Day: February 15, 2024

The South African Police Service (SAPS) Northern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola has welcomed the eight year sentence handed down to a 45-year-old for possession of child pornographic material.

This as the De Aar Regional Court sentenced John Henry Meiring on Wednesday.

Lieutenant-General Otola commended Lieutenant Colonel Marli Strydom for her relentless efforts that led to the arrest of the accused on 22 February 2022 and for the conviction and sentencing.

The South African Police Service, Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI), a specialised unit within Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) in the Northern Cape, discovered that the accused was in possession of pornographic images of children.

The accused’s cell phone and hard drives were seized for investigation purposes. During the analysis of the exhibits, 773 pornographic images of children were found on the devices.

Addressing crimes against women, children and vulnerable persons rema
ins a top priority for the SAPS in the province.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Police in Mbuzini, Mpumalanga, have opened an investigation following the discovery of a human skull next to a graveyard and railway line on 13 February 2024.

While performing their duties, police received information from the community about a human skull found at Hhoyi Trust next to Mbuzini.

The police responded and upon arrival found the skull on the ground. Other relevant stakeholders were summoned to the scene. An inquest has been opened.

‘Currently, police are working hard to get the identity of the person whose skull belongs to, hence any member of the public with information that may assist in achieving this goal may go to the nearest Police Station or call the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111,’ said the police in the statement.

Alternatively, members of the public can send information via My SAPS App.

All received information will be treated as confidential and callers may opt to remain anonymous.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola says the sixth administration is steadily rebuilding law enforcement agencies like the National Prosecuting Authority to fight crime.

Lamola was speaking during the debate of the State of the Nation Address held in Cape Town.

‘[It] is the sixth administration that strengthened the work of law enforcement agencies like the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] by appointing permanent leadership in the upper echelons of the NPA and the SAPS [South African Police Service] and increased the operational budget resulting in visible institutional growth and stability.

‘Organized crime verdicts have increased by 21% from 193 to 234 at a conviction rate that is above 80%. Gang leaders are behind bars or in court, whether it is Jerome Booysen, Nafik Modak, Ralph Stanfield, Mark Lifman and Vusi Khekhe, all are behind bars.

‘The conviction rate in gender-based violence and femicide matters is at 74.6%. When it comes to successful prosecutions for cable theft
matters, the NPA has exceeded some of the targets, the conviction rate is well above 85%, 299 convictions have been obtained from 347 cable theft verdicts,’ Lamola said.

The Minister added that R3.2 billion from the criminal assets recovery funds has been allocated to fighting illegal mining and organised crime.

Furthermore, 2 996 arrests have been executed related to illegal mining activities as at December last year.

‘SAPS is implementing Operation Shanela, a comprehensive plan to combat crime throughout the country. The plan includes clamping down on illegal mining areas.

‘At the end of last year, the Asset Forfeiture Unit, Special Investigation Units and the Hawks have secured preservation orders to freeze assets which are proceeds of unlawful activities of a syndicate dealing in unwrought gold in Gauteng province.

‘The frozen assets include 51 properties with a value of more than R16 million. In Mpumalanga, they secured a preservation order of assets worth more than one billion rands. The message is
clear, crime does not pay and the tide against crime is turning,’ Lamola said.

‘I am Tintswalo’

Harking back to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA last week in which he described the life of Tintswalo, Lamola described how he himself is a product of progressive government policies.

He recalled how he benefitted from the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa (TEFSA), now known as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), after his parents who were both farmworkers could not afford his tertiary education.

‘I can stand here in this house [and say] with great conviction that had it not been for …government’s expansion of TEFSA and my sister paying for my university registration and monthly stipend, I would not be standing here today.

‘I would not have been an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa having appeared in the highest Court in the world, the ICJ, on global affairs. My life was predestined as a farm worker [by] design by the apartheid government and not by choice.

‘The village where I
come from, Cunningmore B in Mpumalanga, had no electricity nor running water. Today there is electricity, running water and tarred roads, so are many villages across the country.

‘[NSFAS]…results are tangible. You can touch them with your bare hands,’ he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) confirmed on Wednesday that three soldiers were killed and two injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This, according to a statement released yesterday, was after a mortar bomb landed inside one of the South African contingency military bases.

The soldiers are part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC) deployed to support and assist government of the second-largest country in Africa to restore peace, security and stability.

‘As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF suffered two casualties and three members sustained injuries,’ the statement read.

The injured members were rushed to the nearest hospital in Goma.

According to the SANDF, details of the incident are still sketchy at the moment, while further investigations will be conducted to determine the basis of the incident.

The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Thandi Modise, along with the Deputy Minister of Defence a
nd Military Veterans, Thabang Makwetla, the Acting Secretary for Defence, Dr Thobekile Gamede, and the Chief of the SANDF General, Rudzani Maphwanya, have since expressed their heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased soldiers.

