HOLIDAY ROAD DEATHS TOP 600 The road death toll since the beginning of Christmas holidays on December 1 stood at 609 by Monday morning, according to Drive Alive. The Eastern Cape recorded the most fatalities, with 109, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 106, Gauteng 98, Western Cape 83, Free State 64, Mpumalanga 47, North-West 32, Northern Cape 32, Northern Province 31. Of those killed, 258 were passengers in vehicles, 200 were pedestrians, and 151 were drivers.
SERIAL KILLER SUSPECT HELD Police on Monday announced the arrest of a suspect in the Wemmer Pan serial killings and rapes. Johannesburg police spokesman Captain Andy Pieke said Maupa Shadrick Maake, 34, from Giyani in Northern Province appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, where he was denied bail. No charges were read. Maake, who lives in the southern Johannesburg suburb of La Rochelle near where most of the crimes were committed, has been linked to about 23 crimes, including murder rape and robbery, committed between April 1996 and December 19 this year.
SHARK ATTACKS Police on Sunday continued their search for Durban diver Ian James Hill, 39, who was attacked by a great white shark while diving on Sunday at Pringle Bay, across False Bay from Cape Town. Witnesses reported seeing a one-metre dorsal fin protruding from the water where Hill was diving, after which the sea turned red. An immediate search turned up only Hill’s speargun.
Meanwhile, in another suspected shark attack on Sunday, a surfer at St Francis Bay suffered lacerations to a leg when he was attacked about 75m from shore. The surfer, who has not been identified, was discharged from the Humansdorp Hospital after treatment.
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