A businessman who owns a Kloof house where a drug bust was made has been fighting to keep his R3.8m property.

Durban - An Umhlanga businessman, charged in connection with an alleged Kloof drug laboratory, has been fighting to keep his R3.8 million property, which the State – believing it to be the proceeds of unlawful activities – wants to confiscate and auction.

The State alleges Duncan Naidoo’s house, in Everton Road, was bought to be used as a drug-manufacturing laboratory.

The State preserved the property in February and it has since been in the hands of a court-appointed-curator.

A director of public prosecutions, Kenneth Samuel, said in papers before the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday that on June 24 last year, police raided the property after receiving information that it was being used as a “clandestine drug laboratory”.

A chemical odour led police to the squash court where they found industrial-sized machinery, dryers and mixers, some of which were still mixing chemicals. Dispensers and steel pipes had been erected inside the building, which resembled a laboratory.

Three people – Warren Daniels and Chinese nationals Wing Lik Wong and Kin Hung Yip, who were wearing gas masks – were arrested for the manufacture of methaqualone (mandrax) and they were later denied bail.

Naidoo was arrested a few months later and was out on R700 000 bail.

Two thousand eight hundred litres of methaqualone was found in sludge form and 45kg in powder form. The drugs had a street value of R32 million.

The State argued that the registered owner, Junaid Rasool, was a “man of straw” and could not afford the house. He was charged a few weeks after the raid, but charges were later withdrawn.

It emerged the house had been bought by Naidoo and put in Rasool’s name. Samuel said the purchase of the property had been suspicious with the price being paid over three months, via eight electronic fund transfers.

Naidoo was opposing the application.

He said he had bought the property in Rasool’s name believing it would be a good business deal, and he had wanted to hide the deal from his wife, as their relationship had been strained.

Naidoo said there was no proof he had bought the house with the proceeds of any unlawful activity. He had involvement in numerous businesses with a track record pertaining to income and earnings.

“There is no proof I ought to have known of any unlawful activities on the property.”

By bringing these proceedings, he said, the prosecuting authority might well be abusing the procedure to force him into the witness stand in order to canvass issues relating to the criminal matter before the case.

Naidoo accused the authority of abusing the process by applying for the order before the criminal trial.

He also said no search warrants had been obtained before the raid and all evidence obtained was inadmissible.

He said the property had fallen into a state of disrepair since being taken over by the curator.

The case was adjourned indefinitely.

The Mercury

eThekwini councillors and staff who failed to settle their utility bills are to have their water and electricity connections cut.

Durban - eThekwini councillors and staff, collectively owing the city R11 million over three months, are to have their water and electricity connections cut.

This was contained in a report presented to the city’s finance and procurement committee last month.

Government departments, parastatals, businesses and residents were some of the culprits that had failed to settle utility bills and other debts contributing to an outstanding amount of R2 billion.

A breakdown of the report indicated 18 councillors owed R60 000 (R3 300 each, on average) in rates in May. Other culprits included public servants and ward committee members. More than 1 800 city staff owed the city R9.6m (R5 300 each, on average) and 165 ward committee members owed R1.3m (R7 900 each, on average) at the end of May.

The report noted the city had initiated debt collection.

“Monthly staff deductions are made towards staff salaries … A total of 23 844 customers were disconnected for electricity and water.”

Councillors and staff had been included in the amount, with R326 000 being deducted from their salaries. The report indicated that 85 “final demands” had been issued to defaulters, and 40 matters had been taken to court for judgments.

Residents accounted for the bulk of the debt, about R1.1bn.

Government departments were R201m in debt, with housing, basic education, health and social welfare being the biggest defaulters.

Of the amount, R139m had been outstanding for more than three months.

“Properties owned by Ingonyama Trust make up 69% of the R139m. Cogta (the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs) was engaged in trying to facilitate a meeting with Ingonyama Trust to resolve the arrears; no positive response has yet been received from Cogta in this regard. Legal advised revenue to engage through the Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution Process,” the report reads.

Parastatals such as the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, Transnet, the National Ports Authority and Ithala Bank owed eThekwini a staggering R300m. Only R39m of this had been settled by May 31.

On money owed by parastatals, it was reported that “the municipality has invoked section 44 of the Municipal Finance Management Act and has sent letters to National Treasury to intervene”.

Troubled bus operator Tansnat Durban and Emtateni Logistics, the company that ran the city’s parking meter system, owed eThekwini R52.8m.

“Emtateni Logistics is going through liquidation. A report has been approved by council for the legal department to lodge a claim against the liquidators,” the report said.

The city also noted there were areas where the debt was collectable, but the municipality could not enforce credit control activities like disconnection of services. KwaMashu L Section, responsible for R42m in debt, was one such area.

Council Speaker Logie Naidoo said: “We made it clear at our workshops that ward committee members cannot be in arrears. When we get a schedule of councillors in arrears, we immediately issue a letter or SMS to urgently tackle outstanding debt.”

He said councillors needed to set an example.

DA caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango said his party’s stance was that anyone not paying the city should have their services disconnected.

“Cape Town has done it. These departments have properties around Durban … The money that they owe might not be for rates – it might be something else. What do you do to make someone account? You cut their services.

“The problem with Durban is that we always want to find a political solution where there is none.”

He said the city’s inaction against government departments was in contrast to cutting residential services “even if a person owes R20”.

The Mercury

A foreigner has charged a cop with theft for not returning R700 and a phone that had been taken from him after a raid.

Durban - A foreigner has charged a policeman with theft for not returning money and a cellphone that had been taken from him when he was detained at Pietermaritzburg’s New Prison.

He was arrested along with 52 other foreigners in May for being in the country illegally. Before they were jailed, they were told at the prison to put their belongings and cash, which amounted to about R20 000 in total, into envelopes on which they wrote their names.

They allegedly never got it back.

The man, who did not want to be named for fear of being harassed, has been assisted by a local schoolteacher, Julie Stofberg, whose husband is an attorney, to try to get back his cellphone and just over R700 in cash and leave the country.

She said she wanted to put the spotlight on the treatment of foreigners when they were arrested.

In May, the Zimbabwean was arrested with the others during an Operation Fiela raid.

They were taken into custody and their rooms were left unlocked. He said everything he owned was stolen.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in prison for being in the country illegally. On his release, he was told to fetch his passport from the department.

Stofberg found out what had happened and assisted him. Stofberg and the man established which policeman was supposed to return the men’s belongings and charged him.

She also helped get his passport back. When he did, he was given a letter to leave the country before July 15. Stofberg questioned how he was expected to leave when he had no resources and money.

Stofberg said what happened was wrong.

“If I can talk for one foreigner, I can make a difference. Luckily I am able to assist him financially and legally … it’s such an injustice.”

Acting provincial Home Affairs manager Nosipho Shandu said there were various permits and visas that foreigners could apply for.

During the operation, those arrested were referred to a detention facility pending court appearances.

“The law provides that an illegal foreigner can be deported. There are two categories of deportation that apply in terms of the Immigration Act. The one being the deportation facilitated by the department and the other being deportation where an illegal foreigner is given the order to leave the country.”

She said on July 3, the man and his lawyer collected the passport which was seized during his arrest.

“The investigation revealed that at no stage did the foreigner apply for a permit in terms of the Zimbabwean Dispensation. The order to leave the country is issued to a foreign national who confirms that he has the means to repatriate himself or herself. Had the foreigner indicated that he had no means to repatriate himself, the department would have offered this service.”

She could not comment on the man’s belongings not being returned.

Police spokesman Mthokozisi Ngobese confirmed that a case had been opened.

The Mercury

Loganathan Naicker, who hired two men to kill his girlfriend seven years ago, has been sentenced to life.

Durban - It has taken seven long years, but the family of 29-year-old Jennifer Pillay finally got justice on Wednesday when the man she loved and trusted – her boyfriend at the time – was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

“He got what he deserved … we are very happy with the sentence,” Pillay’s sister, Vanitha, told The Mercury on Wednesday as father of three Loganathan Naicker, 39, left the courtroom to begin serving his sentence.

He showed no emotion – a fact raised by Durban High Court Judge King Ndlovu as being an aggravating factor in the case.

“I am satisfied that you showed absolutely no remorse … you tried all the tricks to avert justice, but in the end justice has prevailed and everyone will find some closure today,” he said, handing down sentence on Wednesday.

Earlier this week Judge Ndlovu convicted Naicker of Pillay’s murder, finding that he had hired two men, Sandile Ncube and Mbongeni Mbatha, to accost her at her home near Verulam, take her to sugar cane fields nearby and shoot her.

Mbatha, who was the shooter, has subsequently died.

Ncube turned State witness and testified that Naicker had wanted Pillay dead “because he had a new girlfriend and she was in the way”.

They were promised large amounts of cash which, Naicker said, he would get from a life insurance policy.

But the judge said from the evidence before him there was no such policy.

“You told him this to convince him to commit the crime. You knew you were lying.

“On the evidence it seems you no longer loved her and you had found new romantic happiness. It begs the question: Why did you have her killed? Why did you just not end it? She was employed, she lived in her own place, she had family who loved her and who are sorely missing her today. She trusted you. She thought of you as her protector.”

The judge said Pillay’s parents trusted Naicker and treated him as one of their sons.

“When her mother heard of your arrest, she collapsed and had a stroke. She can hardly walk or speak to this day. When her father testified, he was crying. He could not contain himself.”

The judge said he could find only aggravating factors, including that Naicker was clearly the mastermind behind the crime. And he could have got away with it had Pillay’s family not complained to the police management about the lack of proper investigation in the case, resulting in the formation of an organised crime unit task team under Lieutenant Mukesh Panday’s command.

The judge said that up until then, the investigation “appeared to have died” and questioned how a detective from the Tongaat police station – who appeared to have childhood links to Naicker – had been initially given the docket.

