Megan Zowitsky allegedly lodged false medical claims and channelled the payments into her bank account.

Cape Town - A credit controller at a Netcare hospital in Cape Town, who allegedly lodged false medical claims and channelled the payments into her bank account, appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.

Megan Zowitsky, 45, was not asked to plead to 13 counts of fraud involving R113,741 when she appeared before magistrate Sabrina

Sonnenberg.

According to the charge sheet, she was the credit controller at the hospital in 2008.

In 2009, the Commissioner of Child Welfare appointed her as her niece's guardian following her brother's death. A trust was set up for the niece, administered by the Old Mutual Trust.

According to the charge sheet, Zowitsky, as credit controller at the hospital, was responsible for the administration at specific (but unnamed) medical aid schemes.

She also had to resolve medical aid-related and patient-related queries.

As her niece's guardian, she had to submit documentary proof to the Old Mutual Trust, of claims for her niece's medical and other expenses.

Prosecutor Simone Liedeman alleged that Zowitsky submitted false documentation to substantiate false claims for her niece's medical expenses for treatment, or her niece's admission to the hospital.

It is alleged that Zowitzky, in this manner, channelled medical payouts totalling R113,741 into her private banking account.

Legal aid defence attorney Hailey Lawrence told the court that Legal Aid SA had rejected Zowitsky's application for free legal aid.

Lawrence said Zowitsky was entitled to appeal Legal Aid SA's decision, and that she would assist Zowitsky with the appeal.

Zowitsky was told to return to court on November 1, for the outcome of the appeal. - Sapa

Next year's elections could be all about fashion, if the latest political accessories are anything to go by.

Cape Town - Next year’s elections could be a case of “it’s not inside, it’s on top”, if the latest political accessories are anything to go by.

Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have become known for their red berets, but on Saturday it was DA leader Helen Zille’s blue one that got tongues wagging.

The beret has long been worn by a motley crew of revolutionaries, aunties, intellectuals, beatniks, military men and Frenchmen.

Che Guevara was famously pictured wearing one. Pablo Picasso was partial to them. The US special forces wear green ones. The UN peacekeepers wear blue.

Zille, in Mitchells Plain for the launch of her party’s campaign to encourage voters to register, stepped on stage in a blue beret with “DA” embroidered on it.

At one point she told the crowd “we should all get berets”. She then picked out those in the crowd wearing berets and, pointing at one woman, declared: “Yours is a halaal beret.”

She then asked the crowd: “Did you see (pop star) Rihanna in the newspapers this week? She was wearing blue lipstick. She knows how to get ahead of fashion. We should all get blue lipstick. Die hele wereld word blou (the whole world is becoming blue).”

She was, however, at pains to point out that the DA promotional videos shown at the event were not “blue movies”.

Zille and party leaders Ivan Meyer, Lindiwe Mazibuko and Yusuf Cassim encouraged the crowd of about 1 000 people to register to vote. Meyer, leader of the DA in the Western Cape, said the party was looking to take 30 percent of the national vote next year, retain the Western Cape and win Gauteng and the Northern Cape.

In the Western Cape, the party was aiming to secure 60.4 percent of the vote, nearly 10 percent more than the 51 percent it scored in 2009. Meyer said it would be doing this by targeting black voters, going door-to-door and through his Masisebenze programme, which was targeting jobs and working.

“We will win or lose the election this year because registration is this year. In 2009, we won the Western Cape because we won the registration in 2008,” Zille said.

Most of the speakers also highlighted how the Western Cape had come out on top in the management performance assessment report released by the Presidency last week.

“You choose a government every five years. But the actions of your government… have an effect that lasts much longer. The education your children receive, the healthcare of your family members, these things affect lifetimes,” Mazibuko said.

Weekend Argus

A row looms in the DA after allegations that key MPs were “marked down” in performance assessments ahead of the elections.

Cape Town - A row looms in the DA after allegations that key MPs were “marked down” in party political performance assessments ahead of next year’s elections.

Several DA members say they have lodged complaints with federal chairman James Selfe after having been judged to have failed in constituency and party work during the annual performance reviews.

The rift is largely limited to DA members in the Western Cape, the heartland of the party, and prominent DA MPs have been marked down - and even failed - by the evaluators, who included powerful Western Cape party figures Theuns Botha, Anton Bredell and Erik Marais.

The DA uses a system called the performance determination and management system to conduct the reviews.

The scores are a crucial part of determining who is included on the party’s electoral list as nobody can be listed as a DA candidate in next year’s elections without going through the process.

Weekend Argus spoke to some MPs who indicated they had received low, and in their view unfair, marks for their constituency or party work amid talk in some circles of factionalism in the party.

While there is speculation within party circles that the low assessment marks were a way for Western Cape party barons to warn off the young Turks who have come to the fore in the DA at Parliament, the MPs themselves did not want to discuss this.

None of them wanted to be named, saying it was an “internal party matter” and to speak out would be “career limiting”.

An MP said he had received an excellent mark for his work in Parliament, but was failed for his constituency work.

He had spoken to some colleagues who had the same experience.

“They’re sending a strong message to anyone even thinking of wanting to be involved in the Western Cape next year,” he said.

Another MP indicated that he had similar problems.

“I don’t know for sure what’s behind it. Part of the problem is that there are no clear criteria set out. I don’t know if there is an agenda, or if it is a problem with the process.”

