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Cape events ‘strangled by red tape’

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Event planners and civic groups say Cape Town’s policies are making it almost impossible to hold “innovative” gatherings.

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Cape Town - Organisers and civic groups who want to hold innovative or unconventional events claim the City of Cape Town’s policies ensure their events are “strangled by red tape”.

The complaint was echoed by participants in this past weekend’s Toy Run, for which more than 8 000 bikers took to the streets for charity.

Marcela Guerrero Casas of the Open Streets initiative has said that costs and processes are often a deterrent to innovative events.

Making provision for “community-driven activities that fall outside the typical commercial realm and facilitating permit processes” would go a long way to encourage genuine community building in the city, he said.

The recent furore over the city’s intention to stop the Moonlight Mass night cycle because of safety concerns sparked a heated debate on social media platforms about the city’s inflexible approach to community-driven initiatives.

“Really disappointed that the permit for #moonlightmass was withdrawn without any apparent reason. Because it merely didn’t fit any box when it came to a permit applications. I find this ridiculous. I am having the same problems with the city with a food market I’m trying to start. It doesn’t fit any boxes and therefore nobody takes responsibility for the permit application,” read one of the many tweets about the event.

Rory Williams, co-founder of Open Streets, wrote that it was an “unfortunate reality that city officials often are unresponsive to unconventional requests and seem uninterested”.

He said the World Design Capital 2014 provided an opportunity for the city to test new processes and allow for creative events.

But the city has defended its sometimes “onerous” response to event applications, saying it has to comply with national legislation when it considers the merits of allowing any event to take place.

“The consequence of not doing so is that the city becomes liable for acts of error or omissions or where it could be deemed negligent for not having applied due care to the event applications,” said Grant Pascoe, mayoral committee member for tourism and events.

With a number of big events attracting thousands of people and bringing in millions of rand in revenue, Cape Town has earned a reputation as an events destination.

According to last year’s state of the central city survey by the Cape Town Central City Improvement District, the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour brings R450 million to the city’s coffers, while the Cape Town International Jazz Festival’s contribution is about R700m.

Pascoe said the city spent R33m on key events. It had hosted 31 events from this budget and 35 ad hoc events. A further 42 events had been sponsored by either partial funding or services.

The city also organised three annual events: the Festival of Lights, the New Year’s Eve event at the Grand Parade and the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Minstrels Parade on January 4.

The city has provided R40m for the World Design Capital 2014.

The city’s events policy is fairly new, having only been approved by the council in May. But one of its “desired outcomes” is to “create an enabling mechanism for new approaches to events”.

It also states: “Cape Town aspires to being a thought leader in the hosting of events and encourages innovation, new initiatives and creativity.”

The policy applies to all events in the city which may require the council’s services, have implications for public safety, the environment and local communities and which take place in a public or private place.

There are various ways the city could fund an event: as a sponsor; as a host, for which it will provide up to 50 percent of the costs; by buying a rights package in return for funding or by creating and funding its own events. All events require a permit issued by the city’s event permit office, and the organisers must comply with the city’s events by-law and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Pascoe said the office dealt with about 5 000 event requests a year, but only about 1 500 permits had been issued to date this year.

He said that the city could not issue a permit for the Moonlight Mass event because there was no event organiser and the prerequisite safety features were not in place.

The city was also required to deploy traffic officers and other support staff for each event hosted in the city, and this often meant that resources were pulled from other areas where they might be of greater use.

With the Moonlight Mass event earlier this month, staff were pulled from the flood-stricken areas to be on standby for a few hundred cyclists.

Pascoe said it was important to note that no event, not even a repeat event, would be given approval for a whole year.

“Each event must be applied for separately.”

This was to ensure the proper response to the number of participants, prevailing conditions and concurrence with other city events. He said the facilitators had been invited to a follow-up meeting next month before the next scheduled event.

Pascoe said the city was working with all event organisations to find solutions for problems or concerns.

A special mayoral sub-committee had been set up to review all new applications, “from multimillion-rand concerts at the Cape Town Stadium to smaller events in local communities”.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

Cape Argus


Artist in the dark over murder charge - lawyer

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Zwelethu Mthethwa’s defence lawyer says the State has yet to provide evidence in its murder case against the renowned artist.

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Cape Town - Internationally renowned artist Zwelethu Mthethwa has been facing a murder charge for six months, but his defence team says the State is yet to provide it with evidence against him.

This was revealed in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court by Mthethwa’s lawyer William Booth, who learnt on Monday that his client’s trial would be moved to the Western Cape High Court.

Mthethwa, 52, is charged with the murder of 23-year-old Nokuphila Khumalo, a prostitute, in Woodstock on April 13.

It is alleged that he beat Khumalo to death in Ravenscraig Road and the incident was caught by CCTV cameras. Mthethwa was arrested on May 5 when he handed himself over to police. Khumalo was buried in Kimberley in June.

