The Economic Freedom Fighters was accused of hijacking a march to the Union Buildings by residents of the Mooiplaas settlement, west of Pretoria, on Thursday.
“You are ruining our march. This is not a political party-led event,” said Emely Morongwe.
The residents were presenting service delivery demands to the presidency.
When community leaders were called to hand over the memorandum, EFF members complained about being left out. They pushed each other, and shouted insults at the police.
“You are allowing in whites. This is not a white man’s march,” one of them shouted when the police unlocked a gate to let in a journalist.
Agang SA member Makgoka Lekganyane was booed when he tried to restore order. He was one of three people allowed through the gate to hand over the memorandum, in which residents gave the government 18 days to respond to their demands for water, electricity, and houses.
“Who are you to tell us? You have been paid to interrupt our march… Our leaders are not there,” a man shouted at the EFF group.
The EFF members retreated to the back of the gathering, where they held a meeting. They sang while local EFF leader Peter Motherland read the memorandum.
“You are disturbing us. This is for the community not for you,” shouted a woman.
The EFF protesters, most of them wearing the party’s red T-shirts and berets, arrived at the Union Buildings singing songs in praise of their leader Julius Malema.
“Re suteleng re ya ya, Malema o e tla [Get out of the way we are coming, Malema is coming],” they sang, blowing vuvuzelas as they walked across the Union Buildings’ lawns.
Some carried placard reading: “Juju my commander all the way.”
After the memorandum was handed over, the EFF supporters continued to sing liberation songs. – Sapa
Two police officers were arrested in connection with rape in Atteridgeville, Pretoria on Wednesday, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said.
Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini said the officers, aged 22 and 51, allegedly raped a teenager in September.
The 17-year-old girl had an argument with her boyfriend at a tavern in Atteridgeville and the officers, dressed in full uniform, interfered.
“The victim asked the police officers to take her home and the officers agreed and drove with her in the police vehicle.”
The driver stopped the vehicle and allegedly raped the teenager at the back of the van. The other officer also allegedly raped her, said Dlamini.
“After driving some distance, the girl was ordered to get out of the police vehicle near the police station.”
The girl told her sister who reported the matter to the police.
Dlamini said the officers were picked out at an identity parade.
They would appear in the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. – Sapa
Gauteng community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko was caught in a confrontation with the father of a teenager who was found dead in Eldorado Park, south of Johannesburg, The Star reported on Thursday.
Sandy Maharla, 18, was last seen on Friday when her mother sent her to the shops. Her remains were found on Sunday morning.
Marvin Steenkamp arrived at the family’s home as Mazibuko, who was visiting the family, was about to leave.
Steenkamp said he worked for the National Intelligence Agency and wanted to know what was going on, shouting he was the father.
A confrontation between the two ensued and Mazibuko accused him of harrasment.
“You are out of order. As much as you are the biological father you have no right to harass the family and the police,” Mazibuko reportedly said.
He responded: “Yes I am out of order. You come here and make allegations against me. Did I murder my child? Don’t talk nonsense with me.”
The two pointed fingers at each other and the argument heated up. Some people tried to pull Mazibuko away.
Another relative, Jocelyn Balston joined in and defended Steenkamp, reportedly swearing at Mazibuko then chasing everyone out.
Mazibuko said she was going to get a restraining order against Steenkamp to ensure that he does not interfere with the investigation.
A man accused of the murder was handed to the police on Monday but will be released due to a lack of evidence.
A fourth man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a KwaZulu-Natal farmer, police said on Thursday.
“A 24-year-old suspect has been arrested at Nkwezela area, Himeville. He is appearing today [Thursday] in the Himeville Magistrates’ Court on a charge of murder,” said Captain Thulani Zwane.
The man and three others allegedly pounced on Dan Knight, 56, and his wife at their home in Underberg on October 17.
Knight’s feet and hands were tied and his mouth was covered and he was assaulted until he died.
His wife was locked in the toilet but later escaped through the window to alert her neighbours and the police.
The men stole a Toyota Land Cruiser, Isuzu bakkie, cellphone and three shotguns, said Zwane.
The other three were arrested on October 20, and had already appeared in court. – Sapa
Canadian Crown attorneys on Tuesday defended key handwriting evidence that led to a decision to extradite a Canadian university professor accused of a deadly 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.
