JOHANNESBURG – A body of a third miner trapped at Harmony’s Kusasalethu Gold Mine near Carletonville has been brought to surface.

“Regrettably, he succumbed to his injuries,” the company said on Monday.

Five employees were trapped underground on Friday following a seismic event that resulted in a fall of ground approximately 3 kilometres below surface.

READ: Difficult conditions hampering rescue efforts at Kusasalethu mine 

The company said rescue efforts to find the remaining two workers are continuing.

“Our sincerest condolences go to the family and friends of the deceased. We will not rest until the other two employees have been found and brought to surface,” said Peter Steenkamp, chief executive officer.

The latest incident has again raised questions around mine safety issues.

Harmony Gold is appealing for calm, saying it will launch a full investigation into the incident.

eNCA

Businessman Sazi Fakude, a close companion of Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, has been accused of raping a young woman he allegedly abducted from a Sandton nightclub.

The 25-year-old student alleged she was raped by Fakude in the early hours of Monday morning.

Police confirmed a rape complaint was opened.

Fakude said yesterday: “I am aware of the allegations. The case was opened. What do you guys want from me?”

He asked for questions to be sent by SMS. His lawyer, Graeme Krawitz, says his client hasn’t been charged yet and he has no comment at this stage.

In a lengthy police statement, the woman said she was partying at the Hydro Lounge in Sandton, and “when the club was about to close, a guy known to me as Sazi walked in and greeted us”.

In her statement, the woman says she knew Fakude because he once dated a friend of hers. She left him with her friends and went to the bathroom, but returned to find them arguing.

“I tried to calm him down to make peace and he asked me to go with him to his car so that he can calm down.

“I agreed to accompany him to his car, because I thought he was my best friend’s ex-boyfriend and he wasn’t going to do anything to me,” she said.

“We went to his car and while I was telling him to behave well in public because he’s a respected person, he drove off [with me] without my permission.”

The woman alleges that what followed was a night of hell during which she feared for her life.

She sent her friends a series of terrified WhatsApp messages between 04:45 and 05:48, including “He’s gonna kill me” and “Bring police. I’m begging you”.

The mother of one alleges that Fakude drove her to his home in Kempton Park and became violent when she called her friends to fetch her.

“I sent my friends a location so that whatever happened to me on that morning, they knew where I was,” she says.

One of the woman’s friends, who asked not to be named, confirmed receiving the messages.

The woman claimed Fakude had looked her in the eyes and told her she “wasn’t going anywhere” and that no girl says no to him.

“He told me he wanted to have sex with me. I told him that’s not going to happen,” the young woman said.

“He then slapped me several times and strangled me for a while. He smashed my phone on the floor and threatened to kill me if I made a noise. I was hopeless, lying down… he undressed me and forced himself on me.”

Her friends arrived at the house with police at 08:00 that morning. They were late because they had no money for a taxi to take them there.

“Sazi begged me not to open the case and he said I must just name a price, he’ll give me whatever I want. I refused and left his place and I told him we’ll meet in court,” she alleged.

Gauteng spokesperson captain Mavela Masondo confirmed a case of rape had been opened, but said no arrest was yet made. “We are investigating.”

Asked about the nature of her relationship with Fakude on Friday, all that Zulu would say was, “Yes, I know him”.

Asked about pictures of them together on his Instagram account in which they appear to shop and dine together, Zulu said:

“There’s absolutely no shopping. I don’t shop with any other people. I work, shop alone with my own money. If it happens, we have a lunch in any place, it’s just a lunch and we come out for fun; we just take fun pictures.

“There’s absolutely nothing to it.”

JOHANNESBURG – Four people were injured after their vehicle collided with a train in Tarlton in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, on Saturday.

Paramedics found all occupants were out of the vehicle and had sustained injuries that ranged from moderate to serious,” said ER24 spokesperson Ineke van Huyssteen.

READ: Five injured in train collision

Patients were taken to various hospitals.

The cause of the collision will remain a subject of an investigation by Metrorail and police.

eNCA

Cape Town – A Gugulethu woman had just entered her house to convince her cousin to get into the ambulance she called for him, when the shooting started.

