Correctional supervision would be inappropriate for the driver in a Western Cape bus crash that claimed 23 lives, the court heard.

Cape Town - Correctional supervision would be inappropriate for the driver in a Western Cape bus crash that claimed 23 lives, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Wednesday.

Siza Nonama, 41, was driving a bus from Leeu-Gamka to Cape Town in May, 2010, when it crashed near De Doorns in the early hours of the morning.

He is to be sentenced on 23 counts of culpable homicide.

The proceedings before magistrate Bruce Langa resumed on Wednesday.

Legal Aid defence lawyer Wimpie Strauss handed in a correctional supervision report, concluding that a sentence of correctional supervision would be inappropriate for Nonama.

This involves a brief period of imprisonment, after which the offender is released into a period of house arrest, and has to perform community service.

A second option is house arrest and community service, without imprisonment.

Strauss said Nonama's failing health slowed him down physically, and left him severely out of breath, prevented him from performing community service.

As community service was an integral part of the sentence, correctional supervision was out of the question.

Nonama has a licence to drive light motor vehicles, but not buses.

In Wednesday's proceedings, Nonama admitted he had driven at a speed of 80kmh going down the Hex River Pass in wet conditions, when the speed limit for heavy vehicles was 60.

Asked how he felt about the tragedy, he said: “I am not happy about it. From the day that the accident happened, I have not felt good, and I keep thinking about it.”

He said it would have been better for him to have died in the smash as well, “rather than to suffer like this”.

He added: “I am very sorry for the families of those who died.”

Asked by prosecutor Willem Tarantal what he meant by “suffer like this”, he said: “I am sorry for what I did... sorry for killing so many people.”

Tarantal asked: “Are you not sorry for the position in which you have landed yourself Ä being an accused in court?”

Nonama replied: “You are correct, it was never my intention to be in this place.”

Tarantal: “On that particular morning, you were not allowed to drive a bus Ä you only had a licence for a light vehicle. Why were you driving the bus?”

Nonama said he was not aware, at the time of the incident, that he was not allowed to drive a bus.

It was only after the accident that he became aware that his licence did not include buses.

The case continues on March 26. - Sapa

A Comair flight scheduled to carry 181 passengers from Cape Town to Johannesburg was suspended after an engine failure.

Cape Town - A flight scheduled to carry 181 passengers from Cape Town to Johannesburg was suspended after an engine failure, Comair said on Wednesday.

This happened while the aircraft was preparing for take-off at Cape Town International Airport, said Comair CEO Erik Venter in a statement.

“The engine was shut down without further incident, as per standard operating procedures,” said Venter.

Kulula.com was working on re-accommodating all passengers of Flight MN104 to get them to their final destination.

A full investigation was expected to establish the cause of the engine failure. - Sapa

A man accused of the rape and murder of a teenager Anene Booysen has been denied bail.

A man accused of the rape and murder of a teenager Anene Booysen has been denied bail in the Bredasdorp Magistrates Court.

Jonathan Davids, 22, denied guilt in the February 2 attack on Booysen, 17.

“There would have been a huge outcry if he was granted bail,” Eric Ntabazalila, regional spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority told AFP.

As she lay dying in hospital, Booysen named Davids as having attacked her with “about five to six” friends in a case that shocked even this rape-weary nation.

Booysen suffered gruesome injuries and was found with her internal organs hanging outside her body on a construction site.

“The intestines came out through her reproductive organs,” said Ntabazalila.

A second accused Johannes Kana, 21, has confessed to raping and assaulting Booysen but not to her murder. He has not yet applied for bail.

“He did not confess to murder,” Ntabazalila added.

Clothing and a pair of sneakers, with signs of blood and semen, have been sent for forensic tests.

The police investigation is continuing.

Booysen's murder and rape sparked an outcry in South Africa where around 65 000 sexual offences are committed a year, according to official figures.

She was attacked after visiting a pub and found by a security guard at a construction site. She later died in hospital.

The case has been postponed until April. - AFP

Ex-broker Steven Goodwin testified in the Western Cape High Court about two promissory notes with which Fidentia was entrusted.

Cape Town - Ex-broker Steven Goodwin testified in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday about two promissory notes with which Fidentia was entrusted.

He explained his role in facilitating the relationship between Fidentia and the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (Teta), to which the notes, worth R100.3 million, belonged.

Goodwin played a key role in getting Teta to transfer these investments to Fidentia's control.

Judge Anton Veldhuizen wanted to know how a company could set up a credit line using these promissory notes.

“It's probably no different to an asset. It's a very tangible and very secure asset made out to a person or entity. The bank would be very willing to loan. It's as good as cash,” Goodwin said.

He said one could use a note to invest in higher risk endeavours and earn 30 to 40 percent interest before paying a certain amount back to the bank.

Alternatively, one could buy and sell shares via a stock-broking house, using the note as security.

“And if you re-invested this money into the (country's) top four banks?,” the judge asked.

“That wouldn't work. It would be shooting yourself in the foot.”

