A police constable accused of statutory rape was expected to appear in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said.
The constable from the Grassy Park police station, in the Western Cape, was arrested on Tuesday.
“It is alleged that the police official and the victim [14-years-old] have been having sexual intercourse between July and August 2013 at the policeman’s house, which is in the same street as the victim’s home,” Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini said in a statement.
The girl’s friend told her mother.
Dlamini said each of the incidents had happened when he was off duty.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a constable based at Macassar police station was arrested after being accused of raping a 23-old woman in police cells on July 21.
She had been arrested and detained for housebreaking and theft.
“It is alleged that the victim had asked for toilet paper and it had been given by the suspect, who went back to her cell and allegedly raped the victim,” he said.
The Ipid was notified the same day after she opened a case at the police station. It started investigating but the policeman went off duty and disappeared for a while.
He was tracked down and arrested on Wednesday and was due to appear in the Somerset West Magistrate’s Court soon.
Ipid is an oversight body which investigates allegations of crime levelled against police officers. – Sapa
She said “open the boom” but the security guard heard her say “you baboon”, reports the Pretoria News. Next thing she was arrested, driven in the back of a police van to the Sunnyside police station and locked up for the next five hours in a communal cell with about eight black men.
Now Deborah Lynn Greaves of Centurion has won R50 000 from the police.
Greaves, 50, of Centurion instituted a R300 000 damages claim against the minister of police following her ordeal.
Her nightmare started when she was due to attend a training course at a conference facility in Sunnyside.
She tried to park inside a basement parking garage but was told by the security guard that parking was reserved and she should park in the street.
Greaves said she had previously parked inside, even though she did not have an access card.
That day, she parked in the street but when she returned the next day, she again tried to park inside.
Again she was denied entry, but this time, she said, the security guard was aggressive and screamed at her. He wanted her to park outside.
She phoned a colleague to arrange parking inside the parking garage for her, as she felt her car was unsafe outside. The colleague handed her his access card so she could drive into the basement.
But when she left that afternoon, the security guard refused to open the boom for her to exit. Greaves said she told him to “open the boom” and that “the way in which you do things is stupid”.
He apparently mistook what she told him as “you are a baboon” and that he was “stupid”.
Nevertheless, he opened the boom and she drove off.
She returned the following day and while attending training she was called by the course co-ordinator. He told her the police were waiting for her outside.
She was told by two policemen that she was under arrest.
Greaves was threatened that if she did not get into the police van, she would be cuffed.
The police drove her at high speed to the police station.
She said she was terrified and was being thrown around in the back of the van.
At the police station she was told that she was being held for crimen injuria.
She had to spend five terrifying hours in a cell with men, under conditions she described as filthy. Her lawyer had her freed on a warning at about five that afternoon.
Greaves said she was so traumatised that she had to receive counselling from a psychiatrist, who diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The police initially denied all the allegations made by Greaves in papers before the Pretoria High Court.
Her lawyer, Konrad Rontgen, was ready to proceed on Monday, but just before the case was called the police indicated they would settle the matter by paying Greaves R50 000.
Greaves said she was happy it was over, but she was disappointed with the settlement amount.
“This does not compensate me for the humiliation, fear and embarrassment I had to endure. I still get nightmares and I become extremely fearful when I see a security boom.
“This was totally unnecessary and now the taxpayer has to pay for the wrongs of the police. All I wanted to do was to park.”
The charge levelled against her was that of crimen injuria, but the prosecutor refused to entertain this and dismissed the case. – Pretoria News
Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel
Germany’s government Friday rejected charges that its police were racist that arose from an inquiry into authorities’ decade-long failure to uncover a neo-Nazi cell accused of shooting dead nine immigrants.
“The federal police do not behave in racist fashion and have not done so in the past,” said Jens Teschke, a spokesman for Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich. “We strongly reject this allegation.”
He spoke one day after an official inquiry concluded that the failure to find the cell accused in the slayings of one Greek and eight Turks was because of incompetence in the police and intelligence services.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, welcomed the findings, saying, “The results will be thoroughly analysed, in particular the measures for reform that were proposed.”
The inquiry found the police trapped themselves in a false theory that a Turkish gang had formed in Germany to kill compatriots.