Booth told magistrate Alfreda Lewis that he had received a letter from the office of the provincial director of public prosecutions (DPP) notifying him that the trial would be heard in the high court.

“The State had earlier stated that it would charge him at the regional court. For some reason they have decided to charge him at the high court,” Booth said.

He was not pleased with the DPP’s decision and said he would query the decision with his office.

Booth also told Lewis that he was yet to be provided with the State’s evidence against Mthethwa which he had requested at previous appearances. “I’m asking that the court request the State to provide the evidence as stated in the docket.”

Booth said the evidence included statements by State witnesses, CCTV footage and documents in the docket.

Outside court, Booth told reporters that if the State did not provide the evidence soon, they would be forced to get a court order compelling it to provide the documents.

At his last appearance last month, Mthethwa had to be whisked away in a car after Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) activists and prostitutes chased after him and mobbed his vehicle. On Monday, he evaded them and photographers waiting outside the court.

This was after Lewis postponed his case to January 31, for the State and Booth to decide on a high court date. She also extended his R100 000 bail.

Nokuphila Khumalo’s mother, Eva Khumalo, was in court on Monday.

She had been frustrated by the delays. “She did not deserve to die like that. I want to know why she was killed. The person must pay for it.”

Mthethwa, a painter and photographer, has shown his work at several international exhibitions and was represented in New York by the Jack Shainman Gallery.

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Woman’s body found in backyard

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A woman's partially clothed body was found in a shack in the backyard of a house in George, Western Cape.

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Cape Town - A woman's body was found in a shack in the backyard of a house in George, Western Cape police said on Tuesday.

Captain Bernadine Steyn said the 25-year-old woman was found on Monday in Versfeld Street in Conville.

“Her body was found on a mattress and was partially clothed. It is suspected that she was assaulted with a blunt object in her face.”

Steyn said a post-mortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death.

No arrests had been made.

Sapa

De Jager pointed out teen’s body parts

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A police officer told the court how murder accused Johannes de Jager directed police to Charmaine Mare's body parts.

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Cape Town - Johannes Christiaan de Jager pointed out the drain where he hid the torso of teenager Charmaine Mare, a police officer told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Lt-Col Michael Barkhuizen said he conducted the pointing out with De Jager after he consulted a lawyer.

Barkhuizen is a leader of a detective group in the Hawks which investigates high priority murders.

De Jager has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of prostitute Hiltina Alexander in May 2008, and the murder of 18-year-old Mare, an Mpumalanga resident, on January 11 this year.

He previously told the court that Mare had been taking her time to get ready and he had grabbed her arm in the bathroom. He said she slipped on the bath mat, or lost her balance, and hit the rim of the bath. She never regained consciousness. He panicked and tried to get rid of her body.

Barkhuizen said De Jager led him to a house in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, on January 16, where he had been staying with his girlfriend, her daughter and his son. Mare had been staying at the house during a holiday and to visit the daughter.

“There he pointed out certain things to me and made certain reports to me,” he said.

A portion of the recorded pointing out was shown to the court. In the video De Jager is seen walking to the house with handcuffs and chains on his ankles and wrists. The first stop is a purple bedroom, which has posters on the walls, items scattered on the floor, and an unmade bed.

De Jager indicates this is where Mare slept, but that it looks different. He then takes Barkhuizen to a small bathroom and says this is where Mare changed into her clothes that morning.

“You said she slipped here?” Barkhuizen asks in the video.

“That's correct, yes,” De Jager replies, showing where her body lay. The next scene shows De Jager walking through the garage to a paved courtyard outside, where he points at a square drain hole in the middle, about 40cm wide.

Barkhuizen told the court the accused also led him to a deserted plot near the Kraaifontein shooting range.

“I later established this is where the deceased's body had been discarded previously,” he testified.

“Lastly, later that afternoon, the accused took me to a spot on the N2 highway near Macassar where he pointed out a spot on the left hand side of the road.”

He said two objects were found, wrapped in dog food bags, in a Mr Price plastic bag.

“These bags contained the legs of the deceased... These two objects were lying partially concealed in the grass next to the tree.”

Barkhuizen said when De Jager led them to that spot, he exclaimed: “Daar le hulle nog” (They are still lying there)”.

Sapa

Jeweller ditches bail hearing

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A Cape Town jeweller accused of a multi-million rand fraud failed to arrive for her court appearance.

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Cape Town - A Rondebosch jeweller accused of a multi-million rand fraud failed to arrive for her court appearance on Monday.

A warrant for arrest for Ferial Mohamed-Bobat will be issued if she again fails to appear on February 6, a magistrate at the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court warned.

In September 2011 she was arrested on charges of theft and fraud.

