A mother has made a desperate plea to the Durban High Court to have her 11-year-old daughter admitted to a psychiatric facility.

Durban - The Department of Health has been ordered to admit a severely ill 11-year-old girl to a psychiatric facility after her mother made a desperate plea to the Durban High Court.

In her urgent application, the mother, who is being represented by attorney Shaz Bartlett, said she was compelled to approach the court as her child was prone to violent outbursts, had threatened to harm herself and was a danger to her younger siblings.

While the Health Department is yet to file its papers in the matter, the mother has put up medical reports which detail her daughter’s condition, including discharge reports from two government hospitals.

She said she was repeatedly being turned away by public hospitals despite professionals advising her that her daughter needed permanent care.

The woman said she did not have the financial means to have the child placed in a private facility.

An interim order, which was granted recently, ordered that the child be admitted to Town Hill hospital in Pietermaritzburg pending an application to be made by her mother.

The mother was directed to make an application this week for her daughter to be permanently placed at another KwaZulu-Natal hospital.

In her affidavit, the mother said on one occasion, her daughter threatened to cut her stomach open with a carving knife as she believed there was a baby inside.

She also broke mirrors and refused to wear clothes.

The mother said she and her family were not able to help her daughter and were afraid of her.

“Her condition is something well beyond our control.

“We do not know when she is going to attack either someone else or herself.”

In her affidavit, the woman said she first noticed a change in her daughter’s behaviour in 2012 when she became irritable and aggressive and appeared to want to hurt herself.

When the daughter’s condition worsened and she began to cut herself, she was admitted to hospital in December 2013, but she did not improve.

In 2014, she was admitted to Town Hill for a brief time and to two other hospitals last year.

The mother said her child was diagnosed with mood disorders and was prescribed medication, but her condition did not improve.

In December last year, she was again admitted to Town Hill, but was discharged in January.

The mother said in January, a psychiatrist at Town Hill advised her that there was nothing they could do for her daughter.

She was told she needed to find a permanent placement for her at a facility that assisted children.

The mother was advised that the hospital would assist her with an application for her child to be placed in another facility, but that would take up to six weeks.

She said her daughter’s condition had continued to worsen in the interim and she had been forced to call the police for assistance during an incident in February.

Earlier this month she was told that no application had been sent to the other hospital for her daughter’s stay.

She requested the application form and sent it to the relevant doctors to be completed.

The application was adjourned to April 5.

Health Department spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said the department would not comment on the matter as it was pending before court.

The Mercury

An alleged love triangle could be the reason behind the killing of a paramedic Santosh Mohan, police believe.

Durban - An alleged love triangle could be the reason behind the killing of paramedic Santosh Mohan, police believe.

Using information from Mohan’s cellphone records and vehicle tracking, Newlands East SAPS detectives arrested a close friend of Mohan’s at the weekend.

The 25-year-old suspect, a part-time paramedic, appeared in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on a charge of murder. His bail was opposed and he was detained in police custody.

On Monday afternoon last week, Mohan, 39, an advanced life-support paramedic for Accimed Medical Response, was found dead by his employer, Vicky Januk, in his response vehicle near his Dawn West home. Post-mortem results revealed he had been strangled.

A police source familiar with the investigation said that using information from Mohan’s cellphone, WhatsApp messages and vehicle tracking data, it had been established that Mohan had been in a relationship with the suspect.

“Further, WhatsApp messages revealed there was a third person involved whom the suspect was also in a relationship with. We are investigating that the alleged love triangle could have led to the victim’s death.”

He said police arrested the suspect and he had given them some insight to what might have happened.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Januk said he was thankful detectives had worked swiftly to make an arrest.

“The family is still traumatised by the incident but are hoping the truth comes out in court.”

Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane confirmed that an arrest had been made.

POST

KwaMashu pupils who were hospitalised after taking the deadly drug known as Mercedes said it was easy to find and that some who had taken it “went hysterical”.

Durban - KwaMashu pupils who were treated in hospital after taking the drug popularly known as Mercedes said the concoction was easy to find around Durban and it was not the first time it had made drug users ill.

They said some who had taken it “went hysterical”.

The drug claimed the lives of at least four KwaMashu residents, believed to be teenagers, at the weekend, and put more than 32 youngsters in hospital.

Bongani Sibisi, 18, said the drug was selling for R30 in the Point area and between R50 and R60 in the township.

“It is not difficult to find a merchant in the Point. You can go to Gillespie Street, and you would have more than one dealer coming to you. Some hide the drug in a hat, some put it in their underwear, and some go and get it from their flats.”

Sibisi said youngsters intentionally misdirected police when asked about township dealers because they believed the culprits were the authorities who allowed the drug into South Africa, “not the locals who sold it for a living”.

On Tuesday, KwaZulu-Natal education head Nkosinathi Sishi led a delegation to the home of Siyabonga Mngadi, 19, who died early on Saturday after taking Mercedes.

He said Mngadi’s death had to serve as a lesson to other pupils that substance abuse was dangerous.

Mngadi was a Grade 10 pupil at Zeph Dlomo High School in KwaMashu.

His mother, Zodwa Mngadi, said Siyabonga had said he was going to attend a massive gathering popularly referred to as the Explosion Party, but had missed the minibus taxi to the event. He then went to a nearby house where there was also a party.

