JOHANNESBURG – A last ditch attempt by the labour ministry to avert a mass strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has failed and thousands of members in the metal industry are expected to stop work today.
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Johannesburg – The department of home affairs on Monday said it noted the ruling given by the Western Cape High Court in favour of two people separated from their spouses because of immigration laws.

In a statement, home affairs said it was still studying the judgment and would provide comment in due course.

According to the SABC, Brent Johnson and Cherene Delorie took the department to court to challenge what they called “unconstitutional legislation” governing visa applications.

Their foreign partners were branded undesirable and barred entry into South Africa.

Home affairs said this was after they failed to follow due process when renewing their visas earlier in 2014.

The national broadcaster reported that Judge James Yekiso ruled that the status of undesirability over Johnson’s wife and son who are in Denmark, and Delorie’s husband who is in Zimbabwe, be suspended and they be allowed to return to South Africa.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The State on Tuesday will begin its cross-examination of an acoustics expert who testified in the trial of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Monday told the North Gauteng High Court he wanted to review Ivan Lin’s report before questioning him.

Lin on Monday gave a meticulous technical report on ambient noise on the morning Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home on Valentine’s Day last year.

One of Pistorius’s neighbours, Michelle Burger, whose house is 177m from Pistorius’s, told the court in March she heard “blood-curdling screams” followed by four gunshots the morning Steenkamp was shot dead.

“At 177 metres away, if the scream was from a toilet, it is very unlikely that a listener can hear the scream, let alone interpret the sound source reliably,” Lin told the court.

“If the scream was from the bathroom the listeners may have heard the scream and may possibly be able to interpret the sound, under certain conditions,” he said.

Pistorius faces a murder charge. He claims he shot Steenkamp by accident through the locked door of his toilet in his Pretoria home, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him.

The State argues he killed her during an argument.
SAPA

Johannesburg – Former president Thabo Mbeki expressed shock and sadness on Monday over the death of Stellenbosch University rector and vice-chancellor Prof Russel Botman.

“Prof Botman was an eminent fighter against apartheid, a grounded and authentic theologian, a humble and thorough-going intellectual who sought everyday to improve the lives of all South Africans, black and white,” Mbeki said in a statement.

“Like the humble servant that he was, Russel did what he had to do, principled and loyal to principle, neither seeking reward nor praise.”

Mbeki sent his condolences to Botman’s family and the Stellenbosch University community.

He said Botman’s death would not only be a loss to his family, but also to the country.

“It is a loss to the nation and to humanity as a whole.”

Botman died in his sleep at his home in Stellenbosch on Friday night.

He joined Stellenbosch University in 2000 as a professor in the practical theology and missiology department and was appointed vice-rector in 2002.

The Stellenbosch municipality said on Monday that flags in the town would be flown at half-mast following Botman’s death.

“The reality and impact of Botman’s sudden passing has left the town grappling with the great loss it has experienced over the weekend,” spokesperson Vernon Bowers said in a statement.
SAPA

Johannesburg – The correctional services department has promised to give convicted killer Clive Derby-Lewis’s application for medical parole urgent attention.

Derby-Lewis’s lawyer Elsabe Juin said on Monday she was told by department officials the application would be marked urgent and be treated as a priority.

“After the department said they lost the papers we initially filed for the application, I personally delivered copies to the head of the prison on Thursday. I was told my papers will be submitted urgently,” Juin said.

She said the department seemed co-operative after her firm said they would approach a high court to force the department to comply with the law when handling the 78-year-old’s application.

“They did not want to commit to a date but I was told it would be a priority. The papers [for a high court application] are ready should we feel we need to proceed, but we expect feedback from the department by mid-July.”

Comment from department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela was not immediately available early on Monday afternoon.

On 19 June, correctional services said it received an incomplete application for medical parole for Derby-Lewis and was waiting for a complete form.

Wolela further dismissed as “disingenuous”, claims by Derby-Lewis’s lawyers that they had not received feedback from the department after submitting an application for medical parole on 2 May.

Derby-Lewis was convicted of conspiracy to kill SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani by providing the gun Polish immigrant Janusz Walus used to kill him in the driveway of his Boksburg, East Rand, home on 10 April 1993.

The 78-year-old former Conservative Party MP, who was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, has already served more than 20 years of his sentence.

Derby-Lewis was initially sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in 1995.

He testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that his fight against communism motivated the murder. The commission denied him amnesty in 1999, a decision upheld by the Western Cape High Court a year later.

He first applied for parole in June 2010.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The correctional services department has promised to give convicted killer Clive Derby-Lewis’s application for medical parole urgent attention.