This followed allegations by clients, who had entrusted jewellery to her Damjee Bros Jewellers store, that their property had not been returned. She is currently out on R25 000 bail.

Mohamed-Bobat and her husband Denish Nathoo, the former owners of Damjee branches in Cavendish Square and Rylands, also stand accused of defrauding insurance companies out of more than R1 million.

The couple lodged claims after an alleged break-in at their Rondebosch East home and were paid R760 000 for jewellery (by Zurich Insurance) and around R292 000 for household items by another insurer.

The State alleges that the break-in was staged with the intention of defrauding customers and the insurance companies. Both Damjee Bros branches were subsequently closed.

The charge sheet, presented at court on Monday, notes that the couple received jewellery from customers for repair, manufacture and design according to specifications. Deposits were paid in many instances.

In April 2011, a case of house robbery at Bobat’s Rondebosch East residence was opened. Mohamed-Bobat reported to police that jewellery belonging to customers amounting to R900 000 was stolen.

The State alleges she lied to 114 customers when she informed them that insurance did not pay out. Police subsequently recovered some of the jewellery from Mohamed-Bobat’s Claremont flat.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Cop in court for dagga dealing

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A police officer accused of dealing in dagga appeared in the George Magistrate's Court.

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George - A police officer accused of dealing in dagga appeared in the George Magistrate's Court on Monday, Western Cape police said.

Sammy Stroebel, 45, was granted bail of R1000, Captain Malcolm Pojie said on Tuesday. Pojie was not immediately able to provide Stroebel's rank.

He said Stroebel was allegedly caught red-handed as he sold a bag with 29.45kg of dagga to a buyer in Lawaaikamp, near George.

He was on duty when he was arrested.

Stroebel would be back in court on January 20.

Sapa

Slain teen recorded sexual advances

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Voice recordings in which Charmaine Mare repeatedly turned down sexual advances from Johannes de Jager were played in court.

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Cape Town - Voice recordings in which slain teenager Charmaine Mare repeatedly turned down sexual advances from Johannes Christiaan de Jager were played in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Lt-Col Michael Barkhuizen played recordings on Mare's Blackberry phone while testifying in De Jager's trial.

Barkhuizen is a leader of a detective group in the Hawks that investigates high priority murders.

De Jager has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of prostitute Hiltina Alexander in May 2008, and the murder of 16-year-old Mare, a Mpumalanga resident, on January 11 this year.

Barkhuizen said he contacted Mare's friend Nikita Small, from Kriel in Mpumalanga, to get Mare's cellphone password, which she gave to him. The password was needed to extract data, photos, messages, and call records from Mare's phone for the investigation.

He then asked a detective in Kriel to interview her.

“He informed me that he had found certain voice recordings on Nikita Small's cellphone which had allegedly been sent to her by the deceased,” Barkhuizen said.

The 13 short recordings were e-mailed to him and he transcribed them for the National Prosecuting Authority. He later got a computer disc with the recordings and had them transcribed by a professional company.

In the recordings, Mare repeatedly tells De Jager: “Ek will alleen le (I want to lie by myself)”.

De Jager is heard asking her why she wants to be alone and sleep so much. In one recording, Mare says De Jager's hands are cold and he should take them off her. De Jager replies that he wants to warm his hands.

Mare is heard in another recording saying she does not want to sleep with De Jager.

“Ek het vir oom gese ek is onder ouderdom oom, oom weet dit, (I told you uncle that I'm underage, uncle knows that)” she is heard saying.

He asks how old she is and she replies that she is 16. De Jager says she can legally have sex.

Mare replies: “Maar dit werk nie so met my nie oom. Ek wag tot ek getroud is (But that's not how it works with me uncle. I'm waiting until I'm married)”.

Barkhuizen said while he had confirmed the voices belonged to Mare and De Jager, he could not testify about the dates and times of the recordings.

Sapa

Murdered teen feared De Jager

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Sixteen-year-old Charmaine Mare was too scared to sleep while alone with murder accused Johannes de Jager, the court heard.

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Cape Town - Sixteen-year-old Charmaine Mare was too scared to sleep while alone in a house with murder accused Johannes Christiaan de Jager, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.

In Blackberry messages to a family friend called Mrs Venter, Mare confided that she desperately wanted to leave Cape Town and go home to Kriel, in Mpumalanga, because De Jager was making repeated sexual advances.

This was according to the testimony of Lt-Col Michael Barkhuizen, a Hawks detective who helped with the investigation of Mare's death on January 11 this year.

De Jager has pleaded not guilty to Mare's murder, and to the rape and murder of prostitute Hiltina Alexander in May 2008.

He was living with his girlfriend, her daughter, and his son in a house in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, at the time of Mare's death. Mare had been staying at the house during a holiday and visit to the daughter.

