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U-turn on Sunday booze sales in Cape

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The ban on liquor sales in Cape Town on Sundays is off – for now.

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Cape Town -

The ban on liquor sales in Cape Town on Sundays is off – for now.

In a surprising turnaround that caused an uproar in the city council on Wednesday, the DA submitted a last-minute motion to amend the section that bans the sale of liquor on a Sunday.

The controversial new liquor laws will come into effect on Monday, and the proposed ban on liquor sales from bottle stores on Sundays angered some consumers, and those in the liquor trade.

Enforcement of the section of the by-law that bans the sale of alcohol on Sundays will now be suspended.

This amendment will be discussed by the economic, environmental and spatial planning committee next week and then go out for another round of public participation – a process that could take months.

Opposition parties called the request “a political ploy”, saying businesses close to the DA were putting pressure on the party to amend the by-law.

On Wednesday, mayco member for economic, environmental and spatial planning Garreth Bloor submitted an urgent motion to reconsider the trading hours and the ban on alcohol sales on Sundays.

The Liquor Trading Days and Hours By-law states that, for off-licensed premises, a licensee may sell liquor for consumption off the licensed premises from Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm. No liquor may be sold by any off-licensed premises on a Sunday. The only exception is wineries, which may trade from their tasting rooms on Sundays.

The request came as the council meeting started on Wednesday and as Harley’s Liquor Store in the CBD applied for a court interdict to stop the ban on Sunday alcohol sales.

Opposition parties lashed out at the DA request, saying the process to approve the by-law had spanned many years, millions had been spent on public participation and all stakeholders consulted.

ANC leader in the council Tony Ehrenreich said the ANC believed the DA was being lobbied by businesses in Long Street and South African Breweries (SAB).

“The DA are making some vague promises of economic development, disregarding the impact of alcohol on communities. This is an indication of the DA bias to business ahead of working class communities,” Ehrenreich said.

Bloor said: “We are aware that the by-law is designed to address the problems of alcohol abuse in communities but there are employees and industries affected that we have to take into consideration.

“This did go out for public consultation but as usual there are things that are only realised at the last minute. We are not looking to change the decision immediately but for the portfolio committee to consider and then it will go out for public comment again.”

Cope councillor Kent Morkel said: “What a farce and a joke. Every issue Bloor has brought up came up 50 times before. All I read into this is that there is political pressure. This is a political ploy with stakeholders close to the DA putting pressure on them.”

Bloor said they were not looking at lifting the ban on Sunday sales in residential areas but only in commercial nodes. “Alcohol abuse is a result of social problems such as unemployment. A lot of stakeholders expressed concerns saying Sundays are their busiest days and the ban would result in loss of income. We are making this request to address the unintended consequences and not to undermine the job creation process,” Bloor said.

 

The city said it had noted concerns to which it had to respond.

 

The ANC supported the request, approved by the council, to refer the amendment.

 

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za

Cape Times


Traffic officials gear up for Easter

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A zero-tolerance policy towards drunk driving and speeding will be be enforced.

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Traffic authorities are gearing up for one of their busiest weekends of the year.

Kenny Africa, the Western Cape’s traffic chief, committed his staff to trying to reduce the number of road fatalities this weekend. Over the 2011 Easter weekend nine people died on the province’s roads, while 11 died last year – most between 6pm and 10pm.

This year, said Africa, there would be a special focus on fatigue and unbuckled back-seat passengers. A zero tolerance policy towards drunk driving and speeding would be be enforced.

There would be roadblocks every night between tonight and Sunday.

Clear, partly cloudy and moderate conditions have been forecast for the city on Friday and Saturday.

Temperatures will be in the low to mid 20s throughout the weekend. There will be showers in the interior on Saturday, and rain at the coast and in the interior on Sunday and Monday. - Cape Argus

School locked in battle over hair

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A grade 10 pupil from a school in Cape Town has missed almost two weeks of school because he has refused to cut his dreadlocks.

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Cape Town - A grade 10 pupil from Siphamandla Secondary in Khayelitsha has missed almost two weeks of school because he has refused to cut his dreadlocks.

Sikhokhele Diniso, 18, said he was told not to come back to school unless his dreadlocks were cut.

But the school says Diniso is not suspended - and has merely been asked “to comb his hair in order to look more presentable”.

