Category Archives: South African News

News24.com | Judgment in the #AhmedTimol inquest to be handed down

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Johannesburg – Judgment in the Ahmed Timol inquest is expected to be handed down in the North Gauteng High Court at 10:00 on Thursday.

After months of testimonies and deliberation, South Africans will hear whether someone should be held liable for the death of the anti-apartheid activist, who police alleged jumped out of a window on the 10th floor of John Vorster Square in Johannesburg in 1971.

A press briefing is expected to be held 30 minutes after the announcement of the judgment, the family said on Wednesday night.

READ: Timol verdict could open the accountability floodgates for apartheid crimes

While Timol’s death on October 27, 1971, was ruled a suicide, a private investigation launched by the Timol family into his death uncovered new evidence which was presented to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The NPA agreed to reopen an inquest conducted in 1972, which had ruled that Timol had killed himself and had not been brutally murdered by the apartheid security branch police while he was in detention.

The inquest, which was the first of its kind in recent years, began in June and completed its hearings in August.

READ: Witness suggests that Timol died in morning, contradicting security cop

Detainees tortured

Judge Billy Mothle patiently sat listening to witness after witness recounting their own version of events, trying to piece together the puzzle that could lead to the truth about how Timol died.

The first to take the stand during the inquest was one of Timol’s friends, struggle icon Salim Essop.

An animated Essop relived his detention at John Vorster Square on Commissioner Street.

During his testimony, Essop told the court that detainees – including him – were tortured by the security branch police.

READ: Timol’s father died a ‘broken man’

Essop also played a critical role during the inspection in loco when he took the court around the prison, now called Johannesburg Central police station, as well as to room 1026 where it is said Timol killed himself.

Respected human rights lawyer George Bizos laid bare how security police, the judiciary and medical professionals worked together during apartheid to prevent the administration of justice.

He said that during apartheid, the security branch police were a law unto themselves.

A key witness in the case was former security branch police sergeant, Joao Jan Rodrigues, who was the last person to see Timol alive.

‘Suicide’ disputed

Rodrigues told the court that on the day of Timol’s death he had been summoned to John Vorster Square by officers Captain Gloy and Van Niekerk.

Shortly after he arrived to drop off the officers’ salaries and a sealed envelope, an unknown man (Mr X) walked in announcing the arrest of three other people linked to Timol.

Then the two officers left the room, asking Rodrigues to keep a close eye on Timol.

READ #TimolInquest: Key witness to face more questions on Timol’s time of death

A few moments later Rodrigues said Timol requested to go to the toilet and as he was taking him there, Timol quickly rushed to the window of the building and jumped.

Rodrigues said as far as he could remember, he did not see any injuries on Timol.

He maintained that his version of events was true.

Rodrigues was later re-examined by the court to determine the exact time of Timol’s death. Rodrigues had testified that Timol’s death occurred in the late afternoon – a story he has maintained since 1971 when Timol died.

But this was disputed by several other witnesses.

Other witnesses who also testified included Ronnie Kasrils, Aziz Pahad and members of Timol’s family, all of whom said Timol would never have committed suicide because he loved life, his girlfriend, and because he was a Muslim.

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eNCA | Teenage boy in court for murder, granted R500 bail

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FAURESMITH – A 16-year-old boy, accused of stabbing a man to death, was granted R500 bail at the Fauresmith Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, Free State police said.

Sergeant Sinah Mpakane said the case was postponed to November 14 for investigation. He was ordered to stay with his aunt in Koffiefontein.

The teenager was arrested after he allegedly stabbed Mpho Pholwana, 21, to death on September 30.

Pholwana allegedly went to the teenager’s house to fetch the money that he owed him.

“It is alleged that the deceased is selling mandrax pills and he sold it to the suspect by a credit. On arrival, the suspect refused to pay the victim who then became angry and scuffle begins between them,” Mpakane said.

“The suspect took the knife and stabbed the victim once on the left hand side of the neck killing him instantly.”

The teenager was arrested appeared in court and was transferred to Winkie Direko Secure Centre in Bloemfontein.