However, she was alone with De Jager from January 7 to January 11 because the rest of the family was on a boat cruise.

Mare and Venter exchanged a flurry of messages on January 9, in which she said she was scared about that evening. She did not have airtime and could not phone anyone for help.

She had asked her family to buy her a bus ticket back to her home town, but they were struggling to collect the money. Venter replied that she would have bought a bus ticket, but also had no money.

She advised Mare to lock her bedroom door and to warn De Jager that she would report him to police should anything happen.

Mare replied that the door did not have a lock, so Venter advised her to push something against it, so she would be warned if someone entered.

She said she had not eaten anything, because she was too scared to take anything from De Jager.

“Ekt hm record tannie ek gn vi sy vrou speel (I recorded him aunty. I'm going to play this to his wife),” read one of her messages.

Another message read that her cellphone speaker was broken.

The next day, Venter checked that Mare was all right and advised her to eat something because, if she was weak, De Jager would be able to take advantage of her. Mare sent her a drawing of a crying face.

Venter replied that Mare was talented and that when she was back home, she would try to enrol her in an art class if she promised not to take drugs or smoke dagga again.

Mare responded: “Rerig tannie??? Ek belowe tannie ek sal eks 2 weke skoon!!!... ek wil iets van my lewe maak (Really aunty? I promise aunty I will. I am two weeks clean... I want to make something of my life).”

The last recorded activity on Mare's phone was at 4.49am on January 11. Subsequent messages and phone calls went unanswered.

Barkhuizen also played 13 recordings which Mare apparently made and sent to a friend. In these recordings, a voice confirmed as Mare's could be heard repeatedly turning down sexual advances from De Jager.

Sakkie Maartens, for De Jager, said the recordings were strange because Mare had admitted her speaker was broken.

“The accused will say the deceased had problems with her Blackberry and the deceased used his phone to contact her family,” Maartens said.

The trial was postponed until Thursday for the pathologist's testimony.

Sapa


Butchered teen’s voice from the grave

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Days before she died, Charmaine Mare used her phone to record attempts by Johannes de Jager to have sex with her.

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Cape Town - In the days before she died, a desperate 16-year-old Charmaine Mare used her cellphone to record the attempts alleged killer Johannes de Jager made to have sex with her.

Left alone in her friend’s Kraaifontein home with De Jager while the rest of the family had gone on a pre-planned cruise, from January 7 to 11, a frightened Charmaine recorded 14 exchanges with De Jager. In one she says: “Uncle, your hands are cold.” De Jager replies: “But it will get warm.” “No, remove it… no, uncle, please can I lie alone?”

Charmaine had also told De Jager she was under-age. “And so?” De Jager said. She said she wanted to wait until she was married to have sex.

In the voice recordings, played in the Western Cape High Court by Hawks investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Barkhuizen, Charmaine repeatedly asked him why he wanted to get into bed with her, saying she wanted to be alone.

 

Charmaine, of Kriel in Mpumalanga, had been in Cape Town to stay with her friend Kristen White. Kristen lived with her mother, Carol White, who was De Jager’s girlfriend, and De Jager’s son Nick.

 

When the family returned, Charmaine was not at home. De Jager said she had gone to buy cigarettes. But when she did not return they reported her missing. In fact, she was dead. According to De Jager’s plea explanation, she had slipped and hit her head on the bath. He panicked, he said, and stuffed her body in a drain. Later, when he could not get her body out, he hacked off her arms and legs, dumped the torso elsewhere and set it alight.

De Jager has pleaded not guilty to murdering Charmaine and also to murdering and raping Hiltina Alexander, an 18-year-old prostitute, in 2008.

 

Barkhuizen also referred to BlackBerry messages between Charmaine and a family friend in Mpumalanga, referred to only as Mrs Venter.

Charmaine told Venter she desperately wanted to go home because De Jager was making sexual advances.

They exchanged messages on January 9, in which she said she was scared about that evening. She did not have airtime and could not phone for help. She had asked her family to buy her a bus ticket home, but they were struggling to collect the money. Venter replied that she also had no money to buy her a ticket.

She advised her to lock her bedroom door and to warn De Jager that she would report him to police should anything happen. Charmaine said the door did not have a lock, so Venter advised her to push something against it.

Charmaine told Venter she had been too scared to sleep. “I recorded him, tannie… I’m going to play it for her (Carol White),” Charmaine said.

The next day, January 10, Venter advised her to eat something because, if she was weak, De Jager would be able to take advantage of her. Charmaine sent her a drawing of a crying face.

Venter promised her art classes if she promised not to take drugs again. An excited Charmaine responded: “Really, tannie? I promise I will, I’ve been clean for two weeks. I want to make something of my life.”

 

The last recorded activity on her phone was at 4.49am on January 11.

jade.otto@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Group slams ‘assault on democracy’

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Eighty-six prominent Capetonians have written a statement slamming attempts to "promote a climate of hate".