He believed some people had submitted appeals to federal chairman Selfe.

Another MP said the main problem was that there had been no clear targets set for performance in these areas, which led to people scoring low.

The MP said that, with no proper targets set, the process was “open to abuse for political purposes”.

Contacted for comment, Selfe said he had not received any appeals from the Western Cape over the system.

The only appeal he had received and dealt with had come from the North West.

Selfe, a member from the Western Cape, admitted that the process was usually best done by a panel, allowing all the members to discuss various aspects of a member’s performance and evaluate it as a whole, rather than in parts.

“It works best when it’s done as a panel, which is not what happened in the Western Cape.”

Selfe said it was up to each province to decide how the assessments were done but in the absence of a panel discussing the issues together there could be a “distortion” of the scores.

“People with responsibilities in other areas of the party could maybe score low because they weren’t able to do all the work in some areas.

“So for example, I am the chair of the federal council and I might spend 40 hours per week dealing with that work, which means I might not be able to attend all the party debates or branch meetings,” he said.

Selfe said “if and when” he received any appeals, he would interact with the evaluators, who would then be asked to produce the reasons for the low scores.

He said the system, which has been in use in some areas of the party since 2006, was fairly new in

the Western Cape, having been used for about two-and-a-half years.

Approached for comment at the DA’s launch of its national voter registration drive in Mitchells Plain yesterday, Western Cape party leader Ivan Meyer confirmed that some people had requested adjustments to the assessments.

He could not be drawn on how many had requested adjustments, saying he had not received any formal complaints.

He also said he did not believe the low marks were a result of any internal factionalism in the party.

“I’m not aware of any factions, but some people have asked for adjustments.

“There is a moderating process and the PDMS system has a built-in appeals process,” said Meyer.

Meyer said he had asked the evaluators to look at the marks again.

However, he added that the process was done through self-assessment and that in order to achieve high scores, evidence of work needed to be shown.

“So you might say you attended all the party meetings, but the attendance register says you only attended 50 percent,” said Meyer.

“If you can’t produce the evidence, then your mark reflects that,” he said.

“I believe they did a thorough job. I think they were lenient and reasonable.”

Weekend Argus

A website which will support students writing matric will go live in the Western Cape next week.

Cape Town - A website which will support students writing matric will go live in the Western Cape next week, the provincial ministry of education said on Sunday.

“The website contains, for the first time, matric support via YouTube,” ministerial spokesman Bronagh Casey said in a statement.

The site would allow candidates access to over 180 videos, and would provide tips and links to previous exam papers and national resources, she said.

The site would be launched on Monday.

Sapa

A series of text messages from Anni Dewani show how desperate she was to escape her relationship with Shrien.

Pretoria - A series of anguished text messages from honeymoon murder victim Anni Dewani - revealed for the first time - show how desperate she was to escape her troubled relationship with the man accused of conspiring to murder her.

The dramatic texts, contained in a South African police file, are the first evidence to emerge of Anni’s intimate feelings about her husband since her death in 2010 in a car hijacking in Cape Town.

Over a period of four months before the murder, 28-year-old Anni sent messages to her cousin Sneha in Britain. They show the young bride had deep-seated reservations about Dewani.

In one despairing message five weeks before the wedding, Anni tells Sneha: “I don’t want to marry him… I’m going to be unhappy for the rest of my life.… one cannot even hug him… we have nothing in common.”

In another text, Anni wrote: “Want to cry myself to death.”

Yet another read: “Crying every day.” A month before the wedding she texted: “Hate him.”

And three days before her death, she messaged Sneha: “I don’t feel happy at all.”

Sneha has told police that Anni called off the engagement and marriage at least three times, only for Shrien to change her mind each time.

When the texts are taken alongside statements from other witnesses, the police files depict a marriage that was doomed before it began.

Some of the most disturbing evidence in the files comes from a male prostitute, 40, based in Birmingham, who told police he met Dewani for sex sessions after the relationship with Anni had begun.

Munich-born Leopold Leisser, known as the “German Master”, told police that Dewani - whom he photographed during one of their meetings - told him that he was engaged. “He said she was a nice, lovely girl, and he liked her, but he could not break out of it because he would be disowned by the family.’

In addition to Anni’s distressing texts, previously unseen CCTV footage of the couple at about the time of the killing has been uncovered in a joint investigation by The Mail on Sunday and BBC’s Panorama and is likely to play a key role in any court case in South Africa. In one startling image, taken just 24 hours before the killing, Dewani is seen making an unfortunate gesture which could be misconstrued as mimicking a gun.

And just a day after the murder, he is seen apparently smiling during a phone call to relatives.

Swedish-born Anni was kidnapped and shot dead in November 2010 while on honeymoon with millionaire Dewani, 33, from Bristol.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo, who testified that Dewani set up the killing, was jailed with two gunmen. Dewani fought a long legal battle against extradition to South Africa to face a conspiracy to murder charge. He lost and now his lawyers, citing his mental health, have appealed to the Supreme Court.

Anni’s father Vinod Hindocha, 64, and Sneha, 30, had misgivings about the relationship even before the lavish £200 000 wedding in a Mumbai hotel. Anni’s father told police she wanted to end the engagement and walked out on her husband-to-be. Hindocha said Anni had told him: “Papa, he’s like a Hitler - but don’t worry - I will get married.”

