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‘CPF members are not informers’

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Police officers do not view Community Police Forums as informers, says the Western Cape Department of Community Safety.

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Cape Town - Police officers don’t see Community Police Forums (CPFs) as “impimpis” (informers) despite statements by the national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega, says the Western Cape Department of Community Safety.

Head Gilbert Lawrence said they had never heard police officers on the ground complain about CPFs before or since Phiyega made the “unfortunate” statement.

He was addressing the standing committee of community safety in the provincial legislature.

Phiyega told the same committee last month that CPFs were used as “oversight and inspection mechanisms or impimpis to check how many cars are driving out of a station” and it was “disheartening”.

Lawrence said the province had since shown the police on national level what information they were collecting and they were reporting to the police’s provincial office on a monthly basis.

He said a good relationship existed between the department, CPFs and the police.

The department last year started its pilot project to use 30 CPFs for the collection of information on conditions of police stations, staffing numbers and resources.

The department had added 33 CPFs between May and July and hoped all 150 CPFs would join.

Chief director for civilian oversight Gideon Morris said the department knew for the first time who the cluster managers were and how many sector vehicles there were. CPFs had reported 573 visits to police stations between May and July.

Cape Times


Police shine light on Burger, Treurnicht

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Cops are probing additional charges against the three men linked to the Flippie Engelbrecht case.

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Cape Town - Police are investigating additional criminal cases against the late Rietvallei Wine Estate owner Johnny Burger, his manager, Wilhelm Treurnicht and previous foreman Dawid Lewis, police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said on Tuesday.

“The SAPS are currently investigating three other criminal cases against the mentioned persons - two charges of assault and one of sexual assault,” he said.

Treurnicht, who was Burger’s farm manager at the time of the alleged assault in January 2008, is set to appear in the Ashton Regional Court on Friday on charges of assault against Flippie Engelbrecht and his father, Flip Engelbrecht.

Burger, 62, Rietvallei’s owner, committed suicide last Tuesday.

In a press release, he had called the charges against him “untested and false”, referring to Carina Papenfus, secretary of the farmworkers rights group The Freedom Trust as a “mischief-maker with a political motive”.

David Lewis, Rietvallei’s foreman at the time of the alleged assault, is set to appear as a witness for the State in the case against Treurnicht.

The Freedom Trust said on Tuesday that it would present four more cases of farmworker abuse by farmers to the media on Friday in Ashton.

Papenfus, who helped re-open the assault case against Burger and Treurnicht in January, said a “hornets’ nest of abuse” would be unveiled on Friday.

She declined to give details, citing farmworkers’ safety.

She said the farmworkers would “speak directly to the media” about their abuse so there could be no claims the trust had influenced them.

This follows a Cape Times report last Friday that raised questions about how 18-year-old Flippie Engelbrecht went blind and when he was injured.

In response to the article, ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman accused “the old establishment” of trying to discredit The Freedom Trust and Papenfus through the media.

Cape Times

Women targeted by smash-and-grab thugs

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The brazen members of a smash-and-grab gang operating near Cape Town’s Vanguard Drive don’t even cover their faces.

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Cape Town - A smash-and-grab gang in Epping has become so brazen that they don’t even bother to cover their faces or run away after committing a crime.

Instead they hang around on the same corner, waiting for their next victim.

Stacey Rautenbach, who works in Epping and regularly drives along Valhalla Drive, contacted the Cape Argus in response to an SMS sent to the newspaper detailing another smash-and-grab on Vanguard Drive.

Rautenbach said she stopped at the intersection of Valhalla Drive and Jakkalsvlei Avenue last Monday: “A man in his mid-twenties or early thirties tried to smash my car’s passenger side window with some sort of tool. He then tried to squeeze his hand through a tiny crack to steal my colleague’s phone. We both screamed and I hooted. When he was unsuccessful, he just walked off and stood by the side of the road.”

Two days later, Rautenbach was driving with another colleague along the same stretch of road when she saw the same man trying to pry open the canopy of a bakkie in front of her.

Failing again, the man and his accomplice took their regular position on a low wall next to the road.

On Monday, Olwen Kenni, who often drives to Mitchells Plain to visit her family, SMSed the Cape Argus about a failed smash-and-grab attempt on her car at the Vanguard Drive and R300 intersection.

“I purposely avoided Stock Road because there are often smash-and-grabs there. Seems like Vanguard is just as bad these days,” she said.

Children had approached her car, posing as beggars to distract her. “Two men came up and signalled towards the car, then one of them started smashing my window. Luckily I had film on the window and it was smash-proof. I just drove straight through the red light when I saw there were no cars coming,” she said.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut confirmed that various intersections on Vanguard Drive had become hot spots for these sorts of crimes.

“Mitchells Plain and Philippi police stations have put measures in place to address these robberies.

“Our investigations have established that perpetrators usually target woman drivers who are alone in the vehicle, and have left valuables openly displayed on the passenger seat. The trend is for these crimes to mostly happen in the late afternoons and early evenings.”

Ward councillor for the area Sheval Arendse said police officers had, in recent months, apparently been diverted away from Vanguard Drive to control service delivery protests.

Cape Argus

Jobs for the jobless as petrol strike drags on

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A Cape Town garage has taken on the homeless and unemployed to temporarily fill the gap left by striking petrol attendants.

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Cape Town - A Strand garage has taken on some of the homeless and unemployed - temporarily - to fill the gap left by petrol attendants who are on strike.

The Caltex garage in Main Road, Strand, has given women from the Case Caravan Park and a man living in a Somerset West night shelter an opportunity to earn money by working as temporary petrol attendants. One of the “new temps”, Karen Meerholz, 53, said at first she thought she would not be able to work a full day.