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Cape Town - A group of prominent Capetonians, including archbishops Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba, has written a hard-hitting statement slamming attempts by “a group of political activists” to “promote a climate of hate” and destabilise the province through violent protests.

They warned that if what they termed a concerted campaign to destabilise the Western Cape was not stopped, it could spread across the country.

They called on all South Africans to refuse to accept threats of ungovernability and rather promote human dignity and equality.

The majority of the 86 signatories are religious leaders, including Mohammed Kagee of Claremont Main Road Mosque, Catholic parish priest Christopher Clohessy of Newlands/Claremont, Zen Buddhist Heila Downey of Robertson and former city mayor Gordon Oliver of the Unitarian Church.

Individuals included Louise Asmal, Rhoda Kadalie, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Paul Hoffman, Fanie du Toit and Terry Crawford-Browne.

Their statement read: “The proper delivery of services to the poor by the public administration in the Western Cape province and across the country is inadequate, and it is understandable that poor people are feeling frustrated and angry.

“However, constructive engagement on the best way forward is possible and necessary without resorting to violence, and without fomenting hate or disrespect.”

They wrote that the democratic process was “currently under severe assault by a group of political activists in the Western Cape.

“Because they were not chosen by the electorate, who preferred to have a different party ruling the province, they have set in place a campaign to destabilise the Western Cape and make the province ungovernable. This has created space for other political groups to also join in destabilisation.”

The ANC Youth League was singled out a number of times as being responsible for these attacks.

The signatories’ action was “not a statement in support of any political party”, and they believed that “there are democrats in all political parties who share our view”.

They wrote that public statements by some activists before the action began had confirmed the aim of the destabilisation project which had since been put in motion.

The statement pointed out that on July 27 last year, a memorandum had been handed to the Premier’s Office from the ANC youth and women’s leagues, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations which called for their demands to be met, otherwise they would make “this city and province ungovernable”.

This had resulted in “major concerns”, including:

* Violent service delivery protests: Bus driver Andile Hoko died when stones were thrown at his bus in August;

* Hindering and disrupting meetings about service delivery: The launch of the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone was disrupted and DA Leader Helen Zille booed off the stage by ANC supporters;

* Preventing freedom of speech and freedom of movement, and promoting a climate of hate: Protest leader Andile Lili warned Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to be careful when entering informal settlements around the province.

The writers noted that this was not a problem unique to this province. “The deep problem is that the nature of these actions in the Western Cape is indicative of what we may expect in other parts of the country in the future. There is every reason to expect that unless the destabilisation campaign is stopped in its tracks now in the Western Cape, it will grow across the country.”

They wrote that these protests were “not enhancing the welfare of those in desperate situations”.

“We urgently need constructive discussions between the communities and authorities about what is practicable in terms of housing and sanitation: what the authorities can provide, and, recognising resource limitations, what local communities can do to help themselves as regards housing and sanitation.”

The writers called on all citizens to “demand accountability for a better life for all”.

“We call on all people of goodwill to take a stand against what is happening, and stand up for treating each other with respect. We call on the religious communities as well as politicians of all parties to call on the activists engaged in this destabilisation project to cease and desist and return to the values that this country is supposed to uphold. We call on all people to stand against violent protests and calling for ungovernability.”

The statement was created after UCT maths professor George Ellis started an e-mail conversation.

michelle.jones@inl.co.za

cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Chanel’s fight to the death

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Chanel du Toit was so desperate to stay alive that she clawed at her own face, the Paarl Regional Court heard.

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Cape Town - Chanel du Toit was so desperate to stay alive and fight off the person who was strangling her that she clawed at her own face, the Paarl Regional Court has heard.

Her husband, Johan du Toit, with whom she shared a hilltop cottage on the Dieu Donne wine estate, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

In June, forensic pathologist Dr Deidre Abrahams told the court she had performed the autopsy on Chanel du Toit, 28, on July 8, 2010, a day after her body had been found in the cottage.

She said that Chanel had been strangled.

She also found evidence that pressure had been applied to her mouth and nose, blocking her air passage.

On Tuesday, she testified that Chanel appeared to have desperately clawed at the hands of her assailant, to rip away the hand that was suffocating her.

She had scratched and cut her own face with her fingernails, which bore her blood.

Abrahams said these self-inflicted injuries were “fresh”, sustained less than 24 hours before her death, and thus consistent with her final moments as she tried to defend herself in her life-or-death struggle.

It was likely that her assailant had been scratched too, she said.

In the police docket are photographs taken by police of Du Toit showing two facial wounds - including a “3mmx3cm” scratch - seen when police arrested him soon after his wife’s body was discovered.

He also had a cut on his finger.

