Shell’s 3D seismic survey is set to begin on Wednesday. But a high court application brought by rights groups to block it will be heard as an urgent matter on Tuesday
Fed-up residents and businesses are turning to the courts to get their local councils to take action on power outages, sewage overflows, unrepaired roads and other failures to deliver services
Court is set to rule on the Makana council’s failure to fulfil its constitutional duties to town’s citizens
Come May 6, officials from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality are confident that they will leave the South African Football Association smiling after world football governing body Fifa and the 2010 local organising committee agree that their stadium will be able to host matches for the 2009 Confederations Cup.
A murderer who was sentenced to life in jail on Tuesday told the Grahamstown High Court he could be nailed ”to the cross so I can die for the sins of others”. Roro Mntwaphi (41) made the remark before Judge Johan Froneman sentenced him and Mbulelo Kula (25) for the murder of Stephanus Williams (60) on May 8 2007.
A Grahamstown High Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a 24-year-old man to two terms of life imprisonment for the rape of two young girls. The man was convicted last November of raping a three-year-old girl at his house on February 4 2004. Then, while on bail of R500, he raped a 13-year-old girl.
A disabled man was jailed for 20 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday for raping his 13-year-old niece. The 55-year-old man — who cannot be named in order to protect the girl’s identity — appeared before Judge Jeremy Pickering after pleading guilty on Tuesday.
A 27-year-old man accused of killing and robbing a Barkly East petrol attendant claimed on Tuesday that he was forced to commit the murder by two other men. This was heard in the Grahamstown High Court where Katiso Mapeyi and his nephew Ayanda Mapeyi are on trial for the murder and robbery of Johannes Mokoko.
An uncle and his 19-year-old nephew accused of murdering and robbing a petrol station attendant appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday, and pleaded not guilty. The pair are accused of stabbing to death Johannes Mokok (52) at the Barkly East Toyota Service Station, on the evening of October 1 2005.
The state has called for a life sentence for an 18-year-old Eastern Cape youth convicted of raping a 14-year-old mentally ill girl and raping and murdering a girl of 10. Appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday before Judge Cecil Somyalo was Lunga Tata, of Tyoksville, Bathurst.
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/ 26 February 2008
A 47-year-old man was given an effective 20 years in prison by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday after he was found guilty of rape and housebreaking. When he convicted Mthethunzima Ndzila Vangeli, of Elliot, of housebreaking with intent to rape, rape and theft, Judge Pieter van der Byl described him as a ”lying and pathetic witness”.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 23-year-old man convicted of raping an elderly woman was sent to jail for 18 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Andre Erasmus, who sat with two assessors, told Sicelo Tyatyeka, of Lingelihle, Cradock, that he would have imposed a life sentence had the victim suffered more serious injuries.
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/ 21 February 2008
A 20-year-old man accused of raping a two-year-old girl and charged with three counts of assault was found guilty of all charges in the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Johan Froneman rejected the evidence of Thulani Jafta (20), of Madukeni Sada, Cathcart, as ”inherently improbable and contrived”.
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/ 18 February 2008
An Eastern Cape gardener accused of raping an 11-year-old girl was sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment by a Grahamstown High Court judge on Monday after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of statutory rape. The state initially charged Khulile Ntshabase (24) with raping the girl at a house in Hogsback on August 4 last year.
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/ 13 February 2008
A 29-year-old man is accused of breaking into a Rhodes University residence and raping a woman — while he was out on bail on a previous rape charge. The man appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday.
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/ 31 January 2008
An Eastern Cape man accused of three counts of rape and two of attempted rape is to be referred to a doctor specialising in erectile dysfunction. Mcebesi Noji (28) of Nkululeko, Barkly East, has pleaded not guilty to the five charges before judge Elna Revelas.
A Port Elizabeth magistrate’s order that a woman with 203 previous convictions of fraud and one of theft be publicly shamed with a placard around her neck proclaiming her guilt and apologising to her victims has been set aside by the Grahamstown High Court as unconstitutional.