“Going out to parties was not out of character, so we thought it was just another party, but unfortunately we were seeing him for the last time,”she said.

She said the family went to bed, not bothered about his whereabouts, only to be woken in the early hours and told he was on the verge of losing his life.

“We rushed to the house, but when we got there he had already died,”she said.

“It is a very difficult moment for us. When a child grows you have expectations and the last thing you think about is seeing them losing their life like this. It is hurtful.”

Siyabonga’s friend, who also stays in KwaMashu, said he last saw him on Friday evening before he (the friend) went to the Explosion Party.

“We were to go with him, but he said he was going to get his jacket at home and then join us, and we left him behind. He then went to the house where he died because another party had been organised there,”he said.

Sishi said the Education Department had received confirmation that all the pupils admitted to various hospitals had been discharged.

“We have a huge war against drug use. On average in a year, KZN education has more than 1 000 youngsters who are reported to have been involved in drug abuse,”he said.

“The drug issue is a continuous fight. I must admit that as the department we have not done enough to fight the scourge of drugs in our schools, there is no doubt about that. We do not have the resources on our own to do enough and we call upon everyone to work with us.”

Siyabonga’s funeral has been scheduled for Saturday. The service will be held at his home in KwaMashu K section at 10am.

The Mercury

Durban commuters were left stranded after a taxi strike swept across the city.

Durban - Durban commuters were left stranded on Wednesday morning after a taxi strike swept across the city.

A taxi was stopped in Greyville and the occupants forced out.

And the Daily News received a number of reports that taxis operating near City View shopping centre, the Durban University of Technology campus and Julius Nyerere (Warwick) Avenue - in the city centre - were also stopped.

Metro police spokesman, Superintendent Sibonelo Mchunu, confirmed that police, too, had received several similar reports.

“There are a group of people, claiming to be taxi drivers or owners, who are going around the city, pulling people from taxis and buses,” Mchunu said. “We are responding but they are moving around so as to avoid us.”

The reason for Wednesday’s action was unclear and Mchunu was not sure what the strikers were seeking. But a post on Facebook said taxi associations were opposed to the impounding of taxis for not having permits even though they had an agreement with the authorities that this would not happen as permits were being delayed by the transport licensing board.

eThekwini Municipality spokesman, Thulani Mbatha, said the city was aware that members of various taxi associations had embarked on strike action.

“The city immediately deployed metro police officers to intervene after reports that the safety of commuters was being compromised. Law enforcement authorities will continue to monitor the situation,” he said.

About 80 protesting taxi drivers and conductors blockaded the N2 and R102, at the Tugela Bridge on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast on Tuesday.

Apparently taxi associations were angry that their vehicles had been impounded, and over delays in the issuing of permits.

The KZN MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, condemned Tuesday’s action and said there were no grievances that warranted disruptions of traffic - and therefore citizens and economic activity - on national, provincial and local roads.

It caused “unnecessary mayhem”, he said. The MEC has since assigned a team from the Department of Transport’s Provincial Regulatory Entity and the Department of Community Safety and Liaison to address the matter.

Daily News

The KZN education department is putting measures in place to bounce back from last year’s poor matric results, including allowing “progressed pupils” to write their final exams over two years.

Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is putting measures in place to bounce back from last year’s poor matric results, including allowing “progressed pupils” to write their final exams over two years.

Progressed pupils are those who have been pushed up a grade in spite of failing.

According to department policy, pupils may only be kept back for one year between grades 10 and 12.

Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni yesterday revealed that more than 24 000 pupils had been pushed through to Grade 12 this year in spite of not passing Grade 11.

But in an effort to keep them in the school system and to avoid failure, some of them would write their matric exams over 18 months, writing half their subjects in October and November this year and the balance in June next year.

Nkonyeni, who had convened a meeting with subject advisers and district and senior managers in Glenwood to gauge progress on the province’s turnaround strategy, said all progressed pupils’ parents would be required to meet school principals to agree to contracts.

These would set clear targets that pupils would have to meet in the first and second term to determine if they were coping.

But Nkonyeni said pupils would not be forced to write over 18 months and all decisions would be made in consultation with the pupil and his parents and principal.

“We also have a policy... for progressed learners which allows them to write their Grade 12 over a two-year period, taking the subjects in chunks as opposed to taking them all at once.”

However, many schools did not properly understand how this worked and the department was getting an “abundance of enquiries”, she said.

“The department will also commit support by way of intervention programmes, but we need the parent to provide the necessary support to the child so that they can achieve,” she said.

Nkonyeni stressed that the province had to overturn the “humiliation” of last year’s matric results and district officials had been directed to conduct unannounced visits and look closely at curriculum coverage and school-based assessments (SBA).

Analysis

“Through our analysis we have discovered that: schools do not complete the syllabus; teaching is not pitched at the levels which are in line with the cognitive demands of the NSC external assessment; SBA is not effective and credible; schools do not seem to hold performance discussion meetings after quarterly assessments; schools do not have good and dynamic teaching methods especially when it comes to new areas of the NSC; some teachers lack the subject content knowledge; learners are not provided with knowledge, understanding and application of examination skills; and there is some form of dysfunctionality in many schools,” she said.

Senior officials had also been paired at each of the department’s 12 districts with district directors and schools to plug gaps in the system.

Dr Barney Mthembu, exams head in the province, said teachers could not adequately prepare for exams without using examination guidelines that were provided.