African News Agency

News24.com | WRAP: Death toll climbs as Durban weather wreaks havoc

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Durban – A 12-year-old boy is one of four people who were reported dead when a heavy storm swept through KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday, emergency services said.

He was swept away by a stream in Izingolweni, Port Shepstone, on the south coast of KZN, said Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Robert McKenzie. Two patients died when a wall collapsed at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi.

“Sadly, we report that a wall collapsed fatally wounding two patients in an accident that saw two other patients incurring serious injuries,” said provincial Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, in a statement.

A policeman died and another was injured when a container fell on top of a car they were travelling in at Rotterdam Road in the Durban Harbour, according to Rescue Care paramedics spokesperson Garrith Jamieson.

More than eight healthcare institutions in the eThekwini District were damaged during the storm that battered most parts of Durban, said Dhlomo.

Some of the affected hospitals include Addington, RK Khan, Wentworth, St Aidans, King Edward, Clairwood and Inkosi Albert Luthuli.

Most of these hospitals were flooded and some of them had their windows and roofs blown off by the heavy winds that came with the storm.

When News24 went to the Durban beachfront shortly after midday, most restaurants on the promenade were closed.

Street vending stalls were also blown off by the heavy wind. One of the hawkers who spoke to News24 said one of the roofs landed on top of an elderly woman and they rushed her to the nearby Addington Hospital.

Motorists were stuck on flooded freeways, particularly the N2 and M4 near the old Durban airport in Reunion.

Houses were also flooded and collapsed in Folweni, south of Durban during the storm.

Trees were also uprooted by the storm that hit Durban just after 09:00.

The eThekwini Municipality reported that large parts of the municipality’s electricity network were severely affected by the rain.

The municipality said clean-up operations will begin soon as the storm subsides and when the inclement weather has stabilised.

The South African Weather Service has reported that high seas with wave heights in excess of six metres are expected between Durban and Maputo on Wednesday morning.

Read more here: Weather Update: High seas warning for KZN, isolated showers for southwest coast

Meanwhile, the Gauteng Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs department reports that two people died following the storm that hit the province on Monday.

Several people, including an infant, a 73-year-old woman, and a patient from a mental hospital were admitted to hospital after they were injured during the storm, said Cogta.

Hundreds of residents were also placed in temporary shelters after their homes were damaged.

“Our hearts go out to all the victims of the storms and I wish to express the Gauteng provincial government’s heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and wish those injured a speedy recovery,” said Cogta MEC Paul Mashatile.

News24.com | Corruption-accused cops’ case sidetracked by arguments over cellphone records

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Cape Town – The corruption case against former Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer and four others in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday deviated into arguments over whether the defence is entitled to documents it believes the State is withholding.

The State, represented by prosecutor Advocate Billy Downer, said the defence wants, for example, the full version of cellphone records obtained in the course of the investigation against the accused, but can only have a redacted version.

Downer submitted that the State was under no obligation to hand over the full records, and said some of the information contained in them was privileged and related to other cases.

“Evidence might be privileged and exposes state investigation techniques, but just as much as you might like to use it, you can’t,” said Downer.

He said the defence had tried to get the same cellphone records as the State via a subpoena sent to cellphone service providers, and the State wants these set aside.

“The defence is trying to talk to the witnesses about what they know through a subpoena. They are not supposed to do this. Parties may not obtain statements or interfere with witnesses on the other side.

“Hence an emergency call from Vodacom saying what on earth is going on? I have given you this information and now the defence wants this information?” said Downer.

Right to information

Salim Dawjee, Lamoer and three brigadiers – Darius van der Ross, Sharon Govender and her husband Colin Govender – face 109 charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering involving R1.6m.

Dawjee allegedly paid the police officials in exchange for “special favours”. Some of the charges they face relate to criminal activity around firearms and ammunition.

They have all pleaded not guilty.

However, Advocate William King SC, who is representing Dawjee, said the State could not just dictate how things are to be done, and rejected the claim that the defence was trying to get the redacted cellphone records.

“The defence has followed the letter of the law,” said King.

He said the accused just wanted the right to all the information needed to prepare his defence.