The Mercury

Professor Jonathan Jansen urged parents not to accept shoddy standards when it came to their children’s education.

Durban - Professor Jonathan Jansen urged Durban parents on Wednesday not to accept shoddy standards when it came to their children’s education.

Jansen advised parents of the seven ways they could protect their own children (and others) from South Africa’s “race to the bottom” in education.

Jansen was speaking to the parents as a guest of an organisation called the Youth Education and Support Trust, which works to secure funding for promising pupils or students who cannot afford a high school or tertiary education.

He said failure had become “institutionalised” in South Africa’s education system. Low expectations and dismal standards had become so embedded in the everyday life and fabric of schools (and universities) that everyone thought it normal.

Jansen listed the ways in which low education standards became “the new normal”:

* It crept up gradually, one policy at a time, and presented itself as reasonable – who would not want all children to pass?

* It had to come from on high – who could doubt the authority of a senior politician?

* It had to look backwards all the time, justifying present malpractice with what had happened in the past.

* It had to carry a not-so-subtle racial threat to those who opposed it: “The interests of the black child are being attacked”.

Examples of low standards in education included the policy which allowed pupils to fail only once between grades 10 and 12, and the Grade 9 school-leaving certificate which Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced she was developing during her budget speech earlier this year.

Jansen told the parents gathered that there were seven things they could do to counter mediocrity in the schooling system:

* Set their own standards of achievement for their children, and “do not budge”.

* Pay for extra classes by high-quality tutors. “Your child only has one chance to do well at school.”

* Parents should create their own extramural education experience. “Assume that what your child learns at school is hopelessly inadequate for the 21st century”.

* Fund at least one poor child to attend a high-quality school, but start with the youngest pupils.

* Take the fight for quality education to schools. Ask the principal what they were doing to counter the low standards set out in government policy.

* Start a movement against poor education, or join one (such as Equal Education).

* Put money into projects designed to turn around dysfunctional schools.

Earlier on Wednesday, Jansen spoke on social justice and transformation at the conference of the Society of Law Teachers of Southern Africa, held at Varsity College.

He warned that to use the word transformation carelessly was to “privilege numbers over minds” and risk social cohesion because of division and bitterness among citizens.

Access to university was a matter of social justice, he said, but transformation was about universities ensuring that those students graduated and excelled in the job market.

“Social justice is about black children accessing former white schools, transformation is about all children recognising themselves in the textbooks used by those schools.”

Jansen said that unemployment and inequality in South Africa could not be fixed until schools were fixed.

That most schools were dysfunctional was the fundamental problem facing the country.

The Mercury

The family of a pregnant woman who was found dead in the toilets of a Durban hospital are demanding answers.

Durban - The family of a pregnant woman who was found dead in the toilets of a Durban hospital are demanding answers from the Department of Health.

Her family have been told that Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi, 30, was found by another patient, face down and facing a toilet door, at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.

It is still not clear whether Mkhwanazi, who had been in labour, was waiting in the admissions area at the time. She had been transferred to the hospital from the Ntuzuma clinic at about 4am on Tuesday. The unborn child did not survive.

The family also want to know how Mkhwanazi suffered a cut from her nose to her chin.

Mkhwanazi’s elder sister, Winnie,

said Hlengiwe, who had been nine months pregnant, called her in the early hours take her to the clinic. Winnie said today that when they arrived at the clinic, her sister was walking on her own.

“I wanted to fetch a wheelchair for her and she scolded me for making her a ‘cripple’. She told me she was not sick or crippled, but only had labour pains, and I laughed at her. I asked the nurse who attended to us if I needed to stick around and again, my sister said she was fine, I can go prepare for work, and the nurse concurred. We hugged and I drove home, dressed up for work and left,” said Winnie.

She said Hlengiwe later called their younger sister to tell her that she was on a drip waiting to be transferred to Mahatma Gandhi.

“Even then she was fine. I was shocked when I received a call around 8 the same morning from someone who said she the sister in charge of the ward at the hospital.

“She asked me where I was and I told her. She didn’t want to tell me what was going on, but instead wanted to speak to my supervisor.”

Winnie said she insisted that she be told what was wrong and her colleague took the phone. “I saw in the change of her facial expression that something was wrong.

“I thought maybe the child didn’t survive, but I was not prepared for what the call was about. I fainted when I finally heard what happened,” she said.

She said when she came round she was taken to the hospital where she met other family members.

They were told that Hlengiwe had been found, lying face-down, facing the toilet door, later that morning by a patient.

She was dead.

Winnie said she found it difficult to accept her sister’s death because her injuries were not “consistent” with the explanation given by hospital officials. “We don’t really know what happened to her. What we know is that she was fine, talking and walking on her own.

“When I left her at the clinic before she was transferred to the hospital, the nurse there said she was fine, I could see that she was fine.

“But the injury, a cut from below the nose down to the chin, is not consistent with what we are told.

“She was facing the door, not the toilet seat. I don’t believe the wooden toilet door would have inflicted such an injury,” she said.