Derby-Lewis’s lawyer Elsabe Juin said on Monday she was told by department officials the application would be marked urgent and be treated as a priority.

“After the department said they lost the papers we initially filed for the application, I personally delivered copies to the head of the prison on Thursday. I was told my papers will be submitted urgently,” Juin said.

She said the department seemed co-operative after her firm said they would approach a high court to force the department to comply with the law when handling the 78-year-old’s application.

“They did not want to commit to a date but I was told it would be a priority. The papers [for a high court application] are ready should we feel we need to proceed, but we expect feedback from the department by mid-July.”

Comment from department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela was not immediately available early on Monday afternoon.

On 19 June, correctional services said it received an incomplete application for medical parole for Derby-Lewis and was waiting for a complete form.

Wolela further dismissed as “disingenuous”, claims by Derby-Lewis’s lawyers that they had not received feedback from the department after submitting an application for medical parole on 2 May.

Derby-Lewis was convicted of conspiracy to kill SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani by providing the gun Polish immigrant Janusz Walus used to kill him in the driveway of his Boksburg, East Rand, home on 10 April 1993.

The 78-year-old former Conservative Party MP, who was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, has already served more than 20 years of his sentence.

Derby-Lewis was initially sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in 1995.

He testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that his fight against communism motivated the murder. The commission denied him amnesty in 1999, a decision upheld by the Western Cape High Court a year later.

He first applied for parole in June 2010.

SAPA

Johannesburg – Ten initiates have died in the Eastern Cape since the beginning of the winter initiation season, the provincial health department said on Monday.

“The latest death occurred in the early hours of this morning in Ncise village in Mthatha,” spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said.

Another boy died over the weekend near Cathcart, with four other deaths previously recorded in the Mthatha area, one in the Tsolo area, and the remaining three occurring in Libode, in the Ngqeleni area.

Kupelo said the department was extremely concerned, given the number of lives already lost.

“We have a total of 49 admissions in various hospitals in the Transkei and that is disrupting our day-to-day operations. Nurses and doctors have to abandon other patients and focus on the initiates,” he said.

“This is a man-made crisis which is not supposed to be happening.”

The department was setting aside R20m to hire 27 additional 4x4s for traditional leaders to monitor initiations and to hire private doctors who would be able to offer medical assistance.

Kupelo said people driven by greed were running illegal schools with no regard for the initiate’s safety or government efforts to reduce initiate deaths.

“A death in our view must be treated as murder as there are allegations that these boys are dying unnecessarily from dehydration, assault and infection,” he said.

“These perpetrators think they have a licence to kill. Normal court processes are struck off the roll because parents don’t attend proceedings.”

Special courts

Kupelo suggested a system similar to that used during the 2010 World Cup, where special courts were established to deal with crimes associated with the tournament.

Parents had to also take responsibility, after the father of an initiate refused to allow the department to take their son for treatment, after the boy was identified as being weak and needing medical attention.

“The father of the deceased refused, and a day later health services were requested to collect a corpse,” Kupelo said.

“That parent should be investigated and brought to book.”

The father at the time said his family did not need the health department to intervene in the traditional affairs of his family.

The boy was at a legitimate initiation school around Tadase village.

“From 2001, we’ve had over 500 boys dead dying in the bush. This can’t be allowed to continue,” Kupelo said.

The deaths of initiates did not suggest a ritual in crisis but rather a custom that had been hijacked by people who had no clue how to deal with it.

“They are greedy. They want to make money. They want to preside over those rituals where traditional beers are served on a particular day,” Kupelo said.

“They don’t care about life and they don’t care what they are doing… courts need to impose harsher sentences.”

SAPA

Johannesburg – Two men were sentenced to life in prison for gang rapes and robberies by the Free State High Court sitting in the Kroonstad Magistrate’s Court on Monday, police said.

The third accused, a minor, was given a suspended sentence of eight years, said police spokesperson Stephen Thakeng.

“Five women, aged between 16 and 20, were gang raped and robbed in separate incidents,” said Thakeng.

Judge Shamin Ebrahim handed down four life sentences to Rammokgo Hendrik Tsotsotso for the crimes, while Mkhize Peter Mosotho was handed three life sentences.

Thakeng said the third accomplice, now aged 17, was a minor at the time the crimes were committed, and was given an eight year suspended sentence.

The crimes were committed during December 2012 and 2013 in Rammulotsi, Viljoenskroon.

The three attacked couples and threw stones at the females’ male companions and assaulted them.

The accused then took turns raping the women, and then robbed them of their belongings, said Thakeng.

SAPA