Johannesburg – They lived in a secure complex in a gated community, but they were murdered in their home.

The bodies of the two women, a mother and daughter aged 84 and 64, were found in the bath in their home in Beverly Hills Manor in Beryl Street, Bruma on Tuesday.
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Johannesburg – The number of alleged rhino poachers arrested in South Africa this year now stands at 147, the environmental affairs department said on Wednesday.

Sixty-four were caught in the Kruger National Park, spokeswoman Eleanor Momberg said. The most arrests, 33, were made in April.

At the end of 2012, 267 arrests were recorded, 73 of them in the Kruger National Park.

Since the start of the year, 536 rhino had been killed for their horns, with the park remaining the main target.

“A total of 334 rhino have been poached in the Kruger National Park in the past seven months…, 56 rhino have been poached in Limpopo.”

In the North West, 55 offences were recorded, and in KwaZulu-Natal, 47.

According to research released on July 24 South Africa’s rhino population would rapidly decline in the next three years if it was not protected and poaching was not eradicated.

At current poaching levels, rhino numbers would significantly decline by 2016, and possibly earlier in the Kruger National Park, said SA National Parks former CEO Mavuso Msimang, who headed the research.

Msimang said although live birth rates exceeded death rates, more stringent measures should be introduced to protect rhino.

The report, titled Rhino Issue Management Process, recommended greater political will from authorities, a central funding mechanism to fight poaching, harsher sentences to deter criminals, and evaluating the rhino horn trade with other countries, especially in Asia, where the horn was in demand.

Sapa

Johannesburg – Two Witwatersrand University staffers were fired on Wednesday after being found guilty of sexual harassment, the institution said.

The dismissals followed disciplinary hearings, chaired by independent senior counsel, rector Adam Habib said in a statement in Johannesburg.

The university received the outcome on Wednesday.

“The staff members have been found guilty of sexual harassment and misconduct, and one of them has also been found guilty of sexual/indecent assault.”

The university apologised to the students who were harassed and said it would not tolerate any form of sexual harassment.

“There are two cases still running at the moment, and the university will announce the outcomes of these two cases in the next few weeks, as the outcomes become available.”

A campus-wide probe into sexual harassment, assessing existing policies and procedures to prevent further sexual harassment, was expected to be completed within two weeks.

Sapa

Polokwane – Three Agang SA members accused of malicious damage to property appeared in the Mahwelereng Magistrate’s Court, Limpopo, on Wednesday, the party said.

The magistrate postponed the matter to September 6 to allow the prosecution more time to investigate the charge, Agang SA said in a statement.

The three were arrested on July 22 after a Mzombane residents’ meeting in Mokopane ended in chaos. Agang SA said the members had organised a discussion of their concerns about standards of living and a lack of service delivery with the Mogalakwena municipality’s mayor at the meeting. The mayor did not arrive. Angry residents told an African National Congress councillor, who came instead, to leave.

“The community of Mzombane, like many others across the country, is fed up with food parcel pay-offs when all we were asking for was water, electricity, jobs, decent education, and healthcare,” Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele said in the statement.

Sapa

Parliament – MPs are edging closer to passing the DNA bill – a much needed tool to improve conviction rates in the country.

Deliberations on the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment bill – which covers the use of DNA as evidence in criminal investigations – continued in Parliament’s police portfolio committee on Wednesday.
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Johannesburg – A man was arrested while transporting a consignment of cigarettes without documentation in Sebenza, Ekurhuleni, on Wednesday, police said.

Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago said contraband cigarettes worth R2.8 million were seized after the 42-year-old man led police to a rented warehouse he was taking the consignment to.

“A total of 807 half-master cases were found in the truck. Arriving at the suspect’s warehouse, metro police uncovered 97 more half-master boxes of cigarettes. A total of 907 boxes estimated to be worth approximately R2.8m were seized.”

Officials of the SA Revenue Service and the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa were called to inspect the confiscated cargo and to determine its source.

The man, who has dual citizenship in Zimbabwe and South Africa, was expected to appear in the Edenvale Magistrate’s Court soon.

He would face a charge of possession of contraband cigarettes.

Sapa

Nelspruit – An Mpumalanga man who admitted to shooting dead his ex-girlfriend in front of her colleagues asked for a lenient sentence on Wednesday.

A Sapa correspondent reported that Steven Malumane, 25, from Chochocho outside Hazyview, appeared in the Nelspruit Circuit of the Pretoria High Court.

He pleaded guilty to five charges including murder, hijacking, kidnapping, and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Malumane attacked Cynthia Mashego, 35, at her workplace on the third floor of the Sanlam building in Mbombela on March 22 last year. He shot her in the corridor, fled and hijacked a blue Toyota Corolla and kidnapped its owner, Vusimuzi Frans Mabuza. He fled with Mabuza to his parents’ home in Chochocho. His family called police and he was arrested.

“I ask to offer my apology to the deceased’s family. I realise what I did is wrong and I ask them to forgive me,” a sobbing Malumane told the court.