“But I made it. I need the money because currently I do not have a job. I am excited to be here every day and the generous customers makes it worthwhile for me,” she said.

“Although it’s not much, it’s better than nothing. I have been surviving from the one day to the next. And it’s tough out there.

“The work is not as tough as I imagined. I learned how to operate the petrol pumps and it’s been going great,” she said.

Another temp, Shane Bouwers, 28, said: “I walked past the garage in search for work on Monday. I saw some of the people that were working dressed in normal clothes and I thought maybe they were looking for new people. I went to the manager and he gave me the job.”

Bouwers said he started working immediately and was taught how to operate the petrol pumps within less than a day. “I can now save the little money I make here, but more important for me is that I have some work experience. When the (service) station needs me to help I would definitely do that. I believe this temporary job has opened up doors for me,” he said.

The temporary employees earn R17.80 an hour.

The service station’s manager, Liesl van Rensburg, said: “Our business needs to continue. When the petrol jockeys had a strike three years ago, we used the same people from the Case Caravan Park.

“Now we also have someone from the night shelter. It really feels good to be providing the less fortunate a job they are really enjoying.”

Cape Times

Staggie rape victim is alive - mother

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Mitchells Plain's police commander told the mother of Rashied Staggie’s rape victim that her daughter is alive.

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Cape Town - The mother of Rashied Staggie’s rape victim said that she was preparing for her daughter’s funeral when a senior police official revealed that her daughter is still alive.

The Manenberg mother, 55, said she was shocked to find out her daughter is recovering after an attempt on her life by gangsters.

She said her family spent a few weeks collecting donations for her child’s burial, until Friday’s shocking news.

Mitchells Plain Police Commander Major-General Jeremy Vearey visited the grieving mother and told her that her daughter is alive.

And he said that he takes full responsibility for everyone, including the media, thinking the girl had died. She was shot five times near her Manenberg home in July.

“I exploited the fact that the Hard Livings thought they had gotten rid of her,” said Vearey.

He said the police needed time to get the now 30-year-old victim safely into the witness protection programme.

“I know there were gang members scouring the hospital wards looking for her as well as going to her family’s houses. We needed to protect her,” added Vearey.

The police then relied on that misinformation and even her mother didn’t know whether she was dead or alive.

“I am responsible for the life of a person, I will do whatever is necessary to ensure their safety,” said Vearey.

The woman has now been integrated into the witness protection programme.

In July, the 30-year-old victim and a friend, Romano Oliver, 27, were shot while walking home in Manenberg. Romano died at the scene.

The woman crawled to a friend’s home and identified her attackers before she was declared brain-dead.

After weeks on life support, the young mom-of-five was put into an induced coma.

Her family believed she died days later, but she was in fact recovering.

Even television and newspapers have been revealing the woman’s identity - assuming she was dead.

“When they (doctors) told me they were going to switch off the machines, I went hysterical,” the victim's mother told the Daily Voice.

“I couldn’t stop crying and I held her tight.”

That was the last time she saw her daughter alive.

Despite having no record of her daughter’s death, Jacobus said she started with funeral arrangements.

“I didn’t have a death certificate because I thought she was dead,” the mother said.

“On Friday afternoon, General Vearey came to my house, I didn’t know who he was.

“He then told me that my daughter is not dead.

“I was shocked and I couldn’t believe what he was telling me because of all the trauma we were going through.

“I just looked at him and I told him about the funeral arrangements.

“We believed she was dead,” she added in disbelief.

“Now people are going to think we lied.

“He (Vearey) said he is sorry about it but she is still alive and she’s doing well.

“Vearey says she (my daughter) asked where Romano was and when they told her he is dead, she cried.”

The woman said she does not believe Staggie had anything to do with her daughter’s shooting.

“Why would he do something like that if it is going to jeopardise his parole?” she asked.

Staggie is currently serving 15 years in prison for ordering the rape of the woman when she was 17 years old.

On September 23, Staggie is set to be released on day parole.

While speaking to the Daily Voice outside her home, a nervous mother glanced up at every passer-by, checking to see if they are gangsters.

“We all live in fear and we know they are watching us,” she said.

“If my daughter does recover, she can never come back home because she will never be able to live a normal life.”

Daily Voice

Hunt is on for missing Cape businessman

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Cape Town police and relatives are searching for a Durbanville businessman who went missing at the weekend..

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Cape Town - Police and relatives are searching for a Durbanville businessman who disappeared at the weekend.

Jose Rui “Roy” Figueira, 48, was last seen driving his white Toyota Hilux Raider on Sunday at about 1.35pm, according to information supplied to the organisation Missing Children.

Figueira believed to have been a director and shareholder of call centre company DirectFin Solutions, which was sold to Metropolitan Holdings a few years ago, was wearing blue jeans and a grey pullover.

He has medium-length grey hair, sharp facial features, is 1.8m tall and weighs about 80kg. His vehicle’s registration number is CY114540.

His disappearance was apparently reported to police his brother. Very few details were available.

Anyone who can shed light on Figueira’s whereabouts is asked to call either Missing Children SA at 021 950 1546 or 072 647 7464 or the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Van Deventer, at 021 467 8060.

Cape Argus

Arsonists target key Cape sand mine site

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The largest source of sand for the building industry in the Western Cape has been attacked by arsonists.

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Cape Town - The largest source of sand for the building industry in the Western Cape was attacked by arsonists shortly after 11pm last night.

Two diggers and one excavator sustained serious fire damage at the SSB sand mine in Macassar, off Baden Powell Drive. Metro fire fighters brought the blaze under control.

“Arson is suspected and it appears as though entry was forced into the precinct,” said Theo Layne, the city’s fire chief.