The same court previously found Goodwin guilty of bribing former Teta CEO Piet Bothma to facilitate the transfer of investments.

He entered into a plea agreement in 2009 and was sentenced to in effect 10 years in jail, on condition he testified against former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown.

Brown is on trial for allegedly running a pyramid scheme and for using investors' funds for his personal gain.

He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of fraud, two of corruption, one of money-laundering and two of theft.

Brown sold these promissory notes, allegedly without Teta's approval, and the money was placed in his accountant's Standard Bank account.

The State alleges that instead of re-investing this money for Teta, he used some of the proceeds for other purposes, including the purchase of vehicles and properties.

It also alleges that Brown made misrepresentations about an additional R100m which Teta wanted invested.

The case was postponed until Monday to allow the State and Brown's new lawyer Braganza Pretorius to consult.

The State wants Brown to admit to the flow of money between certain bank accounts.

Veldhuizen said the defence could always argue the intention behind the flow. - Sapa

A former Ugandan child soldier can't think of why he should get a lesser sentence for the murder of a Danish millionaire.

Cape Town - A self-proclaimed former Ugandan child soldier can’t think of why he should get a lesser sentence for the murder of Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen.

Francis Kimeze, 41, described his crime as a “rotten thing” during his mitigation of sentence in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.

He has been found guilty of murdering Povlsen, 72, and faces life imprisonment while his sisters, Stella Ssengendo, 43, and Maria Povlsen, 36 - the businessman’s widow - were convicted of being accessories to murder after the fact. Judge Rosheni Allie found the women had misled the police and cleaned the scene of the crime - Povlsen’s luxury Gordon’s Bay home.

Povlsen was killed in the early hours of January 14, 2008, his body stuffed in the boot of his car and then dumped along Otto du Plessis Drive. He’d been stabbed 48 times, had a broken neck and his body had been partially burnt.

Kimeze, who has 17 children, told the court he was a “useless person”. “My life has been very painfully destructive because I was born into a world of pain and hatred,” he said. “I have nothing reasonable enough to convince the court to give me a lesser sentence because I hurt my family…”

When prosecutor Mmatlhapi Tsheole asked Kimeze about rehabilitative programmes he had taken part in after his stint as a child soldier, he responded that this had “nothing to do” with the crime. “I have done something wrong and you can take it as it is,” he said.

He maintained, however, that he hadn’t intended to kill Povlsen or planned it.

Kimeze said he’d been abducted by the National Resistance Army when he was about 12, and worked as a child soldier until he was 16. This was when he’d undergone rehabilitation under the UN for a year.

Kimeze, an artist, said he made about $3 000 (R26 490) a month from selling his pieces to tourists. He used some of his earnings to support his 17 children - 14 in Uganda, two in South Africa and one in Malawi.

Neither Povlsen nor Ssengendo took the witness stand in mitigation of sentence.

Povlsen’s defence advocate, Nicolett McKenzie, argued that her client had two young children - an 11-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl - from Preben Povlsen. The children now live in Denmark with his relatives.

McKenzie further argued that her client hadn’t partaken in “getting rid of the body” and that an appropriate sentence would be five years, which she asked to be suspended.

Ssengendo’s advocate, Ken Klopper, said his client had a 12-year-old son who loved her, that she suffered from health problems that would be exacerbated by prison life and that her family in Uganda depended on her financial contribution every month. But Tsheole is pushing for hefty sentences for the three siblings, all of whom are first offenders. She argued that the siblings, particularly Maria Povlsen, had been in a position of trust, which they’d abused.

Judge Allie is expected to hand down their sentences this afternoon.

leila.samodien@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Annie Lennox issued a call to action, calling on all South Africans to do something to put an end to gender violence.

Cape Town - Scottish-born singer, activist and mother Annie Lennox issued a call to action on Wednesday, calling on all South Africans to do something to put an end to gender violence. She urged them not to be complacent.

During an interview in Cape Town to discuss her “Make it Happen” petition, Lennox said she felt compelled to respond to “something that is deeply troubling”, something that was being met with a “collusion of silence”.

The UNAids goodwill ambassador and HIV/Aids activist told the Cape Times that gender violence in South Africa was “off the scale”.

Her petition urges South Africans to fight fatigue and disillusionment and also to help anti-rape and gender advocacy organisations, many of which are struggling to remain afloat due to lack of funding.

“We need to create a tipping point of collective awareness and action,” it says.

She was not pointing a finger at people. “I am joining them. This is a plea to anyone with a heart to wake up and instead of asking ‘what can be done?’ say ‘what can I do?’.

Lennox - who became famous in the 1980s with her group The Eurythmics, which donated funds to the ANC during its exile years - said change needed to start at home among parents, at schools among teachers and beyond in the workplace and institutions of power.

On sabbatical in South Africa when teenager Anene Booysen’s rape and murder made headlines earlier this month, Lennox said she did not just feel angry, but distressed “with an awful sense of hopelessness”.

After reading the newspapers, she chatted to a cleaner, known to her only as “Bonny”, at the venue she was staying at in Cape Town.