One member of the 11-member commission of inquiry, Social Democratic legislator Eva Hoegl, upset police unions by telling the media the disarray resulted from “structures of suspicion and prejudice in the police that often have a racist stamp.”
However, the example she gave was not connected to the botched inquiry into the National Socialist Underground (NSU) but claims last year that a small, specialized force that patrols trains and airports tends to ask black people to show their identity more than whites.
The force, the Federal Police, denied prejudice.
“We heard the allegations against the Federal Police …. with utter astonishment,” Teschke said. “The Federal Police had nothing to do with [the NSU inquiry].”
The inquiry chairman, Sebastian Edathy, earlier also denied the police were fundamentally racist, saying, “I don’t believe we have institutional racism, but I do believe that in everyday work, the police need to question their own stereotypes.”
Beate Zschaepe
Edathy, an opposition Social Democrat, said remedies included hiring more ethnic minorities to change the mentality of the police.
The inquiry into the killings from 2000 to 2007 ran parallel to a trial in Munich at which Beate Zschaepe, 38, is charged as an accomplice to the slayings. She is the only survivor of the three-member NSU. Two men died in a murder-suicide in 2011 that brought the gang to light. – dpa
British police say they are examining newly received information relating to the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, and that officers are assessing the information’s “relevance and credibility.”
Scotland Yard declined to provide details about the information, only saying Saturday in a statement that the assessment will be carried out by officers from its specialist crime and operations unit.
The force stressed that it was not reopening the investigation into the 1997 deaths of Diana and Fayed, who were killed in a car crash in Paris.
In 2008, a British jury ruled that Diana, the Princess of Wales, and her companion, Fayed, were unlawfully killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by the reckless pursuit of paparazzi chasing them. – AP
Egypt was under a tense state of emergency Thursday after security forces stormed the Cairo protest camps supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, in a bloody assault that sparked violence across the country which officials said claimed 278 lives.
The army-backed interim government imposed a month-long nationwide state of emergency, and curfews in Cairo and 13 other provinces after the violence on Wednesday.
Gory photographs and video images of the Cairo bloodbath dominated social media networks, as world powers called for restraint and condemned the show of force by security forces.
At least four churches were attacked, with Christian activists accusing Morsi loyalists of waging “a war of retaliation against Copts in Egypt”.
Hours after tear gas canisters first rained down on tents of protesters in the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in eastern Cairo, an AFP correspondent counted at least 124 bodies in makeshift morgues there.
In a field hospital, its floors slippery with blood, doctors struggled to cope with the casualties, leaving the hopeless cases, even if still alive.
The health ministry said 235 civilians were killed in the Cairo crackdown and in subsequent clashes across Egypt. The interior ministry added that 43 security personnel had lost their lives.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood spoke of 2,200 dead overall and more than 10,000 wounded.
Among those killed in Cairo was 17-year-old Asmaa al-Beltagui, daughter of wanted Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed al-Beltagui, a spokesman for Morsi’s movement said.
Britain’s Sky News said a veteran cameraman, Briton Mick Deane, was shot and killed while covering the assaults.
The violence prompted vice president and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to resign, saying his conscience was troubled over the loss of life, “particularly as I believe it could have been avoided”.
“It has become too difficult to continue bearing responsibility for decisions I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear,” he said.
The state of emergency went into effect at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Wednesday, with daily overnight curfews from 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.
The dramatic descent on the squares shortly after dawn came as a surprise to many. Security officials had originally spoken of gradually dispersing the sit-ins over several days.
Shortly after dawn on Wednesday, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said security forces fired tear gas before surging into Rabaa al-Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who had set up the camp soon after Morsi was ousted in a military coup on July 3.
Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water, as the main stage near the mosque of the camp blared Islamic anthems and protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Many Morsi supporters were given safe passage out of the camp, some flashing victory signs as they left through a security corridor.
A security official told AFP that hundreds of people were taking advantage of the safe passage offer, but that some diehards had stayed behind to fight on.
By Wednesday evening, a security official said Rabaa al-Adawiya was “totally under control”, adding: “There are no more clashes”.
In the smaller of the protest camps, at Al-Nahda square in central Cairo, police said they had control of the area after two hours.
Television footage showed flattened tents, as women and children flanked by police and army troops were led out of the square.
