Pupils in Kuruman in the Northern Cape returned to school after months of protests and disruptions to get a new road built.

Kimberley - Pupils in Kuruman in the Northern Cape returned to school on Monday after months of protests and disruptions to get a new road built.

“What I know is that this morning learners have returned to the various schools,” the province's basic education spokesman Ohentse Stander said.

“Yesterday there was a meeting and a decision was taken by parents to let children return to school.”

A group calling themselves the Road Forum began protesting in June demanding that a 130km stretch of road in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district municipality be tarred. The protesters barred pupils and staff from going to school to get the attention of the authorities.

In that month, Northern Cape Premier Sylvia Lucas's spokesman Monwabisi Nkompela said the tender to tar the road was opened on June 12 and closed on July 18.

In July, the administration blocks of some schools in the area were set alight.

In August, national basic education spokeswoman Troy Martens said 16 000 pupils from 54 schools in different villages were affected. Of these 496 were matriculants.

Pupils had not been to school since June 4.

SABC news reported early in September that according to Transport Minister Dipuo Peters construction on the tar road would start in two weeks.

Peters' spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso said on Monday he would check on whether work had started.

Sapa

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has called on TUT's management to act against anyone contributing to the violence.

Johannesburg - Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande on Monday condemned the violent protests at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

“I particularly condemn the recent violence and destruction of property that has taken place at the TUT, which has continued into the weekend,” he said in a statement.

“Property has been destroyed and vandalised, and the lives of individuals have been put at risk.”

Nzimande called on TUT's management and police to act against anyone who contributed to the violence and destruction.

“It is also clear now that there is a criminal element in operation here, whose intention is not to advance the interests of students and the institution.”

The university closed all its campuses on Saturday, following a spate of violent protests during which 18 cars were burnt.

Police spokeswoman Lt-Col Khensani Magoai said cases of malicious damage to property and public violence were opened, following the torching of the vehicles.

No injuries were reported and no one had been arrested. She said police were monitoring the situation.

The institution said it would continue talks with student leaders on Monday.

Nzimande said his department was willing to help, and TUT's management and student representative council should look to the department for advice.

Students were protesting over a lack of funds in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

The minister acknowledged there were problems with financial aid across the higher education system, and said the TUT did have a substantial shortfall.

However, there was no justification for the violence by students.

“It should be noted that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme is disbursing just over R9 billion in loans and bursaries in the 2014 academic year,” Nzimande said.

“This is a substantial amount, with TUT being the largest university recipient of NSFAS funding, receiving an allocation of over R453 million for the 2014 academic year.”

He said the institution needed to manage its resources more effectively to ensure students who needed financial aid were helped.

Sapa

Who is responsible when your vehicle is damaged at or by the dealership?

Pretoria - “Dear customer, please be advised that if you prove to be difficult, the staff reserve the right to slap you.”

A company could put that notice on their shop wall; still it wouldn’t make it legal for a shop assistant to attack a customer. It would be assault.

But in shops and workshops across the land, there are signs that contravene the Consumer Protection Act.

“No refunds” is probably the most common, followed by words that seek to indemnify the business from damaging the consumer’s property, no matter how that damage arises.

Well, no entity can contract outside the law, so those notices do not deprive a consumer of their rights.

The act also says: “When a supplier has possession of any property belonging to or ordinarily under the control of a consumer, the supplier in the handling, safeguarding and utilisation of that property must exercise the degree of care, diligence and skill that can reasonably be expected of a person responsible for managing any property belonging to another person and is liable to the owner of the property for any loss resulting from a failure to do so.”

In addition, while companies are within their rights to indemnify themselves against certain liabilities, as long as they notify consumers properly, the CPA states unfair exclusion clauses - those that seek to exempt a company from liability for losses caused by gross negligence, for example - will not be upheld.

I receive a fair number of e-mails from people whose cars have been crashed at a dealership while being serviced or repaired, worryingly often while being driven by a staff member who is not authorised to drive customers’ cars, and in some cases, does not even possess a driving licence.

In February, Sanjeev Baijnath’s year-old Kia Cerato was booked into Associated Motor Holdings’ uMhlanga multifranchise because of a major power loss issue.

He was later called and told the car had been crashed. On the scene, he was told by staff that a wash bay attendant who didn’t have a driving licence was responsible.

The employee was hurt when she headbutted the windscreen, and the car was fairly extensively damaged.

Dealer principal Len Tolmay said at the time: “We are looking at options, one being replacing his vehicle with a suitable demo. I can assure you we will look after the customer.”

But he consistently failed to answer my questions about how an unlicensed car wash attendant had ended up behind the wheel of Baijnath’s car.

The car has since been repaired at the dealership’s cost.

In the past fortnight, I’ve received two e-mails from readers whose cars have been damaged while in the care of a car dealership and repair workshop respectively. Both are in Pretoria, but the responses from the two companies couldn’t be more different.

CASE 1:

Sherani Govender was handed a pamphlet in the traffic for Auto Care in Church Street, so when her car, a 2010 Toyota Yaris, needed new brake pads, she took it there on August 23.

Having collected the car, she found her radio was dead. When she reported this to Auto Care, she was told to bring her car in, but it wouldn’t start.

Auto Care collected the car on September 2. It then called Govender to tell her her car had been involved in an accident. The company said an unnamed employee had been driving the car to be “diagnosed” at an undisclosed location.

The company has since denied all liability, refused to report the accident to the police and pointed Govender to a clause in its terms and conditions: “All vehicles are driven and stored entirely at owner’s risk.”

“They say they have no insurance, and neither do I,” she said.

“They towed my vehicle away in perfect condition and sent it back a write-off. How is this fair?”

I took up the case with Auto Care. The employee who took my call told me the owner’s name was Charlene Stroebel and gave me an e-mail address including the name “Elmarie”. I was assured it was correct.

