Tag: killed his own grandmother

Zuma blames quantitative easing for rand decline

President Jacob Zuma denied on Thursday being responsible for the sharp decline in the value of the rand.

Responding to the Presidency Budget Vote debate, Zuma roasted opposition parties for linking his news briefing more than two weeks ago on the state of the economy to the depreciation of the rand, hours after he spoke.

“The fact is that markets were very volatile on the day of the media briefing on the economy,” Zuma said.

“Traders responded to news from the United States on quantitative easing, a form of very lax monetary policy in the United States. This led to the strengthening of the dollar,” said Zuma.

The rand plummeting was as a result of a stronger dollar and lower commodity prices.

Zuma conceded that labour unrest and the weak GDP would have added to the situation.

“There had been an expectation that growth would be between one and two percent. When the 0.9 percent growth figures were released, there was a sell-off of the rand,” he said.

Zuma warned opposition parties to steer clear of statements which could make matters worse.

Instead, parties should “put the country first” and work with the government to help build confidence in the economy.

The president said concerns in the mining sector, which has been hard hit by labour unrest, were being dealt with.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe would meet players in the sector on Friday to discuss disputes in an attempt to bring an end to the instability.

While there appeared to be some recovery in the mining sector this year, following a tumultuous 2012, it was far from out of the woods.

“It is for this reason that we place a high premium on restoring stability in the mining sector.”

Zuma asked opposition parties to support the government’s efforts to broker a peace deal between unions in the sector.

“The bottom line is that we should exercise caution when dealing with such matters, and avoid uninformed or loose talk that may exacerbate the situation.”

The US dollar was beaten by major currencies in a week that saw extreme volatility, especially around the yen. Rate decisions in Japan and NZ, and US Federal Budget Balance, Retail Sales and inflation figures are the top events this week. Will this kind of market action continue? Here is an outlook on the main market-movers awaiting us.

The US economy gained 175K jobs in May, exceeding Analysts’ Forecast of  a 167,000 job addition , following a series of weak readings.

Furthermore, this was the third straight month that payrolls increased less than 200,000, indicating the US job market is not strong enough to be turning the corner, especially in light of the government’s austerity measures, weighing in the economy.

This enabled only a partial recovery of the US dollar after a major crash, following the mediocre US data and the ECB decision: Draghi practically put the negative deposit rate on the backburner.

Standing out from the crowd were the New Zealand and Australian dollars. The Aussie dollar is getting close to critical support. – SAPA

South African black jailed for raping and killing his own grandmother

Sipho Oupa Kubeka (left), sentenced to life imprisonment

A KwaMhlanga man was jailed for life on Wednesday 5 September for raping and strangling his 92-year-old grandmother.

The High Court in Pretoria imposed two life sentences on Sipho Oupa Kubeka, 38, for attacking his grandmother Konzaphi Elizabeth Kubeka at her home near Buhlebuzile, in KwaMhlanga, in September last year.

Kubeka wiped away tears and tried to hide his face while being sentenced, but said he “did not have a problem” with it.

He pleaded guilty to the murder and rape, and begged his family’s forgiveness, but told the court he did not know why he did it.

Kubeka was with his aunt Anna Sibiya when she found the woman dead in her bedroom, but he pretended to be surprised at the discovery.

Judge Selby Baqwa said Kubeka appeared to be less than credible when he testified in mitigation.

Kubeka claimed he supported two children, but could not remember their ages, and contradicted himself about the amounts he paid.

His aunt testified he had not shown remorse when they found the body. It was only when his trial started a year later that he expressed remorse.

Baqwa said Kubeka’s aunt had painted a negative picture of him.

It appeared the elderly Mrs Kubeka had a premonition that she would die at the hands of her grandson.

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“There are two most aggravating factors regarding the actions of the accused that fateful night,” Baqwa said.

“The first one is that the victim was a defenceless 92-year-old woman who was sleeping peacefully in her own bed. She was raped and killed in the sanctity of her own home, a place where she was entitled to be safe and secure. This was clearly a vicious rape, which was confirmed by the accused,” he said.

Kubeka admitted in his statement he changed his clothes afterwards, because there were blood stains on his shirt and trousers.

Referring to numerous media reports about attacks on the elderly, Baqwa said the reports underlined the need to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

“The most prized possessions of any human being are human life and human dignity,” the judge said.

“These ought to be treated as sacrosanct, in line with our Constitution.” – Sapa