 

William Booth is appearing for Du Toit.

He is aided by forensic scientist David Klatzow.

The matter was postponed until May 27.

Du Toit remains on bail.

Cape Argus

Teen gives birth then writes matric exam

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A teen mom was so determined to write her matric exam that four hours after giving birth she was writing her Afrikaans paper.

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Cape Town - A teen mother was so determined to write her matric exam that four hours after giving birth to a baby boy, she was at her desk writing her Afrikaans paper.

Eighteen-year-old Shamegah Samuels wrote the paper at Lavender Hill Secondary School at 9am after asking doctors if she could leave the hospital after giving birth.

The young mother, who lives in Hillview, Lavender Hill, started having cramps last Monday before going into labour at 10pm.

“I had cramps that night and didn’t tell my mommy because I didn’t know if it was labour pains.

“I later went into labour and then gave birth at around 5am at the Retreat Day Hospital on Tuesday morning.”

The teenager said she told doctors that she was writing exams at 9am and asked whether she could leave to write.

“I was just determined from the beginning to complete my matric.

“Everyone always talks badly about Lavender Hill and I just wanted to make a difference and show that you can become something, even if you are from Lavender Hill.”

She added that it was not a difficult labour the previous night, although she was in a bit of pain.

“When I went to write the exam my friends still asked why I was there.

“I asked the doctors whether I could leave to write my exam and they said I could if I wanted to.”

Samuels said she wanted to overcome all her obstacles and complete her matric. “My mom has been my inspiration.”

She named her son Mogamat Zaid and said she had to take him for a check-up on Wednesday.

“He was due on December 15, so he arrived early,” she said with a broad smile.

After baby Mogamat was born his mother continued to study at night.

“He cried a lot at night and then I would tell him that mommy is studying.

“I studied hard and put in extra time and was very energetic and awake at night.”

Samuels said she applied for a bursary at False Bay College and she wants to study further next year.

“I want to get my mom out of here and see her happy and I would also like to help my siblings study further.”

Faseeg Manie, principal of Lavender Hill Secondary, said pupils from the school were up against the most amazing odds due to the circumstances they faced.

“She said that she wanted to finish her exams, although we gave her the option to write at a later stage.

“This is the kind of resilience our young people have.”

natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Joy as amnesiac’s mom tracked down

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A woman who lost her memory when she was hit by a bus in Cape Town is to be reunited with her family.

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Cape Town -

After months of trying to remember who she was and where she came from, Brenda Lawack is to be reunited with her family in Plettenberg Bay.

Hearing the sound of her mother’s voice reduced Lawack to tears.

Lawack lost her memory when she was hit by a bus in Maitland in July, and has been staying at Nazareth House since being discharged from hospital in September. She had told people at Nazereth House that her surname was Grootboom.

After the Cape Argus reported last week on her plight, responses from people wanting to help assisted the paper in tracking down her family.

Staff and social workers at Nazareth House are pleased Lawack will be reunited with her family.

Social worker Jackie Hope said there were some logistical issues, but it was hoped Lawack could be sent home to Plettenberg Bay within two weeks.

“It is one of the best things to happen this year – it’s phenomenal.

“We wish we had put it in the paper sooner, then Brenda would have been reunited with her family sooner.”

Hope said she was amazed at how fast it had happened and that many people had tried to help. “She has become a part of the family here, so we will definitely miss her. She’s very helpful and willing to do things around the house.”

Brenda’s mother, Nobomvu Lawack, said she would love to have her daughter back home, especially as she had a seasonal job for the holidays.

“We are happy she is coming back, but I will have to look for someone to look after her during the day. I want her to come back and to see how she is.”

Nobomvu said the last time she had heard from her daughter was when she left for Cape Town in the early 2000s. “She said she was going to Cape Town to visit her father.”

Brenda’s aunt, Nonceba Champion, said she was willing to take care of her and hoped she would be home for Christmas. “She grew up with my mother, Elsie Tala, and was a good child until she dropped out of school. My mother passed away in March and the family will be spending Christmas at her house in the Eastern Cape. We hope Brenda will be there.”

Lawack said she would love to go home. “I miss my mother, sister and brother. I would be happy to go home for Christmas.”

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Man gets 22 years for raping lesbian

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Andile Ngcoza, the man who raped a lesbian to "how her she was a woman", will spend the next two decades in prison.

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Cape Town -

Andile Ngcoza, the man who raped a lesbian to “show her she was a woman”, will spend the next two decades in prison.

He was sentenced to 22 years in jail at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Ngcoza was convicted in 2011 for the rape of Millicent Gaika, a lesbian woman from Gugulethu. He pulled Gaika into a shack on April 2, 2010 and said he would show her she was a woman by impregnating her.

Sentencing was initially scheduled for December 2011 but Ngcoza was not in custody at the time. He was rearrested in September, nearly two years after he was found guilty.