Dozens rounded up in the dispersal were shown sitting on the ground, handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.
Authorities later said calm had been restored across the country.
Use of force widely condemned
Europe’s leading powers, along with Iran, Qatar and Turkey, strongly denounced the use of force by the interim government.
The White House said Washington, which provides Egypt with $1.3 billion in annual military aid, “strongly condemns” the violence against the protesters and opposes the imposition of a state of emergency.
Interim prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi praised the police for their “self-restraint” and said the government remained committed to an army-drafted roadmap that calls for elections in 2014.
The Muslim Brotherhood urged Egyptians to take to the streets in their thousands to denounce the “massacre”.
“This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said no more protests would be tolerated.
The anger against the Islamist movement was evident as residents of several neighbourhoods clashed with Morsi loyalists.
Clashes also erupted between security forces and Morsi supporters in the northern provinces of Alexandria and Beheira, the canal provinces of Suez and Ismailiya, and the central provinces of Assiut and Menya.
In Alexandria, hundreds of angry Morsi supporters marched through the streets armed with wooden clubs chanting “Morsi is my president”.
An AFP reporter said they set fire to tyres and tore down pictures of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi.
It was a dramatic turn of events for the Muslim Brotherhood, who just over a year ago celebrated Morsi’s victory as Egypt’s first elected president.
His turbulent year in power, marred by political turmoil, deadly clashes and a crippling economic crisis, turned many against the Islamist movement, with millions taking to the streets on June 30 to call for his removal. – AFP
The behaviour of South Africa’s police force remain largely unchanged since the apartheid era, former Constitutional Court judge Zac Yacoob said in a New Age report on Monday.
“Sadly, the police of today do not seem to be better than the police of yesterday,” said Yacoob, in reference to the Marikana tragedy.
In August last year, 44 people died during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s Marikana operations in Rustenburg.
Thirty-four people — almost all striking mineworkers — were shot dead in a clash with police on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.
Yacoob was speaking at the commemoration of the Golela Nine in Chatsworth, Durban.
Nine anti-apartheid activists, known as the Golela Nine were found dead after they were ambushed near the Swaziland border at Golela in 1988.
Yacoob had represented the families of the victims at the inquest into their death. – eNCA
A case of arson is being investigated after a fire claimed the lives of three adults and a baby in the Johannesburg CBD, eNews Channel Africa reported on Sunday.
Police spokeswoman Sibongile Mnguni said police suspected that the fire could have been started deliberately on Saturday.
No arrests had been made by Sunday evening.
Mnguni said that the bodies of two adults and a baby were found in the gutted block of flats, on the corner of Jeppe and Nugget Streets.
A fourth person, who jumped from the building to escape the blaze, died before arriving at hospital. – Sapa
Police have seized dangerous weapons and dagga in nine schools in Galeshewe, Kimberley, Northern Cape police said on Wednesday.
Raids were conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday at the request of school principals and parents of pupils of various schools, Lieutenant Sergio Kock said.
“Classrooms, toilets, and storerooms on the school premises were searched… police confiscated several knives, pangas, broken mirrors, and other dangerous weapons,” he said in a statement.
Police also searched areas surrounding the schools where drugs were known to be sold.
“[We] confiscated 31 ‘fingers’ of dagga buried in a hole outside one of the mentioned houses. The dagga has a street value of approximately R3000.”
No arrests were made and pupils found in possession of dangerous weapons would face internal education department disciplinary processes. -sapa
Two KwaZulu-Natal policemen were jailed for 15 years each for murder by the Richards Bay Regional Court, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said on Friday.
Freeman Masikane and Bhekuyise Dladla of the Hluhluwe uniform branch were sentenced on Tuesday, spokesman Moses Dlamini said.
The officers lied about the events that led to the death of a man during a chase. On September 16, 2009 the officers claimed to have received a report of a stolen vehicle. They gave chase and claimed that the driver, Sandile Dube, 22, refused to stop.
“The members fired shots directed at the driver.”
The car veered off the road and overturned, flinging Dube and his passenger out.
“The police alleged that the driver died as a result of the accident. The Ipid took over the investigation and after investigation found that the police’s version was not true,” he said. – Sapa
Two police officers accused of benefiting from a crime intelligence fund are expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The two officers are crime intelligence unit chief financial officer Maj-Gen Solly Lazarus and the unit’s head of logistics, Colonel Hein Barnard.