Hassan Diab is appealing the 2011 court decision and the Canadian government’s order to extradite the former University of Ottawa sociologist to France, despite the court’s concerns that the case was “weak.”
Diab denies any involvement in the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II, which left four dead and many wounded.
A dozen or so Diab supporters returned for the second day of the hearing, where the Crown defended Justice Robert Maranger’s decision to allow the handwriting analysis report by Anne Bisotti in the original extradition hearing.
On Monday, defense lawyers worked to discredit Bisotti’s findings — that Diab likely signed a Paris hotel slip under a false identity (Alexander Panadriyu), which was also used to purchase a motorcycle used in the bombing — by saying she failed to use the proper methodology.
But Crown lawyer Janet Henchey said that it is not the job of the extradition judge to establish reliability of the evidence, and that French courts should be relied upon to do the due diligence on the report at a formal trial.
“It may not feel right at first, but that’s because you’re looking at it from the perspective of a Canadian trial. This is not a Canadian trial,” she said.
“There may be safeguards that do not look like ours, but… it’s arrogant for us as a country to think that only our trial process can provide safeguards that are required for due process.”
Henchey also said that the defense never questioned the samples of writing themselves, but rather focused only on whether the methodology was applied correctly, and added that in part, “expense and convenience” are considerations in an extradition case.
Crown attorney Jeffrey Johnston also defended then-justice minister’s Rob Nicholson’s decision not to seek assurances with regards to the origins of the unsourced foreign intelligence that helped link Diab to the bombing.
Johnston said that second-guessing the foreign intelligence would make it appear that Canada was defying the “reciprocity upon which extradition depends.”
Johnston compared Diab’s case to other much-publicized extradition cases, including that of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, on allegations of sexual assault in Sweden.
Assange, who was living in Britain at the time, had to make a first appearance in court before any charges could be laid or a trial could be set, but Britain eventually ordered his extradition, deciding it was “consistent with the commencement of criminal prosecution,” said Johnston.
The Crown also targeted the defense’s suggestion that the unsourced intelligence was attained through torture and information-sharing deals with Syria. Johnston referred to it as “speculation” and said there were no “reasonable grounds” to suspect it.
At the close of the hearing, Diab lawyer Marlys Edwardh reiterated that there were inconsistencies with witness descriptions of the suspect –hair colour and height among them. She also reinforced the view that Nicholson had shirked his duty in not seeking out more information about the source of France’s intelligence.
“When the minister realizes that… (Diab) is going to be sent to stand trial on evidence from foreign intelligence agencies that will remain untouchable, and its sources will remain unknowable, we know that violates the principles of justice.” – AFP
French farmers in Brittany, wearing red bonnets, protest against the Ecotax
The French government scrambled Tuesday to contain anger over a proposed environmental tax as protesters continued to destroy radars set up to help collect the levy, in a revolt that shows no sign of abating.
Protests over the new “ecotax” on trucks, which aims to encourage environmentally friendly commercial transport, kicked off in earnest last month in the northwestern region of Brittany and eventually forced the government to backtrack and suspend the levy.
Wearing red bonnets, the symbol of a 17th-century anti-tax campaign in Brittany, the protesters — small business owners, fishermen and food industry workers — marched in big, sometimes violent, rallies in the region, which has already been crushed by job cuts and would be hard hit by the new tax.
Some destroyed radars set up in advance along roads to screen passing vehicles and determine whether they need to pay the tax, which would apply to French and foreign vehicles carrying goods weighing over 3.5 tonnes.
Under pressure to rein in its state deficit, France’s Socialist government has announced about 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in tax increases for next year, and protests in Brittany come on top of wider opposition to tax hikes.
The ecotax was actually adopted by the previous right-wing UMP government in 2009 but its implementation had repeatedly been put off.
And while the Socialist government suspended the levy last week over the unrest, protesters asking for the tax to be completely abandoned have continued to destroy radars, mostly in Brittany but in other parts of the country too.
On Tuesday, the transport ministry said 11 such radars had been vandalised since the beginning of the protest movement, as had four big overhead road structures equipped with cameras and radio receptors.
