Photographs of Taliep Petersen’s bloody corpse made him sick to his stomach, the man who claims he arranged the killing told the Cape High Court on Tuesday. Fahiem Hendricks, who has been warned as an accomplice, was on the stand for the second day in the trial of Taliep’s wife, Najwa, and three others.
The Cape High Court on Tuesday dismissed an application for the acquittal of a 13-year-old youth who allegedly purchased petrol with which a woman was doused and set alight during an argument about a missing cellphone. The boy and three others are alleged to have set alight the woman at a drug den near Cape Town last year.
The Erasmus commission is facing three new urgent interdicts to put its activities in Cape Town on hold, prompting commission chairperson Judge Nathan Erasmus to adjourn proceedings on Tuesday afternoon. The interdicts are expected to be heard in the Cape High Court on Wednesday morning.
Erasmus commission chairperson Judge Nathan Erasmus on Monday dismissed an application by the City of Cape Town for the commission’s suspension. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool last year to probe the city’s own investigation of renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
Murder accused Najwa Petersen not only hired hit men to kill her husband, Taliep, she even arranged to let them into the family home to do the deed, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Fahiem Hendricks, who is in witness protection, was testifying in the trial of Najwa and three men charged with Taliep’s execution-style shooting.
A witness on Monday told the Cape High court that murder accused Najwa Petersen asked him to find someone to carry out a ”hit”. Fahiem Hendricks, who is in witness protection, was testifying in the trial of Petersen and three alleged hit men who are charged with the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep.
Murdered theatre personality Taliep Petersen considered divorcing his wife, Najwa, but was worried about what people would think of him, his younger brother, Igsaan, told the Cape High Court on Friday. Igsaan was the third witness in the trial of Najwa and three alleged hit men, who have pleaded not guilty to Taliep’s execution-style shooting.
Taliep Petersen’s death looked ”suspect” from the start, his younger brother, Igsaan, told the Cape High Court on Friday. Igsaan was the third witness to be called in the trial of Taliep’s wife, Najwa, and three alleged hit men, who are accused of murdering him on the night of December 16 2006.
A detective told the Cape High Court on Thursday that he became suspicious of murder accused Najwa Petersen after hearing her sobbing account on the night of her husband’s Taliep’s death. The officer was the second witness called in the trial of Petersen and the three men she allegedly hired to carry out the execution-style shooting.
Murder accused Najwa Petersen on Thursday returned to her Cape Town home for the first time since her arrest early last year. But her every move was watched by a ring of heavily armed police. She was taken to the Athlone house under police guard for an on-the-spot inspection by Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai and his two assessors.
Theatre personality Taliep Petersen and his wife, Najwa, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering him, were a loving couple, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. However, at the time of his death they were sleeping in separate bedrooms, and he was talking about ”getting another place”.
Najwa Petersen on Wednesday formally pleaded not guilty to the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep. Taliep was shot in the couple’s Athlone, Cape Town, home in December 2006; his wife is standing trial in the Cape High Court along with three men the state claims she hired to carry out the killing.
The City of Cape Town has launched a high court challenge to the legality of the Erasmus commission, city speaker Dirk Smit announced on Tuesday. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool last year to probe the city’s own investigation of renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
The trial of Najwa Petersen, accused of murdering her entertainer husband, Taliep, has been delayed yet again — this time by a clash over how much information she needs about the charges she faces. The case got under way in the Cape High Court on Monday, but Judge Siraj Desai sat for less than two hours before postponing it to Wednesday.
The murder trial of Najwa Petersen started in Cape Town on Monday with her advocate demanding that the state provide more details of the allegations against her. Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau brought the application before Petersen and her three co-accused were asked to plead in the Cape High Court.
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Friday lambasted United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa for ”exploiting” the concerns of Joe Slovo residents. The residents are facing eviction to make way for the flagship N2 Gateway housing project. ”It is unfortunate that far from offering sound advice, he sought to exploit the people’s concerns,” she said.
