Four people were shot and injured at a music festival in Alberton on Saturday.
Police say the motive for yesterday’s shooting which killed Lawrence Moepi, a forensic services director at an auditing firm, is still unknown.
As the sun set on another bloody day of xenophobic violence in Gauteng on Monday, at least 22 people were reported dead, many more injured and 217 arrested for fierce attacks on both foreigners and local residents living in the greater Johannesburg area. Aid organisations were assisting thousands of refugees at civic centres and police stations.
Eight ATMs have been bombed in South Africa in less than a week, an escalating trend that has become a nearly daily offence in the crime-ridden country, police said on Monday. Three police officers and two civilians appeared in court on Monday in connection with the bombing of a cash machine last week, said police spokesperson Louis Jacobs.
An Egyptian diplomat’s family living in Groenkloof was held up at gunpoint and robbed over the weekend, Pretoria police said on Monday. ”Four suspects entered the house after they held up the guard. They then held up the family and robbed them of household goods and jewellery, then fled the scene.
A two-year-old boy whose genitals were badly mutilated was left without medical attention for about an hour at the Kagiso police station on the West Rand, media reports said on Friday. Police said they could not transport him to a hospital because of service policy, and a member of the public took him there instead.
The man accused of setting fire to the African National Congress Luthuli House headquarters last week will appear in court again on March 10. Magistrate Steff Bezuidenhout on Monday said the case would be postponed so that the man’s particulars could be verified.
The South African Communist Party has asked the South African Police Service to finalise its investigation into a donation scandal after an internal audit cleared their secretary general Blade Nzimande. The SACP audit was set up to investigate the whereabouts of R500 000 donated to the party by controversial businessman Charles Modise.
No image available
/ 19 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has come out in support of the chief prosecutor of Pretoria’s decision to withdraw charges against advocate Gerrie Nel, head of the Scorpions in Gauteng, it said on Friday. The Pretoria Regional Court this week withdrew charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Nel.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has proposed that police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi present himself to the Randburg Regional Court on January 30. ”We wrote to Selebi’s attorney proposing this,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
The South African Police Service has accused the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of trying to obstruct the probe into Gauteng Scorpions head Gerrie Nel. This comes a day after the Pretoria Regional Court withdrew charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Nel.
No image available
/ 14 January 2008
Charges against Gerrie Nel, the head of the Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, in Gauteng, were withdrawn in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. ”After careful consideration of the evidence in the docket, the decision was made to withdraw the charges,” chief prosecutor Matric Lupondo said during Nel’s brief appearance.
No image available
/ 10 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) made a ”concerted effort” to undermine investigations into Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel and prevent his prosecution, Gauteng police said on Thursday. In a statement, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said prosecutors had refused to look at evidence presented to them in September, which implicated Nel in criminal activity.
The arrest of Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel is a witch-hunt to protect police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, said the Democratic Alliance on Wednesday. ”The axing of Vusi Pikoli and now Gerrie Nel has all the appearance of a witch-hunt to protect Selebi,” said DA spokesperson on Safety and Security Dianne Kohler Barnard.
The legal team of arrested Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel began an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday for his release. ”The police did not play open cards when they asked for his arrest,” said Nel’s lawyer Ian Small Smith shortly before the application.
Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel was arrested at his Pretoria home on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice on Tuesday night, his attorney Ian Small Smith confirmed on Wednesday. Nel was arrested by about 20 armed policemen in front of his wife and children at his home at around 9pm on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 18 December 2007
The doctor who is alleged to have falsified a medical certificate for Ekurhuleni police chief Robert McBride was granted bail on Tuesday, after handing himself over to the investigating officer in the case, police said. Dr Joseph Moratioa gave himself up and appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
No image available
/ 10 November 2007
Two suspected house robbers were arrested in a North Riding complex in Randburg on Friday in possession of stolen goods worth millions of rands, Johannesburg police said. The goods include diamonds and jewellery worth more than R3-million, said Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini.
No image available
/ 7 November 2007
Three men were arrested in Johannesburg on Wednesday in connection with an attempted armed robbery. ”The suspects were arrested in Braamfontein and they fit the description of the suspects that were spotted at Pick ‘n Pay in Jorissen Street while fleeing from the police,” said Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini.
No image available
/ 2 November 2007
A former dormitory employee at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg has been arrested, Gauteng police said on Friday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said the 27-year-old woman was arrested on Thursday by the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit on several charges of abuse.
No image available
/ 2 November 2007
Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel is under police investigation for fraud and corruption, a media report said on Friday. Nel led the investigation into the shooting of mining magnate Brett Kebble and led the state’s aborted probe into alleged criminal activity by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
No image available
/ 31 October 2007
South African police are investigating alleged abuses at billionaire United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey’s all-girl leadership academy, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. Rapport newspaper has reported a matron at the school allegedly fondled one of the pupils, and grabbed a girl by the throat and threw her against a wall.
No image available
/ 25 October 2007
Ten men and a sangoma are to appear in the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court after they were arrested for the murder and armed robbery of a Jagfontein man, Gauteng police said on Thursday. The 70-year-old owner of Ashvalley Bricks and Sand was shot in the upper body while his wife and son were tied up.
No image available
/ 23 October 2007
Gauteng police are investigating a case of abuse by an employee at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. This followed an internal investigation of ”misconduct” by the dorm parent against girls at the school, located in Henley-on-Klip, Meyerton, south of Johannesburg.
Isidingo actor Thami Afrika is out on R3 000 bail, reported Sunday World. Afrika, who plays the role of a lawyer in the television soapie, was arrested on Wednesday for possession of suspected stolen goods. He appeared in the Germiston Regional Court with a Nigerian co-accused on charges of theft.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
Eyewitnesses have claimed that the engine of a two-seater Tiger Moth failed before it crashed into a truck, bus and car on a road in Ennerdale on Wednesday. A passenger in the plane died in the crash, which also killed the driver of the Iveco bus and injured 23 of the 40 security guards on board.
No image available
/ 12 September 2007
A passenger in a two-seater Tiger Moth died and its pilot was critically injured when the plane crashed into a truck, a taxi and a car on the old Vereeniging Road, south of Johannesburg, on Wednesday, said emergency workers. The taxi driver also died and 22 people were injured in the crash in Ennerdale at 4.45pm, said a Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson.