Johannesburg – EFF leader Julius Malema’s sequestration will be heard unopposed in September, The Star reported on Tuesday.

SA Revenue Service spokesperson Adrian Lackay said claims made by Economic Freedom Fighters national co-ordinator Mpho Ramakatsa, that Sars had launched a “politically driven activity” against Malema, were regrettable, the newspaper reported.

“If untested allegations by a delinquent taxpayer, which are without merit, carry more value in the media that sworn statements by a state institution, which are before court and which are under oath, then such a situation is very regrettable,” Lackay was quoted as saying.

It was, however, not made clear on what day the hearing would take place.

According to the newspaper, when asked about the matter, Malema directed the publication to his lawyers and dismissed the hearing as an alleged plan by Sars to discredit him.

“Whatever they do is not genuine, theirs is a process that seeks to impress the political master,” Malema told the Star.

Last month Malema accused Sars of unethical conduct, rejecting his request for a tax compromise for political reasons, and of selling his cabbage farm to deny him a means of income.

SAPA

Orlando Pirates coach Roger de Sa says that they are used to playing their arch rivals Kaizer Chiefs.

De Sa expressed this feeling after the two sides were drawn to face each other in the MTN8 semifinals.

He told the Siya crew that he is aware of how hard it is for both teams playing in a home and away semifinal encounter, but one his side is ready for.

“Everyone is used to derbies now,” said De Sa.

“We know that they are the games everyone looks up to and so it is with us as teams.

“But for us you know we are used to them and we play just like any other game and aim for a win.

“It will be the second game in a short space of time and we have to win this one now.”

By: Soccer-Laduma

The Congress of the People Women’s Movement (CopeWM) has called on its mother-body to open up more opportunities for women in the organisation.

Speaking on Women’s Day in Kimberley, CopeWN national chairperson, Ncumisa Mahlangu-Matiwane, said since its formation, Cope has been led by men only.

“I was so disappointed last weekend in Bloemfontein (during Cope electoral workshop), when I looked at the leadership of the organisation with the majority being men.

“I am calling on the leadership to create opportunities for women. We need to be allowed to take the centre stage and claim important positions in the organisation,” she said.

The Women’s Day event was attended by the leadership of Cope, including its president Mosiuoa Lekota, Dennis Bloem and Willy Madisha.

Mahlangu-Matiwane called on the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disability, Lulu Xingwana, to disapprove the bailing of those accused of perpetrating of rape.

“Rape is a crime, rape suspects should remain behind bars even before the trial,” she said.

Lekota told the supporters that the organisation was the only one that stood for true values of democracy and freedom. He took a swipe at ANC leaders he accused of misusing taxpayers’ money.

“Every year Parliament sends a lot of money to all the provinces, including the Northern Cape, but this money gets intercepted by certain people. They take your money and use it on their lavish lifestyle,” Lekota said.

The DA in the province has called for stronger action by law enforcement agencies in dealing with fathers who default on paying child maintenance.

Scores the party’s supporters marched from Kimberley’s Indian Centre to the city hall at the weekend to hand over a petition on child maintenance to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

DA provincial leader Andrew Louw called on all the men to take responsibility for their actions, specifically those who neglect to pay maintenance for their children.

“At the same time, we are raising awareness among those parents who are ignorant with regards to their rights to claim maintenance. The payment of child maintenance is vitally important in helping single mothers to raise children with decent healthcare and education. It also reinforces the responsibility on fathers to assist in the raising of their children.”

Louw said several people were failing to pay child maintenance.

“Those defaulting on their maintenance payments are simply getting away with it. It is against this backdrop that the DA handed over the petition to the NPA.”

“It is our submission that the NPA must start working with provincial government departments and law enforcement agencies to ensure that all absent parents pay child maintenance.”

Authorities in the Western Cape recently embarked on a campaign to arrest maintenance defaulters. In the first week of this operation, as many as 150 maintenance defaulters handed themselves over before they could be arrested.