Diniso said he couldn’t cut his hair because he followed the Rastafarian faith and Rastas believed that cutting their hair would weaken them.

“I was last at school on March 13. The principal has told me about my hair before, and when I told him why I couldn’t cut my hair he said that religion and culture was not allowed in school.

“My parents went to the school to speak to him once and they were not available to go and speak to him again because of work.”

Diniso said he had met the advocacy NGO Equal Education, which had been in touch with the school.

Equal Education media officer Kate Wilkinson said that cultural and religious diversity should not be undermined by schools.

“A school uniform policy or dress code should take into account religious and cultural diversity within the community.

“Measures should be included to accommodate pupils whose religious beliefs are compromised by a uniform requirement.”

Wilkinson said the principal’s actions had violated Diniso’s constitutional rights to dignity, freedom of religion and basic education.

They had asked the Western Cape Education Department to send a circular to schools giving clear guidelines on the legal position of schools’ codes of conduct and pupils’ religious and cultural beliefs and practices.

The department’s Millicent Merton said she had spoken to the principal, who said Diniso had not been suspended.

“The principal requested the learner to come to school with his parents and to comb his hair in order to look more presentable.”

Merton said had Diniso been suspended there would have been a more “formal process”.

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Police swoop on Daily Voice offices

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Cops armed with a search warrant swooped on the Daily Voice to obtain all records related to a published child sex story.

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Cape Town - About seven Mitchells Plain police officers armed with a search warrant swooped on the Daily Voice newspaper on Wednesday to obtain all records related to child sex story published in the tabloid earlier this month.

But the newspaper went to the Western Cape High Court for an order to suspend the warrant, and Judge Rosheni Allie granted the order.

The order is pending a formal application to have the warrant set aside.

At around 10.30am on Wednesday, the police arrived at the Daily Voice with the warrant, signed by a magistrate, to search and seize all electronic equipment, cellphones, computers and other print media or videos containing child pornography.

In the first week of March, the Daily Voice published on Page One pixelated images of two teenagers apparently having sex at school. A number of follow-up stories were also published. An amateur video was taken of the incident, which is understood to have taken place in May last year. A copy was sent to the Daily Voice.

The warrant search said the Daily Voice had contravened sections of the Film and Publications Act and the Sexual Offences Act. Before the police could execute the warrant, the company’s lawyer, Jacques Louw, took the matter to court.

In an affidavit, Louw said the newspaper had received a tip-off about the video from a source who wanted to remain anonymous.

Daily Voice deputy editor Elliot Sylvester, the reporter, Megan Baadjies, and Independent Newspapers have been listed as the three applicants to have the warrant set aside.

An order suspending the search warrant and any arrest warrant sought by the police has been obtained.

Daily Voice editor Shane Doran said executing the warrant would effectively shut down the newspaper: “It goes entirely against the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in section 16 of the constitution. For that reason we got an application to suspend the warrant pending bringing an application to attack the warrant.”

jade.otto@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

De Lille tackles Golden Arrow

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Cape Town’s mayor has accused the Golden Arrow Bus service of sabotaging its efforts to correct apartheid’s impact on the city.

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Cape town - The mayor of Cape Town has accused the Golden Arrow Bus service of sabotaging its efforts to correct apartheid’s impact on the city - and has lambasted the leading figures behind the bus service.

In an extraordinary attack on Wednesday, Patricia de Lille said the bus service was acting against the MyCity bus service - and thus against the interests of Cape Town’s poorest citizens.

De Lille said the city was using its MyCiti bus services to help undo the impact of apartheid on communities which found themselves strewn across greater Cape Town, with virtually no transport networks connecting them. This was “the physical expression of the apartheid system mapped in urban geography”, De Lille said.

The first phase had been rolled out in time for the 2010 World Cup, followed by the CBD and up the West Coast. There was also a public commitment to provide the service to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha by the end of the year.

De Lille said the city had engaged with stakeholders, including Golden Arrow, to bring various modes of transport together into one coherent network.

But Golden Arrow had thrown a spanner in the works by taking the city to court a fortnight ago, in an attempt to guarantee a role for their bus service.

“I am astonished that that a company like Golden Arrow is seeking to block an initiative that will directly benefit the poor of this city, especially given the ownership of Golden Arrow.”