“I was beside myself, and so was Bonny. Here we were, as women, as mothers, both outraged. We both felt so affected by it, and wondered: what can we do?”

Then she discovered that Bonny, who faces all sorts of daily struggles, still found the time to be a volunteer at Rape Crisis. “Bonny has so little yet she is helping her community.”

This was contrasted with so many others who adopted a passive attitude, saying “I am just doing my job”.

It is Bonny’s gesture of commitment that Lennox hopes to encourage in her campaign, which at the time of its official launch on Wednesday already had 79 signatories, including celebrity Charlize Theron and organisations such as Rape Crisis .

“These organisations have done tremendous work over the last few decades, it is ironic that now they are struggling to survive.

'I am asking people to either support them as Bonny does, with their time, or with their money.”

Lennox, who has campaigned against HIV/Aids since her first visit to the country for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign concert in 2003, was also spurred into action after attending a silent vigil against rape in Cape Town after Booysen’s death.

Lennox, who has two adult children and who recently married Mitch Besser, a gynaecologist who runs the anti-HIV/ Aids Mothers2Mothers project in South Africa, has had an interest in the country since her teens when she first learnt of the system of apartheid.

Realising that she leads a “very privileged life”, Lennox’s mission is not as a “cause célèbre, but a call to connect”.

“South Africa has been exemplary in the world in terms of social change. Nineteen years down the line, you can look through onion layers of what is happening, and there is this epidemic of abuse.”

If these core issues were not addressed, “the ideals of the new South Africa won’t be fulfilled”.

Lennox returns to London on Sunday, aware that she “cannot close the lid that she has now opened” with her latest campaign.

“If you remain impervious to what is going on, there must be something wrong with you.”

Cape Times

Sir Ranulph Fiennes arrived in South Africa for medical treatment after he was evacuated from an Antarctica expedition because of frostbite.

Cape Town - Injured British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes arrived in South Africa on Thursday for medical treatment after he was evacuated from an Antarctica expedition because of frostbite.

The 68-year-old said he was “extremely disappointed” to have been forced to pull out of an attempt at the first winter crossing of the world's coldest continent.

“I have undergone a number of tests on my frostbitten hand both in Antarctica and since arriving here in Cape Town,” Fiennes said in a statement.

Additional tests are due before he leaves for the United Kingdom, he added.

Fiennes landed at 7:30 am local time (05:30 GMT) after bad weather stalled his evacuation for several days and was immediately taken for assessment and treatment of his hand.

He is now recuperating in private before his return home, the expedition said.

The five remaining members of the team will press on with the epic trek, dubbed The Coldest Journey, and are set to start the winter crossing on March 21.

“I am naturally extremely disappointed not to be able to continue with them and be a part of the expedition on the ice,” Fiennes said, citing many years of planning for the trip.

But his focus was now on returning to Britain, getting well and helping the team meet its target of raising $10 million (7.6

million euros) for a blindness charity, he added.

The multiple record holder suffered frostbite to four fingers on his left hand after removing a glove to adjust a ski binding at the weekend.

Fiennes said the five men he left on the ice were “forever in my thoughts” and had “every chance of pulling off this extraordinary feat”.

“It is a very difficult and dangerous undertaking, but if there is any one group of people who can do it, it is them,” he said.

Writing from the ice on Thursday, Ian Prickett said that the journey was “far from over” despite Fiennes's withdrawal.

“We are still giving our all towards being the first people ever to cross the continent in winter, something never before even attempted. We are determined to do it.”

The absent adventurer's camping mat has also already been cut up to insulate heaters, to help against the minus 50 degree Celsius (minus 58 Farenheit) temperatures that the team will face for most of the trip.

Other benefits of his departure were extra space in the team's cabin and more toilet roll, said Prickett.

The team are now 2 100 metres above sea level with the Antarctic sun sunshine lessening every day.

Nearly all of the main Antarctic research stations shut down for winter or revert to a skeleton staff.

“We are now well and truly alone on the ice with literally no-one within hundreds and hundreds of miles - and absolutely no way out,” said Prickett.

The six-month winter journey via the South Pole will be mostly in darkness.

The expedition has been dubbed as the “last great polar challenge” with Antarctica having the planet's lowest recorded temperature of minus 89.2 degrees Celsius.

So far, just 60 miles (37 kilometres) of the more than 2 000 mile journey has been achieved in winter.

The campaign aims to raise funds for the Seeing is Believing blindness charity and will carry out scientific research.

With several records to his name, Fiennes was the oldest Briton to summit Mount Everest, has crossed both polar ice caps, and has also crossed the Antarctic.

More than a decade ago, he had suffered severe frostbite to the same hand while on expedition. He later sawed off the damaged parts of his fingers himself. - Sapa-AFP

Three of the five people accused of selling a young girl for sex have been granted R500 bail each.

Cape Town - Three of the five people accused of selling a young girl for sex have been granted bail.

Marantha Lotrict, 28, Evelina Fortuin, 30, and Denise Muller, 33, breathed a sigh of relief in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on Thursday when Magistrate Zwelindumile Sogwagwa set their bail at R500.