This equipment would identify trucks liable for the tax thanks to a GPS box installed inside the vehicles.
Controversy has also started to swirl around Ecomouv’, the firm contracted by the previous government to collect the tax, amid “questions” over how the company was awarded the contract.
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici on Tuesday said the contract signed with the firm — which is majority owned by Italian company Autostrade per l’Italia — would have to be renegotiated.
“We can question the fact that the collection of a national tax was handed over to a supplier with foreign origins,” he said.
And while protests have so far been concentrated in Brittany, there is concern that the unrest may spread to other parts of France.
Last week, market gardeners staged a rally in a region near Brittany to demand an end to the levy, and several ecotax radars have been destroyed in other parts of France. – AFP
Progressive Democrat Bill de Blasio has been elected mayor of New York City, replacing billionaire Michael Bloomberg, US media reported Tuesday.
“Thank you, New York City,” de Blasio’s campaign tweeted just after the close of polls, together with a photo showing the presumed winner together with his wife and two children.
The 52-year-old will succeed Bloomberg in January at the helm of the United States’ largest city.
De Blasio promises a new style in a city transformed by 12 years of tough love under Bloomberg, who is stepping down after a record three terms.
He is one of the most progressive politicians in the country and left Republican rival Joe Lhota trailing in the dust by tapping into the worries of the economically vulnerable middle class. – AFP
A domestic worker who accused her employer of racial abuse and assault has turned to the Equality Court for R100,000 in damages and an apology, The Star reported on Wednesday.
The application was filed by Gloria Kente’s attorney Peter Williams on Tuesday.
Andre van Deventer appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of common assault and crimen injuria. The case was postponed to December 4.
Van Deventer allegedly assaulted Kente, spat on her and called her a Kaffir.
She worked for the family for eight years and alleged Van Deventer had racially abused her for some time, escalating into assault in June.
On June 28, he allegedly shoved her around.
This was triggered by Kente asking Van Deventer to look after his baby while she took a shower.
“I don’t like kaffirs. I don’t like you,” he allegedly shouted at her.
“You are a kaffir and you will never change. You kaffirs throw kaka at the airport…you don’t pay for the mess to be cleaned, because kaffirs don’t pay tax.”
Kente said the abuse had left her hurt and humiliated.
Williams said there was a need for an effective deterrent for racial abuse, and wanted the court to set a precedent by awarding substantial damages. – Sapa
A witness told the Nelspruit Regional Court on Tuesday that she saw the man who attacked and raped her 85-year-old neighbour, a Sapa correspondent reported.
The young woman was testifying in the trial of Mduduzi Sydwell Mnguni, 25, who has pleaded not guilty to raping the 85-year-old and another woman, 49.
Mnguni, from Pienaar Trust outside Mbombela, was arrested by residents and handed to the police on February 11 last year.
On Tuesday, the State revealed that the accused was linked to the rape through DNA evidence. He faced a separate charge for allegedly raping a 49-year-old woman from the same area.
The witness, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, told the court that she first saw Mnguni in the woman’s yard around 8pm on the night of the attack.
“When he saw me and my sister, he hid inside a mealie field. I decided we should alert gogo about him. After she opened the door, I told her she should lock all her doors as there was an intruder outside. After she did, we returned home,” the young woman testified.
She testified that she could not sit back and wait. She then contacted another neighbour and alerted her about the man she saw in her neighbour’s yard.
“I went out of the house to speak to my neighbour at the fence. When I returned to the house, I saw a man jumping out of the gogo’s kitchen window,” she said.
“When he landed outside, he moved and there was a light above him. He turned his head towards me. As he looked straight into my face, I realised it was the accused who is now before court. When he saw me, he moved backwards into the dark wall.”
The woman testified that she screamed for help and other neighbours came.
Police Sergeant Jabulani Sydney Nkosi testified that he decided to take the woman and her neighbours to the police station to open a case.
“On the way, we stopped at the accused’s home to tell his parents. The accused opened a curtain and saw us. After we spoke to his mother, she said he had just arrived and I decided to arrest him at once.”
Magistrate Willie Wilkens postponed the matter to March 12, 2014. – Sapa
Democratic Republic of Congo rebels said Tuesday they were laying down their arms after a crushing assault by the UN-backed army pushed them out of the country’s mineral-rich troubled east.