They also wished the injured members a speedy recovery.

Source: South African Government News Agency

State power utility Eskom says it will be going live with the piloting of load limiting at Bedford in the Eastern Cape.

This comes after the successful implementation of the project in another Eastern Cape town, Adelaide.

Eskom Cape Coastal Cluster General Manager Mbulelo Yedwa said: ‘Electricity load limiting through smart meters is being implemented to better balance the supply and demand of electricity on the grid during Stages 1 to 4 of load shedding allowing customers to continue to use essential appliances with the capacity of up to 10 Amperes.’

The power utility explained that instead of being load shed during Stages 1 to 4, customers with smart meters in Bedford will have their load limited.

‘An hour before the start of load shedding, these customers in selected pilot areas will be prompted to reduce their consumption from 60 Amperes to 10 Amperes by sending a message to the Customer Interface Unit (CIU) of the smart meter.

‘Customers will also be notified by text message. If the customer load is
still above 10 Amperes, the smart meter will automatically make two more attempts 30 seconds apart. After three failed attempts, the next reset will be in 30 minutes,’ Eskom said.

The initiative, according to Eskom, is aimed at reducing the impact that load shedding has on customers with the following benefits:

Customers will still be able to use essential appliances during load limiting e.g lights, TV, cellphone charger, fridge, security.

No more delayed restoration of supply after load shedding due to failure of equipment.

Avoid theft and vandalism of Eskom infrastructure. Protect equipment fatigue from repetitive switching.

Reduction in cable faults

‘It is the responsibility of the customer to reduce consumption by switching off non-essential appliances and only keep connected essential appliances up to a maximum of 10 Amperes for the duration of the load limiting period,’ Eskom said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on Wednesday committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that criminals involved in the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) corruption are brought to book.

The committee received an update from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) regarding its investigations into the NLC and another from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on cases referred to it.

‘We want to assure the South African public that this committee is determined to see the criminals prosecuted,’ said Committee Chairperson Judy Hermans.

These investigations emanated from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proclamation of 6 November 2020 for the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration at the NLC from 1 January 2014 to 6 November 2020.

The SIU said that the phase 1 investigation is now complete, at a cost of R279 710 409. Meanwhile, the phase 2 investigation is 90% completed, at a cost of R246 659 310. It will be finalised by 30 April 2024.

The SIU is a
lso busy with phase 3 of the investigation, currently valued at R905 901 910, which is expected to be finalised on 31 December 2024.

At Wednesday’s session, the committee heard that the interim report is currently under review and will be submitted to the Presidency by 29 February 2004.

Furthermore, the committee heard, in almost all matters under consideration, very little of the money approved for grant recipients was used for the intended projects, nor was it received by the intended beneficiaries.

In some cases, no money was spent on the projects it was intended for.

The committee also heard that a syndicate or syndicates operated within the NLC and worked in conjunction with non-profit organisations (NPOs) or beneficiaries to syphon off funds.

Methods used to syphon off funds included misusing the proactive funding provision in the NLC Act, inadequate project management, lack of monitoring and evaluation of projects, and collusion between NLC officials or certain board members and the NPOs.

Steps t
aken

Furthermore, because of new allegations surfacing about procurement, the SIU is applying for an amendment to the scope of the President’s proclamation to include these allegations and the motivation for this is currently being drafted by their business development unit.

Meanwhile, the SIU has seconded members to the NLC to start processing some of these allegations while awaiting the new proclamation.

The committee also heard that the Asset Forfeiture Unit has seized several properties and stopped the pay-out of a senior NLC official’s pension, after the official resigned before disciplinary action could begin.

The NPA assured the committee that the NLC matters are a priority. The NPA has obtained three preservation orders in the NLC cases, in the meantime. The first order was obtained on 21 December 2022 to the value of R56.3m and included one movable property, nine immovable properties and two franchises.

It has been established that the cash purchases for the properties were linked to grants allo
cated by the NLC. A total of R22.4 million in grant funding was used to pay for the fixed properties.

The second preservation order was obtained on 28 September 2023 for five immovable properties to the value of R14.8m. The third preservation order was obtained on 4 November 2023 for an amount of R23.2m against four immovable properties and three luxury vehicles.

The NPA indicated that various interlocutory applications had delayed the forfeiture applications, but it has endeavoured to secure the preservation orders speedily.

The NLC is meanwhile in the process of conducting lifestyle audits on its officials to lower the risk of similar incidents in future.

Hermans said that while the committee favoured lifestyle audits for NLC staff, extending this to the NLC board members should also be considered.

‘We want to assure the South African public that this committee is determined to see the criminals prosecuted.

‘We are happy to see progress. However, we are extremely concerned by comments that there are s
till officials of the NLC involved in alleged crime and urged the new NLC board and management to address this with urgency,’ Hermans said.

Source: South African Government News Agency