This was despite requests from the State to set bail at R5 000 each.

The 14-year-old girl, whose abuse began when she was 11 years old, was groomed to be a child prostitute and allegedly sold for as little as R20 to men by her mother, Lotrict, Fortuin and Muller.

In November, the little girl raised the alarm and told her school friend and teacher what had happened.

Outside the courtroom, Lotrict and her mother Carolien cried tears of joy.

“I’m not guilty. I never sold that girl for sex,” she tells the Daily Voice.

“I am not even that child’s neighbour. Police just picked me up for questioning and then they charged me.”

Carolien says she is happy that her daughter can finally come home.

“Her baby is missing her. He cries for her all the time,” the granny explains.

Lotrict has four more kids.

Muller was transported back to Pollsmoor prison where her aunt would settle her bail.

The five are charged with sexual exploitation, human trafficking and living off the proceeds of immorality.

The young victim’s mom and her partner remain in custody.

The stepfather is also charged with rape.

“This girl’s mother abused her trust and neglected her responsibilities as a mother. It is supposed to come naturally to take care of a child, your own child,” said Sogwagwa.

He said the stepfather, while not her real father, was the father figure in the house.

“You abused this position and failed in your duties,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Daily Voice can reveal that a doctor and three Mossel Bay men who allegedly paid to abuse the girl have still not been arrested.

The case will resume on Tuesday March 19.

Daily Voice

Ex-Ugandan child soldier Francis Kimeze has been jailed for the murder of Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen in Cape Town.

Cape Town -

Former Ugandan child soldier Francis Kimeze, 39, convicted of murdering Danish millionaire Preben Povlsen, 71, has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars.

Western Cape High Court Judge Rosheni Allie sentenced Kimeze on Thursday for the “brutal attack” on January 14, 2008.

Judge Allie also sentenced Kimeze to seven years for stealing Povlsen’s Mazda on the day he was killed. The car was used to transport his body after he had been stabbed 48 times inside his Gordon’s Bay home. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Povlsen’s Ugandan-born wife Maria, 34, and her sister Stella Ssengendo, 43, were also charged with the murder but the State failed to prove that they were present when it was committed.

Judge Allie found that the sisters were accessories to murder after the fact.

Maria Povlsen was sentenced to eight years in jail for her role in the murder and her sister to seven years. They were also sentenced to five years each for stealing the car. Their sentences will also run concurrently.

Judge Allie said it was an aggravating factor that Maria Povlsen betrayed her husband’s trust and lied to police and the Danish family, and to her children. She and Povlsen have two children aged 10 and 12 who are living with their Danish relatives.

Judge Allie said that in her sentencing deliberations, she had considered that Maria and Stella had already spent five years in jail as awaiting trial prisoners.

They have not yet given notice of an intention to appeal their conviction and sentences.

jade.otto@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

A man has been shot and killed in front of the Blue Downs Magistrate's Court in Cape Town, the NPA said.

Cape Town -

A man was shot and killed in front of the Blue Downs Magistrate's Court in Cape Town on Friday morning, the NPA said.

“He's just passed away. At the moment I do not know… the background to the case,” Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said.

Ntabazalila said the police were at the scene. - Sapa

Cape Town has employed more traffic officers to clamp down on fine dodgers.

The City of Cape Town has employed more traffic officers in a bid to further clamp down on fine dodgers, with the latest roadblock blitz netting more than a dozen transgressors.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said “Operation Reclaim” would be intensified, with a specific focus on those with outstanding warrants of arrest for outstanding fines.

Smith headed out with traffic officers to a roadblock on the M5 on Thursday.

He told officers their work would be inconsequential if they did not follow up on the transgressors who do not pay their fines.

Smith said they had deployed 18 extra staff members, coupled with an additional overtime bonus to optimise capacity for the operations.

Fourteen people were arrested at Thursday’s roadblock.

Traffic spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan said 56 warrants of arrests were served amounting to R26 500.

There were also 183 traffic fines issued yesterday on the M5, she added.

Smith said there was a huge number of outstanding warrants – a total of R489 million worth of outstanding fines over the past three years. - Cape Argus

Controversial Pastor Albern Martins was shot and killed outside Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court.

Cape Town - Controversial Pastor Albern Martins was shot and killed outside Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court this morning.

Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila confirmed that Martins was shot outside the court, where he was due to appear on an abalone-related matter.

It was not clear at the time of going to press who shot Martins, or whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the incident.

Martins has been on trial with his wife and son for allegedly dealing in drugs and abalone.

Martins, of Blackheath, was arrested by the police’s organised crime unit with his son, Andrew, his wife, Minnie, and Spencer Pietersen during an undercover drug operation eight years ago.The accused are all out on bail.

Police also alleged that Martins ran an abalone processing operation from a Ravensmead house.

Cape Argus

A doctor, sentenced to life in prison in Dubai, says Cyril Karabus’ case is no surprise.