I e-mailed her a list of questions on September 14. On Friday, when I called the company, “Charlene” denied having seen the e-mail. She said the e-mail address I’d been given was that of her admin manager, who had not mentioned the case to her.

She then gave me her e-mail address and said she’d get back to me within an hour. This after stating that she was not liable for the damage to Govender’s car because of the terms of her contract and maintaining that as I’m a reporter, not an attorney, she did not have to answer to me.

At the time of writing, no written response had been received.

Govender was wronged, and Auto Care can’t absolve itself of responsibility. I shall continue to help Govender get justice.

CASE 2:

Cyril Ntshonga took his Jeep Grand Cherokee to the McCarthy Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership, in Menlyn during August for extensive mechanical repair.

While parked there, it was crashed into by an employee of the cleaning company subcontracted by the dealership.

The damage, while it doesn’t look good, is cosmetic.

A dispute has since arisen over when that damage should be repaired.

Ntshonga is insisting it be done first, but the dealership argues it should be done after the mechanical repair to avoid further damage. But from the start, the dealership has taken full responsibility.

Franchise chief financial officer Renier Kluever said: “We have been willing and able to repair the damage caused by the subcontractor by enforcing the agreement we have with our subcontractor.

“We propose that, with Mr Ntshonga’s consent, the vehicle be transported on a flat-bed truck to the appointed approved panel beater to be repaired in terms of Jeep standards, pertaining to the collision damage in our workshop only.

“And we will provide Mr Ntshonga with a loan vehicle for that cosmetic repair period.”

Pretoria News

South Africa’s government has joined corporate entities and NGOs for a special mission to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone.

Johannesburg - A South African delegation consisting of the government, corporate entities and NGOs is preparing to establish a hospital in Sierra Leone to offer assistance with the Ebola epidemic.

The venture is led by the Department of Health and involves the SANDF, health-care group Netcare, corporates and NGOs.

The various organisations came together at a meeting on Friday at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton, where Netcare chief executive Dr Richard Friedland pledged to support the initiative.

A decision was made to fund and resource a 40-bed South African tent hospital in the West African country.

This came a day after the UN Security Council declared the Ebola outbreak in Africa a “threat to international peace and security”, calling on all member states to provide urgent resources and assistance to help tackle the crisis.

“The Ebola pandemic is a humanitarian crisis of tragic proportions, not only affecting the populations and healthcare workers in Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal, but is extending beyond these countries’ borders.

“We commend the South African Department of Health for its efforts to help combat this outbreak,” Friedland said.

Netcare would be donating four ambulances to be deployed in West Africa and would contribute to the planning and execution of the initiative.

Friedland said the hospital group had also done thorough risk assessments and triage of any suspected cases referred for admission to Netcare facilities.

“Even though there is no Ebola outbreak in South Africa, and no confirmed Ebola case at any South African hospital, Netcare has developed a set of comprehensive clinical pathways in preparation for such an eventuality,” said Dr Anchen Laubscher, the medical director of Netcare.

They consult closely with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and training has been conducted in all Netcare’s emergency departments to ensure readiness.

The collaboration comes as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released the latest figures on Ebola.

There have been 562 deaths in Sierra Leone so far, with 1 620 confirmed Ebola cases. MSF said there were on average 25 new confirmed cases reported each day, while there was a severe shortage of isolation and treatment centres.

The country has been through a three-day lockdown since Friday that involved people being confined to their homes, while 30 000 government health staff made door-to-door visits.

AFP reported on Monday that the lockdown had led to the discovery of 150 new cases of the deadly virus and about 70 bodies previously unaccounted for.

“We have an overflow of bodies which we still need to bury, but this has been an everyday occurrence since the Ebola outbreak… Now at least we have about 150 new cases,” Steven Gaojia, the head of the country’s emergency operation centre, said late on Sunday.

The country’s chief medical officer said up to 70 bodies had been uncovered in and around the capital, Freetown.

He added that the latest results for the whole country were likely to push up the figures significantly.

Health Minister Abubakarr Fofanah said one of the successes of the action was to cut down on night burials.

Funeral services were being held in families trying to conceal the fact that there had been an Ebola patient in the household, he explained.

angelique.serrao@inl.co.za

The Star

Last-ditch efforts to salvage the TribeOne Dinokeng music festival has shifted into top gear.

Pretoria - Last-ditch efforts to salvage this weekend’s TribeOne Dinokeng music festival shifted into top gear on Monday, with attorneys in discussion with the judge and city leadership convening an urgent special meeting.

The three-day festival, headlined by Nicky Minaj with performances by 150 local and international musicians, was to take place in Cullinan from Friday, but has been cancelled.

Attorneys for the City of Tshwane and organisers, TribeOne Festivals, spent most of the day behind closed doors with Judge Eben Jordaan, trying to break the stalemate.

In Centurion, the city’s scheduled ceremony for members of the mayoral committee to sign performance agreements was postponed till further notice due to the meeting to discuss the ill-fated festival.

American rap duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis took to social media to express their disappointment with the cancellation of the festival.

The Can’t Hold Us hit-makers wrote on their Facebook page: “South Africa, we are supper bummed about the TribeOne Festival being cancelled. We were really looking forward to this show and hope to have the opportunity to perform for you soon.”

The City of Tshwane turned to the Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court, sitting in Pretoria, to force the organisers to go ahead with the festival, originally scheduled to start this Friday.

The matter was expected to be heard on Monday but postponed to Thursday. On cancelling the festival billed as the greatest of its kind on the continent, TribeOne argued that the city had not met the infrastructure development deadline that had been agreed upon. But the city hit back, saying it performed its obligations in terms of the agreement.

At least R65 million had been spent on the event - R25m paid to the organisers as the city’s contribution for the first of the three-year agreement and another R40m on infrastructure development.

There were “certain financial obligations” the city could not disclose as the matter was before the courts. The city has a potential damages claim it could pursue if the festival was not be salvaged.