On Tuesday, Magistrate Melinda Retief said Ngcoza had not shown any remorse for his crime and there was no evidence before the court for her to impose a lighter sentence.

He could not be trusted by women and men because of his previous convictions.

Retief was referring to a list of previous convictions, including sodomy and double rape, mentioned by prosecutor Alicia Meredith in aggravation of Ngcoza’s sentence.

Meredith said Ngcoza had three previous sexual offence convictions – he had been convicted of rape twice in 1988 and of sodomy in 1982.

There were also convictions for possession of dagga and housebreaking, both in the 1980s. Meredith said Ngcoza had been granted parole in 1997 for the 1988 rape but had been rearrested after violating the conditions of his parole.

She also submitted a report by a social worker on the psychological impact the rape had had on Gaika, which indicated she had suffered severe emotional trauma as a result.

Gaika had nightmares and the attack had “driven her to alcohol abuse”. She had nearly committed suicide last year.

Earlier, in a written submission in court in mitigation of sentence, which was read out by Ngcoza’s attorney, he said there had been a family crisis in the Eastern Cape regarding an initiation of a nephew.

He had returned in February this year but forgot he had a court date, Ngcoza wrote.

Despite being convicted and sentenced for the rape, Ngcoza still maintains his innocence and claims he was in a relationship with Gaika.

Outside the courtroom, Gaika hugged Meredith and activists from lesbian advocacy group Free Gender who supported her through the trial.

Gaika said: “It feels great. I feel great. He got the years that I was hoping and expected he would get. I think I will finally get peace.”

Free Gender chairperson Funeka Soldaat said the sentence would serve as a warning that “you can’t just mess with people’s lives and think you can get away with it”.

“This is a victory for Milicent. It is a victory for all of us who have been victims of rape because of our sexuality,” Soldaat said.

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za

Cape TImes

Passenger killed as trio fire shots into taxi

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Two men and a woman posing as passengers fired shots into a taxi that stopped to pick them up, killing one person.

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Cape Town - Two men and a woman posing as passengers fired shots into a minibus taxi that stopped to pick them up near the Tygervalley Mall, killing one passenger.

The incident happened on the corner of Old Oak and Durban Road near the mall at 2pm on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana said the three suspects were still at large: “Two men and a woman were waiting for the taxi to pick them up. When the taxi arrived, they opened the sliding door and started shooting at the driver and the passenger who was sitting in the front seat. During the incident, the passenger… was fatally wounded.”

Kinana said the driver was unharmed and police had opened a case of murder and attempted murder.

The shooting comes amid violence between taxi drivers operating on the Khayelitsha to Delft route that has claimed as many as six driver’s lives in recent months.

The taxi violence stems from a dispute between two taxi bodies, the Delft Taxi Association and the Congress of the Democratic Taxi Associations.

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus


Scopa has become a side show - DA

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Parliament's public accounts committee (Scopa) is a toothless watchdog and its chairman ineffective, the DA said.

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Cape Town - Parliament's public accounts committee (Scopa) is a toothless watchdog and its chairman ineffective, says the Democratic Alliance.

“The sad truth is Scopa has become a side show,” DA MP Dion George, the party's representative on the committee, told journalists at Parliament.

Releasing a report on wasteful government spending - which the DA pegs at a “conservative” R9.57 billion since 2009 - he said Scopa chairman Themba Godi did not take a strong enough stance against government corruption.

“We need to put the teeth back into Scopa... until we've [done this]... the people's money will continue to be stolen,” George said.

Scopa was set up to act as a watchdog over the way taxpayers' money is spent by the executive. Among its powers is the committee can recommend to the National Assembly that corrective action be taken against wasteful spending and financial mismanagement.

DA MP Ian Ollis said Scopa, under Godi's chairmanship, had been unable and unwilling to take the necessary and punitive steps to ensure that government ministers were made to answer for wasting public money.

“It has been completely toothless and has undermined the effectiveness of Parliament,” he said.

The DA's Sej Motau said Scopa needed a stronger, more independent chair if it was to properly fulfil its mandate.

His party would formulate a plan “to turn Scopa around” in the next few weeks, he said.

According to the DA, government's wasteful spending over the past five years - over and above the wasteful and fruitless expenditure of R5.780bn identified by the Auditor General earlier this year - includes:

*R1.45m on credit cards;

* R47.08m on new cars;

* R333.40m on catering and entertainment;

* R9.49m (since 2012) on car rentals;

* R5.28m (2013 only) on budget vote cocktails; and

* R165.84m on flights and accommodation.

 

George took a dim view of the misuse and waste of taxpayers' money by some government departments.

“There are many accounting officers who should be jailed if you look at what they've been doing with public money,” he said.