Cape Town - An Austrian doctor, last year sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in Dubai for the “mercy killing” of a patient, says he is not surprised by what is happening to local doctor Cyril Karabus.

Eugen Adelsmayr, the former head of the surgical intensive care unit at the Rashid Hospital Trauma Centre in Dubai, has also tried to help Karabus.

A retired paediatric oncologist, Karabus, 77, has been held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for more than six months for the death of a patient after being sentenced to three years in jail in absentia.

About four months ago Adelsmayr was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in Dubai for allegedly switching off a patient’s life-support machine in February 2009, increasing the patient’s morphine dose and ordering that the patient not be resuscitated.

However, he was reportedly not on duty that night.

Roughly a month before being sentenced and after appearing in court a few times, Adelsmayr left for Austria for his wife’s funeral, where he has remained.

On Thursday, in a Facebook conversation, Adelsmayr told the Cape Times his case had been “based on a forged report from the Dubai Health Authority”. He said it appeared that in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the motto “guilty until proven innocent” was believed.

“I forwarded Dr Karabus’s case to an Austrian delegate to the European Parliament to show that there are more cases like mine.

Maybe I can help him a bit this way,” he said.

“Political pressure might help to get Dr Karabus out of there and I think the emphasis should be on his heart problem,” Adelsmayr said, referring to a heart condition Karabus has.

The matter against Karabus was meant to have proceeded on Wednesday, but a medical committee tasked with probing the case failed to provide its report.

On Thursday Adelsmayr cautioned: “Dr Karabus should not rely too much on the committee’s report. It had cleared me but the court simply ignored it.”

According to the online version of The National, a publication in the Middle East, it said Adelsmayr was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 20 last year for premeditated murder relating to patient Ghulam Mohammed’s death.

Another doctor from India, working with Adelsmayr at the time, was acquitted.

The National said Adelsmayr was sentenced for switching off Mohammed’s life-support machine, increasing his morphine dose - causing him to have a fatal heart attack - and ordering medical staff not to resuscitate Mohammed.

In response, Adelsmayr had told The National the verdict had been based on the incorrect translation of a medical report into the matter, which exonerated him.

In Karabus’s case, medical documents also became a focal point.

The case against Karabus had been delayed because of lost medical documents which Karabus’s defence believes would exonerate him.

Karabus was arrested while in transit through Dubai in August and released on bail in October.

He had been tried in absentia and convicted of man-slaughter and falsifying documents after the death of a three-year-old in 2002 at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, where he had been working as a locum.

The case was postponed to March 20.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

Cape Times

The City of Cape Town did not deny permission for a coalition of farmworkers to march to Parliament at the weekend, an official said.

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town did not deny permission for a coalition of farmworkers to march to Parliament at the weekend, an official said on Friday.

City spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said that in a meeting with the police and the applicant, the Trust for Community Outreach and Education, it was pointed out that there were two other marches happening on Saturday.

“They then decided to move the march to Sunday. At that point the convenor, Gavin Joachims, contacted the City to advise that they wanted to postpone their march to March 23,” she said.

Farmworkers had wanted to march on Saturday against farmers' “ongoing efforts” to undermine the new minimum wage for workers.

On Thursday, the coalition claimed the City and police service had refused them permission, claiming a shortage of police officers.

It said: “There is no such shortage when events such as the Soccer World Cups are happening... This is clearly a political decision to frustrate the legitimate struggles of farmworkers.”

Hatton said the trust was asked to cancel their original march request and submit a new request, which they did.

“They postponed it on their own terms,” she said.

The new minimum wage requirement for farmworkers came into effect this Friday.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant announced on February 4 that the minimum wage for farmworkers would increase to R105 a day, from R69, with an increase of inflation plus 1.5 percent in subsequent years.

The decision to increase the minimum wage was made after a series of violent protests by Western Cape farmworkers.

Labour department spokesman Page Boikanyo urged farmers to comply with the new wage.

“We believe most farmers will comply, but we emphasise that those who are unable to pay should apply for relief.

“Government has this mechanism in place to provide support for those who really can't afford it,” he said.

Boikanyo said the department's focus was to process the applications it received from farmers, but said it was unclear how long this process would take.

He could not immediately say how many applications for assistance the department had received.

Farmers seeking relief would need to submit their books to the department to prove their financial distress. - Sapa

A Cape Town pastor, gunned down on the steps of a court, may have been silenced after preparing to turn State witness.

Cape Town - A Cape Town pastor, shot dead in cold blood on the steps of the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court where he was set to face abalone smuggling and drug-related charges, may have been silenced after preparing to turn State witness.

That was the word on Friday night from several inside sources after the shocked family of controversial gang pastor Albern Martins watched horrified as three men followed him up the court steps on Friday, and one shot him in the head.

Although the official word from provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana is that police are investigating, but have no leads, sources have revealed that the focus is on the possibility that the apparent hit was carried out by someone in the same gang as Martins.

Martins, his wife Minnie Martins and their son Andrew, also known as Alton, stand accused of possession of perlemoen worth millions of rand, along with Spencer Pietersen and convicted money launderer and alleged mandrax crime syndicate boss Kiyaam Rinquest.