She said the bus company was owned by Hosken Consolidated Investments, which had the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union as its majority shareholder.

“Indeed, many of its directors are from Sactwu or are former unionists. Does Marcel Golding, the executive chairman of HCI, support Golden Arrow’s action?

Mr Golding is a former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.

“Does the CEO, Anthony Copelyn, a former general secretary of Sactwu, support it?” (It is assumed she meant Johnny Copelyn.)

“(T)here are few contradictions more apparent, or greater ironies, than the fact that a union-backed company is opposing one of the most profoundly socially transformative projects of a generation, one that will change the lives of poor people in Cape Town.

“It is a brutal reality for the poor that their would-be champions choose to be brave only when behind a megaphone and not when making financial decisions behind the closed doors of the boardroom,” De Lille charged.

Golden Arrow was last night studying De Lille's attack, but had not yet responded.

Nor had Golding or Copelyn responded to De Lille's challenge.

Cape Argus

De Lille’s R31bn draft budget

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Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille has presented a proposed draft budget of R31.8 billion for the 2013/14 financial year.

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Cape Town - Mayor Patricia de Lille has presented a proposed draft budget of R31.8 billion, with the highest allocation of R13bn to utility services, for the 2013/14 financial year.

De Lille said while there were indications of a slow economic recovery internationally, in some markets South Africa was still experiencing sluggish growth.

“According to the Bureau of Economic Research, GDP growth was expected to drop to 1.6 percent in 2013, with the Consumer Price Index projected to remain at the upper end of the 3 percent to 6 percent range due to the increasing costs associated with food, petrol and energy.

“At the level of funding allocation, even though we have the census figures from 2011 available, metro municipalities find themselves with a lower portion of the equitable share allocated by the national government.

“It is proposed that R1.5bn is allocated to corporate services for Operating Expenditure (opex) and just under R264 million for Capital Expenditure (capex) ensuring the administrative structure that allows us to deliver a well-run city is adequately resourced,” said De Lille.

Economic, environmental and spatial planning would receive a proposed opex budget of R495m and capex of over R66m where as the finance directorate would receive R1.8bn in opex and under R11m in capex.

City health is expected to receive just over R800m in opex and just over R23m in capex.

A proposed R1.2bn is to allocated to human settlements for opex and over R600m for capex.

“These allocations will help us build the kind of integrated communities that are the answer to overcoming the spatial legacy of apartheid,” said de Lille.

The office of the city manager was allocated R700m in opex and under R50m in capex.

Safety and security would receive over R1.5bn in opex and just under R41m in capex.

Social development and early childhood development would receive just under R77m in opex and just over R8m in capex.

Transport, roads, and stormwater would receive R2bn in opex and just over R1.4bn in capex.

Utility services would receive R13bn in opex and just over R2.7bn in capex.

“Utilities are by far the biggest portion of the budget, which confirms our commitment to ensure that basic services continue to be delivered to all and which further supports the operation and expansion of the city economy.”

Tourism, events and marketing would receive just over R500m in opex and over R26m in capex.

Cape Argus

Public asked for help in finding woman

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The police are seeking the public’s help in tracing a woman they believe could help them in solving an attempted murder case.

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Cape Town - The police are seeking the public’s help in tracing a 33-year-old woman they believe could help them in solving an attempted murder case.

Police have identified the woman as Rozelle Hyman from Sir Lowry’s Pass.

Police said she could be linked to the case where two farmers, from George, were assaulted.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said the two men sustained serious injuries. “It is alleged that they went to Sir Lowry’s Pass to purchase cows, but when they arrived at the arranged meeting point they were attacked and robbed of an undisclosed amount of money.”

Traut said the men’s faces, arms and heads were injured in the attack. They were sent to a nearby hospital for further assessment.

“The two male farmers, aged around 50, were seriously assaulted after being attacked with sharp objects by three unidentified males and a woman.”

Traut said they had no further information on the three men.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the investigating officer, Warrant officer James Robertson, on 021 8501344 or Crime Stop on 08600 10111

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Not enough space to work, say MPLs

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Western Cape MPLs have complained that the provincial legislature is too small for them to do their jobs effectively.

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Cape Town - Western Cape members of the provincial legislature have complained that it is too small for them to do their jobs effectively.