Both have been suspended and charged with theft, fraud and corruption involving R1.1 million.
They appeared in court on April 30 and the matter was postponed because the pair wanted to make “certain applications” to the court when the matter resumed.
On April 11, Lazarus and Barnard were ordered to not contact or discuss the case with politicians or Cabinet members.
They were granted bail of R10,000 each in December last year, and have been suspended from the police.
In 2011, the unit’s former head Richard Mdluli was also charged with fraud and corruption following alleged misuse of the unit’s funds.
Mdluli allegedly used the money to purchase luxury vehicles. – Sapa
The charges against him were later withdrawn. – Sapa
Five people have been arrested since the start of the initiation season in the Eastern Cape, police said on Tuesday.
The arrests were made in different parts of the province since May, Colonel Sibongile Soci said.
Thirty initiates had died in the province during the current initiation season, the provincial health department said on Sunday.
Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said in the most recent case of botched circumcisions during the initiation season, 10 initiates were rescued from a forest in Mbizana.
“The 10 initiates’ private parts are rotten. They are badly damaged. Their condition is scary,” he said.
They were recovering in hospital.
A total of 293 initiates were currently in hospitals in the province, and were recovering from dehydration, gangrene, and septic wounds. Some had lost their genitals.
African National Congress spokesman Jackson Mthembu said illegal initiation schools were criminal activities masquerading as respected customs.
“Activities that have led to the deaths of initiates, particularly in the Pondoland region of the Eastern Cape, must be harshly condemned,” he said in a statement.
In some illegal schools, young men had been taken by force and money had been demanded from their families.
“The justice, crime prevention and security cluster must consider… the establishment of a specialised unit to crack down on this growing problem and halt it decisively in its tracks,” he said.
He said those who were arrested had to be speedily prosecuted and the cases hastily concluded. – Sapa
Chinese police blocking exiled Tibetans from ascending a hill in homage to the Dalai Lama
Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other people, two overseas groups said Tuesday.
Security forces disrupted Tibetans in Sichuan province’s Daofu county as they carried out rituals to honour their exiled leader, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist, said the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and India-based phayul.com.
Regional authorities denied the allegations.
“Two Tibetan monks were shot in the head and several others seriously injured after Chinese police opened fire at a crowd,” ICT said, citing unnamed local and exile sources.
It named the monks as Tashi Sonam and Ugyen Tashi, and said both were in hospital.
Armed police and soldiers who arrived to block the group began shooting and using tear gas “without warning”, it said, citing two Tibetans in exile.
At least 20 people were detained after the incident on Saturday, ICT added.
Phayul, a news site on Tibet, said police opened fire after a monk tried to “drive past the security blockade”, citing an overseas Tibetan. One monk was shot in the head, the site said.
Police and religious affairs authorities in Daofu both told AFP: “There was no incident of this kind”.
The county is part of Ganzi prefecture, one of southwestern China’s Tibetan-majority areas.
Members of the ethnic minority have long complained of religious and cultural repression by Beijing, and more than 100 have set themselves on fire in recent years in apparent protest at Chinese rule.
Beijing insists it respects ethnic minorities and has invested heavily to develop Tibetan areas. It blames self-immolations on overseas groups seeking to push a separatist agenda.
Friction in Tibetan areas has sharpened as ethnic majority Han Chinese have increasingly settled in Tibetan areas. Reports of authorities opening fire are rare, however.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and later founded the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.
China has denounced foreign leaders for meeting with the Nobel peace laureate.
Last month Beijing denied reports that it had relaxed its policies of publicly denouncing the Dalai Lama and banning worship of his image.
At a regular press briefing Tuesday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called him “a political exile engaged in separating his country and undermining the social stability of the country”.
“The Dalai clique is using his birthday to promote the separatist agenda of the Dalai Lama,” she said, adding she was not aware of the reported shooting incident. – AFP
Former president Nelson Mandela’s home in Houghton was quiet on Wednesday morning, with police cars occasionally patrolling the area as the former statesman remained in a critical condition in a Pretoria hospital.