Ollis was dismissive of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's announcement last month - on the occasion of his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement - that government was set to cut costs and abuse of funds.

While Gordhan should be lauded for trying, the announcement was essentially a “five-month belt-tightening exercise” done ahead of next year's election, and aimed at diverting attention from five years of wasteful spending.

Sapa

6 sought after drive-by shooting

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Police are searching for six suspects after a young man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mitchells Plain.

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Cape Town - A young man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mitchells Plain last night.

Police are searching for six suspects who fled the scene of the shooting in Beacon Valley in a silver Toyota Corolla.

“At about 10.45pm, Mitchells Plain (police) received a shooting complaint. Upon arrival on the scene, they found the 20-year-old victim lying on the ground in a pool of blood,” said police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk.

The shots were fired from the Toyota and the man sustained multiple wounds.

Beacon Valley residents used social media to extend their condolences to the man’s family and complain of a spate of shootings inthe area in recent weeks.

They also claimed police were not patrolling the area at the times such attacks took place.

Van Wyk said the circumstances surrounding the incident were being investigated and it was not possible to speculate on gang violence at this stage.

“A murder case was opened for investigation; no one has been arrested as yet,” he said.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Crime Stop at 08600 10111.

Cape Argus

Two-year-old killed in George crash

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A two-year-old girl was killed when she was knocked down by a vehicle in George in the Western Cape.

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George - A two-year-old girl was killed when she was knocked down by a vehicle in George in the Western Cape on Wednesday, paramedics said.

“Witnesses reported that the child suddenly appeared in Makou Street,” ER24 spokesman Christo Venter said.

The two-year-old suffered serious injuries and died on the scene. It was not yet known how the child managed to slip away from her guardian.

Sapa

Cape Town moves to stop protest

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The City of Cape Town applied for a court interdict to stop a protest by the city's Informal Settlements Group.

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Cape Town - The City of Cape Town applied for a court interdict on Wednesday to stop a protest by the city's Informal Settlements Group.

The protest, which was scheduled to take place on Friday, was not approved, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said in a statement.

“A golden triangle meeting, which incorporates the SA Police Service, did not approve their application due to credible evidence received under oath indicating that such a gathering could result in a serious disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic; injury to persons; and possible damage to property,” she said.

“Law enforcement authorities have also established there are serious threats of unprecedented levels of violence erupting in the event that the march takes place.”

The city claimed protesters had vowed to continue with the demonstration despite being denied a permit.

De Lille said it pursued the interdict as a last resort to avoid a repeat of the violence during a protest organised by the same group a few weeks ago.

She was referring to a group of about 3500 people which took part in what was believed to be a service delivery protest in October.

Some protesters looted shops and vendors' stalls, and damaged property in central Cape Town.

De Lille said that while everyone had the right to protest, they also had to abide by the law.

Sapa

‘Why I’m joining march in Cape Town’

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Her daughter died in shack fire and now the thought of a similar fate is Nosakho Sigwelo's worst nightmare.

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Cape Town - Her 20-year-old daughter died in a shack fire last year and the thought of suffering a similar fate is Nosakho Sigwelo’s worst nightmare.

Sigwelo, 53, has lived in a shack for 23 years.

“When my daughter died, the fire brigade said the fire was too strong and they couldn’t rescue her.”

Sigwelo believes that at her age she should have a proper house.

This is why Sigwelo plans to march to the Western Cape provincial legislature on Friday in a protest organised by the Cape Town Informal Settlements Organisation. She hopes Premier Helen Zille responds to the organisation’s request.

Her two-roomed shack in Site C, Khayelitsha, where she lives with her seven children, is not well built.

There are gaps between the corrugated roof sheeting and the wall where sand blows in, and there is a hole in the roof that leaks when it rains.

The floor has holes where rats get in.

“I can’t relax while living here,” said Sigwelo.

She awakes at 7am to begin her chores.

“The first thing I do is clean the potta-potta toilet because it leaves the house with a stench. It sometimes spills, so I then need to wipe the spilt faeces with newspapers.”

Although the City of Cape Town had promised the portable loo would be collected daily, several days’ worth accumulated outside the shacks and neighbours threw the waste outside each other’s yards.

“You wake up and you see poo outside your home, dirty baby nappies. I have to clean it.”

Sigwelo’s chores include sweeping out the sand every half-hour and ensuring all food is enclosed in containers where the rats can’t reach it.

She has been treated for TB and says her living conditions have made her ill many times.

“Having a house would allow me to relax.

“I won’t have to wake up and clean human waste and most important a house would mean I could die peacefully. I don’t sleep well. I keep thinking of how my daughter died.”

Sigwelo said she hoped to confront Zille at the provincial legislature on Friday.

“I want to take the potta-potta, sit on it and then ask the premier how she would feel if she had to do this.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

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