During Speaker Richard Majola’s Budget vote on Wednesday, MPLs of the ANC, DA and Cope complained of “serious space constraints” at 7 Wale Street.

Members said there was also a shortage of parking bays for staff and no defined “provincial parliamentary precinct”.

The legislature chamber and Office of the Speaker take up the sixth floor of the building. MPLs, parliamentary support staff and researchers are on the fourth and fifth floors, while the Premier’s Department is on the first floor. Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde are on the mezzanine level, while other department staff occupy the second and third floors.

DA MPL and chief whip Alta Rossouw said the legislature was a provincial key point and that the “issue of space constraints” could no longer be “swept under the carpet”.

“It is not right for us to hold committee meetings in the chamber and the auditorium. It is very frustrating. We need more facilities urgently.”

There are only two committee rooms at 7 Wale. The standing committee on public accounts and other committees must often use the main chamber.

ANC MPL Pierre Uys said former speaker Shahid Esau had promised to speak to the provincial Public Works Department about the space constraints three years ago.

“To date nothing has come of that,” Uys said. “In the Speaker’s annual performance plan last year he said more attention would be given to a new accommodation plan for the legislature. I know there was talk of using the third floor of the building, but no one has said a thing since. We don’t even know where the parliamentary precinct begins and ends. There are so many other departments in this one building.”

Majola said: “I will discuss this with the provincial Public Works Department and hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the space problem.”

The legislature has been allocated R102.6 million this year. Majola said his department would upgrade the telephony infrastructure, the legislature’s website and implement a library modernisation project over the coming financial year. Standing committee budgets would also be increased by 25 percent.

clayton.barnes@inl.co.za

Cape Argus


Western Cape mayors reject e-tolls

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Several Western Cape mayors have vowed to join the fight against e-tolling in the province.

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Western Cape - Several Western Cape mayors vowed on Thursday to join the fight against e-tolling in the province.

“We, the mayors of the DA-led municipalities of Stellenbosch, Theewaterskloof, Drakenstein, Breede Valley, and the Winelands District want to express our unconditional opposition to Sanral's proposed N1 and N2 Winelands toll project,” they said in a statement.

“We wholeheartedly support the City of Cape Town in its attempt to obtain an interdict to stop this project and will soon formally meet with them to discuss our involvement.”

The mayors said the proposed tolls would have dire consequences for locals and the poorer communities would be largely affected.

The tolls would also badly affect the agricultural sector.

“Farmers already spend millions each year to transport their loads to and from the Cape Town harbour.

“The planned toll will be a tremendous additional financial burden to this industry and the many people it employs under difficult financial circumstances,” said the mayors.

They criticised the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) for not disclosing the cost of the project and not providing the public with a full understanding of the financial implications.

The mayors said taxpayers had already spent large amounts of money in maintaining the province's roads.

Sanral served the city with a notice on March 6 indicating that it intended resuming the project.

On Monday, city officials filed an application to halt the project.

Transport and roads mayoral committee member Brett Herron said the urgent interdict application had been set down for May 16 and 17 in the Western Cape High Court.

The city had previously filed an urgent interdict application in November 2011.

Sanral agreed at that stage to take no further steps towards introducing the project pending the review application yet to be decided upon by the Western Cape High Court.

It also undertook to provide the city with 45 days' notice of its intention to start working on the project.

Herron said Sanral agreed not to conclude a concession agreement before June 1, 2013. - Sapa

Van der Vyfer ruling overturned

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The police ministry has won an appeal against Fred van der Vyfer, who successfully sued the State for maliciously prosecuting him for Inge Lotz’s murder.

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Cape Town -

The police ministry has won an appeal against Fred van der Vyfer, who successfully sued the State for maliciously prosecuting him for the murder of his girlfriend Inge Lotz.

The Supreme Court of Appeal on Thursday overturned an earlier finding by the Cape Town High Court that the ministry could be held liable for damages following the prosecution of Van der Vyfer for Lotz's murder in 2005. He was acquitted in November 2007.

The appeal court found Van der Vyfer failed to prove malicious intent on the part of police officers investigating the crime. It set aside the earlier ruling with costs.

Lotz was found beaten and stabbed to death in her Stellenbosch flat in 2005. - Sapa

Handwriting expert cross-examined

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A handwriting expert in the murder trial of Thandi Maqubela was quizzed on his qualifications in the Western Cape High Court.