“On my first step back into the house, I heard the gunshots,” Nandipha* recalled on Friday morning.

The ambulance driver jumped out and ran through their front yard to the back of the house, and hid in the outside bathroom.

She said he took his paramedic jacket off and stuffed it into the backyard toilet in case they were targeting them specifically. He jumped over the neighbour’s wall and hid there.

ALSO READ: Cape Town ambulance ambush leaves 1 dead, 1 cop critically injured

His female colleague jumped out of the back of the ambulance and ran into the house screaming.

“She fell to her knees outside my uncle’s room and was praying, screaming: ‘my babies, my babies, my babies’.”

People in the house hid and those living in the shacks in the yard locked themselves in.

“From that moment, we heard silence, and then sirens. Then we heard a big bang.”

She was recounting how, around 22:00 on Wednesday night, five men tried to steal the firearms of the police officers who had escorted the ambulance to her home. Moments earlier, Nandipha had asked one of the officers if he could try and convince her reluctant, and very ill, cousin to get into the ambulance.

“The policeman I had spoken to was shot,” said Nandipha, with tears falling down her cheeks.

Western Cape police spokesperson, Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said the 34-year-old officer was recovering in hospital. One of the would-be thieves, in his 30s, was shot dead. His alleged accomplice, 38, was wounded. He is under police guard and will face charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

Police watchdog Ipid would investigate the shooting.

‘It was like a movie’

In February, Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo banned paramedics from entering certain crime “red zones” without a police escort, because of previous attacks on paramedics.

Nandipha seemed almost apologetic for having called the ambulance.

Sitting in her lounge and coughing into a scarf as the whole house struggles with flu, she said her cousin had been desperately ill for a while with a fever, a cough, and was constantly vomiting. He was not getting any better.

“He could not keep anything down,” she said.

The family had been concerned about him, but could not get him to go to a clinic because he was feeling so sick. Eventually, after a family meeting, they decided to call an ambulance to take him, as he was so weak, and even though he did not want to go.

“I phoned because I was the only one with airtime,” she explained.

The operator took her name and address and told her there would be a wait because they had to find an available police officer to accompany them. When the ambulance eventually came, she saw its doors and windows were firmly shut. The police escort was parked a short distance away.

Nandipha went outside to greet the paramedics and to explain that her cousin was reluctant to go to hospital. He was also a little annoyed that they had called an ambulance for him.

The paramedics suggested she ask one of the police officers to try and convince him to get in.

The police officers told her they could not do that, as it might frighten him and they had to guard the ambulance. She returned to the house to convince her cousin to accept help. That was when the shooting started.

When calm had returned, one “tsotsi” was lying dead next to the police van. Another was injured outside one of the houses.

Within minutes, police vans and other ambulances filled the street, and officers emerged with rifles and other weapons.

Somebody put the injured policeman in the ambulance that had been summoned for her cousin, and started helping him.

“I didn’t cry. I was so shocked. I didn’t know what was happening. It was like a movie. We don’t know where the hell the guys came from.”

A paramedic from one of the other ambulances asked if he could help her cousin. Her cousin promised to get himself to the clinic the next day, which he did.

*Name changed to protect her identity

JOHANNESBURG – Victor Mlotshwa is relieved that the coffin assault case is over after the two men who shoved him into a coffin were found guilty on Friday.

Judge Segopotje Mphahlele found Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson guilty of attempted murder, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and intimidation.

She did not find them guilty of being in possession of a firearm.

Bail for the pair was extended until sentencing on 23 October. 

Mlothswa still plans to sue the men for money.

READ: Accused in coffin assault case plead not guilty

Amnesty International said the “hideous” coffin assault case must spur government action on hate crime

In a statement after Mphahlele handed down judgment in the high court in Middelburg, Amnesty’s South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed, said: “This hideous case lays bare the discrimination that still runs deep in South African society. 

“The fact that the whole grotesque episode was captured on video and then posted to social media suggests that the perpetrators felt little concern that they would face justice.

“There is no place for racism or discrimination in any society, and this terrible case must spur the government to finalise the hate crimes legislation in order to deal decisively with incidents of discrimination.”

eNCA