“We have handed the matter over to the police for investigation.”

The mine, which is also Cape Town’s closest source of industrial sand, is owned by Afrisam.

Managers at the site refused to comment on last night’s attack and referred media queries to the company’s regional manager, Ashley Adams.

Sand from the site is used in the production of cement which Afrisam supplies to the construction industry.

Adams said the precinct where the attack occurred was secure.

He said police had been allowed full access to conduct an investigation on the site.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Ceres rape accused was on parole

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The man accused of abducting and raping two children in Ceres was on parole after a previous conviction.

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Cape Town - In a shock revelation, the Ceres Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday heard that the man accused of abducting and raping a four-month-old girl and seven-year-old boy was on parole after a previous conviction for attempted rape.

National Director of Public Prosecutions spokesman Eric Ntabazalila confirmed on Wednesday that the man was sentenced on August 27 last year to three years in jail for attempted rape, and served a portion of his sentence behind bars before being released on parole.

His parole has been cancelled because of the latest case against him.

Ntabazalila said the man, whose identity is being withheld following an order by magistrate Japie Mepomeme, will only be eligible for release in August 2015. The man appeared briefly in court on two counts of abduction and two of rape.

It is the State’s case that the man abducted the children from a wendy house where they were sleeping, took them to a nearby vineyard and raped them. The boy managed to find his way home, carrying the baby girl, and he told his parents of their ordeal.

The girl was admitted to Red Cross Children’s Hospital where she had reconstructive surgery. The boy was released into his mother’s care.

Provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer said top detectives, tactical response teams, dog units and the Family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit were working on the case.

Ntabazalila said a forensic psychiatrist working with the boy notified the prosecution that he was too traumatised to participate in an identity parade.

The case has been postponed for further investigation including outstanding DNA results and an identity parade, Ntabazalila said.

The man is due back in court on October 9.

Cape Argus


Licence cheats back in the spotlight

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Focus back on corruption in the issuing of driving licences after arrests and convictions.

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Corruption in the issuing of driving licences is back in the spotlight following the arrest and conviction of law enforcement officers and learner drivers over the past few months.

Western Province traffic chief Kenny Africa said two law enforcement officers who had been charged with corruption in Beaufort West were sentenced to five years in prison two weeks ago.

The officers were demanding bribes from long-distance taxi drivers in exchange for allowing their unroadworthy vehicles to continue their journeys.

The AA said between 20 and 40 percent of South African drivers did not have a valid driving licence.

“Insurance estimates from the late 1980s and early 1990s were that 20 to 25 percent of drivers on South African roads didn’t have a valid licence, and the AA raised the spectre that the overall figure might have exceeded 30 percent and perhaps edged over 40 percent in a worst-case scenario.”

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

But the AA also pointed out it was almost impossible to establish the real scale of the problem due to improperly-issued licences being indistinguishable from genuine ones on e-Natis.

“The only way to check if a licence is genuine is to examine the supporting documentation at the original testing station, and with almost 10 million licensed drivers on our roads, that would be a mammoth task.”

Richard Bosman, executive director for safety and security for the City of Cape Town, said the city did not tolerate corrupt officials and took bribery allegations extremely seriously.

“In any cases where City of Cape Town staff are found to be involved in bribery, they are dealt with in terms of the disciplinary code and, where applicable, criminal cases are opened against them. Recently two members of staff were dismissed for such offences.”

Bosman said officials had also reported two incidents of attempted cheating and bribery.

The first took place in May at the Gordon’s Bay testing centre where a man failed his learner’s licence test and tried to bribe an officer for a pass.

“The applicant handed the examiner a small plastic bank bag with R100 notes in it and tried to bribe her. She immediately reported the matter to her superior, showed him the plastic bag and the test, and explained the attempted bribe.”

There was R1200 in the bag, and the man was arrested for bribery. He pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to three years in prison or 1 000 hours of community service to be served before the end of December.

The second incident happened in July at the Goodwood testing centre where an examiner caught an applicant using a “cheat sheet”.

Bosman said the applicant was asked to stop writing, the police were called and the applicant was arrested.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said it was hard to determine whether incidents of corruption and bribery were on the rise.

“However they are of grave concern as they threaten the safety of others by unleashing unskilled and untrained killers on the roads.

“One incident of such fraud is one too many, and where we are made aware of such, we take swift and decisive action to bring those perpetrating these crimes to justice.” - Cape Argus

TAC founder Achmat held after protest

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Zackie Achmat and 20 other activists were held after refusing to move from outside mayor Patricia de Lille's offices.

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Cape Town - Treatment Action Campaign founder Zackie Achmat and 20 other activists were arrested by police and held for several hours before being released late on Wednesday night.

They were arrested outside mayor Patricia de Lille’s offices at the Cape Town Civic Centre, under the Illegal Gatherings Act, said police spokesman Andre Traut.

They were released on a warning to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on September 18, said Social Justice Coalition (SJC) general secretary Phumeza Mlungwana, one of those arrested.

Earlier, 15 SJC activists had chained themselves to railings outside the centre, refusing to budge until the mayor spoke to them about sanitation problems in Khayelitsha, but she did not.

The 15 in a group of 21 sang and waved placards with slogans including, “No more false promises, Mayor De Lille”.

Mlungwana said: “It is not like us to act like this, but she needs to acknowledge there is an urgency and give out clearer recommendations about how sanitation will be fixed.”

The city and the SJC have been at loggerheads over the provision of sanitation in informal settlements and about the way the city has monitored companies contracted to supply and clean chemical toilets.

“I am from Khayelitsha,” said Mlungwana. “There are many health issues with the toilets - they are unhygienic.”