“That is exactly what the accused are trying to do,” he said.

He said the only reason the defence took issue over the cellphone records and wanted to get them through subpoenas, was because they discovered that certain documents had not been supplied to them.

King said they issued a subpoena to Vodacom and MTN and maintained it was not abuse of process.

The State wants the subpoenas to be set aside.

King also alleged that the affidavit to support the section 205 (of the Criminal Procedure Act) application for a warrant by the prosecution to get the cellphone records was not in the case docket.

It did emerge much later, but the defence is suspicious that it might have been prepared after the fact.

The case will continue on Wednesday.

eNCA | CPUT students handed 12 month suspended sentence

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JOHANNESBURG – Four students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology have been found guilty of not maintaining order and being disrespectful.

The students were charged after they disrupted a council meeting, and threatening to burn down buildings at the institution.

READ: Arson attacks continue at CPUT

They’ve been handed a 12-month suspended sentence, allowing them to continue their studies for now. They were part of the group protesting over accommodation issues at the university.

This also sparked protests at the University’s Cape Town, Bellville and Mowbray campuses.

eNCA

News24.com | Missing Port Elizabeth mother and child found

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Port Elizabeth – A mother and daughter have been found following an appeal put out by police earlier on Monday after both were reported missing by the woman’s parents on Friday.

Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said Karla Hazel, 31, and her daughter, Kayla, 8, had left the woman’s parent’s home in Dorothy Street in Ferguson, in Port Elizabeth, on Thursday last week and went to visit her sister in Sherwood at about 20:15 that same evening.

“She then left her sister’s house and went across the street with her daughter to Jade’s Sports Bar,” she said.

According to the bar’s manager, she used the toilet, had a drink and phoned or received a call from someone by the name of Mike about fetching her.

Naidu said the mother and daughter left the bar at about 22:20 and had not been heard from since.

Naidu said Hazel had returned to her parent’s home to collect her clothes on Monday evening, but the police had been present to question her.

“Police determined that she had left Kayla with friends in Salt Lake City, in PE,” she said.

Naidu said police then fetched Kayla and left her in the care of her grandparents for the evening.

Monday was Kayla’s eighth birthday.

“The family will report to Kabega Park police station tomorrow for further referrals and assistance,” she said.   

eNCA | Life Esidimeni death toll rises again

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JOHANNESBURG – The death toll in the Life Esidimeni tragedy now stands at 118.

This came to light on the first day of the three-week arbitration hearings.  

Arbitration was recommended by the health ombudsman in his report into the death of psychiatric patients last year.

Over 60 families represented in this process want to know exactly how their loved ones died.

According to lawyers representing rights group Section 27, hundreds of psychiatric patients from Life Esidimeni Centres in Gauteng were loaded onto bakkies and trucks like cattle on June 30, 2016, and dropped off at unlicensed NGOs around Gauteng.

This removal and relocation of patients ended in tragedy – and the death toll is still rising.

Section 27 said it has the names of 11 more patients who died, not included in the latest tally of 118. 

READ: Zuma orders special investigation into Esidimeni tragedy

“Could it be possible that we have 129 dead!?” a shocked head of the arbitration process, justice Dikgang Moseneke, asked on Monday. 

Many of the deceased died from starvation and negligence. Health Ombudsman Malekgapuru Makgoba, who is one of five state witnesses, described how one patient had lost so much weight, his pants had to be tied with shoelaces. 

Makgoba said many families are still looking for their missing relatives.

But, families also want former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, the person who authorised the transfers, to be subpoenaed.

Some families will also testify over the three-week process. 

At the end of the hearings, Judge Moseneke will help determine a way forward, either by way of redress and/or compensation.

eNCA

News24.com | Stories of starvation, ill treatment as Life Esidimeni hearing gets underway

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Johannesburg – From the story of a man who had lost so much weight he had to hold up his trousers with shoelaces, to a son who was so hungry he also ate the packaging of the food a relative had brought him.

These were just two incidences that health ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba said he had uncovered as he testified before the Life Esidimeni alternative dispute resolution hearing.