Sneha told police that Anni’s doubts about Dewani first emerged in 2009, a year before the wedding. “Anni told me that she had tried to be intimate but Dewani had pushed her away,” her statement says.

“She felt embarrassed and hurt by Dewani’s reaction and we both felt it was weird.”

The same thing happened a few weeks later. “Anni and I speculated that maybe he was a virgin or perhaps not wanting to be intimate before marriage.”

Sneha said Dewani told Anni that his behaviour was due to hormone treatment for infertility.

Her reaction was immediate: “Anni broke off the relationship because she wanted to have children in the future,” said Sneha.

Two months later, Dewani claimed the treatment was working and he could now have sex and father children, persuading her to rekindle the relationship.

But doubts remained. “Anni told me they fought and argued a lot,” Sneha told police. “These trivial arguments were continuous.”

In May 2010, shortly before their engagement that month, Anni e-mailed Dewani again, calling it off, but he promised to “change his ways” and it went ahead.

Anni’s texts to Sneha, translated from Swedish, begin in August 2010 when Anni was visiting Shrien’s family:

* August 5, 2010: “Miss you so much. Don’t want to be with these people. I hate them. Want to cry myself to death.”

* August 25: “Can’t understand why I’m crying all the time.”

By September, matters had reached a head while Anni was in India for wedding preparations:

* September 3: “Crying every day. I feel abandoned by everybody.”

* September 16: “Fighting a lot with Shrien. Told him I’m going home. Wish I never got engaged. Everyone tells me how fortunate I am - even my designer tells me he’s good-looking and that I am lucky. Absolutely sick. We’re seeing each other for three days and only fight.”

* September 21: “I don’t want to marry him. I’m going to be unhappy for the rest of my life. If I know [sic] news like this I would not have got engaged. Feels bad that everyone has booked their tickets. I’m not happy. One cannot even hug him. We have nothing in common. He’s a perfectionist.”

* September 22: “Told his and my parents I don’t want to get married.”

Her father, an electrical contractor, told police he received a tearful call from Dewani’s grandmother Ansyuben in India. “(She) begged me to talk to Anni, stating their family reputation would be zero if Anni decided not to go through with the wedding.”

But the worrying texts from Anni to Sneha continue:

* September 23: ‘We are going to sort everything out but I still feel the same way. September 23 it is not 100 percent good yet.’

A week later, Anni makes her feelings plain after another row:

* September 30: “Hate him. I am not happy.”

Sneha told detectives: “There was a huge amount of animosity between them which resulted in her throwing her engagement ring at him.

“She was concerned that Dewani was lying about being unable to have children.

“She explained her sadness at the fact that they were fighting all the time and that they were not sharing a bed and intimacy as he chose to sleep on the sofa.

“He promised he would try his best to change his ways. Anni agreed to go ahead with the wedding.’”

During the two-day ceremony in Mumbai in late October, an upset Anni asked her cousin if she looked beautiful. Sneha told police this was because “Dewani’s first words to Anni as she approached him on the red carpet were ‘your sari is not proper’.”

According to Sneha’s police statement, Anni told her she and Dewani had agreed to “act out the rest of the wedding ceremonies”.

Later, summoned to the honeymoon suite to take clothes to Anni, Sneha was surprised to be asked inside. “I asked Anni if they had done it, meaning had sex. Anni replied, ‘No, what do you think? I told you we were just acting’.”

Back in the UK after the wedding, Anni said she had again decided to leave Dewani. Sneha told police: “She did not want to go with Dewani to South Africa or anywhere else as she wanted a divorce.”

Anni’s texts suggest she was no happier once the couple were in Cape Town on honeymoon:

* November 10: “What shall I do? It’s been one day and I feel exactly the same as before. I’m really trying. He is a very nice guy but I don’t feel happy at all.”

Yet only the next day - two days before her death - Anni appears to have had a complete change of heart, texting: “Hello! It’s much better now. How are you?

“Is going better than before. Hard to explain but I’ll call you soon as I return. Hate the word divorce.”

Two nights later, Anni was shot dead. Her family told police they noticed strange behaviour from Dewani over the funeral arrangements in the UK.

Hindocha claimed that Dewani refused Anni’s mother any private time with her body and prevented her family from placing roses in the casket, saying: “I don’t want this coffin to look like a dustbin.”

The Mail on Sunday contacted the SAPS and Dewani’s legal counsel Andrew Smith but received no response.

Dewani, a care home owner from Bristol, has always denied ordering the killing of Anni.

He has always denied being gay and says he can prove he was elsewhere on the dates male prostitute Leisser said they met.

Pretoria News

Anni Dewani's uncle has called on the NPA to probe how documents central to the case were "leaked" to the media.

Cape Town - Anni Dewani’s uncle says the murder case is “a mess” and has called on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to investigate how documents central to it were apparently leaked to the media.

“It’s been a mess from day one. It still is a mess. Why can’t they keep the papers safe? They should be locked up… This does not look good for the South African authorities. It’s a shame,” Ashok Hindocha told the Cape Times in a phone interview on Sunday.

Hindocha said it appeared that in South Africa not only could one buy a murderer, but also sensitive court documents.