“Last year I did ask my family to go to the Mashego family and ask for forgiveness on my behalf. I also ask for forgiveness from Mr Mabuza… I was frightened and wanted Mabuza to accompany me home to report what I had done to my family.”

Malumane, who claimed he was getting around R10 000 from his two businesses each month, asked the court to consider a lenient sentence, so he could be released early and support his two children and his ex-girlfriend’s family.

Mashego’s mother, Agnes Shabangu, 59, told the court no one from Malumane’s family had come to ask for forgiveness.

“I have not seen anyone from his family who came to ask for forgiveness, since the incident happened. My daughter was a breadwinner in the family,” she told the court.

“She was very helpful. I am now left to care for her child and I can no longer work. I’m deeply hurt by her death and have still not recovered from the trauma.”

After Mashego broke up with Malumane and she had moved on with her life, he started sending her threatening smses.

The court heard that on the morning of March 22, Malumane went to Magagula Attorneys, where Mashego worked, dragged her into a corridor and fired two shots. One of the bullets hit her in the back. She died on the scene.

Prosecutor Molatlhwa Mashuga asked the court to impose a minimum sentence, which would serve as a deterrent to Malumane and other would-be criminals. Malanguti Malanguti, for Malumane, asked the court to consider a lenient sentence as he had shown remorse and asked for forgiveness.

Justice Mmonoa Teffo found Malamane guilty and postponed the matter to Friday for sentencing.

Sapa

Johannesburg – Claims that an elderly East London man died because of a five-hour ambulance delay should be probed, the public protector’s office said on Wednesday.

The man’s wife complained to Thuli Madonsela when she paid Frere Hospital an unannounced visit earlier in the day, her spokesperon Kgalalelo Masibi said in a statement.

She asked for an ambulance to be sent for her husband around 13:00 on Tuesday, but by 17:00 it had not arrived.

The woman said she was repeatedly assured that an ambulance was on its way.

At 17:00 the family rented a car to take the man to hospital, where he died.

“The EMS must investigate why the ambulance did not make it to the complainant’s house, even though call centre agents kept on telling her that it was on its way,” Madonsela said.

She said the hospital needed to investigate whether the man’s life could have been saved if the ambulance had arrived sooner.

Madonsela’s visit was part of her office’s “national stakeholder dialogue”, which would move to Gauteng next week.

– SAPA

Durban – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has removed more than 1 500 people from the voters’ roll in Vryheid, IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula said on Wednesday.

Possible voter registration fraud sparked the move and police had been asked to investigate, she told reporters in Durban.

The by-election for Ward 22 of the Abaqulusi municipality, scheduled for 24 April, was postponed after it was alleged that hundreds of people registered in the ward did not live there.

Andre Lotter, the former ANC councillor for the ward, obtained a court order postponing the election, allowing him to stand as an independent councillor and ordering the IEC to investigate the voters’ roll fraud.

Tlakula said the names of 1 525 people were removed from the Ward 22 roll and returned to the voters’ rolls from which they had been transferred. She said it could not be proved that they lived in the ward.

When the IEC published the names of 1 534 voters, urging them to make representations to the IEC, only 11 people came forward.

Eight were able to persuade the IEC that they should be registered in the ward and one had since reregistered in another voting district.

The by-election was scheduled to go ahead on 7 August.

KwaZulu-Natal chief electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said that starting in January, most of the 1 525 voters had registered in the ward prior to the announcement of the 24 April by-election.

He said the fact that so many voters registered in such a short time showed it was an “organised exercise”.

The IEC’s office in the municipality and those involved in the registration of the voters would also be investigated to see what had gone wrong.

Increase in registered voters

Last week it was reported that there were 3 695 registered voters in the ward in the 2011 local government election, but that by 24 April this year there were another 2 470 voters – an increase of 66% in two years.

Tlakula said anyone found guilty of forcing someone to register or persuading them to do so could face a 10 year jail term if convicted by the Electoral Court.

If a political party was found to have been complicit in such a fraud the court could fine it up to R200 000, with deregistration of the party being the top penalty.

The municipality is currently under administration. It was formerly controlled by the ANC with the help of the National Freedom Party (NFP).

Lotter’s resignation forced the by-election, leaving the ANC tied with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on 16 seats each in the municipality.

The NFP has seven, the DA three and one seat is controlled by a candidate from the Owethu Residents’ Organisation.

A split within the NFP’s ranks resulted in a hung municipality, with the same number of votes in favour of the IFP and the ANC, when the speaker was included.

Speaking after the IEC press conference, Lotter said he was unhappy that the IEC had not provided any information about who was behind the alleged fraud.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A 53-year-old woman died when she was run over by an articulated truck in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, police said.

The accident happened when the truck driver turned from Bubbs Avenue into Caledon Street, said police spokesperson Gerda Swart.

Apparently part of the trailer swung onto the pavement and struck the women, who died on the scene.

Police were investigating.

– SAPA