He said with just five months of the school year left, schools needed to hurry to get through the curriculum and be guided by the curriculum assessment policy statement document and examination guidelines.

Mthembu said it was important for schools to make sure they set exams at the same level as the NSC - which provides for 50% middle order questions and 25% each for low and high order questions.

Homework should be set at middle and high order level to ensure that pupils met the cognitive demands of the curriculum and to ensure they were not shocked at the level of questioning at the end of the year.

Advocate Bheki Masuku, the department’s senior general manager for corporate management services, who has been posted to the Zululand District, said school heads of departments needed to be more effective in their duties and needed to be equipped with additional skills.

Thembi Vilakazi, district director for the Ilembe region, said her region had begun with four NGOs and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which provided honours students to help with Saturday classes.

Principals were attending workshops on SBA and they identified that school heads of departments must play a bigger role in supporting teachers.

Daily News

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A troop of baboons is not expected to be removed from a Richmond Farm despite a 6-year-old child allegedly having been mauled by one of them.

Durban - A troop of baboons is not expected to be removed from a Richmond Farm, in spite of an animal - believed to have belonged to the troop - having mauled a 6-year-old child at the weekend.

Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife spokesman, Musa Mntambo, on Tuesday said this was an “unfortunate incident”, but that it was the first of its kind to have taken place since the baboons were introduced there, almost three years ago.

“And we have been in touch with the owner of the farm who has advised us the animal that attacked the child has been put down,” Mntambo said.

Seluleko Xaba was attacked by a lone male baboon at the Masosheni Farm on Friday. He was left in a critical condition after suffering deep lacerations to his back and thigh.

The animal was later shot by David Aadnesgaard. Since the attack it has emerged he had been providing space for a troop of orphaned and injured baboons on his property, for Durban’s Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (Crow). The animal that attacked Seluleko may have come from this troop, but there are also wild baboons on the farm.

Mntambo yesterday confirmed earlier reports that Ezemvelo had issued Aadnesgaard with a permit to keep a baboon troop from Crow on his land and said the process of issuing such was a lengthy one.

Daiy News

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Factories targeted by rioters on the KZN North Coast are still counting the cost - and 2 000 workers at one torched business are “crying” for their jobs back.

Durban - Factories targeted by rioters on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast earlier this month are still counting the cost - and 2 000 workers at one torched business are “crying” for their jobs back.

“But I cannot tell them when they will return. We are still waiting for the insurers to finalise everything before we start rebuilding,” said Shadrack Shange, the production manager of the Distinctive Clothing factory at the iSithebe Industrial Estate.

Although the situation in the area was now calm, the ripple effects of the intimidation and violence had hit the pockets of the 2 000 laid-off workers who had no money to go away at Easter “or even attend church”, Shange said.

“It is now the month-end. How will they pay their rent? They could face eviction,” he added.

The Chinese-owned factory, the biggest clothing business at the estate outside Mandini - owned by the Ithala Development Finance Corporation - was targeted by four arsonists during the costly riots.

Bombs

The attack followed incidents in which trucks were set alight and petrol bombs thrown.

Some factories were burnt and others stoned.

Factory bosses received threats that if they continued operating, the protesters would get into the factories and kill workers.

“We had to let workers out, otherwise the factories would be burned and the workers attacked,” said Peter Lee, manager of the Golf Biscuit Factory.

Extra police were sent in, factory owners stepped up their security and production came to a standstill for at least a week, costing businesses millions in lost production, while workers lost wages.

One Chinese-owned factory, Southpoint Industries, which employs 1 000 people and manufactures industrial bags for a variety of sectors, was closed for two weeks and suffered R10 million in lost production.

Some owners spend nights at their factories to keep an eye on their businesses.

One factory, Ronglida, which manufactures a wide range of plastic goods, suffered R3m in lost production and also had to pay a penalty to a big new customer for the non-delivery of a consignment, which had been widely advertised as being available.

The rioters were angry that a former mayor had been nominated as a candidate in the forthcoming local elections.

More than 100 people were arrested for public violence, and Shange said when they were not released, four protesters set fire to Distinctive Clothing Factory.

Yesterday, the consul-general of China in Durban, Jianzhou Wang, was at the factory during a fact-finding visit to some of the 31 Chinese-owned businesses at the estate.

“What they have done here is shocking. How can these people do such a thing?” he asked.

“The Chinese factories have nothing to do with the protesters’ issues.

“Some people don’t realise the contribution Chinese investors make to the social and economic development of KZN and the jobs they create.”

Wang praised Shange for having the courage to act quickly to prevent even more damage at the factory.

When Shange heard it had been set alight, he raced to the scene and opened all the windows and doors - and was confronted by the arsonists who wanted to know why he was stopping them from burning the factory.

They threatened to shoot him, but he told them he could not let them burn the factory because “where will I work tomorrow?”.

He grabbed a hosepipe and tried to douse the flames, which eventually brought down the roof in one part of the factory, with the devastation continuing into the trimming and cutting rooms.

It took three hours for firefighters to extinguish the flames and the water from the hoses damaged some of the finished clothing.

Now, some of their customers have taken away fabric to give to other manufacturers to complete.

“They cannot wait for us to get back into production. Seven hundred rolls of fabric were taken last week and more fabric will be removed today,” Shange said.

The four arsonists have not been arrested, but Shange is hopeful they will be picked up once they are identified from the CCTV footage.