Achmat, part of the SJC secretariat, said De Lille had been given enough time for a programme to improve sanitation.

“She has delayed too often. All us here are prepared to come back and get arrested,” he said.

Around noon, metro police and SAPS officers told the protesters they had to move. When they refused, they were again asked.

When they again refused, police cut the chain connecting the group to the railings and arrested them.

They were taken to the Cape Town Central police station.

De Lille described the protest as a “publicity stunt” which “smacks of grandstanding”. She said the city had provided the SJC with the documents they had requested about sanitation.

She said the coalition had not responded to an offer to meet on October 8 or 17.

“This makes a mockery of the claims of a lack of engagement by the city.”

The SJC said the October dates were too late, as it was “extremely urgent” to improve sanitation.

“Despite a phone call requesting an earlier meeting due to the urgency of the matter, we were informed that this would not be possible,” said the organisation.

Mhlungwana rejected as “sad” De Lille’s remark of a publicity stunt.

“We’ve got nothing to gain from a publicity stunt. The mayor must acknowledge the problem. Sanitation problems continue and we feel it has become too much to bear,” she said.

Mhlungwana said there were 10 women among those arrested.

“Police have to do their work and we are not against them, but we don’t regret what we did and we’ll persist with this campaign,” she said.

Cape Times

Race and space in Cape Town

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Nearly 20 years after the end of apartheid, the Cape is still racially divided - but there are areas of transformation.

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Cape Town - Nearly 20 years after the end of apartheid, Cape Town is still a racially divided city – but there are areas of remarkable transformation.

Maps created from the data gathered during Census 2011 show that in the 10 years since the previous census, most of the dynamics between race and space have barely changed, but areas such as Woodstock, Rondebosch East, Pinelands and Kensington present a different view.

Created by software developer Adrian Frith, the maps offer a representation of who lives where in seven South African cities.

Frith came across a project that mapped the neighbourhoods of Chicago according to race. “I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like for South Africa,” he said.

After a tussle to get the data from Stats SA, Frith used a mixture of geographic information systems (GIS) software and code he wrote himself to build a program which turns census data into a dot map.

In the 2011 census data, cities are divided into “small-area layers” of about 1 000 people each. Frith’s program assigns a coloured dot representing 50 people of the same race, and distributes the dots evenly over an area of 1 000 people.

“We all know how segregated we still are although it was interesting to see how some of the former white suburbs are increasingly integrated now.”

He would like to create maps to compare race and space from before democracy, but the 2001 census is the earliest to provide enough detail for accurate mapping. Even so, the map for 2001 only offers data at the level of whole suburbs rather than groups of 1 000 people.

While Frith said he didn’t notice any significant difference between Cape Town and other cities, others were quick to slate the Mother City as particularly segregated.

“We remain starkly divided,” said Professor Ivan Turok of the Human Sciences Research Council. “It’s unhealthy. It creates resentment, lack of understanding of different cultures, suspicion and a lack of empathy.”

Priya Reddy, mayoral committee media co-ordinator, said: “Cape Town, as with every other major city in South Africa, is still dealing with the spatial and socio-economic legacy of apartheid.” However there had been an “undeniable level of integration in areas across the city”.

Reddy cited the city’s investment in public transport networks as a way to promote easier access to work and leisure opportunities.

Living far from the workplace is an important problem in the city, said ANC chief whip Xolani Sotashe.

“There are still racial undertones,” he said. “There is still the view that people of colour should not be integrated into where rich people are living.”

Social interactions also reveal a racially divided society – in Cape Town particularly. “If you go to Johannesburg it’s a totally different world,” he said. “People interact there freely.”

For Rashiq Fataar, founder of urban design think tank Future Cape Town, the impression that Joburg is more integrated is simply a result of the economic opportunity boom there.

“Our cities have all been masterminded by the apartheid legacy,” Fataar said. “The graphic points to a segregation that nobody can be blamed for.”

Many areas had developed into multicultural and successful areas, he said. “You look at places like Woodstock, Rondebosch East, Pinelands and Kensington.”

However, he said it was not changing fast enough.

“It has to start with economic growth, which gives people a chance to live where they choose to live. The important thing is having the option to move.”

Andrew Boraine, former chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, said employment was the first step to equality. “The starting point is to make it a more equitable city, and that starts by working out ways for more people to participate in the economy.

“If more people have more income, that’s the starting point for a less segregated city.”

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

 

Woodstock a model of racial integration

By Zodidi Dano

Once known as a coloured area, Woodstock has become a place of racial integration.

Fakir Ahmad Vally, 70, a former barbershop owner who has spent all his life in the suburb, said he remembered Woodstock as a very busy place, years ago, but over the years had seen development and social integration.

“There were a lot of businesses – small tuckshops owned by the Malay people, but now there are all these restaurants and shops owned by people of different races.”

He added that during his time as a student at the Wesley Training College, before he became a barber, schools were not completely integrated: “There were a lot of coloured and Muslim students, a few blacks and absolutely no whites.”

The pensioner said the area had changed a lot over the years. He sold his barbershop and it was turned into a cosmetic store. The number of tuckshops that were owned by Malay people had dwindled and more restaurants and shops were now owned by people of all races.

“Little by little more blacks bought houses here and it has become very social. It’s improved a lot from what it used to be and it’s nice and cosy.”

Annemarie Steenkamp, 30, who lives in Upper Woodstock and works at a restaurant at the Biscuit Mill on the Lower Main Road, said she loved living and working in the area.

“My neighbours at home are black UCT students who always keep the place vibey, across the road there is an Indian shop and three streets lower there are more coloured residents,” she said.

Steenkamp, who used to live in Oranjezicht, said places such as the Old Biscuit Mill had helped create social integration in Woodstock.