“We believe that by following the lead of the Western Cape in this matter, the Northern Cape government could also help women claim maintenance from absent fathers, and in so doing promote responsible parenting,” Louw said.

Two women and a man were arrested in Mabopane, north of Pretoria, after they were found in possession of counterfeit money on Monday morning, police said.

“Police received a tip-off about people with fake money at a garage in Block B, Mabopane,” Warrant Officer Mathews Nkoadi said.

When they went there they found two women in a car. They told them the driver was not there. The officers found him and, during the search, discovered R940,000, mainly in counterfeit R100 notes, a loaded, unlicensed 7.65 firearm, and six cellphones in the car. All three were arrested.

“They said they are not working alone. We are still expecting more arrests and to discover where the money is being manufactured,” Nkoadi said.

He appealed to businesses to make sure that money they took from customers was genuine.

The three would appear in the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of possession of counterfeit money and an unlicensed firearm.

– Sapa    

Cape Town – A “backlog” of beds at Cape Town’s Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital delayed a fraud trial involving a paralegal graduate on Monday.

Chris Lodewyk, 46, was referred to the hospital for 30 days’ observation but could not start the assessment until a bed became available, legal aid lawyer Hailey Lawrence told the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court.

Lodewyk, of Goodwood, faces eight counts – two of illegally practising as an attorney, one of practising as an attorney without the required Fidelity Fund Certificate, two of fraud, and three of theft.

Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg heard at his previous appearance that Lodewyk was number 180 on the waiting list.

At Monday’s proceedings prosecutor Valley Omar told the court the situation was unchanged, and asked for a postponement to 9 September.

Lodewyk was referred for psychiatric assessment after psychiatrist Wayne Sanders diagnosed severe depression. In a letter filed on the court record, Sanders said Lodewyk’s depression was caused by an abusive relationship.

According to the charge sheet, Lodewyk practised as a paralegal in the name of Legal Max, and advertised himself on the website Gumtree.

On one fraud charge he allegedly unlawfully received R50 280 from client Richard Watkins, between 2008 and 2011, and R79 600 from another client Werner Schreuder, between 2010 and 2012, for legal work he did not do.

Watkins had a dispute with a motor dealership, and Lodewyk allegedly falsely informed him that the matter had gone to court and that the court had ruled in Watkins’s, favour, with costs.

Schreuder allegedly engaged Lodewyk to appear for him in high court litigation, in Schreuder’s absence, which Lodewyk failed to do.

As a result, a civil judgment was granted against Schreuder, but the first that he knew about it – and of Lodewyk’s alleged failure to act for him – was a visit from the sheriff to attach Schreuder’s car.

False investment

On the second fraud charge Lodewyk allegedly obtained R216 000 for investment from Richard and Elizabeth Dickenson in 2008, after falsely informing them that he was a registered investment broker.

Lodewyk was to invest the money with First Stage Holdings, at between 16% and 18% interest per annum, but allegedly kept the money for himself.

The three theft charges are based on the fraud charges, involving the victims Watkins, Schreuder, and the Dickensons.

The remaining three charges involve alleged violations of the Attorneys Act.

The matter was postponed to 12 September.

Lodewyk’s R25 000 bail was extended.

SAPA

Cape Town – Reports that the commission probing the arms deal is ignoring vital evidence are misleading, Arms Procurement Commission spokesperson William Baloyi said on Monday.

The City Press reported on Sunday that more than three million pages of documents crucial to the arms deal inquiry were lying unread in three shipping containers at the Hawks’ headquarters in Pretoria.

The evidence was gathered by the Hawks’ predecessor, the now defunct Scorpions.

Baloyi said: “The article is riddled with half-truths and is misleading to say the least.”

The commission was well aware of the existence of the documents.

“The reasons why we have not collected and analysed them are, firstly, that we do not have sufficient safe storage facilities and, secondly, the state in which the documents are, where there are no indexes etc,” Baloyi said.