SAPS spokesman, Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala, said on Tuesday that KwaSithebe was calm and police were monitoring the situation. About 117 suspects appeared in court two weeks ago and were released on a warning. They will appear again on June 2 in the Mthunzini Magistrate’s Court.

However, some factory owners remain worried that the troubles could flare up again.

Shadrack Shange, left, the production manager at the Distinctive Clothing factory in iSithebe, surveys the destruction caused by a petrol bomb.

Daily News

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A man accused of killing an Umbilo author allegedly returned to the crime scene to steal a mirror and fridge.

 Durban - The young man accused of killing children’s book author and recluse, Umbilo resident Marie Louise Thorpe, had allegedly returned to the scene of the crime a few days later to steal a mirror and fridge, which he sold to a passer-by.

Thorpe was killed on July 31 last year and her decomposing body was only discovered 18 days later.

Olwethu Ngwenya, 24, appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on and was served with an indictment to appear in the Durban High Court in June.

Read: Murdered loner’s true identity revealed

He stood with his head bowed as prosecutor Calvin Govender read out the indictment to the court.

Ngwenya faces charges of murder, housebreaking with intent to steal and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

According to the summary of substantial facts, Ngwenya lived with his mother, sister and nephew in the same block of Umbilo flats as the 65-year-old writer.

It is alleged that on the morning of July 31, Ngwenya had gone into town to try to find work.

When he could not find any, he returned home

”He needed money to buy drugs. He then devised a plan to rob (Thorpe) by breaking into her premises,” the indictment read.

Ngwenya allegedly broke the latch to her door and while he was in the process of ransacking her home, Thorpe returned home.

He is accused of grabbing the writer around her neck and using her scarf to cover her mouth, preventing her from screaming.

“Ngwenya tied Thorpe’s hands together and pushed her onto the floor. He then took R800 from her handbag.

“He struck her with a wooden ornament on the head and pushed her onto a glass table. The accused then fled with some of the deceased’s belongings,” read the indictment.

The court heard on Tuesday that Ngwenya had allegedly returned to the flat a few days later.

He is said to have removed a mirror and a fridge with the assistance of some street children and he allegedly sold the fridge to a passer-by.

The writer’s body was only discovered on August 17.

The post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death as “undetermined at autopsy, but ligature strangulation should be considered”.

A list of 24 witnesses was also attached to the indictment.

Ngwenya is also accused of stealing an iron, various pieces of cosmetic jewellery, a gold watch and a gold ring.

He was remanded in custody until his high court appearance where he is expected to have a Legal Aid representative.

noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za

Daily News

Fifteen minutes of sheer terror is how a violent encounter with a heavily armed gang of about 20 robbers at a Phoenix supermarket has been described.

Phoenix - It was 15 minutes of sheer terror.

This is how a shopper described a violent encounter with a heavily armed gang of about 20 robbers at a supermarket at the Whitehouse shopping complex in Phoenix.

The robbers escaped with an undisclosed sum of money contained in cash boxes on Thursday morning.

Three independent sources who were in the supermarket said at the time that the robbers had carried a pick into the premises to break the safe but they did not use the tool because a manager had given them the keys to the safe.

The sources said the robbers’ sole focus was the money in the cash boxes, the safe and the tills.

Two civilians, a woman and a man, who were in separate vehicles, were shot at by the robbers.

The woman sustained a gunshot wound to her hand and the man was shot three times in his legs.

Pat Moodley, 64, a retired manager at a pet products firm, said one of the robbers, whose face was covered with a balaclava, had pointed an AK47 at him as he (Moodley) made his way out of the store with his trolley, and had jumped into Moodley's vehicle.

“The robber said ‘switch off, switch off’ as I was about to put the key into the ignition. He said if I remained quiet, nothing would happen, but if I moved I would be killed. Simultaneously, other robbers did the same to other shoppers who went to their vehicles or had just arrived in the parking lot. It was a frightening and well co-ordinated robbery.”

A store employee, Savathree Moodley, said she broke her wrist when she slipped and fell during the pandemonium.

“I was running towards the back of the supermarket when I fell. I am in pain.

“I was put on drips at the Mount Edgecombe Hospital on Thursday and I am going there now again,” she said on Tuesday.

Themba Zulu said he sustained a gunshot wound to his shoulder as he tried to jump off a truck which was delivering a consignment of goods to the supermarket.

“The truck was parked in the complex. I don’t know whether the robbers fired wildly or intentionally. I was treated at the clinic in Phoenix.”

Vicky Januk, the owner of Accimed, whose ambulance transported Moodley and Zulu for treatment, said it was a chaotic scene.

The owners of the supermarket could not be reached for comment.

Police are still searching for the robbers.

Post

Convicted drug dealer Rakesh Sukdeo's new life on the straight and narrow came to an abrupt end when the father of two was shot and hacked in his home.

Durban - Truck driver Rakesh Sukdeo was a convicted drug dealer who had turned over a new leaf, shunning those who wanted him back in the drug trade, his family say.

But his new life on the straight and narrow was short-lived. On Friday night the 38-year-old father of two was shot and hacked with a chopper in his home in Shallcross. He died the next morning at RK Khan Hospital.

His attackers are believed to have been eight gangsters and known drug dealers.