“The Biscuit Mill is like the head of Woodstock – it has influenced a lot of people into shopping in Woodstock and also having their businesses here, especially with the Saturday market.”

 

Where Capetonians would like to live

By Zodidi Dano

After interviewing people of different races and enquiring about their living arrangements, the Cape Argus found that people from the Cape Flats and the townships dreamed of living in the southern suburbs such as Claremont and Rondebosch, perceiving the areas to be safer and more relaxed.

Vuyokazi Mbileni, 26, born and raised in Khayelitsha, said she enjoyed going to Claremont and would love to live there.

“It’s different from the location, it’s relaxed and you can be free. There are no worries about your safety and other things.”

Siphokazi Tyalana, 19, agreed with Vuyokazi, although she lived in Milnerton which was more middle-upper class. “I like the Rondebosch-Claremont area – it’s quiet and convenient.”

Besides safety, another factor that prevented people from moving into other areas was the fact that they felt comfortable in areas where their race was dominant.

Mogamat Frieslaar, 23, of Bonteheuwel, said he was okay with that and preferred to be in an area where most of his neighbours looked like him.

“I like it that side because I find it easier to socialise with coloureds more. If I were to move out of Bonteheuwel I’d move to Grassy Park or Mitchells Plain.”

Although he had friends in townships, Frieslaar said he had never visited their homes.

However, those who were not born in Cape Town loved living in the city, but liked partying in the townships.

Katlego Ramahuta, 19, a UCT student from Polokwane, lives in Observatory. He said he had lived in Claremont, but he enjoyed the township more.

“Claremont was quiet and Observatory is okay, because the students are from different places and of different races, but I like going to the locations, although I don’t want to live there.”

Emma Thomson, 21, of Sea Point,said she enjoyed going to the townships occasionally. “I have been to Mzoli’s and I liked it a lot.”

Mzoli’s is a braai place in Gugulethu known for its party vibe and social integration. Over the years it has been a meeting spot for people from different areas and of different races.

Cape Argus

Western Cape scores top marks for service

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The Western Cape government has the best public service management practices in the country, says the DA.

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Cape Town - The Western Cape government has the best public service management practices in the country, the DA says.

According to a report released by Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane on Wednesday, 80 percent of government departments did not comply with service delivery requirements.

“This situation is an anomaly, given that improving service delivery is a priority of government,” the Management Performance Assessment Tool found.

The report, which measures the state of management practices in the public service over the past financial year, includes an assessment of all 156 national and provincial government departments.

Four “key performance areas” were governance, strategy, human resources and finance, and last night the DA said the Western Cape was ranked first among the provinces and national departments in all four areas.

“This excellent result by the Western Cape shows that with effective and efficient management practices, service delivery improves. For this reason the Western Cape continues to lead in the provision of basic services and jobs, as revealed in the results of Census 2011,” said John Steenhuisen, DA spokesman for co-operative governance and traditional affairs.

He said highlights of the report included:

* At 21.6 percent the Western Cape has the lowest narrow and expanded (29.3 percent) unemployment rate in South Africa.

* 99.1 percent of Western Cape residents have access to piped water both inside and outside.

* 91.1 percent of Western Cape residents have refuse removal.

* 93.4 percent of Western Cape households have electricity.

* 96.9 percent of Western Cape residents have toilets.

Releasing the report in Parliament, Chabane, who is responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation, told reporters that departments’ management practices had been assessed against 29 “generic management standards”.

These included planning, monitoring and evaluation, service delivery improvement, functionality of management structures, accountability, ethics, internal audit and risk management, financial and human resource management delegations, human resource planning, organisation design, recruitment and retention, performance management, management of discipline, supply chain management, procurement and expenditure management.

On a chart included with the report, 28 of 42 national government departments were red-flagged for “service delivery improvement mechanisms”.

Nationally, the five best-managed national departments were Science and Technology, Trade and Industry, Environmental Affairs, the national Treasury, and Government Communication and Information System, which scored at levels three and four (the top levels) across many of the categories.

According to the report, level three means the department is “fully compliant”, while a level four department is one that has taken this a step further and is “operating smartly in terms of its management practices”.

The three worst performers were Water Affairs, Public Works, and at the bottom of the list, the Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities.

This last department was red-flagged for its “management of diversity”, which among other things, meant it did not submit a report dealing with disabled people and their access to the workplace.

The State Security Agency was red-flagged 20 times for its management of strategic planning, risk management, pay sheet certification, and “unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful” spending.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation, the government’s face to the international community, was also given a red mark for its failure to implement systems and policies “to promote ethical behaviour and discourage unethical behaviour and corruption”.

The Management Performance Assessment Tool measures departments against each of the 29 management standards, awarding level one (red), level two (orange), level three (yellow), or level four (green) scores.

A department that scores at level one or two for a particular management area is non-compliant with the minimum legal prescripts in that management area.

The findings come a month after the 2012 Development Indicators Report showed that half of South Africans think the state is not performing well when it comes to delivering basic services.

The report also found that the number of service delivery protests hit a high last year - there were 113 up to July 2012 - compared to only two during the whole of 2006.

It red-flagged 29 national departments for their management of disciplinary cases, while a further eight received an orange marker. The departments flagged did not finalise disciplinary cases within policy requirements. Among the more incongruous results was the justice department’s red mark for “professional ethics”.

According to the report, departments must have systems and policies in place “to promote ethical behaviour and discourage unethical behaviour and corruption”. However, less than 25 percent of senior managers in the department had completed financial disclosures properly and on time.