It was her sister’s second child; the first one is five years old.

“We appeal to the department to do a thorough investigation so we can find closure. It is a heavy blow to us to lose our sister and her unborn baby at once,” she pleaded.

KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said he was shocked at the news and the department would investigate.

“This incident is still fresh and… confidential inquiries are instituted once something of this nature happens. The details of those inquiries are not made public, they remain confidential and as for this particular incident, the details will remain confidential,” Dhlomo said.

Phoenix police are investigating the woman’s death.

Daily News

Pat Pillay and his son Fabian had a close call after their car burned to its shell on the M41 freeway in Durban.

Durban - Pat Pillay, 51, and his son Fabian, 20, had a close call after their car burned to its shell on Durban’s M41 freeway near Gateway on Wednesday.

They had been on their way from Hillary to the Gateway shopping mall when Pillay saw smoke coming out of the bonnet of his Toyota Avanza.

He immediately pulled over to the emergency lane. Within minutes, the 2005 model vehicle had burst into flames.

The two jumped out, grabbing as many of their belongings as possible, before they were urged to get away from the fire by tow truck driver, Matthew Govender, who had just arrived.

“I am a bit shocked and disappointed but it could have been worse. I went to open the bonnet of the car and my son advised me not to, but I got burned on my hand.”

Pillay was grateful to a passing motorist who gave them a first aid kit with a burn seal treatment, which helped ease the pain.

Pillay, who does not have car insurance, said the emergency services reacted within minutes, dousing the fire.

The flames had spread quickly and were so fierce that the fire department later advised it was possible the fuel tank had started leaking, thus feeding the blaze.

Daily News

Almost six months after the crash that killed 8 KZN pupils, families are still waiting for the crash report.

Durban - Almost six months have passed since the crash that claimed the lives of eight KwaZulu-Natal pupils and still the families of the victims await closure with police confirming that the investigation is ongoing.

The Daily News, on requesting a progress update, was told that further evidence was required before a decision could be made on whether to charge the driver.

“The investigating officer obtained a warning statement from the driver and the docket was sent to the director of public prosecutions for a decision.

“The DPP instructed that further investigation must be conducted since there were sworn statements that were still to be obtained from other witnesses. Then the docket will be sent back to the DPP for a decision,” said police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane.

Meanwhile, parents of the Fezokuhle Primary School pupils killed or injured in the crash said they were frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation.

They said they were also unhappy with the driver, 33-year-old Lungi Mthimkhulu, who they said had failed to reach out to any of the families to explain what happened.

Mthimkhulu, who suffered serious injuries, has refused interviews with the press.

According to police sources, she has allegedly moved to Durban to avoid any community backlash.

Philisile Njoko, the mother of two children critically injured in the crash, said they regularly contacted the police to discuss progress.

“We have been told to wait for them to finish with their investigation. But they don’t understand what we are going through,” she said.

Njoko, whose son and daughter were in intensive care in Edendale Hospital for almost a month, said their family needed answers. “We are very angry,” she said.

Simphiwe Chonco, whose daughter, Sinethemba, was killed in the crash, said he and his family would find closure only once they had spoken to Mthimkhulu about the crash and heard about Sinethemba’s final moments.

“We want to know exactly what happened that caused our children to be killed. Surely we deserve that at least?” he said.

The Daily News established that an expert’s report on the condition and roadworthiness of Mthimkhulu’s Toyota Hilux bakkie forms part of the docket, and would play a crucial role in determining whether she is charged.

Mthimkhulu was a well-known transporter of Fezokuhle Primary School pupils for more than five years.

The January 28 tragedy was the first crash she had been involved in.

Daily News

Siyanda Mkhize, a former UniZulu student leader, says rape charges against him were meant to tarnish his reputation.

Durban - The former University of Zululand student leader against whom charges of rape have been withdrawn says all he wants is to get back to his studies and move on with his life.

Siyanda Mkhize, 25, an honours student at UniZulu on Wednesday said he had maintained his innocence from the beginning and since the prosecuting authority had withdrawn the charge against him, the university had no reason to keep him on suspension.

However, Major Thulani Zwane on Wednesday said the rape charge against Mkhize was only provisionally withdrawn by the Mthunzini Magistrate’s Court in May, pending DNA results to establish whether there was a link.

The same applies for a second student who was arrested with Mkhize in March. A third student who was arrested at the time was never charged. All three were suspended by the university.

They were suspended for having allegedly raped a fellow student at a university residence. However, Mkhize has denied having sexual relations with her - consensual or otherwise.

He said he had never even spoken to the woman before, during or after the case.

The former student representative council president who was later appointed by the university council as the SRC administrator after the council was dismantled, claimed the accusation was a political ploy.

“There was politics involved because of my appointment as SRC administrator. It was just to tarnish my reputation,” he said.

Mkhize said he forgave the woman.

Although “traumatised” and with his “reputation dented”, he said his focus was now on carrying on with his studies.