His uncle, Richard Sookraj, said Sukdeo had been alone at home when the attack occurred. His wife Hannah, 21, children Gerald, 5, and Isiah, 3, and father-in-law Raja Pillay were spending the Easter weekend with relatives.

“Rakesh was not feeling well and was lying on the couch watching TV when eight men in an SUV jumped out, surrounded the flat and opened fire.”

He said that from the kitchen to the bathroom and lounge, the house was riddled with bullets.

“The men shot at the door and gained entry into the house. Rakesh was shot in the arm and leg. He was dragged to a passage near the bathroom then hacked on the head with an axe or chopper and left for dead.”

Sookraj said that an hour after the men had fled, his wife received a call from a neighbour informing her of the shooting. In minutes Hannah arrived at the house with another relative, to find her husband unconscious in a pool of blood.

“They were frantic.”

Sookraj said his relative was a drug dealer but after being arrested about three years ago and receiving a five-year suspended sentence, he turned his life around.

“He was worried about his children’s safety and did not want to go to jail. He converted to Christianity and started working as a truck driver. We were so proud of him because he was trying to get his life in order.”

About two weeks before the attack the same men had come to his relative’s home accusing Sukdeo of selling cocaine, he said. They were angry, but left.

“Days later they came back looking for Rakesh, only to be confronted by his father-in-law. An argument ensued... The men pulled out a gun and started firing. They threatened to kill the entire family.”

Sookraj said Sukdeo did not think they would actually go through with it.

At his funeral on Monday, family members, concerned about safety, surrounded the tent, armed with guns.

“While we are mourning the loss of Rakesh, we are thankful the rest of the family was not home that day. Now we have to take every precaution to make sure they are safe,” said Sookraj.

He described the men as ruthless and callous.

“They are taking advantage of the people living in this neighbourhood and people are too scared to report them.”

Sookraj said Hannah and the children were finding it difficult to cope with their loss.

“We are trying our best to support her and will be looking at taking her for trauma counselling.”

Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala confirmed that a case of murder was being investigated by the Chatsworth SAPS. She said no arrests had been made.

Post

From 1 April errant motorists will have to pay the full amount, as three years of a 50 percent amnesty comes to an end.

Durban - Road traffic transgressors in eThekwini will have to pay the full amount of their fines as of 1 April after three years of a 50 percent amnesty on fine payments comes to an end.

The move comes after the National Prosecuting Authority instructed the municipality early in March to put the brakes on the amnesty, saying the practice brought the “criminal justice system into disrepute”.

Presenting the report to exco on Wednesday, city manager Sbu Sithole said: “We previously took a decision to encourage the payment of outstanding fines by reducing the fines by 50 percent, but since then there’s been a letter from the prosecutions authority asking that this be reviewed. We are required to rescind that previous decision with effect from 1 April.”

Motorists can cancel JMPD fines

The instruction, Sithole said, meant motorists with outstanding fines would now have to pay the full amount.

Aggrieved motorists will have to make “representation to the presiding officer to determine whether the whole fine, or part of the fine, should be paid,” he said.

The NPA argues that the sole purpose of the incentive was an “attempt” to collect outstanding revenue and had “nothing to do with promoting road safety”.

The municipality introduced the incentive in December 2012, but with no end date, something that did not sit comfortably with the prosecuting authority.

In a letter to the city’s deputy heads, Malusi Mhlongo (litigation) and Rajen Reddy (metro police’s traffic and safety), the provincial director of public prosecutions, Moipone Noko, instructed the city to scrap the amnesty.

When the council approved the incentive in 2012, it said the resolution would be terminated upon the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act, which includes an incentive for payment of a fine. The implementation of the act has been delayed for several years, but it will take effect from April.

Noko said continued support for the incentive “cannot be justified”.

“The reduction of fines must only be considered upon receipt from the offender of written representations,” she said.

The implementation of the act is scheduled for 1 April, but Noko said her withdrawal would stand, regardless of the whether the act was implemented or not.

Everybody with an outstanding fine will have to pay the full amount or make representation to the presiding officer to determine whether the whole fine, or part, should be paid.

Sithole said the municipality had no objection to the instruction, adding that it was “not extraordinary”.

“It is in line with the role of the prosecuting authority,” he said.

‘CONFUSION AND UNHAPPINESS’

DA councillor Heinz de Boer said the city did not have much of a choice.

“We are being instructed.”

He said the city should gear itself for “a lot of confusion and unhappiness from the public”.

“The information has to be disseminated to the communities and at our Sizakala Centres so there’s no confusion. It will have an impact on how many people actually pay their fines. We should continue as a city to issue fines to people who don’t obey road rules.”

Boy Zondi, KwaZulu-Natal spokesman for the South African National Taxi Council, said the taxi industry would be hit hard.

He said the organisation would monitor the programme and take it up with the NPA should the new arrangement negatively affect the industry.

“This 50 percent was helping the industry big time. It encouraged us to pay fines. What you are telling me is a loss to the industry.”

He said court process would be “time consuming”, and called for authorities to “reconsider”.

Caro Smit, founder and director of South Africans Against Drink Driving, supported the NPA’s instruction to eThekwini, saying traffic fines in South Africa were “too lenient”.

“I don’t think there should be any reduction in fines. People should go court and they should either increase the fine or make them pay the full fine. But unfortunately the Justice Department does not take road safety as the serious crime that it is and often reduces fines,” she said.

It was “not correct” that traffic fines go into municipal coffers - the money should be used for road safety.