Cape Argus

Another home hit by Cape’s ‘crowbar’ gang

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Breaking into houses and grabbing electronics in record time seems to be the MO for Cape Town’s “crowbar” gang.

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Cape Town - Breaking into a home and grabbing valuable electronics before speeding off in a luxury car appears to be the modus operandi for Wynberg’s “crowbar” gang.

On Wednesday, police released a snapshot - from a CCTV camera - of the suspected thieves fleeing the scene in a silver Audi A4 after a house was robbed on Prospect Hill Road.

Neighbourhood watch group BKM said the gang forced its way into the house with a crowbar at 10.30am on August 10.

The three-man gang stole R16 500 worth of items, including two computers, from the home.

Residents said there had been similar break-ins across the suburb and in nearby Constantia over the past two years.

Police said a similar robbery had taken place on Prospect Hill Road earlier this year.

It is suspected that the men captured on film are behind most of the robberies.

BKM said the car’s registration belonged to a company, but the name was not disclosed.

Police spokesman Lieutenant- Colonel André Traut said police had identified one of the suspects and were tracking down the owner of the Audi.

Traut urged anyone with information on the gang to contact the investigating officer, Constable Thembisa Khaleni, at 073 3711 609 or 021 799 1400.

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Man survives beating, train horror

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A Cape Town man has lived to tell the tale after being beaten and tied to the railway tracks in an apparent mob attack.

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Cape Town - A man beaten and tied between railway tracks in an apparent mob attack in Philippi has lived to tell the tale. His assailants told him he was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On Wednesday, Gugulethu’s Xolela Jwambi, 23, relived how he and Mkhululi Mkhunyana were attacked by a mob that accused Mkhunyana of a robbery. He said Mkhunyana did not survive and was decapitated after being tied across tracks between Philippi and Nyanga railway stations ahead of an oncoming train.

“They placed his head on one side (of the track) and his legs on the other. I was tied in between the tracks. When the train was coming I thought it was the end. I was going to die. I was just lying there. There was nothing I could do to get out of the way,” he said from a hospital bed.

Jwambi’s right arm was severed below the elbow and he lost three fingers on his left hand. He also had facial and spinal injuries.

Police are investigating a case of murder and attempted murder.

Jwambi said he and Mkhunyana were at the Nyanga Junction Shopping Centre last Wednesday when they were forced into two bakkies by about 15 men. They were taken to a backyard at Sweet Home Farm informal settlement.

Mkhunyana was tied up and beaten with planks and rocks while a tied-up Jwambi looked on. He was soon made to join his friend, who by now was bloody from the beating.

“I asked them why we were being beaten but they didn’t answer; they continued hitting us. I told them they got the wrong person but they didn’t listen,” Jwambi said.

They eventually told him that Mkhunyana had robbed one of them of R6 000 and a cellphone and that Jwambi had found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jwambi said that while a few of the men continued the beating, others dug a grave and then put them in it. They were in the hole for about 10 minutes before being taken out. At one point the assailants doused the pair with paraffin and threatened to set them alight. They then dragged Jwambi and Mkhunyana to the railway tracks.

Jwambi said he didn’t know any of the attackers.

His mother, Nontuthuzelo Jwambi, said she received a call 30 minutes after he left home saying that he was tied to railways tracks and that he had been injured.

She admitted her son had been “a naughty boy”, but had changed his ways because he was always at home treating his tuberculosis.

“If the people had suspected that he has done something wrong, they should have reported him to the police instead,” she said.

Spokesman Andre Traut said police had yet to make any arrests.

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Toddler dies alone in shack blaze

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Two-year-old Kietshepile Nakin was killed in a shack fire while her mother was out visiting her boyfriend.

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Cape Town - Two-year-old Kietshepile Nakin died alone in a shack while her mom went out with a boyfriend.

The toddler was sleeping when her home caught fire in Witsand, Atlantis, on Friday .

The two-year-old’s charred remains were found among the ruins of her home.

Now residents want the child’s mom to be arrested for neglect.

Neighbours say Deboseng Nakin, 36, had left the child in the care of her grandmother and went to sleep at her boyfriend’s house nearby.

But the grandmother left for work the next morning, leaving the child sleeping alone inside the backyard shack of the family house.

An unattended electric stove is believed to have caused the blaze that partially destroyed a portion of the house.

When the Daily Voice visited the house on Wednesday, family members were busy tidying the house. A photograph of Kietshepile was hanging against a charred wall.

Deboseng said she regrets leaving her child for a boyfriend.

“I did not expect this to happen,” she said.

“I left her in the care of my mother, but she went to work in the morning.

“I still can’t believe this, it’s hard to accept. I am very much hurt.”

The child’s aunt, Nthuliseng Nakin, 28, said residents had tried to douse the fire with buckets of water. But the blaze had already covered the shack.

“The flames were coming out from under the door,” she said.

“I knew then that the child will not come out alive, it’s very sad.

“We will miss the baby, because she was a playful child who liked to sing.

“The family is angry and very sad because of what happened.”

Atlantis police said an inquest docket has been opened.

Daily Voice


War of words erupts over Flippie case

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A social media battle has flared between supporters of Flippie Engelbrecht and detractors of his adviser, Carina Papenfus.

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Cape Town - An intense struggle has been playing out on social networks between supporters of Flippie Engelbrecht and detractors of his chief adviser Carina Papenfus, in the days leading up to the start of the State’s assault case against Wilhelm Treurnicht.

Engelbrecht and his father Flip Engelbrecht claim they were assaulted on January 25, 2008, by Rietvallei wine estate’s late owner Johnny Burger and manager Treurnicht.

Last Tuesday, Burger, 62, committed suicide on his farm. He had denied the assaults.

