Source: IOL
Title: 8-year-old girl's rapist gets 15 years
Date Published: 30-4-2000
Today`s Date: 3-5-2000
Comments:
April 30 2000 at 11:37PM
By Sue Blaine
A Durban judge on Friday sentenced a young man, convicted by a Verulam magistrate of raping an eight-year-old girl, to 15 years' imprisonment.
After convicting Innocent Bongani Malinga of raping the girl, the magistrate transferred the matter to the Durban High Court for sentencing, because legislation promulgated about two years ago demands life imprisonment for serious crimes, including the rape of a girl under 16.
A lesser sentence may be imposed only if a judge is convinced "substantial and compelling circumstances" exist in that particular criminal's case.
A magistrate can impose a maximum 15-year sentence.
Mr Justice Achmat Jappie said there was no suggestion that Malinga, a first offender, could not be rehabilitated, or that he constituted such a danger to society that it was imperative that he be removed from it permanently.
Total removal from society could induce a sense of shock in Malinga.
"This is not to say that this is not a shocking offence," Judge Jappie continued.
"He took advantage of a young girl and he has shown no remorse. Society can demand that he be incarcerated for a long period."
Judge Jappie also ruled that there was no evidence that the girl suffered any serious injury during the incident and agreed with Malinga's defence counsel, Mr Adrian Collingwood, that medical evidence showed that the rape was "of a technical nature, it was more indecent assault".
There was also no evidence that the girl had suffered any psychological trauma, although Mr Collingwood said that it could not be said that she would not suffer resultant trauma later in life.
Judge Jappie granted Malinga leave to appeal against his upholding the Verulam magistrate's conviction, saying that another judge may have dismissed the conviction.
Malinga's conviction was contested because the girl had not been made to take an oath before she testified.
When the magistrate realised the error, she asked the child if she had been telling the truth and whether she would continue to do so.
Judge Jappie agreed with Mr Collingwood that the magistrate's inquiry into whether the girl understood the difference between truth and lies was "perfunctory and sparse".
However, the judge said the law allowed the magistrate to come to his or her own conclusion that a witness understood the difference, and said it was clear the presiding magistrate believed that the girl had understood.
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Source: IOL
Title: 15-year-old youth shot, execution style
Date Published: 1-5-2000
Today`s Date: 3-5-2000
Comments:
May 01 2000 at 02:51PM
A 15-year-old boy was shot dead, execution style, in Heideveld on the Cape Flats, in an apparent gang-related attack on Sunday.
Police official Captain Jacques Wiese on Monday identified the youth as Morne Paulse of Olivia Court.
Wiese said Paulse was shot in the head, neck and back by four suspects close to his home, just after 8pm.
In an unrelated incident, a police officer stationed at the Langa police station was shot and wounded, when he surprised two intruders in his home in the township on Sunday.
Wiese said Sergeant Mnyanda was taken home after he complained of not feeling well. He spotted two men when he entered his home. One of the suspects pulled out a firearm and shot Mnyanda in the stomach.
Mnyanda pulled out his service pistol and hit the suspect over the head. The suspect was also wounded when a shot was fired.
The suspects were arrested and a stolen firearm was recovered. The wounded suspect was discharged after being treated in hospital.
Both arrested men are in police custody and will appear in court this week.
Mnyanda was taken to a Cape Town hospital and was reportedly in a stable condition. - Sapa
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Source: IOL
Title: 14 dangerous prisoners on the run
Date Published: 30-4-2000
Today`s Date: 3-5-2000
Comments:
April 30 2000 at 11:37PM
By Charmaine Pillay
Fourteen awaiting-trial prisoners, who are considered to be dangerous, are on the run after their escape from a police vehicle while being taken to Westville prison.
The prisoners apparently forced open the rear door of the vehicle while travelling from the Umlazi court to the prison on Friday.
The policemen transporting the prisoners were unaware they had escaped until they reached the prison.
Police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo said 21 prisoners were being transported to the prison, but that only seven were in the vehicle when it reached its destination.
"The policemen's primary responsibility is to transport the prisoners to and from the prison. They don't know the exact point at which the prisoners escaped. The matter is being investigated."
He warned the public not to confront any of the prisoners should they come into contact with them. He said they should call their nearest police station or Crime Stop at 0800 11 12 13.
A reward is being offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the men, who now face an additional charge of escaping from custody.