UniZulu’s director of communications, Normah Zondo, said the university was not aware that the criminal matter had been withdrawn, but the university still had a responsibility to follow its own internal disciplinary processes and code.

“The temporarily suspended students will not be allowed back on campus until the internal process has run its course.”

Zondo noted that the onus on the State was much higher and entailed proof beyond reasonable doubt.

“Although the criminal court process runs concurrently with the internal disciplinary process, the withdrawal of the one does not automatically nullify the other one,” she said.

In the meantime, Mkhize said his name had been dragged through the mud with people calling him a rapist.

Mkhize will return to the university on July 22 to hear the outcome of the internal investigation, which Zondo said was now finalised.

Mkhize said: “It’s no child’s play to be jailed for rape. My education is suffering and if the suspension is lifted, I will really have to work hard to complete my honours this year. This has affected me psychologically too, I need to seek counselling.”

Mkhize is determined not to let the accusation “hurt my future”.

Daily News

An Umlazi man charged with multiple counts of rape and robbery, has no idea how his DNA got on to the victims.

Durban - An uMlazi man charged with multiple counts of rape and robbery, who is alleged to have forced his victims to shower after violating them, has testified that he has no idea how his DNA got on to the victims.

Xolani Richard Mfeka, 32, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and five counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Mfeka on Wednesday told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that at the time the offences were committed, he was in Umlazi. He said that some of the offences were committed on a Friday night, and that would have made it impossible for him to have been the culprit.

“I am a Nazareth and I do not even consume liquor. I attend church early on Saturday mornings, so I keep indoors on a Friday,” Mfeka said.

When cross-examined by the State as to how a DNA sample taken from him after his arrest matched the semen taken from the three rape victims, Mfeka said he had no idea.

“That was not me that touched them,” he said.

Mfeka also denied he had any knowledge of the firearm that was recovered from his room by police upon his arrest.

The State alleges that Mfeka embarked on a “crime spree” between October 2012 and January 2013, terrorising women and their partners in the Harding and KwaDukuza areas.

In the first incident on October 24, 2012, Mfeka is alleged to have broken into a family’s home in Harding, and threatened them at gunpoint.

He allegedly demanded cash and cellular phones, and ransacked the wardrobes in the house where he found R110.

He then allegedly dragged the 45-year-old woman into the bathroom and raped her, before fleeing in her vehicle.

The second incident happened in KwaDukuza on January 17, 2013. He allegedly went to the room of the 34-year-old woman, and told her to open her door or he would shoot her.

When the woman opened the door, Mfeka is alleged to have marched her to a nearby sugarcane plantation where he raped her twice at gunpoint.

Mfeka then allegedly took her back to her room and ordered her at gunpoint to have a shower. He then fled with her cellular phone and cash.

Fourteen days later, Mfeka allegedly entered a homestead in the Zamani area in KwaDukuza, demanded money from a 28-year old woman and her boyfriend then tied the couple up and ransacked their home. Mfeka then allegedly dragged the woman to the dining room, untied her and raped her.

Afterwards, he allegedly took her to the bathroom and instructed her to have a bath. He then tied her up again.

Mfeka allegedly stayed the night at the terrified couple’s home, and the next morning he took the woman back to the dining room where he raped her again, at knifepoint.

He again forced her to bathe before fleeing the house with the couple’s cellular phones, cash and other valuables.

Daily News

The investigation into the matric cheating scandal of 2014 has hit yet another snag.

Durban - With 12 hearings already completed out of the 22 schools implicated in the matric cheating scandal of 2014, the probe into the group cheating has hit yet another snag.

This time it comes from the schools themselves, which have taken exception to group charges against them, and are now calling for pupils to be charged individually.

Exams quality assurer Umalusi found traces of group copying at 58 matric exam centres in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in their audit of the 2014 national senior certificate.

More than 2 000 pupils in KZN and 780 in the EC are alleged to have copied in the 2014 final examination. Their results have been withheld pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Department of Basic Education’s Elijah Mhlanga confirmed that several of the schools had appointed lawyers, who were insisting that the pupils be charged as individuals, and that the school not be lumped in with them.

According to Mhlanga, this means the department will now have to trace the implicated pupils and issue them with notices informing them of the charges against them.

Daily News

The removal of illegal electricity connections in informal settlements led to two service delivery protests in KZN.

Durban - The removal of illegal electricity connections in informal settlements sparked two separate service delivery protests in the north and south of Durban on Wednesday.

Both protests - the first opposite uMhlanga and the other in Lotus Park, Isipingo - were directed at the municipality after they removed the electricity connections. They were also protesting against the lack of houses for those living in informal settlements.

In the first incident on Wednesday morning, almost 100 residents living in Blackburn Village alongside the N2 northbound freeway blocked the two-lane highway, the road to King Shaka International Airport.

Cars veered onto the centre median and some turned back towards uMhlanga.

Protesters brandished sticks and a placard reading - “ Put power now on”.

They had been left without a power supply for three days after the municipal electricity unit removed illegal connections at the informal settlement.