UK channel BBC One was advertising a Panorama documentary to be aired on Thursday, The Honeymoon Murder: Who Killed Anni?, which questioned whether Shrien Dewani was innocent.

Its website said: “BBC Panorama has obtained the secret police files which make up the prosecution case against the 33-year-old Bristol businessman, and has commissioned leading forensic experts to review all the evidence. Their findings expose fundamental mistakes both in the police investigation and in the interpretation of forensic evidence.”

A short clip on the documentary showed footage including what appeared to be an identity parade and said it would air new CCTV footage as well as “reveal witness lies and incompetence”.

News of the documentary made headlines in SA as well as the UK at the weekend, with the UK publication the Daily Mail showing an image of Dewani apparently distraught after hearing Anni had been murdered, but then in another image smiling.

On Sunday. Hindocha said he had e-mailed Director of Public Prosecutions Rodney de Kock asking how the documents were leaked.

“The South African authorities must do an investigation into how the papers came into the hands of the media. It’s jeopardising the case,” he said. “I don’t want the journalist to be the jury.”

Hindocha said the BBC had indicated to him that it had neither paid for, nor stolen, any documents. On Sunday, NPA spokesman Eric Ntabazalila could not yet say whether it would probe who had leaked the documents.

Dewani is accused of masterminding Anni's murder on November 13, 2010.

Anni’s convicted hit man, Xolile Mngeni, was sentenced to life imprisonment in December. Previously his co-accused, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Zola Tongo, entered into plea and sentencing agreements with the State and were sentenced to 25 and 18 years’ imprisonment respectively.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

Cape Times

The case against nine men who allegedly dumped faeces at Cape Town’s airport has been transferred to a Bellville court.

Cape Town - Nine men who allegedly dumped human waste at Cape Town International Airport appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Monday.

The men, all out on bail, were told their case had been transferred to the Bellville Regional Court.

They would return to court on October 23.

The men are Loyiso Nkohla, Andile Lili, Yanga Mjingwana, Ben Dyani, Jaji Diniso, Bongile Zanazo, Thembela Mbanjwa, Bantubakhe Mqobodiya, and Wandisile Mkapa.

They allegedly dumped 10 buckets of faeces at the airport's departures terminal on June 25. They are charged under the Civil Aviation Act, and face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.

Nkohla is an ANC councillor and Lili is a former councillor. They were out on a warning for a similar offence at a Cape Town train station at the time of their arrest. Seven of the men were initially denied bail, but were later released following an application in the Western Cape High Court.

They were ordered not to convene or attend a protest without authorisation, to refrain from threatening, intimidating, or interfering with members of the public, and to not damage public property.

Nkohla, Diniso, Mbanjwa, Mjingwana, and Zanazo recently had their ANC membership temporarily suspended pending a disciplinary hearing outcome, related to sanitation protests in the province.

“This is the result of continuous defiance of the organisational instruction to desist from engaging in activities that bring the African National Congress into disrepute,” provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said at the time.

Lili was expelled as a councillor in March after being found guilty of taking part in the illegal demolition of houses and for making derogatory comments to Khayelitsha residents.

The ANC suspended him for bringing the party into disrepute.

He is challenging the expulsion in the Western Cape High Court.

Nkohla was given a three-year suspended sentence last year for disrupting President Jacob Zuma's centenary speech at the Good Hope Centre.

Cape Town has been hit by a number of human waste dumping incidents in the past few months by people protesting about sanitation in informal settlements.

Many believed the portable flush toilets (PFTs) being rolled out by the city were no better than the bucket system. - Sapa

The City of Cape Town has warned residents to expect adverse weather, including gale force winds, for the next few days.

Cape Town - The city has warned residents to expect adverse weather, including gale force winds, for the next few days.

Cape Town’s Disaster Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said rough seas and north-westerly winds of up to 65km/h were forecast.

“The extended period of precipitation will exacerbate the discomfort levels and flood-risk situation on the Cape Flats as the water table will increase significantly,” he said on Sunday night.

The weather service issued a severe weather alert on Sunday of high seas with waves exceeding 6m between Table Bay and Plettenberg Bay. This would subside overnight.

According to the city, 158 880 residents and 39 505 household structures had been negatively affected by storms last month and this.

It had spent nearly R16 million providing help to people during the winter months. Sunday’s high winds and heavy rain in Cape Town caused further flooding.

Sonja Jordaan who lives in an informal settlement in Schaapkraal said her children were sick and she could not remember a winter as bad as this one.

Her shack was wet and her clothes never dried. “We can’t even light a fire because everything is wet.

“Children can’t live like this,” she said.

“The water is contaminated.

“We can’t take our children to school… how can they walk through it?”

Solomons-Johannes said: “It is private property and has nothing to do with the city.”

matthew.hirsch@inl.co.za

Cadet News Agency

Cape Times

A Grassy Park property owner says the City of Cape Town is guilty of “unfair business practices”.

Cape Town - A Grassy Park property owner says the City of Cape Town is guilty of “unfair business practices” for the way property valuation and rates are calculated.

Koetbudien Loghday has written to mayor Patricia de Lille and several senior council officials about his concerns, including a 200 to 300 percent rise in the value of his property after the 2012 valuation.

The value of his basic house was R900 000 on the open market. It was previously valued by the city at R1 175 000 but in the latest valuation, this trebled to R3 126 516.