At around 1.10am three cars and one van from the Johannesburg metro police came down 4th Street, and turned into the street where Mandela’s house is located.
The van at the back of the patrol switched on it’s hazard lights, reversed and parked in the street in front of the gate before flashing its headlights.
About eight officers got out of the vehicles and had a discussion in front of the gate for 10 minutes before they all got back into the cars and drove off slowly.
Police presence in the neighbourhood and patrolling increased on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, compared to other nights.
The presidency announced on Sunday that Mandela’s health had deteriorated.
At 11.40pm on Wednesday a police van pulled up outside the main black gates of the house.
Two officers walked up and down the road to ensure no cars were parked in the streets in front of and on the side of the house. The other four officers went inside the gates and came out about half an hour later.
After midnight the officers all got back into the van and drove off.
Soon after this, another police car drove up and down the streets before leaving.
After 1.30am a Gauteng flying squad car drove past the house slowly before speeding away.
The house was dark with all curtains and blinds closed. Only the outside lights, in the yard and outside the house, were on.
Outside the main gates, people had put bouquets of flowers and more stones around one of the big trees. The stones were painted in the colours of the South African flag and had messages such as “Nelson Mandela we love you”, “Get well soon Tata” and “We love you Madiba” painted and written on them.
The flower beds around the yard were colourful with painted stones in each of them. One had small South African flags spread over the stones.
The stones bore messages including “God Bless Madiba”, “Thanx [sic] father” and “I love you Madiba” painted on them.
They had been left by well-wishers in the days since Mandela was hospitalised on June 8 for treatment of a recurring lung infection.
Police officers and security guards would take the cards and posters left by people inside.
A single broadcast vehicle was parked outside the house opposite the ailing statesman’s house.
On Tuesday, the presidency confirmed that Mandela remained in a critical condition.
“[Mandela’s] condition remains unchanged in hospital, and doctors continue to do their best to ensure his recovery, wellbeing, and comfort,” spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.
On Sunday night, Maharaj said in a statement that the anti-apartheid icon and Nobel peace prize laureate’s condition had deteriorated and had become critical.
The presidency made the announcement after a visit by President Jacob Zuma and African National Congress deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
On Wednesday morning, it was quiet outside the Nelson Mandela Foundation a few streets from the former statesman’s house. Two cars were parked inside the premises. – Sapa
A few vehicles were entering and exiting the Pretoria hospital on Tuesday morning where ailing former president Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition.
Hospital security staff attended to the infrequent motorists at the facility’s entrance on Park Street.
The main entrance on Celliers Street was still closed after 3am on Tuesday.
Reporters and technical staff, camping on Celliers Street sidewalks, packed and departed after midnight.
Vehicles belonging to media personnel were left parked near the hospital’s entrance. Private security guards kept an eye on the broadcast equipment.
The usually busy Park Streets, where there is another entrance, was almost deserted. Patrolling police cars with flashing lights were seen at intervals.
Several police officers could be seen inside the hospital.
At midnight, several news crews made up of mainly international broadcasters, were doing live crossings near the Celliers Street entrance.
Several generators for back-up power were running through the night and broadcasting equipment including huge lights and cameras had been set up.
Numerous Mandela family members, politicians and government officials have been visiting the anti apartheid icon.
Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Madiba’s daughter Makaziwe, left the hospital on Monday night.
Sisulu arrived at the hospital just after 6pm in a black Mercedes with blue flashing police lights. She and Makaziwe Mandela left just before 8pm.
Some of Mandela’s relatives left the hospital earlier in the day.
First seen leaving on Monday after a visit was grandson Ndaba Mandela, who arrived shortly after Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and daughter Zindzi Mandela-Motlhajwa.
Earlier in the day, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa arrived separately at the hospital.
On Sunday night presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement that Mandela’s condition had turned critical.
Addressing the media in a briefing, which was initially scheduled as an off-the-record editors’ briefing, on Monday, President Jacob Zuma said Mandela’s condition had not changed.
“Mandela remains in a critical condition in hospital and doctors are doing everything possible to ensure his well-being and comfort,” Zuma said in Johannesburg.
He and deputy African National Congress president Cyril Ramaphosa visited Mandela at the hospital on Sunday night. – Sapa
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A police constable accused of statutory rape was expected to appear in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said.
