’s conviction on five charges of murder, one of attempted murder, and one of drunk driving but the defence argued he should be acquitted on all charges.
Langa has denied guilt on charges of murdering Reneilwe Lesenyeho, Gaolojwe Tlale, Moroesi Mokoatsi, Given Mills, and Nomvula Dumako, attempting to murder Abegail Stengile, and drunk driving.
The mechanical engineer has denied being drunk, speeding, driving recklessly, and hitting the joggers while he was on the wrong side of the road.
Langa claimed in his evidence he had found the runners in the middle of the road as he came around a blind corner.
He said he had seen another car coming from the front just before the accident.
A witness, Stengile, and an accident reconstruction expert testified that the joggers were on the right hand side of the road when Langa hit them.
Prosecutor Mervyn Menigo conceded the State had not proved that Langa had been intoxicated to a degree that excluded his criminal capacity to commit the crimes.
He argued that Langa was driving under the influence of liquor at between 108km/h and 113km/h in a 60km/h zone on the wrong side of the road at the time.
Menigo argued that Langa’s claim that the joggers had run into his path should be rejected, as it was not supported by any of the objective facts.
He said Langa’s attempts to explain why the deceased and Stengile were on the right hand side of the road were “feeble and unintelligible” and his version of the accident improbable.
It was also improbable that Langa would only have consumed a glass of wine and two light beers while socialising for almost six hours before the accident, he said.
Driving under the influence
Given the facts in the case Langa had foreseen the possibility that entering a bend in the road at a high speed could result in a collision that could cause his death or the death of other road users.
“Road deaths resulting from collisions where drivers were under the influence of alcohol continue to plague South Africa.
“… In a study of aggressive road behaviour in South Africa, out of a sample of 1 600 drivers, a tenth of drivers sampled acknowledged driving under the influence of alcohol and on average they did so four out of 10 times when the opportunity arose.
“… All South Africans should be able to use the roads without fear of being struck or collided with by a drunk driver,” he said.
Menigo argued that the recent “lenient” approach adopted by the courts had done nothing to improve safety on the roads and promoted a culture of “violence”, which deprived other road users of their constitutional right to freedom and security of person.
Langa’s lawyer Richard Mkhabela argued that the only witness to the accident could not be trusted when he said it had happened on the right hand side of the road.
This was because the witness had lied about Langa trying to flee the scene in a tow truck, while the tow truck driver denied this.
He said the State had not proved that skid marks on the right hand side of the road came from Langa’s vehicle and said his client’s version that he had been on the correct side of the road when the runners entered his path was reasonably possibly true.
Mkhabela submitted the State had not proved its case on the charges of drunk driving and murder or even culpable homicide, and said Langa was entitled to an acquittal.
– SAPA
Johannesburg – Two men have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery at the Pretoria home of Crime Line head Yusuf Abramjee, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Neville Malila said three men were caught in Atteridgeville on Monday and two of them had been positively linked to robberies at two homes in Erasmia, including Abramjee’s.
“They were arrested for a spate of house robberies, burglaries, and hijackings around Pretoria.”
Police seized three stolen cars, two unlicensed firearms, ammunition and money at the men’s homes.
On Friday morning, armed robbers broke into Abramjee’s house, demanded the keys to his BMW and fired shots while they reversed out of the garage.
Earlier that morning, the robbers had targeted another house in nearby Senorita Street, but police interrupted them.
Malila said the men were caught following various leads and tip-offs.
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Lesetja Mothiba said they were being linked to several cases in the Pretoria area and that more charges could follow.
Abramjee commended residents for blowing the whistle and urged them to continue doing so.
“We must now ensure that the suspects are convicted and punished.”
The men, aged between 22 and 37, would appear in the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges including extortion.
They had allegedly tried to buy a docket from the police, said Malila.
– SAPA
Johannesburg – Urgent applications by two groups of informal traders will be heard in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg at 14:00 on Tuesday.
The SA Informal Traders’ Forum and SA National Traders’ Retail Association (Santra) are seeking to interdict the City of Johannesburg and its metro police from removing informal traders from the streets.
Santra’s application was earlier stood down until 11:30.
Just after 11:30, Judge Ramarumo Monama said he would hear both the applications after lunch.
The two groups want to stop the city from demolishing further stalls and want traders to be allowed to resume their work in their previously allocated areas.
According to Michal Johnson, for Santra, the city, in its answering affidavit, called for the matter to be placed on the ordinary court roll.
“(But) it is extremely urgent,” she said outside court.
“People are living day to day without food to eat.”
Urgency
If the city was successful the matter might only be heard next year, she said.
Santra filed a replying affidavit to reassert the urgency of the matter.
Monama is expected to consider the urgency of the applications and whether they should be consolidated, which the city has argued for.
He is also expected to consider an application from an intervening party in the matter.
The applications were launched after the city started registering all traders on the streets. This was because of discrepancies between the allocated stalls on the city’s database and the number of stalls counted on the streets.
The city found that several traders were being allocated smaller areas, creating overcrowding. In addition some stands were being traded and leased illegally.
In front of the court’s main entrance, informal traders and their supporters sang and danced while they awaited the court’s decision.
– SAPA
Johannesburg – It appears the so-called “black caucus” in the DA has put leader Helen Zille firmly in her place, Cosatu in the Western Cape said on Tuesday.
“Helen Zille and the white defenders of the apartheid generational advantage in South Africa were soundly beaten by the black caucus of the DA,” Congress of SA Trade Unions provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said.