“I have complained, submitted the objections within the relevant times and on the correct forms. All I receive as response is the City of Cape Town’s automated response.”

Meanwhile, he was expected to make payments on the “inflated” amounts or risk legal action.

Loghday, who owns several properties, said that under the city’s rates formula, two properties of the same size, age and design in the same area should have similar values. But he had found that “some people enjoy the benefits of low valuations while others have to pay inflated amounts. Is there something going on here that shouldn’t be?”

Ian Nielson, mayoral committee member for finance, said that if there were errors in the city’s valuations they were “unintentional” and properties that were incorrectly assessed would be revalued in supplementary valuations.

The city was bound by national legislation to value properties at market value, defined as the amount the property would have been sold for on the day of the valuation on the open market.”Because the city arrives at rateable values based on actual property sales, the value should be very close to what it would fetch if it were sold.”

Valuation also relied on detailed information about the city’s 800 000 rateable properties and a sophisticated computerised system.

“Because of the volumes that we are dealing with, errors do occur and it is for this reason that the legislation provides for a public inspection and objection period.”

But Loghday said a prime property on Victoria Road in Grassy Park was valued by the council at R2 million while the vacant land across the road, which was a “fraction of the size” was sold for R4m. His calculations of the difference between actual valuations and current valuations of several properties showed that some were getting a benefit of at least R35 000 a month.

Neilson said Loghday’s objections had been recorded on the valuations system and one had already been resolved. “Over 33 000 objections were received and it will take some time to address all of these.”

He acknowledged that some of the vacant erven in Grassy Park did appear to have been undervalued. 

Cape Argus

Petrol attendant Musa Wadie’s father, who worked at the same garage, died following an attack allegedly linked to the ongoing strike.

Cape Town - Petrol attendant Musa Wadie spent the weekend in mourning after his father, who worked at the same garage in Grassy Park, died following an attack allegedly linked to the ongoing strike.

Wadie’s father, Adeen Wadie, 55, was beaten by several people while on duty at a petrol station in 5th Avenue in Grassy Park on Tuesday morning, according to a colleague, Ismail Bwanali. He was taken to Tygerberg Hospital with a severe head injury, where he died on Friday.

His father, a Malawian national who worked at the station for nearly seven years, was the first known attendant killed during the strike, which enters its second week on Monday.

“When we called his wife (in Malawi) she just started crying. It’s a big loss,” said Wadie on Sunday.

National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) warned that if negotiations failed at a meeting in Johannesburg on Monday, the union would rally non-striking workers to join the strike.

Numsa is demanding a double-digit across the board increase, a R6 000 minimum wage in 2016 and a nightshift allowance. Management has offered between 7 and 7.5 percent across the board.

Several incidents of violence and intimidation have been reported and dozens of petrol stations countrywide have closed.

While the garage where the Wadies worked was closed and abandoned on Sunday, relatives and colleagues - including Bwanali, who was with Adeen Wadie soon after the attack - gathered outside the Wadie home in Grassy Park to pay their respects after the burial on Saturday.

The father was a breadwinner for most of his seven children. “He sent money to his wife in Malawi for the children there, and to my grand-mother,” his son said.

Wadie, 26, the oldest child, said he would now be responsible for helping his siblings financially. I will have to help pay for my sister (who is) in matric. My father’s youngest child is five, so they still need to go to school.

“We couldn’t have the funeral in Malawi because we just didn’t have the money and we didn’t know how long the strike is going to last.”

Numsa said it was investigating if any members were involved in the attack.

Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said a case of murder has been opened.

A number of other garages in surrounding areas on Sunday were closed, while others operated with casual workers.

The night supervisor at a garage in Military Road in Steenberg, Gasant Ismail, said they were forced to hire casual workers as their station has been under attack.

“On Friday night, a group of about 20 guys carrying sticks and sjamboks showed up and told us to stop working. The four of us who were at the pumps just left everything and started running. They managed to catch one of the guys, hit him and stole his pump tag,” he said.

Another garage manager in the area, who asked not to be named, has enlisted four of her family members to help run the station as her workers have been intimidated since Tuesday to not enter the premises.

Retail Motor Industry (RMI) spokesman Jakkie Olivier said the employers will apply for an interdict at the Labour Court this week to prevent striking workers from intimidating those who are not on strike.

“Some petrol stations have been forced to employ scab labour. The intimidation and violence has also seen a decrease in the number of employees turning up for work,” he said.

RMI is offering 7.5 percent increases.

Numsa provincial secretary Vuyo Lefile said its members are expected to take to the streets in Bellville and picket at the entrances of employers on Monday.

“The employers must meet our demands by this week or face an intensified strike,” Lefile said.

He said workers have indicated that they can go without a salary for the next three weeks, “because they will be rewarded”.

Petrol attendants, car spare part dealers and panelbeaters downed tools a week ago.

barbara.maregele@inl.co.za and jason.felix@inl.co.za

Cape Times

According to ANC insiders, Marius Fransman is the favourite candidate for the Western Cape’s top spot.

Cape Town - As Western Cape ANC branches start voting their preferred-for national and provincial candidates after next year’s elections, party insiders said Marius Fransman could be the party’s preferred candidate for premier.

