The City of Cape Town tacitly condones it when wealthy landowners behave illegally, something that is not the case if you’re poor
Judge President John Hlophe has returned to
work, stirring controversy and speculation, write
Nic Dawes and Sello S Alcock.
No image available
/ 12 December 2008
ANC chief whip Mnyamezeli Booi is to go on trial for fraud in June next year, not in February as had been expected, it was reported on Friday.
No image available
/ 10 December 2008
Former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown, who is facing multiple fraud charges, has found God and a new girlfriend, it was revealed on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 5 September 2008
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has accused cellphone giant Vodacom of helping the ANC-controlled Western Cape government to illegally spy on her.
At least two witnesses called by the state to testify against murder-accused Najwa Petersen have been threatened with death.
A tearful victim of the Fidentia collapse on Monday pleaded with a Cape High Court judge for assistance for her crippled son — and received some, thanks to a generous lawyer. The emotional outburst came during what was expected to be a routine postponement of the bid for final sequestration of former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown.
Murder accused Najwa Petersen, now on her fourth advocate, will have to conduct her own defence if she changes her lawyer again, a Cape High Court judge warned on Wednesday. Judge Siraj Desai delivered the warning as he postponed the trial to July 28 to enable her latest advocate, Johann Engelbrecht, to get up to speed.
A judge has issued a stern warning to murder accused Najwa Petersen after learning on Tuesday she had dismissed her advocate just as she was supposed to start presenting her case for a not-guilty ruling. ”We can’t be held to ransom by the whims of one accused,” Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai said.
Fidentia’s J Arthur Brown was currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in a private clinic after allegedly being sexually assaulted by prisoners in a prison vehicle, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Brown was arrested recently on charges of theft, fraud and money laundering.
A full bench of judges on Friday reserved a ruling on the bid by the City of Cape Town and the Democratic Alliance (DA) to quash the Erasmus commission. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool to probe the DA-led city’s investigation of renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
Having a judge head the politically loaded Erasmus commission undermined the principle of separation of powers, lawyers for the City of Cape Town and the Democratic Alliance argued on Thursday. The city and the party have asked the court to quash the commission to probe the legality of the city’s spying on renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
Arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne on Thursday denied that he was waging a personal vendetta against Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Addressing the Cape High Court, where he has applied for a contempt-of-court ruling against the minister and former finance director general Maria Ramos, he said: ”The arms deal is not some Trevor/Terry saga.”
Fred van der Vyver is suing the government for R46-million after its failed bid to pin on him the murder of his girlfriend, Inge Lotz, the Times reported on Thursday. Van der Vyver, a Cape Town actuary, was acquitted in November last year. The judge dismissed the evidence against him as flimsy and criticised the police.
The Constitutional Court has reserved judgement on a ban prohibiting journalists from reporting on divorce cases, a media report said on Friday. Earlier this year, the Cape High Court ruled that section 12 of the Divorce Act was unconstitutional after media group Johncom brought an application challenging it.
It was a clumsy attempt by Najwa Petersen to cover up her cellphone tracks that gave police a vital lead in solving the murder of her husband, Taliep, a police officer told the Cape High Court on Tuesday. Superintendent Piet Viljoen was testifying in the trial of Najwa and the three men she allegedly hired to kill Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.
The Cape High Court on Monday heard a graphic account of how Najwa Petersen stabbed her husband, Taliep, in the neck one night, eight months before he was murdered. It also heard that the theatre personality’s life was insured for R5,3-million, and that Najwa tried after his death to have the money paid into a Namibian bank account.
Najwa Petersen’s legal team is fighting a bid by the state to lead evidence on what her husband, Taliep, told a sister about the state of their marriage, and how Najwa stabbed him. Najwa is in the dock in the Cape High Court along with three men she allegedly hired to murder Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.
Najwa Petersen looked suspiciously ”normal” only hours after her husband Taliep’s funeral, one of Taliep’s sisters told the Cape High Court on Thursday. She also did not give a convincing answer when asked whether she was involved in the theatre personality’s murder, Ma’atoema Groenmeyer said.
Fidentia chief executive J Arthur Brown was on Thursday late for a scheduled appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, on charges that include fraud involving the Transport, Education and Training Authority (Teta). In the dock without him were co-accused Dr Piet Bothma, Teta’s chief executive, and Jacobus Theart.
Taliep Petersen’s sister gave up on the 10111 emergency number on the night her brother was killed, driving to a police station instead to get help, the Cape High Court heard on Thursday. Ma’atoema Groenmeyer told the court she believed her abortive 10111 call was the first attempt that anyone made to summon police.
In the agony of remorse, one of the men arrested for Taliep Petersen’s murder painstakingly wrote out a 15-page confession detailing his role in the murder. But it was Taliep’s wife, Najwa, who actually pulled the trigger after giving her husband a last embrace, Waheed Hassen said.
Najwa Petersen was the one who fired the shot that killed her husband, Taliep, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. The claim was made in a confession by Waheed Hassen, one of the hit men she allegedly hired to carry out the killing. The confession was admitted unopposed as evidence.
One of the alleged killers of entertainer Taliep Petersen made a written confession that he had committed ”a terrible sin”, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. However, the accused, Waheed Hassen, maintains the confession was false, and that he was coached by police on what to say.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Monday vowed to take her fight against the Erasmus commission to the Constitutional Court. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool in December 2007 to investigate the City of Cape Town’s probe into controversial councillor Badih Chaaban.
One of Taliep Petersen’s alleged murderers has told the Cape High Court he confessed to a role in the killing in the hope of getting ”help” from the authorities in other criminal cases he faced. Waheed Hassen also told the court that he was assaulted by police and that he witnessed the beating of an armed-robbery suspect.
The Cape High Court on Monday watched a police video in which murder accused Waheed Hassen not only admitted to a role in the killing of Taliep Petersen, but expressed remorse. The video came at the start of the second day of a trial within a trial, in which Hassen is contesting the admissibility of statements he made to the police.
The issue of land claims and homelessness continues to be one of the most pressing of our social problems. Unsurprisingly, the courts have been drawn into the intricacies of this problem, particularly when it comes to squatters and their removal.
Though one of Taliep Petersen’s alleged killers has now formally admitted being at the scene of the murder, another is still fighting hard to keep his confessions out of court. It has emerged that not only did the second man, Waheed Hassen, make a formal statement to police, but he also gave them 15 pages of handwritten notes on the December 2006 killing.
Taliep Petersen’s last recorded words, moments before his wife demanded repeatedly that he be shot, were ”God is great”, according to a confession by one of the men charged with his murder. In a surprise move, the confession was admitted unopposed as evidence in the Cape High court on Friday.
The Erasmus commission’s sittings have been suspended pending the City of Cape Town’s application to the Cape High Court challenging the commission’s legality. This emerged after a day of behind-the-scenes negotiations on Wednesday between the legal representatives of the various parties involved.
The trial of the four people accused of murdering theatre personality Taliep Petersen has been adjourned to Friday to allow the state to prepare for a battle over the admissibility of confessions. On trial are Petersen’s wife, Najwa, and three men she allegedly hired to carry out the December 2006 execution-style slaying.