Papenfus, the secretary of the Freedom Trust, a farmworkers’ rights group that has been the driving force behind the Engelbrecht case, alleged that Flippie ended up going blind and losing his hands because of the initial assault.

On Friday, Treurnicht is set to appear in the Ashton Regional Court for the start of the case.

Papenfus has urged a boycott of Rietvallei wines on Facebook, Twitter and email.

In an email to buyers of Rietvallei wines, wine websites and wine auction houses on July 18, Papenfus said the farm’s products had been “built on the ruins of workers’ lives”.

“In January 2008... (Engelbrecht) was severely assaulted allegedly by his parents’ employer, one Mr Johnny Burger of Rietvallei Wine Estate near Ashton, Western Cape, South Africa.”

Papenfus said the assault left Engelbrecht brain damaged, blind and epileptic with bilateral hand amputations.

The same message was posted on the Facebook page of the Freedom Trust a day later.

Some respondents told the Cape Times the mail had not influenced them.

Eddie Coetzee, operations manager at Michelangelo International Wine Awards of South Africa, said: “We... never responded because we believe that justice must be done through the correct legal processes.”

Papenfus also used Twitter to publicise the wine boycott and the upcoming court case.

On August 28, for example, she argued for a wine boycott with the editor of local wine website winetimes.co.za: “Please stop endorsing farmer brutality. The award-winning wines are made by destroying farm children’s lives.”

Earlier this month Emile Joubert from the website winegoggle.co.za replied on Twitter: “Rietvallei Muscadel auctioned at @NedAuc. Carina Papenfus’s idiotic call for the wine to be pulled ignored, as it should.”

The Freedom Trust’s social media campaign also publicised the “originally reported” sequence of events that left Engelbrecht blind, and when he fell into a fire.

Questions have been raised about this sequence of events, as medical records show Engelbrecht was treated at Tygerberg Hospital for a suspected “brain abscess” 19 months after the alleged assault, and records show he lost his hands at a later date.

The first “anti-Papenfus” website launched earlier this week. The site “Carina de Vries Papenfus uncut” has a link to the property business of Papenfus and her husband, with the comment “know who you are doing business with”.

Stellenbosch University journalism head Professor Gawie Botma said such intense social media speculation was a “taste of things to come”.

“The rise of social media has arguably provided more opportunities for a variety of (less official) sources to influence the news agenda as well.”

Cape Times

Eskom targets insurers to replace geysers

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Eskom has launched talks with the insurance industry to try to get them to replace clients’ broken geysers with solar ones.

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Cape Town - Eskom is in talks with the insurance industry in a bid to get the industry to replace clients’ broken hot water geysers with solar water geysers.

If successful, the move could see the uptake of solar water geysers increase substantially, as the insurance industry replaces on average 200 000 to 300 000 broken electric geysers every year.

The insurance industry would then make use of Eskom’s rebate programme for solar water geysers, launched in 2008, which aims to install one million partially subsidised solar water geysers in the country by the end of 2013.

Andrew Etzinger, senior manager at Eskom, said to date they had installed 360 000 solar water heaters. This fell far short of the utility’s goal.

“The geyser replacement uptake of solar is not on a level we want. There are a lot of issues to be sorted out with the insurance industry, but we are in the final stages of discussion,” Etzinger said.

The cost of the solar heaters varied according to size and quality, but on average was about R20 000. Eskom’s rebate, which also varied, was on average about R6 000. This meant householders who wanted to replace their electric geysers still had to pay a large sum of money. It was one of the reasons for the slow uptake of the Eskom rebate system.

“Only 20 percent of solar water geysers using the rebate have gone to roofs on homes which previously had electric geysers. About 80 percent have gone to homes which didn’t have any geysers, but which did have electricity, so the householders would use kettles or stoves to heat water. There is some electricity saving by installing solar on these houses, but not nearly as much as on the roofs which have electric geysers. About 40 percent of household electricity consumption is hot water geysers,” Etzinger said.

An important change had been introduced in July when the government stated that at least 70 percent of materials for both the solar water collector and the tank had to be locally made.

“The current situation is that nearly all solar water heaters are imported in part. This new requirement for 70 percent local content may slow down the rate of installation initially, but it will give stimulus to the local manufacturing industry. Local content has become a key component.”

Etzinger said Eskom was also planning to change the nature of the contracts with solar heater manufacturers. Currently they operated with one-year contracts, but the utility was hoping to change this to two- or three-year contracts in order to give the industry more certainty.

He said the pattern of installation using Eskom’s rebate programme was not evenly distributed. “About 90 percent of installations have been in four provinces - Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. We want to see more equal distribution.”

melanie.gosling@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Excavator torched during strike

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Striking workers in the civil engineering sector appear to be using increasingly destructive tactics.

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Cape Town - As employers and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) continue to seek a wage settlement, strikers in the civil engineering sector appear to be using increasingly destructive tactics.

Since early last week there have been incidents of workers being intimidated and beaten up, and transport vehicles being attacked.

In the latest attack on a civil engineering site, a group of men, believed by police to be associated with the strike, invaded a sand mine in Macassar early on Wednesday. The mine produces industrial sand used by Afrisam in cement production.

The men overpowered two security guards, assaulted them and torched three diggers and an excavator.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said a case of arson was being investigated.

On Monday the owner and workers of a tiling company were attacked on their way to work

 

“Today we are still going to work, but we’re using normal cars so as not to attract attention,” said the owner, Alan Bissolati.

Responding to reports of builders being attacked by strikers, Rob Johnson of the Master Builders’ Association sought to clarify what he deemed to be “confusion” in the reporting of the strike.

He noted that only civil engineering workers who fell under NUM were on a national strike, adding that building workers had settled a wage increase of 7.5 percent in regional negotiations for the greater Cape Town area late last month.