Other names, including former provincial leader Chris Nissen, Phillip Dexter, Nosey Pieterse, and even former Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, appear on provincial lobby lists of preferred candidates for deployment to parliament after next year’s elections.

ANC members in the Western Cape started to convene branch general meetings last week to nominate the leaders they want to represent them in the national and provincial governments.

Surprisingly Fransman, the deputy minister of international relations, stays on the provincial legislature list, followed by his deputy, Abe Pekeur, and Maurencia Gillion, the party’s deputy secretary.

Party insiders said this might suggest that Fransman was settling down permanently in the province and giving up his international relations portfolio. It also suggested that Fransman would be the ANC’s preferred candidate for premier.

The Cape Argus has seen at least three ANC lobby lists doing the rounds, including the so-called “unity list” purportedly drawn up by warring factions now set on a united front.

And while the nomination lobby lists have raised the ire of several members, others were satisfied that efforts are being made to accommodate all.

Dexter, who was roped in to help run the ANC’s election campaign in the province after rejoining the ANC following his stint with Cope, is eighth on the province-to-national list, followed by Nissen, a former Western Cape ANC leader at No 12, and Nosey Pieterse, the organiser of the recent farmworkers’ strikes in the province, at No 16.

Petros’s name made a surprise appearance under nominations for the national parliament.

Fransman said the ANC had identified credible individuals who felt the Western Cape was moving backwards in terms of transformation and equality. As a result the ANC was reaching out to “everyone”.

Other Western Cape names on various lists to go to parliament include ANC MPLs Lynne Brown and Mcebisi Skwatsha, ANC provincial treasurer Fezile Calana and former Human Settlements MEC, Richard Dyantyi.

Confirming that his name was not on the national list, Fransman said: “I’m making myself available on the provincial list. I don’t know what the structure will do but I will put my faith in the structure.”

The ANC provincial chairman also called on comrades “not to have factional list in the Western Cape”.

Fransman said at the last provincial executive committee meeting the provincial executive thoroughly discussed the list processes.

“We must make sure that the list process is being managed in such a way that it does not break the morale of the structures. So the call is on all structures and leaders to heed the call of cohesion.”

But, despite the calls for unity, the third list which was drawn up and widely circulated months before the province’s nomination process opened, completely snubbed Fransman and instead saw the name of suspended spokesman for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Lionel Adendorf, on top for the provincial legislature.

Skwatsha was on top of the province-to-national list followed by Max Ozinsky. Adendorf was suspended after he wrote a letter to the Cape Times criticising Fransman.

Asked about the list, Adendorf said he was aware of it but declined to comment, saying it would be wiser to allow the ANC’s list processes to run their course.

Insiders were also concerned that the lists contained the names of serving councillors, who have been barred by the party from being included on 2014 national and provincial lists.

There is resistance and frustration in the regions over barring councillors, insiders confirmed.

But Fransman said: “We all need to heed the call of the national executive committee that councillors should not be on the list other than in exceptional cases which will be assessed individually.”

Others hoped that the issue would not turn ugly.

“Not everyone is happy with the names on the list - it’s far from perfect at all,” another member said.

On all three lists, President Jacob Zuma is the preferred candidate for the national Parliament, followed by ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa. Two lists also name Kgalema Motlanthe in third place.

Cape Argus

A woman arrived home to find her husband in the back of a police van - and a dead woman in her house.

Cape Town - A woman arrived home to find her husband in the back of a police van - and a strangled woman in her house.

Cops have arrested the husband for allegedly killing his lover, whose cries for help had gone unanswered by neighbours.

Witnesses tell the Daily Voice the deceased was having an affair with the suspect.

Earlier on Thursday, he was spotted with the victim and two other women.

A 60-year-old neighbour, who wants to remain anonymous, says she heard the young woman screaming from the man’s rented room.

“I heard a woman shout, ‘Please someone help me, he wants to rape me’,” she says.

“I knew something was wrong and I couldn’t walk there because of my recent knee-replacement operation.

“But I shouted back to them and asked what the hell was going on.”

She says she called the cops and neighbours for help.

“I knew something was really wrong in there and then I called my son to call the police again,” she adds.

“They eventually arrived and when they got here they knocked and the suspect refused to open.

“At the time, the landlord arrived and he opened.

“When they walked in, they found the woman dead and the man was arrested.

“His wife came home to find her husband in the back of the police van.”

The woman says the man had just moved into the yard.

“He was only here for two weeks and he seemed like a nice man even though he had tjappies of the 28s gangs on his arms. I didn’t expect this from him,” she says.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirms: “At about 5.10pm, Grassy Park police attended a murder scene at 3rd Avenue in Lotus River.

“On their arrival, they were informed neighbours heard screams from a nearby room of a female, who eventually went quiet.

“The officers went to investigate where the noise was coming from, and the door of the premises was opened [by] the landlord.

“Inside they found a male hiding behind a door and on the floor there was a body of an unknown female.”

Police arrested the 35-year-old male from Lotus River for murder and he is due at the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning.

Daily Voice

There is no threat that the Hawks will be subject to political interference, the Western Cape High Court has heard.

Cape Town - There is no threat that the Hawks will be subject to political interference, a full bench of the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.

Kemp J Kemp, for President Jacob Zuma, is completing his argument in a case brought by businessman Hugh Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation.