She repeated Noko’s point that municipalities were using traffic fine revenue for “making money”.

“If they want the money, the money should be used to get more traffic officers and have them on duty for 24 hours of the day. They should concentrate less on speeding and more on drinking and driving - every day of the year, especially on weekends, “ she said.

The Mercury

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The taxi strike that left thousands of workers in Durban stranded has ended after an agreement was reached between the Santaco and KZN’s transport department.

Durban - The taxi strike that left thousands of workers in Durban stranded has ended after an agreement was reached between the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in KwaZulu-Natal and the province’s transport department.

Santaco’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman Boy Zondi said on Thursday that agreement had been reached late Wednesday. Taxi operators had been on strike for two days.

Santaco went on a province wide strike after several taxis were impounded over the Easter Weekend for failing to have the required permits.

Santaco has long complained that the failure to process permits or issue new ones has led to the problems of insufficient permits for a growing industry.

Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said incidents of violence had been restricted to the Durban central business district and the city’s Warwick Triangle area.

He said the eight people, who were arrested will face charges of public violence.

eThekwini Metro Police spokesman Superintendent Sibonelo Mchunu said that there were various incidents of stone throwing and people being pulled from taxis.

On Thursday morning Zondi said: “The taxis are back to normal. The negotiations went well. We have reached an agreement.”

Zondi said that Willies Mchunu, the province’s transport, community safety and liaison MEC, had agreed to negotiate with the National Prosecuting Authority to have all minibus taxis impounded for permit violations released on payment of a R1 000 fine instead of the initial R10 000 fine.

Mchunu said it had also been agreed that no taxis would be impounded over public transport permit violations.

Zondi said that the national transport department had placed a moratorium on the issuing of permits for the past 10 years.

“This is going on too long. We believe this is not our fault. You are not issuing permits and then you are failing to cater for the growing market. You do no stop issuing birth certificates when you have too many people. They are the ones at fault while they take so long to sort out their processes,” said Zondi.

The Santaco’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman said he would meet Mchunu over the next “three or four days” to deal with specific taxi permit related issues.

There are 246 taxi associations with about 25,000 minibus taxis operating in the province.

Transport spokesman Kwanele Ncelane, was not available for comment.

African News Agency

Wildlife farmer David Aadnesgaard has had a hard time trying to reconcile with family members of two children attacked by a baboon at their home.

Durban - Richmond wildlife farmer David Aadnesgaard has had a hard time trying to reconcile with family members of two children attacked by a baboon at their home on his farm.

His apologies have been flatly rejected.

Aadnesgaard said he had gone to Edendale Hospital on Wednesday morning to visit Seluleko Xaba, 6, and his cousin Sinethemba Mkhize, 10, but Seluleko’s mother, Khonzeni Xaba, told him over the phone: “I don’t want to talk to you.”

The baboon, which Aadnesgaard killed after it attacked the children, is believed to be among 14 that Durban’s Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife took to his farm in 2013. Crow had collected the animals from various villages, and rehabilitated them before sending them to the farm to be in their natural environment.

Aadnesgaard said on his arrival at the hospital on Wednesday he called Khonzeni informing her that he was there and intended to see the children.

He used someone else’s phone as she had repeatedly refused to answer calls from his number.

“When she answered, I said: Khonzeni, why are you not answering my calls?” She said: “David, I don’t want to talk to you.”

Aadnesgaard said he gave a lift to some members of the Xaba family, and had dropped them off at the hospital.

“At the entrance of the hospital I asked her for permission to visit the children, but she refused. I had to go back.”

However, Khonzeni’s nephew Mthobisi Njilo said Aadnesgaard did not reach the hospital. He said he dropped off the Xaba family members near France, a low-cost housing village on the Richmond road, about 20km from the hospital, on hearing that he would not be allowed to visit the children.

Khonzeni said she refused Aadnesgaard permission to see the children because he only wanted to visit after the incident had received media and government attention.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za

The Mercury

A collision between a minibus and a bakkie on the N3 near Pietermaritzburg has left five Czech tourists and the bakkie driver injured.

Pietermaritzburg – A collision between a minibus and a bakkie on the N3 near Pietermaritzburg has left six people injured, ER24 said in a statement on Thursday.

ER24 spokesperson Pieter Rossouw said the injuries ranged from minor to serious.

He said the injured included five tourists from the Czech republic who had been travelling in the minibus.

“ER24 responded to the scene and found that the driver of the bakkie was entrapped and rescue crews on scene had to use the jaws of life to extricate the patient.”

The minibus was on fire when paramedics arrived, but they managed to extinguish it and nobody sustained burn wounds.

He said all six patients were transported to Mediclinic Pietermaritzburg for further treatment.

Local authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.

African News Agency

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An Umbilo police sergeant has been arrested and appeared in court, charged with stealing R150 and a pair of RayBan sunglasses.

Durban - An Umbilo police sergeant has been arrested and appeared in court, charged with stealing R150 and a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses.

Sergeant Marius Nieman, 41, and his co-accused, Phillip Naude, 27, appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

The State did not oppose bail and said none of the stolen items was recovered.

Nieman’s attorney, Raneshan Naidoo, told the court that his client could only afford R500 bail and that he intended pleading not guilty.

It is alleged that Nieman and Naude had stolen the money and sunglasses from a motorist in Cambridge Avenue in Umbilo on Monday.