The organisers paid a non-refundable R10m to Minaj, who was to perform in Africa for the first time. The SA Municipal Workers Unionwas disappointed with the money spent while local talent was facing hardships and exploitation.

kennedy.mudzuli@inl.co.za

Pretoria News

Major-General Johan Booysen was back at work in apparent defiance of an instruction that he must stay at home.

Durban - KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen was back at work on Monday in apparent defiance of an instruction from SAPS management that he must stay at home.

Although Booysen – who has been on suspension for more than two years – was cleared of any wrongdoing after a disciplinary hearing, he was informed by the Office of the State Attorney that national police commissioner Riah Phiyega was applying to review the findings of the chairman, advocate Nazeer Cassim SC.

While Cassim said he should be reinstated immediately, L Kalashe of the State Attorney in Pretoria wrote in a letter to Booysen’s lawyer: “Our instructions are that the trust relationship between Booysen and SAPS has broken down.”

He said the intended review was in light of the evidence presented and the “host of regularities (sic)” in the findings.

He advised that Booysen should not report for duty.

Booysen’s lawyer, Carl van der Merwe, confirmed he had written back advising that his client would return to work, and any attempt to block this would be challenged in court.

Booysen could not be reached for comment, but sources close to him confirmed he was back at his desk because, in his view, he had been exonerated.

The source said the reception from provincial commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni had been “frosty”, but most senior personnel had welcomed him back warmly.

A Durban labour lawyer said Booysen was right to go back to work.

“Police management appointed the chairman, and they must live with his finding. If they approach the court to have it set aside, they will get blown out of the water unless they can prove some serious misconduct on the part of the chairman,” he said.

“And advocate Cassim is one of the most respected lawyers.”

He said if they tried to enforce Booysen’s continued suspension, he would have the right to approach the court for an order that they were in contempt of Cassim’s ruling. Regarding the claim of a breakdown in trust, the lawyer said this had to be proved, not just stated.

Cassim’s report was damning of senior police management, finding that Booysen was ousted through “contrived charges” because Ngobeni wanted to get rid of him.

Cassim said the evidence before him showed that Ngobeni was involved with “corrupt practices” with a businessman and another policemen, and that these were being investigated by people under Booysen’s command.

“He was removed because he was perceived as a determined, professional, competent and tenacious policeman who would arduously strive to bring wrongdoers to book,” Cassim said, dismissing all three charges against him.

The advocate also criticised Phiyega, whose evidence was “unsatisfactory and evasive”.

Neither Phiyega nor Ngobeni have commented so far.

All criminal charges against Booysen were withdrawn earlier this year after he successfully challenged his prosecution on racketeering.

The Mercury

According to the State, Loretta Cook lured Valencia Behrens to her house, cut open her stomach and removed her baby.

Johannesburg - Loretta Cook lured a pregnant Valencia Behrens to her house, cut open her abdomen and removed her baby.

So said State prosecutor Paul Schutte on Monday in the Gauteng Division of the High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, adding that this was not a spur-of-the-moment action.

Schutte said this during the summing up of the State’s case, and argued that Cook should be convicted of the two charges she faced: murder and leaving an infant exposed.

Behrens died shortly after the ordeal on January 6, 2012.

Schutte said events indicated that the alleged murder was a culmination of many months of planning. Cook faked a pregnancy. She also knew that Behrens was pregnant and when her due date was.

Cook had allegedly lured her to the house with a promise of giving her baby clothes and a pram.

The newborn was found in a pool of blood on the cold floor tiles, the umbilical cord still attached to the uterus. The baby girl survived, but Behrens bled to death. A black plastic bag was found in her abdomen.

Cook denied any involvement in the matter and pleaded not guilty. Her defence is that she does not remember anything and that she fainted when she saw blood after Behrens died.

Schutte rubbished Cook’s defence on Monday.

“It is evident that her loss of memory and consciousness were staged. Even in her own admission, she did not faint but inexplicably first went closer to the deceased and touched her blood-covered body.”

Schutte also said Cook had “stubbornly” maintained during her trial that she was pregnant, yet doctors who examined her found this was not true.

“Although there is no onus on the accused to prove anything, she did not offer any explanation as to how it happened that the deceased was cut open (and the baby and the uterus removed from her body), while she (the accused) was the last person to see the deceased alive inside the house and the first person to see the deceased lying dead outside the house.”

Cook’s lawyer said it had to be kept in mind that Cook did not have any recollection that it was she who had committed “this horrific act”.

If she was to be convicted, she would forever ask herself questions as to where she committed the crime, advocate Carla van Veenendaal said.

When she said the matter was a complex one, Judge Lucy Mailula asked her: “Where is the complexity? She was the only one with the deceased at the time. It is for her to tell what happened to the deceased.”

Judgment will be handed down on Thursday.

The Star

Classes will only officially resume next year despite the fact that pupils returned to school in the Kuruman area.

Kimberley - Classes will only officially resume next year despite the fact that pupils returned to school in the Kuruman area on Monday after an absence of more than three months.

Spokesman for the Northern Cape Department of Education, Sydney Stander, said on Monday that at this late stage it was impossible to make much progress.

“Despite numerous appeals to parents and communities, schooling came to a standstill for the past three and half months. We are at a stage where it is not realistically possible to do anything with Grades R to 11, except to allow them to return to repeat the full year in 2015,” said Stander.

“This was one of the most difficult and painful decisions we have had to make, given that the parents of the learners and their communities actively participated in the disruption of the education of the children.

“The return to school yesterday is unfortunately very late, considering that the progression requirements for Grade R to 11 demands that they must have a 75 percent weighting in the form of class work, assignments and tests.”

He added that the department had started planning for the 2015 academic year.

“The decision to disrupt education was a conscious decision taken by parents and communities in the Joe Morolong district. We took the same decision with Olifantshoek in 2012 when we were faced with same situation of parents actively disrupting the education of their children,” said Stander. He added that preparations were at an advanced stage to enrol the 469 affected Grade 12 learners at matric support camps.