They argue that the South African Police Service Amendment Act, which was passed by Parliament last year, does not sufficiently insulate the Hawks from political interference.

The act gives the police minister the power to suspend the head of the directorate of priority crime investigations, more commonly known as the Hawks.

The minister can also dismiss the Hawks chief after an inquiry headed by a retired judge.

Kemp rejected this argument on Monday.

“We don't support the notion that, because the minister has these powers, that the head (of the Hawks) is in imminent threat of improper removal,” Kemp told the court.

Sapa

Three men accused of killing gay nightclub owner Bruno Bronn will go on trial in October.

Cape Town - Three men accused of killing gay nightclub owner Bruno Bronn will go on trial next month.

Johan Frederick Coetzer, Fareez Allie, and Achmat Toffa appeared before Western Cape High Court Judge President John Hlophe on Monday morning.

Hlophe set the date for trial as October 14.

The men are accused of killing Bronn, 50, in his Green Point home on February 7 last year.

According to the indictment, he was strangled and died of suffocation.

He owned the popular nightclubs Bronx and Navigaytion in Somerset Road, Green Point.

The men face charges of premeditated murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. Both charges carry life sentences.

Coetzer is out on bail of R20 000 and Allie of R5000.

Toffa was granted bail in the matter, but remains in custody at Pollsmoor Prison on unrelated charges.

The court previously heard that the prison refused to release Toffa even though he was recently acquitted on an unrelated charge, and was out on warning for another.

Hlophe said at the time he would sign an order confirming that Toffa was out on bail in the Bronn case.

Sapa

Parliament must explain the Hawks legislation to the Western Cape High Court, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s lawyers have said.

Cape Town -

Parliament must explain the Hawks legislation to the Western Cape High Court, it heard on Monday.

Michael Donen SC, for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, said that as Parliament had drawn up the SA Police Service (SAPS) Amendment Act, which was being challenged, it was the “main culprit” and should be present to defend itself.

“Parliament... consisting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, has a direct and substantial interest in the matter,” Donen said.

Kemp J Kemp, for President Jacob Zuma, also a respondent in the case, did not agree with Donen.

He said the government, and not Parliament, had been ordered to draw up the legislation in response to a Constitutional Court ruling, which found fault with parts of the decision to replace the now disbanded Scorpions with the Hawks.

Earlier, Kemp said there was no threat that the Hawks would be subject to political interference, as was argued by businessman Hugh Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation - the applicants in the matter.

They argue that the SAPS Amendment Act, which was passed by Parliament last year, does not sufficiently insulate the Hawks from political interference.

The act gives the police minister the power to suspend the head of the directorate of priority crime investigations, more commonly known as the Hawks.

The minister can also dismiss the Hawks' chief after an inquiry headed by a retired judge.

Kemp rejected this argument on Monday.

“We don't support the notion that, because the minister has these powers, that the head (of the Hawks) is in imminent threat of improper removal,” he told the court. - Sapa

Western Cape premier Helen Zille has launched a violence prevention policy framework for the province.

Johannesburg -

Western Cape premier Helen Zille launched a violence prevention policy framework for the province on Monday.

“The policy brings together a range of proposals focused on reducing and preventing violence in the Western Cape, which are all in line with our government’s 'whole-of-society' approach,” Zille said in a statement.

The provincial government recognised that the criminal justice system had a critical role to play when it came to reducing violence in communities and it was crucial that wrong-doers were brought to book.

“Only the South African Police Service, the public prosecutor, the courts and correctional services, working together in a seamless pipeline, have the power to ensure this happens.”

She encouraged residents to be active in the fight against violence and said their involvement was what underpinned the violence prevention policy.

“Effective partnerships and combined efforts between all three spheres of government, civil society and communities are the only way we will address the underlying factors that give rise to acts of violence in our society,” Zille said.

The policy had been developed in response to a long-standing need for a coherent and integrated framework for understanding and effectively tackling the very high injury and mortality rates resulting from violence.

“The effect of this violence is enormous. It creates trauma for families (and particularly children) and weakens communities where the social fabric is often already severely strained,” she said.

Alcohol was an underlying contributor to the violence. Part of the plan to curb the problem was to reduce the availability of alcohol and alcohol abuse.

“Critical to the success of this intervention is the closing down of illegal shebeens in communities.”

Zille said while the provincial government was committed to creating safe communities and had introduced a range of socio-economic interventions to reduce violent behaviour, it could not achieve this alone.

“The successful implementation of the policy would require the co-operation of all role-players in the health and criminal justice sectors, as well as the active participation and partnership of citizens and civil society,” she said. - Sapa

A woman who defrauded Wynberg Girls’ High School in Cape Town out of more than R500 000 has been jailed.

Cape Town - A woman who defrauded the Wynberg Girls’ High School in Cape Town out of more than R500,000 was jailed on Monday for in effect seven years.

Tracy van der Westhuizen, 39, of Uitzicht in Cape Town’s Northern Suburbs, already faced a suspended prison sentence for a previous fraud offence.

She was sentenced in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court by Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.

She pleaded guilty to 24 counts of fraud, involving R503 280 embezzled between December 11, 2011, and January 12, 2012.

Her trial took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated for her by legal aid attorney Hailey Lawrence.

Prosecutor Denver Combrinck told the court Van der Westhuizen was sentenced in July 2009 to three years imprisonment, conditionally suspended for five years, on 29 counts of fraud, by magistrate Amrith Chabillal.