One source even went so far as to suggest that the identity of the shooter was known.

On Friday night Alton Martins told Weekend Argus he saw three men emerge from the veld near the court on Friday morning. When he heard the gunshot, he realised his father had been hit.

“They stood next to him (Martins). From there I heard the gun go off. They shot my father through the head from behind,” he said, adding that the three escaped in the commotion that followed.

A witness described one of the assailants as a “young lad with slippers on”.

Martins’s family stood outside the court for more than an hour after the shooting. As the body was finally removed, Alton Martins tried to comfort his mother and sister Michelle.

Blood from her husband’s body was smeared across Minnie Martins’s polka dot dress.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said later that the four were charged with racketeering, dealing in drugs, possession of abalone, and fraud.

The case has dragged on for more than eight years.

In 2008, a State witness claimed Pietersen told him there was “trouble” between the pastor and Rinquest, and that Martins had also started dealing with Americans gang boss Mogammat Sadeka Madatt.

According to the witness Martins was involved in a double-cross operation.

Martins, once an acknowledged member of the 28s gang, earned his reputation as a “gang pastor” by overseeing more than 200 gang funerals. The list includes Firm leader Colin Stanfield, Americans kingpin Jackie Lonte, Mongrels boss Bobby Mongrel, and Belhar 28s leader Ernie “LaPepa” Peters.

In recent times he emerged as a key member of Safety and Security MEC Dan Plato’s gang outreach programme, in which reformed gangsters were used to intervene in gang turf wars.

Gang leaders were quick to respond to the news yesterday, with alleged Americans gang leader Igshaan “Sanie American” Davids saying he and Martins had been good friends.

“He was a good man and he had no enemies. Yes, he was a crook. But despite that, he is a man who always came in peace.”

Christopher “Ougat” Patterson, suspected leader of the Wonder Kids gang, said he had known the pastor for nearly 30 years.

“He is a man who sat in everyone’s yard. He never favoured one gang above the other. How can you shoot dead the pastor? When Pagad wanted to take us out, he stood up for us. He helped everybody, including myself,” he said.

A Hard Livings gang member, who is a close friend of alleged gang leader Rashied Staggie, expressed shock: “During the days of Pagad he openly supported us.”

He continued: “A big man like him coming to his end in that way... Life is cruel. The government wasn’t always happy with him. But now it seems he was shot dead by a gangster.”

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato also expressed shock, calling on police to apprehend the killers immediately. “I am shocked by his death, as (I am by) any death caused by violence – even more so because I knew him personally,” he said.

In 1990, Martins was key, along with Ivan Waldeck, in forming the now defunct Community Outreach Forum, or Core, which tried to bring peace to violence-stricken areas.

Waldeck, who was also at the court when his friend was shot, told Weekend Argus: “This is a sad day for me. I’m giving up one of my mentors. I see him lying there on the ground and I see a symbol of his life. It is evil, it is unacceptable.”

Quinton Manuel, a friend of Martins who ordained Martins’s son Alton last Sunday, suggested Martins had been preparing to hand over his church duties.

“It’s as if he prepared himself for what was going to happen today,” he said.

Weekend Argus

A fire broke at the Dakela informal settlement near Milnerton destroying 60 shacks, the City of Cape Town said.

Cape Town -

A fire broke at the Dakela informal settlement near Milnerton destroying 60 shacks early on Saturday morning, the City of Cape Town said.

Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said 100 people were left homeless.

“After three hours firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze applying fire suppression.”

He said no injuries were reported.

“The City's disaster response teams will during the course of the day assist with the supply of food parcels, blankets, baby packs, clothing and building material.”

The cause of the fire was not known. - Sapa

Before Anene died, she named one of her attackers as "Zwai". Now rumours are rife that police have the wrong man.

Bredasdorp - It wasn’t me. That was the vehement response from each of two men from Zwelitsha township in Bredasdorp, both with the same nickname as one of the men held in connection with the brutal gang rape, mutilation and murder of teenager Anene Booysen.

Racial tension is running high in the town, as coloured residents struggle to make sense of the vicious murder, with some refusing to believe that “one of our own” would have done it.

 While family of Jonathan Davids, nicknamed “Zwai”, are convinced that police have arrested the wrong man, several others have jumped on the bandwagon, pointing fingers at a black man from a local township, with the same nickname, who they allege is the “real” perpetrator.

 Booysen, 17, was left for dead at a housing construction site near her home a month ago. Before she died in hospital, she named one of her attackers as “Zwai”.

Since then the sleepy Overberg town has been abuzz, with rumours rife that the police got the wrong man.

The case was postponed this week to April 22 after magistrate Graeme Cupido refused Davids bail. Davids and his co-accused, Johannes Kana, are the only two arrested for the murder, although Booysen said on her deathbed that five or six other men were involved.

This week residents told Weekend Argus there was another “Zwai” living in the township about 100m from where the teenager lived.

