Category Archives: South African News

News24.com | Two men get life for murdering, robbing security guard

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Two men were handed life sentences by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Thursday for murdering a security guard and robbing him of his pistol at the Bread Bin and Milky Bar in Maraisburg in 2016.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the accused, Bheki Ngubane, 35, and Muzimandla Majozi, 29, were with two other men when they entered the store on May 10, 2016.

“They sought out Victor Dlamini, who was the security officer, and shot him twice, robbing him of his firearm,” NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said in a statement.

“Essop Khota, the store owner, realised the commotion taking place in the shop and moved toward an open door of the back room to observe. The accused saw him and fired shots at him. Khota returned fire, fatally wounding two of the assailants.”

Mjonondwane added the pair was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of their co-perpetrators.

“Praying for a lenient sentence, the duo’s attorney asked the court to consider the three-year period both accused spent incarcerated, awaiting the finalisation of the case, as well as the fact that they were first-time offenders.

“Advocate Steven Rubin, on behalf of the State, argued that the accused acted in joint conduct in executing a premeditated murder and should therefore be sentenced to life as prescribed by the law – a plea Judge James Grant acceded to.”

Ngubane and Majozi were found guilty of the murder of Victor Dlamini, attempted murder, robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition on June 18, 2019.

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News24.com | Third suspect arrested in Ukrainian tourist murder case

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A third suspect was arrested on Wednesday afternoon in connection with the murder of Ukrainian tourist Ivan Ivanov while hiking above Chapman’s Peak Drive in Hout Bay, Cape Town.

According to Western Cape police, the 27-year-old suspect was arrested on the same day as the second suspect who was arrested at Hout Bay harbour in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Ivanov, 44, a husband and father of three, had been in the country on business and was on a two-day break in Hout Bay.

He was robbed and stabbed to death near East Fort, a popular tourist site on Chapman’s Peak, on Saturday morning.

Read: Over 8 000 sign petition as spotlight turns to safety on Table Mountain

Community Crime Prevention, a local security response group that was patrolling the area, apprehended 23-year-old Sinaye Mposelwa and found a black backpack that was believed to have belonged to Ivanov. It emerged during court proceedings Mposelwa had been out on parole at the time of the killing.

“On his clothes, and also his face, he was full of blood,” prosecutor Nicky Konisi told the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Konisi said the blood was believed to be that of Ivanov as he was found with multiple stab wounds.

The second and third suspect are expected to appear on a charge of murder in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

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News24.com | Man arrested 6 years after Palesa Madiba murder

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The family of University of Johannesburg (UJ) student Palesa Madiba, whose remains were found two years after she went missing, will finally find closure – six years down the line.

On Wednesday, police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini confirmed to News24 a 36-year-old man had been arrested in connection with her murder. 

Madiba’s alleged killer was arrested in Protea, Soweto, on Monday and appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court the following day. 

He is expected back in court on August 7 awaiting a High Court date. 

News24 understands the suspect was allegedly in hiding in Protea after he had learned the police were looking for him. The man, who cannot be identified at this stage, was thought to be close to Madiba.

Madiba was born in Diepkloof, Soweto, on November 7, 1992.

She enrolled for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting at UJ in 2011 and went missing on August 9, 2013.

Madiba had spent the weekend at a friend Tshidi Mkwanazi’s house in Phiri and was expected home in Diepkloof on the Monday evening.

Her remains were found in a shallow grave at Mkhwanazi’s home on December 16, 2015, after the police received an anonymous tip-off.

Mkhwanazi claimed she had last seen Madiba on August 12, 2013, when she left in the morning to go to work. She said she left her with her uncle who was in her home at the time. The uncle was taken in for questioning by the police but was later released.

According to reports, he had taken out a restraining order against Madiba’s family, claiming the family was harassing him about their daughter’s whereabouts.

Attempts to get comment from Mkhwanazi were unsuccessful. 

News24.com | 45 SA firefighters back home after helping to douse flames in Canada

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Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy on Tuesday welcomed back a group of 45 Working on Fire (WoF) crew and their senior managers, who spent almost 30 days fighting fires at the Province of Alberta in Western Canada.

The team had been deployed to assist in combating the huge Chuckegg fire which burnt more than 350 000ha since May 2019, following a request by the Canadian Inter-Agency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

“What is most heartening to hear, is that because of your efforts, the boundary line remained unbreached by the fire. You stood with 1 180 firefighters from all over Canada, Mexico and the USA and said: ‘This far and no further,'” Creecy said in a statement.

The team left South Africa on June 24 to assist the Province of Alberta to combat its wildland fires. The situation was so severe that evacuation was effected in high-level and surrounding hamlets. Seven homes were lost in the fire and fortunately, there was no loss of life.

“This was a mammoth operation that the Canadians could not handle on their own, hence we lent a hand.”