The matriculants will be registered as part-time candidates to write supplementary examinations in February next year.

“The support camps will assist them to complete outstanding school-based assessments and prepare them for their finals,” Stander said.

He pointed out that the department expected the police to deal with charges that would be brought against parents who had prevented their children from attending school during service delivery protests.

“Our expectation is that the police will deal with all cases in the context of ensuring that we all respect the laws of the country. The district department is doing all it can to ensure the situation returns to normal.”

Police spokesman Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana said that the police were monitoring the situation.

He indicated that no arrests were made with regards to parents preventing learners from attending school.

Meanwhile, deputy chairman of the Kuruman Roads Forum, Lucky Kaebis, said that if a recovery plan was implemented, learners in the area, including matrics, would be able to write their year-end exams.

“The majority of the 17 000 learners returned to school yesterday, although, no one attended schools in Dithakong yesterday. There is a shortage of teachers as they were deployed to schools in the Joe Morolong district. We are expecting all learners to attend classes by next week. If learners forfeit their holidays and work over weekends, they will be able to catch up on lost learning time,” Kaebis said.

He added that the forum would consult with the ministerial task team on Tuesday as well as the Department of Education to sign a memorandum of understanding.

Kaebis was confident that work on the 130km road would finally start.

“There is a commitment in writing from the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, that the road will finally become a reality,” he said.

“Contractors, who have arrived on site, will start construction on the road by the end of the week. We do not want any further delays or the contractors to leave the project unfinished after they have received payment.”

Meanwhile, the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education will visit Kuruman this week.

Chairwoman of the portfolio committee Nomalungelo Gina advised that children should not be held ransom in service delivery protests.

“The committee understands the issues that the communities are raising, but realising them should not be at the expense of our children's education.

“Education, especially for children who are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, should be a priority,” Gina added.

Diamond Fields Advertiser

A series of unusual and unexpected events left Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Mogale City residents without water for the past week.

Johannesburg - A series of unusual and unexpected events left Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Mogale City residents without water for the past week.

Speaking at a media conference on Monday, City Power head of operations Louis Pieterse said a technical fault at Orlando had led to a loss of power at the Eikenhof pumping station, which supplies water to more than 40 percent of Joburg.

The standby generator, which was installed in November last year, did not kick in as it was faulty. “We did a number of tests on it and decided not to commission it because of the faults, and that is why it did not kick in. We will be removing it and replacing it with a brand new one, but this will take about 14 days,” he said.

“During the 14 days there could be further water cuts should there be technical problems again, but it is unlikely as the systems have all been tested,” Pieterse said.

And to add to the problem was the theft of Eskom equipment from the Palmiet pump station, near Meyersdal, on Monday morning, an unrelated incident, he said.

The electricity there was restored at about 4pm on Monday and water should be restored sometime on Tuesday, depending on the level of water in the closest reservoirs, said Pieterse.

Areas that would still be without water on Tuesday in Joburg were Hursthill, Westdene and Sophiatown.

Ekurhuleni head of water Phil Mashoko said the Palmiet crash had resulted in Benoni, Brakpan, Germiston and Daveyton being without water.

“But we have roaming water tankers driving around, supplying people with water,” he said. An added problem was that residents and businesses were in panic mode and were drawing water excessively, said Mashoko.

He said tankers would be sent to hospitals, schools and shopping malls where necessary.

Eskom was initially blamed for the electricity outage restored on Monday, but denies responsibility.

“Eskom has engaged with Johannesburg Water and City Power to resolve the matter, as this is in City Power’s jurisdiction. We would like to apologise for the misunderstanding and urge customers not to report this issue to Eskom’s contact centre,” Eskom spokesman Reneiloe Semenya said earlier on Monday.

“We are appealing to all residents to use water sparingly, because if the demand continues to increase, the reservoirs and water towers are going to run very low, resulting in no water in some areas,” said spokeswoman Millicent Kabwe.

The DA blamed Rand Water and City Power for the problems.

Councillor David Potter said Rand Water, as bulk supplier of water to the City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni, did not see itself directly accountable to the residents and accused it of keeping residents and businesses in the dark.

“This highlights some very serious issues, such as the lack of back-up power provision in the system for bulk water and the lack of communication to the residents from bulk suppliers to the city and on to the residents. It has to be recognised that we are in the middle of a serious crisis and we have hardly heard about it.

“The supply of water being a basic need to the residents should be given attention by the authorities, and better emergency planning has to be introduced as a matter of urgency,” Potter said.

anna.cox@inl.co.za

The Star

A Philippi ward councillor whose offices were torched has defied residents calling on him to quit.

Cape Town - A Philippi ward councillor whose offices were torched has defied residents calling on him to quit, saying he will not step down.

Thembinkosi Pupa of Ward 80 in Philippi said Phantsi kweCingo informal settlement residents were upset because officials from the Human Settlements Department had delayed a re-blocking project in their community.

Pupa said R460 000 had been allocated to the re-blocking project to move the Phantsi kweCingo residents living under power lines.

On Friday around 8pm, when Pupa was at home with his family, residents marched to the building that housed his offices.

“I received a call from my personal assistant informing me that the office was on fire.”

The gates to the offices had been pushed down, and the the reception area and the two offices inside the building were in ashes.

“They first smashed the windows and then threw petrol bombs inside. Two computers in my offices are burnt and the community social worker’s office was also set alight.”

Pupa said three days before the fire, residents had confronted him about the re-blocking delay and said he had three days to respond.

On Monday, Phantsi kweCingo residents took to the streets, burning tyres and barricading Lansdowne Road.

Pupa said: “No work can be done until all this is repaired.”

But community leader Philasande Foyi said residents were tired of being “made fools”. Pupa was not delivering on any of the promises he had made the community prior to his election in 2011.

“There is no development in this area. We have tried to talk with him but he keeps making excuses. We are living under electric poles… but he does not seem to care. All he cares about is himself.”