They are Mabhida Sifiso Mbekiseni, 26, (attempted murder); Moosa Shezi, 19, (housebreaking); Simo Jabulani Buthelezi, 20, (rape), Xolani Cele, 18, (rape); Siphemandla Ngubane, 18, (possession of stolen property); Stembiso Bengu, 25, (theft); Thabani Shezi, 23, (murder); Sizwe Maphumulo, 24, (assault, GBH); Siphelo Ngcobo, 18, (housebreaking), Lindelani Mthembu, 19, (housebreaking); and four youths aged 16 who were in custody for robbery, one count of murder, four counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder and one count of housebreaking.
Meanwhile, a policeman was overpowered and beaten up when awaiting-trial prisoners tried to escape from the Mtubatuba police cells on Freedom Day last Thursday.
Sgt T J Mkhasibe and Const V D Mathenjwa were taking food to the inmates when they all burst out of a grille door which they had cut open and dragged the sergeant into the exercise yard, where they assaulted him with a metal rod.
Other prisoners then rushed at Const Mathenjwa, but he threatened to shoot them if they did not return to their cell.
The men went back inside and Sgt Mkhasibe was rescued. He received internal injuries and a bruise on the head.
Police found a number of small saws in the cell.
Six prisoners, described as "extremely dangerous", escaped from the same holding cells on April 24 and are still on the run
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Source: Dispatch
Title: Woman gets 6 years for pension scam
Date Published: 26-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
By Wimpie Heath
Court Reporter
ZWELITSHA -- A 52-year-old Murray Location woman was yesterday sentenced to a total of 24 years for collecting the pensions of dead people during 1998.
Nomboniso Bazi pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and one of fraud before the regional court sent her to prison.
She was sentenced to six years' jail on each count, but the court ordered the sentences to run concurrently .
She will serve an effective six years behind bars.
The court heard that the unemployed Bazi approached jobless people on the street and told them she was employed by the Department of Health and Welfare.
She told them they were required by the government to collect pensions at pension payout points and that on handing the money over to her she would pay them up to R100 per pension collected.
This scam was run from January 1998 to February 1999.
Bazi also went to the department and successfully applied for a disability grant which she received between September 1998 and February 1999.
In total Bazi defrauded the government, and therefore the taxpayer, out of R9 000.
She maintained in court that she took the money because she could not support herself and her seven children on her husband's monthly pension.
Dispatch
26-4-2000
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Source: IOL
Title: Two trials on same day for heist suspect
Date Published: 27-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
April 27 2000 at 11:07AM
By Moses Mthetheleli Mackay
The Cape Town trial of a man who escaped from a prison truck on the Tokai Blue Route last July had to be postponed because he was also standing trial in KwaZulu-Natal.
State prosecutor Bronwen Hendry said Junior Zulu, alias Sibusiso Masuka, could not appear in the Cape Town Regional Court on Wednesday because he was already on trial in another case in the Empangeni High Court.
In the Cape he is facing charges of armed robbery and hijacking.
Hendry said Alwie Jamie, Masuka's attorney, asked that the case be provisionally postponed because the accused was in KwaZulu-Natal where he was facing similar charges, and because Jamie wanted to withdraw.
Police believe the gang that helped cash van robbers escape from a prison truck in Tokai on July 7 were the same people who ambushed a police vehicle in Empangeni in 1998 - freeing men from the same gang.
They then apparently moved to Cape Town, where they were linked to two cash van attacks - a highway heist on the N2 last December in which four Coin Security guards were shot and a government pension heist at the Mill Street post office last May.
Thirteen prisoners awaiting trial escaped as they were being transported between Pollsmoor prison and the Cape Town Magistrate's Court in July.
The alleged kingpin of the gang was believed to have been the main rescue target of the military-style ambush.
Masuka escaped during the ambush, but was arrested later in the Samora Machel squatter camp.
He faces charges of armed robbery and hijacking related to an incident in Eerste River on March 3, and is also expected to be charged with the post office robbery.
Magistrate Eric Louw postponed the case to June 8.
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Source: News24
Title: Two schoolgirls found shot dead on Cape Flats
Date Published: 28-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
Cape Town - The bodies of two schoolgirls were found huddled together near a municipal dumping area in Ravensmead on the Cape Flats on Thursday, police said on Friday.
The two teenagers, who had both been shot in the head, were found by a passerby.
Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen on Friday identified the victims as Bianca Gosh, 18, of Ravensmead and Amelia Jansen, 17, of Elsies River.
Holtzhausen said police were puzzled by the apparently senseless murders.
The girls had attended night school the previous evening, which they did on a regular basis to improve their school marks.
Western Cape Community Safety Sport and Recreation minister Mark Wiley, who visited the families of the two girls, said their cold-blooded execution "takes the violence on the Cape Flats into a new dimension".