The motorist was with his wife at the time and she had contacted the local police who arrested the men at the scene.

Naude’s Legal Aid attorney, Virushka Mistry, said her client was fired from his job at a bar on Monday and had a previous conviction for possession of heroin.

He received a suspended sentence in 2011.

Mistry also said Nieman had offered to help Naude with R500 towards bail.

Magistrate Vanitha Armu granted the men R2 000 bail each and adjourned the matter to a date in April.

noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za

Daily News

A man was fined R30 000 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after being found guilty of child pornography.

Johannesburg - A man was fined R30 000 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five years after being found guilty of child pornography by the Pinetown Regional Court, in KwaZulu Natal, police said on Thursday.

SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala said Matthy Zondagh, 39, was found at his home in possession of a memory stick containing child pornography images.

“Members of the Project Spiderweb acted on an intelligence driven information and a search and seizure operation was conducted at Kloof on 23 April 2015.”

Gwala said that Zondagh was then arrested and charged with child pornography.

“He made several court appearances until his sentence. He pleaded guilty to 1 132 counts of possession of child pornography.”

Provincial Commissioner of KwaZulu-Natal, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, said “Parents should keep a close eye on who their children are chatting to on social networks, what they are chatting about and the pictures they are sharing. This sentence is proof that criminals cannot get away after committing such misdeeds.”

African News Agency

Teachers’ union, Sadtu, has poured cold water on the soon to be published “jobs for sale” investigation by the Volmink Commission and threatened to take legal action.

Durban - Teachers’ union, Sadtu, has poured cold water on the soon to be published “jobs for sale” investigation by the Volmink Commission and threatened legal action.

An interim report which contained damning claims - mostly against Sadtu - was leaked late last year, with the final report expected to be released on April 15 by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

Sadtu KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Nomarashiya Caluza, on Wednesday damned the report as “incomprehensive” and said the union had written to Professor John Volmink seeking clarity, but had apparently been ignored.

The union said the ministerial task team probe “lacks credibility”. Caluza said some of the teachers named and implicated in the interim report had not been called to testify in the commission. She said Sadtu had been implicated in 22 cases according to the interim report, but only two cases had been recommended for further investigation by the police and the department.

Twelve of the cases were apparently deemed not for further investigation, while three had been disputed before any appointment had been made and were still subject to investigation by the Education Labour Relations Council.

“It has been peddled that KwaZulu-Natal is the worst affected, but when you go through what is said in the media, KwaZulu-Natal had less than 8 cases and in only two cases the ministerial task team (MTT) recommended further investigation,” said Caluza.

“These teachers have never been called to state their own case. The report is full of things that have not been clarified,” she said.

A Sadtu NEC resolution dated January 28 said those found to have been involved in irregular appointments and who were found to not have the appropriate qualifications would be dealt with and possibly expelled.

The union said if the report was released without further engagement, they would take legal action in defence of the union. But the Department of Basic Education spokesman, Elijah Mhlanga, said the leaked interim report was a work-in-progress and said there had been many changes to it since.

On the union claims that they were not offered a right of reply, he said they had been invited to testify. “The unions were invited and they committed themselves to the commission. Sadtu was there, so I do not understand the claim that they were not given their right of reply,” he said.

The department this week said the minister was in possession of the draft final report which would released next month. The report would be presented to the cabinet committee next week before being presented to a cabinet sitting on April 13.

Motshekga would then meet with the unions on April 14 and with school governing body associations on the 15th before releasing it to the public on their website on the same day.

Sadtu has also accused Volmink and Education Minister Angie Motshekga of being in bed with the DA, claiming the investigation, which was an administrative investigation - had become a political investigation with the report alluding to Sadtu ties with the ANC, Cosatu and SACP.

The union’s four page statement on the jobs for sale’ investigation referred to the DA 15 times and said the report’s recommendations were “DA policy directives that must at all cost permeate the education system even if the DA is not in power”.

Daily News

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The domestic worker of widow Shaikla Singh, who was murdered in her Musgrave home during an armed robbery, is the third suspect to be charged.

Durban - The domestic worker of widow Shaikla Singh, who was murdered in her Musgrave home during an armed robbery, appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court late on Wednesday.

Nonjabulo Mteki, 35, is the third person arrested by the police’s Provincial Task Team in connection with the February 29 killing.

Singh, a retired teacher, was found bound and gagged on the floor of her Musgrave home in a secure multi-unit complex.

There were apparently no signs of forced entry.

Mteki was also in the house at the time and had called for help.

Investigating officer, Warrant Officer Rajan Govender, as well as Warrant Officers Denver Parbhu, Praved Maharaj and Lenny Naidoo - arrested Mteki on Tuesday at Singh’s home.

The team also arrested Kennedy Amon Ngongi, 28, and Ally Juna Abdullah, 34, both from Tanzania, last week and they appeared in court on Monday. Ngongi was arrested in the city centre and Abdullah was arrested in Springfield Park.

All three face charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances and were to appear together soon for bail consideration.

In court on Wednesday, prosecutor Sharon Moodley told magistrate, Vanitha Armu, the State was opposed to bail.

Mteki, of uMlazi, sat in the dock holding her head and kept her eyes closed.