Two Cape Flats men were on Thursday each given two life sentences for the murder of a man in an argument about a baseball cap and for the later murder of a police detective who investigated them for the first murder. The judge said the murders showed that the two men had no respect for human life.
Giving away free medicines, as Matthias Rath did with his vitamin products, is a well-known way of creating a market, the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) counsel told the Cape High Court on Friday. Geoff Budlender was delivering final argument in the TAC’s bid for a court order forcing the government to act against Rath.
Matthias Rath and his foundation had never claimed their vitamin products were a cure for HIV/Aids, Rath’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We are not claiming it’s a cure,” Rath’s advocate, Dumisa Ntsebeza, told the court. ”We would like to make very clear, that has never been the claim.”
The Department of Health has shown a decided lack of enthusiasm for investigating the activities of vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”The government has failed completely in its … duties to protect the health of the public,” said Geoff Budlender, advocate for the Treatment Action Campaign.
Vitamin salesperson Matthias Rath is patently dishonest, lying whenever it suits him, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”We say that Dr Rath is, on his own showing, not an honest person,” the Treatment Action Campaign’s advocate, Geoff Budlender, said.
The Cape High Court on Monday gave the go-ahead for the eviction of several thousand residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement to make way for a housing development. Hundreds of Joe Slovo residents, who had gathered in the street outside the court, chanted angry slogans after the judgment was handed down.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has won his high court bid to stop an activist claiming he is guilty of corruption over the arms deal. The ruling was handed down on Thursday morning. The court ordered that Terry Crawford-Browne be interdicted and restrained from ”publishing any matter in which it is alleged that the applicant is corrupt”.
A defence request on Monday for a two-month postponement in Najwa Petersen’s trial for the alleged murder of her husband led to acrimonious exchanges between her new senior counsel and Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai. Senior counsel Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau told the court he had only been approached late last Friday by new attorney Joshua Greeff.
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/ 29 February 2008
Murder accused Najwa Petersen made an unexpected appearance in the Cape High Court on Friday in a bid to find out what was happening with her legal representation. She and three alleged hit men are scheduled to go on trial on Monday for the slaying of her entertainer husband, Taliep, in 2006.
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/ 29 February 2008
Popular Afrikaans singer Jurie Els, now living in New Zealand with his athlete wife Hestrie Cloete, has broken the silence around accusations of sexual abuse levelled against him by another, younger singer, Robbie Klay, media reports said on Friday. Klay has alleged that he was for seven years sexually molested as a child.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Cape High Court on Thursday rejected the alibis of two young men who last year gunned down Woodstock police detective Inspector Lourens le Roux, who had been investigating them for another murder. The men were both found guilty on two counts of murder each.
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/ 27 February 2008
The Cape High Court on Wednesday rejected a second bail bid by murder accused Najwa Petersen, expressing scepticism over her ”almost miraculous recovery” from mental illness. ”The appellant’s case relating to her precarious state of health, as presented in the first bail application, appears to have undergone a complete volte-face in the second,” the judges said.
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/ 25 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should have considered asking for an apology rather than a gagging order against arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne, the Cape High Court was told on Monday. Manuel is seeking an urgent interim order to stop Crawford-Browne from continuing to publicly accuse him of criminal conduct in signing loan agreements for the deal.
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/ 21 February 2008
A spokesperson for about 1 800 people evicted from unfinished homes in Delft on Thursday appealed for water and food for the group, now living on a site adjacent to the land. "It’s like a state of emergency," said Ashraf Cassim, a spokesperson for the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.
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/ 20 February 2008
The Western Cape anti-eviction campaign said about 1 000 people were occupying Delft’s Symphony Road on Wednesday and would remain there until their appeal for housing was lodged in the Supreme Court, hopefully later in the day.
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/ 19 February 2008
The Annestacia Wiese murder trial was postponed on Tuesday for the Cape High Court to rule on an application that the Department of Health provide an expert to testify about the accused’s state of mind. Murder accused Richard Engelbrecht has pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of the 11-year-old Wiese.