Cooperation agreement

The South African Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Department of Natural Resources, in terms of which either country may request urgent support from the other with regards to wildfire management.

This was the third successful deployment between Canada and South Africa, bespeaking the importance of heightened cooperation and resource sharing agreements put in place by the international firefighting community, Creecy said. 

The SA firefighters who helped douse flames in Can

The SA firefighters who helped douse flames in Canada. (Supplied: GCIS)

Subsequent to the receipt of the request, Working on Fire identified two 20-person Type 1 firefighting teams (based on experience, fitness and disciplinary record within the programme). The selections included firefighters who had experience in overseas deployment and those who had not yet had an opportunity to serve on overseas assignments. The 40 firefighters, of which 12 (30%) were women, came from all nine provinces in South Africa. 

“The camaraderie built through your morning Working on Fire parade, will stand you in good stead in years to come. Almost all of you have reported benefiting greatly from the exposure to new techniques, approaches, equipment and the novelty of fighting underground fires,” said Creecy.

Internationally renowned

Working on Fire is an internationally renowned programme for its Integrated Fire Management services, which include creating fire awareness, proactively putting fire-preventative measures in place (such as prescribed burns and fuel-load reduction), veld and forest fire suppression, and rehabilitation of burnt areas.

The programme was launched in 2003 as part of the government’s drive to create jobs and alleviate poverty. It is one of several programmes in the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries that are implemented through the government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The EPWP has been the primary vehicle through which the department has delivered on its job creation mandate while protecting the environment.

It is through the Working on Fire programme that the government continues to protect both plantation and indigenous forests. It is the same programme that played a significant role in putting down devastating fires on the Garden Route over the past two years.

The firefighters are recruited from marginalised communities and trained in fire awareness and education, prevention and fire-suppression skills. They are trained as veld and forest firefighters and are stationed in more than 200 teams throughout South Africa.

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News24.com | Tshwane mayor, officials on paid-for Huawei ‘smart city’ tour to China

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Tshwane Mayor Stephens Mokgalapa and officials from his office are on a paid-for junket to China to view smart cities, courtesy of technology giant Huawei, mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane confirmed to News24 on Monday.

She said the visit was “linked to the City’s strategic objective to grow the economy by positioning itself as an IT development hub”.

Documents seen by News24 show that Mokgalapa and his delegation left for China on Saturday, July 27. The delegation includes the Tshwane divisional head for private office and ceremonial services, Norman Mohale; MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Richard Moheta; MMC for Health Derrick Kissoonduth; and the group head for shared services, Musa Khumalo.

They are expected to return on August 3.

R120k

Flights, accommodation, and ground transport for the trip are being covered by Huawei, while the City will fork out R120 543,80 for “subsistence and contingency fees” for the officials.

President Cyril Ramaphosa put forward the idea of building smart cities in South Africa, inspired by the Chinese, in his State of the Nation Address in June.

The president also openly backed Huawei, in the midst of the spat between the United States and China over the technology company, when he addressed the Fourth Industrial Revolution Summit in Johannesburg in July. 

He made similar remarks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in June.

Spy allegations

The US temporarily blacklisted Huawei over national security concerns, amidst allegations that the technology was being used by the Chinese government to spy on the West. Those trade restrictions were eased as part of a trade truce between the two leading world economies last month.

Ramaphosa’s son, Andile, and corruption-accused company Bosasa previously had plans to invest in smart city technology in Africa, along with another tech giant, Dahua, but the plan was aborted, News24 reported in March.

READ MORE: From China to Krugersdorp: Andile Ramaphosa and the Bosasa ‘billions’

A report compiled by the Office of the (Tshwane) Executive Mayor seeking approval for the trip, seen by News24, sets out the details of the Huawei junket.

The itinerary for the jaunt includes visits to the Huawei smart city demo sites at Longgeng and Shanghai, as well as visits to the sprawling Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. The delegation will also visit a Huawei manufacturing centre and something called the “Huawei Beijing Experience Centre”.

The document states that the trip will have to be declared to National Treasury and the Gauteng Treasury. This is in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act, which says that any trips or sponsorships offered by a provider, or prospective provider of goods and services to the municipality, must be reported.

The document does not elaborate on whether Huawei is a current service provider of the municipality or whether it will be one in the future.

Copy-and-paste quote

The trip also had to be justified because of a moratorium on international travel imposed by former mayor Solly Msimanga in August 2016 as a cost-cutting measure, which meant that all international trips undertaken by City officials had to be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis by the mayoral committee in Council.

The mayor’s office report also notes the Municipal Finance Management Act says that international travel must be limited to events and meetings that are “considered critical”.