Branch executive member for the ANC in municipal ward 102, Lucky Mziki, said they had handed a memorandum to the municipality demanding that residents living in the informal settlement be given houses, as promised in the elections.

“Two important issues were unemployment and housing. People have been waiting on the housing list, but newcomers are benefiting. None of the residents were given a job at the uMhlanga freeway road construction. We are waiting for feedback from council,” he said.

Other issues were the removal of refuse and the unhealthy living conditions people were living in, he said. And there were children who had serious medical problems, including skin infections.

At about mid-morning, protesters from the Silvergull Drive Informal settlement in Isipingo fought with municipal staff who had also removed electricity wires illegally connected to power boxes.

Jaco Pienaar, ward 90 PR councillor, said a meeting was scheduled for Thursday to solve the problem.

Residents from the informal sector blockaded the street, demanding housing and electricity.

Nearby residents said they were living in fear as the shacks border flats and houses.

“I am totally against the theft of electricity. They are staying there illegally and now they want electricity for free. I have spoken to municipal officials and together we will address them,” Pienaar said.

Ward councillor Sunil Kalicharan said he addressed the protesters, but they had refused to listen.

“They made many demands, which the council will have to look into. We expect more protests if officials do not address them,” he said.

Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane confirmed both incidents were service delivery protests. “Public Order police were standing off at both protests. No arrest have been made at this stage,” he said.

The eThekwini municipality had not responded to e-mails at the time of going to print.

Daily News

A 16-year-old boy who had his head out of a bus window, was killed when the bus went past a pole, paramedics said.

Durban - A 16-year-old school boy who had his head out of a bus window was killed in Durban when the bus went past a pole, paramedics said.

Robert McKenzie said the bus was going down the narrow Duck King street in Durban when the accident happened.

McKenzie said he could not confirm if the boy was decapitated. He said initial reports were that he boy was killed when his head struck by a pole that the bus was passing.

He said another child was treated at the scene, but he did not have further details of that child’s injuries.

The boys are believed to have been on a school trip from Lesotho.

McKenzie said police were on scene and investigating the accident.

ANA

A Lesotho school's tour of Durban turned tragic when a pupil's face was severed by a street sign as their bus went by.

Durban - A Lesotho school’s week-long educational tour of Durban turned tragic on Thursday when a pupil’s face was severed by a street sign as the children’s bus went by.

According to witnesses, the boy, 16, looked out of the bus window to see what it had hit a few seconds before in the narrow Dick King Street in the CBD, which runs between Dr Pixley KaSeme (West) and Anton Lembede (Smith) streets.

His identity has not been released yet.

The teen was part of a group of 106 pupils from Molapo High School in Lesotho’s Leribe district.

A security guard, who asked not to be identified, had been stationed outside a car dealership on the corner of Dick King and Dr Pixley KaSeme streets.

He said the bus was driven at “high speed” and it collided with a street sign.

“It first hit this sign; everybody was still inside the bus. The boy then peeked his head out the window – he was sitting near the back – to see what was happening and before he knew it, he was struck by the sign on the second pole,” he said.

Bongani Dlamini saw events unfold from Anton Lembede Street.

“I think the bus was trying to avoid hitting the side mirrors of a car parked on the side of the road, but then it drifted closer to the pole.

“At that moment, the child peeped out the window and looked behind him (to see the sign the bus had struck) and by the time he looked where the bus was heading, it was too late to draw his head back in,” he said in a quivering voice.

“

Everyone was crying, the teachers, the pupils; it was hectic.”

He said he had struggled to regain his composure.

“I wanted to help, but I couldn’t. He was still breathing – blood still gushing – when I got to him. But there was absolutely nothing I could do for him.”

He said it appeared as if the driver was not initially aware of the drama that was unfolding, as “he only stopped when frantic teachers alerted him”.

“It hurts to see such a thing happen, especially for me as a parent.”

The impact on both poles caused the signs to shift direction and a street light to break off.

Molapo High School’s grief-stricken deputy principal Kabelo Maqache said the group had planned to leave Durban on Thursday after spending four days in the city.

The school had been staying at the D’Urban Hotel near South Beach.

He said: “We usually come here in groups. The pupils are very traumatised. One of them has been admitted to hospital and some of them have been taken to get counselling.”

On their way home, he said, the school would usually stop at Springfield Park and then at a zoo near Pietermaritzburg.

KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Services spokesman Robert McKenzie said: “Emergency services, including KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services paramedics, responded to the scene and found that the boy had died.

“KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Services paramedics treated another child who had been an occupant on the bus, but details of this child’s injuries and condition are not immediately clear at the time of this report.”

Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said the Point SAPS had opened an inquest docket. He said no one had been arrested.

At the scene, however, a man believed to be the driver of the bus was secured with cable ties and taken away in a police van.

Police cordoned off the scene and covered the body with an emergency blanket before it was removed by a mortuary van.

Shocked onlookers stared as police conducted their work at the scene.