Foyi said said he had lived in the informal settlement for 15 years, and in all that time there had been no progress. They wanted their own electricity boxes.

“We have to illegally hook electricity to nearby houses, paying up to R400 for the connection, and this is money we do not have. This is why people are angry.”

Earlier this year, a DA proportional representation councillor Nceba Hanana, also from ward 80, was stabbed several times in the back allegedly by a community member outside the council offices after a council meeting.

Alida Clem, spokeswoman for the Speaker of the City of Cape Town, confirmed the fire. She said the matter was being investigated and no formal complaints had been received against Pupa.

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Pensioners and children as young as three are having to queue from 2am to see the lone state dentist at a Cape clinic.

Cape Town - Pensioners - as many as 50 on average, along with children as young as 3 - are having to queue for hours from 2am to see the lone state dentist at the Gugulethu Clinic.

The clinic closes its doors at 4pm. It is the only one in the community, and also serves Crossroads, Nyanga, Philippi and Manenberg.

The provincial Department of Health and the clinic say the dentist, Dr Gerrie Ferreira, is able to see only 30 people a day due to “limited equipment”.

“The instruments need to be sterilised for up to two hours, but the clinic manages to provide services to more people than expected,” department spokesman Mark van den Heever said.

He did not answer questions on what the department had done since being made aware of the limited equipment.

Van den Heever said Ferreira was supposed to see only 30 patients a day, but often attended to far more - sometimes more than 80 - and did not turn people away.

He sometimes works with dentistry interns from the University of the Western Cape.

“On September 15, the dentist saw 83 patients and on Friday, September 19, he saw 57 patients.

“The Gugulethu dental clinic serves a large geographical area… The need for the service exceeds the resources.”

The clinic opens at 8am on certain days of the week and is closed on days when Ferreira sees patients at Pollsmoor prison and in Delft.

The huge demand has led to some people offering - for a fee - to wait in line for others.

Although a note on the clinic wall says if a patient is caught paying for a spot, they will not see the dentist, the practice persists.

When the Cape Times visited the clinic on two occasions in the early hours, there were more than 30 people in the queue by 8am.

Luyanda Ngwane 67, from Samora Machel, went to the clinic on Friday.

“When I arrived here just after 4am, one lady came after me and all of a sudden she was the first in the line. She gave one guy money. This has been happening for a long time here. I cannot afford to pay money (to have someone hold a place),” Ngwane said.

Patients said “line marshals” would wake up at 2am to queue, charging R30 for a spot.

One of the men, who called himself Mangaliso, said he queuing for someone else, with the hope of making money.

“If you want to be number one in the line, just come here with R30 and you will be the first to see the dentist. I will wake up for you.”

Ntombizanele Yawa, from KTC, was among the first to arrive on Monday.

She had come with her neighbour because she was afraid of being robbed.

“We arrived here just before five. There were already people lining up. The reason why we are here this early is because they take only a certain number of people. Sometimes they can attend to 30 or 40 people,” Yawa said.

“We rely on public services. I had to take the risk and come here because this is my only option to get medical attention,” she said.

Ferreira, who has worked in the public sector for 25 years, said he closed the clinic only on the days that he had other commitments. All of his commitments were in the public sector.

Cape Times

A dog trained to track rhino poachers has been stolen with his owner's bakkie from a mall in Pretoria.

Pretoria - Jack, a dog trained to track rhino poachers, has been stolen with his owner's bakkie in Pretoria, the Palala Rhino Sanctuary said on Tuesday.

“The owner (Kobus Greef) had his birthday on Sunday and went to Brooklyn Mall with Jack on the back of the bakkie,” Selomie Maritz, founder of the Palala sanctuary, said.

Jack stayed on the white Land Cruiser, as he was trained to do, while Greef and his family went into the mall.

“The vehicle was stolen out of the pay-parking, and since Sunday we have been looking for him.”

Greef is from Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal. He came to Pretoria for his birthday.

“Kobus is devastated. He is still in Pretoria. He says he can't leave here without Jack,” Maritz said.

Police were alerted. Greef and others had been scouring veterinary clinics to see if the thieves dropped the dog off. Maritz said they had difficulty getting help from the mall.

However, video footage from cameras at the mall shows the bakkie leaving, but it was too dark to identify the thieves.

Jack, a 10-year-old German short-haired pointer, was trained in Germany to track poachers. - Sapa

A Mamelodi man has lost his bid for damages after he was shot by a cop he accused of being his wife’s new lover.

Pretoria - Two policemen instructed to go and sort out a lovers’ tiff got more than they bargained for when one of them was instead accused by the husband as being his wife’s new lover.

The irate husband, Mamelodi resident Paul Itsweng, tried to attack his wife’s “lover” (the policeman) with a brick.

He was so angry that he chased the policeman down the road, brick in hand.

The policeman, described in the Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court, sitting in Pretoria, as a “mild man”, fired several warning shots at Itsweng. When he still did not relent, the terrified policeman fired several shots directly at him, hitting the man, among other places, in the stomach.

However, Itsweng claimed police shot him while he was lying on the ground. He claimed damages from the police (the amount is not stated in the judgment), saying he posed no threat to any of the two policemen.

In turning down the claim on Monday, Judge Neil Tuchten found that the police had acted in self-defence.

The damages claim arose from an incident more than 17 years ago - on July 21, 1997 - but no reason was given in the judgment as to why it was only disposed of now.

The judge found Itsweng was the aggressor and was not shot while lying on the ground. The policemen at all times seemed to be meek and mild and only reacted when their lives were in danger, the judge found.

Pretoria News

Minutes after he was assaulted former British Royal Marine Brett Williams told paramedics he was “fine”.

Durban - Minutes before he died, former British Royal Marine Brett Williams told paramedics he was “fine”.