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Cape Town - A handwriting expert in the murder trial of Thandi Maqubela was quizzed on his qualifications in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday.

The State asked defence witness Cecil Greenfield during cross-examination what type of formal training he had.

“There are no formal courses in the world on this field... One has to really experience a subject to learn it,” he replied.

“I was never in the police and I never had formal training.”

Prosecutor Pedro van Wyk asked if this meant he was self-taught. “Yes, most of us teach ourselves,” Greenfield said.

Maqubela and co-accused Vela Mabena stand accused of killing her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela, by suffocating him with clingwrap in his Cape Town apartment on June 5, 2009. They have pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.

Maqubela has also pleaded not guilty to additional charges of forgery and fraud.

Prosecutors Bonnie Currie-Gamwo and Van Wyk allege that she forged her husband's signature on his will, and then fraudulently presented the forged will at the Johannesburg office of the Master of the High Court.

Greenfield testified on Wednesday that the signature on the will was, in all probability, authentic.

His testimony contradicted that of the State's handwriting analyst, Colonel Marco van der Hammen, who declared that the signature on the will was, in all probability, a forgery, based on four key differences he found.

On Wednesday, the court was handed a copy of the High Court order declaring the will invalid on an unopposed basis, and thus rejected.

“Can you still say conclusively it's not a forgery?” Van Wyk asked Greenfield.

The expert replied that he could only answer on probabilities.

“This is not an exact science and, at best, it's circumstantial evidence. I was not there and therefore I can only talk on the little knowledge I have on the subject,” Greenfield said.

“One hasn't got a real basis to form an exact opinion... as [one would] with DNA,” he said.

Van Wyk asked if there were certain standards in the field that applied when examining handwriting on documents.

Greenfield said most experts relied on the work of Albert Osborne's book, “Questioned Documents”, which was considered the “bible” of the profession.

Sapa

Education as essential service ‘not legal’

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Education cannot legally be declared an essential service, says NGO Equal Education in a new position paper.

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Cape Town - Education cannot legally be declared an essential service, says NGO Equal Education in a new position paper.

The NGO had analysed the law relating to education as an essential service.

“There is a recurring debate on whether teaching should be declared an essential service,” the paper said.

The DA had emphatically taken the position that education should be declared an essential service and ANC politicians, including President Jacob Zuma, had recently raised the subject publicly.

According to the paper, an essential service referred, in law, to an economic activity for which the government was permitted to prohibit strikes totally.

It pointed to Section 65 of the Labour Relations Act which stated that: “No person may take part in a strike or lock-out or in any conduct in contemplation or furtherance of a strike or a lock-out if… that person is engaged in an essential service…”

It was therefore vital to know which services may be declared essential, and which may not, Equal Education said.

Many decisions of the freedom of association committee of the governing body of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) had repeatedly confirmed that education could not be considered an essential service whatever the circumstances.

The position paper had examined cases from across the world including Canada, whose Bill of Rights was perhaps most similar to South Africa’s.

“There is indeed cause for serious concern that teacher absenteeism and a lack of professionalism are a part of the challenge facing South African education. Equal Education shares with all reasonable South Africans a concern that teachers should conduct themselves professionally and diligently, and that teaching should be to a high standard.”

Equal Education said a great deal of discussion and hard work was needed in order to ensure that this happened in South Africa.

Meanwhile, about 50 members of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) picketed outside the Western Cape Education Department yesterday afternoon. They called for Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga, Basic Education director-general Bobby Soobrayan and Education MEC Donald Grant to be fired.

Sadtu provincial chairman Bongani Mcoyana said the picket was part of rolling mass action by the union across the country to “send a message to the employers that we are sick and tired”.

The teachers raised the issues of:

* Payment of Grade 12 markers.

* Reduction of class sizes.

* School closures.

* Improvement of infrastructure at schools.

Sadtu provincial secretary Jonovan Rustin said: “We decided nationally that the national minister and the director-general are not working in the interest of education. We want smaller class sizes, sufficient infrastructure, to ensure we have libraries in our schools. We want to make sure our kids get the best education possible.”

michelle.jones@inl.co.za

Cape Times

Maquebela signature ‘looked different’

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The signature on acting judge Patrick Maqubela's last will “stuck out like a sore thumb”, the Western Cape High Court heard.