Part of the justification for the trip, as per the report from the mayoral office, under the heading “background”, reads: “Huawei has launched an overall Smart City architecture that consists of one cloud, two networks, and three platforms to build the nervous systems for cities… It capitalises on new ICT technologies to address city problems…” 

It is a copy-and-paste quote from Huawei’s letter of invitation to the City’s officials, also seen by News24.

Ultimately, it was decided that the trip was justified and it was approved by the relevant municipal authorities.

‘Top managers sit in luxury’

Meanwhile, Mokgalapa leaves behind a deeply unhappy city: bus drivers blockaded roads in Tshwane on Monday morning over a wage dispute, gridlocking traffic and preventing movement in and out of the Tshwane CBD.

At the heart of the dispute between the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) is the upgrading of the municipality’s ranking in terms of the Municipal Structures Act, from a Category 9 to a Category 10 municipality. Because of this upgrade, the municipality is allowed to pay its staff more. 

But this applies only to group heads and divisional heads permanently employed at the municipality, Samwu said in a statement. The union wants the salary upgrades to apply to all workers.

“We cannot afford a situation where top managers sit in luxury and pay themselves exorbitant amounts of money while the struggling majority are being taken for granted,” the union said in a statement. 

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News24.com | Western Cape police boss Khombinkosi Jula reposted to KwaZulu-Natal

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Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant General Khombinkosi Elvis Jula will leave the province to take the helm in KwaZulu-Natal from August 1, national commissioner General Khehla John Sitole announced on Monday morning.

Two weeks ago, Sitole dismissed reports that Jula was being “removed” and said in a statement that he had been asked to consider going back to KwaZulu-Natal as the police commissioner there.

The reports stated that complaints about Jula revolved around whether gang crime had decreased; questions about the shooting of five Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) members in Samora Machel last month; and whether Jula’s job should rather have gone to a local police officer, such as Major General Jeremy Vearey, the province’s deputy commissioner of crime detection.

There has been trouble among top police officials in the Western Cape over the last month.

Following the Samora Machel shooting, the unit’s head Major General Andre Lincoln wrote a scathing letter requesting the removal of three top-ranking members.

Breakdown in trust

He claimed there was a breakdown in trust during a botched raid and that he had not been kept abreast of the operation.

Earlier this month, community activist Colin Arendse claimed that the AGU had not been allocated its budget and further alleged that an “illegal” Operation MORT (Major Offences Reaction Team) was launched to counter the AGU, denuding police stations and resources in the process.

Police Minister Bheki Cele said he would probe the claims.

Cele has since moved the AGU to the national office.

According to Sitole’s statement, Jula has more than 30 years of service, having enlisted as a student constable in Durban.

“He rose through the ranks to the level of lieutenant general in 2016 when he was appointed as provincial commissioner of the Western Cape, where he has been serving to date,” Sitole said.

“Before his appointment as provincial commissioner, Western Cape, he held several positions in KwaZulu-Natal including that of deputy provincial commissioner: human resource management and deputy provincial commissioner: visible policing.”

Jula holds a BTech degree in policing as well as a national diploma in police administration.

Other appointments

“The national head office also sees the return of Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Sibusiso Mkhwanazi as the divisional commissioner: operational response services (ORS), also effective from August 1,” Sitole also announced.

“Mkhwanazi joined the SAPS (SA Police Service) as a student constable in 1993. He rose through the ranks to lieutenant general in 2011.

“Before being appointed as acting provincial commissioner for KwaZulu-Natal, Mkhwanazi occupied several positions within the service including that of head: special task force (STF) and divisional commissioner: human resource development, as well as the acting national commissioner of police.”

Mkhwanazi holds a BTech degree in policing as well as a national diploma in police administration.

Sitole said the Western Cape provincial commissioner position would be temporarily filled by Lieutenant General Sindile Mfazi, the current deputy national commissioner of management advisory services.

“Mfazi’s appointment forms part of the national stabilisation intervention currently being implemented in the Western Cape.

The SAPS management is confident that the appointment of Mfazi into this acting position will add value to the intervention programme while the process of appointing a permanent provincial commissioner is unfolding,” Sitole said.

Position to be filled soon

The process to appoint a permanent provincial commissioner will begin on August 1 and is expected to be completed by the end of the same month, Sitole said.

The national commissioner expressed his “heartfelt gratitude” to Jula for the work he had done in the Western Cape.

“Having served in KwaZulu-Natal for the majority of his police career, coupled with the position of provincial commissioner of the Western Cape, makes him one of the most experienced to take up the vacant position of provincial commissioner: KwaZulu-Natal,” said Sitole.

Sitole also thanked Mkhwanazi for moving from Pretoria.

“Lieutenant General Mkhwanzi’s experience and expertise speaks volumes of his capability to hold the position of divisional commissioner: operational response services,” said Sitole.

“I hold all these managers in high regard and I am sure that they will optimally guide those under their command to ensure a safer South Africa.”

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