One of the conditions was that she not commit fraud again during the period of suspension.

At Combrinck’s request, the three-year suspended sentence was also put into effect, but at the request of the defence, Sonnenberg ordered that it run concurrently with the seven-year sentence.

According to the charge sheet, Van der Westhuizen was the school’s bursar, and perpetrated the fraud by not banking money received by the school each day.

She failed to issue receipts to each and every person, as their proof of payment.

According to the charge sheet, she also failed to indicate the methods of payments received, which made it difficult to reconcile the ledgers.

Often, when cash payments were made, she recorded the method of payment as being by bank card.

According to the charge sheet, she kept locker and music fees, money received for school clothing and photocopies, donations to the school, and the proceeds of fund-raising events. - Sapa

Embattled Northern Cape ANC leader John Block remains innocent until proven otherwise, the ANC has said.

Kimberley -

Embattled Northern Cape ANC leader John Block remains innocent until proven otherwise, the ANC said on Monday.

“The ANC will not allow itself to be pushed to take action on any matter, based on allegations,” said African National Congress Northern Cape spokeswoman Gail Parker.

She said the party believed in the principle of innocent until proven guilty and this counted for Block, who faces criminal charges in court.

Last week, the Northern Cape High Court granted the Asset Forfeiture Unit a forfeiture order against property owned by Block to the value of R5.85 million.

The forfeiture included 25 ordinary shares in Trifecta Resources and Exploration, given to him on September 8, 2006.

It also included the amount of R349 919, which was the value of renovations made by the Trifecta Group to a guest house belonging to Block in Upington.

NPA Northern Cape spokeswoman Mashudu Malabi said Block did not oppose Friday’s application.

He was arrested by the Hawks with two other provincial ANC heavyweights Yolanda Botha and Alvin Botes earlier this year.

The case goes to court again in October 2013.

The NPA alleges the Trifecta Group entered into a number of lease agreements with the Northern Cape department of social development in which the rentals, or rental space, were grossly inflated.

As a result, the Trifecta Group received or would receive, at the end of the lease agreements, rentals of R57 million.

Friday’s order forms part of a series of freezing orders obtained by the AFU in the Trifecta matter against a number of Northern Cape politicians and officials in the department of social development.

Malabi said the case was part of the ongoing work of the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT) set up by the Cabinet in July 2010.

It was set up to deal more effectively with large corruption investigations.

Parker said the ANC respected the work done by law enforcement agencies.

She said no one in the ANC was untouchable.

“Comrade John Block is a humble man, who is liked by the people of the province,” she said.

Parker said the ANC would nevertheless not stop taking action against anyone who was found guilty of wrongdoing in the party. - Sapa

The City of Cape Town has spent nearly R16 million since August to help people affected by storms and floods, it said.

Cape Town -

The City of Cape Town has spent nearly R16 million since August to help people affected by storms and floods, it said on Monday.

“Since August, 204 206 residents have been affected by flooding caused by the severe weather,” city spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said in a statement.

“The number of flood victims who have been helped by the city since August is nearing 160 000.”

He said more people were helped during bad weather conditions at the weekend.

“The city provided flood relief to more than 400 residents over the weekend, restored electricity connections, and cleared roads affected by the inclement weather.”

He said 60 houses were affected by floods in the low-lying area of Khayelitsha. Hot meals and blankets were provided to the displaced.

The Lotus Park informal settlement was waterlogged and the city provided sand to the area, Solomons-Johannes said. - Sapa

The Hawks crime-busting unit is sufficiently insulated from political interference, the Western Cape High Court heard.

Cape Town -

The Hawks crime-busting unit is sufficiently insulated from political interference, the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.

Michael Donen SC, for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, said all defects with the 2008 legislation which replaced the Scorpions with the Hawks, officially known as the Directorate Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), had been remedied.

“We say that which was broken was fixed,” Donen said.

Last year, Parliament passed the SA Police Service Amendment Act, government's response to a Constitutional Court ruling that the 2008 act was defective.

The case was brought by businessman Hugh Glenister.

The Constitutional Court found that the Hawks would be open to undue political influence because of its structure and functioning.

After the act was amended last year, Glenister said he would continue to challenge it as he believed the Hawks would remain open to political influence.

The act gives the police minister the power to suspend the head of the Hawks.

The minister can also dismiss the Hawks' chief after an inquiry headed by a retired judge.

Glenister and the Helen Suzman Foundation contend that the minister would have too much power over the unit and its operations.

Donen disagreed, and said the new law provided the DPCI with the right degree of autonomy and independence.

Earlier, Donen argued that Parliament should have been made a respondent in the matter.

He said that as Parliament had drawn up the amendment act which was being challenged, it was the “main culprit” and should be present to defend itself.

“Parliament... consisting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, has a direct and substantial interest in the matter,” Donen said.

Kemp J Kemp, for President Jacob Zuma, also a respondent in the case, did not agree with Donen.

He said the government, and not Parliament, had been ordered to draw up the legislation by the Constitutional Court.

Kemp earlier said there was no threat that the Hawks would be subject to political interference.

“We don't support the notion that, because the minister has these powers, that the head (of the Hawks) is in imminent threat of improper removal,” he told the court. - Sapa