Maqache and two males, believed to be colleagues from the school, moved on and off the bus, securing and removing luggage.

The Mercury

The deputy mayor of the uThungulu district municipality died when his car rolled near Ballito, paramedics said.

Durban - Deputy mayor of the uThungulu district municipality Thulani Mashaba died when his car rolled on the N2 highway near Ballito in KwaZulu-Natal, paramedics said.

IPSS Rescue operations manager Paul Herbst said that the accident happened on Thursday night near the tourist town of Ballito in the north-bound lane.

He said that witnesses told paramedics at the scene that the vehicle hit a puddle before rolling, ejecting all three occupants.

Mashaba reportedly died at the scene.

The other two men are believed to be Mashaba’s bodyguards.

Herbst said they were taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Mashaba was also the chairman of the ANC’s Musa Dladla region.

The ANC is expected to issue a statement on the accident later after senior leaders have visited the family.

Comment could not immediately be obtained from Rekha Naidoo, the communications manager for the municipality.

The Zululand Observer newspaper reported that Mashaba was travelling to Richards Bay from King Shaka International Airport.

ANA

A group of traumatised Lesotho pupils have left Durban after their classmate was killed in a freak accident. [Video]

Durban - A group of traumatised Lesotho school pupils left for home on Thursday night after one of their classmates was killed in a freak accident in the Durban CBD.

The 16-year-old boy put his head out of a bus window on a narrow street after the vehicle hit a road sign and was hit by a second sign.

The steel parking meter road sign sliced his head, killing him instantly, according to a witness.

The tour bus had been avoiding parked cars as the driver navigated the narrow Dick King Road - which runs between Dr Pixley KaSeme (West) and Anton Lembede (Smith) streets.

The boy, who has not been identified, had been hanging out the window with two other pupils. He was wearing a black hood.

The pupils, from Molapo High School in the district of Leribe, Lesotho, near the Free State, were in Durban for a week-long visit.

Thokozani Hlengwa, a local schoolteacher who witnessed the incident, said he was shocked by what he had seen.

“As a school teacher myself, we are used to warning children not do this, but children being children, once you look away they carry on doing the wrong things,” he said.

Hlengwa said he saw the three pupils hanging out the window and said two managed to duck when they saw the meter parking signage on a light pole, but not the third. “That child died instantly,” he said.

“I feel very bad for the children, the teachers and the driver, because today was their last day in Durban and a bad thing like this happens. The driver was weeping uncontrollably and you can see that he is hurting badly by what happened here. It’s always very sad when a trip ends in tears. The boy’s poor parents will be devastated.”

The bus driver has not been arrested and was seen driving away in the bus with a few teachers.

KwaZulu-Natal’s Emergency Medical Services spokesman, Robert McKenzie, said paramedics declared the boy dead at the scene.

“KZN EMS paramedics treated another child who had been an occupant on the bus,” he said.

KZN police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said an inquest docket had been opened.

Daily News

The Gift of the Givers has joined in to support the 140 displaced foreigners who have found a new home at Hope Farm.

Durban - The gift of the Givers has joined in to support the 140 displaced foreigners who have found a new home at the Hope Farm in Cato Ridge.

The foreigners moved to the farm on Monday after they were released from police cells.

They had been at the municipality’s Chatsworth camp in the wake of the xenophobic attacks, but when it closed, had refused to return to their former homes in the region, fearing for their safety.

They were then held in the police cells until kind-hearted farmers Andrew and Rae Wartnaby, offered them all a home on their farm.

KwaZulu-Natal manager for the Gift of the Givers, Salim Sayed, said they would be donating food, mattresses and blankets. Various other non-governmental organisations were also providing assistance, he said.

The Gift of the Givers joined the initiative after it was asked to help by the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council, and the Wartnabys.

Chief executive of the KZN Christian Council, Lucas Ngoetjane, said the people at the camp needed to get two more water tankers and cooking utensils. “There is food, but it will soon run out,” he said.

The organisation was also helping the foreigners with their documentation and to fight for their rights, he said.

Rae said the people at the camp would have their first meeting with their lawyers on Friday to chart the way forward.

The arrival of goods that they had left behind at the police station had made things easier for the foreigners.

Wartnaby, 47, said she and her husband had offered their farm to foreigners because they could not stand the thought of children being separated from their parents.

“We enquired with the lawyers and they said the children needed an address,” she said.

The mother of 11 said her children were delighted to have the foreigners at the farm as they now had new friends to play with.

Daily News

People turned out in their numbers to walk the streets of Glenwood in a show of solidarity with the kidnapped jogger.

Durban - In a show of defiance and solidarity with the woman kidnapped while jogging in Glenwood, people turned out in their numbers to walk the streets of the Durban suburb on Thursday evening.

Among the residents, serious runners and regular joggers who joined in was the woman at the centre of Monday’s kidnapping drama, with a message of determination: she will “definitely” be back on the road training.