“Helen Zille and the DA appear to ‘kick her traditional white support base into touch’ at their policy conference in Cape Town over the weekend.”
Speaking at the end of her party’s federal council meeting in Cape Town on Sunday, Democratic Alliance leader Zille said race remained a legitimate measure of disadvantage in South Africa.
Support for BBBEE
She said the conference could be summarised in three broad themes.
“The first is we support BBBEE [broad-based black economic empowerment] that creates jobs… The second is that black advancement benefits everyone. And the third is we support BBBEE when it is broad-based and productive.”
She said this did not imply the party supported the African National Congress’s approach to redress.
Ehrenreich said it would be interesting to see how the DA’s white supporters reacted to what he called affirmative action with a few “frills” becoming part of the party’s policy to attract black voters.
“This poses an interesting dilemma for politics in the Western Cape and politics in the DA in the run up to the general elections.
“Zille is playing a high risk game assuming that whites will not go to another party and that blacks are the most important numbers for their party to secure,” he said.
– SAPA
Johannesburg – The Independent Electoral Commission says it is ready for the by-elections taking place in 22 wards in eight provinces on Wednesday.
“So far so good, we’re getting ready for by-elections,” IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela said on Tuesday.
“It’s quite a big group of by-elections… it’s quite a process.”
She said the IEC was not expecting any difficulties at any of the polling stations.
Eastern Cape
In the Eastern Cape four by-elections would be held after the councillors died.
Ward five and nine in Humansdorp would be contested by the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance.
Ward five was previously represented by the DA which won 55.72% of the vote in the 2011 local government elections, while ward nine was previously represented by the ANC which won 64.95%.
Ward two in Butterworth would be contested by the ANC, the DA, the Pan Africanist Congress, and the United Democratic Movement. The ward was previously held by the ANC, which won with 49.07% in 2011.
Ward 13 in Alice, which was being contested by the ANC and PAC, was previously held by the ANC, which won the ward with an overwhelming majority of 95.97%.
Free State, Gauteng
In the Free State, ward eight in Bothaville was uncontested, with the ANC’s Pini Ruth Ramaele the only candidate. The party’s previous councillor died.
Two by-elections would take place in Gauteng.
Ward 96 in Ekurhuleni was being contested by an independent candidate, the African Christian Democratic Party, the ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the National Freedom Party, and the PAC. The ward was previously represented by the ANC, which won it in 2011 with 83.08%, but became vacant when the councillor resigned.
Ward 12 in Vereeniging would be contested by the ANC and the PAC.
The previous ANC councillor died. The party won the ward in 2011 with 87.33% of the vote.
KZN
Five by-elections would be held in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ward 70 in Durban, which used to be represented by the Minority Front, was being contested again by the party, the ACDP, the ANC, the Congress of the People, the DA, and the IFP.
The Minority Front won the ward in 2011 with 43.75% with the DA coming in second with 33.48%.
Ward eight in Ladysmith would be contested by the ANC, the IFP, the National Democratic Convention, and the NFP. The ward was previously represented by the ANC, which won with 69% in 2011, but became vacant when the councillor died.
Ward two in Bergville would be contested by the ANC, the IFP, and the NFP. The previous NFP councillor resigned. The party won the ward in 2011 with 39.29% beating the ANC by 1.9%.
Ward three in Dundee would be contested by an independent candidate, the ANC, the IFP, and the NFP. The ANC had previously won the ward with 51.05% but its councillor died.
Ward 14 in KwaMbonambi would be contested by the ANC, the IFP, and the NFP. The ward was previously represented by the ANC, which had 83.92% in 2011, but the councillor resigned.
Limpopo, Mpumalanga
In Limpopo, ward eight in the Modimolle municipality would be contested by the DA and the Freedom Front Plus. The ward was represented by the DA and became vacant when the councillor died.
The DA had received 63.18% of the vote in 2011 while the FF Plus received 5.17%.
Five by-elections would take place in Mpumalanga.
Ward 16 in Piet Retief would be contested by the ANC and the NFP. The ANC received 76.84% of the vote in 2011. The ward became vacant after the ANC councillor resigned.
Ward 22 in Emalahleni would be contested by the ANC and the DA. This was after the DA councillor resigned. The DA won the ward in 2011 with 55.49%.
Ward six in Sabie would be contested by two independent candidates and the ANC. The ward was previously held by the ANC, which won with an overwhelming 94.42%, but the councillor resigned.
Wards 21 and 34 in Mbombela would be contested by an independent candidate, the ANC, and the PAC.
Both wards became vacant when the previous ANC councillors resigned. The ANC won ward 21 with 95.17% and ward 34 with 94.04% of the vote.
North West, Northern Cape
Two by-elections would be held in the North West.
Ward one in Koster was uncontested, with Canney Thabo Jacobs of the ANC the only candidate. The previous ANC candidate resigned.
Ward six in Lichtenburg would be contested by the ANC, the DA, and the FF Plus. The ward was represented by the DA, which won with 73.54% of the vote in 2011, but the councillor died.
Two by-elections would be held in the Northern Cape.
Ward nine in Kimberley would be contested by the ANC and the PAC. This was after the ANC councillor died. The ANC won the ward in 2011 with 83.44%.
Ward four in Kathu would be contested by the ANC and the DA. The ANC won the ward with 53.36% in 2011. However, the councillor died.
– SAPA