She had initially told Govender, who addressed the court, that she wanted to speak to the magistrate about changing her legal counsel. But she changed her mind when she was asked to speak. The magistrate said the issue of legal counsel could be addressed at Mteki’s next court appearance.

noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za

Daily News

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“If you don’t want to die, stay the f*** away from me and my wife,” reads an SMS former cop Ganas Moodley sent to relatives a month before he shot them.

Pietermaritzburg -”Take this as a warning. If you don’t want to die, stay the f*** away from me and my wife.”

This chilling text message was sent by former policeman Ganas Moodley a month before he shot two of his relatives at their Pietermaritzburg home.

The shooting of his brother-in-law Ronnie Moodley and Moodley’s wife, Saras, both senior teachers, on Sunday night has rocked the community and left their families devastated.

Ronnie, 50, who was shot in the stomach and leg, is in the ICU of a private hospital. But his beloved wife died on the scene.

Saras, 52, was shot in the neck.

The couple, likened to newlyweds by family and friends, because they did everything together, have two adult children, one of whom was at home with his girlfriend at the time. They hid in a bedroom and were not hurt.

Ganas, who was estranged from his wife, Ronnie’s sister, fired several shots before leaving the house and turning the gun on himself. He died in the driveway.

Speaking to POST a day after the tragedy, the couple’s youngest son, Yerushan, 20, an agricultural engineering student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said Ganas had blamed his parents for his separation from his wife.

“Ganas and his wife were separated for over a year. She (the wife) was close to my parents and my mom supported her, but that was it.

“Ganas believed my parents were influencing her to stay away from him but this was not the case,” said Yerushan. “My parents did not interfere, but offered her support.”

He said Ganas had sent his mother the text warning a month ago but his parents had not taken it seriously.

On Sunday around 5.25pm, his parents had been home watching the T20 cricket.

“When the intercom rang, it was Ganas and we opened the driveway gate for him. My girlfriend arrived at the same time. My parents opened the door. My dad made it clear to Ganas that he and my motherhad no involvement in their issues and asked if he wanted to come inside the house. But Ganas said he would stand outside.”

Yerushen said he and his girlfriend, Kelisha Premlall, and his mother walked into the lounge to watch the cricket while his father and Ganas stood at the kitchen door talking.

“My mother offered us drinks... She was walking towards the kettle when we heard two loud bangs,” he said. “I ran to the kitchen and saw my father, who was shot, trying to push Ganas away. I ran into one of the bedrooms and tried to press the panic button.”

Yerushen said Kelisha also ran into the room, they locked themselves in and contacted the police.

He said several more shots were fired. “It seemed after Ganas shot my parents, he went in the driveway, saw the gate closed and turned the gun on himself.”

When police and paramedics arrived Ganas was already dead. “My father asked paramedics to help my mother first, but it was too late.”

Kelisha said she tried to give CPR, but in vain: “Saras had been shot in the neck.”

Saras, a teacher at Arthur Blaxall School, and Ronnie, a teacher at Orient Heights Primary, had returned from a holiday in the Seychelles a week earlier. Their family described them as people who “won’t harm a fly”.

“They were the most passive and closest couple; the only time they were separated from each other was at school,” said a relative, Veeran Kullan. “Other than that they were always together, whether going for a walk or walking to the shop to buy bread.”

“They were a couple married for many years, but when people looked at them, you would think they married yesterday,” said Veeran’s daughter, Reva.

Yerushen said the focus now was on getting his father on the road to recovery. “He needs to know we are here for him.”

Ronnie was told of his wife’s death on Monday morning.

The couple’s eldest son, Keveshen, 27, got married three months ago.

Trevor Naidoo, principal at Orient Heights Primary, described Ronnie as a “true gentleman”. “He is the head of department at school; he is an outstanding teacher, in a class of his own. He is humble and selfless, and so was his wife. This is very hard to come to terms with.”

Police spokesman Major Shooz Magudulela said a case of murder and attempted murder had been opened at Mountain Rise Police Station and an inquest opened in respect of the dead suspect.

Another spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, confirmed that Ganas Moodley had been based at the Loop Street police station when he had resigned.

POST

The head and hands were hacked off a mutilated female body found in a dense thicket at the Shongweni Dam, in what appears to be a muti killing.

Durban - The mutilated body of an unidentified woman has been discovered at Shongweni Dam.

Her head and hands were hacked off and she was found naked. It appears the woman was the victim of a muti killing.

Police officers of the search and rescue unit made the find late on Monday, said police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala.

They recovered the body from a dense thicket on the KwaNdengezi side of the dam.

Gwala said a case of murder was opened at KwaNdengezi police station but no arrests had been made.

Late last year, 21-year-old Nawaaz Khan’s decapitated body was found in a bush near his home in Gandhinagar, on the South Coast.

His head was found later in a nearby gumtree plantation.

Soon after, the decapitated body of a woman was found in the area. The remains of her head were found in a shopping bag.

Three men were arrested but only Thandowakhe Duma, who was a friend of Khan’s, and Elias Mchunu, a local gardener and traditional healer, face charges.

Duma and Mchunu will go on trial in August for two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, two of murder, one of kidnapping and assault.

In Thamboville, near Pietermaritzburg, Siphelele Chamane, 21, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Simangele Khanyile, 18, after he allegedly chopped her up, decapitated her and set her alight with petrol and dumped her body parts in the area.

Court proceedings are continuing in Chamane’s case.

bernadette.wolhuter@inl.co.za

Daily News