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Cape Town - The signature on acting judge Patrick Maqubela's last will “stuck out like a sore thumb”, the Western Cape High Court heard on Thursday.

This was the opinion of the State's Pedro van Wyk, who cross-examined handwriting expert Cecil Greenfield on his finding that the signature was, in all probability, authentic.

Greenfield was called by the defence team of Thandi Maqubela and her co-accused Vela Mabena, who have pleaded not guilty to killing her husband in June 2009.

Maqubela has denied that she forged her husband's signature on his will and presented this document at the Johannesburg office of the Master of the High Court.

Van Wyk asked Greenfield if he agreed that the signature on the will “stuck out like a sore thumb” when compared with the acting judge's other signatures from 2009.

Greenfield agreed to an extent.

“The signature is, at face value, more similar to previous signatures,” he said.

The expert said it was therefore extremely important to have as many examples of previous signatures for comparison as possible.

He said this was where the State's handwriting analyst and witness, Colonel Marco van der Hammen, had erred as he had only looked at 20 signature specimens, whereas he had looked at around 80.

Van der Hammen's opinion was that the signature on the will was very likely a forgery, based on four key differences he found.

Greenfield concluded that the acting judge had been at liberty to choose any signature that he wanted to at that point.

Van Wyk asked how certain he was on his finding, based on a percentage.

“I'm quite happy on the balance of probability, which is 51

percent compared to 49 percent. I'd say it's closer to 90 percent or even 99 percent,” Greenfield said.

The expert was allowed to leave the stand.

Van Wyk told the court he was formally withdrawing from the case as it was his last day in that position.

Judge John Murphy thanked him for his assistance.

Van Wyk's colleague, Bonnie Currie-Gamwo, would lead the prosecution forward.

The trial resumes on Tuesday. - Sapa

Bill will improve police oversight: Plato

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The Community Safety Bill recently passed in the Western Cape will improve oversight of police, says Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.

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Cape Town - The Community Safety Bill recently passed in the Western Cape legislature will improve oversight of police, an official said on Thursday.

“The bill is not about controlling the police, it’s about improving oversight and making the SA Police Service more efficient by working with them,” said Greg Wagner, spokesman for Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.

Twenty three of 36 provincial legislature members voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday.

During the debate, Plato said approval of the bill was an historic moment for oversight legislation, not only in the province but for the whole country.

“What the bill seeks to do is to regulate the activities of the province, setting out how we should be performing oversight over the police in order to give effect to constitutional provisions, to clarify what oversight means in a practical way, and how the Western Cape government should be fulfilling this oversight responsibility,” he said.

According to the Cape Argus, ANC MPL Khaya Magaxa said the bill would create “inter-governmental conflict” between the national and provincial departments.

The bill has been sent to provincial premier Helen Zille and is expected to be signed into law in the next two weeks. - Sapa

De Lille slams anti-gay slur

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An ANC City councillor has been taken to task for describing Cape Town as a “moffie city”.

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Cape Town - An ANC city councillor has been taken to task for describing Cape Town as a “moffie city”.

The remarks were reportedly made by Abdulhamied Gabier in Wedmesday’s sitting at the council chambers.

Mayor Patricia de Lille said the councillor had laid into Cape Town with a string of insults, among them the anti-gay slur.

“He was so homophobic and so insulting. I stood up and told the Speaker we cannot allow that language in the house, it’s unconstitutional.”

De Lille said she did not know what had prompted the outburst, as it “was not even relevant to the debate”.

On Twitter, DA councillor Dave Bryant reported: “(The) mayor spoke up and took him (Gabier) to task for homophobic statements and (the) ANC caucus just laughed. What a classy bunch.”

ANC caucus leader Tony Ehrenreich said: “Obviously the ANC does not endorse statements like that, and are completely opposed to such terms.”

Contacted today, Gabier said, somewhat confusingly: “You must ask the mayor why she is angry.” He then hung up.

Cape Argus


UAE to appeal Karabus ruling

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Cyril Karabus will not return home because UAE authorities intend appealing the ruling which cleared him of manslaughter.

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 Cape Town - Professor Cyril Karabus will not return to South Africa this weekend as planned, because United Arab Emirates authorities intend appealing the court ruling which cleared him of manslaughter, the department of international relations said on Thursday.