About 50 people turned out for the awareness walk from the Stella Sports Club, some wearing bright pink shirts to make the point that women should be free to jog or walk without fear and needed to be protected.

The 37-year-old woman had been running in Lena Ahrens (Manning) Road when she was forced into a car at gunpoint.

A Gauteng financial adviser who had seen the abduction and followed the car at a distance, raised the alarm and alerted security and police.

The woman was taken to her home nearby, where her family were robbed. When private security officers arrived, the kidnappers used the woman, an accountant and mother-of-two, as a hostage and human shield, speeding off amid gunfire. She was abandoned unharmed in Chesterville.

The victim and her husband took part in the walk, but asked not to be photographed, fearing they may be attacked again.

On Thursday, the couple who also asked not to be named because they feared for their safety, thanked the Glenwood community and the police for the support they had shown.

“We are overwhelmed that the people care enough to come out and support us in this way.

“We are touched by what the Umbilo SAPS and the community have done. We are still nervous to come out, but the positive turnout gives us hope,” said the husband.

The couple are avid runners, especially the woman, who her husband said could better be described as a runner than a jogger.

The couple said they would get back on the road, but were not certain when that would be.

“We will definitely get back on the road because my wife is a good runner. I know the newspapers called her a jogger, but she’s definitely more than that,” he smiled.

They would run in groups in future and said the experience of Monday morning was “nerve -racking”.

Umbilo police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Pumzile Makaula, said the police championed people’s rights to a safer community and said the walk was a show of support for the woman.

Makaula said police had shared tips with the runners to help them avoid becoming isolated while running on the road. She advised runners not to run in the dark, not to run with earphones on and always to run in groups or pairs.

They were assured that Crime Prevention Unit police patrolled the area, but were not necessarily in full police uniform or driving marked cars.

Addressing the runners, the police thanked the witness who reported the kidnapping and encouraged people to not turn a blind eye to crime because this put others’ lives in danger.

“Your safety is our concern. We need you to help to make sure this community is safe for all,” said one officer.

The Daily News spoke to a group of women during the walk who said they were happy the police were getting involved.

“The fact that the police are willing to do something is a step in the right direction. Any sort of crime prevention is necessary and we are happy about that,” one said.

They said they had taken to heart the tips shared and were comforted by the regular police patrols.

Daily News

The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Probing Violence against Foreign Nationals has concluded its three-day visit to Durban.

Durban - The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Probing Violence against Foreign Nationals has concluded its three-day visit to Durban after visiting various places around the city that were hot spots of xenophobic attacks.

Committee members went to Phoenix police station, where they asked station commander Brigadier Phumelele Makoba about the police’s response to the violence and the protection they offered foreign nationals at the camp in the area. Makoba said there had been no incidents of violence - bar one of fighting - in the camp, and that one of the people was arrested and charged with theft.

She was asked why foreign nationals chose to go to Phoenix and not other places, and told the committee that they chose Phoenix because they felt it was the safest for them.

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Makoba told the committee that the majority of foreign nationals were from KwaMashu, and had returned after the violence had subsided.

There had been no incidents of violence against foreigners in Phoenix, she said.

People went to the camp not because there was violence, but because there were rumours of imminent violence.

The foreign nationals experienced house break-ins, but some cases were hard to investigate as the foreigners had been repatriated.

Co-chair of the committee, Tekoetsile Motlashuping, said they were trying to look at the root causes of the violence and had interviewed people at Mahatma Gandhi (Point) Road, and in uMlazi.

The committee also visited Jeena’ s Warehouse in Isipingo, where it is alleged that the violence started as a result of a labour dispute.

They talked to Goolam Khan, the owner of Jeena’s Warehouse, who said he could not answer some of their questions as the labour dispute was before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and was still sub judice.

Motlashuping said the committee’s work was supposed to be completed at the end of August, but they had asked for an extension.

Daily News

Police found a drug stash at a popular bar in Durban central for the second time this year. (VIDEO)

Durban - Police found a drug stash at a popular bar in central Durban for the second time this year.

Metro Police Albert Park Inspector Logan Pillay said police had raided the Springbok Tavern in Albany Grove after receiving information that drugs were being sold and delivered from the bar area.

“A variety of hard street drugs was found behind the bar counter. The person who has the key and accesses the bar was arrested. The case was handed over to the Durban Organised Crime unit,” he said.

Police said the drugs had a street value of R100 000. It included bags of cocaine powder, rock cocaine, heroin, whoonga, ecstasy, dagga and CAT. Police also found plastic rock pipes and drug paraphernalia.

In total, the crack cocaine weighed 51 grams, heroin 23g, cocaine 149g and a cutting agent for the drugs 130g.

The suspect, a 37-year-old foreigner, was arrested and charged for being in possession of drugs.

The suspect appeared confident that he would win the case. He was dressed in green flip flop sandals, blue jeans and a shirt and at one point, could not remember his date of birth nor the spelling of his name when police questioned him.

Six months ago the same unit found cocaine powder and ecstasy in the same tavern and arrested a 40-year-old man.

Daily News