The M23 movement said in a statement that it had “decided from this day to end its rebellion” and instead to pursue its goals “through purely political means.”
The move ends the insurgency that for 18 months has wracked the region rich in natural resources and the scene of some of Africa’s deadliest conflicts over the past two centuries.
Earlier, Kinshasa claimed “total victory” over the M23 after capturing the last two hills held by the movement’s die-hard fighters.
“The last remnants of the M23 have just abandoned their positions,” said Lambert Mende, communications minister and government spokesman.
“It’s a total victory for the DRC,” he said, adding that the holdout insurgents fled to neighbouring Rwanda.
“We have finished the job,” said Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Amuli, an army spokesman in the North Kivu region that was the scene of the fighting.
The Congolese army launched a major offensive against the rebels on October 25, steadily claiming their strongholds until dozens of fighters were this weekend pushed onto three hilltops about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the regional capital Goma and near the border of Rwanda.
The beleaguered insurgents called for a truce, but the army pressed on with its assault, claiming one of the hilltops on Monday.
The UN special force in the region, which had been backing the Congolese forces with aerial reconnaissance, intelligence and planning, joined direct combat late Monday after getting the green light to bombard the remaining positions of the beleaguered rebels.
“We will continue to fire until everything is under control,” said a source at the UN brigade.
With the rebels on the backropes, M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa had on Sunday called for a ceasefire to allow a resumption of peace talks.
But the fighting only appeared to intensify after the M23 leader’s appeal, despite a statement issued early Monday by envoys from the European Union, African Union and the United Nations that said they were “concerned about the renewed outbreak of violence” that followed the truce call.
The UN and African leaders had urged the M23 — ethnic Tutsi former rebels who were incorporated into the Congolese army under a 2009 peace deal — to declare an end to the rebellion they first launched in April 2012, claiming that the government had not kept up its end of the deal.
“It is important that the M23… declare the end of the rebellion. The fighting must stop,” the head of the UN mission in DR Congo, Martin Kobler, said in a statement on Monday.
Meeting in South Africa late on Monday African leaders echoed the sentiment, saying that a peace deal for DR Congo could be signed if the rebels declared an end to their insurgency.
“The parties would sign an agreement on condition that the M23 makes a public declaration renouncing rebellion,” said Stergomena Tax, executive secretary of the 15-country Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Pretoria.
Analysts say better preparation by the Congolese troops and the backing of the UN brigade with the unprecedented offensive mandate have helped changed the game in the restive east of the DR Congo.
The heavily-armed 3,000-strong UN intervention brigade joined 17,000 peacekeepers already deployed with a mission to carry out offensive operations against the rebel fighters, who are accused of human rights abuses including rape, murder and recruiting child soldiers.
The latest fighting to break out in the border region, rich in sought-after minerals, has sent thousands of people fleeing to neighbouring Uganda.
The UN refugee agency said on Monday it had moved another 3,000 Congolese refugees to its transit camp in Uganda’s town of Kisoro to escape the fighting, bringing the total number of refugees in the small town to 8,000.
The area of North and South Kivu in DR Congo has for decades been the centre of conflict because of its location — having borders with Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania — and the minerals that lie buried underneath its lush green hills.
The minerals include gold and coltan and tin, key component in electronic devices from cell phones to televisions and computers. – AFP
The partly burnt body of an eight-year-old boy has been found in a field in the Ramaphosa informal settlement on the East Rand, police said on Tuesday.
“The boy was found dead with socks stuffed in his mouth and a used condom was found next to his body,” said Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng.
The eight-year-old was reported missing on Monday at the Reiger Park police station.
He was last seen on Sunday evening playing with friends in the area.
His body was found on Monday afternoon by a man walking past the field in Ramaphosa. He alerted the police.
“The body matched the description of the boy who was reported missing earlier on Monday,” Mofokeng said.
A case of rape and murder had been opened. No arrests had been made.
The police appealed for any information that could help them find the perpetrator. – Sapa
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
The Economic Freedom Fighters was accused of hijacking a march to the Union Buildings by residents of the Mooiplaas settlement, west of Pretoria, on Thursday.