“We have been notified that there is an intention to appeal the court’s decision. Legally speaking he won't be able to leave the country (until this process is completed),” said departmental spokesman Clayson Monyela.

He confirmed that the UAE authorities would keep Karabus's passport pending the outcome of the appeal.

Last Thursday, a UAE court acquitted Karabus of manslaughter and of falsifying documents after the death of a three-year-old Yemeni girl he treated for leukaemia in 2002.

The next day it was reported that Karabus would have to wait before returning home, as the prosecution in the UAE had 14 days to appeal the ruling.

Karabus, who is an emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town and a specialist paediatric oncologist, was charged and sentenced in absentia.

On August 18, he was arrested in Dubai while in transit to South Africa from Toronto, Canada, where he had attended his son's wedding.

On Friday, Karabus said in a statement that he looked forward to returning to South Africa and celebrating his birthday, on Monday, with his family in Cape Town.

Monyela said that the appeal was a legal process to which Karabus would have to submit.

“The appeal does not change the fact that (a UAE) medical review committee has absolved him of any responsibility for the death.”

He said Karabus and his family were being given consular assistance. - Sapa

Ferrari rolls on N2

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Two men sustained minor injuries after the Ferrari in which they were travelling crashed and rolled on Hospital Bend.

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Cape Town - Two men suffered minor injuries after the Ferrari in which they were travelling crashed and rolled on Hospital Bend early this morning.

The driver of the Ferrari was travelling on the N2 into the city shortly after midnight when he lost control.

The vehicle rolled over the barrier dividing the incoming and outgoing lanes and landed in the right outbound lane.

“The persons inside the vehicle were not trapped and were treated for minor injuries. We had to extinguish a fire, and then the scene was handed over to the police,” said Theo Layne, spokesman for the city’s Fire and Rescue Services.

Arno Cloete at Viglietti Motors, an official Ferrari dealership in Cape Town, said that he was aware of |the accident and confirmed that the driver was one of the dealership’s clients.

Cloete, however, said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement not to release any information about their customers.

Cape Argus

Home of Sexy Boys ‘boss’ shot at, petrol-bombed

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The Glenhaven stronghold of the alleged leader of the notorious Sexy Boys gang was petrol-bombed twice and shot at four times during a brazen dusk attack.

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Cape Town - The Glenhaven stronghold of the alleged leader of the notorious Sexy Boys gang, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, was petrol-bombed twice and shot at four times during a brazen dusk attack.

An Audi R8’s back wheel was flattened and a Volkswagen Polo’s hatch and bumper burnt during the bomb attacks and shooting which took place on Thursday evening. Shots were also fired into a garage and gate.

No injuries were reported from the attack outside the home, which is surrounded by surveillance cameras.

The fire brigade was called, but neighbours had doused the flames by the time they arrived.

 

A security guard witnessed the entire attack while walking from one of Booysen’s other homes near the Rue Emmy Street home, where the attack occurred.

The

security cameras filmed three attackers in a Nissan 1400 bakkie lighting explosive devices, then hurling them at the home.

 

The driver of the bakkie fired shots, a passenger threw a bomb, while a person on the back of the bakkie threw a second bomb, sources reported.

The Sexy Boys gang, which is being investigated by the Hawks for drug-running, has declined police help, saying it would conduct its own investigation.

 

Pagad leader Abdus Salaam Ebrahim denied rumours that the anti-gangsterism and drugs organisation was behind the attack.

“If members of the public responded by attacking that house because drugs and gangsterism are destroying the lives of their children, and destroying our country, then we applaud that action – but only if it was done for the right reasons,” he said.

Last month the Hawks raided three other homes in Booysen’s large property portfolio in the northern suburbs. They seized 250-litre metal containers believed to contain chemicals used to make drugs, as well as other machinery.

 

Booysen, a former building inspector at the Cape Town City Council for 21 years until 2006, has been accused of murder three times. None of the cases has made it to the courtroom.

 

Besides owning several homes in Glenhaven, Bellville and Durbanville, Booysen also owns houses and complexes in Belhar.

The owner of the Belhar Rugby Club, Booysen describes himself as a community builder.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut confirmed the attack, but said the owner of the house did not want to lay a charge. The police would not investigate the attack.