Blayne Shepard, 24, his brother, Kyle, 26, and friends Andries van der Merwe, 24, and Dustin van Wyk, 24, are on trial for the murder of Williams and on other charges relating to events at Kings Park Stadium on March 23 last year. All four pleaded not guilty.

The State alleges the men assaulted Williams during a brawl and he died at the scene.

Paramedic Derrick Banks, of ER24, testified in the Durban Regional Court on Monday that he attended to Williams after his initial fight with Grant Cramer.

“He was slightly disorientated but verbalised that he was okay. I checked his pulse and his pupils to check the reaction was not sluggish and everything was fine… he could stand on his own,” he said.

Cramer testified earlier that he was involved in a fight with Williams that night, but was not part of a second brawl in which the State says Williams was killed.

He said he lost his chain during his fight with Williams and went to look for it.

Cramer was arrested, but the State withdrew the charges against him, saying his actions had been in self-defence and he was not involved in the brawl that caused Williams’s death.

Banks said after Williams got up, he moved him away from the crowd to check his blood pressure.

He said that he saw another fight break out between security guards and people in the vicinity over the missing chain.

He said Williams walked away after his medical check was complete and he later saw a second assault where Williams was allegedly kicked in the head by Blayne Shepard. “He was lying on the ground… There were white males assaulting him and I saw accused one (Blayne) use his foot to stomp on the deceased’s head,” he said.

Banks said he tried to help Williams, but was pushed away.

“Security guards were also pushed back. Within seconds, the fight was over and I went to the deceased. He was on his side and it appeared he had tried to get under a trailer to protect himself. He was not moving or breathing and it was blue around his lips.”

Banks said he performed CPR and called for oxygen, but Williams was declared dead.

Earlier on Monday, the court viewed footage from the stadium which purportedly showed the four accused. The court heard that there were no cameras in the vicinity of where the attack took place.

Former Fidelity Security employee Kevin Breckle testified that he was told by the stadium management to look for “incidents and suspects” from footage between 10pm and 10.30pm on March 23. The authenticity of the footage was challenged by defence advocate Christo van Schalkwyk, acting for the Shepard brothers, who said the footage could not be independently verified because the original recording was no longer available.

Another witness, Fidelity Security guard Michael Norman, was excused from court on Monday after he suffered an emotional episode during his testimony last week. He has been referred to a psychologist.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

The Mercury

Candice Prevost and Ashley de Villiers, accused of robbing and killing Nthabiseng Selesho, lovingly held hands in court.

Johannesburg - Murder accused Candice Prevost and Ashley de Villiers seemed to be oblivious of everyone around them in the Protea Magistrate’s Court.

They stood in front of the Soweto magistrate, holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes and whispering to each other now and again.

Behind them and seated in the galley, the mother of the woman they allegedly murdered stared at them, seething.

“Look at them,” Kedibone Selesho muttered.

Next to the lovers in the dock, a bespectacled Wayne Williams, Prevost’s former fiancé, smiled nervously.

Williams, De Villiers and Prevost are accused of killing Selesho’s daughter Nthabiseng, 23, by strangling her and burning her body in her car.

Nthabiseng was mother to a 4-month-old baby.

She had worked for a jewellery shop for two years.

On September 4, the day she was killed, she had gone to see Prevost - a client of the jewellery shop since 2007 - to show her a few pieces.

Nthabiseng had jewellery worth about R300 000 with her and was to see another client afterwards, her employers said.

When Nthabiseng arrived at the Boksburg home Prevost shared with her current and former fiancé, she was strangled and robbed, police say.

The trio allegedly doused the car with petrol in the veld in Lenasia and set it alight. They were arrested a few days later after Prevost admitted to the crimes.

When Selesho saw the trio in court on Monday, she said: “Here comes the satans.”

On Thursday, when she saw them for the first time, she shouted in court: “Why did you kill her?”

The case was postponed to October 8 for a bail application.

botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za

The Star

Two major cycling clubs are taking legal action to stop the Galleria development at the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town.

Cape Town - Two major cycling clubs are taking legal action to stop the City of Cape Town and Devmark Property Group from starting work on the Galleria development at the Bellville Velodrome at the end of the month.

The Bellville and Tygerberg cycling clubs contend that the city has reneged on its lease agreement with the Bellville Sports Federation by not providing “comparable” alternative premises so that athletes could have “continued, undisturbed” use during construction.

The Bellville club was issued with a notice in 2011 when the tender process for the redevelopment of the velodrome was completed.

Belinda Walker, mayoral committee member for community services and special projects, said the city’s intention in entering into a lease with the private sector to manage the velodrome was to ensure that the facility would be better managed, while accommodating the existing sports clubs.

She said the contractor agreed to accommodate training sessions until building work at the site made this impossible.

In correspondence with mayor Patricia de Lille, KC & Associates, acting for the two cycling clubs, said the city had approved Devmark Property Group’s rezoning application without referring to the existing lease agreement, which is valid until 2023.

This lease stipulated that the city would provide alternative premises for training if the use of the facility changed.

But the city’s compliance and auxiliary services and legal services departments have responded by saying that they disagreed with many of the cycling clubs’ claims.

The city provided the clubs using the Bellville Velodrome with three months’ written notice, and there was no provision in the lease agreement that entitled the clubs to use the facility.

“We are of the opinion that the city has no obligation to provide alternative premises in this regard.”

As a “gratuitous act”, the city had identified a possible alternative venue and investigated its feasibility. The cost of restoring these premises to make them suitable for cycling would cost about R7.5 million, said Charlene Davis, legal adviser in the city’s property, environmental and planning law unit in correspondence with the cycle clubs’ legal team.

Davis said the city met the national department of sport and recreation in March about possible funding.

But there had been no response to follow-up queries.

The city was unable to move forward with venue alternatives until it had confirmation of funding.

Abdul Davids of the Bellville Cycle Club said the city was avoiding its contractual obligations and that changes to the velodrome would mean that clubs would have less than 10 percent of the usages they currently enjoyed.