"These were not wayward adolescents visiting shebeens at all hours of the night nor were they in any way connected to gangs that infest their neighbourhood," Wiley said.
"By all accounts these were God-fearing young ladies determined to break out of the cycle of poverty that surrounds them, through hard work and diligence."
Wiley said, after speaking to relatives and friends of the two girls, that it was apparent that they lived in fear of their lives.
Residents were literally terrorised when they spoke to the police.
"It is time that we, government and communities alike, see this for what it is, a new form of terrorism," Wiley said.
"It is a lie that central government says it is serious about crime but then allows the situation to develop where there is now almost total paralysis of the criminal justice system due to the pathetic lack of funds and almost comical legislative confusion."
Police have posted a R50 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers. - Sapa
News24
28-4-2000
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Source: IOL
Title: Top surgeon severely assaulted
Date Published: 27-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
April 27 2000 at 12:52AM
By Chimaimba Banda
A top orthopaedic surgeon was attacked and severely assaulted by suspected hijackers at the Johannesburg Hospital.
Police and family sources confirmed the attack on Dr Charles Lautenbach,67, in the hospital's underground parking lot.
His wife Molly told The Star that he had been pistol-whipped and severely assaulted. He was scheduled on Wednesday night to undergo emergency surgery to his jaw, which she feared had been broken in the attack.
Quoting her husband, Mrs Lautenbach said he had just driven into a parking bay and was preparing to get out of his vehicle when two armed men confronted him. They assaulted him and attempted to pull him out of the vehicle, but he resisted and the assailants only managed to take away his jacket.
She said his clothes were torn in the struggle, in which he prevailed solely by virtue of his hefty build. The attackers fled when he screamed for help, which did not come anyway.
She said a security guard at the entrance to the parking area had noted nothing untoward.
Lautenbach's possessions, including credit cards, fell out of his jacket pockets as the attackers fled.
He suffered lacerations to his face, a suspected broken jaw where he was heavily struck with a gun, and his dentures were broken, Mrs Lautenbach said. His ear will also have to be stitched.
"He is very big and has a big voice and he fought back. They couldn't get him out," she said.
"Security guards said they saw nothing. We thank God he wasn't shot or killed."
Lautenbach, who has consulting rooms at the Milpark Hospital, was to have performed an operation at the Johannesburg Hospital when he fell victim to the attack.
He was due to leave for Italy on Tuesday for a medical conference.
Police have confirmed the attack but could provide no further details.
Johannesburg Hospital spokesperson Trudi Schutte said there were 36 entrances and exits to the hospital, several of which can take people to the underground parking area, including the lifts.
Although there were security guards at the entrances to the parking area, it was difficult to monitor every person's movements. Volunteers help visitors and staff in the three parking levels for 1 000 vehicles.
A number of medical doctors have been attacked in recent weeks, and at least two of them have died, raising concern in the medical fraternity.
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Source: News24
Title: Three men rape pregnant Potgietersrus woman
Date Published: 26-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
Potgietersrus - Three men raped a pregnant woman outside Potgietersrus on Tuesday afternoon, Northern Province police said on Wednesday.
Police spokesman Captain Blackie Swart said the woman, who works at a bottle store, was on her way to buy medicine at a pharmacy at around 1pm when the three men grabbed her and forced her into a Honda Ballade.
The attackers drove for a while and then stopped the car so that they could tie up the woman and shove her into the car's boot.
Swart said the men stopped at a secluded spot next to the N1 highway where they took turns raping the 24-year-old woman, who was four months pregnant.
The men locked the woman in the Ballade and then drove away in a blue Nissan bakkie which was parked nearby.
The woman managed to kick the back seat open and walked to the highway, where a traffic policeman picked her up and took her to a police station.
Swart said the woman knew one of the attackers because he was a regular customer at the bottle store. - Sapa
News24
26-4-2000
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Source: IOL
Title: Suspended doc can work - until ruling
Date Published: 27-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
April 27 2000 at 11:07AM
A Cape Town orthopaedic surgeon who is facing 16 charges of indecent assault and one of rape, has pleaded with the Pretoria High Court to allow him to continue practising.
Dr Johannes Volsteedt approached the court with an urgent application after he received notice last week that the Medical and Dental Council had suspended him from practising.
Judge Johan van der Westhuizen said the specialist could continue with his practice until tomorrow, when he will rule on the matter.
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Source: IOL
Title: Squatters challenge govt for shelter
Date Published: 27-4-2000
Today`s Date: 28-4-2000
Comments:
April 27 2000 at 12:37AM
Residents of the Cape Town suburb of Wallacedene will take on the government in the Constitutional Court next month to defend their right to a roof over their heads.