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/ 14 December 2007
A 37-year-old traditional healer who planned a farm attack and robbery was sentenced by the Grahamstown High Court on Friday to 20 years in prison. Judge Jos Jones found that Xolani Dube, of Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth, had masterminded the attack on a farmhouse near Cookhouse on October 13 2004.
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/ 21 November 2007
Four youths appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday on charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. They are alleged to have killed their victim by repeatedly stabbing him, and dropping a 50kg rock on his head.
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/ 15 November 2007
The Constitutional Court on Thursday reserved judgement in the case of a man seeking to have his five-year stay in St Alban’s maximum-security jail near Port Elizabeth declared unlawful. Jonathan Zealand is claiming R10,4-million in damages from the ministers of justice and correctional services.
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/ 12 November 2007
Two men accused of raping a 12-year-old girl after plying her with drinks denied guilt in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday. Appearing in court were Moos Lawens (41) and Eric Fossie Ben (27), both from a farm near Cradock. The two are alleged to have raped the girl after getting her intoxicated at a drinking party on a farm.
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/ 6 November 2007
A 21-year-old man was handed a life sentence by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and killing his sister-in-law. Judge Nambitha Dambuza, who sat with two assessors, also sentenced Themba Ngxokongxa, of Siviwe, Komga, to 20 years for rape and 15 for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
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/ 5 November 2007
An Eastern Cape man was on Monday convicted of indecently assaulting and murdering his aunt because she owed him R20. Grahamstown High Court Judge Jeremy Pickering found that Caswell Nkanunu, of Emasimini, murdered Nomanci Taliwe (47), of Elliot, in her house on December 11 2004.
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/ 31 October 2007
His accomplices ”forced” him to have sex with a dead woman, Ncamile Mantashe (28) told the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday. Mantashe was testifying against Caswell Nkanunu (26) and Sibongile Ncapayi (36), who stand accused of raping, murdering and robbing a 47-year-old woman in her home in December 2004.
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/ 19 October 2007
A man accused of raping three elderly women was expected to plead guilty in the Grahamstown High Court on Friday, but changed his mind at the last minute. This prompted his lawyer to withdraw, and the trial was postponed to January 29 2008. The women’s ages ranged from 54 to 65.
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/ 17 October 2007
The elderly victims of an alleged rapist recounted their ordeals in the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday. ”He grabbed me and pushed me into the bedroom and hit me with his fists, and with a bottle of brandy in his left hand,” one of the women told the court. ”I struggled but because of my age, I got tired. Then he raped me.”
A 31-year-old Eastern Cape man should be jailed for life for raping an elderly woman and trying to kill her husband, the Grahamstown High Court heard on Tuesday. Beneza Allah, of Phumlani, Jansenville, who was 29 at the time of the crimes, appeared before Judge Zamani Nhlangulela.
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/ 25 September 2007
A 34-year-old man raped two young girls and bought them chicken and Coke afterwards, the Grahamstown High Court heard on Tuesday. The man has pleaded not guilty to the rape and indecent assault of two girls — one who called him an uncle — near the Victoria Park Tennis Club in Port Elizabeth in January.
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/ 20 September 2007
A 34-year-old man convicted of raping a seven-year-old girl should be sent to prison for life, the Grahamstown High Court heard on Thursday. The court heard that he had lured the girl and her 10-year-old friend into the house, threatened the girl with a knife and then raped her as her terrified friend watched.
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/ 17 September 2007
A 42-year-old former attorney appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday on charges related to the theft of R1,4-million from his trust account. He is alleged to have misappropriated an amount of R1 396 278 — paid to him on behalf of a client by the Road Accident Fund between December 2000 and May 2001.
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/ 4 September 2007
A divorced father of four was sent to jail for 25 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and sodomising a mentally-ill girl of 13. ”The crimes were as bestial as they were heinous,” Judge Andre Erasmus told 44-year-old Mlandeli Mvandaba, of Zola township, Bathurst.