It took Weekend Argus minutes to trace two other men, both from Zwelitsha township, and both named Zwai – but both spelt “Zway”.

Builders by trade, both have the first name Mzwandile.

They were adamant they were not involved in the murder, and the one the residents had implicated said he was shocked that his name was being mentioned.

“

I did not know that girl,” he said, adding that police had questioned him earlier this week about the case.

“

They wanted to know where I was on February 2 when Anene was killed,” he said, adding that he told them he was working, returning home at 5pm.

“

I was dropped off at the Windmeul pub where we bought a bottle of Old Brown Sherry. We went home, drank wine, listened to music and watched DVDs for the entire night.”

His live-in girlfriend, who is also the mother of his daughter, had been with him all night.

“I know nothing about it,” he said in Afrikaans.

“It wasn’t me. I was home.”

The 32-year-old suggested that it was not unusual for someone accused of a crime to try to blame someone else.

“I may be a drinker, but I do not go to that pub,” he added.

Of what happened to Anene, he said:

“It’s wrong, very wrong, what happened to that girl.”

Zway’s 46-year-old girlfriend, who did not want to be named, confirmed they were together on the night of the murder, and said she was shocked that people were trying to implicate him.

The second Zway told Weekend Argus he worked for the same construction company building at the site where Anene’s body was dumped. But he said he was in Tygerberg Hospital from December into late January, then came home to recover.

This week he was at home, still with a catheter inserted in his side.

Pointing to the tube inserted into his bladder, the elderly man denied any involvement.

“I’ve been suffering from severe kidney problems, and am in constant pain,” he said in Afrikaans.

“Since I’m back, I’ve only been at home. I don’t drink and only smoke cigarettes. I don’t know that girl or her family,” he added.

Meanwhile, the family of the accused “Zwai” say the police did not question the other men, nor did they take DNA samples.

Anene’s brother Ryno Booysen acknowledged the talk about “the other Zwai”, and questioned why police had waited so long to speak to him.

“I need to know why my sister was killed in this way. Why she was hurt so bad? I just don’t understand it,” he said.

He said he had known Davids since childhood, and was having a hard time accepting he would hurt Anene.

“I know Davids as a very heavy drinker.

“He drinks himself into a stupor and when he’s in a drunken state he normally gets smacked around by everybody, but I do not know him as one to retaliate or use violence,” he said.

Weekend Argus

He shot to fame when he won the R1m prize in SA's first Big Brother. Now a lawyer claims Ferdinand Rabie is broke.

Cape Town - He shot to fame in 2001 when he won the R1 million prize in the first season of Big Brother.

However, this week – more than 11 years after he became an instant and rich celebrity – tour operator Ferdinand Rabie found himself at the receiving end of a Western Cape High Court application which claims he is broke.

The application, lodged by firm of attorneys Lucas Dysel Crouse, alleges that 38-year-old Rabie is broke, and calls for his estate to be sequestrated.

In an affidavit filed at court, attorney Lucas Dysel Crouse sketched the background to the application.

He said Rabie entered into a sale agreement with Jame Dreyer Martine in May/June 1997, in terms of which 10 percent of the members’ interest in his business, Ferdinand’s Tours and Adventures, was sold to Martine for R100 000.

The following year, in September, Martine sold his share back to Rabie for the same amount.

However, according to Crouse, Rabie initially failed to pay, prompting Martine to take steps to recover the amount.

Crouse said that in June 2010 his firm and Martine had entered into a memorandum of cession in terms of which the personal rights Martine had to recover the amount were ceded to the firm.

In response to various letters, Rabie wrote to Martine and said: “I don’t have money, even for a lawyer”. He asked for more time, saying he was in negotiations with an “investor”.

If the deal with the investor did not materialise, he would pay off the debt in monthly instalments of R5 000, Rabie told Martine.

Martine handed over the letter to Crouse, and a sequestration application was lodged in September 2010.

However, the matter was resolved and, in terms of a settlement agreement which was made an order of court, Rabie undertook to pay the R100 000, plus interest of 15.5 percent from September 2008, as well as the costs of the application and the collection costs.

The order recorded that the amount would be paid in instalments of R10 000.

According to Crouse, Rabie made several payments from October 5, 2010, to until November 2011, which totalled R120 000.

An additional payment of R35 803.11 was made in January this year.

Crouse said the only reason Rabie made the January payment was because he had received a taxed bill of costs, and was advised that execution steps would be taken if he failed to pay.

However, Rabie still owed the interest and the collection costs.

Crouse submitted that Rabie’s behaviour was “a clear indication that (he) is commercially and quite possibly also de facto insolvent”.

Crouse added that a deeds register search showed that Rabie owned property in Kraaifontein, and that there was a writ of execution endorsed against the property.

He said that, taking into account the mortgage bond and judgment registered over the property, “the probable proceeds from the sale of the immovable property would be zero”.

It was “almost a certainty”, he added, that Rabie would not qualify for any further finance to settle his liabilities or consolidate his debt.

Crouse submitted that it would be in the interest of creditors if Rabie’s estate was placed under sequestration, and a trustee appointed to investigate.