Weekend Argus

University has hopes to score in Xhosa

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Stellenbosch University is taking steps to promote and embrace Xhosa, along with other African languages, via sports terminology booklets.

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Western Cape - Stellenbosch University is taking steps to promote and embrace Xhosa, along with other African languages, via sports terminology booklets.

The two recently released trilingual sports glossary booklets – a sequel to a soccer-terms dictionary during the 2010 World Cup – were published by the university’s Language Centre for IsiXhosa Unit.

They include isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans terminology, and form part of the university’s bid to entice sports lovers by providing sports terms in the vernacular.

“The books form part of a special project to develop sports terminology,” uni- versity spokesman Siyavuya Madikane explained.

Pumlani Sibula, head of the IsiXhosa Unit and co-author of the latest booklet, said they wanted people to view their home languages, particularly isiXhosa, as “cool”.

“This is the university’s bid to promote not only isiXhosa, but pride in African folklore.”

Sibula, who was solely responsible for the World Cup booklet, believes the timing will help change people’s attitudes towards the language.

“Fittingly, the rugby and cricket seasons are under way in tandem, and we have produced these books with perfect timing, much like we did the soccer booklet”

Sibula expressed concern that “black people don’t speak their language with pride, and it irks me”.

“We’re virtually challenging isiXhosa speakers. The language’s survival needs commitment from them, and what better way to pass on our message than through sport?”

They had decided on the isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans combination because they were the languages mostly widely spoken in the Western Cape.

“In the past the university has often been synonymous with Afrikaans, and viewed as an apartheid institution. So this is our way of reaching out to the community,” he said.

Sibula waxed lyrical about the books and the community impact they hoped to see.

“I’m excited about being given the opportunity to be involved in a scheme that looks to stimulate speakers of the language to be enticed once again,” he said.

Highlighting the challenges of penning books of this kind, the isiXhosa fanatic said it took about a year to finish them.

“The problem is language can be culture-specific, making it difficult to translate. And isiXhosa is not exempt from this.

“The history of isiXhosa literature isn’t old. We used transliteration because isiXhosa lacks terminology, while we also took definitions and captured only the core items in those definitions.”

Fresh from a linguists’ conference in Botswana, aimed at “promoting African languages”, Professor Leon de Stadler, the university’s Language Centre director, said people did not appreciate the importance of African languages.

“We decided to do sports terminology because sport is spoken about casually.”

soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za

Weekend Argus

Over 100 displaced in Cape fires

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Hundreds of people were left displaced in a number of fires in Cape Town, the city's disaster risk management said.

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Cape Town - Hundreds of people were left displaced in a number of fires in Cape Town, the city's disaster risk management said on Saturday.

Spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said four houses and about 61 shacks were destroyed in four different fires on Good Friday, leaving over a 100 people homeless.

A fire started in Elmaree street in Kalkfontein at 6.56pm destroying 21 shacks, he said.

“The firefighters managed to extinguish the inferno at 8.30pm and made the area safe.”

At 8.45pm a fire occurred at the Lusaka Informal Settlement in Gugulethu.

Firefighters brought the fire under control within 17 minutes of arriving, said Solomons-Johannes.

Four informal shacks in backyard houses were destroyed.

“Prior to the arrival of the emergency crews the occupants attempted to extinguish the blaze with buckets of water,” he said.

“It is suspected that the fire was started from a short circuit in electrical wiring insulation.”

The third fire was at the Fisantekraal Informal Settlement near Durbanville at 9.42pm.

Eleven shacks were destroyed and left 41 people, including 25

adults and 16 children, displaced.

“It is suspected that the fire was caused by a lighted paraffin stove that overturned and ignited,” said Solomons-Johannes.

About 60 people, including two babies, were left displaced when 25 shacks and three houses burnt down at the Masiphumelele Informal Settlement.

He said the fire happened just before midnight and was brought under control at around 1am on Saturday morning.

A woman suffered smoke inhalation and was treated by paramedics on the scene and a man that was standing on a roof top of a shack fell and hurt his leg. The man was taken to a hospital for further treatment.

“It is suspected that the cause of the fire was as a result of open flames overturning and igniting bedding.”

Solomons-Johannes urged people to be safe when working with open fires. - Sapa

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