“The documents needed to be scanned and reduced to electronic format. We can confirm that we took possession of some of these documents precisely because they were on hard drives.”

Officers involved in the investigations into the arms deal had also expressed doubt about whether the bulk of the documents would be beneficial to the commission’s probe.

“The commission then had to decide whether to embark on a time-consuming and costly exercise of scanning documents, which may turn out to be of no use to the commission, or to rather lead the evidence of the relevant officers who would be better placed to know which of the documents are relevant and would be able to refer to them,” Baloyi said.

“We chose the latter course.”

Baloyi said the information contained in the documents did not relate to the terms of reference of the commission’s hearings, scheduled to start on 19 August.

“It is information that relates to the terms of reference that will be considered in subsequent hearings. The commission has nonetheless decided to proceed to scan the documents and service providers are being engaged to do that.”

SAPA

Nelspruit – God saved a woman from being raped by her husband’s killers, the High Court in Pretoria, sitting in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, heard on Monday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that Güdryn Schoeman, 67, from the farm Vygeboom, near Badplaas, was testifying in the trial of Thomas Nyathi and Aaron Nkosi.

The two pleaded not guilty to robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, and the murder of Johannes Hendrik Schoeman, 86, on December 17, 2010.

Schoeman said before the attack she went to bed on the second floor of their home around 9pm, while her husband slept on the first floor. She woke up when she smelt something burning. She looked around the house. When she passed her husband’s room she heard him snoring.

“I went to check the kitchen and after finding nothing was wrong, I walked back upstairs again to check. As I looked inside my husband’s bedroom, two men attacked me.”

One of the attackers covered her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream. Her husband was unconscious at the time, but still alive.

“The criminals started demanding cash and weapons. I denied I had any money or weapons, which was true as we never kept any firearms. They hit me continuously with fists and one of them held a rusty knife to my neck.

“One of them pulled down my panties to rape me… I cried to the Lord for them not to rape me. They both touched my body but the Lord saved me from this terrible ordeal. They did not rape me.”

The attackers watched as she put her panties back on. They asked her for her ATM card and how much they could withdraw. After she told them they could only withdraw R2000, Nyathi took her husband’s tracksuit jacket, and both men used it to strangle him.

“They pulled… and I watched as his legs kicked up and down. I realised he was dying,” said Schoeman, who burst into tears. Court was briefly adjourned.

She testified later that the two put her on the back seat of her husband’s car and drove away.

“They wanted to put me in the boot but I refused. I sat with Nkosi in the back seat and Nyathi was the driver,” she said.

“He drove like a maniac and when we reached the T-junction at Machadodorp I jumped out of the car and hurt my ankle.”

She said two trucks drove past her while she stood in the middle of the road. The men then came back for her and threw her down a 3.5 metre deep embankment. They dragged her back to the N4 and the car. They drove to Belfast and when they got to an ATM they asked for her pin number.

She was not sure if they got the money, but eventually got back in the car and sped towards Carolina.

“I started singing to Jesus. I then asked Nkosi to repent to Jesus. He then asked me why Jesus let both of his parents die. As we saw the lights from Carolina I prayed to the Lord, saying only an accident can save me.

“Suddenly I heard the front wheel drive on the gravel and the car overturned and rolled over.”

When she got out of the car she saw two police officers. She was taken to hospital.

The trial continues.

Sapa

Two men accused of being in possession of police uniforms appeared in the Kabokweni Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Mpumalanga police said.

Sibusiso Kilos Shabangu, 38, Bongani Samuel Ngwamba, 31, and Mduduzi Michael Malandule, 32, allegedly committed robberies while posing as policemen, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said in a statement.

Police found two police bulletproof vests, a police cap, and a 9mm Norinco firearm in their possession during their arrests.

The three would remain in custody and be back in court on August 15 to apply for bail.

Sapa