He said there had been no consultation with the affected clubs before the city signed the development agreements.

Meanwhile, the clubs’ members were unsure whether to invest in equipment when the future of their training facility was in limbo. The velodrome is also used for league meetings, among other purposes.

Furthermore, the city was not entering into an agreement of intention dealing with the use of the facility once the Galleria development was complete.

But Walker said: “In terms of the tender received by the city, the management of the velodrome and athletics stadium will be taken over by the developer. Devmet will also undertake to upgrade the velodrome in order to enable the multipurpose use of the facility. A strategic vision underpins the redevelopment...”

Walker said the mixed-use development would be an economic and job creation boost for Bellville and the city.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

They look like any other teenagers, but the trail of tattoos lining their arms, legs and chest tell a tale of violent crime.

Special Report by Warda Meyer and Ian Landsberg

Cape Town - They come from areas where gangsters are role models, in most cases they come from single-parent homes, accustomed to the hardships of poverty and violence that have crippled so many Cape Flats communities.

The young men from Bonteheuwel, Delft, Belhar, Wesbank, Ravensmead, Lavender Hill and Mitchells Plain interviewed by the Cape Argus all had one thing in common – joining gangs at an early age and having to prove their worth through acts of violence.

They look like any other teenagers, but underneath their clothes the trail of tattoos lining their arms, legs and chest tell a tale of violent crime.

Set apart from others their age, these boys, now on the brink of maturity, live with the harsh reality that they have taken lives.

‘The first guy I had to shoot was my own age’

“Smuggler” was 16 when he got involved with gangs. Curious about the lifestyle, at first he only kept their drugs and guns.

“I had to sell drugs: mandrax and dagga, at schools. I ended up the one who would hand out the guns for the shooters. Then they moved into abalone poaching,” he said.

“I went to jail after being caught with one of their guns. I’ve already shot a rival gang member, having been drugged at the time. I felt |powerful, but when it sunk in two days later, I felt terrible, filled with regret.”

Smuggler said he was dropped at a corner, told where to go and who to shoot. “The guy I had to shoot was my own age and we’d had an argument, so I was chosen to shoot him. I shot him twice in the leg, once in the stomach, back and shoulder. I’d never pointed a gun before.”

The man survived the attack and when Smuggler came out of rehab, he made the effort of making peace with the man he shot.

“They put a gun in your hand and tell you how to pull the trigger. They show you how to cock the gun, put everything together and to clean it.

“I was never charged with the shooting and I never picked up a gun again. I was good with money and smuggling and I did not have to do any more hits,” he said.

“At the time I would make more than R10 000 a week, and R3 000 for yourself, that’s easy cash for selling evil.”

Smuggler said he knew of other children being taken to a field and taught how to shoot.

‘We ruled the school yard’

“Billboards” was a teenager when he joined a gang.

Now 23, Billboards was 16 when he joined the gangs in |high school.

“We ruled the school yard,” |he said, and at the age of 17 he joined the big league.

Having grown up in front of the old gangsters, Billboards said his background was one |of hardship at home and at school.

“If your parents do not have control over you, you will be trapped in the world of gangsters,” he said.

“Where I come from, the first thing you have to do to prove you are part of the gang is to go out and shoot someone. I enjoyed playing with guns.”

Billboards admitted that he was “very sick from all the tik and mandrax” he used.

“It made me aggressive. Nobody could tell me what I had to do, I decided on my own who and when I wanted to shoot. I got my first gun from the gangs, a Glock 13, and I had to use it in my first shooting, but my favourite firearm was a CZ handgun because it was light.”

He claims he is responsible for drawing other youths into the gangs. “They saw the parties we had… and they wanted in.”

Young girls who joined the gang were tattooed and used to sell drugs, or used sexually, he said.

‘I wanted to be like them, but even better’

“Yster” has dreamt of wealth his entire life. He concedes that if he had been born to a family in an upmarket suburb, where gangsterism has not crippled the community, he may have been an educated 20-year-old today.

Joining a gang when he was 14, Yster left school in Standard 8 (Grade 10).

His scrawny appearance is a far cry from the nickname he chose for himself, but it’s clear that he is as tough as nails, having survived prison life as an awaiting trialist on a murder rap which he beat in the end.

“I’ve killed people. I’ve shot on command, but I’ve never been caught for murder. I was heavily drugged, only 17 when I shot that man. I stayed in the middle of gangland, I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted tattoos like them, I knew the generals and captains in the 27s gang and I wanted to be like them, but even better.

“I craved the respect they got as they spread fear, and I was safe in the knowledge that they would protect me,” he said.

Yster said that for him, it all started with a fight in the school yard between high school gangs.

“That was the first time I stabbed someone with a knife. It was a pupil, but he survived the attack.” He said after that, he did not want to go back to school. He was then introduced to guns.

Yster said his intention was not to kill, but to scare. “I’d never held a gun before or knew how to shoot, but I saw the other gang members load and use it several times,” he recalled.

Presently, having found religion and promising his mother he would turn his back on the gang and a life of crime, Yster has, with the help of a pastor, taken to rehabilitating troubled young people.

‘My mother never knew just how bad I was’

“Jakkals” was 13 when he joined a gang. Now 27, he is in rehab, trying to turn his life around.

“I started smuggling first, then hiding guns at my mother’s house without her knowledge. Soon I was using mandrax and tik and selling it for the 26 gangs. Then I got my own gun. I’ve shot at someone at the age of 18. I was drugged, my hands were shaking, but once you have a gun you feel powerful.”

Some of the fights among 26 members were over petty crimes.

“Once you are asked by your gang if you stole something and you deny, you are beaten to a pulp. We will warn you twice, the third time you will not be that lucky.”

Jakkals said he could not blame his family circumstances for the path he chose. “My mother loved me, gave me everything I wanted, and she never knew just how bad I was. But I’m no more concerned about the past. I can’t worry about the violence in my past because the God I serve now is far more powerful than any of the gangs.”