The hearing got underway in Parktown, Johannesburg on Monday morning. Makgoba said the actions which led to the deaths of 118 Life Esidimeni patients showed “a total disregard for human dignity and human respect”.

READ: Life Esidimeni: The greatest cause of human right violations since democracy

Makgoba was the first person to be called by state advocate Tebogo Hutamo.

Hutamo represented the Gauteng health department and the provincial government.

Makgoba’s report on the events that led to the deaths of the patients was released on February 1.

‘Traumatic’ 

Makgoba said the department’s decision to move patients to other facilities – which weren’t equipped to deal with them – resulted directly in their deaths.

“Many families didn’t know where their loved ones were. It was very traumatic and very frustrating for them,” he said.

He said more than 80% of the patients died in only five of the NGOs to which they were moved.

Makgoba said the overarching reason for the deaths was the lack of food, while other contributing factors included overcrowding as well as poor financial resources and facilities.

While patients from Life Esidimeni were moved to a facility in Cullinan, 10 patients from that facility were moved to an unlicensed facility which didn’t have the resources or staff with the necessary qualifications.

“They moved some of the patients to an unlicensed NGO… They were sacrificed for the people who came from Life Esidimeni,” said Makgoba.

Qualifications of the carers

Asked whether the patients who were moved from the Cullinan facility to the unlicensed NGO appeared ill, Makgoba said, “They had been living there for some time and there was no evidence that they were on their way out [until they were moved away from that facility].”

“The quality and qualifications of the carers isn’t something we should be proud of as a country,” he said.

Makgoba said it was “very obvious that some of the NGOs were very economical with the truth” during his investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Earlier, during opening statements Advocate Adila Hassim, who represented 55 families on behalf of Section 27, said the arbitration hearing would be an opportunity for the families to tell their stories.

“The sorry tale of extreme neglect, insufficient or rotten food, exposure to cold, lack of medication, overcrowding, abuse, death, late notifications of death, picking through bodies stacked upon each other in morgues is best told by the families themselves,” she said.

“What was the motivation that drove this course of action? The burden of answering this lies with the government,” she said.

The hearings are set to continue on Tuesday.

eNCA | Family and undertaker in body dispute

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JOHANNESBURG – A family and an undertaker in Orkney are at loggerheads after an undertaker made a mistake, and sent their body to the wrong family.

By the time the error was discovered, it was too late, as the other family had already buried the body. Now Thandiwe Mkwakwe’s family want her remains exhumed. Mkwakwe died over a month ago. She was to be buried on the 10th of September.

When her family went to collect her body at the mortuary, they got the shock of their lives.

READ: Community dig up Limpopo man’s body 

“Her aunt was showed the body at the mortuary. She realised it was not her. The body they were giving us had scars and ours had no scars and at the undertaker they told us that there is a mix up,” said Mhlupheki Madikane a member of the family. 

A month later, Thandiwe’s family is still waiting to bury her, despite the funeral parlour’s promises to sort things out.

“All we want is to have her remains so we can bury her, we don’t care about other things. We thought of suing the undertaker but then realised that won’t help us. We just want her remains,” Madikane said.

The mix-up has left Thandeka’s brother Isaac Mkwakwe and 12-year-old daughter traumatised.

“The past few weeks have been very difficult, I could not even go to work, she was my older sisster, we stayed here the three of us, including her daughter, iit’s hard going to sleep at night,” Isaac said.

The owner of the funeral parlour admits his staff made a mistake, and Thandiwe’s body was given to the wrong family. By the time he realised this and tried to correct it, the other family had already buried Thandiwe, believing she was their relative.

He said the family did not view the body, as they believed they were burying an accident victim, who was severely disfigured. 

READ: Traumatic death of son at initiation school haunts mother

“We are very sorry about this mistake. This has never happened to us before. We are doing everything possible to ensure we exhume the body to hand it over to the family, we are just waiting for approval from authorities to do so,” said Sidwell Mafoleni owner of Thuso Funeral Burial Society.

So, while the funeral home awaits permission to proceed with the exhumation, Thandiwe’s family wonders whether they will ever get a chance to bury her.

eNCA