Builders who fell under NUM had, however, rejected this settlement which was enforced by a majority of parties in the negotiations.

“When civil engineering NUM members went on strike, they co-opted disgruntled fellow members in the building sector. At the moment it is unclear which of these two groups are attacking builders. Yet it must be stressed that builders who are reporting for work are not in the civil engineering sector and are thus not undermining NUM’s national strike.”

On Wednesday police intercepted hundreds of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) members at Cape Town station.

As the Numsa members planned to descend on the Bree Street offices of Barry Cannings, the president of employer representative body the Retail Motor Industry, negotiators for employers and the unions were meeting in Johannesburg.

Numsa members went on strike on Monday after wage negotiations deadlocked.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Girls saved but boy, 5, dies in fire

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A five-year-old boy burnt to death as his father battled to save him and his siblings from a devastating blaze.

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Cape Town - A five-year-old boy burnt to death in his sleep as his father battled bravely to save him and his siblings from a devastating blaze.

Zishoun Lemore was burnt beyond recognition when their home went up in flames on Saturday night.

The Hanover Park boy’s heartbroken father, Kiyaamodien Allen, 23, put his own life at risk to save his young children who were sleeping when the flames erupted.

Zishoun’s sisters Kashiefa Lemore, three, and six-week-old Zeenat Lemore are both lucky to be alive because they were saved in time.

Little Zeenat had burns on 10 percent of her body and is at Red Cross Children’s Hospital where she is expected to undergo surgery.

Doctors say the infant is in a serious but stable condition.

Kashiefa suffered minor burn wounds to her hands.

The hero dad ran into their burning house four times in an attempt to save his son.

Kiyaamodien and his wife Desiree Lemore, 31, believe the fire started when a candle fell over.

“I always told my wife to blow out the candle when she leaves the house,” Kiyaamodien said. “That night I went out and I reminded her about the candle.

“When she came out to go to her parents, I walked with her and she told me the children were all sleeping.

“I walked with her but I didn’t walk back home with her.”

The father says he returned home a while after his wife and found their house on fire.

He said: “Everything was already burning and I just stormed into the house. My wife was already standing outside with the baby.

“I couldn’t see anything when I went inside and I could not care about the flames or myself, I just wanted to save my children.

“As I ran out, I saw Kashiefa sitting on the floor, burning. She shouted, ‘Dada! Dada!’ as she pulled on my pants.

“Her clothes were burning and part of her shoulder and both her arms.”

After saving his little daughter, Kiyaamodien ran into the house two more times to find his son.

“I asked her [my wife] where is Balla [Zishoun] and she said he is still inside,” the dad said.

“I ran in but I couldn’t see him so I came out again. Then I ran in and out again, then a friend and I started breaking down the Wendy [house].

“As we were busy, I saw Zishoun on the bed still laying in the same position as he was sleeping in.”

Kiyaamodien explains his son was lying in a foetal position with his hands under his head.

He just lay there and he was burnt pitch black, the devastated dad said.

With both his hands covered in blisters and his right arm bandaged, Kiyaamodien says he watched his son’s charred corpse lay among the rubble from a window.

“I stood by the bathroom window [of the main house] and I showed my grandmother where he was laying,” he said, holding back the tears. “He did not even wake up.”

Mom Desiree, who also suffered minor wounds, did not want to speak to the Daily Voice.

On Wednesday, the family was still cleaning up the huge heap of rubble laying in their backyard.

Some remains of their home were dumped outside.

Police have opened an inquest docket and say the matter is still under investigation.

Daily Voice

‘Gumtree buyer stole my motorbike’

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Kyle Hallick agreed to let a prospective buyer test-drive his bike because he left his ID - as well as his girlfriend - with him.

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Cape Town - A conman took a motorbike for a test drive and never returned - but he left his picture with the owner.

The suspect approached Kyle Hallick, 21, after spotting an advert on Gumtree for a 1998 Honda RVF400 for sale at R28 000.

The man, who identified himself as Donovan, asked Hallick if he could visit him and take the bike for a test drive on Monday night.

Hallick said he was fine with the man taking the bike because he left his ID - as well as his girlfriend - with him.

But when he didn’t return with the bike, the girlfriend ran away and Hallick discovered that the ID had been tampered with and belonged to someone else.

However, the thief had inserted a photograph of himself in the booklet.

Hallick explained how he was duped after posting an ad online.

“He called me when he saw my other bike which I advertised two weeks before. I told him I had already sold it but I had a blue one which is the same model.

“He said if he liked it he would give me a deposit of R10 000 and then give me the rest of the money on Friday.

“I told him to first come [see me] then we can work out the payment.”

The 21-year-old said the suspect arrived at his Penhill, Eerste River, home at 9.30pm on Monday.

“He kept telling me he was in meetings the whole day,” Hallick said.

“He eventually arrived in a shuttle and there was a woman who was sitting in the backseat. He looked trustworthy and he spoke so well.”

Hallick said the well-built man came with a helmet and balaclava, prepared for a bike ride.

“He handed me his ID and then got on the bike.

“When he left, I noticed the woman in the back was texting and that was about the time when I couldn’t hear the bike anymore as he drove off.”

Hallick said that after about 20 minutes the shuttle driver got anxious and decided to go and look for the man.

But minutes later the driver called Hallick to say something was wrong.

“He called me and told me I had been conned. He told me the woman jumped out of the car when he was stationary at the stop street,” he said.

“I have informed the police and I put it out on Facebook that my bike was stolen,” Hallick said.

“I eventually got hold of the real owner of the ID book and he says it was stolen in June.”

Police said they were investigating a theft.

Daily Voice

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