Jakkals was in jail for drugs and car theft but never for shootings.

“The life I’m trying to build now is a far better life. God will use me to impact on the lives of others.”

Cape Argus

Abdul Boonzaaier, son of former gang boss Rashied Staggie, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs.

Cape Town - Abdul Boonzaaier, son of former Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie, pleaded guilty in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court to possession of drugs, and was fined R1 000.

Boonzaaier, 26, on Monday conceded he had four packets of tik on him when police arrested him in Wright Street, Woodstock, earlier this month.

It is his second drug-related court case.

Prosecutor Quinton Appels told the court that Boonzaaier also had a pending matter in the Khayelitsha Regional Court, in the priority crimes court, for various drug-related charges - a matter for which he was on bail at the time of his arrest.

Boonzaaier had been in custody for 20 days.

Appels said Boonzaaier had no previous convictions and was a first-time offender.

In a statement, Boonzaaier said the tik was for his “personal use”. He admitted that he knew that it was wrong and against the law.

Ben Mathewson, for Boonzaaier, read out an affidavit signed by Boonzaier. He said he was married, had a young child with his wife and other children from other relationships he had to support. He was self-employed, owning four taxis.

Appels argued that dealing in drugs was a serious offence and had a serious effect on communities.

He said the court needed to show Boonzaaier and the community that “the justice system would not be undermined”, and asked for a fine to be imposed.

Regarding the pending matter, Mathewson argued that Boonzaaier was presumed innocent pending the outcome.

Magistrate Aziz Ahmied accepted Boonzaaier’s guilty plea adding that it was a serious offence that appeared “quite often” in his courtroom.

“Almost all of our Woodstock cases come out of Wright Street,” he told Boonzaaier before fining him R1 000.

natasha.prince@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Mamelodi Hospital security guards admitted to ejecting a man who took pics of his sick mom in a hospital queue.

Pretoria - Mamelodi Hospital security guards have admitted grabbing the phone of a man who was taking pictures of his sick mother, and ejecting him, telling him never to return.

In a confidential report seen by the Pretoria News, and sent to the quality assurance section of the provincial health department as part of an investigation into last Monday’s incident, security personnel said they had only responded to a call from nursing staff, who asked them to stop a man who was taking pictures of his mother in a hospital queue.

They said he had refused to heed their warnings, forcing them to grab his phone and delete the pictures. He resisted and there was a brief argument.

They marched the man to the nearest exit and told him not to come back to the hospital again.

However, Pierre Steyn said he was disappointed because no one had called him to hear his side of the story. He said when his mother called to be fetched from the hospital on Friday, he took a risk by going into the hospital.

“She would never have made it to the car park in her wheelchair, but I was scared they would come at me and assault me again.”

Steyn left his dehydrated 66-year-old mother Gesina Pearson at the emergency section of the hospital on September 14 after a severe bout of nausea and vomiting. She was there for about 15 hours without medical attention.

He arrived after 10am last Monday to find her being put on a drip, and after helping to get her comfortable while she waited for doctors, he decided to take a picture of her before he left.

He was surprised when nurses told him he couldn’t, and when he continued to photograph his mother, security personnel pounced on him and grabbed the phone. They deleted the pictures and told him to get off hospital premises.

Pearson had been discharged from the hospital the previous Friday, after being treated for nausea and vomiting. Despite the medication given, she was unable to keep anything down and had grown weaker, prompting Steyn to take her back.

Her family felt she had been discharged without enough medical attention, after a gastroscopy was cancelled a day earlier, but a report from the hospital said when she was discharged she had no symptoms of her illness.

ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za

@ntsandvose

Pretoria News

Small prefabricated rooms built for the victims of shack fires in Durban will cost R34 250 a room to build.

Durban - Rows of small prefabricated rooms built for the victims of shack fires in Durban’s Kennedy Road and paid for by eThekwini’s ratepayers, cost R34 250 a room to build.

This is only about R10 000 less than it would have cost to build a proper low-cost house.

Yet the sub-contractor who built the emergency transit camp said his work was “perfect” and worth every penny.

The sub-contractor, who asked that his name be withheld, spoke after The Mercury visited the camp at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban last week.

He was sub-contracted by Tauris Garden Trading 500cc, which won the tender to erect the structures in June following a fire in the settlement.

On Friday, there was another fire in the settlement that destroyed more shacks.

“I take pride in my job. I was in the vicinity when this fire broke out and none of the units I built in the transit camp burnt down,” he said.

“Those units could be used as permanent homes because they will last for 50 years.”

He said part of the money paid was spent on levelling the ground ahead of construction.

He also had to build retaining walls to prevent soil erosion.

However, beneficiaries of the transit camp said they were unimpressed by the quality of the work. They said the cheap material used did not justify the money spent. Each unit has prefabricated walls with a zinc roof.

The sub-contractor employed 13 locals to do the work for 10 days and each was paid R120 a day.

Councillors, who are members of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, raised concerns last week about the amount spent on the structures, which would be demolished after the occupants were awarded low-cost houses.

They would visit the camp at the end of the month to inspect the quality of the work.

The municipality said it cost R45 000 to build a low-cost house with two bedrooms, a kitchen and sitting room. Residents of the transit camp said the temporary 2mx2m structures, each with a single window, were a tight fit.

“A double bed would take up the whole space; my fridge and other furniture doesn’t fit in,” said resident Fuzile Ngqembana.

Tauris Garden Trading 500cc manager Samantha Naidoo said she could not comment as her boss was overseas.

“All I can say is that we have produced quality work under the circumstances,” she said.

She then provided a handwritten breakdown of how the money was spent. It showed that each unit cost R34 250 to built and 700 cost R23.9 million. Preparing the ground and storm water drainage pushed the cost to R26.9m.

Water and communal ablution facilities, and a fire hydrant, still needed to be added, while provision of electricity has not been factored in.

The Mercury