He has asked the court to grant a provisional sequestration order.

Rabie is opposing the application and has been given until March 22 to file his answering papers.

On Thursday the application was postponed to May 8.

Weekend Argus

His next alleged victim was to be a five-year old girl, but the determined actions of a police officer stopped him in his tracks.

Western Cape -

His next alleged victim was to be a five-year old girl, but the determined actions of a police officer stopped him in his tracks.

This emerged during the trial of Knysna businessman Adrian Wilson-Forbes, 60, charged with 79 counts, including statutory rape, abduction, indecent assault, trafficking of persons for sexual purposes and child pornography, which got under way in George this week.

He is being tried in connection with a series of events, dating back to 2001 and which were described in detail this week in the Western Cape High Court trial, sitting at the

Thembalethu Magistrate’s Court, just outside George.

Wilson-Forbes, 60, faces possible multiple life sentences should he be found guilty.

The charges relate to the abduction of an 11-year-old boy from the Garden Route Mall in George, who Wilson-Forbes allegedly took to a local dam, where he offered him money in exchange for sex. The boy was allegedly indecently assaulted.

The accused is alleged to have subsequently offered the boy money to find two young girls for sexual purposes. The boy allegedly took photographs of Wilson-Forbes engaging in sexual acts with the girls.

In March last year, Wilson-Forbes allegedly again contacted his original victim, who is now an adult, with a request that he find him another under-age girl.

The eight-year-old girl was taken to Herolds Bay, near George, where she was allegedly raped.

The original victim took photographs and it was at this point that he decided to go to the police.

Giving testimony on Tuesday before Judge Patricia Goliath, Constable Adri Koeries said she was the first police officer to be alerted as the activities of the alleged paedophile, when the original victim alerted her. He chose her because he knew her.

“I received a call from our service centre saying he would only talk to me. When I contacted him, he was sounding very panicky, saying ‘a child is dead’. He started to cry, saying he must speak out. He forwarded a photo to me on my cellphone and I contacted my commander,” Koeries said.

When the original victim was taken in for questioning, he showed the police numerous photos on his cellphone. It was confirmed that the eight-year-girl was still alive, and the case was handed over to the FCS unit.

“He told us he had taken other children to the man and that he was supposed to take a five year old next as he was going to be compensated more.

“He said the younger the child, the more money he gets. I went back to work, but the situation haunted me,” Koeries told the court.

So she decided to find the eight-year-old victim.

“I know the community and he had told me the child’s name. I went out and started asking around.”

Within hours she located the victim. The parents weren’t aware of the attack.

All the alleged victims, whose identities are being protected, are expected to testify in the trial.

Prior to Koeries’s evidence, the police’s FCS officer Warrant Officer Vernon Sparks, and FCS Commander Captain Wilhelm October, gave testimony about the search and seizure of evidence at Wilson-Forbes’s Knysna home.

This was followed by evidence from Warrant Officer Kelvin Heynes, of the Outeniqua Dog Unit, regarding the search of the accused’s vehicle.

Throughout the week the former businessman, Wilson-Forbes, cut a lonely figure in the dock.

Dressed in designer jeans and a black jacket with the collar pulled up, he stared straight ahead except for the occasional glance around the courtroom, empty except for media and court personnel. He showed little or no emotion throughout.

After the defence’s cross-examination of Koeries on Wednesday, the trial was postponed to Monday.

Weekend Argus

Residents say an unattended candle left in a shack had started the fire, which destroyed 60 homes in Dunoon, Cape Town.

“Thanks to yet another shack blaze, I have to ask for a loan from my bosses to try to fix my family’s lives. I have to start my life all over again.”

That was all Nokubonga Tomose could say after a fire in Ekuphumleni, Dunoon, early on Saturday morning.

Residents said an unattended candle left in a shack had started the fire, which destroyed 60 homes in the informal settlement, leaving about 100 people homeless.

The city’s fire and rescue services said in a statement that the blaze was reported at 12.23am yesterday.

There were no deaths and no one was injured, but scores of residents lost everything they owned.

A fire in Khayelitsha on New Year’s Day left more than 1 000 people homeless, many of whom have still not been permanently rehoused.

Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the blaze was extinguished at about 3.20am yesterday, after fire engines had been sent from Milnerton, Melkbosstrand, Epping, Goodwood and Brooklyn.

Residents at the scene yesterday, struggling to begin rebuilding, said the alleged perpetrator fled immediately when he returned to his shack to find it burning.

A devastated Tomose, who has two daughters, aged nine and one, said the fire destroyed her baby’s food and clothing.

“She’s only feeding from rooibos tea because I don’t have money to buy her more baby food,” she said.

Her elder daughter’s school uniform, stationery and books were also destroyed.

Tomose settled in Ekuphumleni after moving from Ethembeni, also in Dunoon, after a fire razed her home there.

“On Monday I’ll talk to my bosses and see if they can help,” she said.

A local NGO was already on the scene yesterday handing out food parcels and blankets to those who lost homes. - Sunday Argus